HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-01-06, Page 1Business Sports Review
Woman opens
pre-school
centre A.-
See page 6
Championship snowcross
races come to Walton this
weekend
See page 8
2 pages offer
introspective look
at 1998
See page 16
Blyth votes
for the north
After two split votes, broken by
Reeve Mason Bailey, Blyth village
council Monday night voted to seek
an amalgamation with East
Wawanosh and the Town of Wing
ham and any other municipality
that wished to join in.
The vote to seek partners to the
north came following defeat of an
earlier motion to join with Hullett
Twp., Goderich Twp. and the Town
of Clinton. That motion was sup
ported by Councillors Rob Lawrie
and Murray Nesbitt and opposed by
Councillors Jeff Howson and Doug
Scrimgeour. Reeve Bailey cast the
vote against the motion.
The voting was just the opposite
in the vote to seek amalgamation
with East Wawanosh and Morris
with Bailey supporting the motion.
The flurry of motions was
brought about by a letter from East
Wawanosh council stating it had
decided to seek amalgamation with
Morris and Turnberry Twps.,
despite the fact it was in favour of a
much larger amalgamation cover
ing the whole northeastern part of
the county. The East Wawanosh
letter indicated Wingham would
still be welcome to join, with the
goal to have amalgamation in place
by Jan. 1, 2000.
“East Wawanosh was wailing for
an answer from us,” said John
Stewart, clerk-treasurer. He felt the
township was afraid it might be left *
without any partners.
“It looks like we have one way to
go and one only,” said Lawrie as he
proposed a motion to join munici
palities to the south. “I think we’re
procrastinated long enough.”
But Scrimgeour said he had been
in unofficial contact with council
lors from the northern municipali
ties and they were keeping the door
open to Blyth joining them.
Howson, who had originally sup
ported an amalgamation to the
souLh, said he had spent a lot of
time thinking about the situation
and was worried not so much about
this amalgamation, but a possible
further amalgamation in the future.
While Blyth was a natural fit with
Hullett and could fit with Clinton
and Goderich, what would happen
if that group was to amalgamate
New Year
reluctant
With the blustery winter weather,
few babies seemed willing to be the
first of 1999.
By Monday afternoon, Clinton
Public Hospital had yet to declare
a first arrival while staff at Alexan
dra Marine and General, Goderich,
delivered a Jan. 1 baby.
Troy William Peters, son of
Tracey and Bill Peters of Goderich
arrived al 2:20 p.m., weighing in at
8.2 lbs. He is welcomed by his six-
year-old sister, Kaity.
Elam and Barbara Marlin of
with another of similar size three or
four years from now. Would the
group go still further south or go
east and west, perhaps including
Goderich, he wondered?
Asked by spectator Rick Mcln-
roy about the thinking behind the
councillors’ positions, Bailey said
Blyth had always fell the best
option for the county was three
lower tier municipalities each with
a population of about 20,000. This,
he said, would provide a large
enough population base to lake
over many of the functions now
carried out by the county such as
planning and development, polic
ing and inspection services.
The county would be left with
social services such as the homes
for the aged and welfare. The vil
lage still hopes to attain that goal,
Bailey said.
Such a structure would also fit
well with the restructuring Perth
County has undertaken, Bailey
said, in case the two counties
should amalgamate in the future.
“We’d all like to slay as we are
but we don’t have a choice,” Bailey
said.
As he signed the motion Bailey
said that “now we can get on to
other things” after months of
debate. But it became obvious ihe
discussion was just starting at vari
ous times during the meeting. The
first was a discussion of costing of
county-wide OPP policing services
with Lawrie worrying if Blyth
could be stuck, under an amalga
mation with Wingham, supporting
both the OPP and the Wingham
police. Scrimgeour noted that if
Blyth amalgamated with Wingham
and East Wawanosh there would
only be one municipality.
Stewart said those were ii'ie kinds
of issues that would be sorted out
by a transition board if the munici
palities decided to proceed. There
would also have to be decisions on
services such as the Wingham air
port and how the costs would be
shared. It might be possible that
Blyth would say this was a service
for Wingham only while Wingham
would say the whole area benefits,
Stewart said.
’s babies
arrivers
RRl, Wingham, greeted their
newest family member at 2:15
p.m., Jan. 3 when little Edna was
bom at Wingham and District Hos
pital.
At Listowel Memorial Hospital,
the New Year’s baby was born to
Beth Ann and Mike Mclsaac of
Gorric.
Courtney Diana Bachert, daugh
ter of Steve and Vai Bachert,
arrived at 5:38 p.m., Jan. 1 in
Welland. Sfie is the granddaughter
of Dale and Starr Bachert of Morris
Twp.
Health minister to hear ideas of DHC
In an effort to relieve the short
age of doctors in rural areas, the
Grey Bruce Huron Perth District
Health Council has made a series of
eight recommendations to Minister
of Health Elizabeth Witmer.
Working with a number of local
groups in the four-county area, the
DHC has proposed improvements
to the Underserviced Area Program
to better meet the needs of rural
communities.
The recommendations include:
•Increasing the financial incen
tive grant for physicians wishing to
establish a practice in southern
Ontario communities designated as
“medically underserviced”.
•Waiving the one-year wailing
period so that the incentive grants
can be offered immediately to
interested physicians.
•Developing separate criteria and
incentives for isolated and rural
communities versus urban centres.
•Taking a proactive approach to
underserviced designation rather
than making communities apply on
a “firstjcome, first-served” basis.
•Streamlining the re-application
process for communities that have
already been designated as “under
OPP stop 6,079
in RIDE check
Huron OPP stopped 6,079 vehi
cles between Dec. 1 and Jan. 4 dur
ing its REDE check program.
Thirty-four people either lost
their licence for 12 hours or were
charged with criminal code driving
offences after being stopped. Four
teen were charged with impaired
driving or driving with over 80 mgs
of alcohol while 10 others were
serviced”.
•Expanding the program by inte
grating nurse practitioners into
physician practices with an appro
priate compensation package for
nurse practitioners and the neces-
Continued on page 9
charged with driving while prohib
ited.
Another 10 people received 12-
hour licence suspensions for blow
ing a warning level on the alcotest.
During the period 115 collisions
were investigated with 33 people
injured, 22 of them in single-vehi
cle accidents.