THE
SERVING THE MAPLETON COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY NEWS Volume 49 Issue 30
Drayton, Ontario
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638-3328
Friday, July 29, 2016
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Local hospitals receive more than $3 million in mental health funding by Jaime Myslik GUELPH - Wellington County and Guelph hospitals are receiving more than $3 million in provincial funding to expand emergency mental health services. North Wellington Health Care (NWHC), which operates the hospitals in Palmerston and Mount Forest, and Groves Memorial Community Hospital in Fergus will each receive $326,100, while Guelph General Hospital will get $2,416,300. “Guelph got the lion’s share of it because we depend
Park beautification - Mapleton Township summer students Janet Henneberry, left, and Catana Sicilia spruced up the gates to Drayton Memorial Park on Wood Street on July 21. photo by Caroline Sealey
Man charged in boat ramming incident MAPLETON - A Kitchener man has been charged after allegedly ramming his boat into another vessel on Conestogo Lake. On the morning of July 19 Wellington County OPP received a report of an incident involving threats at the lake.
Police say that at about 7am a group of youths water skiing were approached by a man operating a vessel at a high rate of speed. “Words were exchanged and the man intentionally rammed his vessel into the youths’ vessel, causing minor
damage, and left the scene,” police stated in a press release. Gabriel Leite, 43, of Kitchener, was charged with dangerous operation of a vessel and failing to remain at the scene of an accident. He is to appear in Guelph court on Aug. 23.
on Guelph for these resources,” NWHC board chair Tom Sullivan said. “North Wellington and Groves, we don’t have psychiatrists on staff, Guelph does, so they make these resources available to us if we run into a situation where we have a mental health or addictions patient.” Sullivan explained that in the past if there was a mental health case on the weekend or a holiday there wasn’t proper care available in the county. “This is emergency mental health so the idea is ... we will have access to nurses, mental
health practitioners like psychiatrists, etc. immediately,” he said. In Guelph that means there will be a mental health nurse on call 24/7 and at Groves hospital, Palmerston and District Hospital and Louise Marshall Hospital, mental health assessments will be available evenings, weekends and holidays. A new program manager to oversee mental health services within Guelph and Wellington County will also be hired. “This is a wonderful thing for the rural Wellington residents,” said Sullivan.
Residents, township team up to provide bench for local seniors by Caroline Sealey DRAYTON - A local couple has a unique way of predicting weather and providing rest for weary walkers. Residents of Conestoga Crest Senior’s apartments in Drayton often commented to Peter and Christine Oosterveld that by the time they walked down Wood Street from the Crest, they were in need of a place to sit and rest.
The Oostervelds, who live minutes from the Crest on Wood Street, contacted the Mapleton roads department and explained the situation. The two teamed up, with the Oostervelds providing a concrete base and flower gardens, and the township a bench. “It took a while but by the fall of 2015 things began to happen and the project got underway,” Peter said.
During an interview on July 19 with the Community News and the Oostervelds, a resident at the Crest, tired from her walk, stopped for a rest on the bench and expressed her appreciation. “It really is a good thing,” Christine said. “We get a lot of residents stopping to rest for a few minutes, then they carry on with Continued on page 3
Big business on back roads in Wellington, local councils advised by Patrick Raftis WELLINGTON COUNTY - Farming is big business in this region and the Wellington County Federation of Agriculture (WFA) is asking municipalities to help it continue growing. Federation representatives Melisa Luymes and John Hollen attended the July 12 Mapleton council meeting to update council on federation concerns and provide an overview of local agriculture. “There’s big business on your back concessions,” states a fact sheet proved to councillors at the meeting. “Farming and the local businesses directly supporting agriculture have always been a significant and constant contributor to the rural economy of Ontario. Rural municipalities have a big role to play in nurturing agricultural growth.” The federation also provided a checklist of ways for municipalities to support local agricultural growth through land use planning, assessment and taxation policies, and support for regional food planning. The delegation explained that farming has a major impact
Big business - Farmland makes up 78.5 per cent of the area of Wellington County and generates more than $700 million worth of economic activity locally. The Wellington County Federation of Agriculture is asking municipalities to facilitate continued growth through farm-friendly planning practices. photo by Patrick Raftis
on the local economy. “Farmers have to spend money to make money,” said Luymes, noting dairy farmers spend over $5,000 per year per cow, much of it locally, while
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corn producers spend more than $500 per acre. The WFA points out that farmers are owners and stewards of 78.5 per cent of the total land area of the county and
farm cash receipts for primary commodities in the county totalled more than $700 million in 2013. Dairy farms in the county accounted for the largest share
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of that, at $162 million, with cattle and calf (beef) operations generating $122 million, poultry $108 million, hogs $88.8 million, soybeans $52.4 million, corn $46.5 million, eggs, $40.9 million and wheat $22.5 million. Census data from 2011 shows Wellington County has 393 diary farms, 9% of the total province wide. There are 423 beef cattle operations (6% of the Ontario total), 120 pork producers (9.7%) and 166 poultry and egg producers (10.3%). “That’s a really high percentage, especially of the supply-managed commodities,” noted Luymes. Minto presentation A similar presentation was made to Minto town council at its July 19 meeting by local WFA director Charles Weber and federation past president Gord Flewwelling. Weber noted just under half of Wellington County’s farmers generate more than $100,000 in revenue. “Which certainly tells us that we have a fair number of large farming operations in Wellington County,” Weber
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said. “That also tells us that we have 50% that are small farmers that are generating less than $100,000, that are part-time farmers who could be niche market farmers, whatever. “So when you’re looking at planning and development you’ve got that large farmer, which sometimes we tend to focus on, but we also have that small farmer. So we are a very diverse industry within Wellington County and, again, when we’re planning, we have to take everything into consideration.” Weber stressed municipalities play a key role in maintaining the strength of the agriculture industry, in part through regulation of land use planning. “That 78.5 per cent (of county land in agriculture) that sounds pretty good … I think that’s sufficient, but the thing I get from that is where do we set the goal?” Weber asked. “Where should we be 30 years from now? And I think that’s something that we all need to keep in mind - that we don’t get too far away from 78.5 per cent, and how do we do that?”
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