Clinton News Record, 2016-12-28, Page 1616 News Record • Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Memories Forever offers free rooms for visitors stuck
in Seaforth from snow squalls
Shaun Gregory
Postmedia Network
Seaforth and the region has
been blasted with an accumu-
lation of heavy snow, and when
this happens, for the well-being
of drivers, the OPP are forced to
close the highways.
For people from out-of-town,
this means they're stranded in
below freezing temperatures in
a foreign winter wonderland
with nowhere to rest since there
is not an abundance of variety
in terms of public boarding.
OPP Const. Jamie Stanley
said through emails that once
Highway 8 and County 12 are
closed, it's a rather difficult task
of traveling in or out. Only if
secondary roads are accessible
will drivers be able to enter or
leave.
"If the conditions are so poor,
then the decision will be made
by the team leader to close the
roadways. We then notify the
authority that is responsible for
maintaining that particular
roadway (MTO, county, munic-
ipality, etc.,) and then they
place barricades up," he said in
a recent conversation.
Luckily there are a couple
temporary rest stops in the
area. Connie DeJong, who is
the owner of Memories Forever
on 86 Goderich St. in Seaforth,
which is a bed and breakfast
scrapbooking retreat, has
offered rooms free of charge for
those isolated to the town's
coordinates.
Since first operating in 2011,
DeJong has offered this gener-
ous service.
"If I get stuck some place, I
hope somebody will take me
in," stated DeJong. "I don't want
to see anybody stuck out there."
Environment Canada says
that from December 9-14, the
region had witnessed roughly
80 cm of snow with wind gusts
up to 80 km/h.
All seven bedrooms were full
last week, and due to the high
volume of patrons who were
mostly truck drivers, DeJong
said unfortunately she had to
point the people in other
directions.
In the morning, Dejong was
greeted with letters saying
thank you and money for their
free stay.
"I do it every time there is a
snow storm and the roads are
closed," affirmed DeJong. "I put
it on Facebook and everybody
shares it, and they give me a
call:'
DeJong's social media post
on December 16 stated, "Beds
are cleaned and changed from
all my stormed stayed guests
last night, and ready for
another night, just in case the
weather turns bad once again."
Directly across the street
from Memories Forever
is McGlynn Family Funeral
Home Ltd., and according to
DeJong, they were offering free
parking for the truck drivers.
Shaun Gregory Postmedia Network
Memories Forever in Seaforth filled up all their rooms after numerous people from out-
of-town were secluded because the roads were closed from the recent heavy snowfall.
They offered this service for free.
HOLIDAY SEASON
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wish everyone a Merry Ch ristmas and 2 Happy New Year. During the
holiday Season, we normally postpone the regular collection of
wto and racy latl es In order to allow our staff to savour this
joyous holiday with their farni]y, but this year, Christmas and New
Year's Day take place on a Sunday, so your regular collection w]1I be
uninterrupted throughout the holidays.
Please set out your
materials on your
regularly scheduled
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Jessica's House design details
CONTINUED FROM > PAGE 15
"Sometimes you just have to be a
leader;" she said. 'And this is a time for the
South West LHIN to step up and be a
leader and be creative and say you know
what, maybe the right solution is the right
number of beds for the community
instead of of starting out with a deficit
with 10 beds when you knowyou need 13
and you know we're going to need 15 or
16 in another five to 10 years. Don't
divide communities. Lift up the work this
community is doing and we'll lift up the
other communities when their time is
here. We need both!'
The original recommendation for the
two counties was a total 13 beds, but that
was then whittled down to the present 10.
Those selected to house the hospice beds
will receive $105,000 per a year, which
equals about 40 per cent of the cost. The
remaining 60 per cent will have to come
from the community.
Jessica's House doesn't need the
LHIN's support to build, she said, and
they intended break ground in March
2017.
The designs for the two-storey three -
bed hospice were released to the public
Wednesday, Dec. 14. Payne says they
have taken the eventual need for more
beds into consideration when they asked
for the drawings.
The plans included for future expan-
sion of a further three beds.
"The other really good thing about this
model is at some point the LHIN decides
we get these beds and down the road
decided, 'oh gosh we need three more,'
they can mirror that build. They just put a
breeze way in between the two buildings
and join them and build the mirror
image on the other side. And we have
enough land to do that comfortably,"
Payne said.
The hospice is to have three large
rooms, each with their own private
porches allowing for patients to be
wheeled outside on their beds.
"You can go outside, you can be rolled
out in your bed at night, in the moming,
any time of day you can be rolled out to
be outside because we know that's an
important part of the process," she said.
The idea behind the design was to
make it a home -like experience, she said.
The rooms are large with a pull-out sofa
so family can stay over. There will also be
a playroom for children and a kitchen.
"we imagined a place where families
can come and have space. So the bed-
rooms are very big and the space where
families can be together is quite large,"
she said.
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