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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1998-01-14, Page 4Cool waters Photo by Janice Becker Letters THE EDITOR, The Huron Perth Injury Prevention Committee would like to wish your readers a safe 1998. We urge everyone to help make safety happen. In Canada, injury remains the leading cause of death among people age 44 and under. Injury kills more people under 19 than all other causes added together. In 1994, the Ontario Trauma Registry recorded the hospital admission rate for all injuries for Southwestern Ontario as 83.2 per 10,000 population. Perth County rated higher at 88.2 per 10,000 while Huron County rated 121 per 10,000. Injuries are frequently referred to as accidents. The word accident carries a quality of mystery as if there is nothing that you can do to prevent injury. Yet, when most injuries are studied, we know there are causes and explanations and we can predict situations where injuries are likely to occur. In Huron/Perth our four main areas of concern for prevention are motor vehicle crash occupant injuries, bicycle collisions, falls in seniors and farm injuries. The current committee is seeking new members for resource sharing and/or project planning. Meetings are held four times a year. We welcome concerned individuals as well as agency representatives. Past and present committee members include representatives from the farm safety association, hospitals, volunteer consumers, community based health agencies and recreation, police and fire departments. For further information please contact myself as chair of the Injury Prevention Coalition at Huron County Health Unit, 482- 3416 or 1-800-265-5184. Sincerely yours, Marguerite Thomas, Chair Huron Perth Injury Prevention Committee. THE EDITOR, On behalf of the board of directors of The Lung Association, Huron-Perth Counties I would like to thank all those who have so generottly donated to our 1997 Christmas Seal Campaign. Their support will help us to continue to fund vital medical research and offer our many community health education programs. Like many organizations, The Lung Association was hit hard by the postal disruption and we are scrambling to reach our campaign goal. At this point we are about $20,000 below our goal in Huron and Perth Counties of $75,000. About 35 per cent of our previous donors have not yet given to the campaign and we're worried that, because of the postal strike, they may have forgotten us. This year the Christmas Seal Campaign will continue to Jan. 31. Revenue Canada has extended the deadline for 1997 charitable contributions to that date, so donors can receive a tax credit on donations this month for the 1997 tax year. If we don't meet our campaign goal, lung health programs in the two counties will have to be cut 8 well as the many research projects funded by The Lung Association. You may well ask how those cuts would affect our communities. One in five Canadians has some type of breathing problem, and I'm sure we all know someone with asthma or emphysema or someone trying to quit smoking who has benefitted from Lung Association programs, literature or medical research. I myself became involved with Continued on page 7 cn itizen The North Huron PAGE 4, THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1998. P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887-9021 Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising Manager, Jeannette McNeil YAWNED CIRCULATION E-mail norhuron@huron.net JAM The Citizen Is published weekly In Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable In advance at a rate of $27.00/year ($25.24 + $1.76 G.S.T.) in Canada; $62.00/year in U.S.A. and $75.00/year in other foreign countries. Advertising Is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Publications Mail Registration No. 6968 So many questions Local municipal politicians are doing their best, often against their own best instincts, to meet the demands of Municipal Affairs Minister Al Leach in amalgamation but their efforts raise more questions than answers. Northern Huron municipalities seem to be leaning toward the amalgamation of 10 or 11 municipalities into one: everything from Amberley to Clifford and south to Cty. Rd. 25. It may even include Hullett Twp. The result would be a huge municipality of nearly 20,000 people with a wide variety of needs.-It sounds, strangely enough, like the regional government scenarios that Huron County residents have fought so vigorously since the 1960s. The committee looking into the issue has struggled with problems about how to maintain local autonomy, how to be fair to staff who might lose jobs without being saddled with huge severance costs and, perhaps most importantly, how to retain the ability to plan and provide for the economic, environmental, social and cultural needs of its residents. How, for instance, in a municipality of nearly 20,000 people, will a small community like Blyth or Brussels be able to get a hand on the economic levers needed to shape the future? Take a look back at some of the successes of the past and ask if these would have been possible in one, amalgamated North Huron municipality. Faced with closure of their arenas in 1976, both Blyth and Brussels quickly organized to rebuild. Central to the process was the local council, in each case. It provided the structure around which community action took place. It made it possible to act quickly to take advantage of grants. Local municipal offices provided the co-ordination point to fundraising. Because of the immediacy of the need in their own community, hundreds of people were mobilized to study the needs of new facilities, work with contractors, and raise the needed money. In both cases, the result was one of the shining moments in the history of the whole community (not just the village in question). If there had been one big North Huron community would this, could this, have happened? In 1967, too late to be a Centennial project, a Brussels resident, worried about the lack of doctors in the community, came up with the idea of a medial dental centre to attract medical professionals. He went to council, gained their support, and was able to mobilize community support. The Centre was built and still today fulfills a special need in the community. In the early 1970s a group of Blyth residents saw the potential of Blyth Memorial Hall as an entertainment centre for the region. They approached village council who, after much debate, was persuaded by the support of groups like the senior citizens and the Legion, to put the Hall back in shape to be used. The result has transformed Blyth. But would those local groups have had such a good hearing before a regional council? Municipal leaders are trying to give the province what it wants. Perhaps, since an election is less than two years away, the emphasis should be on giving the people what they need, then challenging the government to listen to the people. — KR We are so vulnerable The horrendous week-long ice storm in eastern Ontario and Quebec shows how dependent we have become on the miracle of electricity. The same storm, 60 years ago, would have had little impact in rural areas other than the loss of telephone service and the devastation of trees. Those were the days when few farms had electricity and most heating was by wood stove with the wood coming from the farm woodlot. We take for granted the genie that is electric power. We depend on it for powering the entire automated farming operation (milking machines, heat lamps, ventilation equipment, manure cleaning equipment, computerized automated feeding systems). It provides light and cooks our food and powers the fans without which our furnaces are useless. One soldier working to help victims of the ice storm, and who had served with the United Nations in Bosnia, described the situation as "Sarajevo without the bullets'". He was right in how quickly our civilization can be reduced to chaos. — KR E ditorial