Dunbar Hall still waiting

South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services has been hard at work this past week.

Thurler Farm

A fire at the Thurler Farm on  Snowbird Road was called in at 2:50 p.m. on November 11th. The first vehicle responded within three minutes of the call. Chief Chris McDonough was on the scene by 3:18 p.m.

According to McDonough, all three stations – Iroquois, Morrisburg, and Williamsburg – responded. In addition, McDonough also called in the South Mountain Fire Department.

McDonough told the Leader that “an off-duty fire fighter from Williamsburg drove directly” to the Thurler Farm.

Two coveralls used to cover the straw supply, tied down using tires, were on fire. Fire fighters went straight to work putting out these fires while also trying to eliminate the exposure to the barn, which held 500 head of dairy cattle.

The dairy barn and all cattle were saved thanks to the efforts of the fire fighters and mother nature. The chief said the strong wind blowing in the opposite direction was a great help to fire fighters in saving this barn.

Fire fighters were on location until 6 a.m. November 12th. They were called back in November 13th to put out more “hot spots.” McDonough said they were back for five hours putting out those fires.

In the end, the damage included 600 acres worth of crop. McDonough estimated the damage to be in the $220,000 range. No one was harmed in the fire.

As for the cause of the fire, “there was a lot of fire damage and there was nothing really we could go by.”

It is thought that a skid steer, which is “a piece of equipment used to supply straw bedding for the dairy barn,” created sparks “from the bucket scraping against the concrete.”

“I’m suspecting that. I’m not confirming that,” emphasized McDonough.

“We had help from Ault’s squatter tankers. We couldn’t keep up because we were taking up so much water,” including the entirety of Matilda’s water supply.

McDonough also mentioned the abundance of generosity: “The wives made sandwiches. The Thurlers ordered in pizza.”

12756 County Road 18

November 14th, at approximately three o’clock in the morning, a house fire was reported on County Road 18 just east of Williamsburg.

McDonough said it was a “coach house attached to an old farmhouse.”

“They extinguished the fire as soon as they got there.”

In terms of damage, McDonough said the “exterior and up to the roof line” was damaged. He estimated the damage to be “not more than $1,000.”

Again, no one was physically harmed in the fire.

[…]

Starting in the 2014/2015 school year, students heading to school in Ontario will have to meet the new immunization requirements for school attendance.

The new regulations will make three vaccines that were recommended in the past mandatory. Students between the ages of 4 and 17 will therefore need to have proof of immunization against the following diseases in order to attend school:

meningococcal disease (if students did not receive the vaccine in grade 7, they can receive it at school in grades 8 to 12);

pertussis (whooping cough);

varicella (chickenpox), for children born in 2010 or later.

The new regulations have also changed the number of shots (doses) of vaccines that students must receive to be protected from tetanus, diphtheria, polio and mumps. 

However, no changes have been made to the measles and rubella immunization requirements.

As was the case in the past, the new regulations state that parents of children attending an elementary or secondary school in the province must provide proof of their child’s immunization against the diseases mentioned above. 

Children who do not have the required immunization records or valid exemptions may be temporarily suspended from school. 

Parents must therefore inform the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) every time their child receives a vaccine. 

The health unit can help parents keep their children’s immunization records up-to-date.

Vaccines are safe and protect children by causing their body to produce antibodies, which fight off disease. Immunizations play a vital role in children’s health as they protect them from a number of serious diseases. 

For information, or to notify the health unit that your child has received a vaccine, call 613-933-1375 or 1 800 267-7120.

[…]

Elections results for South Dundas and 43 other municipalities in Ontario were delayed on election night, and that delay could change things for the next South Dundas election in four years time.

With the use of technology, results are expected within about an hour of polls closing, but in South Dundas, it took almost 3.5 hours for election results to be delivered by South Dundas’ clerk and returning officer Brenda Brunt to a small crowd only a few candidates their supporters who remained at the South Dundas Municipal Centre in council chambers.

This is the second consecutive election that South Dundas and other municipalities have experienced significant delays and difficulties in getting results delivered on election night.

Although the results were delivered at 11:20 p.m., Brunt still had no explanation for the delay from Scytl, the company hired to handle the process.

Tuesday morning the returning officers of 44 municipalities in Ontario, including all of those in SDG, were working hard to get answers from Scytl Canada about the unexpected delay. 

By noon the returning officers of SDG had received a letter from Brian O’Connor, Scytl general manager, North America.

“We can now confirm that our quality assurance process detected an inconsistency in the naming of certain election results files.  Upon the detection of an anomaly, Scytl reran the tabulation and conducted a thorough manual audit,” reads the letter.

“While these additional measures required extra time to deliver the elections results, our first priority is to ensure the integrity of the election and deliver results to our clients of unquestionable accuracy.”  

“Scytl sincerely apologizes for the delay in the distribution of the results from yesterday’s municipal election and we thank the municipalities, local candidates, media, and voters for their patience and understanding,” concludes the letter.

With the three hour delay in getting election results delivered to South Dundas from the contractor hired to collect, compile and tabulate the results of the 2014 municipal election, most of the candidates on the eve of the election were eager to support a return to paper ballot voting for the next election. This is the second consecutive election where South Dundas has had to deal with technical difficulties from a service provider on election night, even though after the trouble in the last election, when the system was overwhelmed by last minute voting, a new company with a proven track record was contracted to provide the service.

[…]