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Home My WebLink AboutTimes Advocate, 1999-08-11, Page 76 APIIP Editorial&.O!iinion Wednesday, August 11, 1999 IIVIES-AI)VOCATli, PUBLICATIONS MAIL REGISTRATION NUMBER 07511 jim Beckett Publisher and Editor Don Smith ,: , Deb Lord General Manager Production Manager Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited 424 Main Street South, P.O. Box 850 Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 • (519) 235-1331 EDITORIAL Volunteers Hot weather, cold beer and: cowboys. These three ingredients always are -front and centre when kudos are being handed out for completing a successful rodeo. Cowboys bring excitement to town. They're fun to watch and deep down inside practically everyone who sees.them per- form thinks . " I could do that,". if only for a brief second or two until reality sets fast weekend was Exeter's turn to be front and centre on the rodeo circuit draw- ing thousands of people to cheer on their favourites. In- f act, if :you ask almost any cowboy they'll lay Exeter is one -of the most popular towns to host their event. This year, -for the third in a row, specta- tors , got more:: than -th eir money's worth making- the rodeo- the most successful new annual eventin the -area. . • Again the' performers got all the credit, but, in fact most of those who. make the biggest contribution to the success of the rodeo can't ride a horse or rope a steer. They're volunteers who work behind the scenes • 'They live in outr`community and they devote , hundreds- of hours on the little details which combined to. make Exeter's rodeo one of the best. . When" you see any of these people... Don Richardson, Cam Stewardson, Jo -Anne Fields, Mac and Mary Jane MacDougall, Peter Armstrong, Kathy and Doc Campbell, Patti Masnica, Pauline Johns, Wendy Laing, Tracy Hartman, Dalton Finkbeiner, Don Traquair, Don Dearing and Dianne Dearing tip your hat and say thanks. Lucan Bid They're several months overdue but council finally made the rift decision a . couple o weeks ago— to hold two meethigs a month. Lucan Biddulph, created .this year from the former municipalities of Lucan -and Biddulph, has been' hold- ing council meetings only once a month, with r®ommit- tee meetings in between. 'Adding to thelenglit of n- cil meetings. was councillors reportig to the rest of council what happened at the varjous committee meet- ings. This system has been ineffective and ming, resulting in Meetings that would last 'for, hours .on end, sending council niembi rS, the media and members of the puJlip, intt . a sleepy stupor. t Meetings would run so late that 'a few.tlmes council had to speed through parts of . the agenda just to finish before 11 p.m, Even with the rush, several matters would be unattend- ed to, meaning they would be put, off for another month until eounell'rnet again. It was obvious from the start that Lucan Biddiilph has .too many issues in the munici- pality to only meet once a month. Increasing to two meetings was the logical. 'way to go, although it should have. been done several months ago, when Coun. Paul Wallis originally raised the issue. Back then, . council was quick to disagree with Wallis, telling him to give it a chance. At last week's meeting when Wallis raised the issue again everybody agreed with him. While it's too soon to predict what will happen to Lucan Biddulph meetings now that council will be meeting on the first and third Tuesday of each month, one can predict the meetings will be lore. focused, its twiceas ood hw .ore effective and hopefully shorter. This week's. f " mee pg, while discussion did- va4der at times, was an improvement over last week's and it's hoped things will only get better. _ Meeting twicea month isn't the answer- 'to all of Lucan Biddulph's problems, though. They have one big problem that won't go away :until next year's munici- pal election -- that is, at 10 members of council, Lucan Biddulph council is too big. Part of the reason the meetings have been going so long is that it takes forever to give everybody a chance to present their opinions. On nearly every issue, Reeve Earl French (who has tried his best to keep the meetings flowing smoothly) has to go around the table'itid hear everybody's opinion. in other words, a h of time is being wasted on minor issues because everybody wants to have his say. It's also been interesting to watch as the for- mer Village of Lucan members of .council try to learn the Biddulph issues and .vice versa. They're still learning, but the one thing Lucan Biddulph did correctly in its amalgamation was to start out small. While any amalgamation has • snags, amalgamating two municipalities is much less complex than amalgamating five, as the Bluewater group to the north has discovered. If Lucan Biddulph councillors have had problems learning about each other, imagine the difficulties councilors from the five municipalities in Bluewater will have. So, although there have been some snags with the amalgamation of council, moving to two meetings a month is a definite improvement for Lucan Biddulph. Now we just have to wait until next year'ft r the council to get smaller. SCOTT NIXON AND ANOTHER THING About the Times -Advocate =r Address & Office Hours Times -Advocate, 424 Main Stre t South, P.O. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1 S6i Our o is is open,Mondity to Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Contact Us By Phone or Fax Classified ad & subscription sales ..:.(519) 235-1331 24-hour automated attendant (519) 235-1336 Fax number for all departments (519) 235-0766 Subscription Rates One year rate for addresses in Canada: $35+GST Two year rate for addresses in Canada: $63+GST One year rate for addresses outside Canada: $102 Call (519) 235-1331 to order a subscription. 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