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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-11-28, Page 1' Fk'ubl.4o Library Deco 4 ki Lt barn FIRST SECTION R Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, Nov ,28, 1984 Single Copy 50c Annual information meeting planned r, Wingham hospital board votes to open meetings to the public Starting in January members of the public will, for the first time, be per- „ mitted to freely attend meetings of the Wingham and District Hospital Board. As is the practice of most other boards and councils, however, their status will be limited to that of observers, and they will not be per- mitted to take part in discussion or to address the board unless they have been placed on the agenda as a deputation. The board vote also will have to be ratified by a vote of the members at next June's annual meeting of the hospital association in order to become established as corporate policy. GOING DOWN FAST—The two-storey brick house at the corner of John Street and Carling Terrace is going down fast under the tools of a demolition crew. The house was purchased by the Wingham and District Hospital to make room for a parking lot. Total Demolition of Brussels got the removal contract at a price of $635. Other bids on the job had ranged up to $11 ,11,600 from a Peterborough firm. Completion date `ridiculous' Hospital presses builder to sp. up construction Terming "ridiculous" a claim that construction of the new wing cannot be completed until the end of next summer, the ad- ministration and board of the Wingham and District Hos- pital are putting pressure on the builder to speed up his work. The contractor, Ref- flinghaus Construction of Goderich, has been asked to submit a revised completion schedule which should move up the completion date, Ad- ministrator Norman Hayes told board members last week. He noted the hospital has agreed. to several design changes aimed at making it possible for the builder to keep working through the fall and winter. "To suggest this building go on until the first of Oc- tober is ridiculous!" he declared, noting that the Owen Sound General and Marine Hospital started building at about the same time and poured the last bucket of concrete last week, "and they went up six storys. We're not out of the ground yet." Mr. Hayes was responding to a report on building pro- gress given by Property Chairman Hans Kuyvenho- ven, who explained that pro- gress to date has been far slower than estimated. He explained that changes to the electrical services took a long time and that during the first. phase of construction equipment had to be moved piece by piece to its new lo- cation in order not to disrupt the operation of the hospital. Relief fund tops $17,000 More than $17,000 has been collected to date in a Red Cross African relief fund through CKNX radio and television of Wingham. A spokesman for the station reported that as of Tuesday donations had totalled $17,579.20, with the contributions coming from all over the CKNX listening area. She said the collection will continue as long as people keep sending money. Donations collected by the station will be forwarded to the Canadian Red Cross for.. its African relief program. Cheques are to be made out to the Canadian Red Cross, African Relief Fund, and sent care of CKNX, Wing - ham. He told the board the contractor proposed com- pletion of the ground floor by Feb. 20, 1985; having the first floor closed in by May 31, and,having the total job comleted by Sept. 30, which would put it nearly five months behind schedule. • In a later interview, however, Mr. Hayes said the problems with the electrical equipment delayed the project by only three weeks and cannot be blamed for putting it so far behind schedule. He addedthat, with the change to the design of the roof and other things which have been agreed to, there should be no reason the building cannot be com- pleted sooner, providing the weather cooperates. In a related matter, Mr. Kuy'veuhoven reported that the hospital had paid $70,000 for the property it purchased for a parking lot at the corner of John Street and Carling Terrace. Tenders ■ were called on demolition of the two-storey brick house on the lot, with bids ranging from a .high of $11,600 to a low of $635. "We got quite a spread," he noted wryly. The committee accepted the low tender, from Total Demolition of Brussels, and removal of the building is well under way, he said, adding that the hospital still plans to grade and gravel the lot but probably will hold off paving until next year. Fund-raising campaign total is edged upwards The total collected in the public fund-raising cam- paign for the new hospital wing is gradually edging upward, board members at the Wingham and District Hospital heard last week. In a brief report on the campaign, Finanpe Chairman Alex Graham told the board the total collected to date is $199,243.91, of which $36,712.50 is in the form of pledges. This is still only about half of the $400,000 target for the campaign, however it does not include any funds from the car lottery through which the fund-raising committee hopes to raise an additional $80,000 for the hospital. In response to a question from board member Robert Middleton whether the total includes money donated to the hospital before the campaign officially started, Treasurer Gordon Baxter confirmed that it includes any donations- made to the hospital since April 1 of this year. It does not, however, in- clude the $50,000 contribution from the Hospital Foun- dation, .which was not part of the public fund-raising, he said. Asked about the expenses incurred during the cam- paign, Mr. Baxter estimated that about $1.0,000 had been spent, mostly on advertising, which represents about five per cent of the total. In response to a request from board member Marian Zinn for a clarification of the policy on thank -you notes to donors, Board Chairman Mary Vail' said it is a board policy. to recognize such donations. She said a letter of thanks goes out to anyone giving $50 or more and, if the donation is $100 or more, the letter is accompanied by a life membership certificate. She also said the total cost of the recognition amounts to about $2.50 for a $100 donation. Mrs. Zinn read a section from the minutes of the fund- raising committee, noting it had agreed on a policy of not sending out individual thank - you notes to donors because of concern over postage costs. However Administrator Norman Hayes said most persons making a donation expect some kind of recognition, not just a receipt. Mary Lou . Thompson, chairman of the board's public relations committee, was not at the meeting, but she said later that she has received a large number of telephone calls from persons who are upset by the letters they have received, which state exactly how much they have contributed, and she plans to bring the matter to the board's attention. PAY UP, SONNY!—Ivan Metcalfe of Wingham was one of the volunteers working at last Saturday's tea, craft and bake sale held at the Jack Reavie Vocational Centre in Wingham son Friendorf of Teeswater purchased some tempting homemade candy at the sale. The decision to open board meetings to the public came 'during last week's meeting of the board following several months of debate, both at the board and in public forums, over the proposal, which had been turned down by a previous board but was. resurrected when a . large majority of members at the June annual meeting asked the board to re-examine its policy. • In the end, the change in policy came in by the back door as board members turned down by a vote of 9-4 a t :lmrrienclation that irrieet- •ings gep ath,closed except to the press. Following the defeat of that motion, the board then voted unanimously. that, effective Jan. 16, 1985 (the date of the first regular meeting of the new year) meetings will be opened to the public as observers, with a procedure for receiving deputations to be worked out. Both votes followed a lengthy round -table discus- sion during which most members present expressed their willingness to open the meetings. (Fifteen members of the 18 -member board were at the meeting, with 13 eventually voting on the ori- ginal motion.) Marian Zinn, newly - elected trustee for Ashfield - West Wawanosh, led off by commenting that she has sat on public boards in Huron County for almost 20 years and has heard the arguments over opening board and com- mittee meetings time after time. She said she definitely favors opening not only the board meetings but also the committee meetings. "We have to be open," she said, adding she had been appalled at the amount of discussion which went on in closed session at the previous meeting. Wingham trustee John Schenk also argued for open meetings, saying that whether people know it or not, a large proportion of their taxes is going to pay for health care. ' "We're spending public money and they deserve to see how we spend it." Robert Middleton from Wingham also spoke in favor of opening the meetings, as did Hans Kuyvenhoven from Turnberry, Shirley Garniss from Morris, Alex Graham from Howick and Isobel Arbuckle from East Wawa - nosh -Blyth. Hospital Auxiliary Presi- dent Marilyn Wood said she had previously favored keep- ing meetings closed, but has changed her mind. Nancy McDonald-Exel from Brussels, attending her first meeting since being named to replace Don Jolley who resigned, noted that she had missed out on previous discussions of the matter, but said she could see few good reasons for keeping meetings closed. Lucknow trustee Jean Whitby, also in her first term on the board, said she had not made up her mind. Dr. Brian Hanlon, board vice chairman and medical chief of staff, led the op- position to the proposal, declaring he could not see what purpose it would serve to have people sitting at meetings if they would not be allowed to participate. How is it that 90 per cent of the other hospital boards in the province do not admit the public, he asked, adding he thinks that 80 percent do not admit the press either. He inquired how the board would accommodate large numbers of people if they showed up, repeating that he would be willing to have them if it served some purpose, "but I don't see how it serves the running of the hospital." If people are concerned about the hospital they can approach their board members, he said, and if they don't trust the board members they can get rid of them in the next election. He received support from new Wingham trustees Ross Davies, who said opening the meetings probably wouldn't accomplish anything since the board had ayeady been "judged by the press", and Roger Keay, who said he fears opening the meetings would "only add fuel to the .Fire:' and lead to misun- derstandings, as well as from Wingham Mayor William Harris, who also later attacked the press for what he called "un- warranted blast's in the paper."„ After.some discussion over how to accommodate members of the public who did show up, since the hospital board room is rather cramped at the best of times, the board agreed to vote first and work out the mechanics later. "If 50 people are interested in coming to the board meetings then it's high time we have them open," Mr. Kuyvenhoven commented. "The more the merrier; let's have it — throw it open." Administrator Norman Hayes added that he did not see any insurmountable Vandalism forces king of dths at the post office Due to recent acts of repeated vandalism, the Wingham Post Office has begun locking the doors into the lock -box lobby on weekends, and .the practice will continue until a new security system can be installed, Postmaster Gordon Sut- cliffe said. He acknowledged the new policy will pose an in- convenience to some boxi,olders, who will be unable to pick up their mail while the post office is closed, but said there really was no other choice. Action was required to protect customers' mail as well as post office property. Since the incident in which letters were set on fire in the insidemail drop, there have been additional acts of van- dalism at the post office, Mr. Sutcliffe explained. He declined to say what form the incidents took, lest it lead to copy-catting, but said there has been more than one person involved and it does not appear to have been a juvenile, as in the case of the fire. He noted that the post office has become a congregating place for young people in the evenings and, with the doors unlocked, it is wide open to vandalism. He added that when the post office was built in 1967 it was designed to allow the front doors to be locked and originally they were locked at 6:30 every evening. It is only since then that the post office experimented with an open-door policy, allowing customers access to their post office bones 24 hours a day. Under the new policy, the doors are locked at 6:30 p.m. on Friday until 5:30 a.m. Saturday. They are then locked again at 1:30 p.m. Saturday until 5:30 a.m. Monday. In the future, the post office will be installing a controlled - access system in which the doors will be locked every night and only those who rent a special key will be permitted ac- cess during off -hours, Mr. Sutcliffe said. He added that a number of other post offices in the Huron division have also had to resort to locking their doors at night as the result of repeated vandalism. problems unless a meeting were to attract "a large number of people with an axe to grind." Prior to tackling the question of open meetings, the board had voted to ac- cept six other recom- mendations from a joint meeting of the management and public relations corn- mittees. ' These included: — holding a second general meeting each year at which the public would be invited to ask questions of the board members and administrator and to air any concerns about the hospital; — holding regular seminars for board mem- bers to get to know each other and to learn more about their duties; — • conducting a 'yearly performance evaluation of the chief executive officer (administrator) ; — holding an annual peer review of board members; — having the ad- ministrator make himself available to speak to service clubs and other community groups in an attempt to raise public awareness of the hospital's functions; • having the public relations committee contact local newspapers about running regular columns reporting on various aspects of the hospital. Originally the recom- mendation that board meet- ings remain closed except to the press had been included on the list, however Mr. Schenk argued successfully that it should be voted on separately since some mem- bers might want to vote in favor of the other items on the list but against that one. Of the other recom- mendations, only the one proposing an annual public information meeting provok- ed much discussion, with Mr. Kuyvenhoven asking why it was necessary. He was told it was intended as a means of permitting public feedback and as an alternative to opening the board meetings to the public. Mr. Hayes argued strongly in favor of having such a meeting, saying it will pro- vide a valuable opportunity to present information and clear up any misunderstand- ings. "Maybe nobody will show up, but there's no harm trying." MOVING DAY --The former beauty salon beside the SunRise Dairy in Wingham set out last week on a journey to a new location near the Western Foundry. The frame building, one of the older structures on the town's main street, had to be moved to make way for expansion of the dairy. SunRise spokesman Mrs. Patricia Bailey said they plan to rent the building as a residence, adding they have already had a number of inquiries about it.