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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-09-06, Page 1We knew we would be rescued.... BY JOANNE BUCHANAN What started out to be an adventure of one sort, turned out to be an adventure of quite another sort over the weekend for Evert Middel, 45, of Goderich. Middel, a windsurfing enthusiast for the past three years, set out at 8 o'clock Saturday morning from the Goderich beach to wind surf 40 miles non-stop across Lake Huron to Har- bour Beach, Michigan. It was something that he had been wanting to try for quite awhile. Following him, in ease he needed help., were his brother Albert, 42, of Meneset Park and his friend, Ben Graham, 47, of Goderich in Graham's 26 -foot, five-year-old cabin cruiser,Pudgie II. Well, the wind was in the right direction' Saturday morning but it was also very strong, making waves between four and five feet high. Middel was wearing diving socks and a wet suit for the first time too. He ended up discarding both --the diving socks because they were too slippery and the wet suit because it was too hot. However he still had trouble staying up on his surf board for any length of time because"of the roughness of the: water and after going only a few miles out into the lake, he was forced to give up his attempt and climb 'aboard the Pudgie II. Once aboard, he set out for Harbour Beach with his brother and Graham anyway. The three men stayed overnight there and it wasn't until their return home at 11 a.m. Sunday that the real adventure --or rather,ordeal-- began. About half way across the lake about 1 p.m., the shaft in the lower drive unit of the Pudgie II broke; It was the start of a 17 -hour lake drama which ended safely for the trio thanks to CBer, Roy Kaminska off Sunset Beach. After the shaft broke, the Pudgie II was without power and the men were unable to turn it into the high waves. Fog reduced visibility to one mile. For the next five hours, the Pudgie II was pitted against wind and waves. "After the first hour, I knew the boat would take it," said Evert. But he added that he would be a fool not to admit that he was scared too. In an attempt to stop drifting, the men dropped anchor with nearly 90 metres of line. But that didn't help because hours passed before it took hold and the waters began to calm down. When it grew dark, the men could see lights on the shore about 12 kilometres in the distance. This provided some sense of relief for them. "We knew we would be resuced. It was more or less a waiting game, just a matter of time," said Evert who was brought up with his brother on their parents' cargo ship in Holland. The minutes turned to hours as the three men kept their vigil, ready to set off flares if a vessel should come their way. They began their Mayday distress calls as the crippled Pudgie II bobbed across the water to a point 25 kilometres north of Goderich. At precisely 3:58 a.m. Kaminska, president of the, Circle City CB Club of Goderich, hap- pened to turn up the volume of his CB set, tuning into the international distress call of the three men. He heard Albert Middel saying, "Mayday, Mayday. Pudgie II. Will somebody answer, please." Kaminska, who ironically, had been involved in a similar incident three years ago when caught in a storm on Lake Huron after the battery of an 18 -foot cabin crusier he was on failed, identified himself by his CB handle, Mr. Rocky and began the rescue procedure for the three men. He contacted the O.P.F. in Goderich who in turn contacted the Canadian Coast Guard cutter Rapid. The cutter had only pulled into harbor an hour earlier after a search in the Kettle Point area for a vessel erroneously reported missing. The 12 -man crew, under Skipper Thomas Hull, was tired but set out immediately to search for - the Pudgie II° The range of Graham's CB set is eight to 16 kilometres and Kaminska picked up the distress call on the edge of this range. Since the Rapid was far out of range, Kaminska had to "ten -five" (that's CB jargon for taking and relaying messages). Kaminska's first job was to rotate his 12 - metre antenna to get a fix on Pudgie II. He calculated its compass position by zeroing in on the strongest signal and also passed along a depth reading to the Rapid. Pudgie II was in about 18 metres of water and the Rapid's skipper checked out the location on his charts. For two hours, vital information was passed Turn to page 18 • 0S -Vandals- -- AL wom 132 YEAR -36 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1979 35 CENTS PER COPY Reaction just BY JEFF SEDDON Huron County council reacted as expected Thursday night, when property tax equalization factors were explained by assessment com- missioner/Floyd Jenkins at a `'special council session. Jenkins.., explained to county council what equalization factors were and what impact they would have' on budgets in to wris4sacktOwnships in the county. The assessment commissioner outlined the reasons for the new factors but his comments fell on deaf ears as most rural representatives were only concerned with the bottom line, it was going to cost townships more money. The new factors are designed to equalize payments made by municipalities for county services such as education, health, social services and roads. Costs for those services are shared by municipalities in the county and the provincial government. The new equalization factors will not alter the provincial share only the' portions paid by municipalities in the' county. Under the present cost sharing system towns and villages in the county pay the lion's share of county costs. Goderich, the county seat and largest municipality in Huron, pays far more what was expected toward county services than any other municipality and under new equalization factors will enjoy a much greater saying than any other town. Present apportionments have been a thorn in the side of county towns for years. Councils in those towns have complained that their payments, compared to those of the townships, are unfair. The towns claimed that tajayeers in urban areas have been subsidizing taxpayers in ural areas. of'Township councils don't buythat arguement. The townships claim urban residents have a muchgreater benefit from county services than rural residents and so should pay for that service. The effects of equalization factors indicate that the towns' complaints may have been justified. If the proposal for realigning county • apportionments is legislated the towns will enjoy handsome 'savings while the townships will pay more. That fact was obvious from the reaction of county councillors Thursday night. Rural reeves and deputy -reeves voiced discontent with the new factors while urban politicians were content to avoid confrontation by remaining silent rather than try to defend the • use of equalization factors. While township representatives talked tough about objecting to the new factors there was little indication any organized effort will be made to halt the use of those factors., • Some councillors suggested that the town- ships back out of county -services rather than pay the long dollar for them while others suggested the ,townships should band together and fight any legislation implementing equalization, factors. The objections to the use of the new factors are understandable. If the townships feel the present system is fair for both the towns and ° thetownships it would 'follow that they would fight the changes. Under the new factors the townships will be faced with raising substantial amounts of money to pay their share of the county costs. The break given towns in the county will be at the expense of the townships. Goderich, under the new factors, will realize a $481,495 saving while Exeter will pay $172,386 less. Savings to the rest of the towns and villages are less than those amounts but every township with the exception of Hay will pay more. Mullett township is the hardest hit. With new factors used Hullett will have to raise $109,467 OMB hearing does not provide the answer BY JEFF SEDDON An Ontario Municipal Board hearing in- volving the Strickland Building on West Street was abruptly terminated Tuesday when OMB chairman William Dyer announced the matter could not be resolved by him. The 'hearing was called to settle a dispute William Beatty has over the manner in which the town's 'committee of adjustment handled , the Strickland project and a right of way into the building's rear parking area. Beatty, who owns a home on St. Patrick Street, objected to the Strickland broject when it was first proposed. His objections centered around problems he -felt the project would create for him as a property owner and the mishandling of the matter by the committee of adjustment. The Strickland building has been completed despite the objections raised by Beatty but he feels strongly enough about the matter to make every effort possible to ensure similar problems don't occur in the future. The problem first arose when the committee of adjustment was asked to grant a variance fuer the Strickland proposal: The building was legal under zoning regulations for the town but the lot it was built.on was too small. The town's official Enrolment down but it's too early to tellh�th much BY JEFF SEDDON The Huron County Board of Education learned Tuesday that enrolment in the board's elementary and secondary schools is down from last year just as was expected. The board's 24 elementary schools and five secondary schools re -opened Tuesday after a two month summer break. The board expected fewer students this year than last but if yesterday's enrolment figures hold up there maybe even fewer than was planned for. The opening day figures are not considered official by either the board or the ministry of education but they do provide some indication of how many students will be in the system in the 1979-80 school year. According to projections the board expected 7,022 students in elementary schools this year and 4,492 in the secondary schools. On opening dajr only 6,900 students, 122 short, showed up at elementary schools and 4,446 at secondary schools, 46 short. John Cochrane, director of education, said he "puts no faith in opening day figures" pointing out that many students wait until later in the month to start school. tie said some are required at home to handle farm work and some stay on summer jobs for extra money. He said official enrolment figures at the end of September would tell the board how many students it will have in the system this year. But the director conceded that the 122 elementary school students that did not show up may be cause for some concern. He said normally students that don't enrol until later in the month are in secondary school. He added that he hoped most of the elementary school students showed up. Of the five elementary schools in the Goderich area two have increased enrolments and three are down. Victoria Public School had 394 students last year and expected 407 this year but only 387 of those showed up Tuesday. Holmesville Public School had 289 students last year and this year expected 299 of which 290 were in school opening day. Colborne Central expected . 231 • students Tuesday, down five from last year, but only 226 were in school. Robertson Memorial had 455 students last year and this year expected 445 of which 440 were in class Tuesday, Brookside Ptiblic School expected 345 students Tuesday but only 336 were there. Brookside had 353 students last year. Goderich District Collegiate Institute got more than it expected Tuesday morning. GDCI projected enrolment for 1979-80 was 966 students but 993 were in class when school started. Last year the school's enrolmient was plan requires a certain amount of off street parking for square footage of floor space in a commercial building like Strickland''s and the Strickland lot would not permit that parking. Strickland proposed a two storey building' and asked the town's committee of adjustment to permit thebuilding despite the parking shortage. That committee, according to law; was required to hold a public meeting on the matter before making its decision and had to make certain all landowners around the site were informed of the public session. , Beatty, who owns •land adjacent to. the Strickland property, was not informed. He claims he was not aware of the committee of - adjustment decision until after it was made and objected to the project. The committee responded to that objection by holding a second public session. Rather than wait for Ted tape to be cleared Strickland redesigned the building reducing it to one storey. By doing so the project con- formed to the bylaw and needed no variance. Consequently no objection could be rais"ed to the building but there was still the right of way to resolve. To gain access to the rear parking area of the building a right of way was needed between two buildings up the street from the Strickland property. The developer's arranged for that right of way but according to Beatty did not make that arrangement legal. He objects to the entrance because the right of way borders on his property. Unable to stop construction of the building by objections to the right of way and the mishandling of procedure Beatty was left with no recourse but to object on principle. He took the matter to the OMB. Beatty is anything but impressed with the results of the OMB hearing. He referred to the hearing as an ,,'interesting experience" claiming the restrictions in the law which protect people that own property were either "ignored or violated". Beatty, who represented himself at the OMB hearing, said the hearing was "beyond tale". He said the chairman suddenly announced there was little he could do to resolve Beatty's problems and adjourned the)hearing. Beatty added that Dyer had not delivered any decision on the matter. The St. Patrick Street landowner said he did Turn to page 18 ! more next year than it did this. Goderich township will pay $95,135 more and Morris township $95,835 more. As one township reeve put it his taxes would increase $90 if the new factors were put in ef- fect. Co'unty clerk Bill Hanly reminded rural taxpayers that the burden of increased taxes will be eased' through a -provincial. grant. The grant returns one half the property tax paid on farmland. The provincial. government has not com- mitted itself to the new factors and may shelve the whole thin'gi' Township councils and farm organizations are showing signs of gearing up for a fight against the new factors while urban taxpayers are anxious to have the new system put into effect. The matter is now in the hands of the province. A decision from the legislature is expected early in the fall and what kind of furor that decision will mean is now only speculation. ,., :�_,.,.nn,�., nen*r.c,a�a• strike again... flags the target Vandals struck again in Goderich over the weekend. On Sunday evening, the flag poles on top of - the--S'he'affety--Pe rr"po —Huron""R-o`aalc "" were bent and several flags stolen, The Goderich Police Department is still investigating. Police have been unable to apprehend anyone in connection with the vandalism which oc- curred in the grandstand area two weekends ago. At that time, the wall of the ticket booth was kicked in and a hole was made in the roof of the -concession stand by someone jumping on it. The two youths apprehended two weeks ago and charged with six counts of break and enter with intent at G.D.C.I. will appear in provincial court here within a week or two. Police were able to apprehend the two after staking out the high school periodically. Some damage was done inside the school building by the two'high school students who used keys to enter it on six separate occassions beginning in June'of 1978. Palmer looks to make history Huron County may have its first w,gman warden in 1980. Goderich reeve Eileen Palmer made her intentions known to county council Thursday night announcing she intended to seek the warden's chair for 1980. To become the county's first woman warden Palmer will have her work cut out for her. She learned at the special August session that Usborne reeve Bill Morley and Tuckersmith reeve Ervin Sillery also intend to run for the wardenship. - Do con the Ted g Syers of Petrolia Hard Oil JS' ratulated by his team-mates after scoring winning run in a 4-3 victory over London Dtts. It was the fourth .straight year Petrolia won the A division title over London in the Goderich Industrial Fastball tournament. More tournament coverage is inside on sports pages: (photo by Dave Moffitt)