The Citizen, 2012-02-02, Page 7THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012. PAGE 7.Belgrave UCW enjoys potluck at January meeting
A delicious potluck dinner was
enjoyed by over 30 members and
friends of the Belgrave United
Church Women, on Thursday
evening, for their annual January
meeting. Nancy Folkard was in
charge of the meeting and she
welcomed everyone and said grace.
Muriel Coultes opened the
worship with the theme, “Walking in
the Way” with a call to worship and
prayer. Doreen Marks read the
scripture. The meditation told of the
many references to walking with
God that are in the scriptures. She
made reference to using a
“labyrinth” as those doing thewalking, walk in silence, andreverently. As they walk around theywalk in areas of shadow to placesthat were almost dark to light. Our
walk, is not always quiet and
contemplative, but may be noisy and
confused. Jesus walked among the
people, teaching, healing and
praying. Today, in spirit, he
continues to walk with us on our
journey. She closed with prayer.
Mrs. Folkard then introduced
Chris Palmer, a member of the
Belgrave community who suffered a
life-changing accident in May of
2008. He referred to his change as
“Life after life at the age of 42”. He
had been finishing up some farm
work, getting ready for the weekend
when his farming work was done,
when the accident happened. He
stressed how dangerous farm work
is, and how farmers take too many
short cuts, and work too many hours.
It was in the evening and he was
standing near the power take off,
when everything went wrong. He
made the statement that “If itrotates – it wants to take you”. Thatis what happened and he foundhimself laying on the ground, witheverything stripped off him and one
leg torn off. The other leg was at a
right angle and he had many broken
bones. He prayed for strength, and
knew he had to get away from the
machine, but he also thanked God
for setting him down in the safest
place around the machine. He was
found by his father, and help was
summoned. He lost 80 per cent of
his blood, and has spent many years
recuperating.
A good support system and prayer
are what got him and his family
through the toughest days, and ever
since. His crops were planted, and
by harvest time, he was able to help
out. He felt useless sitting around, he
just wanted to be normal again. He
has a computerized knee which
gives him stability walking, but the
hardest part was finding a job. He is
now employed and does many
speaking engagements that deal with
farm safety. His final comments tothe group were “In everything, givethanks”. Gordon and Nancy Folkardhave been a part of his support groupand she thanked him for being so
candid about his accident, and being
a witness to his faith.
During the business it was agreed
to give financial support to Nancy
and Harold Jardin as they take part
in the Walk of Memories on
Saturday, Jan. 28. The annual
meeting of the Huron-Perth
Presbyterial United Church Women
will be in Fullerton on Monday, Jan.
30 with registration at 9:30 a.m.
The community dinner was
announced for Friday, Feb. 3 at
noon. Guest speaker will be Jim
Armstrong of Brussels speaking
about his airplanes. Everyone
welcome. The next UCW meeting
wil be Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. at
the home of Gladys Van Camp and
Nancy Jardin. Everyone welcome.
The World Day of Prayer was
announced for Friday, March 2 at 2
p.m.
It was decided to make beef pieson Feb. 14 and 15, and orders can begiven to Barbara Anderson at 357-3317 or any member of the UCW.Those able to help would be
appreciated.By Linda
Campbell
Call
357-2188
PEOPLE AROUNDBELGRAVE
NEWS
FROM BELGRAVE
Fire solution to be ‘tailored’ to Morris-Turnberry
Continued from page 1
assets.
Exploration of the possibility of a
Morris-Turnberry fire service dates
back to March 2009, shortly after
North Huron announced it would
pull out of the Wingham Area Fire
Board at the end of 2009 but would
offer fire coverage to parts of
Morris-Turnberry from stations in
Wingham and Blyth of a new North
Huron Fire Department.
At the time a letter from North
Huron promised that terms would
probably be similar to what Morris-
Turnberry was currently paying as
part of its share of the Blyth and the
Wingham area fire boards. In 2009
Morris-Turnberry spent $125,236 in
operating costs, not including capital
costs, for the two fire departments.
When the quote arrived at
$211,676 based on a five year
contract, Morris-Turnberry balked,
and signed on only for two years,
which meant that the agreement,
along with other agreements
negotiated with Huron East and
Howick, came up for renewal at the
end of 2011.
In 2011, council spent a total of
$270,035 for purchased fire
protection from three departments as
well as the services of a fire
education officer. But when the
proposals for a new five-year
agreement from the fire services
were opened in August, councillors
were stunned to see that the cost of
fire service would increase to
$313,227 by the end of the contracts.
From that point on the exploration
of setting up Morris-Turnberry fire
service was explored.
“It is the responsibility of the
Council of Morris-Turnberry to
provide high level fire protection
services to its residents and
businesses,” Gowing said in the
press release. “The investment of
time, effort and money by Morris-
Turnberry to develop its own fire
service will result in services tailored
to our community and delivered in
the most cost effective way.”
He said the municipalities from
which Morris-Turnberry buys fire
services had not been informed of
the new plans in advance, but had
been sent a copy of the press release.
Vincent ‘can’t see where’ M-T fire plan comes from
Continued from page 1
the responsibility.
“When the fire boards dissolved
North Huron said they were backing
out and said we would buy service if
someone would take the liability and
responsibility of having the
department,” he said. “The liability
and responsibility made us back out.
I’ve learned a tremendous amount
about the law and fire departments
and volunteer fire departments and
they aren’t easy or cheap to run.”
Vincent said that after a recent
meeting in Lambton Shores, there’s
a group of municipal representatives
working on behalf of 40 volunteer
firefighters trying to make the rules
more manageable and he doesn’t
understand why anyone would want
to get involved with building a fire
service if it wasn’t absolutely
necessary.
“I just can’t see where they are
coming from,” he said. “I know
some councillors from Morris-
Turnberry have attended the same
sessions I have regarding
firefighting essentials and I don’t
know where they think this will go.”
Vincent said the decision caught
both him and his council off-guard.
“The only thing I can say is that
approximately one-third of the
FDNH’s $658,000 operational
budget comes from Morris-
Turnberry,” he said. “If I’ve read this
information right they plan on
having two-thirds as many
firefighters as North Huron does and
they’re going to need to pay for that
and all the startup things they need.”
Vincent said that, in his mind, the
costing doesn’t make sense. A new
tanker truck will cost more than
$300,000 and, with the lack of fire
hydrants throughout Morris-
Turnberry, the service will require at
least two: one pumper for each of
the proposed station.
“They’re going to need to build a
strong case for Morris-Turnberry
ratepayers to allow this to proceed,”
Vincent said. “Morris-Turnberry
council can legally do whatever they
want but I’m sure there will be
people who won’t want the
increased taxes this will bring.”
Vincent said he will wait to see the
business plan that is reportedly
going to be available in the next
month to see how starting from
scratch, having to build fire halls and
buy trucks, will work into Morris-
Turnberry’s budget.
“When North Huron amalgamated
the two fire departments [in Blyth
and Wingham] it was a daunting
task,” he said. “This is going to be
even more so.”
Vincent said that if Morris-
Turnberry was able to provide
comparable coverage for less, it was
good for them.
“More power to them if they can
provide fire protection cheaper,” he
said. “But North Huron, when we
put together our two stations, did it
as economically feasibly as possible
without sacrificing safety.”
Vincent also stated that the
operational budget that Morris-
Turnberry pays into doesn’t cover
the buildings used by the FDNH.
“Those expenses are borne by
North Huron and North Huron
alone,” he said. “That will be
one more expense they’re looking
at.”
FDNH Chief John Black stated
that from his perspective it was too
early to see how covering less of an
area would affect the costs for the
annual operational budget.
“Anything that is going to happen
is going to happen too far down the
road for us to comment on it,” he
said. “Any changes will be decided
by North Huron council when the
time comes.
Murray tells parish to ‘think globally and act locally’
Doug Walker greeted worshippers
and handed out the service of
worship at Knox United Church on
Sunday, Jan. 29.
Rev. Tom Murray welcomed the
congregation. Steve Coultes went
over the announcements. Birthday
greetings were extended to Barbara
Anderson on her 90th birthday
and to Catherine Coultes on her
birthday.
Rev. Tom lit the Christ Candle as a
sign of God’s Spirit at work in the
world. The hymn “Great is Thy
Faithfulness” was sang by the
congregation followed by the call to
worship which was read
responsively. “Hear Us, O Father”
was sang by the senior choir
followed by Tom sharing with the
children. The children gathered at
the back table. Rev. Tom displayed
three stars and a rock. The stars are
not only in God’s majestic universe.
We are all stars because we are all
God’s creations.
The stars represent the good things
within us that we share with each
other. The rock could represent Baby
Jesus in the cradle or be a decoration
in a garden or it could be used to hurt
other people. After prayer the
children adjourned to Sunday
School.
After the singing of “Spirit, Spirit
of Gentleness”, Tom read the
scripture taken from Joel 2: 23-32
and Luke 18: 9-14.
God’s word was entitled,
“Encounter…the Real!” We have not
gathered here this morning to
proclaim to God our assets and
accomplishments. We are here in this
place at this time to humble
ourselves before the Majesty of
Almighty God. We come in the need
of God’s forgiveness and grace to
live life truly. Before God we stand,
humble and hopeful seeking God’s
forgiveness and fulfillment.
Somedays everything goes right,
while other days everything goes
wrong. We must continue always to
“think globally and act locally!”
On the table there were two
objects; one with reminders of our
capacity for sinfulness, rock and the
other a reminder of our capacity for
saintliness, a star.
Take these objects into your
mind and heart knowing what they
mean.
Doug Walker and Ken Procter took
up the offering followed by the
offering praise and the offertory
prayer. The closing hymn, “Christ is
Alive”, the sending forth and the
singing of “Go Now in Peace” and
the grace, “For All Your Goodness,
God,” concluded the morning
worship service.
The congregation adjourned to the
lower hall for lunch and the annual
meeting.
There were seven tables of shoot
in play at the Community Centre on
Friday, Jan. 27. The winners were:
high pink card, Mary McIntosh;
second high pink card, Mary Taylor;
most shoots pink card, Lillian
Appleby; high white card, Ron
Taylor; second high white card, Ken
Spears; most shoots white card,
Charlie Shaw.
The next shoot party is on
Friday, Feb. 10. Everyone is
welcome.
The community extends sincere
sympathy to Ted and Lois Moran
and all families in the loss of a dear
brother Stephen Moran who passed
away at Wingham and District
Hospital on Jan. 17.
Nineteen family members and
friends celebrated Barbara
Anderson’s 90th birthday with a
family dinner on Saturday, Jan. 28
at the home of Ross and Barbara
Anderson.
The community extends special
birthday greetings to Barbara
Anderson on her 90th birthday Jan.
27.
MEETING NOTICE
MUNICIPALITY OF
MORRIS-TURNBERRY
The upcoming Council and Committee meetings for the
Municipality of Morris-Turnberry will be held:
Monday February 6 at 5:30 pm Special Council Meeting
Tuesday February 7 at 7:30 pm Regular Council Meeting
Wednesday February 8 at 7:00 pm Budget Meeting
Tuesday February 21 at 7:30 pm Regular Council Meeting
Anderson marks 90th birthday