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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-11-10, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016. PAGE 9. HE waits for hospice report before pledging support By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron East has decided to take a wait-and-see approach to supporting one hospice project over another in Huron County. Representatives from the Jessica's House project spoke to council at its Nov. 1 meeting. Deb Homuth, co- chair of the South Huron Hospice Steering Committee, told council that the wheels are already turning for the development of Jessica's House in Exeter with a number of donations, monetary and in-kind, having already been made. Homuth said she was hoping that A great performance As part of Melville Presbyterian Church's anniversary service late last month, the church welcomed the Seaforth Harmony Kings for some musical entertainment. The Harmony Kings performed together at the end of the service, but near the beginning of the service, a quartet made up of Harmony Kings members called The Heat also performed several songs, including "You'll Never Walk Alone" and a song written by Billy Joel, as Rev. Elwin Garland, left, looks on. (Shawn Loughlin photo) Warm weather a local hot topic PEOPLE AROUND WALTON By Jo -Ann McDonald Call 887-6570 It's the first week of November and children are in shorts and men are working outside in short sleeves and working up a sweat. People were raking leaves and once again, cutting the lawn. It is certainly time to have planted spring bulbs and to tidy up flowerbeds, but with the great weather, some keep putting it off, because there will be one more nice day, right? I remember in 2002, the first week of November was absolutely great weather, with really warm temperatures and I put eavestrough on the shed in shirt sleeves. The men complained it was almost too warm for hunting and, yes, the harvest that year was done early. The experts say that the soybean harvest is 97 per cent complete and the corn harvest is 85 per cent done and I think manure spreading is 100 per cent in full swing. While on the roads last week, it seemed every road had someone spreading manure on it — I mean the field, not the roads. Although sometimes that can also happen. It is just a part of rural life! Field after field is giving up its bounty as the farmers continue the harvest. Most grain elevators are getting full and mounds of corn have appeared in the yards. Halloween has come and gone with a varied response on how the evening went. In the southeast section of town, some homes had up to 100 children. In the west side of town, numbers of 40 or so and in the north end of town, some homes had only four. Most country folks had only small numbers coming to trick or treat. No damage was reported around town, so that is a good thing. Welcome back to Judy Emmrich who has returned from a week's vacation in Virginia. Judy was joined by sister Shirley Hertlien, and sister Pauline and husband Dave Tompkins and Doug and Sherry Howatt. They were in Williamsburg, Virginia for a week and really enjoyed the area. They were away over Halloween and enjoyed listening to ghost stories and making smores around the bonfire by the pool. Sounds like fun! Returning from a week's visit with her son Joel is Pat Dalton. She flew to British Columbia and went to Fort St. John, where he is stationed as a firefighter. She reports that it was snowy there, but the scenery was beautiful especially around the Peace River area. They also went to the Prince George area for some great sights. Pat reports that Don kept busy while she was away by plowing about three acres a day. Good work Don, and welcome back Pat. We send our get -well wishes to Marjorie Horst as she has had heart health issues and is a patient in hospital at this time. We hope she is coming along and will soon be home. We also hope Naomi Pryce is doing well as she also has had some heart health issues and is a patient in Clinton Hospital at time of writing. We hope she is feeling better soon. Catching up with the progress on the Hullett McKillop Road construction, projects include the third barn on the Wilma Farms has trusses and the steel on the roof. The log house has seen progress and the work continues. The shed at McCallums is gorgeous (if you can call a shed gorgeous) and the outside looks finished. The new home for Paul and Cindy Kerr is taking shape with framing and roof on. The chicken barn at Pryces is roofed and sided and on the other Pryce farm, the barn foundation is poured. Other projects around the area include the Hoegy shed being finished and the old shed now gone, the Hoonaard barn has new boards and now some foundation work is being done. A new shed is going up on the farm of John Baan and a new house is going up in Winthrop. A very nice sign has FROM WALTON been erected at Elligsen Electric on North Line to identify the new home of the Elligsen business. It is certainly good weather for these projects to keep moving along. Congratulations! The young ladies of our area competing in the World's dance competition held in Germany have returned, and they have returned champions. Teegan McGavin and Ava McCutcheon were part of the Eastern Canadian team representing Canada. Canada also had a Western Team competing. The two Canadian teams captured a combined 50 medals and 25 of them were gold! The girls danced in modern, jazz and ballet in both formations (seven dancers and up) and in group (under seven dancers). They were away 10 days and had a fantastic time. Way to go girls and Team Canada! Good news to hear that Nora Stephenson is now home and doing very well. We hope she continues to improve and be out and about before the snow flies. Celebrating birthdays this past week includes Allison Black, Bruce Blake, Alexis Terpstra, Lila Olson, Darryl Hoegy, Chris Stevenson, Jim Ryan, Clara Glauser, Steven Huether, Justin Morrison, Rita Bowers, Terry Sloan and Jane Zwep. council would pen a letter of support for the project and step up and promote it far and wide. She met some opposition, however, as several councillors felt that rather than putting all of the municipality's eggs in the Jessica's House basket that they should wait for the results of the region -wide hospice study that is currently underway. Homuth told councillors that the Jessica's House project began in December of 2014 when the need for hospice beds in Huron County was first widely identified. The Jessica's House proposal aims to place six hospice beds in Exeter in a building on the town's main street. Homuth said the building will also include several other rooms including offices and a board room. Councillor Bob Fisher said he wanted to applaud Homuth and her committee for all the work they've done. Homuth told councillors that a lot of research has been put into the Jessica's House project, much of it local, that has strategically identified Exeter as an ideal location for a hospice, thanks largely to its central location to a number of hospitals in Huron County, London and Stratford. She said that initially, when consultants looked at a map of Huron County they proposed Londesborough as a potential location for a hospice, due to its central location. Homuth, however, said there are very few amenities in Londesborough, which is why local input is crucial to the project, rather than consultants from large city centres looking at a map. Homuth told councillors that the project has been the beneficiary of a number of in-kind donations, beginning with the land, as well as a number of building materials, including the flooring. She said that they hope the $2.1 million project will be shovel -ready in March of 2018. Deputy -Mayor Joe Steffler, however, said that he would not commit to the Jessica's House project until the results of the region - wide hospice study were released. He said that if the study comes back and suggests that Jessica's House in Exeter is the way forward, Huron East should support it. However, he felt council shouldn't throw its support behind any one project until the study was released. Homuth said that hospices that are funded locally and supported by the community generally see a lot of success in being approved for government funding. Steffler, however, was sure of how he wanted to proceed and he wanted council to be non -committal until the results of the study were released. Steffler said he is a strong supporter of hospice care and sees a great need for it in Huron County, he just didn't want to support one project over another, if the supported project turned out not to be the chosen project, supported by upper tiers of government. Council chose to note and file the committee's request and revisit it once the region -wide study's results are made public, which is expected to be later this month. Com—P 1 1 4 t ai 40 1Ba1 iet, at the ijea't 2016 COMMEMORATE THE NEWEST FAMILY MEMBER'S 1ST NEW YEAR Join the gallery of faces in The Citizen's baby photo display January 19, 2017 Send or bring a picture of your little one born in 2016 along with a writeup which includes full name, birth date and parents' names, to be featured in The Citizen's Gallery of Faces on January 19, 2017, for only $20.00 (HST included). Please send picture (with name on back), along with a cheque, to The Citizen prior to January 13. Photos may be picked up after January 19. THIS MUST BE PRE -PAID. - Sample - Mary Elizabeth Smith May 18 daughter of Mike & Laura Smith Please Complete Baby's Full Name Son Daughter Birth Date Parents' Names $20.00 Enclosed DEADLINE - January 13 2 pm in Brussels • 4 pm in Blyth et 1