FIRST OF HER KIND
SLOAN COMES 18th
Meet Merritt’s first ever nurse practitioner
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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2015 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
LEVEL THREE DROUGHT TRIGGERS ADDITIONAL WATER RESTRICTIONS Normal
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Drought Level The new restrictions, which will last until September 30, will not allow watering on Wednesdays and Thursdays. David Dyck/Herald Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
The City of Merritt is immediately implementing expanded watering restrictions. Coun. Ginny Prowal made a motion at Tuesday’s council meeting to eliminate one day of watering for even and odd numbered houses, which was unanimously approved. From now until September 30, watering will not be permitted on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Time restrictions remain unchanged,
as does the prohibition of watering on Sunday. Watering for even addresses is only permitted on Mondays and Fridays from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and in the evening from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. Odd addresses are allowed to water on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and in the evening from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. These restrictions include the use of soaker hoses. Automatic sprinklers are permitted to be used between midnight and 4 a.m. on watering days.
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With a shortage of doctors around the province, questions around how to attract doctors — particularly to rural locations — is becoming increasingly important Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
Health care has been a hot topic in Merritt as of late. Both the Interior Health Authority (IHA) and the official opposition BC New Democrat Party are recognizing a change in doctor recruitment and retention. “Its an area where the game has been changing a lot for some time now,” IHA executive medical director for the Thompson Cariboo Shuswap region Dr. Malcolm Ogborn said. On July 2, Ogborn and other representatives from the health authority, spoke with city council to answer any health concerns they had. One of those was doctor recruitment. Ogborne said one of the challenges in this regard is that physicians themselves have changed. Going back 40 years, he said his colleagues might work in up to three communities during their career. “They would go somewhere that would set themselves up,” Ogborn said. “What we see now is a lot of physicians graduating [and] the one to three jobs that my contemporaries would do in a career, [now] they would do in five years.”
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Previously, even numbered addresses were allowed to water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while odd addresses could water Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The City of Merritt will also be doing its part by not watering its parks and cemetery on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The expanded water restrictions were brought into effect as a response to a Level 3 drought warning currently in place in many parts of the Southern Interior. The city will incur a $50 fine for anyone found violating the restrictions.
The changing face of health care
See ‘Adapting’ Page 5
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