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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-06-15, Page 5vp Happy FFth ,r's Day Like a good neighbor. State Farm Is there R. W. (RICK) GIBBONS, Agent 25 Allred St. E., P.O. Box 720, Wingham. NOG 2W0 Bus. (519)357-3280 STATE SMSK. Ige$IJAANCE COW®GPllff$ Cmnodeon 14om0 OIIIco Scorborowgf. One The 1983 National Produc- tivity Awards, sponsored by Canadian Machinery and Metalworking magazine, were presented this May. Minister Ed Lumley pre- sented the top award for pro- ductivity to Fisher Gauge Ltd., a Peterborough pro- ducer of equipment for the manufacture of turbine blades for aircraft engines, which derives 90 per cent of its revenue from exports. Other awards went to Die - master Tool Inc., Quinnel International Ltd., Bradbury Co., TRW Canada Ltd., ITT Grinnell and Canadian General Electric. It's a hoot! 133 picture perfect playgrounds for you to discover. Ontario Provincial Parks Ministry of Natural Resources Alan Pape, Minister William Davis, Premier Ontario 704 • e For information, call toll free: 1-800-268-3735 Police f • m towns By Henry Hess The Wingham Town Council is continuing to study the pros and cons of scrapping its police committee in favor of an independent board of police commissioners, which would take over management of the town police departnient. Most members of council met last week in a special session with MPP Murray Elston to learn more about what police com- missions are and how they operate, and more such meetings are planned before a final decision is made sometime this year. So far there has been little open debate on the proposal, put forward earlier this year by Police Committee Chairman James A. Currie. However it appears from discussions that quite a few councillors are leery of handing over control of the police — especially the purse strings — to a body which, though it would be funded by taxes, would be completely independent of council. A survey of a number of area towns which have taken the plunge suggests their con- cern is not uncommon, but it would probably dissipate once a commission was formed and operating. In general, these towns report a good experience with their police commissions. Wingham is unusual, however, m ap- proaching the question without a history of disputes between council and police, or within council over the police. In most other cases, the forming of police commissions appears to have been a reaction to ongoing problems, rather than an attempt to head them off. One town which is a case in point is Mit- missions get g ich ave mad chell. It is in its first year with a police commission and so far, according to Mayor Harold Jordan, things are working well. It was not always that way. In fact, Mr. Jordan said, during his 11 years on council, six of them as mayor, he found :there was just one problem after another. wthere were problems on the force and councillors couldn't agree how to handle them. "There was always something" "Every time a (police) report was presefited, there was always something." Finally council just got fed up, he said. It took quite a while to get a majority in favor, but'finally last summer councillors voted to form a police commission. "Council didn't want to relinquish any powers they had, but finally thought they might as well. You'll lose that power, but its the best thing, maybe." He said that so far during its short existence the commission appears to have settled the problems. The police cannot run to sympathetic council members with their problems anymore; now they have to go to the commission chairman with any com- plaints. As for council, he said there are no questions at all anymore that it was the right move. "Some are just happy to get rid of it." "I wasn't 100 per cent for it at first, but Z. • 4l QUANTMES•L Nh# r+O:SIThinAneln AITT TIME OF SAM ATnfi1 mawrico AMM ONS. cairn rill rfet• ..":4:1 ..":%•••:•.•4 •:z.rs •vacsYT••.,..,• , • Jt??DY,'.YsaOff t?{''f'b krsiJG .... FOR OILY HAIR ONLY Shampoo or Conditioner ROLI/IR Ilathroom Frestamor 1S g SOLARCAINR RQLAIR rim Aid Spray ti►S9or R*PILL$ Medicated LotIQn 1S g 170 mt t" 1199 2" POUDINT Efronnuomt Denrtere clrtartsar 66 tabtstts CHLOR T*IFoLON Daeorwostara ExtraStraragirrt, C000.1011110KII sent*Fal 0, 014 Sa IIILASTOIPSASS H.r*dy Man aaetdage Rtt 40s 1179 Mh 111Yestltts. 1S's 329 1 *COrtIfkatIon and Trademarks of Drug Watling Company Linaltad,„ lbrontee Carmelite. tr11L�. id liti larasrr. Dioyt •Nell ShieoE6 ' a+ Siloam Vance's Pharmacy (Lee Vance Ltd.) WINGHAM 357-2170 A Now earns ■ _Continued from Page .1.. . to $42,050. TheP revious year's salary grid ranged from $15,460 to $40,050. The average elementary school teacher's salary is $36,419 with the average principal's salary at $44,819. There are about 360 element= ary school teachers in Huron County. Special allowances under the collective agreement also increased by five per cent. These allowances are paid over and above the salary grid. Principals receive an . al- lowance of $8,400, up from $8,000 in 1982; vice -princi- pals' allowance ranges from $3,360 to $4,095, up from a range of $3,200 to $3,900 in 1982; co-ordinators receive an allowance of $4,620, up from $4,400 last year and principals of trainable mentally retarded schools receive an allowance ,of $4,820, increased from $4,590 in 1982. Other allowances are as follows with previous year's allowance in brackets: Special education teach- ers, $105 ($100) for an ele- mentary certificate, $315 ($300) for an intermediate certificate, and $525 ($500) for a specialist's or super- visor's certificate; Resource teachers, $525 ($500) for an elementary certificate, $735 ($700) for an intermediate certificate, $945 ($900) for a specialist's or supervisor's certificate; Extra degree allowance (the same), $300 for a bachelor's degree and $800 for a mast- er's degree. The total cost of the col- lective agreement, including fringe benefits is $12,820,981, up from $12,226,360 in 1982, representing a 4.8 per cent overall increase. The housekeeping changes include establishing a com- mittee to review the staffing of elementary schools on an annual basis and having the staff improvement plan under the direction of the staff improvement plan committee. Man injured in accident A Ripley -area man was injured in a single -car ac- cident west of Wingham on the weekend. Provincial police report that Jack G. Meurs of RR 1, Ripley, was westbound ori Highway 86 near White- church when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel. His car crossed the roadway and struck a culvert, coming to rest in the south ditch. Mr. Meurs was taken to the Wingham and District Hospital by ambulance and later transferred to University Hospital, London, in satisfactory condition for treatment of a fractured ankle. Damage to the car, a 1978 Ford, was estimated at $5,000. The Wingham Advance -Times, June 15, 1983—Page 5 reviews tT;e chan "There are things it's wise to take away from the 'political arena" I'm quite happy now." Another community which made the switch at about the same time as Mitchell is Southampton. Mayor Art Knechtel was a bit reluctant to discuss the reasons for the switch, but said he has been happy with the commission so far. "If you read the papers and survey small municipalities in Ontario, Many small municipalities have had their problems with police," he said, and if there are problems he thinks a police commission is probably a good way to solve them. "Sometimes in small towns there are certain things I think it is wise to take away from the political arena." hl The change has taken some pressure off the council, and there has been no conflict between council and the commission, he said. There was some concern about giving up financial control over the police depart- ment, but council does have the right to appeal police budgets. "There is a safeguard. I don't know how good it is, because we haven't had to try it." The neighboring town of Port Elgin has had a police commission for many years, and Mayor Frank Cater said he wouldn't want to have it any other way. "It gets the running of the police depart- ment out of the hands of politicians," he explained. "I'm in favor of that, and I always have been." Himself a 30 -year veteran of the Metro Toronto police force, Mr. Cater has had the opportunity to see the potential for problems from both sides. A lot of councillors, at one time or another, have an to grind with the police, he said, and, particularly in smaller towns, petty grievances have a way of evolving into long- term problems. In Southampton, henoted, .it was the case of oneP articular officer who should have been promoted and wasn't. "These things arise because councillors are without the background and necessary guidance of the Ontario Police Com- mission." As for financial control, he said that council can make suggestions and can appeal any expenditure in the budget, but decisions are up to the commission. Another man with broad experience of police commissions, and one of their strongest advocates, is David Kilberg, a former mayor of Listowel who has been a member of the police commission there for 14 years, the past seven as chairman. He is so convinced that the advantages, of a polite cofinmission' outweigh afiji'disad- vantages that he would like to see them replace committees of council as police governing authorities all across Ontario. "My own feeling, without hesitation, is that the provincial solicitor general's office should actually make provision in the Police Act that all across Ontario there should be police commissions rather than committees of council "My feeling is that this is what they think should be done, but the politicians don't have the nerve to tell the smaller municipalities they have to go to com- missions. e "My feeling is this is a mistake." The one big advantage is that a com- mission i5 removed from the political arena, since its members, apart from the mayor, are appointed rather than elected, he said. Police business should have no political affiliation, he explained, but, particularly in small communities, this can be hard to achieve, since members of council are so close to their constituents. "With a committee in a small community, you can have members of council trying to tell the police whom to give a ticket. I'm not suggesting a commission is fool -proof, but it is less likely to happen. Commission members don't have to go to the polls." Another advantage is that appointment of police commissioners tends to bring more expertise and continuity to the ad- ministration of police departments, Mr. Kilberg said. You don't face wholesale changeovers every few years, as can happen with elected councils. As for concerns that, because it is not elected, 'a commission will feel less obligation to be thrifty with tax dollars, there are two sides to that coin. On the one hand, elected councillors have not always proven to be good watchdogs over spending, and commissioners can be just as careful. "We're citizens too sitting on the com- mission; we're not strangers. Itdoesn't mean just because we don't raise the tax dollars that we have no concern for the taxpayers. "You can have people who don't care sitting on council, and people who do care sittingon the commission." On the other hand, it is not always true that an overriding concern for saving dollars-isthe best thing fog the community, he added. "If there is a need for an extra policeman on the force, it will cost money, but this is not so bad. Protection of the public is the main concern." "Times are changing" We live today in a completely different world than a generation ago, he said, when one constable on foot patrol provided all the law enforcement a small town required. "Those times are gone; the economic ;timesare changing. People are out of work and there are more thefts and mischief," he commented. "I see police protection in the future being of much greater importance than it ever was in the past." "All in all, you can see I'm on one side," Mr. Kilberg concluded. "I firmly believe in (police commissions)." However he added that he expects it will take a number of years for councils in many small municipalities to adopt that point of view and lose their fear of giving up jurisdiction over their police forces. Next week: What a police commission is and how it operates. University....offers workshop on therapeutic uses of music Music is fun. We can all agree to that whether it is Bowie or Beethoven that sets our toes tapping. Now, research in the areas of education and health indicates that music has extremely practical uses as well, according to Dr. Arthur Harvey. "Carefully chosen music can help the retarded to learn, the gifted to think more creatively and the elderly to improve their motor coordination skills," notes the well-known American musicologist. Dr. Harvey will be coming to the University of Guelph's Summer Campus to give a workshop on the therapeutic uses of music, July 20-22. While the workshop is primarily intended for professionals, such as special education teachers, therapists, medical per- sonnel, recreational and social service workers and musicians, members of the general public also will find much of the information useful. Through media presen- tations, adaptive music activities, demonstrations and lectures, Dr. Harvey will help to develop an un- derstanding of how music can integrate the thinking and feeling process, be experienced at different levels of consciousness, develop creativity, facilitate communication and ex- pressions, influence physio- logical and psychological, processes and effect changes in distress, disorder and dis- ability. Summer Campus, which this year runs from July 11- 22, is a vacation program that combines learning and relaxation at the picturesque University of Guelph campus. Over 30 courses, which vary in length from a few days to a week are available. These include lifestyle fitness, calligraphy, beekeeping, Scottish history and the French and Spanish languages. Accommodation is available on campus. For complete information, contact Summer Campus '83, Continuing Education, Room 103, Johnston Hall, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, or call (519)824-4120, ex- tension 3956. COMMUNITY CALENDAR INSURANCE BROKERS LTD. Insurance - All types. Home, business, auto. fano. life. WINGHAM 357-2636 GORRIE 335-3525 Thurs., June 16 to Wed. June 22 Thurs. June 16 Hospital Annual Meeting, Nursing Assistants' School, 8 p.m. Fri. June 17 Fastball Tournament - Opens, Wingham Ball Park, 7 p.m. Dance - Year End, Wingham ltlonmen, Brussels Comm. Centre, 9 p.m. Appreciation Night for Cote Robertson, Retiring Organist, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Wingham, 6:30 p.m. Open House - Jack Reavie Vocational Cen- tre, 3 p.m. Sat. June 18 Dance - 10th Anniversary Brussels Op- timists, Brussels Comm. Centre, 9 - 1. Dance - Howick Comm. Centre, 9 - 1. 90th Birthday Party - Mrs. Vera Kerr, Wingham United Church, 2 - 5:30 p.m. 80th Birthday - Mn. Clarence Wade, 45 Alfred St., 2 - 5 p.m. 40th Wedding Anniversary - Mr. & Mrs. Ross Orris, Oil Springs Youth Centre, 8 p.m. Sun. June 19 Band Concert - Optimist Community Band, Hurondiff Trailer Park, 2 p.m. Mon. June 20 Tues. June 21 Strawberry Buffet, St. Paul's Anglican Church, Wingham, 5 - 7 p.m. . Wed. June 22 Senior Citizen's Tea, by Howidt Junior Women's Institute, Gorrie, 2 p.m. 0 r� f R. W. PIKE & ASSOCIATES LTD. 224 JOSEPHINE ST. WINGHAM 357-1225 "Accounting and management services for small businesses."