PAGE 6 - THE PERTH COURIER - June 24, 2010
EDITORIAL OUR OPINION
Be safe when you cool off
T
he summer weather has rolled in and for many, this means one thing: beach season. Residents of Perth and area consider themselves lucky to have fun, family-oriented beaches only a stone’s throw away. Between the numerous amount of lakes throughout Tay Valley, Lanark Highlands and Drummond/North Elmsley we’re fortunate to live in an area designed for splish splashin’ around. It’s good, clean family fun for everyone. Besides, who doesn’t enjoy cooling off in chilly lake water on a hot, muggy day? Before you hit the beach this year, take some time to make sure you are prepared. Sunscreen, hats, umbrellas and light clothing to cover your skin are essentials. Don’t forget, just because the sky is overcast, it doesn’t mean you are not at risk. Listen to the radio to find out what the UV index is: you may be surprised, because even on cloudy days, the sun can still leave a lasting impact on your skin. Be prepared for extreme heat. Bring a cooler with lots of water and natural fruit juices and avoid alcohol and caffeine. Staying properly hydrated is one of your best weapons against the heat. Proper life jackets for young swimmers are extremely handy, but do not protect children 100 per cent in the water. Be aware of the water quality before heading out to avoid disappointment. The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit collects water samples weekly to analyze. The samples are screened for E. Coli and other types of bacteria, which could cause skin irritation, eye, ear, nose and throat infections, as well as intestinal illnesses. The entire length of the beaches are tested by public health inspectors from June until September. Not sure about the quality of the water the day you want to take a dip? Visit the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit’s website for up-to-date water information at www.healthunit.org/water/test/beach_ results.htm. Enjoy days at the beach while you can. Summer comes and goes in the blink of an eye – just be sure to be safe and have fun.
LETTERS
What do you think? Email letters to editor@perthcourier.com.
Postal outlet closure is a lose/lose situation: MPP
Local Landmark
In this space each week, we will feature a photo of local interest. Be the first to correctly identify the location or item in the picture by emailing editor@perthcourier.com with the subject line, “Local Landmark,” and your name will be printed in next week’s paper! No one wrote in with an answer to last week’s landmark, which was a view of one of the canopies adorning the historical information pillars around town (the one pictured was at Last Duel Park). This week’s landmark is the sprouting result of a dormant farm feature.
Dear Editor: Re: “Regulations force postal outlet to close,” The Perth Courier, June 10. It always concerns me when government service delivery decisions are made for the convenience of the bureaucracy instead of for the people they are meant to serve. Unfortunately this is an increasingly common practice with government agencies and crown corporations. This is what we are seeing in this case of Canada Post and the Downtown Perth Pharmasave. Although the Pharmasave is meeting the marketplace demands and offering Canada Post customers in Perth excellent service, a convenient location, and friendly staff, this is not enough for Canada Post to keep the Perth franchise open. Instead, Canada Post wants more and new floor and counter space, more storage space, as well as new and expensive fixtures, which will amount to over $80,000 in renovations, but will do nothing to increase the store’s revenues or better service. As a result of this policy, many smaller franchises are being
squeezed out and will eventually close. Ultimately, the result for Canada Post will be administrative convenience; they will only have to deal with a few “head offices” for the large companies, having eliminated all the small independents. If the Perth Pharmasave postal outlet closes, will there be any savings to the taxpayer? Will there be an improvement in postal service? Will Canada Post generate more revenue? The answer to all these questions is “no.” However, what we will see is a reduction in services and convenience for the people; further travel times and increased costs to get to post offices for mail delivery, pick up and other services; clearly a lose/lose scenario for everyone. Canada Post is using the clever pretext and guise of costly renovations to small-town post offices to achieve their real purpose of reducing services and cutting their costs without regard to the needs of the people. People should expect efficient delivery of government services, but “efficient” here does not mean convenience to the agency and bureaucrats of the postal
monopoly – it should mean what is efficient and best for those paying their wages. I have requested Canada Post to review their decision and to start acting in a honest and transparent fashion when implementing/developing new policies. Randy Hillier MPP for Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington
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Gulping down summertime Perth Courier
The
39 Gore Street East, Perth, ON, K7H 1H4 T: 613-267-1100 • F: 613-267-3986 • www.yourottawaregion.com Vice President & Regional Publisher Chris McWebb chris.mcwebb@metroland.com 613-221-6201 Regional General Manager John Willems john.willems@metroland.com 613-221-6202
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I
t’s officially summer, and that means it’s time to get all nostalgic (as I am wont to do) and start singing “…why ain’t it always suuuummmmerrrr….” Or maybe not. Summer is just one more thing on a long list of items that have changed for me now that I am one of those so-called grown-ups. First came all those novelties like laundry and dishes and cooking that seemed pretty neato when I was living on my own for the very first time. Boy...that wears off after a while. Then came the whole “getting older” part of life, when certain parts of the body become unpredictable or even mutinous. I’m thinking metabolism, blood chemistry, knees and hips to name a few examples. Then there is the part when you truly understand the “responsibility” of adulthood. In general, I more or less grew into my brains as I neared 30. Then I had kids and the weight of being responsible for guiding two young lives hit home. Whoa. Another notable grown-up thingy relates to summer. During the years a person is attending school, summer tends to be the shining beacon at the end of the tunnel. Whether you like school or hate it, finishing a grade or a year comes with that sweet reward of having anywhere from eight to 16 weeks of holidays. Through high school and university those weeks came with having summer jobs, but they were jobs I really loved, so they didn’t feel like work at all. Plus, I made money. My own money. How cool is that? So when I graduated from school and got my first full-time job, it took a little while to adjust
Stephanie
GRAY Past Deadline to the new schedule. It also changed the way I felt about summer. No longer was it a span of time that involved seemingly endless days of frolic; it became a season to be scheduled and navigated. Instead of miles of fun punctuated by occasional spates of boredom, summer became a race to cram everything in – and not all of it was frolic. I particularly have noticed this when it comes to vacationing. Before having kids, vacations were a time to get out of Dodge and relax and unwind. With very young kids, however, you pretty much have to take Dodge with you in order to be comfortable, and it sometimes takes more days to pack and then recover than the vacation itself. My kids are a bit older now, so the days of lugging strollers and playpens and extra everything and ample toys have subsided. It definitely makes me appreciate all the preparation my parents had to do when they took us camping.
Now that the kids are a bit older, there’s still a lot to do and it’s still super busy, but the busyness is peppered with more relaxing times. Lots of people have talked about how parenting allows you to return to your childhood and relive things. At first, as the resident pack mule, I didn’t really find that happening so much, but now that Girlchild is four and Boychild is eight, I can see it. I think back to my eight-yearold self and I remember those summers of camping in the tent trailer with my parents and brother and sometimes my grandmother. We went all over Ontario and also to New York State and I remember how everything seemed special and different. Sometimes kids today need a big “wow” factor to get their attention, but I’ve seen my kids’ happiness unfurl at a cottage or a playground, so I feel confident that experiencing some of the little things I loved as a kid will etch good memories for them, too. I remember the smell of my new Nancy Drew books mingling with the scent of canvas as I lay on my sleeping bag and immersed myself in reading. I remember “surfing” rollers on Lake Ontario. I remember how cool it seemed to wade out into a big lake and suddenly climb up onto a sandbar. I remember camping not far from a farm field and watching hundreds of fireflies cavort with sleepy, lowing cows. Now if I only I could figure out how to make summer slow down so we can drink it in sips instead of gulps.