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The
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Citizen
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Thursday, December 17, 2020
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Volume 36 No. 51
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
Budget process begins By Denny Scott The Citizen
A special time of year Huron Chapel held “A Journey through Bethlehem” on Sunday night, bringing dozens to Auburn to celebrate the holidays in drive-by and walk-by fashion. The church set up eight distanced stations exploring the events that led
up to the first Christmas. There were eight stations set up in the church’s parking lot and, for a first-time event, organizer Ang Campbell said Huron Chapel saw a great turnout. Organizers also collected for local food banks. (Hannah Dickie photo)
Cumulative H-P COVID-19 cases near 500 By Denny Scott The Citizen COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Huron and Perth Counties where, after a particularly concerning weekend according to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Miriam Klassen, there are now 459 cumulative cases of the virus. Over the past week, the number of cases has climbed from 393 to 459, 27 of which were reported over a 48hour period starting last Friday, Klassen said during a Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH) teleconference on Monday. She added there are currently 54 active cases of COVID-19 and three people hospitalized due to the virus, all of which are from the community at large and not due to any particular outbreak. Currently, the Huron and Perth Counties have 385 recovered cases and 20 deaths linked to COVID-19. As of Monday, 310 individuals have been directed to isolate due to high-risk contact, with a total of 1,659 people having been directed to isolate since Aug. 13 when that information was first collected. There is one active retirement
home outbreak at Cedarcroft Lodge, though Klassen says it’s now largely under control with no active cases among residents and one active case in staff. The outbreak has resulted in 74 total cases, 24 in staff and the remaining 50 in residents. Klassen also said that while the outbreak at the Stratford General Hospital’s medicine unit is still considered active, she feels it’s mostly under control. Two schools remain in outbreak – Northside Christian School in North Perth, which is closed, and St. Mary’s Catholic School, also in North Perth, which is open with some cohorts returning after being dismissed due to COVID-19 concerns. The Avon-Maitland District School Board has six confirmed cases of COVID-19, though several have been deemed “non-school exposure” cases by HPPH due to the students being away from the school when they were infectious. Two of the non-school exposure cases are tied to Listowel District Secondary School, which remains open. A third such case was identified at North Perth Westfield Elementary School, which also remains
open with no cohorts dismissed. More recently, however, Listowel District Secondary School has had two confirmed cases that resulted in cohorts being dismissed while the school remains open. Central Huron Secondary School has one confirmed case with no cohorts dismissed and the school remaining open. The Huron-Perth Catholic School Board currently has six active cases, all in St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School in Listowel. The school remains open, however four cohorts have been sent home. As a result of continuously rising cases, Klassen said that the area may be moved into the Red, or “Restricted” level of the province’s response framework as early as next week, though she doesn’t know that the protections afforded by the Red level will do any more to prevent the spread that’s happening under the Orange level. Klassen explained that the cases in the area aren’t typically coming from sites that would be controlled or closed under Red. Such sites, according to the province’s website, include self-care spaces like gyms or spas and restaurants.
“It comes back to the fundamentals,” Klassen said, encouraging people to wear masks and self-isolate. She said that, of the 27 cases on the weekend, 10 came from two households, showing how quickly the virus spreads through families. As far as local numbers, MorrisTurnberry has seen a significant increase over the past week. The municipality had been at one case for several months, but jumped to nine with seven new cases being reported on Monday alone. Central Huron and South Huron each have 18 cumulative cases since the pandemic began, the former staying at 18 cases over the past week while South Huron climbed three cases. Bluewater remained at 17 cases. Howick continued to see rising case numbers, moving to 10 from seven cases. Goderich has one additional case, bringing it to six while Huron East remains at five. Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh has five cases, up one from last week, while North Huron remains at three cases since the pandemic started. As of Monday, there were eight active cases in Morris-Turnberry, Continued on page 2
North Huron Township Council has directed staff to present a bare bones budget for 2021 and received just that, according to council members, during a meeting late last week. The municipality’s first budget meeting, held last Thursday in the Wingham Town Hall Theatre on the second floor of the Wingham Town Hall, saw staff present a budget that included a 2.99 per cent increase in spending, or just shy of $185,000. The presented budget proposes $16,464,869.44 in spending, which covers $14,216,708.44 in operating costs and $2,248,161 in capital expenditures. During the presentation, Director of Finance Donna White explained that a one per cent increase in spending is equal to $61,469.39. Changes in the budget from those of previous years include additional costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, like $10,000 emergency planning funds, a significant increase in dog tag revenue, increased insurance costs and transfers to and from reserves that will be reviewed at a future meeting, according to White. Cuts were also made, White said, including putting off the purchase of a loader for the Public Works Department that was budgeted at $200,000, decreasing Public Works transfers to reserves by $50,000, and the removal of the economic development position estimated to cost $100,000. The latter cut, however, was disputed by several council members. Reeve Bernie Bailey wanted to put $50,000 into reserves to help prepare to hire an economic development individual in the future, and while council debated it, staff did take the recommendation to include in the next draft of the budget. White explained that including those funds would bring the increase in spending to approximately four per cent. White said there was some good news to start the budget process as the municipality had received an increase of $32,300 to its Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) allocation. As far as general government expenses are concerned, White said council’s training and travel expenses were lower in 2020 and would continue to be lower due to conferences being held virtually. White also explained that policing costs were decreasing across the Continued on page 11