Mayors lobby for priority on seniors home site gŏđŏ editionap.ca
“I don’t think it’s fair that the West should subsidize a residence in the East if they don’t have access to it,” Kirby said. Russell Township Mayor Jean-Paul St- Pierre noted that private retirement homes also exist in the region. He said need should be the key factor that should determine where and if a second counties retirement residence is built. “That should be one of the consider- ations,” he said. “Who needs it most?” Mayor Barton agreed and added that the average age for a senior living in a re- tirement home in Prescott-Russell now is around 85. Parisien noted that some se- nior care facilities have to deal with special needs clients. The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) has suggested guidelines for senior care needs. Anyone who has to take eight or more pills a day as part of their medication
needed to determine where a future coun- ties retirement facility should go if a new one is built to replace the existing one or if the council decides that the counties’ social service program needs a second seniors home to handle the long waiting list for openings. “Can we try to determine how cost-effec- tive it might be to run two instead of one?” asked Gary Barton, Champlain Township mayor.“People like to stay in their own com- munity.” Several mayors on the counties council suggested communities within their own municipalities that might be suitable sites for either a new or secondary residence. The mayors from Russell County pushed for having a facility to match the one already operating in Hawkesbury in Prescott Coun- ty and they received support from East Hawkesbury Mayor Robert Kirby.
regimen is considered someone “at risk” and should live close to a medical facility in case of emergency. Warden René Berthiaume, Hawkesbury’s mayor, said the counties need a long-term strategy for its residence operations. He noted his own preference for Hawkesbury but stressed that any decision must consid- er other factors. “In my mind this is important,” he said. “It must be based on need, and on the impact on our (counties) services.” Mayor Kirby had the last word in the dis- cussion, arguing that need must rule when the counties council does decide at some future point and the future social service program budget must reflect that. “My decision will not be based politically,” he said. “It will be based on what’s best for seniors. If it costs a dollar more, it costs a dollar more.”
GREGGCHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
L’ORIGNAL | Every mayor in Prescott- Russell seems to want to have a counties’ seniors retirement home in their commu- nity. The counties council is waiting for a more detailed hardcopy update report, complete with recommendations, on future planning for La Residence retirement home facility it maintains as part of its social services pro- gram for the United Counties of Prescott- Russell (UCPR). Chief Administrative Officer Stéphane Parisien provided the council with a verbal preliminary summary of the situation, noting that a planning study is Counties look into old wells L’ORIGNAL | Old wells proved a deep sub- ject for discussion at the latest counties council meeting Ray Beauregard, chairman for the Eastern Ontario Water Resources Committee (EOW- RC), and Ronda Boutz, EOWRC communica- tions director, presented the United Coun- ties of Prescott-Russell council (UCPR) Feb. 13 with a summary of the past year’s work for the regional water protection group. What claimed most of the attention of the mayors was the funding aid the EOWRC has provided through other agencies like the South Nation Conservation Author- ity (SNC) to help with finding and closing off old and unused wells on private lands. Since 2004 the EOWRC has helped finance closure of more than a hundred old wells in the Prescott-Russell region alone but Boutz indicated that figure is a figurative drop in the bucket about the risk that old and un- used wells can present in both the counties and the rest of Eastern Ontario. “There are hundreds of thousands of wells out there,” she said. “There are prob- ably thousands of wells out there that we haven’t addressed.” The EOWRC’s well-decommissioning pro- gram provides farmers and other landown- ers with funding aid to close off both old wells that have gone dry or working wells that are no longer needed. “We’ve seen everything from old stone dug wells to tile dug wells to drilled wells,” said Boutz. “If it’s a hole in the ground, we’ll cap it.” The two main problems are convincing some landowners that an old well needs capping and then finding these wells. Some are easy to spot aboveground, while oth- ers may be boarded up and hidden under brush or other growth and their existence may even be unknown to the present land- owner. Those pose the greatest risk to both livestock and people. Landowners interested in getting help dealing with their old wells can contact Boutz through the SNC office, toll-free, at 1-877-984-2948 , extension 251. VISION@EAP.ON.CA PRESCOTT-RUSSELL
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