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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-02-29, Page 1N.f wri H90..,,up SCOUT MEDAL -WINNERS at the "Winter Olympics" held earlier this winter by the 1st Wingham Scouts in- cluded: Andy Pritchard, bronze, snake throw; Murray Lapp, bronze, skiing; lan Ward, silver in snake throw and skiing and bronze in snowshoein,g; Brad Cross, silver in snowshoeing, and Mark Underwood, gold in skiing and in the snake throw. Missing is Herman van Meeteren who won the snowshoeing gold. The medals were presented to the boys during last week's parent - son banquet. Wingham and Turnberry team up for bicentennial Wingham and Turnberry Township will be going all out this summer, marking the province's bicentennial with a joint celebration in July. Using the old maxim "two heads are better than one", the two municipalities have teamed to make the party better than ever, according to the chairman of the bicen- Firemen, board to meet next week mefrititerrortlieVitigilarn fire department and the Wingham Area Fire Board plan to meet next Wed- nesday in another attempt to resolve differences over pay for the department officers. The . meeting will be chaired by a representative from the fire marshal's office and hopefully the two groups will be able to come to an agreementr'°i)Oug Fortune, chairman of the fire board, said. Last week a member of the fire marshal's staff met with the two groups individually, ' but so far ,the pay dispute ,remains unresolved. The conflict centres around what the board is .,41,1 .,,ct.,r,�.:N .. Y.:r, ... •a, offering to'pay the fire -Chief" and department captains and what they have requested. Both sides have moved closer in many areas,. but remain far apart on the question of the chief's salary, with the board of- fering $4,800 and the officers demanding $10,000. • Chief Dave Crothers has said that he and all the of- ficers will resign if they do not get what they are asking within 30 days. Mr. Fortune said it is difficult to predict what might happen at next week's meeting, but he remains optimistic that the dispute can be resolved without lasting grievances. Blyth Festival Singers tennial committee, Shirley Walker. The celebration, scheduled for July 19-22, will be held the same weekend as Wingham traditionally holds its West- ern Hoedown. A few tried and true Hoedown events will be held over, but there are some new features as well. Mrs. Walker said the -bicentennial, celebration will be run on a bigger scale than Hoedown, but not quite as large as the town's cen- tennial' celebration of five years ago. This year the main street will be blocked off .and transformed into a "Her- itage Lane" instead of a parade. Mrs. Walker said oldtime craftsmen, like quilters and spinners, are being encouraged to come tdi, town and display the skills of years gone by. For example, at last report, the owner of a local shoestore is hoping to have a cobbler working outside his store. By Henry Hess They come from a wide area and from all walks of life. They are teachers, farmers, housewives;, some are unemployed. They range in age from their early 20s to their late 70s. But faithfully, at least once a week„ summer and winter, they gather at the' community hall in Blyth to blend their voices in harnlony. They are the Blyth Festival Singers, an amateur choir from midwestern Ontario which oyer the past four years has established a reputation for its interesting and varied concerts, the next of which is coming up March 4, The Singers are affiliated with the Blyth Summer Festival and conducted by Laurie Rowbotham, the Listowel -area music teacher and choirmaster who also conducts the renowned Listowel high school choir and since last fall has conducted the Wilfrid Laurier,University choir in Waterloo. Compared to those choirs, working with a group like the Festival Singers is a unique experience, Mr. Rowbotham commented last week as the choir gathered to rehearse for its upcoming concert, He sees the high school students every day and has trained the majority since Grade 9, so there is a lot of contact and he knows what to expect. And although he sees the' university choir only once a week, it is made up of students with some voice training and is also a largely homogeneous group. The Festival Singers, on the other hand, run the gamut from people with no ex- perience apart from perhaps a church choir right up to members of the Ontario Youth Choir, music graduates and people with °operatic training. MORE CHALLENGING "It's much mere challenging here," he noted. There is a lot to accomplish in the �9 There also will be live entertainment on the main street. Other new features will be an antique flea market at Cruickshank Park, a baby contest, special church services and a giant drumhead service from the Legion. The Legion also will be holding a reunion the same weekend. Cou .face cuts in 1985 ngoem in line for increase n unconditional grants this yr. Several .holdovers from Hoedown -will be the opening night variety concert and beauty contest, sidewalk. sales, a slow pitch tourna- ment, a Bavarian garden and Friday and Saturday night dances. Mrs. Walker said she' hopes everyone, the downtown merchants and the townspeople, will make plans to decorate the town in the oldtime theme and really get into the spirit of the bicentennial. She said she also hopes they don't forget to invite their friends to town for the festivities. It appears that Wingham at least will fare better than expected in terms of the changes to the Ontario un- conditional grant system. According to preliminary estimates released or 1984, the town can expect;' 10 per cent increase this year in the grants, which are used to help pay for services such as police, roads and sanitation. That is a switch from earlier reports that the town might lose up tO 25 per cent on its grants if the changes went through. However, while that is good news for 1984, there still is a possibility the town could find itself on the losing end in 1985, Clerk Treasurer Byron Adams noted, Munro drama nominated for Oscar A half-hour family drama based on a story by Alice Munro is among this year's Canadian nominees for the prestigious Oscar awards. "Boys and Girls"; the first episode of the anthology mini-series "S`' ns ' and Daughters", tscr0*- Atlantis Finns of':,.' rootto was nominated as •'tfid best live-action short. The... show was faired -in January on CBC -TV and is the story of . a farm grl, played by Toronto teenage actress Megan Follows, who feels cheated when her younger brother is treated better because he is a boy. Also nominated for Oscars were two National Film Board documentaries, "Flamenco at 5:15" as the best documentary short, and "The Profession of Arms", part three of the acclaimed seven -episode "War" series, as the best documentary feature. space of a two-hour rehearsal each week, with extra rehearsals added prior to a concert. The task is made more difficult by the fact that he tries to work in music which will challenge the performers to improve them- selves, not just the easy -to -sing music. He relies a lot on the stronger members, he said. "It's kind of a lesson in cooperative learning." At the beginning he chose music he knew the choir would like, gradually introducing a wide variety, all the way from Broadway to classical to some of the earliest choral music ever written. • He spends a lot of time trying to "turn people onto music", he said. "I'm still an educator and one of the 'biggest thrills for me is to feel I've taught somebody some- thing of value." One of the things which struck him right ,from the start is that choir members are serious about music and willing to work hard to become a good choir, he added. That impressed him and helps to make the work worthwhile. ' NO ONE IS TURNED AWAY - Another feature of the Festival Singers is the absence of auditions. Some people, especially\ non-professionals, find them threatening, he explained, and although it makes the conductor's work a little harder he believes strongly in the principle that no one who wants to sing should be turned away. "I don't think it's that important to have a perfect -sounding choir. It's more important to have a group interested in learning and accomplishing." One of the challenges is working with "over -ripe" voices. Soprano, alto and bass voices generally reach maturity around the age of 23 or 24, he explained, and last to 50 or 55; a tenor matures in his early 30s and has about 15 good years before starting to fade. In addition, he finds that certain things in 'this part of Ontario are "not good, chorally", such as the pronunciation of the letter "r", and he spends time working on softening pronunciation. , All in all, the Festival Singers have given some performances as good as any he has ever heard, Mr. Rowbotham said, while candidly admitting that others have fallen short of the mark. "The most important thing is to have as many people singing and enjoying as possible and reaching the highest level possible." It is important to combine the work with fun, so the choir tries to hold parties once a month to encourage members to mix and get to know each other. Rapport with the audience is important too, and there is always a social time after concerts. It is interesting to mix with the audience and hear what they have to say. "They will tell us what we've done badly and what we've done well." It also is gratifying to have people come to concerts from all over the province, tying in a concert with a visit to relatives in the area. He also pays tribute to the fine executive which looks after all aspects of the func- tioning of the choir. SMALL COMMUNITIES NEED MUSICIANS The Festival Singers started four years ago, following a visit by Lynda Lentz and Sheila Richards of the Blyth Summer Festival board to a concert the Listowel high school choir gave with the London Sinfonia. They liked wt they heard, got in touch with Mr. RowBotham and asked if he would consider starting a project at Blyth. "I was fascinated," he recalls. "One of the reasons I came to a small town was that I would be more useful than in the city." Small communities need musicians and the "I think in '84 we may have lucked in, but in '85 we may luck out," after the provin- cial guarantee against a grant expires. Mr. Adams said he has not yet received confirmation from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs' and Housing on exactly how much money the town can expect to receive this year under the unconditional grants program. He said he has seen figures obtained through MPP Murray Elston's office which in- dicate total grants will rise to $311,000 this year from $282,000 last year, and will use those in his preliminary budgeting. • BELMORE ICE CARNIVAL—Linda Wilson was chosen Princess of the 1984 Delmore Ice Carnival last' Satur- •day evening and was crowned by last year's queen, Sonja;Wright. In addition to the princess andsweetheart contest, there was 'the judging of costumes and skating afterward.' Ind their proposal fitted right into his philosophy. Following preliminary meetings with Festival staff, an advertisement was placed in local papers — with an astonishing result. "I thought we might have 30 people and was kind of hoping for 15," he said, so he was stunned when on the first night 69 showed up. Over time the choir thinned out. There are about 45 regular members right now, with another 15 on leaves of absence, There is always a turnover, with some members leaving and others joining. It all adds to the challenge. "When we started this choir, no ttie realized how many people out there really wanted to sing," he commented. MUSIC COMES FIRST Choir members echo the sentiment. Jake Middelkamp, a 33 -year-old dairy farmer from Auburn said that even with his busy schedule he manages to find time to attend the rehearsals. "I come for the singing," he said, "I can have a social evening any- where." A former member of a Kincardine choir, he said the singing is "a great way to let off steam." Elliott Lapp, 65 and a semi -retired far- mer, said he has always been a member of church choirs and enjoys Blyth because it is nice to get more challenging music, while Nancy Fletcher, 24, of. Listowel said she likes singing and appreciates the choir because she is not tied down as she would be in a church choir. Mrs. Catherine MacDonald of Wingham, a music teacher and choir member, said she finds the Festival Singers challenging, "you learn a lot." All had high praise for their conductor and for accompanist Arlene Darnborough of Goderich. "The director was what attracted me He noted that one of the problems Wingham faces is that the grant formula is tailored so that grants will rise as municipalities` ex- pand, and the town, hs. of been growing. Preion's y the ministry had guaranteed municipalities would receive grants at least equal to those, of the previous year, so that no one got cut back, but after 1984 that promise has been withdrawn. That guarantee had helped Wingham in the past, Mr. Adams noted, so it is difficult to forecast' what might happen next year. The announcement of a change in the unconditional grants program came Feb. 16 during a speech by the minister, Claude Bennett, to the executive of the Associa- tion of Municipalities of On- tario m Ottawa. The AMO had criticized details of an earlier ministry proposal to change the grants formula and had put forward an alternative of its own, which would have smoothed out some of the "winners and losers" Please turn to Page 5 Blood pressure clinieThursday The Huron chapter of the Ontario Heart Foundation in cooperation with the county health unit will be holding a blood pressure screening clinic this Thursday, Mar. 1, at the Wingham Town Hall between 11 a.m, and 3 p.m. Residents of Wingham and Police report Wingham- police are , in- vestigating the theft of an estimated $1,500 worth of wheels, tires and mirrors from a truck parked at a local auto dealership over the weekend. Pollee reported the theft, in which the thieves took the wheels and tires right off the four-wheel=drive truck and left it sitting on its axles, occurred sometime between 8 and 11 p.m. Friday. :It was discovered by an officer on his rounds shortly after midnight. The theft is still under investigatiori and no charges have been laid. area are invited to attend the clinic and have their blood pressure checked. . The Hurbn chapter and the health unlit are expanding their educational program on the risk of heart attack and stroke posed by un- treated high blood pressure, with the aim of finding "hidden" cases and bringing them under control. _ . Accord ta.the-ehapter's:, .-- medical' advisor, there -are Many such hidden- eases across Canada. The disease has no set symptoms and just feeling good is no assurance of safety. Through its expanded program, the Heart Foun- dation hopes to motivate people to ,have their blood pressure checked and, if necessary, to undergo follow-up treatment in an effort to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or other serious health problems. Although high blood pressure cannot be "cured", it can be controlled with new drugs and other methods of treatment. ices in harmony here," commented Darlene Galbraith, an Atwood -area recreational instructor with the Association for the Mentally Retarded. Her sister was in his high school' choir so•she knew his reputation. "Some of the music he has us singing is fairly difficult," she added, "and some nights are really frustrating, but the con- certs make it all worthwhile." None of the choir members get a penny for their time or travel and in addition they pay a fee to join the choir and also rent their suits or gowns, but no one was complaining. "You work all the time for one concert and in one evening it's done with, but it's still worth it," Mr. Middelkamp explained. "It's really satisfying to accomplish something worthwhile. It gets you away from other problems—a form of release." PREPARING' FOR A CONCERT—Members of the Blyth Festival Choir, under the direction of Laurie Rowbotham and accompanied by Arlene Darnborough on the piano, rehearsed last week for their upcoming concert March 4. — e • i