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The Lucknow Sentinel, 2015-11-18, Page 7Wednesday, November 18, 2015 • Lucknow Sentinel 7 Huron County County of Bruce Patrol recognizes National Housing Day Shop opens in Lucknow November 22 is set aside to raise awareness of poverty and homelessness issues across Canada Submitted Homelessness and pov- erty in rural areas are often referred to as hidden issues because they are not always visible. However, these prob- lems are real and affect many people in our communities. "Approximately 6,800 people in Huron County are living in poverty," said Tracy Birtch, Director of Social Research and Plan- ning Council & Commu- nity Impact at the United Way Perth -Huron. "That means roughly 12% of our children and 27% of single parents are living without enough food, heat or both." According to informa- tion collected by the United Way of Perth - Huron, the number one reason local people called 211 in 2013 was to ask about utility and housing support programs. Approximately half of these callers faced the possibility of having their utilities disconnected and the average arrears for those applying to the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP), a pro- gram sponsored by the Ontario Energy Board, was $800. Financial issues are fre- quently compounded by other health issues, both physical and mental. Sub- standard, inadequate and unaffordable housing is a fundamental contributing factor to chronic illness, infection, poor nutrition and mental illness. What is often not taken into account is the social costs that result from low- wage work and poverty, such as poor physical and mental health outcomes, low levels of educational attainment, increases in homelessness, and high consumer debt -to -income ratios - costs borne not only by low-wage earning fami- lies but also by corpora- tions, government and soci- ety as a whole. "Poverty and homeless- ness are complex social issues," said Warden Paul Gowing. "No one organiza- tion or agency can solve these problems alone. It will take an entire commu- nity working collabora- tively to make change happen." Recently the Huron County Health Unit and United Way Perth -Huron investigated the local cost of living to calculate what a 'living wage' is in Huron County. Ryan Erb, Execu- tive Director of United Way Perth -Huron, noted that "calculating a living wage is only the first step." He was encouraged that "so many people - business owners, economic devel- opment staff and others - have joined the conversa- tion to help work together to tackle the issue of pov- erty in our communities. We all agree on one thing: people need to make ends meet in order to pay for their basic necessities; adequate housing being one of the most important?' November 22 is recog- nized by many organiza- tions as National Housing Day, a day to draw atten- tion to poverty and home- lessness issues in commu- nities across Canada. Join the conversation about healthy, inclusive communities at #NationalHousingDay. PARK THEATRE M111544°14 MOVIE INFORMATION— www. NF DR ATIOIL. www.rits,r 40046544n 65. 4 9 CONTINUED FROM > PAGE 6 Some of the features of the new facility includes 20 foot high bay doors into the five bays which will allow transi- tioning from tandem to tri - axle trucks for efficiency, heated flooring for health, safety and comfort of the workers, more efficient stor- age spaces, environmentally conscious lighting that auto- matically only lights a small area, rather than having the entire shop lit up at once. The various areas can have the lights turned on as needed. To conserve water, a cistern gathers water from the roof to be used to wash the vehicles. Oil separators are installed to intercept toxic chemicals before they can enter the sanitary sys- tem. There are still a few odds and ends to finish up, but the Patrol Shop is now open for use. Knox commended all involved stating, "This is a great facility with great facil- ity plans. This is an under- taking that came together on time and under budget through the combined effort of both local contractors and County forces." Twolan remarked, "I am very excited today to open this beautiful facility. From the County perspective this is an investment of approximately $1.7 million. This is a state of the art facil- ity with all of the bells and whistles as this is the hub of Bruce County Highway oper- ations for the south end of the County:' Chair of Bruce County Highways Paul Eagleson stated, "I am very pleased to see this facility. We had out- grown the old facility. This should meet the needs for years to come. This facility is a very safe workplace for the men to maintain the equip- ment and will probably take a lot less energy with the extra and with lighting and heating being energy efficient. This will be a much better envi- ronment to work in?' Past Bruce County High- ways Chair Ron Oswald had been on the committee for eight years. He commented, "This project has been planned for a long time. It is a credit to the County and Municipality and a safe place for employees." Several of the employees were gathered in a casual grouping. When asked what their thoughts were on the new facility, the consensus was, "It is a far cry from the Holyrood shop!" This comment was followed by many knowing smiles, nodding of heads and some wistful looks in the eyes. Lucknow Pharmasave Flu Shot Clinics 2015 Every Tuesday 10:00 am — 12:OOpm 3:OOpm — 5:45pm Or Call To Book An Alternate Time Advance booking required. Please call to book your appointment for one of the dates listed above, or to make other arrangements. PHARlIIIASdVE Luc)?hJf)' P I RMA5 F (519) 528-3004 Valerie Gillies Lucknow Sentinel The traditional sand domes in Bruce County have reached the end of their functional life. The new Patrol Shop in Lucknow has an attached storage area for sand and salt that is already premixed ready to Toad and use in the trucks making for much more efficient use of time of operators and equipment as well as having a much more effective and uniform product to spread on the roads. These advantages were explained during a tour following the grand opening of the County of Bruce Patrol Shop in Lucknow on November 13, 2015. The 20 foot high doors allow for the modern larger vehicles to enter the spacious bays in the new state of the art County of Bruce Patrol Shop in Lucknow which was officially opened on November 13, 2015. Bridget Van Osch (late Bernie Van Osch) is proud to announce the marriage of Sarah, daughter of Ken & Corrine -Kaufman to her son Mark, in Formosa, Ont., on September 26"