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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-06-05, Page 1r i BrtAnch Litr'9ry Box 23,2 Blyth, Ont, NOM 1134 Jan. a w 6 nit HEAIITSA VER COURSE=Nikki Reavie administers resu: citation to a "Resusci-Anne" mannequin, with helpff.r advice from classmates Brad Crawford, ,Ria Linardatos, Lisa Koyle and Anna Sakasov. These and other. members of Mr. Lisle's Grade ,8 class at the Wingham Public School spent a day last week learning the "Heartsaver" course from instructors Martin Cretier, Sandi Deslauriers and ,Linda Hickey. The course trains students in basic forms of cardio- pulmonary resuscitation. Tornados wreak havoc through- western Ontario By. Derrick McDonald Residents in Central - Western Ontario' who com- plained about last Fridtly's thunderstorms soon found themselves lucky to have merely suffered through a rainstorm when tornados -left thousands homeless and kill- ed 12. Three tornados wreaked havoc from Arthur to Barrie. The tornado closest to Mount Forest tore through Proton and Egremont Townships, skipped down to Cumnoch,' went„ around Arthur, then ripped through West Luther Township to Grand Valley and beyond. Just outside Arthur the tornado crossed Wellington County. Rd. 16 (the Conn GRADUATED At convocation in the Ivor Wynne Centre, Robert Edgar Currie received his degree, in Engineering Physics from McMaster University, Hamilton, on June 1; 1985. He has accepted a position with Ferritronics Mobile Data Sy stems of Richmond Hill. Robert is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Currie of RR 3, Wingham, Deputy clerk resigns post Just four months after the position was created, the Town of Wingham finds itself once again looking for ' a deputy clerk -treasurer. • Paul Moody, who was hired in February to assist Clerk -Treasurer. Byron Adams at the Town Hall, has resigned to take up a new job with the Department of Revenue in London starting on Monday. Mr. Adams said the town plans to look for new ap- plicants to fill the position. The last time a search committee started with 40 applicants before edentually narrowing the field and bringing its recommenda- tions to council. road) and followed the rforth side of West Luther Con. 2-3. A strip of debris only about 100 yards wide marked the path the tornado followed. Chunks of tin roofing, parts of farm equipment and other wreckage lay plunked down in bright, green fields filled with spring's fresh new crops. On the south side of the road, houses and barns stood 'unscathed with cows grazing out 'front. Buildings on the other- side of'•the concession were struck by the tornado. Barns had only their cement foundations remaining, windows and roofs were missing from the demolished houses and fallen trees. as big as those lining 'ergus Street 'were plucked like garden weeds. Only, two hours after' the tornado had passed; the sun shoneand the air was Warm. It was difficult to believe such furious destruction had recently occurred. Howie Gorvett, whose house on the Conn Rd. just north of West Luther Con. 2-3 was in the path of the for-, nado, said he listened to news about the tornado at work and wondered where it was going. When he got home and saw the tool shed he built a year ago was gone and his satellite television dish was crumpled he knew where it had been. About 400 yards west of his house were the remains of his father Ralph's barn and to the left of that lay the ruins of another barn. He was lucky. His house was still intact exceRt for blown out windows and : a damaged sun deck. After he had cleaned up most of the broken _glass, he and Mark Heffernan, who also lives in the house, were able to sit down and have a beer. Down the concession Dave Lennox hal no time for a beer nor a place to sit down and enjoy it. He lost four barns, a drive shed and his house. He was trying . to round up what was left of his pigs with the help of volunteers. A ° little farther along people picked through a ..flattened mobile home. looking ,for the belongings of the Shiaw family. On the same farm chickens ran through the debris and cows mooed from' the basement of what was once a barn. For' relief, ' Frank Miller announced . the Ontario government would give $3 of aid to every $1 raised by local disaster relief funds. Former resident - suffers Toss One of ` Wingham's more illustrious former residents was affected by the tornado which devastated the village of Grand Valley last week. Bert Platt, for many years the well-respected chief of police in Wingham, was featured on the front page of the K -W Record on Monday, sitting outside the ruins of his single -storey home which had been ripped apart by the twister. Mr. Platt, now 81, is.,, remembered by many here as a just and fair man who was also a crack shot with a pistol, winning many shoot- ing trophies during the course of his career. , Wood sets record of 5.10 in pole vault Doug Wood of Wingham broke his own Canadian interscholastic and junior pole vault record of 4.95 metres by soaring to 5.10 metres at Kitchener Saturday on the final day of the , OFSAA West regional track and field cham- pionships. The mark is a personal best for Wood and is the first time he has managed to top the five -metre (16.4 -foot) height. On his first attempt at five metres on Saturday, Wood knocked the bar off with his arm on the way down. His second try was„ successful, but the mandatory remeas- urement brought the height down to 4.99, a fraction -under the mark. Wood then had the bar raised to 5.10 metres (16 feet, nine inches). He passed under the bar on his first two attempts, but cleared it on his third and final try. He just touched the bar, but it stayed on. Pushing it to the limit, the Grade 13 student from F. E. Madill Secondary School had the bar, raised as far as possible, to an estimated height of x.18 metres, and made three attempts using a longer pole he had just received that day. He missed all. three, running right through the pit en his first attempt but coming close on the next two. He explained later it was the first time ?l .had used a five - metre pole thahhad not been cut down. While Wood was setting the senior record, teammate Sandy MacDonald won the ,junior boys' pole vault with a jump of 4.05 metres. Relief stations have been set up in Arthur, Barrie and Orangeville. The 'relief station in Arthur is at the Arthur Curling Rink. Food and clothing are pouring into the area but what,is needed now a is manpower. Volun- teer's are being asked to report to the Arthur Curling Rink in work clothes and gloves. d of ike action. Mount .,sorest District He added that the board High. School sent volunteers had not yet been asked to yesterday and other area resume negotiations and that high 'Schools are being asked no meetings were scheduled. to do the. same. Shirley Weary, federation The Mount Forest Public officer with District 45 School will be holding a fund- ( Huron County) of the raising event for the Red Ontario Secondary School Cross. This money will go to 'Teachers' Federation, said the relief effort. A bake sale, the results of the vote "speak a white elephant sale, and for themselves". As for what games requiring a donation, will happen next, she said a will be held on June 21, decision had not been made Donna McFarlane, a teacher but there was no indication at the school, said she hopes there would be acti 'a. parents will donate On the o • e said generously to the white she fee elephant sale. per FIRST SECTION 1• CtM\�IJS �4Jb'� Winghatn, Ontario, Wednesday, June 5,'1985 Single Copy 50c Teachers reject offer,. authorize strike action Huron County secondary school teachers voted by a substantial margin last week to turn down the contract offered by the board of edu- ,vation and to give their negotiating team the mandate to call a strike. In the first of two super- vised votes taken last Tuesday, teachers at the five county high schools voted 197-34 to reject an offer providing salary increases, including increment, of 5.1 per cent for the current year. In a follow-up vote, .the teachers voted by a margin of two -to -one, 165-65,m favor of strike action if an agree- ment 'is not reached. This could take the form of work - to -rule, rotating strikes or a full-scale walkout. It is not quite clear what the next step will be, but it appears neither side is ex- pecting any'drastic action in thenar future. Peter Gryseels, superin- tendent of personnel and chief negotiator for the Hur- on County Board of Educa= tion, said the next. move is really up tothe teachers. They can give notice to strike, ask for negotiations to resume or sit and wait for a while. However at some point- both ointboth parties will have to sit down and work out an -agree- ment, he noted. -. II(e said the only time the .' and cat i lock out teachers is after they take some form er hand that the v t gave the neg AN APPRECIATION DAY was held June 2 at the Howick Central School'Jor Principal Bruce Robertson who will be leaving Howick after 20 years as its prin- ' cipal. Mr. Robertstn was presented„ With a portrait of himself which is to be hung at the school. He will assume duties as principal at the Wingham Public School this fall. team sufficient mandate to call a strike if necessary. (One source, with ex- perience in labor relations, had suggested that anything less than 80 per cent does not constitute a strong strike mandate.) , "The teacher position is very simple," Mrs. Weary said, "that if we have to do that (strike) we will, but we prefer not to." She claimed the major stunibling block to an agree- ment has been a lack of negotiation, saying there has been minimal action in the last six months. - The main issue at stake is "stripping of the contract", she said, claiming the board is trying to remove clauses which have been in it for 10 years. However she declined to identify the clauses or discuss what is. in them, 'except to say that some involve staffing. "Each clause by itself might not be too signifi- cant," she said, "but all to- gether they are significant." She said monetary issues are "not a major problem", though she admitted there. are outstanding ' monetary issues: The OSSTF has been asking for 8.6 per cent, in- cluding increment, while the board has offered 5.1 per cent. (Excluding increment, the . movement to a higher category on the_salary grid, the figures -dre''7 5 per cent and four per tent.) Mrs. Weary said the federation is still hoping to negotiate an agreement and she does not want to discuss issues publicly so long as there is a possibility of reaching a settlement. Elaine Conkin from OSSTF headquarters in Toronto is now in charge of the Some damage in truck fire An electrical malfunction is blamed as the cause of a fire in a 1973 Ford"truck last Tuesday, reports Wingham Fire Chief Dave Crothers. The local department received the call at ap- proximately 7 p.m. to Con. 12 of Turnberry Township (the Belmore 'Road), just off Highway 4. The vehicle is owned by Bernie McGlynn of RR 2, Wingham, and" 'the damage is estimated at $500. negotiations as a result of a vote by the teachers in February to call in a provincial take-over team. The teachers and the board have failed to reach a settlement on salaries and working conditions. The board's offer started with a teachers maximum salary of $44,120 and the teachers want $45,600. The. board offered a maximum salary for principals of $59,000 4nd the teachers want $61,087. The board is offering staff- ing at a nunibr based on student enroll ent plus 9.5 1, teaching posit ons' at an est- imated cosi of $120,000. How- ever, the teachers want the base number plus 17.4 teach- ing positions at an estimated cost of $3Q9,600. The board's memo to its' teachers states, "previous collective agreements pro- vided for formula plus 4.5 staff". '-Under working conditions, the board is offering average class sizes ranging from 15 for basic level students to 30 for advanced level students. While the teachers agree with the numbers, they want these as maximum sizes. IDENTA-KID OGRAM—The Howick"Lions Club recently sponsored a child identification clinic at the' Howick Community Centre. Henry" Kym of RR 1, . Fordwich, helped to fingerprint his daughter Monica. A total of 1 74 children were fingerprinted and a spokesman for the group said another clinic may be held this fall. Cardiff presents cheque, promises help with dams MP Murray Cardiff 'presented Wingham council with one cheque. Monday night and promised to do his best to return with an even bigger contribution should the town decide to go ahead' with repairs to its dams. During a brief appearance at the council meeting, Mr. Cardiff handed over a cheque for $10,349 toward renovations to town buildings being carried out under the Canada Works Program. Deputy Reeve Patricia Bailey, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Mayor William Harris, thanked him for the money and then told him, "I need 310,000 more dollars." • "When did you want that, Pat?" Mr. Cardiff joked. Then, on a more serious note, he told council that once it has made up its mind what to do about the lower dam he is willing to go to bat and try to find the money. He said he has gathered from reading the newspaper there is "a wee bit of con- fusion" about what to do with the dam, adding the first step is up to the town. He will not try -to sway the decision one way or the other, he said, but if the decision is made to go ahead he will do what he can • to help. He also noted it is getting harder and harder to find federal funds for such projects, adding, "I gather you're not going to be ready this year." "If we go ahead with the lower dam, is there some- thing there?" Councillor James A. Currie asked, suggesting it might help some members of council to make up their minds if they knew grant money was available. However Mr. Cardiff told him there is -no way of telling what is available until the town brings forward an application ,for a specific project. "It's up to you to take the first step." Mrs. Bailey asked the MP to "keep us posted", adding the dam' committee will be meeting soon to discuss altenatives. It may decide to form a non-profit'group'an try to rebuild the dam on it! own, she hinted. She added that she is confident the town will be coming to the government for help with both, upper and lower dams this fall. "Whenever you're ready I'm ready," Mr. Cardiff responded, saying he could make no promises but would do what he could. - Cotfncil plans . to • place questions on the ballot during ,the municipal elec- tion this fall asking Wingham residents whether they are in favor of rebuilding the lower dam, the upper dam or both. The cost of replacing the collapsed lower dam with an • earthen weir has been' estimated at $310,000. So far there are no estimates of the cost of repairing or replacing the upper dam, but council was told later that an engineering firm has been asked to prepare a preliminary study on the dam and come up with cost estimates. The town has asked for estimates on three alterna- tives: a brand new structure, a partially new structure re-' taining the existing spillway, or renovations to the existing structure, Councillor Bruce Machan told council. 4,. ,