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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2016-08-24, Page 3Wednesday, August 24, 2016 • Huron Expositor 3 Is there savings in shared services? Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor The CAO of Huron East, Brad Knight stated to coun- cil the same views on shared services as he has had in the past; he does not think there will be $300,000 annu- ally in savings from the Morris-Turnberry and North Huron amalgamation of services. To begin with, Knight believes there will not be as much savings as the two municipalities are expecting because the road mainte- nance budget of the two regions compared to Huron East's road maintenance budget has a $1 million difference. Backing up his beliefs, Knight requested the statis- tics from a project conducted in 2015 by Huron East>s treasurer/ finance manager, Paula Michiels. The findings known as the Financial Information Return (FIR) were brought up at the August 9 council meeting. The three areas that were focused on were government, administration, and Public Works with one being the lowest and nine as the highest. According to the data, Huron East ranks second lowest in the county in terms of cost per capita and fifth worst per weighted assessment (council costs). Morris-Turnberry and North Huron were eighth and ninth per capita calcu- lated with the same weighted assessment. "I think what>s affecting their whole proposal and their numbers is the fact that they have not made the political commitment to actually amalgamate their government structure and I really think that lim- its their potential cost sav- ings to sharing services, rather than looking at rationalizing or consoli- dating those services," explained Knight. Knight said all municipali- ties are continuing to adopt and evolve and by doing so, they will review shared ser- vices, but it has to be benefi- cial and more importantly he hopes this will not be the soul focus of municipal operations. With all the media coverage relating to shared services lately, it's been a little more than it should be he remarked. The Mayor of Huron East, Bernie MacLellan is leaning towards shared services, he considers it be beneficial for saving money by joining larger departments together. MacLellan said one example of cutting back and creating savings would be to merge the CAD's. "You do not still need to keep every CAO, so there (would) be staffing changes, besides that there will be (no more cutting)," MacLellan referred to the support staff such as the ones from Public Works because as he added, they are needed assets. "There>s going to be sav- ings so it>s worth looking into specially if the numbers are even close to what they are saying. I think we owe it to the ratepayers to at least investigate it." Photo taken by -Shaun Gregory The Mayor of Huron East, Bernie MacLellan believes there is savings in shared services, but the CAO of Huron East, Brad Knight thinks differently. Man tries to stop the Monarch from extinction Shaun Gregory Huron Expositor Ruler, sovereign and emperor are all synonyms for the word monarch, they go hand-in-hand with one of the most majestic flying insects known to the present day and Mike has raised numerous ones from caterpillars. Mike Ward from Clinton rummages the outdoors for caterpillars, sometimes but more often than not he ends up with eggs. From there like a concerned father he helps the life forms grow with the goal of freeing the black and orange Monarchs that can grow to a roughly four -inch wingspan. Without the help of Ward and others around the world, the species might not make it much longer since they're near threatened of extinction, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In a recent study in 2013, the WWF stated that Mexico experienced the lowest number of monarch butter- flies wintering there in the last two decades. They have about a one per cent chance of survival in the wild compared to an 80 per cent chance of being raised the way Ward has done, he said August 18. The butterfly's life usually starts in Canada or the U.S. and they must travel distances of more than 5000 km at a speed of 10-20 mph. They travel this distance with the good intentions of reach- ing Mexico or even further. "They have to go all that way and they must try to sur- vive from spiders, weather and people logging the trees down in Mexico," stated Ward who is 33 -years -old. In accordance to his con- nections from Monarch butterfly social media sites, Ward mentioned the num- bers skyrocketed to three times last February from the year before. However, a recent snowstorm in Mex- ico killed half that population. On August 12 at Victoria Park in Seaforth Ward did his best to increase the Mon- arch's percentage of a con- tinued existence by freeing six females. To date, since he started this year, Ward is responsible for the release of 11 Monarchs. The process is quite com- plex. After finding the eggs he transfers them into a Tup- perware container, from there they grow while feed- ing on milkweed, which is the key ingredient for the butterfly's survival. After they crystallite in a J-shape because, a term some people confuse as cocooning, which comes from Moths, he then moves them to a mesh enclosure. To inform the community of his devotion, in his front yard he has erected a 9" x 12" weatherproof sign that is posted in the ground inform- ing the public his house is part of the Monarch Waysta- tion Program. "Basically my yard has all the needs for Monarch But- terflies," he said during a recent phone conversation. Currently Ward is raising Swallowtail butterfly eggs and said he hopes to con- tinue this passion for years to come. .ea orthhuronexIositor.co And he will carry this on by spreading the word of his newfound hobby. "Next year shall be a busy one. I will be planting many more host plants for differ- ent butterflies including more milkweeds for the monarchs. Anyone with questions or wanting to start raising any butterflies I'm willing to help although understand I am still very new to this myself," stated in a post from Ward's Facebook. Courtesy of Mike Ward's Facebook A photo of a Monarch butterfly landing on a dog. 011r Office VYlil Be Closed Monday, September 51h • OILICE --HOURS—Th Mondays - 9am - 5pm * Tuesdays - CLOSED Wednesdays - 9am - 5pm Thursdays - 9am - 5pm Fridays - 8am - 4pm 1 8 Main Street, Seaforth ON PH: 519-527-0240 www.seaforthhuronexpositor.com