The Citizen, 2003-02-12, Page 32PAGE 32. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2003.
Brussels native named county engineer
By Keith Roulston
Citizen publisher
Brussels native Don Pletch has
been named to the vacant post of
Huron County engineer, in charge of
the county highways department.
Pletch, who attended Brussels
Public School and F. E. Madill
Secondary School was named to the
post at the February session of
Huron County council. He will fill
the position left vacant by the
resignation of Sandra Lawson last
spring.
He has been deputy city engineer
for the City of Sarnia for the last
two-and-a-half years and had
worked previously as a consultant.
“You’ve got a good team,” he told
county councillors. “I’ve known
some of these people for 35 years.”
Pletch said he’ll be continuing a
family tradition because his father
Tom once worked for the county.
He said he'll continue to commute
from his family’s home in Lucan
because his wife has a job at London
Health Sciences Centre and needs to
be close to her work.
County reserves look inviting to Shewfelt
Continued from pagel
$1.2 million.
Some of the county’s reserve
funds looked inviting to Shewfelt,
particularly a $1 million waste
management reserve and a $2
million dollar pot of money,
currently tagged for training, that
was built up because of a tax holiday
from the Ontario Municipal
Employees pension fund. The
county’s contributions had been
continued and had been
accumulated in a special reserve.
Shewfelt felt the reserve was way
too large and suggested $1 million
be transferred to the county
highways department as a reserve.
But other councillors warned
against raiding the reserve funds.
Already the entire highways
department reserve fund was used
up to cover a $2.2 million budgetary'
eiTor in 2002.
Council might put off rebuilding
reserves in 2003, Carey said, but he
feared trouble if the reserves aren't
returned to a level of $8.1 million by
the end of 2004.'The reserves not
only provide a buffer against
unexpected situations such as that in
the highways department last year,
but also keep the coufity from
having to borrow money to finance
operations until tax revenues are
received. The general reserve fund
of $1.5 million would fund the
county for only one half of one
month, Carey said and that was an
uncomfortable margin.
Part of the reason for the council's
dilemma is that for the first time in a
decade departments were asked to
budget on what they needed, rather
than being told to hit a budget target.
As a result some budgets that have
been squeezed for years have
suddenly ballooned. Howick
Councillor Norma Fairies, a former
warden, argued that councils had
imposed a lot of zero per cent tax
increases in the last 15 years despite
inflation and this council is now
paying the price.
In a debate about cutting
maintenance grants to municipalities
hosting branches of the Huron
County library so the money could
be spent on books, for instance,
councillors at the Nov. 27 meeting
of council had told County Librarian
Beth Ross that she should budget for
the books she needed rather than try
to get money for books by cutting
the maintenance grants.
Administration costs will be
increased because of restructuring of
the management of county
government. The county now has
split the positions of chief
administrative officer and clerk and
has also hired a human resources
manager.
Also proposed is an information
technology (IT) department that
would be in charge of keeping the
county’s 220 computers running as
well as its telephone systems,
pagers, etc.
This three-person department
would cut out use of outside
consultants and facilitate better use
of computers because when one
department gets new hardware, the
IT department would know who
within the county could make best
use of the old machines, staff
argued.
The budget for the new
department is $149,500 with
$42,400 of that ticketed for purchase
of new equipment throughout the
county system.
Among the other new
expenditures is $108,000 for
renovations to the courthouse to
accommodate additional staff.
During their lengthy debate,
councillors were able to agree on
just one cut: proposing to contract
out the position of emergency
measures co-ordinator, (a new
requirement from the provincial
government) rather than hire a half
time person each for the planning
and health departments, a possible
saving of $65,000.
As well as proposals for new
expenditures the county faces a
$100,000 cut to its revenues from
the fines for those convicted of
provincial offences. This was an
additional revenue stream
downloaded from the province but
the Ministry of the Attorney General
is taking a higher proportion of the
fines, leaving less for the county.
The county still has to administer
the system to collect for the
province, however.
McNICHOL - PEPPER
Kara Lee Pepper and Brian Charles McNichol were joined in
marriage on July 13, 2002 at 6 p.m. at the home of the bride's
parents, by Rev. Cathrine Campbell. Kara is the daughter of
Murray and Sandra Pepper, Brussels. Brian is the son of Ray and
Kathy McNichol, Blyth. Maid of Honour was Les Pepper, the
bride's sister. Bridesmaids were Heather Douma and Nicole
Martin, friends of the bride. Flower girl was Jessica McNichol,
niece of the groom. Best man was Jeff Ryan, friend of the groom.
Ushers were Mike McNichol, bother of the groom and Steve
Rintoul, friend of the groom. Ringbearer was Matt McNichol,
cousin of the groom. Organist was Carol LeBeau. A horse (Kara's
horse "Honey") and buggy ride was enjoyed by the bride and
groom after the ceremony. An open reception followed at the B.M.
& G. Community Centre, Brussels. The couple honeymooned in
the Blue Mountain area and now resides on a farm near
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