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Penetanguishene's new three million dollar, 28 store mall is expected to attract shoppers within a 20 mile radius when it opens if} doors to the public in November 1975 ac{eording to mall spokesman Ken Crawford. Work on converting the Poyntz Plaza into the High Point Mall is scheduled to begin in early March and the builders are currently stepping up promotional activities. A week ago a mailing campaign designed to attract businesses to locate in the mall was started by Crawford. To date 19 brochures have been sent to prospective clients outlining the plans and the advantages of the mall for merchants and shoppers. And within two to three weeks the builders plan to hold a meeting with merchants and _ interested citizens in Ted Light's old store at the Poyntz Plaza to outline the mall setup. As explained to the Citizen, on Monday, the mall will contain 26 stores situated between two large anchor stores, the IGA food store and a yet to be selected department store. The Ontario Liquor Control Board outlet will remain in its existing location. The 30 foot wide mall area extending in a north-south direction between the two anchor stores will be lined on either side by 13 smaller stores, shoe stores, a hardware store, a women's and a men's clothing store, a barber shop, a beauty salon, etc. Trees, other plants, and benches will be spotted at intervals along the mall which also may be used to house smaller boutiques. Natural light from 10 medium sized sky domes and two large 16 foot domes at either end will help illuminate the mall area. Given the parking problems of downtown Midland and Penetanguishene, the builders expect their 450 paved parking spaces and possibly more, to be a major attraction to shoppers. At this stage of development the main concern of the builders is acquiring oc- cupants. To date only IGA and the Liquor Control Board outlet are definitely in the mall. Builder Jack Anthony said '"'we're looking for a good licensed restaurant and a department store.' The IGA food store provides one anchor but another in the form , of a department store is needed to encourage other stores to locate in the mall according to Anthony. "I hope to have a department store by the end of the next month"' he said. The building partners, Anthony and Breda, both expect that the mall will open in November with between 10 to 14 stores. The other stores will come later they say. When all 28 stores are operating the mall is ex- pected to provide roughly 200 jobs. Both builders stressed that the mall will be good for all businesses in Penetanguishene. "Competition should not bother anybody" Anthony said adding that it will mean "'better business for everybody." Braden indicated that the mall idea whereby a shopper comes to purchase one item at a single store and is exposed to a host of other products from surrounding stores will work on a larger scale for merchants outside the mall. By attracting more people to do their shopping in Penetanguishene instead of Barrie or the Huronia Mall and the Zellers- Dominion shopping centre on Highway 27, the builders claimed all the merchants in Penetanguishene would benefit. Rents will be negotiable depending on the Builders start promoting $3m. mall type of store and the nature of a store's ad- vertising according to Braden. National chain stores like Radio Shack or Coles Books would get a cheaper rate, Braden said, because parent stores would be advertising their products. Similar stores owned by private merchants would pay a higher rent because they would not have the same ad- vertising or drawing power as the national chain stores. Although the rents will be higher than those at the existing Poyntz Plaza Braden said they will be reasonable and open to negotiation in all cases. ' For information about the mall, merchants may call Ken Crawford at 435-5634. Builders of the High Point Mall at the site of the Poyntz Plaza expect con- struction on the 28 store mall to begin in March and to be completed by HIGH POINT MALL November 1975. A mall spokesman visited Penetanguishene on Monday and said he will try to set up a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce next PENETANGUISHENE ONTARIO week to illustrate the attractions of the three million dollar project. V.KVEDARAS ARCHITECT Emphasis on frills hurts the Three R's :trustee. by Sue de Stein The primary disciplines in all schools are suffering in favour of secondary disciplines according to Simcoe County Board of Education trustee Dr. Allen Fisher of Barrie. Too much classroom time is being spent on other activities by the students outside the classroom, he told the board last Wednesday. Fisher felt that as a result, the level of Here's looking at Aon ! knowledge in the basic skills is declining. In its report on basic skill testing, the administrative council of the board noted that in Simeoe County, as elsewhere, "the median level of achievement in the basic skills does not reach the level determined ten years ago for these tests," although it said that some individual schools and many in- dividual students show excellent scores. With all the publicity area hockey teams like the Penetanguishene Garrisons and the Silver Stick Champion Midget Allstars, are getting, the members of the Penetanguishene Figure Skating Club have to bend over back- Last fall, the school board administered a Canadian test for the basic skills to grade 7 pupils throughout the public school system. The tests are to be considered "a tool in determining strengths and weaknesses in the basic skills, so that teaching procedures could be made more effective as required in particular subject areas." The decline in basic skills levels is a trend wards to attract attention. And that's what they did during a Saturday practice at the Penetanguishene Arena. The club plans to put on an ice show this year. Staff photo The pieces for Winterama 1975 are slowly but surely coming together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Hidden within a Peel Street garage last weekend, four people were busy putting together one of the countless floats for the Win- terama Main Street parade, and up on Robert Street East, another group is refinishing the interior of the old Dominion Store beside the town office. The people working in the Peel Street 'garage: Angela North, Paul Rollinson, { Sid Bergersen, and Terry Dupuis are making a float for the Curling Club. Naturally it's a giant paper mache rock designed to fit over a Volkswagen. In the old Dominion Store, hidden behind newspaper covered windows, putting up display booths, and building a refreshment area at the back. The Dominion Store will house a craft show featuring lifestyle demonstrations of what it was like to quilt, spin, and make pottery 100 years ago. Before listing a number of winterama announcements from the publicity committee here is a poem by Jim workers are repainting the interior, Countdown to Winterama 1975 (February 21-22) Bacque, a Toronto writer who periodically stays in the Penetanguishene area. Bacque has published two books: The Big Lonely and The Man of Talent, in addition to a number of poems. A member of the Winterama com- mittee asked him to write a poem for the festival. This is the result. The poem is on the toboggan races and was written before organizers finally selected the Yeo Street area for the location of the event. 'The Winterama Poem' On Owen or Fox or Admiral Yeo We're going to have a tobogganing Slide Half a mile long and thirty feet wide. We'll slither down Owen or Fox Street or Yeo - , (When we printed the program we still didn't know). : Pull out that old wooden childhood racer Slick it with ski wax Paint on an emblem Tie on your goggles And we'll go out sliding and fall in the snow On Owen or Fox Street or maybe Yeo. If we can't go on Owen And Fox is all rocks We'll shovel the snow On Admiral Yeo. Half a mile long and half a mile wide We'll make him our admirable tYeobogganing slide. Announcements: There will not be an entry fee in this year's float parade. Entries are still being sought for the parade. Interested people should call Tim Robitaille at 549- 2271 after 5 p.m. The Winterama committee is looking for a folk group to sing at a coffee house to be held at the All-Saints Church. Interested groups should call 549-8167. Dog sled races will be run this year afterall. Originally they were cancelled because the committee thought they would be too costly but now competitors have offered to run their teams free of charge. The Kinsmen Club is co-ordinating the Queen Contest. Enough sponsors have come forward, but six more girls are needed. Girls should call Dave Babcock at 549-2953 or Gary Lauring at 549-8137 for entry forms. z mae AP an Eg BOGS everywhere, according to director of education Jack Ramsay. But he added "'it is possible by taking the proper steps to reverse that trend without the danger of 'being reactionary." The test "may be a good indicator but it's not the only indicator," noted Midland trustee John McCullough. Although there may be a decline in the level of basic skills, "that doesn't mean every thing has suf- fered," he added. The board should not get 'arried away with one aspect of the testing, Jut should look at all aspects of the education system, he said. Ramsay felt the board would do well to establish a board position, to reassure the teachers that the development of basic skills. is a major goal. The board passed the recommendation of the administrative council establishing as a major goal of the board the acquisition of the basic skills of reading, language and numbers to the fullest extent possible. There have been many changes in methods of teaching at both the elementary and the secondary school levels in the past decade. McCullough felt the board should strive towards combining "'the best of both systems - a blend of things old and new." Bell charges more for help Beginning Sunday, February 9, 1975, a charge of 25 cents will be made for each unnecessary call to Directory Assistance, Jack Luke, Bell Canada Manager, reminded customers in this area. Luke noted that in addition to Penetanguishene the charge is being in- troduced in Elmvale, Midland, Stayner and other exchanges throughout the Georgian Bay area. "However", said Luke, "there is no need for any customer to ever incur Directory Assistance charges. Charges will be made only when a customer is provided with a number that is already listed in the telephone book. In addition, there will be no charge for the first three chargeable calls a month from residence services. "All calls from business telephones will be subject to the charge, when the requested number is listed in the customer's direc- tory". Special care has been taken to ensure that, upon application, persons whose disability prevents use of a directory and those 65 years of age and over, will be exempt from charges. Most organizations which assist the disabled and the elderly have a supply of exemption application forms for their members. The forms also may be obtained from any Bell Canada business office. "Any customer, who can't use a directory because of a disability, and those 65 and over, need only give us a call and we will mail the exemption form to them. Or, if a customer prefers to drop into our business office we can complete the form then and there," Luke said. Other calls to Directory Assistance to be exempt from charges include those placed from pay phones, from hospital, hotel or motel rooms and emergency calls. There is also no charge for long distance directory assistance service. Introduction of the charge was requested by Bell Canada in light of the increasing volume of unnecessary calls to Directory Assistance. Of the close to 700,000 calls placed each day, throughout Ontario and Quebec, more than 70 per cent are for numbers already listed in the telephone book. Studies also show that 10 per cent of all customers place more than 50 per cent of the unnecessary calls. Vol. 8, No. 5 Wednesday, January 29, 1975 With 8 Pages Colour Comics Penetanguishene citizen 36 pages Wet snow snaps wires, parts of town lose power High winds, wet, heavy snow and ice, combined forces to knock power out of parts of Penetanguishene on Saturday night, but this time it wasn't due to breaks in the old Ontario Hydro town feeder line. The blackouts occurred in isolated areas because of breaks in the town owned lines. Ernie Lalonde the secretary-treasurer of the Penetanguishene Water and Light Com- mission blamed all the breaks on the unruly weather which caused three main switches to blow. A crew of men worked from 9 to 11:45 p.m. to restore power to the blacked out areas. Most of Church Street, parts of Fox, Main, Water, Robert Street West, Scott and Poyntz Streets were blacked out at one time or another. Parts of Main - Street suffered two blackouts but that didn't stop the Com- modore Hotel front carrying out it's business. The waiters were unable to serve draft beer because the machines wouldn't pour with the power off. Customers were kept satisfied with the bottled beer as they sat around tables lit by candle light. Dark streets may have contributed to at least one accident. A 36-year-old Penetanguishene man was struck by a car in front of Pike's Cleaners'on Main Street at 8:40 p.m. during a blackout period. Vern Mayer walked into the path of a car as he tried to cross Main Street. He was taken to the Penetanguishene General Hospital by ambulance where he was treated for bruises Attendants carry 36-year-old Vern Mayer to awaiting ambulance shortly after he was struck by a car, Saturday, on Main Street. Eat Main Street and released. No charges were laid against either Mayer or the driver, Leon Saulnier of Penetanguishene. Dancing teens The first teen dance at the Penetanguishene Arena lounge on Friday from 8:45 to 11:30 attracted 120, 12-17-year-old youths. accident Minutes before Mayer left the Commodore Hotel. He was treated for bruises at the Penetanguishene General Hospital. Humane Society truck destroyed An accident on Highway 27 just south of Highway 12 last Thursday morning has sent the Ontario Humane Society's Midland area animal warden to Penetanguishene General Hospital and totally wrecked the $4,000 van he was driving. Ontario Provincial Police report that the Animal Welfare truck was northbound on Highway 27 and had pulled out to pass another vehicle. Just as it pulled out, the other vehicle pulled out to pass the vehicle in front of it and the Humane Society driver swerved to avoid a collision. As a result, he went into the ditch, and the truck rolled over four times after hitting a hydro pole. Bill Burns, 26, of Perkinsfield who has been with the Humane Society here for about a year, was taken to Penetanguishene General Hospital and admitted. He com- plained of both back and chest pains and suffered cuts and bruises in additional 'o a minor concussion. Clifton Nurse, 20, of Terra Cotta, Ontario, has been charbed with improper passing. dOUM BEAULIEU HI WORM .. . | SEE YOU'RE STILL JUST INCHING ALONG. Citizen contents Brownies meet the Mayor 2 Good planning is good business 4 Sports 11-13 eS es Classifieds 16-18 NOW I'M MILLIMETERING ALONG ! Entertainment 19 Our Winter Fun Supplement cexcaat