Robert Hamilton, new chief administrative officer (CEO), had words of caution for city council in November 1975. Stop the public verbal abuse of senior staff. Hamilton, much respected former chief of finance, said he had no problem when council members criticized a report, but warned that criticizing a report’s author in public was unfair and was damaging staff morale. If you want to chew out a staff member, do it in private. Not at a public (council) meeting.
The Standard-Freeholder quoted three unnamed senior staff members who said too often they felt they were in a “shooting gallery” at council meetings. The newspaper said public criticism played a role in CAO Maurice Engels and Economic Development Director James Purdie leaving the city. Engels, the city’s first CAO, was the target of some unkind verbal attacks at council meetings and outside the chambers.
Mayor Gerald Parisien said some members of council were having trouble adjusting to the CAO system which they felt reduced their power.
What’s in a name? Plenty when it came to naming the city’s new arena/convention centre that was under construction in the fall of 1975. With its manager, former Ottawa car salesman Jack Jordan, who was given the $40,000 a year job earlier in the month, asking council to move quickly on naming the $6.5 million facility so he could start promoting it, council got bogged down in the name game.
It seemed sorted out when in a 9-3 vote council, after much haggling, approved calling it Cornwall Civic Complex. In an editorial, the Standard-Freeholder called the name “dull” and “misleading” and urged council to reconsider the name.
Mayor Parisien favoured Cornwall Memorial Centre, while Ald. George Cameron said Cornwall Place had a nice ring to it. Others wanted to hold off and conduct a name-the-building contest. One suggested that since the provincial and federal governments had paid for the building, they should be consulted. But two weeks later, the name was again being debated at a council meeting. Ald. Angelo Lebano said it should be named after former mayor Ed Lumley. After a lot of back-and-forth, the name Cornwall Civic Complex survived in a 7-5 vote…and this time it stuck.
Showing of what he called “sex movies” should be taken off the screen of the city-owned Capitol Theatre, Ald. Angelo Lebano told council in November 1975. The theatre was leased to a private company and its owner said Lebano didn’t have a case. The movies carried the provincial movie censor’s stamp of approval. Cornwall Christian Council said the “sex movies” contributed to society’s “moral decay.” The theatre owner said the movies were restricted to adult audiences and nobody was forced to watch.
“I show them because people want to see them,” he said.
BACK IN 1975 – Sod was turned for the $33 million Transport Canada Training Institute…Tagwi Secondary School held its first graduation. William Termeer won the Tagwi Trophy for outstanding citizenship and academic achievement. Winona MacGregor and Joanne Bray were valedictorians…George Harrop, Labourers’ International Union representative, said the city should scrap the mayor’s position and reduce council to four who would become part of a management board. He called Mayor Gerald Parisien a “rubber stamp.” John Gaucher, labour council president, disagreed, saying the city needed a mayor, “even if he is a dummy.”… Canada Manpower reported that 6,000 people were unemployed in the city and United Counties…Ex-Royal Ron Ward became the first player in the World Hockey Association to have two five-goal games… Cornwall Collegiate won the SDG football title with a 22-8 romp over Tagwi. Mike Cook, Glen Dick and Steve Fyfe score the Raider touchdowns. Allen MacDonell had the Tagwi TD…Boston traded Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais to New York for Brad Park and Jean Ratelle.
Andy Haydon, the reeve of Nepean between 1970 and 1978, who became the first chair of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, who died Nov. 4 at age 91 had a strong tie to Cornwall. After graduating from Queen’s University in the mid-1950s with a chemical engineering degree, he worked at the Courtaulds plant in Cornwall until he moved to Ottawa in 1961. Art Buckland recalled Haydon played for the King George Aces in the City Men’s Basketball League and in the Mercantile Softball League.
A numbered company, believed based in Quebec, has purchased the former Cornwall General Hospital building and a parking lot off Third Street East once owned by the hospital. Registry records show that the hospital building was sold in June to a numbered company for $2 million, while the hospital parking lot off Third Street East sold for $779,560. A smaller parking at Second Street and Lawrence Avenue was sold for $30,000 in December 2023.
The hospital building is assessed (for tax purposes) at $1.697 million. The Third Street parking lot is assessed at $218,000, while the assessment figure for the Second Street East parking lot is $112,000. The now vacant building had been a long-term care home.
TRIVIA: In the television series “The Honeymooners,” Ralph Kramden (played by Jackie Gleeson) worked for this bus company.
TRIVIA ANSWER: In 1972 Levi Strauss set up a temporary production facility in the cotton mill complex before moving to a new plant in the Industrial Park. At its peak, the plant employed 479 people. It was one of 11 plants closed by the company in 1999.
QUOTED: Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. – Mark Twain
ONE FINAL THING: A former Democrat Senator was right on when she said of the stunning election result, “Donald Trump knows the American voter better than we do.”
