The Citizen, 2010-12-23, Page 38Through the swirling snow of Dec.
14, one veteran trustee of the Avon
Maitland District School Board and
three rookies – out of a total of nine
elected members – braved the
voyage to the board’s Seaforth
headquarters for the 2011 inaugural
meeting.
And the fact that two of those four
ended up being named to the board’s
three key positions? A coincidence,
assures newly-acclaimed chair
Randy Wagler. The five absent board
members participated in the meeting
by telephone, and had equal
opportunity to be named.
“We had to have the meeting
because there is certain business that
has to get done, under the
(Education) Act,” explained the
veteran South Huron representative,
who was handed the chair’s gavel
when the only other nominee –
North Perth’s Jenny Versteeg, who
has held the post for the past two
years - declined to allow her name tostand.Al Sygrove of Goderich/
Northwest Huron, who is entering
his second term as a trustee, was
named vice chair.
According to rookie Perth
South/St. Marys representative
Lynette Geddes, the Act states that at
least two trustees – along with the
director of education – must be
present in person for the inauguralmeeting, while others are allowed toparticipate remotely. And the Dec.
14 Avon Maitland meeting easily
met that threshold: despite the
snowstorm, Geddes and Wagler, as
well as Stratford’s Michael
Bannerman and Huron East/Central
Huron’s Robert Hunking, were at the
Seaforth offices. So were director of
education Ted Doherty and two
superintendents.Geddes notes that trustees haddone some preparatory work for the
meeting, so it could be conducted
quickly and everyone sent home
early.” All the new trustees were in
attendance at the last regular meeting
of the old board,” she explained.
“So we had some informal
discussions at that time about who
might be interested in serving in
different roles.”It was then, the Perth South trusteeexplained, that she volunteered to
serve as the board’s representative
on the Ontario Public School Boards
Association (OPSBA). That
appointment was made official at the
Dec. 14 meeting.
“It was all quiet when they said,
‘who wants to be the OPSBA rep,’
Continued from page 1
to be applied to bare pavement,
something Huron County hasn’t seen
for the duration of the snow storm.
The idea behind the formula is that
it is applied to bare pavement and
because of its composition, it makes
it difficult for snow and ice to freeze
on the roads. The formula is said to
work up to temperatures as low as -
25 degrees celsius.
As soon as the roads were cleared
of snow and ice, Laurie said the
application of this formula would
once again become the department’s
top priority.
The Huron County Public Works
Department’s budget for snow
removal for 2010 is approximately
$3 million, says Laurie.
Coming into this uncharacteristic
fall storm (Dec. 21 was the first
official day of winter) Laurie said the
department was financially poised
for a storm, should it occur, due to
this year’s extremely mild March.
Approaching this fall, Laurie says,
due to the mild March, the
department came in with nearly a
$500,000 surplus because snow
removal was essentially non-existent
in the month of March.
“With our snow removal budget,
we anticipate that we’ll use two
thirds of our annual budget in the
first three months of the year
(January, February and March),”
Laurie said. “The remaining one
third of the budget, we generally
anticipate that we’ll use it from
about mid-November until the end of
the year.
“It always impossible to guess
about winter though.”
Laurie, who has been Huron
County’s Public Works Director for
three years, says that he has
encountered snowfall like this
before. He says that in the fall of
2008, Huron County experienced
one of its snowiest falls in recent
memory, however, he doesn’t
remember there being quite as
consistent of a snowfall as there has
been this year, which has been one of
the major challenges associated with
the storm of the last two weeks.
Hillside or roadside
Drew VanWyk (front) and Carson Richmond of Blyth prove
that fun isn’t determined by the size of the hill, but the friend
you’re tobogganing with during their snow day vacation on
Wednesday, Dec. 15. (Denny Scott photo)
PAGE 38. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2010.
Snow
removal
broken
down
Wagler acclaimed as school trustee chair
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