HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2001-07-11, Page 1w
Budget
Council
ready
to set
budget
Council is almost set to
pass its 2001 budget that will
raise $1,137,946 in taxes this
year.
But councillors want a few
more items broken down in
detail and some extra pages
handed out separately from
the budget package collected
together into one, formal
package first.
"I think we tried to
establish a budget that
everybody's satisfied with,"
said deputy administrator
Brad Knight at council's July
3 meeting, held in Brussels.
Knight compared tax rates
to other Huron County
municipalities and said in
Seaforth's case, it used to
have the second highest tax
rate in the county but is now
within $20 of Clinton's when
there used to be a $100
difference.
"Our rural wards are the
lowest," he said
The rural wards are,
however, facing a large
increase, particularly in the
former Grey Township, but it
is due largely to property
reassessments, not the
amalgamation of Seaforth,
Brussels and Grey, McKillop
and Tuckersmith Township
into Humn Fast this year.
Grey is seeing a $75,123
total tax increase follwed by a
$30,573 increase in
Tuckersmith and a $17,231
increase in McKillop.
Seaforth is seeing a
$51,113 decrease and
Brussels is seeing a $5,600
increase.
The increase would be
larger but Brussels has
included $50,000 extra in its
budget to cover its
commitment to care of the
Morris-Turnberry Landfill
Site and Seaforth is putting
$50,000 towards future
improvements to the Seaforth
sewage system.
Knight said it is a wise
move for both wards to put a
little extra aside this year
when they are seeing an
overall tax rate decrease to its
residents. •
"I think you'll find those
tax rates favourable, all things
considered," said Knight.
Knight had originally
expected the budget would be
approved by council at the
meeting and the necessary
bylaw to set the tax rate was
on the agenda but council
wanted more detailed
information in a final budget
Paces.
Cpuncil is expected to pass
thtilbudget at its July 24
meeting.
By Scott Hilgendorff
Susan Hundertmark-photo
Karen Ritchie does a reiki treatment on Shelly McLaughlin. The treatment is an unusual form of
healing in which interest is growing.
Woman uses alternatives
to help others findhealing
By Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Staff
As a little girl, Karen
Ritchie followed her
mother's example and
brought home strays - both
people and animals - to feed
them.
As a young adult, she
frequented the seedier bars of
Toronto looking for people to
help.
But, while she really
wanted to help others, she
was very unhappy herself and
didn't know why or what to
do about it.
"I had a very traumatic
A day in the life of...
childhood but I always knew
there had to be more to life
than feeling rotten all the
time," she says from her RR
4 Seaforth home.
Becoming a practitioner of
reiki - a Japanese form of
healing that means universal
life force - led her to a
"gentler place" where she's
been able to heal herself and
help others.
"I started to seek out joy
and I had to move to a place
of forgiveness," she ,says of
her stepfather who used to
beat her, her mother and her
sisters.
"I realized it was all
something I experienced and
nobody had done anything to
me. I realized that I was not
pain and I didn't have to live
in pain," she says.
But, it took some dramatic
experiences to help her reach
those realizations. One
experience was watching a
crowd yelling for a girl on a
window ledge at a Toronto
bar to jump.
"I started screaming at the
crowd, 'How can you do this
See REIKI, Page 6
Hospital aims
to make
Seniors
Health Centre
nation's top
seniors' fadlity
By Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Staff
Naming the Seaforth Community Hospital's centre of
excellence project, the Comprehensive Seniors Health
Centre, local committee members are aiming to make the
centre "one of the foremost places in Canada for senior
living and health care."
"Because we have one of the highest populations of
seniors in the nation, it seems fitting to make it our goal
and vision to become the foremost centre in Canada,"
says Selena Anderson, coordinator of the Seaforth centre
of excellence.
"This group is ready to go! They are quite passionate
about seeing this centre
built, expanding services
and conducting research
about our aging
population," she says.
Anderson, who has
been hired to facilitate the
strategic plan process and
to prepare a business plan
for the seniors health
centre by September, is in
the process of seeking
information from
community members and
groups about their "dream
retirement."
"I'm trying to
understand what seniors
want and I want to hear
what people's dreams are
about retirement. We
want to be the bestof the
best and we're still in the
visioning stage of what
we could be," she says.
To that end, she'll be spending the summer attending
local aerobics and aquafit classes for seniors, touring
Southwestern Ontario's seniors' facilities and asking
everyone she can about what they'd like to see included
in the centre.
The Comprehensive Seniors Health Centre is part of the
Huron Perth Hospital Partnership's plan to offer
specialized services at each of the eight hospitals in the
partnership.
"Expanding services for seniors in Huron and Perth
Counties is intended to build upon current acute care and
emergency services already existing at our hospital," says
Mary Cardinal, clinical site leader at the Seaforth
hospital.
While initial plans for the seniors' centre included
expanded health care services and programs for senior
wellness, along with a therapeutic swimming pool,
current plans also include the possibility of life -lease
housing and paved walking trails.
"I'm investigating existing facilities across Canada and
the U.S. and while there are retirement villages connected
with long-term care facilities, there doesn't seem to be a
See CENTRE, Page 2
Quoted
'I'm trying to
understand
whaf people
want and I
want to hear
what people's
dreams are •
about
retirement,' --
Selena Anderson,
coordinator of the
Seaforth centro
of excellence.
Curator looking for ghoststories at Van Edmond House
By Scott HiIBendorff
Expositor Editor
People throughout the Egmondville and Seaforth
area are holding onto stories of ghostly encounters
at the Van Egmond House and assistant curator
Kyle Rea is hoping people will share them with
him.
"I've been working here for a few years and
every month, I'll have 10 or 12 people come and
tell me the house is haunted," he said.
He would like to know more about the stories he
has heard during the past few years as he plans a
haunted tour of the house for Halloween.
"People have seen or heard strange things at the
house," he said. "I think there's something
interesting in it."
He has heard from a few different people a story
about a man carrying a heavy trunk up the stairs
only to suddenly have the weight lifted as if
Van Egmond House in Edmorxfville
someone was helping him with the load.
"I've talked to a few people who have seen
mysterious figures or shadows in the windows," he
said.
People have also heard footsteps when no one
else was around.
Rea said tourists have been inquiring about the
ghost as word slowly spreads about the stories.
He has been hearing many stories from members
of the Van Egmond Foundation, past and present,
and knows there are many stories out there to be
told.
Rea is hoping people will be willing to contact
him and share the stories as he prepares for the
tour.
He tentatively plans to use the stories on a
spooky visit at the house this Halloween when all
the lights will be off and he will lead the
venturesome on a lantern -lit tour.
He said there will be no gimmicks used to try
and make the tour more frightening, relying
instead on the stories people will have shared and
visitors' own imaginations as they explore the
home in the near -dark.
"It'll be scary enough without gimmicks
involved," said Rea.
See TOUR, Page 2
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