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Orono Town Hall November 27, 2002 Serving Kendal, Kirby, Leskard, Newcastle, Newtonville, Orono, Starkville and Tyrone since 193 Free to a good home. David and his mom Pam Oaks found these two kittens in a garbage pail in Orono three weeks ago. Pam nursed them back to health and would like to find them new homes. If you'd like to adopt one of these kittens call Pam at 905-983-8229. Farmers in Clarington's unveiled on parade day. Each Scugog Road and the 9th northern regions have turned float is equipped with a gener- Concession at approximately their focus to a farm product ator and'enough lights to light 5:45 p.m. The parade will of a different sort. Farmers up the night sky. make its way south on the Old from the Tyrone, Haydon While the parade is non Scugog through Enniskillen Enniskillen and Enfield areas commercial and non competi- where they turn left onto the are taking their tractors and tive, says organizer Bill 8th Concession. Past Haydon implements off the fields and Hasiuk, a beef farmer from the parade will turn south onto onto the road for the Farmers' Enniskillen, the farmers do try Middle Road, left onto Christmas Parade of Lights. and outdo each other with Concession 7, and into the Schemes to convert culti- their entries. "The only rule Village of Tyrone at approxi- vators into geese, augers into is, the float has to look good," mately 7:30 p.m. candy canes and sprayers into says Hasiuk. At Tyrone, the parade par- angels are hatched during the The Farmers' Christmas ticipants partake in a pot-luck long summer hours spent driv- Parade of Lights takes place dinner, ing tractor. The farm families, on Wednesday, December 4, Spectators are requested to fifteen in all this year, croate 2002, beginning at the Avery park on the opposite side of their floats in secret, to be farm at the corner of Old Continued page 4 Hospital awaits 'under serviced' designation Situated in a growing com- who've paid for the facilities munity, the Bowmanville Hospital like the rest of the hospitals in Durham Region, is struggling to meet the needs of the community. The community was invited by Lakeridge Health Bowmanville Bowmanville to an open dialogue session session last Thursday, at the Baseline Community Centre in Bowmanville. The evening which was sponsored by the Clarington Board of Trade was attended by approximately 30 residents. Lakeridge Health Bowmanville Bowmanville (LHB) has applied to the Ministry of Health for an "Under Serviced Area Designation" which they anticipate anticipate will be approved before the end of this month. The designation designation will benefit the community community and LHB by providing incentive grants to physicians and specialists who relocate to the area. The designation will also give the hospital access to some funding for nurse practitioners practitioners to work in a collaborative collaborative situation with doctors. Funding hospital redevelopment redevelopment has been a major stumbling stumbling block facing the Lakeridge Health Board. A redevelopment plan which has been drawn up for the five Lakeridge Health sites, Bowmanville, • Oshawa, Whitby, Port Perry, and Uxbridge to address outdated and undersized facilities has been in the hands of the Ministry for over 18 months. O'Toole described the plan as, "very ambitious." Mayor John Mutton raised the issue of funding hospital capital projects through development development charges, or lot levies at Thursday's meeting. You're missing the boat if you're accessing this pool of money, Mutton stated. If you asked people if they would be willing to pay an extra $800 on their new home for their, hospital, they would say 'yes' said the Mayor. One local resident, said he's experienced two hospital expansions in' the past 40 years, and now the residents must wait longer for medical care because of all the new people moving into the area. "As. a newcomer they should pay an initiation fee," he stated. M.P.R John O'Toole said his government would not change the Development Charge legislation because they want to make homes affordable. Putting a development development charge on new homes would be extracting money from first time home buyers who don't have the money anyway anyway said O'Toole, Another issue raised was the closure of Bowmanville Hospital's maternity ward. ' Chris Kooy, chief operating officer for LHB explained that closing the obstetrics ward and merging the program with Oshawa was one of the hardest. decisions the Board had to deal with. The decision to close the ward was made after losing two of their three obstetricians and six family doctors .this past summer. It was a veiy emotional emotional decision, explained Kooy, but the increased risk factor to mothers and their babies, not having a backup obstetrician for family physicians in the maternity ward, left them no choice. We are not providing services closest to home, she stated, but we are providing the best possible care. Lakeridge Health Bowmanville Bowmanville is awaiting approval from the Ministry of Health for a new CT Scantier to be located at their site, reducing waiting times for scans, while providing providing that service closer to home. LHB has also increased their Complex Continuing Care beds from 20 to 3. Emergency room visits are expected to exceed 35,000 this • year. The emergency room and After Hours Clinic are staffed by Clarington's 25 physicians. "We ,have 25 physicians working way too hard, seeing more patients than they should be," stated Kooy. "We are lucky to have really dedicated doctors."