Zurich Citizens News, 1977-01-05, Page 1NO. 1 -FIRST WITH THE LOCAL NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1977
20e PER COPY
Huron county Board of Education
ChairmanTurkheim unopp
Herb Turkheim has been
chosen as Chairman of the
Huron County Board of Educa-
tion for a second term. Mr.
Turkheim was unopposed at
the inauguaral meeting Mon-
day.
At the meeting Mr. Turkheim
said the board weathered one
of its toughest years in 1976
due to new grant regulations
and pre -arranged salary con-
tracts, but he feels prospects for
the coming year are improved.
"We termed 1976 as a 'year
of restraint', but we managed to
get through the year -thanks to
a conscientious budget commit-
tee with the assistance of the
administration and the people
in our schools."
Mr. Turkheim added that
grant regulations for 1977 have
not been studied closely yet,
but since there will not be any
large jumps in teachers salaries
he hopes the budget can stay
at $18 million.
Last year the teachers were
given almost 30 percent pay
increases to allow them to
catch up with other boards.
Recent announcements from
the education minFstry which
will lead to a tightening of
curriculum in the province, will
improve education in Huron
County according to Mr. Turk-
heim.
"Mr. Wells, (Minister of
Education) is not in full-scale
retreat from education reform,
he is simply recognizing that
the experiment in totally per-
missive education did not work.
There has been no suggestion
of a return to former iron-
bound, unimaginative teaching
and grinding province -wide
exams."
Mr. Turkheim added the
ministry is not only interested
in restoring a core of required
subjects, but is looking for
ways to improve measurement
and testing of student achieve-
ment and it's reporting to
parents as well.
The Huron County Board has
been criticized for not .pro-
viding enough assistance for
children with learning prob-
lems. Mr. Turkheim says the
board has possibly fallen behind
slightly in this regard, but says
financial restraints have cer-
tainly hampered the overall
programs during the past year.
He added "possibly this year
we can allow for an expansion
in our budget for special ed-
ucation.
Mr. Turkheim also emphasiz-
ed unity on the board.
"As a public body we are
responsible to all the rate-
payers throughout Huron Coun-
ty, and individually to the rate-
paers in the area we repres-
ent. But one thing we must keep
in mind at all times is that
we are a County board and we
cannot allow personal wishes
for our own area to come ahead
of what is good for the over-
all education system in Huron.
The big tasks facing the
board this year will be spending
$217,000 on renovations to the
Exeter public school approved
by the province last year, and
the opening of a new school
in the old public school build-
ing in Vanastra.
Marian Zinn, an eight-year
trustee, was picked as board
AFTER TWENTY YEARS OF BUS DRIVING -William Watson, right, of R.R. 3, Zurich, hands the
keys to his bus over to Glenn Thiel as he has made his last run as a bus driver for the Zurich Public
School. Mr. Watson was the first bus driver the public school ever had and at the time he had to
supply his own bus. Photo by McKinley
Twenty years as driver
William Watson drove a bus
bringing rural children to the
Zurich public school for 20 years
and never had any problems
with any of them. Now he has
driven the route for the last
time:
When Mr. Watson began
the bus route in 1957, he owned
the bus himself as well as
driving it. It wasn't until 1967
Murphy Bus lines took over the
route and it was then Mr. Wat-
son began driving for them.
"I always liked kids," says
Mr. Watson. "I got along good
with them, even let them sing
as long as they didn't get mad."
Mr. Watson does admit there
was the odd time the kids did
get mad at each other, but he
sayd it didn't ,happen too often.
When it did he straightened
them out right then and there.
In his 20 years of bus driv-
ing, Mr. Watson says he has
seen some pretty bad driving
conditions, but he has never
had an accident, not even a
scratch on any of the buses he
owned or drove for the Murphy
Bus Lines.
"You know," says Mr. Wat-
son, "When I told the kids I
wouldn't be driving them any-
more they couldn't believe it.
Some of them were really up-
set. It kind of made me feel
pretty good to think they'd
all miss me."
Mr. Watson was the bus
driver for the first rural route
started to deliver kids to the
village school and in recognition
of his fine driving record and
length of service to the public
school, the students and
teachers presented Mr. Watson
with a plaque.
Glenn Thiel has taken over
Mr. Watson's bus route.
Christmas -burnin
The Christmas tree burning
and wiener roast will be held
at the ball diamond on Friday,
night, January 7, (weather
permitting) at 9:00. Everyone is
welcome. Please bring your
hotdogs, Christmas tree and
coffee and come out and join
the fun.
vice-chairman over John Elliott
who is serving his second term
as representative of the Blyth
area.
E.C. Hill of Goderich was
acclaimed chairman of the edu-
cation committee, John Hender-
son is vice-chairman.
J.P. Alexander was unop-
sed
posed as chairman of the man-
agement committee and Alec
Corrigan is vice-chairman.
Clarence McDonald was
named to the chairman's ad-
visory committee, the board's
executive 'committee made up
of committee chairmen and a
member -at -large.
Whiteout causes
six vehicle crash
Six vehicles were involved in
one of the four accidents in-
vestigated by the Exeter OPP
this week.
The crash occurred just south
of Kippen during a "whiteout " on
Friday. Involved were vehicles
driven by Hubert Eiselmeier,
London; Gary Browne,
Burlington, Richard Hughes, St.
Marys; Stillman Harrington,
Wingham; Marianne McCaffrey,
Exeter; and Alan Palmer,
Sarnia.
Constable Al Quinn in-
vestigated and listed total
damage at $4,250. There were no
injuries.
Also on Friday vehicles driven
by Larry Ratz, RR 2 Crediton,
and Allan Bailey, Huron Park,
collided on Stephen Township
concession 10-11. Bailey was
injured in the collision.
Damage was estimated at
$4,500 by Constable Bill Lewis.
There was one accident on
Saturday involving three
vehicles, two of which were snow
vehicles driven by Roy Ferguson
and Leva Marie Ferguson,
William St., Exeter. One of ,the
machines struck an unattended
parked vehicle on Highway 83
east of Exeter and the two snow
vehicles then collided with each
other. There were no injuries and
damage was estimated at $340 by
constable Lewis.
The other accident occurred on
Wednesday on Highway 4 north of
Hensall. Involved were Richard
Keavin, Kirkland, and John
O'Hagan, Wingham. Damage
was set at $2,000 by Constable Bill
McIntyre.
During the week, the OPP
report three Liquor Licence Act
violations, two wilful damage
complaints, one impaired driver,
one stolen vehicle recovered, two
reports of abandoned vehicles,
two suspicious vehicles, one
firearms registration.
OPP Sgt. Ray Glover reported
that during Friday's snow storm,
there were numerous phone
requests to the OPP for the road
and weather conditions.
The police have asked that all
calls of this nature should be
made to the Ministry of Tran-
sportation and Communications.
The police explain that they do
not have complete road in-
formation and also that the calls
tie up their telephone lines and
they are then not available for
police and emergency calls.
The numbers to call for road
information in this area are:
London 681-2047, Stratford 271-
3550, Chatham 354-7504, Owen
Sound 376-7350.
IV tinily
fund is growin
COMMUNITY CENTRE CONTRIBUTIONS,
Glen Hayter
John Denomme
Leandre Bedard
John M. Laporte
Anonymous
Steve Durand
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
Louis Masse
Louis Ayotte
Anonymous
Anonymous
Ted Geoffrey
Mrs. Lydia Regier
Bill DeGroot
David Taylor
Jack Schwartz
Anonymous
Mervyn Fields
Cecil Fields
John Jacobs
Anonymous
Glen and Elaine Weido
Catherine Weido
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Love
Jack Coleman
Jim Consitt
TOTAL TO DATE
10.00
20.00
4.00
10.00
4.00
5.00
5.00
10.00
5.00
5.00
5.00
20.00
20.00
5.00
5.00
3.00
10.00
5.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
10.00
20.00
50.00
5.00
20.00
25.00
25.00
$33,913.00
i