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The Huron Expositor, 1987-10-28, Page 1INDEX Births — A7 Dublin — A4 People — A7 Hensel! 4 A5 Sports —r A8, A9, M3 Walton — A6 Classified.— A10, Al 1, Al2 Legion 4 A13 Nursery•.Homes — A14 Obituaries — A7 Highschool hockey abandonned. See-pagey A9. 50 cents a copy • Serving the conimunnles and areas of Seaforth,' Brussels,, Dublin, Hensel! and Walton, HURON EXPOSITOR, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28,1987 itaftr TWO OF A KIND - Elgin Nott of "Seaforth and Jack Torry of Van Egmond Foundation hosted its Fall Fiddler's Jamboree. Ap- Markdale "chose the cloakroom at the Seaforth and District Com- proximately 400 people were in attendance to listen and -or dance munity Centres to practise some fiddling on Sunday, when the to the country -style music. Mcllwraith photo. Brussels family , Left_._. iome1ess .after major fire,: • A home was gutted but now was, injured when a fire swept through a Brussels home on Monday morning. Approximately $80,000 resulted. Brussels Firefighters were called to the home of Ken and Linda Smith .at approx- imately 11:30 p.m. to deal with the blaze. It was called in by Joan Beuermann who notic- ed the fire .from the Veterinary Clinic. Neither Mr. and Mrs. Smith nor their two children were at home when the fire started. An uncle of the children, who lives at the home, was also out at the time of the blaze. The fire kept firefighters busy until 3 p.m. because wood in the basement had caught fire and was hard to reach. It is•suspected the heating system was thecause. Clothing and other donations for the fami- ly •willbe accepted and can be dropped off at.. Huron Feeding Systems as well as, other locations in Brussels. Prevention is key To effective u fic health care system. ADAPT presentation The first of many presentations that are going to be made during the ADAPT pro- gram (Alcohol Drug Awareness Program for Today) at Seaforth District High School was made on Monday. Christine Nash was at the school to talk to students about drink- ing and driving and how it affects the families of the victims. Mrs, Nash's words had the students at S.D.H.S, thoughtfully quiet throughout her talk and everybody walked away from the presentation with something. • All of the students had positive things to say about what they had learned. "It was good, I think we needed it and I think it opened a lot of kid's eyes," said stu- dent Cheryl Cooper. • The Students agree the situation with alcohol and drinking and driving at the school is serious, and they welcomed so- meone who o- meone—who- could give them -a different perspective on the situation. "She was really courageous, and she real- ly communicated with the audience. I wouldn't want to get in a car with a drunk driver now that I've heard that," said Anne Robinson. Mrs. Nash is from the Thousand Islands area, and has been giving these types of presentations since the death of her sore on October 18, 1985. Her son, Ronnie, was 16 when he died as the result of drinking and driving. He and his friends had been skipping school • and BY PATRICK RAFTIS If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, then Dr. Maarten Bokhout;. Huron County's newMedical' Officer ,,of Health', is steering the • Huron County Health Unit in the right direction. Bokhout believesprevention is the key to an effec- tive public health system: "If a problem can be prevented from oc- curring,it saves a lot of pain and suffering . and trouble later," 'he said. Cost; Says Bokhout, is a keyfactor in•the need to place the emphasis en health education and disease prevention. "The problem is that the new technology that is available now and ,the new • drugs that are available now are very expensive and the cost of providing that kind of care has increased astronomically,". he ex- plains, adding that neither the govern- ment, nor private citizens can any longer afford to foot the bill for increasing medical costs; "Public healthcare provides a different approach and part of the reason public health is becoming so important is that it is getting so darn expensive to cure problems at the other end." Wider access to health education and promotion of public health programs, Bokhout believes, are the best solution to the problem. • STARTED SEPTEMBER 14 Bokhout toik over the MOH position as of Sept. 14, replacing Dr. James McGregor, of Wingham, who was Acting MOH for more than a year, in the wake of the resignation of former MOH Dr. Harry is thought provokin drinking on a Friday afternoon before a dance which was happening that evening. They left the school impaired (the driver's blood alcohol level -was .183). The Toyota they were driving went off the road, flipped on its side and hit a Buick head on. All three of the youths in the Toyota were killed. Mrs. Nash has a lot of pictures she takes with her to the presentations. They are pic- tures of Ronnie, her son's friends her son's girlfriend, and the son she has that is still alive, Robbie. Mrs. Nash also. has a lot of facts and statistics at her fingertips, such as the fact that 1 in 9 people will die in a car accident, but it is her own unfortunate experience and the way• she relates it that brings the message home to her audience. She has first hand experience with losing a family member to drinking and driving, and she is willing to tell kids what she has gone - through so they will think twice before they risk putting themselves and their families through the same thing. Mrs. Nash Iles Made approximately 50 presentations of this kind since her son's death. When asked if she thought the presen- tations were making a difference or if the kids had their own ideas and were too thick skinned to listen to her advice she had a cou- ple interesting stories. One was when she went to the funeral of her great aunt. She signed the funeral list and the -funeral direc- tor recognized her name, and he informed CHRISTINE NASH started off the ADAPT Program in Seaforth with her presentation on drinking and driving-, Hereshe-shows the audience at_Seaforth_District High, School a picture of her son who was killed in a drinking driving accident. Corbett photo. her he had noticed a marked drop in the number of teen funerals that had been going on since she started her talks. The other was when she was talking to a Kingston ambulance attendant who said he had noticed he had been receiving no calls lately for kids being picked up for alcohol related emergencies. She asked him how many he had before the presentations and he said about one per week. "High school presentations do a job," is how she sums up the apparent success of What she is doing. She says she has always received warm receptions at the schools where she speaks. Earlier Monday morning Mrs. Nash gave her presentation in Goderich. Students there gave her a five minute standing ovation. There will be more presentations made throughout this week and next as the ADAPT program continues. Cieslar, of Goderich. Bokhout was born in Gouda, 'in The Netherlands and came to Canada with his .family in 1957 when he was five -years -old, He lived for a short time in Ottawa, before. moving to the Kingston area, until moving to Toronto, where he lived from 1965 to 1980. ''He enrolled in the University of Toronto in 1970 and entered medicalschool in 1972,. graduating in 1977 after taking some time off during his •fourth year to work as "a sheet metal worker. He worked as a general practitioner in the Toronto area from June 1979 to March 1980. From March 1980 to June 1983, he was District Health Officer for the Grenfell Health Service in Northern Newfoundland. As the only doctor covering a '2,000 square mile area, Bokhout was "primary care • physician and consultant," for about 8;000 ' people, a job now handled' by. three physicians. He returned to Toronto to study Public Health at the University of Toronto until June, 1985, when he completed his residen- cy in community medicine. Then it was back to Grenfell, where he was MOH from August, 1985 until August 1987, when he returned • to Ontario to take the Huron County position. ' • , He now resides in Clinton, with his wife Helena McShane and their four daughters, • Rachel, 7; Jessica, 5; Stephanie, 3 and Sarah Louise, 20 months. VARIED ROLES Defining the role of the MOH, is not something which cart be done in a few sentences. It is a complexposition requir- ing the physician to wear a variety of hats. Bokhout has divided the role into six areas. Administration of ' the county Health Unit, is a major role. "I'mthe ad- ministrator of the Health Unit. I'm like the Chief Executive Officer," Bokhout • explained. • The MOH is also the chief liason between the unit, the public, the county health board and the Ministry of Health. "I have a fair bit to say about how we relate to the public _ wave the flag of public health, so to speak". Relating health unit activity to the Huron County Board of Health and, in- directly, to county council, is also part of Bokhout's job. "If the health unit has an idea, it's up to me to see that the idea is presented to the Turri to page'12 Wrong title given A photograph that appeared on the front page of last week's Huron Expositor, wrong- ly identified Joanne Ryan as a receptionist at the Seaforth Manor. Ms. Ryan is in' fact the Director of Nursing at the home. Our apologies for the error and any problems and/or embarrassment that resulted because of it. ' A typing error occured two weeks ago in a letter written to the editor in regards to the' Seaforth Poppy Campaign. The 1986 receipts were $3,620.46 not $13,620.46. Again our a ' oto les for the error. Townspeople warm to porch, but not to Victorian' color There has been a recent addition to the town of Seaforth that has caused a small bit of consternation in some people, and has provoked admiration from others. While everyone seems to have a definite opinion about the Seaforth Town Hall's new front pinch, those opinions Mary. "It's nice but they 'used the wrong color paint. I like wood natural," said Wayne Cannon. "I think it looks very nice. But I find the steps are higher than normal and have heard other people say the same thing," said Joyce Fisher. "It's net like the old one. The old one had the town bell and the fire bell in it. The grant could have been better spent," said .Jim Kelly. "We could have got along without it, but it's nice to see it back again. I'm not against it, and it makes the town look sharper," said Jim Doig. "Looks good. It Iooks very much like it us- ed to to me," added Harry Scott. "I think it's good for the town beautifica- tion wise. It gives the town a facelift," said Larry East. "1 don't like the color and I think they should have spent the money on something else;" said Tim Kruse "Exquisite. Except for one thing, and I WAYNE CANNON "think everyone agrees, it's the wrong color green. If they had just left the cream color on it, it would have been better," com- mented Mr. A. Sourbutts. "I have a little problem with the green, I would have liked something a little lighter, but I'll have to live with it," said Mayor Alfred Ross. "I'm not too thrilled about it. I don't like the green. Just because someone back in the 1800s put that green on it I don't see why we should be stuck with it," said. Deputy -reeve Hazel Hildebrand. "I think the porch is very nice. I'm not Crazy about the color, but I think it adds to Main Street. And I'm glad they put the ramp on it so people in wheelchairs Can get in," said Councillor Carolanne Doig. Main Street coordinator Tom Lemon said he is really pleased with the porch, and that the guys did an excellent lob: As for the green, he Said it is as dose to the original green as they could get. A paint analysis was done using paint chips off the windows to determine'the original color of the town hall. "The bottom line is that we were doing a reconstruction, and I think we were re- quired to make it as close as possible out of respect historically," said Mr. Lernon. "I predict that people will warm to it, but there's nothing to say it couldn't still be re- t+.