SUMMERLAND REVIEW THE VOICE OF OUR COMMUNITY SINCE 1908
VOLUME
66
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ISSUE
WHAT’S INSIDE:
NO.
5
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S U M M E R L A N D,
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T H U R S D AY,
JANUARY
31,
2013
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16
PA G E S
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$1.15
Interior Health has placed another highlevel administrator at the beleaguered Summerland
Seniors Village in what it described a “rare and unusual” measure. The health authority announced last week it appointed the administrator to oversee residential care at the privately owned facility, which has
been under intense scrutiny of late. Provincial legislation allows IH to appoint an administrator to run even a private community care facility if there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is a risk to the
health or safety of a person in care. “This is a rare and unusual step but one that we feel is necessary,” Dr. Andrew Larder, a senior IH medical health officer, said in a press release. “Interior Health has
Summerland Arena saw a different kind of action, when shopping carts were raced across the ice. The winner won a supermarket gift card.
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Artifacts wanted
Summerland museum is looking for donations of interesting old items.
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Life member
Stan Etter is honoured with a life membership in the Community Arts Council.
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Justice concert
Music event to raise money to fight human trafficking.
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Pee Wees win
House Jets victorious in season’s final game.
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Strangers save the day
Seniors get help with snow and ice.
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YOUR SMILE I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
INCLUDING
Facility gets overseer
Interior Health brings in administrator for Seniors Village Grocery cart race
B.C.
WWW.SUMMERLANDREVIEW.COM
Robbie Burns dinner
Photo by Carla McLeod, special to the Summerland Review
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch #22 and Summerland Pipes and Drums presented A Nicht wi’ Burns, in honor of Scottish poet Robbie Burns on Friday evening. Pictured here is James Wood addressing the Haggis.
HST
also brought in additional nursing staff to work at the site to help bolster the clinical leadership we feel is crucial.” The health authority funds 75 of 80 residentialcare beds at the facility and 18 of 36 assistedliving suites. Summerland Seniors Village also boasts 70 independent-living units. It was in one of the independent-living units where 91-year-old Alfredo Bonaldi was found near death in November after he was stricken with a suspected case of food poisoning. His absence at meal times should have caused staff to check on him, but didn’t, and he died in a hospital two weeks later. Multiple investigations were launched after Bonaldi’s family went public with the story. The facility is owned by Retirement Concepts. Interior Health’s licensing program continues to work with the site to address infractions identified during inspections in October and November. Licensing met with the operator as recently as Jan.14 and since that meeting, has laid out items that need to be addressed within specific timeframes. These reviews have identified common areas of concern regarding staffing levels, education and training, and leadership.
On-call firefighters better deal Summerland’s auxiliary firefighters will be getting a better deal, thanks to an initiative passed by Summerland municipal council this week. The remuneration policy for auxiliary firefighters was changed in order to reflect the current pay scale for auxiliary firefighters at emergency incidents and
training events and to improve the payment for extended training. The current policy did not correctly reflect the current rates. The recommendation had been discussed during an in-camera session on Jan. 14. They hadn’t been paid when training sessions ran overtime, such as weekend-long training
sessions, but now will get an extra $10 an hour when training runs over four hours. In addition, travel expenses will be paid for training sessions located outside the District of Summerland. Fire chief Glenn Noble presented the new policy to municipal council at this week’s council meeting, saying the auxiliaries did not ask for
the change in rates. Weekend training sessions can run from eight to 20 hours, and the auxiliaries had been receiving little for the time they put in, often traveling outside the community for training. Coun. Martin Van Alphen, who initiated the effort, said he takes his hat off to the firefighters. “It’s a difficult thing
to attract and keep volunteers.” It’s a small amount we pay them for the large job that they do.” Coun. Robert Hacking added that it is only fair to pay auxiliaries for the training that takes them outside the community and away from their families on weekends. See FIREFIGHTERS Page 10