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Mayor fears regional government may be coming Mayor Vince Moreau warned local governments will be surplanted by a Simcoe County regional government in a wide ranging inaugural address Monday night whic' \ tguched. numerous aspects of development Penetanguishene including The the virtual completion of the servicing projects, the town's financial position, the need for more serviced industrial land, projected residential developments, an- ticipated federal and provincial grants for improving existing homes, the need for more 15° With 8 Pages Colour Comics Penetanguishene Vol.8 No.3 <4 4 aa Pat Stonier and Ed Trudeau move about in the two different types of weather which visited Penetanguishene within the past week. Temperatures rose to unseasonably high marks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday then dipped to the normal January range. Saturday's high of 54 broke the Tay council Tay Township councillors voted them- selves an immediate pay hike last Wed- nesday at the inaugural meeting of the newly-elected body. The reeve's salary will go from $2,400 per French boa rd to be elected A meeting to elect members to the French Language Advisory Committee of the Simcoe County Board of Education starts tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Penetanguishene Secondary School. All French-speaking ratepayers in the Penetanguishene-Midland area are eligible to attend the meeting. Six people will be elected to the committee in accordance with Bill 72 (The Education Act, 1974), section 256. The guest speaker for the evening will be Gerard Raymond, chairman of the Council French - language schools. Wednesday, January 15, 1975 In rain and snow 28 pages ed previous record January High of 29 degrees and resulted in a rarity -- winter rain. Pat was prepared for the rain with a see-through plastic umbrella while Ed came equipped with his snow blower to clear the driveway of Monday's snowfall. Staff photo downtown parking and the preparation of a revised zoning bylaw. For highlights of the Mayor's inaugural address turn to page four. The Mayor told an overflowing audience in the council chamber "I have reached the conclusion that regional government, in the shape and form desired by the province will be imposed on us - that is, unless we get down to some serious negotiations." He urged the co-operation of all municipalities involved so that some mutual agreement might be reached. But he was not optimistic about such co- operation. He expressed disappointment in the six area municipalities (Tiny and Tay Townships, Midland, Port MeNicoll, Victoria Harhour, and Penetanguishene) for not being able to find enough common ground in 1970 in order to form our own regional government which he said the province was encouraging at that time. The six municipalities did give birth to an area planning board (the Tiny-Tay Peninsula Planning Board) less than three years ago, but Moreau claimed "'some of us can hardly wait our turn in line to flog it to death. "This is the only co-operative effort the six of us have managed to bring forth" the Mayor said before concluding that "regional government, in the shape and form desired by the province will be imposed on us - that is, unless we get down to some serious negotiations."" (For the Citizen's comment turn to page four.) No budget cuts at PGH Despite orders from the provincial Ministry of Health, Penetanguishene General and Midland's St. Andrew's Hospitals have not reduced their 1975 budgets by two percent. Ontario's Health Minister, Frank Miller, has predicted that health costs will bankrupt the province if they continue at their present rate. Thus, his ministry has ordered hospitals across the province to trim budgets by two percent. But the administrators of this area's two local hospitals claim that this is not possible * and have each submitted a letter to the ministry asking that their hospitals be exempted from the budget cut. Sister Joan Whelan, administrator of the Penetanguishene General Hospital, in an interview on Monday explained that Board staff ok's contract Simcoe County's schools will continue to be kept clean and in good order after main- tenance workers for the Simcoe County Board of Education voted unanimously last Sunday to accept the terms of a new one year contract. S The maintenance workers, members of local 1310 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, ratified the contract which will give them an across-the-board increase of 93 cents an hour by July 1 of this year. This increase will come in two stages: 43 cents retroactive to January 1 and another 50 cents on July 1. In addition, workers will for the first time Tecéive a shift bonus of 10 cents per hour if they are on shift work. The agreement, which affects roughly 350 employees, will bring the hourly rate for custodians with top seniority to $4.50 and represents a 26 per cent increase. For the cleaners, who were making considerably less, the increase means a 40 per cent raise in salary. Gordon Clarke, a representative of the union, expressed satisfaction with the terms of the agreement. Joseph Whelan, chairman of the board of education's negotiating committee, was also happy with the agreement, and said that in the board's terms, the agreement means an average 24 per cent increase in salary for the workers. Okays salary increases year to $3,000, while the deputy-reeve's will jump $500 to $2,700 and the three councillors * will each receive a boost from $1,900 to $2,400 per year. The council was elected December 2, 1974 to a two-year term. In interviews this week, both deputy-reeve Ed Hill and freshman councillor Dave Moore backed the increases, citing increasing work loads and responsibility in recent years. According to Moore, the man who topped the polls in the election, "Tay Township is still behind" other comparable municipalities in what it pays its elected officials. Too keep pace with inflation, he said raises of 12 per cent would have been in order, but "when you take into consideration that we are so far behind" the hike is justified. The increases range from 25 per cent for councillors, to 26 per cent for reeve Tom Robinson. Moore, a teacher at Penetanguishene Secondary School, said he plans to raise the issue of evening meetings again next month with a formal motion. All council's regular meetings have traditionally been day-long affairs, making it difficult, according to Moore, for many people to run for office or attend the meetings. Monday he said "on occasion, day time meetings are not unacceptable...but I have made the firm decision that the classroom is where I am supposed to be...and if I'm not there, there is very little geography going on in my classroom." -- He said he would definitely attend council's February meeting, but unless the time is changed, he would only be available after 3:30 p.m. on a regular basis. Area board reps chosen The representatives from area municipalities have been chosen to sit on the Tiny Tay Peninsula Planning Board for 1975, and according to area planner John Faulkner, "we have a heck of a big job to AR RY by dow BEAULIEU Citizen contents fe peopmniian = ese | Winterama program set 3 Singing offbeat notes 4 Seeing eye dog 6 Minor hockey results 15 Sports 13-15 Classifieds 16-19 Entertainment 20 do'. Representing Midland will be reeve Noreland Lynn, who will sit in place of ex- officio member mayor Harold Boyd, veterans Harold Cox and Dr. Peter Brasher, and William Rycroft, who replaces Wren Moffat of the Chamber of Commerce. Penetanguishene's representatives have not yet been announced. Port MeNicoll councillor Bob Smith and John Hartford, area board vice-chairman in 1974, will return as representatives of that village. Ralph Gray, who has replaced Victoria Harbour reeve Theo Bernard on the planning board, and Forbes Mackenzie will represent Victoria Harbour on the planning board. From the Township of Tiny, reeve Morris Darby will return, and councillor Basil "Dorion will replace defeated John Lackie. Bert Desroches and William Northcott from the township will continue to serve as representatives. Tay Township deputy-reeve Ed Hill, councillor Charles Rawson, and Milt Fair- bairn represent Tay on the area board. relatively small hospitals like St. Andrew's and Penetanguishene General could not afford to make the budget cuts of larger hospitals like those in Toronto. She claimed that in Penetanguishene's hospital officials have been cutting back on services for a number of years now and that further cutbacks would seriously affect essential services. According to her, the situation in large Toronto hospitals is different because the larger hospitals have taken under their wings secondary activities such as social service centres. Larger hospitals will be able to make the two percent budget cut by reducing or eliminating these secondary services, ser- vices which have never come under the scope of the Midland and Penetanguishene hospitals said Sister Whalen. This means that essential hospital services provided by nurses, X-ray and laboratory technicians will not have to be eliminated in the larger hospitals. These services may be affected in Penetanguishene or Midland if the two percent cut is applied to them. But Sister Whalen indicated she expects the provincial government to exempt the Penetanguishene General saying that "I think the government will see our point." "Our relations (with the government) on that level have always been very good" she ad- ded. The Penetanguishene General Hospital budget for 1975 calls for an amount of $1,752,839. This includes $86,000 over ministry guidelines but that money is earmarked for future programs that have yet to be approved by the government and may have to be set aside for another year to keep the budget down. Even if the $86,000 is cut from the proposed budget hospital officials will still not have shaved off the recommended two percent. ; Last year's Penetanguishene General Hospital budget was roughly $1,322,400. - Actual 1974 costs and expenses cannot be determined until the accounting is completed for the year. % SF ka Jo-Jo plays with Charlie the family dog which led police to the three-year-old boy's home after he had been found walking outside the Commodore Hotel It ends up as a cute story but when three- year-old Jo-Jo went outside for a walk at 3 o'clock Friday morning his jaunt in the darkness could have turned to tragedy. That it didn't is partly due to the little boy's dog Charlie which tagged along for the walk, a woman who found him in a laneway near the Commodore Hotel at 4:15 a.m., luck, and the guiding hand of Jo-Jo's guardian angel. Jo-Jo just turned three on December 3, and like most kids of that age his parents had sent him to bed Thursday night, sometime bet- ween 7 and 8 p.m. Although Jo-Jo often "gets up out of bed"' according to his mother Karen this was the first time he had ever left the house. Early Friday morning instead of getting up for a drink, to grab something to eat, or go to the washroom, Jo-Jo took it into his head to go for a walk while most of the world slept. Jo-Jo's father, John Lorette had fallen asleep in front of the television set so he like the rest of the members of the family didn't hear Jo-Jo creep down the stairs and slip out into the darkness. The first anyone at the Lorette household on Brock heard about Jo-Jo's excursion was when the police came knocking on their front door around 5 o'clock in the morning. Karen says her husband got up "'scratching his head and wondering where the other kids were" because he thought it was suppertime. Instead he met two policemen, constables Claude Monroe and Tom Tiffin who were Playing with Charlie at 4:15 a.m. Friday morning. Jo-Jo was unable to tell police where he lived but Charlie remembered and led them to his master's home at 14 Brock Street. Dog leads Jo-Jo home led to the Lorette home by the shaggy haired family dog Charlie. Jo-Jo, who just started to speak a few words recently, was unaware of the risk he took. On being returned home he said "hi dad" and mentioned something about candy. It seems either the woman at the Commodore or the police gave the young lad some can- dies. Minutes after greeting his dad Jo-Jo was sound asleep. The amazing thing about the youngster's midnight adventure is even though'he can barely speak he knows how to open a yale lock. The Lorette's front door was locked but little Jo-Jo managed to open it. Now his parents are locking the door and putting a couch in front of it at night. Although this is the first time Jo-Jo has ever wandered from home his parents might have expected something like this to happen sooner or later. Late night wandering at a young age runs in the family. Karen Trotter claims that Jo-Jo's three older sisters and his brother have all strayed away from home at one time or another between the ages of three and five. Once Jo-Jo's three sisters; Lisa, Beverly, and Shawn ended up playing behind the IGA store in a mud puddle. On another occasion his older brother Mike, then three-and-a-half- years-old, journeyed down by the town dock before a neighbouring father recognized him and phoned the parents. The members of Penetanguishene's 1975-76 town government pose for a picture at the town's inaugural meeting on Monday night. Front row from left to right: Councillor The people's choice Francais St. Amant, Mayor Vince Moreau, councillor Mary Rogers, water and light commissioner Gil Robillard. Back row from left to right: councillors; Ron Bellisle, Ken Tannahill, Hubert Charlebois, deputy-reeve Art Stewart, reeve Lionel Dion, water and light commissioner Martin Marchildon. Staff photo That old saying "you ean't beat city hall" applies in Penetanguishene as well as any of our other larger municipalities. Change the quotation to "you can't beat the town office"' and you'll be right on as aé_ée reporter for' the Penetanguishene Citizen was bluntly reminded last Thursday. In last week's paper a Citizen reporter poked a little fun at our honourable town officials for being unaware of the exact date of Penetanguishene's incorporation as a municipality and for (heaven forbid) writing to another town (Barrie) to obtain a copy of the bylaw in- corporating Penetanguishene as a village. Officials at the town office explained that the 1875 by-law was in the possession of the Barrie Historical Department and that it would give the day, and month on_ which Penetanguishene became a village one hundred years ago. So in good natured jest, this newspaper administered a gentle ribbing on town officials claiming that if our centenary did not catch them You can't beat the town office completely by surprise, they were at least less than fully prepared for the event. The Citizen also gave a brief outline of the Penetanguishene of 1975, listing the members of the first village council and some of the major activities which took place here 100 years ago. The report finished by saying, "the essential facts are there, minus the incorporation date."' "For that piece of information history buffs will have to do what one member of the town office advised - wait for the folks from Barrie (specifically their historical depart- ~ ment) to tell us." Then the reporter added a final gentle jab in the ribs with the comment "nothing like knowing your own It's the closing remark which came back to aunt us. It appears to be the one which aroused the ire of town officials. In any event when a Citizen reporter dropped by. the town office on Thursday, building inspector Bryan Byng was lying in wait. "I have a question for you"' he said with jaws tensely gritted. But first he insisted it be answered in front of a witness. the odd setup and it was then that Byng zinged in his Sunday best punch. when Markle Community Newspapers were incorporated?'"' Reporter's an- swer: "No". - smile, then turning to his fellow office worker with glee, "I told you so." what Byng was referring to so the respected town official slowly and carefully spelled:it out. Community Newspapers (the Citizen is part of the Markle chain) did not know history......!"' ; the date on which the company he was working for was formed how could he expect an official working for the town to immediately have knowledge of a similar type of information. unsuspecting members of the public. "You can't beat the town office". And if after reading this article you're still so bold as to think you can put one over our town officials, remember your taxes. The reporter graciously consented to The question: Do you know the date A triumphant Byng slowly cracked a At first the reporter failed to grasp Since a representative of Markle Touche! Let this story serve as a warning to Py AOE a ~