The Hamilton Spectator from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada • 29

THE SPECTATOR THURSDAY MARCH 3 1988 Cl Metro Redbird court hearing delayed A COURT hearing to stop the Ham ilton Redbirds from playing baseball at Bernie Arbour Stadium has been delayed Lawyers representing members of the Stadium Neighborhood Action Group and the city of Hamilton appeared in court yesterday ready to proceed with a hearing into the mer its of an injunction sought by the res group A tight court schedule forced Judge Gordon McTurk post poned the hearing until Tuesday Residents oppose the expansion of the stadium an Upper Kenilworth Avenue for use by the Class A farm team of the St Louis Cardinals They fear baseball games will bring noisy fans traffic and parking problems and disrupt the neighborhood An injunction would prevent the city from making improvements to the park and stadium including more seating to aid Hamilton Base ball Associates Ina which oversees the baseball team Enrolment drop threatens 10 tech courses at Mohawk Crisis looming due to lack of skilled people dean Ron Pozzer The Spectator PAUL WILSON 526 3391 Derrick puts heart and sole into his job THE LIGHTS bad in Derrick $22a month livingroom one bare bulbed lamp and a string of blinking colored lights around the edge of the ceiling But even in the dimness you see the gleam off his big black boots The plump toes shine like bowling balls look after my says King feet are the most impor tant part of my a meter man one of 12 vet eran commissionaires who patrol city sidewalks watching for parking meter infractions They get punched three weeks ago a big guy with an expired meter on Ottawa Street threw King against his car They get screamed at the lady in furs swore like a sailor when King tick eted her Caddie Hideaway But on the street Come 530 King heads to his hideaway off Barton been on his feet all day but pounds up three scruffy flights of stairs with vigor The boots come off for a polish always do it straiit he says He smears on Kiwi black spits and then rubs in quick tiny circles More spit more rubbing Each boot takes five minutes That daily ceremony is proof Meter man Derrick King goes through nightly ritual of polishing his boots a survivor You might call his life bleak 60 years old no pension a weekly take home cheque of little more than $200 wife gone no kids no phone and no airfare to get back to his native England But proud He told me about his life the two of us sitting an a little daybed under the flashing lights Beside us on big bed a guy in jeans slept He and his twin brother come into the story in a minute Loves horses King was bom in Rushden an English boot and shoe town At he joined the army for a seven year hitch He had experience with horses and ended up in charge of stables His final stint was with the London stables of the Lifeguard Then he and a partner opened the Double Riding School on the grounds of an abandoned college After a dozen years the partner pulled out and King did odd jobs for a while In 1972 at 44 he married Mildred and came to Hamilton because most of her family lived here The marriage ended three years later He worked on horse farms in Mount Hope and Jerseyville and nine years ago joined the commissionaires A few years ago he met the twins John and Jim 27 John was the one asleep on the bed When he woke up he volunteered he and his brother saints been on the streets for years time the police had my brother in jail instead of said John they found out and said they were keeping him until I showed adopted them and a black cat called Come Here The twins are the sons King never had At a Mount Hope farm he has half shares in a horse saved from slaughter Every weekend he and John or Jim head up The meter man knows this looks like a one sided relationship he pays most of the rent buys most Of the groceries But companionship he says and the twins seem to like horses up at the farm back to being 18 yearsold in says King can do without people but not without animals rom what seen on the street got better Margie Gauthier is getting her guitar back She got an anonymouscall about 7 pm Tuesday from someone who read her story in that StreetBeat He told her left $167 at Pawnbrokers and she could pick up the guitar The pawnshop owner says how it happened There were also offers from workers at Hamilton Hydro and a guy named Chris who had a cookie tin full of pennies and hoped it would be enough for Gauthier to take a cab to visit her son at the HPH looking for Gauthier says please tell those people Thank you" 'Mr A lL ai MB iSilw XfiBOMBr 4: 01 wu Stage union pickets the Hyland Theatre By JIM HOLT The Spectator THE MOVIE playing was Throw Momma rom The Train but the issue in front of the newly reopened Hyland Theatre was more a case oi throw the projectionist from the booth About a dozen members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees picketed in front of the King Street East theatre on its reopening night last night They were protesting the fact the theatre was not using a union pro jectionist said picket captain Dome nico Marcone Tre has always been a union projectionist said Mr Mar cone feel badly'about losing a (union) theatre because we have members without A long time haven for movies in the Odeon Theatre chain the Hy land operated under the Cineplex Odeon blanket until last year Jon Zemitis of the Broadway Cinema took it over for first run art films but closed late last year citing poor ticket sales and the lack of available first run New manager Blalr Hagar who reopened it as a discount theatre for second run commercial films said if he hires a full time union projection ist he will be forced to close very upset used all my life savings to open a business and on my opening night faced with a picket said tylr Hagar as he opened the theatre doors for about six people leaving the 7 pm show Nobody bought tickets for the 9 pm showing of Wall Street theatre business is a very risky business The failure rate is very he said I hire a pro jectionist full time it would be better off to close the theatre a small businessman like the fella with a small store Any small businessman will tell you that the more you can do yourself the more chance you have of having a Mr Hagar has hired seven part time employees and planned to dou ble as the projectionist on slower nights he said Mr Marcone said at least 10 peo ple were discouraged from buying tickets by the pickets hope we can resolve this thing but not going to give in We want to do this We always left the door open for them to said Mr Marcone An unidentified man who talked to Mr Marcone said he wanted to take advantage of the discounted films but cross the picket line a business is non union and make a go of things and tries to get along by breaking union rules I have no sympathy for he said a matter of principle I sup port unions and I support what they (IATSE) is trying to Dominic Marcone and other pickets in front of Hyland Theatre mBPVBHbx wi A WIlizW Hresa KvfliBCWL WttgKIagMnwETjyB Ron Pozzer The Spectator By MAUREEN MURRAY The Spectator ABOUT 10 highly specialized technology courses at Mohawk College are in danger of being axed because of declining enrolment a college dean says The college is in the process of phasing out one such course and others will be on the chopping block if the current trend continues Dean Hans Bastel said yesterday sad thing is that there are high paying jobs available in these areas and yet the courses are in dan ger of being phased said Mr Bastel dean of engineering and health technology the college continue to offer courses which attracting enough There are about 2500 students enrolled in the 30 technolo gy courses Total college enrolment is 13000 full time and 59000 part time students Decline Mohawk had an overall decline of 15 20 per cent in applicants in the technology courses in the 1986 87 school year compared with the pre vious year said college registrar Bri an Goodman Applications for 1987 88 were down by about 10 per cent and 7 per cent so far for the upcoming school year Mr Bastel said while popular courses like electronics and comput er science still have healthy enrol ments more specialized courses like metallurgical technology are in trou ble He said students are shying away from technology courses because of a misconception jobs in this area are drying up equate manufacturing with technology so they see the laying off and the closing and they say no fu ture in this Mr Bastel said although some unskilled and semi skilled jobs are disappearing the need for highly specialized workers is growing something changes so ciety will soon be faced with a crisis because of a lack of people with technological Mohawk suspended enrolment last year in its textile technology course because fewer than 10 people applied for first year Mohawk was the only community college outside Quebec offering the course involving automation techniques in the textile field Once current students graduate the course will be dropped Mr Bastel said adding some machinery has been sold Transportation planning technol ogy and energy management tech nology are among other courses in jeopardy said Mr Bastel adding jobs in these areas have an entry sal ary of at least $25000 and peak at about $40000 Mr Goodman said the college re cently placed a technology graduate at a starting salary of $40000 Disturbed Charlie Dickson director of placement said he was disturbed about the impending disappearance of the textile course because he said there is still a demand for jobs He said it was ironic a course like metallurgy was in danger of becom ing extinct in Hamilton is Steel Town unbelievable that not attracting Mr Dickson said in recent years the placement office has had more requests for technology employees than graduates to fill them Mohawk found jobs for about 450 tech graduates last year a place ment rate of more than 90 per cent Wentworth board plays wait and see By EMILIA CASELLA The Spectator ANCAstEk Question: What did the Wentworth County Board of Education decide last night in a 3 hour dosed meeting about the provincially ordered transfer of Winona High School to the HamUton Wentworth separate school board? a) to seek a judicial review of the decision b) to not seek a judicial review c) to move ahead with plans to transfer the 500 students to Stoney other high Saiyieet and Orchard Park Answer d) none of the above After a long night of debate discussion and advice from board solicitors trustees made no change to their eb 22 motion to receive the Ontario cabinet docu ment upholding the transfer rul ing of arbitrator Stephen Goudge And for that they receivea a failing grade from parent orga nizers Parents say they are frustrated by the failure to make a firm decision and maintain time to bite the bullet or later someone from the board will have to make a de cision Right now the students are in the said Ida Des landes She said parents want the board to test ruling in court adding if it refuses the Save Our Schools committee may try Board Chairman Rhea Springsted said the board is wait ing for the Hamilton board to move on its announcement last week that it will go to court to fight the transfer of Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School She said the Wentworth board know how the Hamilton challenge will affect it minute they make a legal move we are a party to it Then know were we Mrs Springsted said deci sion we were to make now all hinges on a (Hamilton) decision over which we have no control kids deserve one answer: you want to raise or low er hopes until you know what di rection going to take no point discussing 1000 alternatives (publicly) Wait until we get two at least I told ev eryone there would be a decision tonight and here I am having to backpedal on that" Trustees will discuss the issue again in a closed session after board meeting Staff will report on questions raised last night but Mrs Springsted would not reveal the questions While trustees and staff study the issue is a terrible amount of confusion out there for students and their said parent spokesman Georgina Beattie The uncertainty and emotional strain is tough and many students are considering leaving Winona in September for the other Stoney Creek schools or the Ham ilton board she said The Goudge ruling calls for the transfer to take place by Septem ber 1989 Mrs Beattie wonders whether an administrative staff decision not to accept grade 9 applica tions at Winona for September sends a message the board will give up the fight will read into that ex actly wnat they want to read into said Mrs Springsted Dutch queen to visit Hamilton DUTCH community is buzzing with the news bf a royal visit this spring by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands although the state visit has yet to be announced by Ottawa Plans for the May 13 visit including a private reception with the Queen and Prince Claus for up to 2000 area Dutch Canadians have been in the works for several months Mayor Bob Morrow said yesterday private reception at the Royal Botanical Gardens will include a Dutch market place a choir and traditional foods said Bas Opdenkelder president of the Hamilton Holland Club The Queen is also scheduled to attend a luncheon and display of Dutch paintings at the Hamilton Art Gallery a tour of the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington and a civic reception at Hamilton city hall There are about 20000 Canadians of Dutch descent living in the Hamilton Wentworth area relationship with the Netherlands has been close since Canadian soldiers marched into Holland to liberate the Dutch from Nazi occupation in 1945 he said Queen Beatrix then a princess and members of her family livedta Otta wa during the war iiiiiiiii.