HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-04-21, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011.Councils start fire agreement boundary processAfter nearly two years of debate,Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh
(ACW) and North Huron Township
Councils sat down on Thursday,
April 14 and decided to work
towards a fire coverage agreement
for the southern-most point of ACW,
including a portion of the village of
Auburn.
Both councils and North Huron
Fire Chief John Black agreed, with
the support of the Ontario Fire
Marshal, that a meeting between
Black, Lucknow Fire Chief Peter
Steer and the Huron County’s
Geographic Information System’s
(GIS) specialists could overcome
problems ACW councillors saw with
a proposed coverage area that the
North Huron Fire
Department presented to ACW two
years ago.
Through working together, the two
chiefs and the GIS will be able to
determine who can best respond to
which areas, and eventually have a
fire service agreement put in place
that will, ideally, have the quickest,
if not the closest, fire department
responding to fires.
The new boundary that will be set
by the two chiefs and the GIS will be
returned to North Huron and ACW
councils at a later date to be
discussed.
The meeting was far from smooth,
however, as coverage areas, North
Huron’s fire budget and ACW’s fire
service agreements for other areas
were all inspected or referenced
throroughly.
After the amalgamation of the
North Huron Fire Department,
which started as the Wingham and
Blyth Fire Departments, ACW saw a
dramatic increase in the cost for fire
coverage for an area around Auburn
as provided by firefighters out of the
Blyth fire hall.
This led ACW council to seek
another form of fire protection, and
resulted in the Central Huron and
North Huron parts of Auburn being
covered by the North Huron Fire
Department out of the Blyth fire hallwhile Lucknow and Central HuronFire Departments covered ACW’sportion of the village andsurrounding area.
After several meetings with
concerned citizens, and some
miscommunication between local
fire departments and ACW Council,
councillors at ACW decided to seek
the April 14 meeting to discuss fire
coverage with North Huron.
ACW Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek
stated that, right from the start of the
meeting, his council was there to
arrange fire protection from North
Huron’s Fire Department.
“First of all, we are looking to buy
a service from you for the area
around Auburn,” he said.
However, before the two councils
could decide whether they could
work together, Van Diepenbeek and
several other councillors stated that
they wondered where the final price
tag of $20,900 came from, and how
it would be affected by North Huron
covering a smaller area.
ACW council members stated that
they were having far larger areas
cared for by other departments for
far less.
North Huron Fire Chief John
Black explained that, when the
original agreement was presented to
ACW, it wasn’t based on area,
assesment or population, but based
on historic contributions to the Blyth
Fire Board, of which ACW was a
part.
Black took the Blyth Fire Board,
which ACW paid approximately six
per cent into, and used that as a base
line.
When amalgamating the two
departments, he took their final,
estimated budget, and assigned a
value to all neighbouring
communities based on their former
contributions to fireboards.
ACW received an estimate of
$20,900 because that was
approximately three per cent of the
final budget for the North Huron
Fire Department (since the budget
was for two departments, ACW’s
weighting was divided in half).
Once the budget had been
explained, and ACW councillors had
their questions answered regarding
further increases, they seemed
content with the idea, as their
percentage of the fire protection
budget would be unlikely to change
without direct intervention by the
councils involved.
The budget, which called for a
three-times-higher payment by
ACW than previous payments, was
designed to anticipate replacement
of equipment and vehicles and treat
them as operational costs instead of
capital costs.
Black explained that by doing this
he prevented large spikes in the price
of fire coverage by building a
reserve and planning for the
replacement of trucks and
equipment.
He also stated that, by removing
ACW and the other municipalities
from the ownership of assets of the
fire department, they also would
have any liability removed in
relation to the equipment and
vehicles.
Having had this explained to them,
ACW councillors began to shift their
focus to determining a coverage
area.
While this had been a thorny issue
in the past, Van Diepenbeek
explained that the original coverage
area wouldn’t work well due to
roads that aren’t maintained in the
winter, or aren’t there.
“Some of the roads that are on that
map that serve as the division line
don’t exist,” he said. “That’s where
we have a problem with the coverage
area defined.
“It might be quicker for Lucknow
to get to some areas just because
there are roads that aren’t passable
year-round, and there are places
where roads don’t traverse the
[Saratoga Swamp] that would make
responding to a call difficult,” Van
Diepenbeek said.
The resulting discussion led to the
two council’s decision to have the
GIS and the two fire
chiefs determine the best coverage
areas.
By Denny ScottThe Citizen
Seeing what’s what
Most of North Huron Township Council, including Deputy-Reeve Riach (middle) and Councillor
Brock Vodden (left), shown here, received a tour of the Emergency Services Training Centre
new building in Blyth from North Huron Fire Chief John Black (right) and Deputy Fire Chief
David Sparling (not pictured) on Thursday, April 7. Fires in ACW may be covered by
firefighters and equipment stored in the ESTC if an agreement between North Huron and
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh can be reached. (Denny Scott photo)
Accept God’s love to empower better behaviours
Continued from page 15
‘respectable’ indiscretions (greed,
slander, lies). Instead, when we
accept God’s love for us as His
people chosen in Christ, the Holy
Spirit empowers us to clothe
ourselves with better behaviours:
“compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience.” (3:12)
New FELLOWSHIP – the reality
of death with Christ to the ‘old self’
makes possible a radical new
identity and incorporation into a
godly type of society with other
believers. The old categories by
which people self-identified for
reasons of comparison or pride, that
separated us socially, diminish in
distinctiveness. “Here there is no
Greek or Jew, circumcised or
uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave or free, but Christ is all, and is
in all.” (3:11) Instead being alive in
Christ gives us grace to “forgive as
the Lord forgave you”; to bear with
each other, forgive grievances, and
experience a new loving unity.
(3:13f)
The inter-church event in Blyth on
April 17, “Walk the Story of Holy
Week with Jesus”, was a small taste
of the kind of loving community I
think Paul had in mind. We travelled
from church to church, experiencing
different modes of worship, a variety
of liturgical formats and music. But
in each case Jesus was the focus; as
a group of Christian believers,
traditional religious distinctions
paled as we searched out the
meaning of His centrality in our
lives, guided by His story through
Scripture.
When it comes to reports of our
demise – we who have died with
Christ need to emphasize that fact
more! That makes way for the
resurrection-power of His renewal
to become exhibited in our daily
lives.
Then the true joy of Easter will
become what most satisfies us and
matters to us. In the words of a song
(In Christ Alone) by Stuart Townend
and Keith Getty: “'Till on that cross
as Jesus died / The wrath of God was
satisfied / For every sin on Him was
laid / Here in the death of Christ I
live / …Then bursting forth in
glorious Day / Up from the grave He
rose again / And as He stands in
victory / Sin's curse has lost its grip
on me / For I am His and He is mine
/ Bought with the precious blood of
Christ.”
Continued from page 3
auditorium. Lorna Fraser,
superintendent of the Sunday school
welcomed everyone to the Sunday
school’s Palm Sunday play. She
drew everyone’s attention to the
announcements printed in the
bulletins.
The children are still collecting
pennies for Pader.
The children sang the song
“Rejoice” with adults joining in. The
call to worship “O God We Call”
was sung followed by the prayer of
approach repeated responsively. The
scripture was from Matthew 21: 1-3,
read by Brett Glousher. The children
sang, “When They Heard That Jesus
Was Coming” with Sadie Chalmers
singing the solo parts. The children
taking part in the play were Connor
Brooks and Joseph Pizzati, taking
turns playing Murray; Candice
Abell-Rinn and Quinton Hakkers,
disciples; Grace Hallahan, Reid
Button, Braydon Abell-Rinn were
the customers and the rest of the
children were in the parade. The
play told a story of “Murray’s Used
Donkies,” a story of the disciples
coming to get a donkey that had
never been ridden. They told the
story of how they changed the life of
Murray into being a believer.
The children sang the last verses
of “When They Heard That Jesus
Was Coming” with Sadie singing the
solo part. The children performed
the second part to their play. All the
children followed the donkey in the
Palm Parade and sang, “You are
Holy” around the Sunday school
auditorium. The offering was
received followed by the prayer of
dedication and the singing of “Give
Me Oil in My Lamp”. The Prayers
for the World and the singing of the
Lord’s Prayer were followed by the
last hymn “Hosanna, Loud
Hosanna,” the commissioning and
benediction. Everyone was invited
for birthday cake and refreshments
to celebrate the April birthdays.
Blyth United youth flex theatrical muscle with play
Continued from page 3
great food for a good cause. The
silent auction will support the Grade
8 graduation and trip to Camp
Celtic.
Currently in the Grade 6/7 class,
the students are finishing their study
of “Globes, Maps and Graphs” in
geography and will be starting a
new chapter on “Climate, Water and
Living Patterns”. The students have
begun presenting their health video
and computer projects on substance
use and abuse. In math, the class is
still continuing their chapter on
measurement and would like to
correct that a cubic metre is actually
1,000,000 cubic centimetres.
In science, the Grade 6/7 and 7/8
students have been given a new
science project called “The Big
Chill”. The students must create a
box that will keep an ice cub from
melting for as long as possible using
the knowledge they have learned in
class.
The class has also been studying
abstract art and is creating their own
piece of art using their creativity. In
language, the students have been
reading different novels in groups.
The students then must use Voice
Threads (a special computer
program) to share thoughts,
questions and pictures with each
other.
Local events serve as fundraiser
for Blyth PS Grade 8 grad trip