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Canada no longer infinite Ontario New Democratic Party Leader Bob Rae stop- ped in Midland in April. He addressed the students at St. Theresa's High School. Later in the morning he was the special guest on a CKMP open line program. Business destroyed in May fire May in Penetanguishene was highlighted by the town's budget, the angel's examination, and the health walk. The town's budget came down at the end of the month, just in time to affect the first installment of 1986 taxes due to be paid at the end of July. The town in- creased taxes by 7.6 per cent over last year. Ad- ministration and Finance Committee Chairman Don McNee told Council the town's gross expenditure increase almost doubled, jumping from $344,000 in 1985 to a staggering $628,000 in 1986. The town also began pro- ceeding with its plans to complete the sanitary sewers on a number of roads in town, including Jury Drive, Broad Street, Cambridge Street, Fuller Avenue, Robert Street East, and Dunlop Street. The town's new sewage treatment plant was all but opened in May. The plant had been in operation since the end of April, but no official ribbon cutting ceremony had been held. Still dealing with waste, but of a different sort, the controversy over locating the new dump in the south end of Tiny Township. Tiny Township Reeve Morris Darby received un- qualified support for his opposition to the proposed south-end landfill site for the area's MPPs and their party's leader. Provincial Conservative Party Leader Larry Grossman told Dar- by to keep fighting. Grossman, Earl Rowe and Al McLean visted the farm. Also during the month of May, another examination- -other tan ones involving dumpsites-went on. The Penetanguishene Angels were Closely examined by Metal Conservator Craig Johnson - of Ottawa. Johnson said the statues were rarer than he originally thought, because cast aluminum statues were quite uncommon in 1921, when they were given to the town. Also in local heritage news, two of Penetanguishene's Centen- nial Museum Board Members were honoured by the Ontario govern- ment. Helen Dubeau and Bob Klug were awarded Volunteer Service Awards by the province's Ministry of Citizenship and Culture. Volunteers spent a lot of time planning for Penetanguishene General Hospital's Health Walk this month. The walk took place in both Wyevale and Penetanguishene, with residents having to walk six kilometers to raise money to assist in purchas- ing new heart monitoring equipment for the hospital. The Director of the Cen- tre D'Activite's Francaises, France Picard, went to France in May in hopes of attracting even .more tourists. Picard went to France as a member of a 13-member delegation from the -Assemblee des Centres Culturels en Ontario. The major news event in the month of May that devastated the area was the spectacular blaze that total- ly destroyed Marcelville Antiques and Reproduc- tions on highway 93 just south of Penetanguishene. It took firefighters from four of the Tiny Township departments over eight hours to squash the blaze that broke out in the building shortly after 3 p-m. on May 13. Damages to the 25-year- old business were estimated at over $100,000. Lost in the inferno were two rooms of antiques, reproduction furniture both finished and in stages of manufacture, plus a high quality of expensive chairs. A theme enunciated by Rae was that resources will run out. He said indiscriminate tree cutting and gar- bage disposal will come back to haunt us. The month began on a sour note for workers at the Huron Indian Village when curator Vern Farrow went to work on May 1 to find, for the second time in less than a month, that van- dals had broke into the village. The incidences only gave strength to an earlier re- quest for the Town's Parks Board to permit the village officials to build an eight foot fence with a hang over of three strands of barbed wire the previous fall, but was denied the request. Despite a request by the Midland Chamber of Com- merce for a $168,000 operating budget for 1986, in May the Midland Town Council announced would receive a $103,000 subsidy from the town. This was a four per cent increase from the town's grant for 1985 and with membership fees would bring the total budget up to $130,000. Chamber Manager Mat- thew Parry said at the time, the move would hurt the Chamber's goal of a strong advertising campaign. Chamber officials were forced to sit on plans to produce a good industrial brochure and also a new tourism brochure for the town. For the third time in just over six months Institu- tional Care Workers at the Regional Hospital of the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene were on the picket line. On May 9, the workers marched at the entrance to the Centre in an effort to bring attention to the poor wage offer the Province was offering dur- ing contract negotiations. The march by front-line workers in Penetanguishene, to show their dissatisfaction with the government's offer of a four per cent wage hike, was part of a province- wide demonstration by workers at all 10 psychiatric across Ontario. For the second time in two years Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and Martrys Shrine were the sites of a visit to one of the Catholic Church's religious leaders. During a tour of Canada, the Superior General of the Jesuits (the elected leader of the world's 26,000 Jesuits) followed the same itinerary as Pope John Paul II. Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach, and his en- tourage were given a full tour of the two historic sites on May 16. Bad relations with the Town of Midland's Business Improvement Area (BIA) and the Parking Authority plagued the Town council. A refusal by hospital's the BIA to play their $6,500 share of the Parking © Authority's operating budget resulted in the town council withholding their annual budget. In other news for May, the Town's Parks Manage- ment Board struck a sub- committee to explore the possibility of the two- month-old North Simcoe Arts Council (NSAC) hosting a four day folk music festival and art ex- hibit sometime in the sum- mer of 1987. The proposal for the multicultural event, which would be a major boost to the Midland area, was brought to a end of the month meeting of Parks Board by the NSAC Treasurer Kamran Khozan. Although the board was looking favourably on the proposal, many facets of the suggestions had to be ironed out before a seal of approval was given by the town. / The year's fourth month ended with the spotlights and cameras on the Town of Midland, literally. April announcement no joke Public school supporters in Midland were informed on April 1 that the average tax increase in 1986 would be $75 and that it wasn't an April Fool's Day joke. Nadine Goman was elected president of the Friends of Wye Marsh. Midland said it would approach Tiny Township to talk about the town ser- vicing the medical clinic being built just across the common border inside the township. A relative of Percy Ehler, Midland's former commis- sioner of works, acted as Ehler's proxy in bidding successfully for the station wagon which Ehler drove while he was a town employee. The town put the station wagon up for sale after Ehler was dismissed, declaring the vehicle to be surplus. Ontario volunteer ser- vice awards were an- nounced as forthcoming to Friends of Sainte-Marie members Anne Faragher and Sandra Flint, both of Midland, Jamie Hunter of Hillsdale, Cathie Malcolm and Dr. Mildred Randall, both of Midland, and Heritage Penetanguishene members Helen Dubeau and Bob Klug. The North Simcoe Association for the Arts was organized, following a meeting in March in the Budd Watson Gallery. A 10 member interim board of directors was organized. The process of becoming a non-profit organization was begun. After six months, the North Simcoe Waste Management Association's recycling program was nearly $30,000 in the red. Midland's first academy for fitness'and self defense, Kasper's Martial Arts Academy, opened on King Street. Simcoe North MP Doug Lewis was on hand at the first anniversary party held to mark passing of the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre in- to the control of the non- Traffic-stopping fire When Tiny Township firemen fought the fire that gutted most of the Marcelville Antiques and Reproductions factory and sales building this month, traffic on the four lanes of Highway 93 between profit Friends of Wye Marsh. On April 11 New Democratic Party leader Bob Rae told St. Theresa's High School students that Roman Catholic separate schools should receive money on the same basis as do Ontario's public schools. On April 18, Midland Mayor Al Roach was found guilty of assaulting Patrick Kearns, by a provincial court judge in Barrie. Roach was fined $350. Roach struck and knocked Kearns, a Midland coun- cillor on Nov. 12, 1984, from his chair during a closed town council meeting. Roach said he was surprised by the ver- dict. Kearns said he was vindicated. Ted Symons, who challenged the mayor in the November, 1985 election, said he understood from reports that the mayor was provok- ed and under stress. These factors did not excuse his action, however, Symons said. Honey Harbour resident Neil Joseph Lamoureux was sentenced to two life terms in prison on two counts of manslaughter. Lamoureux was remanded to the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre un- til his sentencing. The guil- ty verdict came in connec- tion with the deaths of an 11-year-old girl and a nine- year-old girl in a house fire on Oct. 24, 1984. An announcement that the Canadian premiere of the movie Recruits would be in Midland was made by the movie's production assistant, David Strapko of Midland. Strapko and his brother Michael were in- strumental in bringing the movie cast and crew to Huronia for the shooting of many scenes. John Arpin returned to Huronia for his first full concert in a number of years. Arpin, a Port MeNicoll native, and one of Canada's most popular IA jazz and ragtime pianists, was helping raise money for the 1987 trip to England by the Ecole Secondaire Penetanguishene Secon- dary School concert band. The 1986 \ shipping season in Midland opened on April 16 with the arrival of the Beechglen under the guidance of Captain David Young. Capacity crowds enjoyed the Midland Secondary School student production of The Sound of Music A $6 million damage claim brought against the Village of Victoria Harbour in August, 1984, by Braesyde Estates of Lon- don, Ont. was dismissed. A district court judge award- ed the village its legal costs. In 1984, Braesyde Es 2s was the holder in trust of the Sportsman Motor Inn. Braesyde Estates wanted to build a marina. Negotia- tion with the village, which owned the adjacent under- water lots, did not go well. The village was informed that it was being sued. Midland Mayor Al Roach declared at the end of a council meeting that discussion of the Percy Ehler unlawful dismissal suit against the town would not be allowed by him during council meetings. Ainley and Associates of Collingwood, an engineering consulting firm, was named as the replacement to do certain work formerly done by tht commissioner of works. The coming of Spring saw some successes and some failures in Penetanguishene and Tiny Township. j The staff at museum in Penetanguishene prepared for a museum facelift this month. Contractor Wilfred Piitz began the restoration by month's end. The year before, the museum operated out of a tem- porary home in the High Poyntz Mall. The staff hoped to move _ the museum home to the old building on Burke Street. Midland and Penetanguishene was stop- ped by police, to allow water tankers quick.passage. Damage was estimated at $100,000. Two rooms of antiques and reproduction furniture were lost. Tuesday, December 30, 1986, Page 9