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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1997-01-29, Page 1Agriculture Seaforth psychologist talks to farmers about stress. See page 9 Groundhog Day Why are we obsessed with Wiarton Willie? See page 4 Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 — Seaforth, Ontario Briefly Fatal accident A 16 -year-old Blyth -area girl died in a London hospital early Monday morning after a snowmobiling accident Sunday evening in Clinton. Dead is Angela Konarski of RR 1 Blyth. The Huron County detach- ment of the Ontario Provincial Police says she was northbound on Maple Street, driving a snowmobile that failed to yield, crashing into the side of a car west- bound on Whitehead Street at approximately 5:55 p.m. She was first taken to Clinton hospital, then trans- ferred to Victoria Hospital in London where she died at 3:08 a.m. - Police say no charges will be laid. The car was driven by Clinton's recr1ation director, 37 -year-old Steve Campbell. Driver charged One of the survivors of the single -car crash, north of Varna last November, that killed four area young people has been charged. The Huron County detach- ment of the Ontario Provincial Police says 20 - year -old Sarah LeBe'au, of RR 1 Brucefield in Stanley Township, has been sum- moned to appear in the provincial division of Ontario Court at Goderich on March 17. She is "charged with crimi- nal negligence causing death, impaired driving causing death, criminal negligence causing bodily harm, and dri- ving over the legal limit (80mgs.)." Six occupants were in the car at the time, early in the morning of Nov. 24 on Huron County Road 31. and four were killed - Neal Atchison, 20 of Clinton; Brian Hill, 21, of Stanley; Pamela King, 20, of Clinton and Mark Webster, 19, of Stanley. The police press .release adds "severe injuries were received by Brandon Gardner, 19, of Vanastra. Program begins A program for people who want to improve their read- ing, writing and math skills has begun again in this arca. To support the Huron County Board of Education's mandate of lifelong learning, its literacy numeracy tutoring program has no age restric- tions. People of any age who will benefit from literacy/numera- cy help are eligible. The program provides stu- dents with a volunteer tutor who works with him or her on an individualized program "that is devised for and evolves according to the stu- dent's specific needs and interests." Student -tutor pairs meet each week for about two hours together. Pairs mutually agree when and where to meet in a flexi- ble arrangement. Would-be students or tutors can contact Shelly Black Weselan at 482-7948 or c/o Vanastra Community School. January 29, 1997 — $1.00 includes GST All eight hospitals to stay open Hard keep changes says Helen Johns BY ANDY BADER SSP News Staff A "unique" and "novel" approach to .hospital and health care restructuring was unveiled Monday, a proposal which keeps all eight hospi- tals in the Huron -Perth dis- trict open with inpatient beds and emergency services. Task Force Chair Janet Hook and District Health Council (DHC) Chief Executive Officer Fraser Bell made the announcement Monday morning v ith hordes of media, some task force volunteers and a couple of hospital CEOs in attendance. Perth MLA Bert Johnson was also present. Single Administration The task force has recom- mended the establishment of a single Huron Perth hospital system with a single hoard and one administrative team. That alone will save upwards of $3.4 million. Hook said the preferred option involves "considerable change" as programs and services will be redistributed. Under the preferred option, basic hospital service will be provided in Clinton, Exeter, SEAFORTH HOSPITAL - and all seven other hospitals in Huron and Perth will remain open under the preferred option approved by the Huron -Perth DHC on Monday. Seaforth and St. Marys, with community hospitals estab- lished in Goderich, Listowel and Wingham. Everything but pediatric, rehabilitation and psychiatric care will be performed here, except for 20 psychiatric beds in Goderich and five rehabilitation beds in Wingham. Stratford will be a secondary, or a referral, hos- pital. Of the total 406 hospi- tal beds identified through the utilization management process and accepted, by the task force last November, almost half-182—will be located in Stratford. The beds in the basic hospitals will concentrate on medicine and chronic care, as well as be availab:e for emergencies. St. Marys and Exeter hospitals will have no beds available for obstetric care. Options Caused Uproar Three preliminary options were announced in November, and caused mas- sive community uproar in towns where their hospital faced service reduction. An extension was granted in December, after seven addi- tional options were brought forth, including one formally endorsed by all -hospital boards two weeks ago. Over the next two years, the Ministry of Health will be withdrawing significant fund- ing from hospitals, and -in order to meet this "funding challenge," more than $10 million in cost savings were addressed by reducing administration and support CONTINUED on page 2 Acute care beds in, inpatient surgery out BY DAVID SCOTT Expositor Editor Seaforth Community Hospital is in favour of the option put forward to the DHC from the eight Huron - Perth Hospitals. The executive committee of the hospital's board of direc- tors met Monday to discuss the option and "support was expressed for the direction being taken by the DHC study," stated a hospital press release. CEO Bill Thibert noted that the recommenda- tion being put forward for the Seaforth hospital was nearly identical to the eight hospital option endorsed by the board earlier this month. "This option presents sig- nificant challenges to our hospital due to a reduction in the number of acute care beds," said Thibert. But he was pleased to note that obstetric and midwifery ser- vices will continue to be pro- vided at Seaforth hospital. He said the hospital- has been using a cooperative team approach involving physicians, nurses and hospi- tal staff and that the Seaforth "team" will be able to meet this new challenge. "Of particular interest is the opportunity to develop a regional chronic care pro- gram at Seaforth hospital to address the health care needs of our growing elderly popu- lation in the Huron/Perth District. "The development of this 'Centre of Excellence' is an exciting opportunity for our hospital and one which our board will aggressively pur- sue to establish in coopera- tion with our fellow Huron/Perth hospitals and other health care organiza- tions. This program could include a combination of inpatient hospital beds, a spe- cialized day hospital program and other services which would meet the needs of our elderly residents," stated Thibert in a press release. No Inpatient Surgery One thing that is not includ- ed in this option is inpatient surgery beds for Seaforth hospital. Thibert said the hos- pital would likely continue with outpatient surgery. Hospitals in Goderich, Listowel, Wingham and Stratford have been allocated all of the surgery/oncology beds in Huron and Perth. Warden, MPP differ on downloading BY CALE COWAN SSP News Staff The warden is cautious but the MPP is confident. Depending on who you ask the overhaul two weeks ago of the way Ontario services are provided will either mean good things for everybody (if you just wait) or will have an undetermined (and possibly negative) impact on your property taxes. . Huron County Warden Murray Keys, reeve of Hay Township, and Huron MPP Helen Johns offered their thoughts in the aftermath of the provincial downloading — or 'equitable transfer of responsibilities', as Johns prefers. While, the province has taken on the burden of educa- tion funding, it had to shed itself of many other responsi- bilities to balance things out. Included under the munici- palities' new responsibilities are welfare, child care, child 4welfarc, womens' shelters, domiciliary beds, homes for special care, long-term care, ambulances, public health ►-rental housing. All municipalities will also have to start paying for OPP service. The province is also passing along responsibility for provincial highways. And, they just got done announc- ing cuts in block funding for 1997. And, they haven't announced how any of this may affcct ongoing restruc- turing talks. All of these things have Keys concerned. "Everyone doing this is guessing ... but it certainly isn't going to be good," he said of trying to determine the impact. But more than anything, it's the unknowns that concern the county warden. While the specifics of funding for ser- vices like policing and ambu- lance care haven't been worked out, he worries the province hasn't even speci- fied what it means when it says 'the municipality'. "It is the county or is it the township?" he asked. Keys doesn't believe the recent realignment will have an impact on this year's bud- get, but warns municipal offi- cials already have a challenge ahead of them because of cuts to tranfers from the province. "I'm sure we could come up with some figures, but we don't know what to do," he said. Johns, on the other hand, is asking for patience, reason- ing that everything will become clear as the two tiers of government begin working through the process of trans- ferring responsibilities. "Until it starts to unfold, it's difficult to ascertain thc eco- nomic impact," she said. Johns said the shift will pro- vide the municipalities the chance to run the services more efficiently and possibly cheaper and that's where the real savings will come. "It's not quantifiable yet ... the municipalities have to get their hands on it to find out things like whether welfare has been run as well as possi- ble." , In the overall picture, Johns said this move was necessary to put education funding In the hands of the province so it can work toward establish- ing equal per -pupil costs across the province. She's also pleased they have been able straighten out the farm tax rebate, which has been endorsed by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. But while those two areas may sec benefit under the new structure, the question is whether the province was "equitable" in what it passed along to the municipalities. Keys is none to confident and is concerned as the province will in many cases maintain control over how services are administered while the problem of funding is now a local problem. The question of provincial highways and possible amal- gamations also weigh heavy on his mind. "Everything is so up in the air," he said. So why did the province dump everything on munici- palities in one weeklong landslide? "People have had that com- plaint of this government for the entire 18 months," Johns said in defence "But the BY AMY NEILANDS SSP News Staff The Huron County Board of Education held their annu- al meeting with Huron MPP Helen Johns on Thursday evening and discussions cen- tred around the provincial government's planned changes for education in Ontario. "I know it's hard to keep up with the changes that have affected you in Huron County in the past year," said Johns. "I think it is important for us to talk about them so I can bring back information on how to make these changes to best reflect the needs of the kids in Huron County." Of the announcements for change made by the Ministry of Education, Johns stated that she believed the "good news" was the announcement of education finance reform. The new funding reforms will be based on a per pupil fund- ing system. "It's going to come to be," she said, allud- ing to the number of letters she has received from the board requesting finance reforms. The difference in dollars between Huron County and other boards in the province is "incredible," said Johns, adding that the reforms "will bring us to a better level. I'm happy that this has come about." There has been pres- CONTINUED on page 5 Restructuring study moves ahead Representatives from seven area municipalities are work- ing on a study regarding municipal restructuring. Members of the Central Huron . Municipalities Restructuring Committee (CHMRC) received presenta- tions from four consulting firms last Wednesday evening and selected a Toronto firm. The Randolph Group, to pro- ceed with a study for their respective municipalities. In this study, each member municipality will he first reported on as an individual entity with specific recom- mendations concerning its operation and administration. Utilizing this information, thc consultant will then recom- mend possible savings and approaches in relationship to other political jurisdictions. The CHMRC was formed last fall when seven arca municipalities began discus- sions to explore possibilities which may exist to achieve cost savings to their taxpay- ers. The initiatiye came about as a means of preparing the j municipalities for meeting the provincial requirements of Bill 26. The Townships of Colborne, Goderich, Hullett and McKillop, along with the province is in debt and our ,' Towns of Clinton, Goderich toted mandate was clear -- to min- imizeand Seaforth, appointed that debt. two municipal representatives "What would another study, 3 and one staff person to partic- tell us? We have to move for- !pate in the discussion group. ward and make Ontario The objective of the commit - financially sound." CONTINUED on page 13