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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-03-07, Page 1Inside this week Pg. 3 Pg. 8 Pg. 11 Pg. 27 Pg. 28 Soccer group needs funds for fields Tyke teams win tourney A and B Brussels skaters get recognition Former area resident marks 98th birthday School closure issue may loom again Good stuff Two-and-a-half-year-old Rachel Hastings, daughter of Donald and Dawn of Brussels enjoyed the delicious pancakes served at St. John's Anglican Church for the annual Shrove Tuesday supper. . ...The Citizen , wElpotat--ro //B<111(1sT R t*t ESTABLISHED 1E117 Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Volume 17 No. 10 Wednesday, March 7, 2001 75 Cents (70c + 5c GST) Ambulance report rekindles fiery issue County taxes up For the third time since 1994 county portion of the property tax bill will increase in 2001. County council Thursday approved a budget that will meet the target of a 3.5 per cent [a- increase. Last year taxes increased two per cent bur prior to that there had been only one increase (and that for a quarter of one per cent) since 1994. In all, the county will spend $52.5 million -in 2001, most of it coming in transfers from the provincial government for programs such as health and seniors' homes. The county will raise almost $18.7 million from taxes. Despite having set a budget. there remain plenty of uncertainties about the county's finances for the coming year. Some assessment appeals from last year have not been heard yet and already the cost of written-off taxes has reached $154,000. Provincial legislation under Bill 140 makes --more appeals likely. As well, the final pay equity settlement with Huronview nurses and other labour disputes also could increase costs. In addition there is uncertainty over the impact of provincial downloading with the county now being responsible for social housing and ambulances. The county, in setting its budget, has assumed the province will live up to its promise that downloading would not cost municipalities more and therefore will cover any shortfall either through increased grants or by assuming more of the education tax bill and leaving the revenue for the municipality. Two per cent of the taxation increase will cover salary and wage improvements to county staff. The rest will go to increases in program costs. Goderich Councillor Deb Shewfelt asked if, given the predictions of an economic downturn, it might not have been better to have taken money from reserves rather than raise taxes. Dave Carey, county treasurer said, however, that the county's reserve of $10 million is the lowest it has been in several years and he wouldn't feel comfortable reducing it any lower. It was only a report on where ,ambulances went during the first month of operation under Huron County's control but it was enough to restoke the fires of resentthent at Huron County council Thursday. Jon Hambides from Pomax, the county's consultant in setting up the ambulance service, delivered a report that showed the four ambulance stations dealt with 527 patients during January, the vast majority of them being transfers from one hospital to another. But the report opened the doors for old frictions over everything from the cost of setting up temporary ambulance stations to the hiring (or not. hiring) of paramedics who had been part of the provincial system before it was downloaded. The criticisms came despite the fact Warden Norm Fairies and past warden Carol Mitchell both said conversations with other municipalities at the recent Rural By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen Members of the group which successfully challenged last year§ Avon Maitland District School Board decision to close Seaforth District High School (SDHS) have formally presented plans for an agricultural education program they believe could save the school from further closure threats. Carol- Anne Doig and Maureen Agar, both members of this year's SDHS school council, made a delegation to the board at its regular meeting, Tuesday, Feb. 27. They Ontario Municipal Association conference showed Huron had done a great job operating their system without a significant increase in costs. Fairies said Grey County was looking at a 66 per cent increase in costs. Mitchell, who oversaw the downloading of the ambulance service, said that other counties wanted to know how Huron had managed to do it. "Huron should be proud of how we handled it," she said. Others were not so sure Huron Was being accurate in its costing. Paul Klopp from Bluewater asked about the budget for bandages and linen supplies which he felt wasn't included in the budget. Hambides said it was part of the supplies and equipment line in the budget. Klopp then questioned the consultant's fee, saying the contract at $110 per hour, was open ended. As a new councillor, Klopp said, he,didn't presented plans for a program called Stepping Stones, which would offer hands-on, immersion-like programs to non-rural students who would like to pursue post-secondary opportunities in agriculture and agribusiness. "Two years ago, when we proposed this idea as a way of attracting more students to SDHS, our former trustee (Abby Armstrong) said the board would need more of a concrete plan from us before it could decide whether or not to proceed," Doig said. "Well, now we have that plan." Agar urged the board to consider know if there had ever been a motion to approve the work Pomax was doing since the original contract ran out. Lynn Murray, county clerk- administrator assured him the council had approved Pomax conducting a further three-month study of the Clinton-Seaforth station to determine if 24-hour coverage was warranted. Noting the bill for the consultant was "just short of $100,000", Deb Shewfelt of Goderich wondered if there was any assurance the Ministry of Health would pick up half the cost. Hambides said there had been no indication what the ministry would do. For Rob Morley from South Huron, the issue was the cost of paving part of the lane to the temporary Clinton- Seaforth site. He wondered at the estimated cost of $10,000 which wasn't in the original contract with the landlord and he worried that if the the plan as a way of increasing enrolment in one Avon Maitland school without threatening the viability of neighbouring schools. "It is very difficult if not impossible to go any further without the support and commitment of this board," she explained. Asked about a statement that representatives of the University of Guelph had offered support for the plan, Agar explained that support was pledged two years ago, when the idea was first devised. She also said she received five telephone calls at the time, from people who looked up her name in county did the work too early in the spring the asphalt wouldn't stand up. The county's decision not to hire five paramedics from the previous staff also came back to council after North Huron's Doug Layton revealed he and other councillors had received a package of questions from Lynn Hickey, wife-of one of the paramedics not hired. Layton wondered if Hambides could answer the questions for Mrs. Hickey. Fairies said the issue can be dealt with at the committee level and there are privacy issues involved that mean it can't be discussed in an open forum. But Shewfelt kept coming back to the issue, pointing out two of the paramedics Huron wouldn't hire because they didn't meet new qualifications, had since been hired by neighbouring counties. He questioned Murray about the outcome of a recent Labour Relations Board hearing on the issue. Murray said the question before the board was about whether there were "successor rights" for the workers when the ambulance service was turned over from the province to the county. If the board determines there are no successor rights (the next hearing is April 6), then the grievance is over. John Doherty of Goderich said Hambides had originally said there would be "grandfathering" for those who were already at work in the system but Hambides explained he and Doherty had a difference of interpretation on what grandfathering meant. Anyone who had been employed in an ambulance service since August 1, 1975 did not have to have the new higher qualifications required of new recruits. By grandfathering, he meant these people could apply to work for the county, Hambides said. But even those who didn't have to meet the higher standards were required to have taken short courses from the service's base hospital and be certified for symptom relief and defibrillation. It was a condition of employment with the county's system that paramedics should have this certification, he said. Even Mitchell, who supports the county's actions in the past, had a concern about when the permanent ambulance sites would be chosen. Murray said she is targeting the April committee meeting for a report on site selection. the phone directory after becoming aware of the idea through the media. But she insisted such support would still be forthcoming. "You will be perceived as innovators," she told trustees. Students in the program would be billeted with area farm 'amines, with the students paying room and board. Stepping Stones would be available to students in their final year of high school, and would offer' co-op-style employment opportunities as well as specially-designocademic and technological courses featuring additional concentration On agriculture-related themes. Seaforth presents program plan for SDHS