The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-08-30, Page 1�.t
Gunman gets one year
BY JEFFSEDDON
Timothy L. Sheardown, of Goderich, was
sentenced to one year in jail Thursday when he
pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm with
intent to wound town police Sgt. George Bacon.
The charge stemmed from an incident May
23 in which the 28 -year-old Goderich man
opened fire on a car on Cambria Road shortly
after one o'clock in the afternoon and finally
surrendered to police'just after midnight after
a 12 -hour standoff at the Goderich Manpower
Centre.
Two other charges against Sheardown as a
result of die incident were dropped. He was in
provincial court Thursday for a preliminary
hearing into charges of intent to wound,
possesion of a firearm dangerous .to the. public
peace and using a firearm while committing an
indictable offence.
Before the hearing ended Sheardown pleaded
guilty to the charge of intent to wound and the
crown agreed to drop the other charges.
Sgt. Baconwas the only witness to testify at
the hearing. He told the court the incident
began just before noon when Sheardown came
to the police station claiming he had assaulted
someone at the Maitland Country ,Club where
he was working. He told police he had gone
after a fellow worker with a shovel.
Bacon said no complaint had been lodged
against Sheardown but that the man wanted
police to help him. An officer drove him to the
Goderich Psychiatric Hospital for an interview
with Dr. Michael Conlon, a psxchiatrist at the
centre.
'Les§ • than an hour later Dr. Conlon sent
Sheardown home and a police cruiser dropped
him off on The Square.
It was shortly after that that police got a call
saying someone was shooting at a car on
Cambria Road.
Bacon told the court Sheardown fired three
shots at a Volkswagen driven by A. J. Hamilton
missing the e driver's head by inches. He said
two of the shots pierced the rear window of the
car and exitted through the windshield. He said
measurements of the bullet holes indicated the
slug missed the driver by eight inches.
Bacon said Sheardown ..then proceeded up
East Street carrying the 12 -gauge shotgun.
When spotted by police Sheardown ran into. the
Vandals
hit grandstand
Vandals caused approximately $150 damage
when they struck the grandstand area of
Goderich on Sunday evening sometime after
10:30.
A hole was knocked in the rear and left side of
the ticket booth located to the south of the
arena. A hole was also made in the roof; of the
grandstand concession booth by someone
'walking or jumping on it.
The. acts • of vandalism are still under in-
vestigation by,the Goderich Police.
In a separate incident, a stake out by
Goderich Police has led to ,the arrest of two
youths who have been charged with: six break
and enters with intent at Goderich District
Collegiate Institute. A key was used by the
youths in the break-ins which took place over
an 18 month period of time beginning in June of
1978.
Canada Manpower Centre entering second
floor offices. He fired a shot into the ceiling and
ordered seven employees into an office telling
them to call the police. The employees escaped
uninjured.
The sergeant said when he got to the Man-
power office the door was closed. He said he
called to Sheardown to open the door but got no
response.
He said he' pressed himself against the wall
adjacent to the door and using his left hand he
turned the knob and flung the door open leaving
his arm exposed in th; open doorway.
The second the door opened Sheardown fired
throtigh the doorway. Bacon said he heard the
shot and felt the breeze from the slug on the
hair of his arm.
The sergeant said that after Sheardown had
surrendered' he told him that "I meant to shoot
at you. If you had your body in the door you'd be
dead. You're a good cop but I meant business."
Bacon said Sheardown then asked him if he had
hurt the officer's arm.
He told the court Sheardown indicated his
intention was to die. He told Bacon he would be
carried out of the Manpower office "feet first"
saying he had "nothing to live for" and that the
"world was against him
He told police he did no want to see any
members of his family saying: "All I want to do
is die". �
Police cordoned off the area around the
Manpower office and, with the assistance of an
Ontario Provincial Police Tactics and Rescue
Squad and OPP negotiaters, began to outwait
Sheardown. All was quiet until about 7:30 p.m.
when Sheardown fired three shots toward The
Square where a large crowd of onlookers had
gathered.
One man was slightly wounded by the shots
when a pellet struck him in the cheek.
Bacon told the court he had been a police
officer in Goderich for 19 years and had known
Sheardown since he was "knee high h to_a _
grasshopper". He said Sheardown had o
criminal record and had given police no
problems in the past. He said when Sheardown
came to the police station earlier that day he
appeared agitated and after telling police about
the incident at the golf course said "a man in.
Turn to page 18 •
Giddyup
in getting donkeys
did move, problem
on top of them. Town
you mule!
the
The
the
problem seemed to be
to move, and when they
seemed to be in staying
and businessmen
officials
comprised two teams of well-dressed donkey
baseball players last Friday night for a game in
Agriculture Park. Assistant Fire Chief Stan
Merriam is the one on the donkey, and Gordie
Walters with the pigtails is trying to pursuade
the animal to move. The animal doesn't seem to
care. (photo by Jeff Seddon)
132 YEAR -35
THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1979
35 CENTS PER COPY
Children may still be'enjoyibg their holt ys,
but many teacher'§ are already in l the
classroom. On a visit to Victoria Pub11e School,
Miss Marylou Taylor was discovered
beautifying heti grader one room. Believe It or
not, on Tuesday all this will have been tran-
sformed into a colorful learning centre. (photo
by Cath Woodeth)
Fate cf barn delayed at hearing
BY JEFF SEDDON
An Ontario Municipal Board hearing to
decide the fate of an old stone barn was delayed
indefinitely Monday due to lack of time.
The hearing was requested by the town of
Goderich to appeal a decision by the town's
committee of adjustment. That committee
approved a severance application for Nick Hill
of Hill and Borgal Architects and Planners
giving the firm a clear' path to purchase a barn
just off.St. David Street behind buildings facing
The Square.
The firm wants to convert the old building
into office space. In order to purchase the
building and its lot the property had to be
severed, off a chunkof land already owned by
Melvin Cranston.
The committeeof adjustment approved the
severance and according to procedure •sent
notice of its approval to the 'town planning
board' and the works and engineering com-
mittee. Hunter, who works closely with works
and engineering, raised some concerns over the
severance and aired them before that com-
mittee.
The works and engineering committee
agreed with Hunter's concerns and im-
mediately objected to the severance. The ob-
jection "had to be filed within 21 days of the
severance approval and to meet that deadline
had to be filed without council's approval.
The works and engineering committee listed
nine concerns it had over the problems con-
struction on the severed parcel of land could
create. At council's next session Hunter
outlined the reasons for his objections and
received council's blessing for the move.
Hunter told Monday's hearing that the reason
the matter was handled ih that unusual fashion
was because he assumed when the matter went
before the committee of adjustment that .no
decision would be made. He said he felt the
committee of adjustment would delay its
decision until it could gathersome information
fro'm the commissioner of works. He added that
he was "surprised" when he learned of the
decision to approve the severance.
Huntertold the board his -objections to the
severan-ce were based on problems that would
be created if any building was erected on the
parcel of land to be severed. "the plot to be
severed is behind stores on The Square bet-
ween Kingston Street and East Street and is
sandwiched between the , Burger Bar
Restaurant. The Goderich Credit Union and an
alley servicing stores on The Square.
The commissioner told the board the town's
official plan and zoning bylaw would not permit
the construction of any building on the plot and
because of that he felt obliged to prevent the
severance approval.
''ale said the lot had no water or sanitary sewer
service, it did not front on a public street,'it
faced an alley that already had traffic flow
problems and could not support more vehicle
flow, there was insufficient parking in the area
to permit another business to establish, snow
removal problems would be greater than they
already are and fire -protection would be
reduced from an already unde"sireably state.
He said as commissioner of works and the ,
town's chief building official he would not issue
any building permit for construction on the plot
of land for those reasons.
Hunter said he based his decision on present
circumstances conceding that he knew nothing
of what Hill proposed for the site. He said he
was not aware pf what Hill planned to do adding
that it was possible some of the problems he
listed in the town's objections may be able to be
resolved:
He told the hearing water and sanitary
servicing could be installed adding that it may
be possible to overcome parking problems. But
he pointed out that he felt his job was to ensure
town bylaws are 9beyed rather than decide if
any variances to those bylaws could be granted
in special circumstances.
Hill declined to comment on the objections
raised by the town except to say he was
disappointed the matter ever got to the OMB.
He said he felt the hearing and the lengthy
delays it caused could have been avoided had
town officials shown a little courtesy.
He pointed out -that all the town objections
were based on what could turn out to be
problems. He said at no point did any official of
Turn to page 18 •
If there's foreign
owners in Huron...prove it
BY JEFF SEDDON
Complaints by farm organizations that
foreign owners are amassing large chunks of
prime farmland- in Huron County and driving
the price of that land beyond the means of most
farmers have yet to be substantiated.
Farmers have been • complaining to the
provincial and federal government for almost a
year that foreign ownership is spelling disaster
in rural areas. They want government to pass
legislation to prevent the sale of land to foreign
owners and claim that legislation should be
immediate so great is the problem.
But unfortunately the fears of the farm
groups have thus far been unfounded. The
complaints prompted the Ontario ministry of
agriculture and food (OMAF) to do studies on
ownership patterns and those studies indicate
that a very small percentage of farmland is
owned by foreign interests.
OMAF has taken those facts to farmers but to
no avail. The farmers feel the OMAF studies
were incomplete and thus are next to worthless.
But the far m--orga-nizat-ions -ha ve yet -to -come up
with any basis for their concern. If there is a
great deal of foreign ownership and it is driving
land prices out of sight neither OMAF nor farm
groups have been able to get a handle on it,
Title searches completed on farms recently
changing hands indicate the new owners are
not non -Canadian. Glenn Coates, a senior
project officer for Foodland, a division of
OMAF, said recently a very., small percentage
of land In Huron County is foreign owned. He
said less" than two percent of the land in the
'county is owned by non -Canadian and that only
one area has any concentration of foreign
ownership.
Coates said OMAF studies indicate that Were
is a small concentration of foreign ownership in
Ashfield township. He said about 21/2 percent of
the land in the township is owned by foreigners
which amounts to about 1,500 acres.
Coates added that even in Ashfield, which has
the highest percentage of foreign owned land,
there appears to be no threat that any cor-
poration or individual, is amassing any parcels
of land. He said what land is non -Canadian is in
individual sections not large segments. He went
on to say most of the land has been bought by
Germans.
Maurice Jenkins, assessment commissioner
for Huron -Perth, backed up the OM ,AF fin-
dings. Jenkins said if anyone in Huron county
would be aware of any foreign ownership he
would'because of land registration laws.
Jenkins explained that according to law any
land sold to a non -Canadian individual or
corporation must be registered with a signed
affidavit according to law. In that way the new
. owner can be taxed.c.
He said his office simply has not had any
significant number of affadavits. He said he
-doubt-ed if liis office-lradd processed more than
four or five deals to foreign owners calling the
foreign ownership concern a lot of "skeptical
crud".
Jenkins reiterated what OMAF officials have
already said. There is no significant amount of
foreign ownership. He added that most of the
1,800 farm sales processed in Huron -Perth last
year were farmer to farmer. He also said from
records at the assessment office it is farmers
paying the "big buck" for land.
That fact was also borne out in OMAP
studies. Coates said the base price for Class ,
One cleared farmland in Huron County in 1978
Turn to page 18 it