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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1982-03-31, Page 6r.. r. • edItcr;I al The' • LUCKNOW SENTINEL "Te Sepoy Town" . EatabUsbed'1873 The hospital requires SHARON J. DI.ETZ - Editor PAT LIVINGSTON Office Manager MERLE .ELLIOTT = Typesetter JOAN,. HELM - Compositor, • Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, March 31 Business and Editorial Office Telephone 528-2822 Mailing'Address P.O. Box 400, Lucknow, NOG 2H0 Second Class. Mail Registration Number.0847 • • Subscription rate, $14.50 per year In advance Senior Citizen rate', $12.00 per year In advance U.S.A. and Foreign, 538.00 per, year in advance Sr. Cit. U.S.A. Ind Foreign, $36.00 per year in advance community support and one foot in the furrow The report of the Wingh am District Hospital .. pital b oard's long range planning committee is of special interest to this community, especially since it proposes a new addition to the hospital, when the area municipalities are currently helping to fund a $500,000 building project just being completed at the hospital. The building project, now in the final 'stages at the hospital, accommodates the expansion of the hospital's laboratory and physiotherapy unit, the relocation of the rehabilitation • centre and stroke services and provides additional space for the radiology. department, offices and staff change rooms. The long range planning report indicates a major expansion of hospital services. by building a new addition is necessary, because many of the services being' offered by the 'hospital now are woefully cramped for space and are anxious to expand their programs. The hospital must also look ahead to providing new services .which are needed at the hospital now, but cannot be provided for lack of space: Expand Outpatient Services At a meeting of the board in January of 1981. when the long 'range planning committee was established, it was pointed out by Dr. J. C. McKim of Lucknow that the hospital will be in real ,trouble if it does not .plan to expand emergency and outpatient.departments within the next few years. "We might as well think about closing Our doors right now and becoming nothing more than a nursing home," Dr. McKim commented. The long range proposal schedules the new addition to be built within the next two years. It will provide facilities for an expanded emergency outpatient department and medical ' consultant office space, the creation of a proper Intensive Care Unit and a Coronary Care Unit, an expanded radiology department, increased space for the Mental Health Resource Centre and spacefor the Huron Centre for Youth and Children. The new addition would also permit space to allow a physician to consult with a patient using the telehealth equipment •and education program. It would also permit geriatric care and chronic care programs tobe put in place. The public must start . to realize that' the hospital is offering services never envisualized when the hospital was first ,built. Services such as the Mental Health Resource Centre, stroke services, rehabilitation centre, chronic, care programs and geriatric) services were not a part of a hospital's program of care even '15 years ago.•. Require Community Fanding The .public must also consider that the Ministry of Health expects capital programs whether they be to build additions to house expanded facilities and new programs or to Provide new equipment for the hospital, must be provided by community funding. The ministry is having trouble funding theoperating costs of our hospital as indicated in the Wingham hospital's current deficit funding situation.` The community will have to support the hospital financially more in the future than it has, in the recent past, since the Ontario government 'took over responsibility for funding our health care system. The role of our hospital is changing. Many treatment programs dornot require a patient stay overnight in hospital and indeed to reduce the operating costs of the hospital and to avoid a deficit situation, the hospital strives to provide as. much outpatient treatment as possible. Expanded emer- gency and outpatient facilities are a .very° real necessity at Wingham hospital. There is no doubt that the new addition at the hospital is necessary and the community, must be educated that funding arrangements with the ministry have a ¢hanged and the government isn't going to provide such funding. They will contribute perhaps, but the major portion of the money raised will come from the community. The hospital has a very strong'. emotional attachment to the community it serves: As observed by the •emotional outbreak at the time the Ministry of Health closed•acute care beds at the hospital, the community, is very close to its hospital. The community is served well by the Wingham and District Hospital and we do not want it relegated to the status of a sorting station for bigger treatment centres in the city nor do ' we want. it to become a nursing home undertaking only chronic care. The hospital board is preparing a fundraisiing proposal which will involve the efforts of every resource they can find. It is up to the community to become educated about the needs of the hospital and. to learn why a ,newaddition is necessary and why the community is/expected to provide the funds. The Wingham and District Hospital Board deserves our support. 1982—Page 6 by bob trotter It comes every year as the wonder of wonders. The snow, although heaped and piled and blown and dirty, has met the enemy, the inexorable heat of the spring sun, and everything comes slowly to life. Those of us who live close to the soil could bend; kneel and touch our brows to the bare soil. It seems so exciting to see • it uncovered' again. Why are so many people in this social structure of ours ashamed of the earth? To those in fine raiment, it seems indelicate, the good common coarseness of earth. Instead of seeking an association with earth which is the renewal of life every year, we devise methods to obliterate it. We cover it with concrete and asphalt as though ashamed to have itstick to our shoes, let alone, our hands. . The spring runoff gurgles through the ditches: The crows are calling and the . robins are" back. At least; the braver members of ,the flocks are chirping on the ground as the snow recedes. The moist, cool freshness of the air renews the very, tnarrow of the bones. • Assuredly, this is a royal ' time of year: fine, , cook, sparkling spring weather. The sap is running in the ample redtrees, bushes but that is not all thatis happening. There is plenty of life in the woods. The young skunks are in their burrows and the squirrels are busy tending their new families: The raccoons have been scurrying about at night for two or three weeks. Underneath what is left of the snow there is a veritable city. You can see the "streets" in the ground when the snow melts. They are the channels used by the mice throughout the winter, just as complicated • as the overpasses, underpasses and clover- leaves along Highway 401. The whole neighbourhood pulses with action and life. The horses seem full of extra vigor when they can get through the muck—and—mud of the barnyard coral. The colt, patchy and ratty looking as he sheds his winter coat; is showing signs of becoming the thick necked, broad backed quarter horse.we hoped for when he came into the world less than a year ago. Spring is gaining but winter does not leave without a fight. Night frosts and late flurries of snow - sometimes even a major storm - remind us that winter is a powerful force. But never too powerful for spring. . Summer is ^ sweet and fall is a beautiful time of ,year but spring seems tobring out the best in all of us. The popularity of maple syrup festivals is an indication that the new- ness of spring even touches those who have been spending the winter at other things. The 'big boom began in Elmira 17 years ago and now a dozen • or more towns and villages across the ' country have carried on the idea. But spring affects the farmer more than any group of people in our society. I remember my .grandfather - we called him Grumpy because he was ' gruff on the outside and tender inside - would walk across the muddy fields in early' spring, smelling the air and actually feeling the ground. He was .a born farmer and had an instinct that told him when to plow and when to plant. Neighbours in the area . would ''watch his 'gardens. He knew when to plant just by smelling the air, he said. He knew if a sudden _storm was coming. He just knew. It' is a thrill for farmers to get on the land, to start' another year in the great and glorious cycle ordained by God. Itis easy for .me to understand why . . farmers, as a group, are more honest and genuine than 'almost any otherin the nation: - All the more reason, I think, that their plight should be studied and understood by, the rest of the nation. by don campbelI Neil MacCrimmon would never have envisioned himself as a leader. Born in a humble Highland croft and with only the minimumof education, he could not have guessed how his presence inspired the Friends of Skye. But a leader he was, and he planned the journey to the rolling hills north- west of Bolton Town, as if he had been. an e,iperienced trail master. Including .the four wagons belong- ing to Ian Jamieson., there were in all, some thirty-four vehicles and teams of horses, At MacCrimmon's suggestion, there were also four sturdy mounts ridden by individuals not otherwise engaged in drivingthe wagons. Before starting off, MacCrimmon assembled all the people together, and gave them precise instructions. ' "The Reverend Duncan MacLeod will ride ahead of the wagon train for a few miles, tae find a place where we' willrest frae the • night. It will, I think, be in a wee community.called Weston, near the banks of this Humber River. We shall gae along the river trail until we reach that place." MacCrimmon had overlooked very little. He tried to visualize --the obstac- les which lay ahead, so that. he could obviate some of the difficulties which might otherwise have impeded the journey.- "The,road will ne be easy, sae the four riding horses will be in front, ready to pull any wagon through earth which is soft from the spring thaw." To 'David Grant he said: , "Ye and Chippy Chisholm will stay at the end of the line sae that we may mend any wheels' which need repair. Addressing. them all, he said: ° "There will be nae need frae a woman to cook frae one family. Food will be drawn frae the supplies 0' Captain • Jamieson. Frae some time, taecome, we shall live and eat together as one family. 'Twill make it easier tae journey that way." So it was, tat on ;Wednesday,. April' 26th, 1843, a .long line of wagons, people band , beasts moved north on the road close to the once mighty Humber River. It was by • necessity that MacCrimmon set a slow pace. There were oxen and milking cows, tethered behind some of the wagons, which needed to proceed at a leisurely gait. From within some of the vehicles could be heard the bleating of sheep, the squealing of pigs and the ' cackling of chickens: ; It"was "indeed a most unusual sight. Farming people still not engaged upon the land, gathered at their fence lines to watch the procession wending its way northwards, At the sound of Gaelic voices, the more knowledge- able amongst them .would enlighten , their families as to . the origin of the newcomers. "Some more of Lyon Mackenzie's kind - rough, arrogant and stubborn people. They are either fighting for you or fighting against your The travellers, of course; were oblivious to the opinions of the estab- lished settlers. They had only one earnest desire; to reach the "promised land", and were happy. • to find strength and comfort in being together again after such a long absence. There was one vehicle near the ;end, of the procession, which was more elaborate than the rest. It was painted like a coach, and its occupants were protected -by a wooden structure rather than a covering of canvas, At the reins was Doctor James Cameron and his ' beautiful wife, . Jane (nee Dove). Weston was well known to people who had settled. to the northwest of. Toronto. For some it was the only place where a farmer could bring grain to be milled into flour. The, great power. of the Humber . River was utilized to turn the milling stones: It was said that many carried sacks of grain on their backs for ten Or more miles to return with flour fortheir family's bread. " in the late afternoon, the Reverend Duncan MacLeod returned to the lead wagon, and shouted to its driver: "I have found a. Place ahead, MacCrimmon, where we can camp the night. It is owned by fellow high- lander, who says there will be' no charge, except a . tune from the MacCrimmon pipes!''