It took a few decades but the Great Water Meter debate has been put to rest. Back in 1967, the first mention of water meters was made at a December council meeting. It hit the radar screen during a proposed increase in the industrial water rate of two cents per 1,000 gallons. The increase was opposed by some councillors – Ald. Angelo Lebano wanted the industrial rate reduced, not increased – while on the other side of the debate, Ald. Francis Guindon said it should be higher. He reasoned that residential ratepayers were shouldering an unfair share of the water/sewer budget and more of that burden should be shifted to industries.
Other aldermen (as they were called in the day) proposed water meters be installed in residences to help even the playing field.
In the end, council voted for the industrial rate increase and after much consideration voted against water meters, noting the high cost of buying meters and having them installed was not saving the average taxpayer money.
DECEMBER 1967: The jury took just four hours to find a Montreal man not guilty of wounding with intent to harm in a July 12 incident along Highway 401 west of Cornwall. The victim suffered two gunshot wounds. He was found by a passerby alongside the highway. He spent several weeks recovering in Cornwall hospital. Defence attorney Michael Salhany argued that the 42-year-old husband shot the man, whom was being driven to Toronto, in self-defence. He said the shooting victim had assaulted the shooter’s wife. … Five residents of a nursing home west of Alexandria escaped a fire which damaged the two-story residence. Three of the residents were living upstairs and had to be carried from the home by fire fighters and staff. … Just one Christmas baby was born in the city, at Hotel Dieu Hospital. … Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Warner on Johnson Crescent won the Long Sault Chamber of Commerce Christmas home decoration contest. In Cornwall, the home of H. L. Simpson on Westmoreland Avenue won the Cornwall Centennial home decoration contest. … Four city fire fighters – Gilles Racine, William Rankin, Hugh Graveley and Ed Stewart – were promoted to lieutenant.
PART TWO: George Harrop, president of the Cornwall and District Labor Council, said the high cost of housing and steep rent prices needed to be addressed. He noted that low rents had been pegged at $140 a month. “I don’t call that low cost,” he said. … An18-year-old city youth was given a three-year jail sentence for his role in an attempted armed robbery of a Grant’s Corners convenience store. … Cornwall police constable Cecil Runions required medical treatment at hospital after he was attacked by a man swinging an axe. The officer was responding to a complaint of a suspicious person in a park. The man was chased on foot by Runion’s partner, Const. Ron Wilson, who fired three warning shots. The man was apprehended after a struggle. … Cornwall letter carriers were equipped with spray bombs intended to ward off dog attacks. A post office official said on average one letter carrier was bitten by a dog each month.
PART THREE: Smiths Falls Bears defeated Cornwall Royals 7-5 in a Central Junior Hockey League game. Denis Plant, two, Norm McMillan, Barry Graham and Wayne Horne scored for the Royals. … Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced he was stepping down in April. … Stan Mikita of Chicago Blackhawks led the NHL scoring with 20 goals and 21 assists. … One of the worst residential fires in Canadian history claimed the lives of nine children – aged 3-18 – when the family home in Mount Laurier, Que., burned to the ground. The parents and five other children escaped. All the dead were sleeping on the second floor.
George Heath, former CJSS sports director and play-by-play announcer for the Royals from the mid-1960s to 1972, passed away in Sarnia at age 88. George called the 1972 Memorial Cup won by the Royals. He became sports director of CHOK in Sarnia the same year and for 29 years called hockey games in that city. Ironically, the Royals caught up to him in 1994 when the Newmarket Royals (formerly Cornwall Royals) were purchased by Larry and Rob Cicerelli and re-localed to Sarnia and renamed the Sting. George retired as CHOK sports director in 2001 but continued as the voice of the Sting for three seasons. At his last game, the club and city honoured him. Agreat broadcaster and super person whom I was bless with knowing and working with early in my career.
Former St. Lawrence College faculty member and entrepreneur Jack Haines passed away last week after a lengthy illness. Jack played junior hockey in the Quebec Junior Hockey League in the 1960s and one of his favourite stories was when he was with Shawinigan and decided to tangle with a tough Trois-Rivieres defenceman. All 6-feet-2, 220 pounds of him. It didn’t go well … for Jack. “Don’t think I got a punch in,” he once told me. “And this was in front of my home crowd.”
Who was that guy? Andre “Moose” Dupont who became a member of the infamous brawling Philadelphia Flyers. Dupont spent 13 seasons in the NHL and compiled 1986 penalty minutes, 1555 in eight seasons with the Flyers.
TRIVIA ANSWER: Before the Seaway, Power Dam Road was known as Nine-mile Road. Young car jockeys made it an unofficial drag strip.
TRIVIA: Name Santa’s reindeers whose names begin with a ‘D”.
QUOTED: “Democracy is buying a big house you can’t afford with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like.” – Johnny Carson
ONE FINAL THING: Boston Bruins joined the NHL in 1924. Their first game was a 2-1 win over Montreal Maroons. Cornwall native Carson Cooper scored the game winner. Cooper’s name is on the Stanley Cup twice – 1950 and 1952, not as a player but as chief scout of the Detroit Red Wings.
