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Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - Page 3
Warden not giving a lot of encouragement to draft budgets
BY PAT HALPIN
Special to the Sentinel
Bruce . County's warden isn't giving
much encouragement to draft budgets that
are hitting the council table.
Reassessment and growth give the coun-
ty wiggle room, said Warden Bill Goetz,
but not enough for the double digit increas-
es some departments have requested.
"It'll probably be comparable to what we
had at the municipality," . Goetz said about
the assessment base increase.
"It's certainly going to help because it's
going to be a tough budget this .year."
Budget decisions this year have to keep
in mind residents who face layoffs and
restraint, Goetz said.
That might not be good news for depart-
ment heads who've asked for new staff.
"I really think this is the wrong time to
do it, this year, because I think we're going
to . have our challenges just to- bring in a
reasonable budget," Goetz said.
Department budgets presented to Bruce
County council so far propose increases
ranging from 12 to 30 per cent.
Red Cross
The Red Cross now has an official role
running evacuation centres in Bruce
County.
A new deal makes the Red Cross respon-
sible for operation and management of the
centres when they're required in an emer-
gency.
The Red Cross is in the best position to
run the centres, said social services director
Terry Sanderson.
"They're experienced, they have the
knowledge, they have the background,"
Sanderson said.
"I don't have enough staff to keep an
evacuation centre going 24 hours a day for
an extended period of time. And if I have to
open two, I'm in big trouble."
Evacuation centres are identified in
Bruce County's emergency plan, and could
be . pressed into use in case of a winter
storm, flooding ;or widespread power fail-
ure.
The Red Cross can draw from volunteers
and resources across a wide network to run
the evacuation centres, leaving the county
to concentrate on emergency management.
Bruce County has been negotiating for
several years with the Red Cross for the
evacuation centre staffing agreement. The
$10,000 a year cost is in the budget;
Sanderson said.
Tiered response
Fire departments in Bruce County are
getting some choice in the medical emer-
gency calls they take under a tiered
response system.
Instead of coining out for every ambu-
lance call, emergency services director.
Doug Smith said fire departments will
respond to those where their skills are
needed.
"They've gone to a lot of trouble , in train-
ing. Most fire departments in Bruce
County now have defibrillators on their fire
trucks and they're quite capable of
responding in situations and making a dif-
ference," Smith said
The new agreement has volunteer fire
departments register their expertise from
extrication skills and defibrillators to air
packs and experience with flammables -
with the ambulance central dispatch centre.
The dispatch centre will then coordinate
ambulances with the nearest fire depart-
ment with the appropriate resources.
Fire chiefs are happy with l a deal that's
expected to : make more efficient use of
their skills, Smith said.
"Whereas before they would have a
blanket agreement and they would be
called to many different things. Often
times they found that they weren't needed
once they got there, or that the ,ambulance
had already been and left," Smith said.
The goal . of the new tiered response
agreement is to get the closest appropriate
care to patients in the shortest time, Smith
said.
Paramedics to RCMP donation
Bruce county paramedics are helping
kids in a remote community learn to figure
skate.
Supervisor Kent Padfield told Bruce
county council the connection is through
Kincardine paramedic Sandra Clough.
Her daughter Trish `.Clough is a new
RCMP officer in Burgeo on the south shore
of Newfoundland.
"When she arrived she found she was in
a community that didn't have a l of
resources for the kids. She's an ex -figure
skater so she created a figure skating pro-
gram for them," Padfield said,
Sandra got her fellow paramedics
involved in her daughter's venture.
Submitted photo
Seen here are the
Brookside Public
School boys volley-
ball team, who
took part in a tour-
nament at GDCI
on Jan. 22. In back
row from left to
right are Luke Van
Dyk, brow- Ireland, •
Aaron Bos and
coach, Drew
Macaulay. In the
middle row- from
left tQ right . are
Gerrit Logtenberg,
David . Gregory and
Dylan Geddes. In
front row from left
to rlght are . Ben
Errington and Cole
MacPherson.
Absent from the
photo was Chad
Fleming and Lasse
Jakobsen.
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