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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.