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eee yer. PF TOSI P VP Ce Vee ew eee Newsmakers by Terri Howell Take yourself back in time many, many decades to the year 1837. It's Christmas and you are the child of J. Keating, the Fort Adjutant at the Military and Naval Establishment in Penetanguishene. You wake up on Christmas morning to the sound of a crackling fire. What do you expect to see when you enter the main living area with your four siblings and how do you think you will be spending Christmas? If you guessed that stockings would be hanging on the fireplace, stuffed with goodies, and a Christmas tree would be in the corner, decorated with lit candles and hand- made trinkets, and if you guessed that presents from Santa Claus would be under the tree, you are dead wrong. This weekend you have the chance to ex- perience Christmas as one of John Keating's children did, or as the soldiers and officers at the Establishment would have. Here is a sneak preview of what you will learn. As one of Keating's kids, you probably would have found Christmas very much like a normal day. You wouldn't have hung up a stocking, because the tradition was not known in Upper Canada yet. You wouldn't have had a Christmas tree because you still have to wait for the German settlers to bring the idea to your new country. And, if someone asked if you knew Santa Claus, you would probably have shrugged your shoulders and sent them off to the officer's quarters to inquire if Mr. Claus was over there. Simple presents If you were lucky, when you entered the main living area on Christmas morning, you may have been presented with an orange or a pair of mittens that your mother knit, as a Christmas present. If you were really lucky, there may have been a new wooden toy for you, made by one-of the men at the garrison. However, giving and receiving gifts was not a common tradition. Much of Christmas day probably would have been spent in church. As the son or daughter of Keating, you would have climbed into a sleigh and rode to St. James-on-the- Lines to listen to Reverend Hallen give his Christmas message. It is even possible that you would have made two trips to church, on that special day. Your father, probably, would have spent part of the day visiting friends. People believed that the first man to enter the house brought good luck for the coming year. cont'd p. 8 ee Nee a NN a RON NR News briefs Inquest into Barrie crash begins The inquest into the September 7 crash at Barrie, of a twin-engine executive aircraft, owned and operated by Falconbridge Nickel Corporation, began on Wednesday. The most important result of the first day's proceedings was evidence introduced by a solicitor representing Falconbridge designed to place the blame for the accident on CK- VR--it was ruled by presiding coroner Dr. J. Hicks as "'irrelevant." William Somerville, the Falconbridge lawyer, attempted to introduce evidence that would show that the tower into which the aircraft crashed was illegally positioned. Dr. Hicks ruled the evidence as irrelevant in the light of testimony given by CKVR manager Jack Mattenley which showed that the tower and its location were approved in 1972 by the Department of Transport and subsequently by the CRTC in 1973 Somerville also tried to show that the tower was equipped with insufficient lighting, only to have Hicks again, rule that the evidence was irrelevant, on the grounds that the ac- cident occurred during daylight hours. Other testimony showed the tower's position to be marked on Visual Flight Rating charts, the charts used by the Falconbridge pilot, but not to be clearly indicated. The inquest also learned from a friend of the pilot, that the Falconbridge employee had flown past the tower on numerous oc- casions before the accident. Ringette requests assistance The Penetanguishene Ringette League is looking for help in organizing the league for 1978. Ron Marchildon, Penetanguishene recreation director, said last year's league was poorly organized and as a result, much of the equipment was lost. He's looking to correct that situation by forming an executive for this winter's shortened season. The meeting will take place in the arena lounge, Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Penetanguishene contest Is a national affair This week's $50. winner is Elizabeth Gagnon of Squamish B.C. While visiting her parents in Penetanguishene, she entered a ballot for the lucky draw at Urb's Home Furnishings. Pictured here is her sister Paulette Robitaille (left) accepting the $50. prize from Mrs. Yvonne Moreau on her behalf. = Penetangquishene na arena floor fund All signs still point to December 26 as the official opening day of the revamped Penetanguishene arena. Arena employees are hoping to be able to fire up the ice plant on Monday and possibly have ice by Friday for practice. Spectators at the first home game of the Jr. C. Kings will not be able to see the new concrete floor under the ice, but they will notice other im- provements at the arena. The battle-worn boards have been covered with a bright, white plastic and plexiglass now winds its way around the entire circumference of the rink, save for the penalty box and players' benches. And the arena will be a much brighter place on opening day thanks to a coat of white paint covering the walls. 2a ae eer me Distributed free each Friday to every Midland and Penetanguishene househo | 20c on newsstands Bo a ENE NON NER TNE NN NN I LE ABT a a AT IE I I NN IA TNS NO Citizen Vol. 1, No. 33, Friday, December 16, 1977 Grew prepares for new boat line Grew Boat Co. has laid off 36 workers until January while the plant is converted to handle the manufacturing of Chris Craft boats. The men were notified Tuesday that they'd be off for three weeks at Christmas instead of the one week holiday they're entitled to. They'll only be paid for the one week statutory holiday. The 20 workers remaining on the payroll will be busy tearing out walls and installing facilities to handle'the construction of 25 and 28 foot Chris Craft boats. Grew Vice-President Peter Francis said the 36 men, off work as of today, will be joined by at least 50 new employees in January when they return to work. Plans are to add two more models to production in the summer, at which time the staff will again increase. "We're not going into the Chris Craft line expecting it to be a small thing," said Francis, "we want it to be a big thing."' Grew has been negotiating with the federal government for the rights to manufacture and distribute Chris Craft since February. Under the agreement, Grew will manufac- ture some boats in Penetanguishene while imports from the United States will satisfy the rest of the Canadian demand. Grew received a preferred tariff rate and will be the only distributor in Canada. Work over the holidays will consist of turning one of Grew's warehouses into a manufacturing building. It's estimated the initial output of the plant will be six boats per week, P Two Prototype Chris Crafts are being assembled in Penetanguishene and a few changes are planned from their United States counterparts. Although only cosmetic changes are being made now, Grew has the authority to adapt the boats in any way. "We took input from a lot of our dealers,"' Garrison spokesman says RCMP investigation Is over Garrison Aviation, the operators of Huronia Airport, have been under in- vestigation by the customs and excise branch of the RCMP in Toronto. According to Peter Crampton, president of Garrison Aviation, the investigation has been over for '"'weeks now"' and there have been no charges laid. However, according to RCMP Sergeant O'Robko "'it is not completely resolved." . The fact that Garrison is under in- vestigation, came to light in early October when Tiny Township asked to see Garrison's files. According to Tiny Clerk, Guy Maurice, this is a standard procedure since Tiny contributes toward the operation of the Huronia Airport Commission. At that time, Garrison told Tiny Township that they didn't have their files because they were in the hands of the RCMP. Maurice says the RCMP. confirmed this and sent the township a letter on December 1, telling them they could have photocopies of the files if they wanted them. Crampton says he doesn't know why the media are jumping on the situation now. He . explains that the investigation has been over for a month, and all the files have been returned. ' : Crampton says the investigation started because the RCMP thought Garrison was avoiding paying import tax on some planes they were importing from the United States. Crampton says that they were commercial planes, so there is no tax on them. However, The demolition of the Hog Bay railway trestle got off to a poor start Wednesday morning, as a bulldozer clearing an access route to the bridge toppled over as it moved Victoria Harbour counci by Dave Wilson Once again, a storm of controversy has centered over Victoria Harbour council. Councillor Ann Connely has charged that correspondence directed to council has been withheld from council members. Her charges are in specific reference to a letter dated November 7 and addressed to the Reeve and Council of Victoria Harbour in- forming them that a writ would be served concerning the case of Arthur Gies, a Vic- toria Harbour ratepayer. Gies is claiming that the municipality has not fulfilled what he and his solicitors consider to be its obligations to provide year round water service to a property he owns. The letter was written by Mr. J.J. Graham, a Toronto lawyer representing Gies. Connely said she suspects that the letter was purposely withheld from council. Nor- mally, she explained, all correspondence addressed to council is read aloud before the assembled body. No mention of the letter was Garrison is not a commercial airline, so the RCMP felt at the time they seized the files, that Garrison should have paid a 30 per cent import tax. Misunderstanding Crampton says there was a _ misun- derstanding that is "confusing to explain." He says the airplanes were being brought in by Garrison to send to MacKenzie Delta airlines--a commercial operation in the Northwest territories. He claims that the planes were only registered to Garrison for a short period of time, then the registrations were turned over to MacKenzie Delta. Crampton called the transaction between Garrison and Delta "maintenance business."' The RCMP are being very secretive about the situation. At first O'Robko said '"'in all fairness to the people we are investigating, I don't think the story should be published." However, when it was explained to him that Crampton had explained the entire situation, the RCMP said he didn't want to make any comment until the investigation was com- pletely finished. Tiny wants The Hog Bay trestle is definitely not the only piece of local architecture worth preserving, at least according to Carol Dozing dozer across muddy ground. The bulldozer belongs to Shellswell and Simcoe Paving, a sub- contractor hired by Xanadu Farms, who now owns the bridge. The bulldozer's driver was made at the three council meetings which followed the date of the letter's writing, she said. "As far as I'm concerned,"' she said, "it was covered up from council."' - Although she admitted to not possessing any evidence to support her suspicions, she said that since no one on council knew of the letter, or of its , she '"'pr the Reeve was covering it up." The only way she became aware of the letter, she said, was through a copy possessed by Gies himself, a personal friend. Notin minutes | A check of the minutes from the three council meetings held subsequent to November 7 confirmed that the question of the letter had not been brought before council. Similarly, interviews of all four Harbour councillors indicated that they were not aware of the letter, or its contents. However, Victoria Harbour Reeve Theo Bernard explicitly denied any allegations that the letter was purposely withheld from ~, said Grew official Vernon Fish, "'and are changing them to fit the Canadian boater."" The changes include a stronger bow railing and different instrument panel. Although a few workers were annoyed at the timing of the temporary shutdown, as one worker explained "it can't be helped."" And the increased business may help stabilize a firm that has suffered numerous layoffs in the past. New Grew Vice-president Peter Francis assists a Grew worker in one of the changes the Penetanguishene plant is making to the Chris Craft prototypes. The plant will be producing six of the boats per week beginning in January. Staff photo Half return questionnaires Irving Harris, chairman of the Internal Evaluation Team, said yesterday he's received a 50 per cent return on the Co- operative Evaluation questionnaires sent to Penetanguishene and area residents. Harris had originally been aiming for an 80 per cent response. "In a sense I'm satisfied with a 50 per cent return," he said. "I know with 50 per cent I can draw valid conclusions. I had hoped for more but statisticians say a 20 per cent return is sufficient to draw valid con- clusions." Harris said the final deadline for return of questionnaires is Tuesday. The majority of questionnaires are in the hands of the Ministry of Education for computer programming. A backlog of work at the ministry has slowed the programming of the Penetanguishene surveys. "They're not getting them keypunched as quickly as I had hoped," said Harris, "but they're working on six co-operative evaluation projects from around the province." The Penetanguishene project is the only one which deals with the french-english situation in the educational structure. "They're taking a greater interest in it because of this," he added. The Internal Evaluation Team will be receiving the computerized results in early January. Harris said he hopes to have a final presentation ready for the Simcoe County Board of Education by June 14. log home preserved Withall and Tiny Township council. A letter from Withall requesting council's assistance in having a log home designated a not hurt in the mishap, and clearing operations resumed later on in the day. Staff photo council. He said that the letter, although dated November 7, was not received by the Village Clerk Donna Thatcher until November 15, one day after a November council meeting. Y The letter informing council of the serving of the writ, he said, was received the same day as the writ itself. When the two documents arrived at the village offices, Thatcher, contacted Bernard, who instructed her to take the whole Gies file, including the writ and the letter, to Village Solicitor Gordon Teskey, the Reeve ex- plained. He said that once Teskey is finished researching the file, council will be officially informed of the letter, and its contents. This practice of immediately referring matters of legality to the village solicitor was adopted after an incident a year ago when a writ served against the municipality failed to leave the village offices, and resulted in a law suit case, which is still underway. historical landmark, was read at last week's council meeting. The cabin is located on Tiny Marsh property and has been used, since its pur- chase, by the Department of Lands and Forests in 1963, as headquarters for. the marsh operation. It's become obsolete with the construction of a new building at the marsh. Harold Madill, Withall's father, lived in the log home until its sale and it was his grand- father who constructed the home and ad- jacent barn in 1881. Withall requested assistance after receiving a letter from the Ministry of Natural Resources informing her and her father that tenders were being prepared for the structure's demolition. The building can't be designated as a historical site, unless that request comes from a municipal council. Council voted in favour of assisting Withall in her fight. Tiny has already dispatched letters to the Ministry of Culture and Recreation and the Ministry of Natural Resources expressing the township's con- cern, "We feel often these things are destroyed before any thought is given to their historical value," said Withall. The home would have to be restored before it would be of much value as a historical site, Withall admits. The inside has been modernized and the outside covered in board siding. "J don't know how much it would cost to restore," she said. Withall feels the log home would enhance what the Ministry of Natural Resources is attempting to do at the marsh. "When it was purchased, there was some discussion of turning it into a small museum, but nothing was written down. It would fit into what they're doing at the marsh-- making it a natural setting." llor alleges cover-up Concerning Connely's allegations that the letter was purposely withheld from council, Bernard commented that there "was nothing there for us to hide."' "Mrs. Connely seems to be alleging things according to her own schedule, and I'm getting a little sick of it,' he added. Mrs. Connely said she believes that the letter was in the hands of the village Clerk before November 15. She based her belief on the fact that Gies claims to have received his copy of the letter "on or about November 9,"' and that on the morning of November 14, she asked Mrs. Thatcher to see the correspon- dence file, in order to prepare herself for the council meeting that night. Connely said the letter was not in the file at that point, but claims that Mrs. Thatcher told her it would be read aloud at the council meeting. The letter was not read at the meeting, nor at a special meeting the next day, nor at council's most recent meeting Monday night. cont'd p. 12 ee -- na AA