HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron 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.
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