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The Citizen, 1992-10-07, Page 1Business ■ Feature ■ Environment ■ Farm conies to Blyth New business See page 3 Area couple battles HIV-virus See page 6 Many enjoy first Environment Fair See page 9 Federation presents annual award See page 17 The North HuronCitizen Pharmacy battle brings stalemate Vol. 8 No. 40 Wednesday, October 7,1992 60 cents The battle to see which pharmacy gets the lucrative contract to supply Huronlea and Huronview homes for the aged took a decidedly politi­ cal turn Thursday at Huron County council. A special arbitration committee of three county councillors was set up by council to recommend who should get the contract after the Seniors and Social Services Com­ mittee was unable to recommend a winner. Two pharmacies, Big V in Exeter and Rieck's IDA pharmacy in Goderich are left in the running from an original pool of five phar­ macies, including Brussels Pharma­ cy. The continuing saga began when the Seniors and Social Services committee called for tenders to pro­ vide the pharmaceutical service to the two homes for the next five years. There can be no "lowest bid­ der" as in normal tendering process because prices for the drugs involved are all regulated by the provincial ministry. The pharma­ cies tried to win the contract by outbidding each other in the service provided. Presentations from all five phar­ macies were made at the August 19 meeting of the committee after which a motion was made to pur­ chase the services from Big V phar­ macy, terminating the contract of Rieck's which had provided the ser­ vice for many years. Two members of the committee, Ashfield Reeve Allan Gibson and Warden R.W. Fisher, of Zurich, were not present at the meeting. Before the report of the Aug. 19 meeting had been presented to the full County council, a second meet­ ing of the committee was held at which time the committee voted to reopen the matter and look again at the presentations. Rieck's Pharma­ cy in the meantime had telephoned several councillors protesting the change and had sent letters. "We're all human,"Bruce Machan, committee chairman and Reeve of Wingham told council at the September meeting. "We have doubts ourselves. We want to take any doubt out of our minds." A list of questions was then circulated to all of the pharmacies and the com­ mittee, with full membership met again on Sept. 24. Big V and Rieck's presented supplementary presentations and the question­ naires were discussed. After more than four hours, the committee ended deadlocked. A first motion would have awarded the contract to Big V. It was defeated in a tie vote. The second motion would have given the contract to Rieck's. It too was defeated in a tie vote. Another motion, to refer the whole issue to the full council was also defeated. The meeting ended when a motion was passed to have Clerk-Adminis­ trator Nigel Bellchamber review the issue and present the options to Continued on page 19 Firemen want hall downtown Lookout post Five-year-old Bill Nigh and his sister Marie Nigh, 3, of Seaforth looked like seasoned hikers with their pretend canes during the Wawanosh Nature Centre's annual Fall Colour Tour held Sunday. Dozens of families took advantage of the sunny weather to trek down nature trails and view the nature centre on a wagon ride. Alarms bring bd. costs down By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot Insurance costs are down $22,805 for the Huron County Holiday hours While people will be celebrating Thanksgiving this Monday, it will be business as usual at The Citizen. The hours at the Blyth office will remain unchanged with deadline for advertising and copy at 4:40 p.m. while the Brussels office will be open from noon until 2 Board of Education thanks to the board's newly installed alarm sys­ tem. Dave Reed, Senior Account Representative with Frank Cowan Company Limited presented his general insurance report at the board’s Oct. 5 meeting and revealed insurance costs will be approxi­ mately $125,000 down from $148,700 last year. "One reason costs are down is due to the installation of an alarm system," he told councillors. 'The system will continue to show improvements in insurance costs over the next couple of years." Lowered insurance rates was one of the major factors in convincing trustees to install the alarms this summer. The alarms were placed in all the board's 29 schools for a total cost of approximately $25,000. Paul Carroll, the board's Superin­ tendent of Business and Operations indicated there was a reduction of vandalism in September. "If there is an absence in vandal­ ism like the pattern we had in September, the alarm system will likely pay itself back by the end of this year," he said. If and when Brussels can find the money to build a new firehall, members of the Brussels Fire Department want it built down­ town. That was the message Fire Chief Howard Bernard brought to village council Monday night from the fire brigade. Chief Bernard said a dis­ cussion at the August meeting of council at which members expressed the idea that it would be better to have the new fire hall built in the industrial park than down­ town had prompted the fire depart­ ment members to discuss the issue. They agreed unanimously the hall should be rebuilt downtown, he said. With a volunteer fire department response time is much faster if the hall is near where people work, he argued. Several members of the 14- member fire department worked on main street and could be at the fire hall in seconds to get things ready for the rest of the members when they arrived. In one case, he said, someone timed it and the fire truck was rolling down the street within a minute of when the fire siren sounded. That kind of response time would be impossible with the fire hall in the industrial park, he said. Councillors pointed out that most new firehalls in places like Goderich, Seaforth and Exeter are being built outside the main core. Reeve Gordon Workman suggested that the current downtown property is valuable to business use and that the money earned in selling that property might help pay for a new hall on industrial land the village already owns. But Chief Bernard said that if 14 firemen have to drive to a firehall it will lose precious time in fighting a fire. Reeve Workman also worried that it might not be possible to build a new hall on the present site without building over a sewer line but Chief Bernard said some plans for a fire hall found inshow it could be situated on the site without inter­ fering with the sewer. All the discussion is hypothetical at present because there is no Continued on page 2 5 charged in drug raid Charges were laid against five men after police officers executed a drug warrant at an Ethel residence on Sept. 23. A Wingham OPP spokesperson said police seized eight bags of marijuana, approximately 70 grams in total, from the home of Peter Keet, 27, of King St. Charged with possession of a narcotic for the purpose of traffick­ ing are Mr. Keet, Bill Stacey, 20, of Wingham, Jamie Leachman, 19, of RR2, Wingham, Michael Latroni- co, 21, of Gorrie and Charles Indoe, 21, who also resides at the King St. residence. Mr. Indoe was charged as well with possession. The five men will make their first appearance in Wingham's provin­ cial court on Oct. 21.