HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-03-26, Page 1Huron County has a new
community notification system, and
now, it needs the community’s help.
Prism 911, a system purchased
from the City of Quinte West, should
be up and running by November.
The system is ideal for widespread
community notifications like boil
water advisories, missing children
alerts, flood events, chemical spills
and crime alerts. Prism will multiply
the amount of people notified in an
hour by the old system, often
flyering or door-to-door
notifications, being capable of
reaching at least 400 houses per
hour.
However, if neighbouring
municipalities adopt the system as
well, in the event of an emergency,
their systems can be used as well,
doubling or tripling the amount of
people that can be notified.
Prism, which stands for Protective
Response Interactive Services
Management, will be dependent on
public co-operation, needing Huron
County residents to fill out
information forms with their names,
addresses and phone numbers to
equip the system with what it needs
to perform.
Forms will be going out soon,
asking for the pertinent information
back from residents so that a
community database can be built
and the system can be effective.
Huron County warden Ken Oke
announced the system last week in
Goderich, calling it fiscally-
responsible, but reiterating that it
will need the public’s support to get
off the ground.
“With up to 430 calls going out
per hour, we could inform everyone
in the affected area about a boil
water advisory in an hour or less,” he
said. “This whole process should
cost about $100, compared to the
thousands we would have paid
before.”
Not only can the web-based Prism
system reach hundreds of people in
one hour, but calls can begin less
than 20 minutes after an emergency.
The affected area can be identified
and once the message is recorded by
a member of the staff, calls can
begin going out within minutes to
those in the area.
In the coming weeks,
representatives from Huron County
will be visiting the lower-tier
municipalities to brief them on the
system and ask for co-operation with
this system that “Huron County can
be proud of,” said Oke.
With the system currently in place
in Quinte West, where it was
developed, Huron County will now
begin working with the developers
to implement the system and adapt it
to Huron County.
Prism was initially developed by
Quinte West city staff in late 2006.
For the development of Prism, the
City of Quinte West won the E.A.
Danby award in 2008. The award is
given in recognition of outstanding
achievement in improving
performance in the category of
municipal administration.
For more information, visit
www.huroncounty.ca or contact
David Lew, emergency medical
services manager for Huron County
at 519-524-8394 extension 507.
Prism 911
Huron County announced the purchase of a new community notification system called Prism
911 last week. They are currently implementing the same system used and developed in the
City of Quinte West and collecting information. They hope to actually launch the system in
November. From left: Gary Wood, emergency manager co-ordinator; Paul Josling, Blyth fire
chief and Huron County fire co-ordinator; Don Grant, OPP inspector and David Lew,
emergency medical services manager for Huron County. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
County purchases Prism 911
About 40 Morris-Turnberry
residents turned out at Bluevale Hall,
March 19 to hear about upcoming
changes in fire protection. Most of
those present expressed distress at the
plan to dissolve the fire area boards in
Blyth, and particularly Wingham.
After a presentation by the
municipality to explain North
Huron's decision to pull out of the
Wingham Area Fire Board and not
renew the Blyth District Fire Area
Board agreement at the end of this
year, the public discussion was
kicked off by a letter being read from
George Underwood of Turnberry
Ward. He said he was severely
disappointed and frustrated that a
successful fire department has been
“allowed to slip away”.
Deputy-mayor Jim Nelemans said
when North Huron had announced its
plans to pull out, Morris-Turnberry
indicated its interest in continuing to
operate the board, along with
Howick, and selling service to North
Huron. He said they were told that
North Huron would not purchase
service from that department.
When one questioner suggested the
other municipalities go ahead
anyway, Nelemans said it would
mean maintaining a fire hall in
Wingham while North Huron built a
new hall just down the street. Since
then, Howick has also opted to take
over the Gorrie fire station and start
its own department.
John Underwood questioned what
the “procedural and governance
issues” were that North Huron cited
as its reason for cancelling the
agreement. Jamie Zimmerman of the
Ontario Fire Marshal’s office
explained the fire chief reports to
council. With district fire boards, the
chief reports to a number of councils.
In Morris-Turnberry’s case, there are
two boards in Wingham and Blyth.
John Stafford, a former Howick
reeve, said he was involved in
drafting the agreement for the
Wingham board 25 years ago. Prior to
that the township had purchased fire
protection from Clifford, Teeswater,
Wingham, Harriston and Listowel.
“We had no control over the budget.
We helped pay for stations all about
us but we owned nothing.”
After a quarter century of the
Wingham fire board working, “I hate
like hell to see it go down the drain,”
Stafford said.
The subject of the value of the
assets of the Wingham and Gorrie fire
stations generated a good deal of
discussion. The Wingham agreement
says there should be two appraisals of
the assets conducted if the board is
dissolved, but only one company was
originally found to do the study. Later
Morris-Turnberry found another
company that could be approached
but Howick and North Huron
members of the Wingham board
voted against seeking another
appraisal.
Councillor Lynn Hoy pointed out
the appraisers had arrived in snowy
weather and didn’t spend much time
before they headed back to the city —
and in fact never visited the Gorrie
station.
Nelemans pointed out that since
Howick is getting the assets of the
Gorrie station in the dissolution, an
undervaluing of assets is in its favour.
Harley Gaunt, chief of the
Wingham department said he didn’t
think an adequate appraisal had been
done with many smaller items, worth
$400-$500 each not included. Taken
together, these added up to a lot of
money.
Joe Seili, mayor of Huron East,
warned that changes in the dispatch
system for all Huron fire departments
are in the process of being made, and
a delay in settling fire boundaries for
different departments will cost
money. (Morris-Turnberry as
indicated it will buy service for part
of Morris Ward from the Brussels fire
station but has not yet set the
boundaries of the coverage.)
Seili argued that purchase of
equipment had always been a
contentious issue when several
municipalities operated a joint fire
board. He called a situation where
one municipality owned the fire
department and sold fire service “a
common sense approach”.
Also not supporting the council’s
position was former Morris reeve
Keith Johnston. “To me this is a step
in the right direction,” he said of the
proposed change. Although he had
served on the fire boards, Morris-
Turnberry had never controlled any
costs, he said.
He ridiculed the suggestion made
by some at the meeting that Morris-
Turnberry should set up its own fire
department. “There aren’t enough
people to set up a department in
Morris-Turnberry,” he said. “Anyone
in this room knows Morris-Turnberry
can’t afford to set up our own
department.”
Johnston suggested there will be
more municipal amalgamations in the
future and it would be foolish to have
a Morris-Turnberry department.
Council has asked staff to prepare a
study of the cost of setting up its own
department. One questioner at the
meeting wondered if Wingham
firefighters might leave that
department and join a new
department if it was started.
Zimmerman noted that though
most municipalities have their own
fire department, there are many that
don’t, including Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh in Huron County.
“The reality is the fire boards are
dissolving,” he said. “We have to look
at the options.”
Fire board issue
gets folks fired up
CitizenTh
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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 26, 2009
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