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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 1997-04-30, Page 28PAGE 28. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30,1997 Proposal for $264,000 software system raises questions Negotiations have begun with a London computer software compa ny for an integrated computer sys tem for the county administration but some councillors questioned the speed at which the project was moving ahead. George Lykoudis and Edward Travis-Smith of Auto Administra tor, a company that provides man agement programs for 460 municipalities in Canada, outlined the benefits of their system at the April 24 meeting of county council. The system would cost $264,000 plus taxes. Designed to integrate all computers in the county system, it would require a further $10,000- $12,000 to let the Macintosh com puters in the county system work with the DOS-based machines. "I'm surprised we've come to the point where we are choosing a sup plier when we were just given per mission to ask for proposals," objected Brian McBumey, reeve of Turnberry. McBurney also ques tioned County Treasurer Ken Nix on the. expense. Nix, when he received council's permission to ask for proposals, had estimated the cost at about $200,000. Nix admitted the price was high er than he'd been led to believe but said $45,000 of the $265,000 was for equipment so only $220,000 was for the software and imple mentation. McBumey pointed out the cost of additional software to link the Macintosh and DOS machines is not mentioned, nor are taxes included in the price. Bill Mickle, reeve of Exeter, wondered why the county's usual tender process wasn't followed. Nix replied that it was difficult to tender for information systems. There were three original proposals, he said. One did not meet the require ments. Of the other two proposals, Auto Administrator seemed to fit the county's needs best, Nix said. Mason Bailey, reeve of Blyth, felt that with councillors in the last year of their term, it would be hasty to make a decision on such a major County council briefs With the ground-rules completely changed by the report of the Who Does What committee, Huron County has decided to call a "tem porary pause" in merger negotia tions between the Huron County and Perth County Health Units. While Huron will continue to use the services of Dr. $usan Tamblyn, Perth's Medical Officer of Health, it has decided not to proceed toward the Sept. 1 target for merger of the two health units until it gets more information from the province. The most recent informa tion from the province is that public health wjll become exclusively a municipal responsibility. Given that changed reality, questions asked in the report of the Huron County board of health include: •Is the rationale outlined initially for the Huron and Perth merger still relevant? •Does proceeding with the merg er continue to offer advantages for a merged health unit that could not be realized as individual units? •Is a merger with Perth District Health Unit still the best decision for the Huron County Health Unit? Meanwhile, Huron has agreed to pay $3,750 monthly to Perth for the services of Dr. Tamblyn as acting MOH for Huron as well as travel expenses of 31 cents per km. *** 'Huron County recently visited Toronto to make a presentation to the $tanding Committee on General Government reviewing Bill 109, proposed changes to the Public Library Act. The county wanted to point out the impact the legislation will have on rural libraries, said Tom Cunningham, reeve of Hullett and chair of the Social and Cultural Services Committee. Beth Ross, chief librarian, said the county delegation pointed out that proposed fees allowed do not have the potential for generating revenue in a rural library to make up for the loss in provincial govern ment funding proposed under the bill. There were 120 presentations to the committee in four days, Ross said. "It was a good presentation and it was well received," said Warden Murray Keyes, "but that doesn't necessarily mean anything." *** The county's Planning and Development Department will enter into an agreement xyith the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority to provide "environmen tal planning services" as needed for the rest of 1997. The service used to be provided as part of their mandate by the four conservation authorities that serve the county but with the reduction in provincial funding for the authori ties, they no longer have the staff to provide the service free. If environmental advice is need ed on an application for changes such as and official plan amend ment or a severance, the applicant will be charged the service by the conservation authority at rates from $50 to a minor variance to $100 for a rezoning request. At the end of 1997, the depart ment will call for tenders for the service for the coming year. *** The county continues to negoti ate with the Ministry of Natural Resources over the agreement through which the MNR was to maintain the county-owned forests. Since government cuts, MNR no longer has the staff to do the job but county officials feel the min istry still wants to have the same control over the forests without doing the work. The county feels if MNR had been doing selective log ging over the years the amount the county owes for the MNR's ser vices would be much lower. The county has asked for an up- to-date analysis of costs on the agreement forest properties from MNR. *** Huron County continues to have one of the lowest rates of people on welfare in Ontario. As of Decem ber, Huron was seventh lowest with 1.9 per cent of the population on welfare compared to 11.02 per cent in Cornwall. As of March 21, Huron had 48 people working on 19 community projects under the Ontario Works program. Thirteen more such pro jects are anticipated. To date, 10 people have left the Ontario Works program: four find ing jobs, one entering a training program, two who moved and two terminated for not obeying the pro gram's rules. Negotiations between Auto Administrator and the Administra tion, Finance and Personnel com mittee will continue. The matter will be brought back to the council in June. purchase. "I wonder if we should get information in place but leave the decision for the next council." ‘Wedding’ Rehearsal The Blyth Festival invites you to the wedding of Gail Gunderson and Brad Underwood in the Blyth Memorial Hall, Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3. The wedding is the theme for Gail and Brad's Marvelous Wedding Adventure, the Festival’s latest mystery dinner/theatre production, from the same folks who staged 1996’s Come Back to the Gym, Mary Lou, Mary Lou. Part of the cast, from left: Kira Stuckey as the blushing bride, Floyd Herman as Father Doug Gravely, Anne Elliott as Granny Greta and Rob Bundy as Ned Hammersmith, attorney-at-law. Bundy did double-duty as playwright for Gail and Brad. Show tickets for the 8 p.m. production are available by calling the Blyth Festival Box Office at 523-9300. (News- Record photo) Exceptional Value! 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