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The Huron Expositor, 1987-09-16, Page 1..• Hensall -- Al2 Walton — Al 2: Legion — A17 Council -- A5 Sports — A10, 'Ali • Births — A7 INDEX Serving the 'parrimilnities and areas of Seaforth, Brussels, Dublin,, Henson and Walton istion;omme •• Weddings — A7 Graduates — A7 People -- A7 Farm — A8 • . Dublin 7 A. Entertainment — A16 •• gr#0, hi16,4P • '•4 Fair Queen,contest Saturday. See page A4. aft. 0,11.) OSI HURON EXPOSITOR, WEDNO?4, SEPTEMBER 16, 1987 50 cents a. copy • TOOri. signs agreernent with Cheshire Inc. Should the results of an ernployrnent • survey of areas within a 30 minute drive of Seaforth, prove favorable, Cheshire Inc. of • St. Lotus, Missouri, willestablish a pant manufacturing company in Seaforth. In an agreement signed with Cheshire on Wednes- . day the town of Seaforth indicated it would" • undertake the survey. • Larry Portnoff, Vice -President of •Cheshire Inc., said his company is prepared to lease the Genesco property for a minimum of three years, and establish a • pant manufactury under. the name of Seaforth Manufacturing -Co., Inc., if the survey provides the names of approximate- •' ly 1,200 to 1;500 people, particularly women, • interested in working in the factory. He said • the lease of the Genesco building is about 90 per cent accomplished and is in the hands of the lawyers of both companies. ' The surveys are being sent out this week • to approximately 2-300 retail food and drug. stores within a 20 minute radius of Seaforth. • They will also appear in the form of an ad in 14 newspapers in the area. "If we get back what we should get back then we'll go ahead and send out postcards to people asking themlo come in for an in- terview and/or testing. The survey just gives us a better idea of where we're at. We're 99 per cent sure already, but we'd like to be 100 per cent sure," said Mr. Portnoff. Mr. Portnoff expects the interviewing and - testing process will take' approximately one week. The Town of Seaforth has agreed to provide 25 men and 25 women volunteers to ,assist in the process. They will do such things as help -with the paperwork and. oversee the sewing machines. The town will Ata, DOWN ON PAPER - Seaforth Mayor Alf Ross and businessman Larry Portnoff, of Cheshire Inc:, of St. Lpuis, Missouri, signed an agreement Wednesday regarding the possible establishment of a pant manufacturing factory in Seaforth. The agreement obliges the town of Seaforth to help Cheshire Inc. with some of the local details such as surveying the job market, but protects the interests of the town as well. The factory,. which'would locate in the former Genesco building, would provide a maximum of 120 jobs' and generate a payroll of approximately $1.5 million a year. Mcllwraith photo. . also provide a sufficient number of test record forms to record candidate's test results. Once the interviewing and testing is done, Seaforth raises $3,300 One of Canada's great heroes was last year's run when only 18 people remembered last week as the Seventh An- participated. • nual Terry Fox Run took place on Sunday, Recreation Director Marty Bedard said September 13. the weather did cooperate a lot better this The event was a big success this year M year than it did in past years and may have Seaforth drawing 85 people on Sunday to run added to the success of the run. He was im- in one of the three prescribed courses of six, pressed by the response to the ruh this year. 1 two or one kilometre distance, and another "Compared to last year there has been 394 people on' Monday when local elemen- overwhelming participation," he said. tary---sehools—pattioipated,--Thirty-five 1 Gwen-Pattersporalibranatrand-teacher---- students and one teacher' represented St. at the Seaforth Public School said she James' Separate School while 358 were. thought the run went really well. Seaforth Public School students. The , "It was great, a lot of fun, and it was a 1 schools covered a combined distance of beautiful day for it. I think it's something • 1,564 kilometres. the kids will•temember, and even the kids , But the rise in the number of participants • who didn't have pledge sheets ran, so the was not the only way the run was succesful student council will probably throw some I-- - this year. The number' of pledges was on the money in for them. So everyone was running rise as well and the run generated an for something and it all went towards the estimated total of $3,300 for cancer final total." research, with $2,900 being generated by the The public school will be receiving a pla- run on Sunday, and the rest • being made up que from the Seaforth Recreation Depart - by the school runs on Monday. This is a ment for having 100 per cent participation in phenomenal increase over the $500 made in the run, the next three to four months will be spent in the training of operators. Mr. Portnoff said approximately one new employee will be in- troduced to the plant every other day to a maximum of 120. The plant should be in full operation within 10 to 11 months of its initiation. " In order to help the company the Town of • Seaforth' will encourage the establishment of a local trust fund, which would be com-, pletely independent of the municipality. This trust fund would be established with the intent of raising $60,000 from the local business community to go into an escrow account as a loan for three years to be used for training workers. The trust fund would be established and held by an agent locally and the $60,000 loan will be guaranteed by a Montreal company. In the event the pant manufactory ceases operation, the $60,000 loan would then become due and payable within 30 days of closure. According to Mr. Portnoff it is normal operating procedure of industry to ask businesses in town to contribute to the star- ting' up of a new industry. In the States however, he said, the contributions are usually out of pocket, non -returnable. His company decided to make those contribu- tions returnable in the case of Seaforth. "This is our (Cheshire's) first step in On- tario. We've never done business here before and we thought something like this • would be better for the community," said Mr. Portnoff. "It was an idea that just came to me. I thought it was ideal. The returnable con- tributions serves the same purpose as the non -returnable contributions. They help out when the cash flow is the poorest. And if the profit is enough. we should be able to pay back the loan no problem," he said. And if in fact the pant 'manufactury does make Seaforth its home, it could mean great things for'the town's economy. "It's going to have an impact on the town," said Mr. Portnoff, adding the payroll will be in the neighborhood of $125,000 per month and $1.5 milliona year. "We also intend to use local suppliers and any employees who travel by,car, for exam- ple, will use gasoline," he said. "The retailers in town will have a payroll." • Mr Portnoff said the company also in- tends to suggest to its employees that they patronize those retailers who contributed to the trust company which made the Seaforth factory possible. A list of those contributors will be hung by the time clock. And why did Cheshire pick Seaforth as the plade it wanted to locate its first Ontario factory? Because of its rnayor. "To tell you the truth, it was because of your mayor," said Mr. Portnoff. "His wife and he were the first ones I talk- ed to and I got such a warm and open response I felt right at ease. I've met a lot of different mayors by he has been by far the easiest to deal With. He was the foremost . reason I came to Seaforth. Then, once I was here, he showed me what the Town of Seaforth had done for itself - the public facilities, the arena, the firehall...'! .Mr. Portnoff said he was also impressed by the openess of the business community as witnessed at the luncheon used to in- troduce the idea of the pant manufacturer coming to town. "We want to be given the opportunity to have a factory in a town where everyone gets involved," he said. Committee negotiates site ownership • problems relating to landfill, past or future, and to pay for all surveys and legal costs, in- cluding costs incurred by Lavis. tinder the agreement Lavis would no longer be the owner and operator of the site, but would coetinue to supply fill and cover material for the site at an agreed price. • Mr. McCabe said the agreement, which has not yet been approved by any of the councils involved, is still in the negotiation stage, so he' couldn't release details on ' potential costs to the municipalities. If an agreement is reached, as Mr. Mc- Cabe expects one to be within the next few months, costs may also be shared by the Town of Seaforth and Tuckerstnith Township, if they are accepted as users of the site under a separate agreement now under consideration, The Holmesville Landfill Site Committee is negotiating with current Owner George Lavis to obtain ownership of the landfill site, currently shared by six municipalities. Goderich Administrator and secretary of the eommittee, Larry McCabe and Public Works Commissioner Ken Hunter are negotiating with Levis on behalf of the com- mittee, which includes representatives of the towns of Goderich, Clinton and Seaforth, the townships of Goderich and Colborne and the village of Lueknotv, on a deal that would see ownership of the site transferred from Layis to the committee for a nominal • amount. ' A draft agreement has been circulated to the respective councils of the participating municipalities for consideration within the • next few Weeks. The proposed agreement calls for the group to be responsible for any Youth receives balloon response GOT A Fl8I?LY - Seven-year-old Karl Reynolds, Of Seaferth, received a fancy fet- ter in the Mail lett week. It came from a Guelph area *Allan who had found a balloon Karl had releated earlier in the Surrimet MeliWith 0610, Seven-year-old Karl Reynolds received an interesting letter in the mail last week: The letter was packaged in a calligraphy- embosed envelope and came from Arms, Ontario in response to a balloon message Karl released earlier this summer. • Wilma Cleghorn said she found the re - Mains of the balloon while cutting grass along the road. I'm sorry it didn't get as far as England or South America but I thought you would be pleased tO know how far it did go," she Wrote: Mrs. Cleghoril lives at ThiStle Ridge Farm which is located midway between the village of Ariss and the edge of Guelph. Karl was told the "farm" has holstein cattle and Clydesdale herses: Mrs, Clegliorri even enclosed a picture of the horses and foals, and a picture of the barn and Cattle which is often used in magazine ads. In closing she Wished Karl an enjoyable year at schO01. BUSY VOLUNTEER - The Liberal Cam- paign headquarter in Clinton was a busy place on SepteMber 10. Some volunteers manned the phones, while others, like Clarence Denornine df Clinton, were On hand to transfer the information given to the phone operators onto a master chart. Narejko photo. , POPULAR CANDIDATE Jack Riddell was re-elected as the Huron riding represen- tative during the latest provincial election. Mr. Riddell thanked all 01 his volunteers and family for their support during the campaign, adding it was them who helped him win. Standing by hitside as he gave his acceptance speech at the Goderich -township Hall irt Hohnesville Thursday night was his wife Anita, Narejko photo. Li eral win no real surprise HOLMESVILLE - Those who follow politics must have found the recent pro.: 'finical election quite *interesting as leaders resigned and the opposition party has changed. Leader of the opposition, Larry Grossman, lost the election in his own riding and quickly made the decision to resign as the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party leader. New Democrat Party (NDP) leader Bob Rae had a few anxious moments dur- ing the September 10 election as he came close to losing his own seat. However, the • outcome for Rae was a bit brighter than for Grossman as the NDP became the of- ficial opposition party. As for David Peterson and his Liberal party, they won a landslide majority government. Residents of Huron County, including Seaforth, were not surprised by the result of Thursday's provincial election. No matter how they voted, most Seaforth residents said they were convinced that even if the Liberal party had net cleaned up at the pro- vincial level, its candidatein Huron County would have done go at the local level. Most concurred that Jack Riddell is a popular man, and even more so since becoming agriculture minister two years ago. A farmer and former high selloot teacher, Mr. Riddell was firstelected to represent Huron -Middlesex 14 years ago .after the retirement of Charles MacNaighton, the .• prominent Tory and cabinet minister who held the riding for 15 years. tri the 1985 election, Mr. Riddell polled 13,820 votes compared to 7,381 for Conser- vative Bryan Smith and 1,148 for Klopp, in his first CarripSigh. In his worst showing,, ' Mr. Riddell won over Tory Jim Britnell by just 2,000 votes in 1981. In this summer's campaign - the first after Huron was created in a provincial riding•redistributiOn- Mr. Riddell ran on his record as agricliltUre Minister. Mr. Riddell finished 6,189 Votes ahead of his opponents with 16.1359 votes. Conga -- votive Nice Peters got 6,725 votes and N1315er Paul Klopp, 3,842. "/ guess people have been pleased with the job I've done in the past," said Mr. Rid- dell about his victory. Mr. Peters, however, credited the Liberal victory to a "WAWA" over the effeett Of free trade With the lf.S., especially by peo, pie in the Earth seater. "It bailers me that people have succtutib- ed to it," he said, adding the Liberal party didn't prdinite anything during the can- paign anci.hat rib commitments to live up to. Mr. Klopp was obviously pleased about the increate in NOP votes and credited it to' a backlash against the Cotiservatitree sup, pert of free trade and to hit party's. faith "We talked about the issues which Was iinportant," he said. Once the majority' of polls hal phdried in 1 their resultsto the Liberal campaign head - gnat -tett' irt Clinton, Riddell journeyed to HOlinetville where a crowd of Liberal Sup- porters were waiting to applaud the eke - don outcome and congratulate their toe- didate.: During his speech, Riddell said he wat, "Proud to be a part of the Peterson party and proud to represent the new riding of Hirai in the Le.gislattite." He also went on ft* say he *add gitre all the cefittifuents in the tidbit "no matter what their 'color Stripe," good reptetentatiolt. Bilt Riddell did not take al the credit for the win, instead he thanked a long list of volunteer's for their hard work and dedication. "They're the maser' why Pm standing before you," he said from the stage. • "'the candidate is Only as good. as the teant behind him or het," Riddell explain- ed. "Arid they had to Work extra hard because of the time del/landed on me by cabinet." Before dieting, Riddell mentioned the PC and NDP 'candidates, saying, "1 Was glad to have worthy opponents in liieo Peters and Pool Klopp - thanks for the challenge" Both Peters And Klopp went to Holmetville to dericede the election. For more election coverage, please turn to Page 3.