COUNTY OPTS FOR OMBUDSMAN

This ran on Orangeville.com………… comments invited below

By Chris Halliday

Facing a choice between the province’s watchdog or appointing an independent closed-door meeting investigator for 2012, Dufferin County is going with the former.
Last Thursday (Nov. 10), county council agreed to select the Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario as its closed meeting investigator for 2012, should any need for an investigation arise.
The provincial watchdog is the investigator for complaints in many municipalities across the province, except for those deciding to appoint their own — the county, as well as several other municipalities in Dufferin, including Melancthon and Mulmur, jumped on the Local Authority Services (LAS) train in 2011.
So why has the county changed course in 2012, you might ask?
“The Ombudsman won’t cost us anything and we think that they’re capable,” remarked Amaranth Deputy Mayor Walter Kolodziechuk, chair of the county’s General Government Services (GGS) Committee.
“We’ve seen some of their reports that they have submitted elsewhere and we think that they were appropriate reports, professional and we decided to go with them.”
On top of those potential cost-savings, it also appears to take the Ombudsman less time to complete a report when stacked up beside LAS, the GGS committee chair added.
“They’ve been dealing with these sorts of things all along. We see that the reports that they have put in seem to be timely,” Kolodziechuk said. “We think that we would get quicker service here, plus like I said, we’re always looking at the expenses and this will save a few dollars, not much, but some.”
LAS is a service provided by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). The county didn’t have to foot any bills for closed session investigations conducted by LAS in 2011, however, Melancthon and Mulmur did.
It is not known whether the county’s recent decision to select the Ombudsman will perhaps push, or convince, any other municipalities in Dufferin to follow suit. But Kolodziechuk explained, at least one municipality in Dufferin may be considering the Ombudsman this time around.
“I think all the municipalities were kind of feeling their way, the same as the county, and this will be coming up again in budgets for this year,” Kolodziechuk said. “It will be interesting to see, I know in our municipality (Amaranth), we’ll certainly look at it.

LEST WE FORGET

The first chapter of In Flanders Fields and Other Poems (a 1919 collection of poems by John McCrae) gives the text of the poem as follows:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS DAY

What a wonderful idea. Doing random acts of kindness for one day of the year. Sorry I think it should be everyday and that is what I do. Hold doors open for people, say hi and just be a great citizen of the community. My move has been very hard but something that was not very hard was deciding on what to do with my free digester. Muelensteen Tires in North Perth holds a green day every year and gives away green products to help us be good to Mother Nature and be responsible for our waste. Last year was rainbarrels and this year was digesters which is one step up from a composter. When I read the letter to the editor in the Listowel Banner about the vandalsim of the composter at Central Public School I decided to donate my digester to them so it would be put to good use. They were so very happy to get it and I am sure they will put it to good use and learn lots of information on how to be responsible for the waste we all produce and how not to pollute the area we live in, also known as taking care of Mother Nature. If you took part in random acts of kindeness day, and it did not hurt, keep it up. Our communities need it. And I am back