May 24 at the county council chambers is going to be a busy day.
Council is moved ahead a full week to avoid meeting conflicts on the last Thursday of the month.
Plus, Warden Chris White has issues he wants to discuss in less formal committees and those will be done after the 10am council meeting.
White told council April 26 he has several topics for working groups, and the meeting will consider two. Those are funding for local hospitals and strategy for county wide signs.
The county has been dealing with hospital funding for years. The problem is hospitals and citizens’ groups have difficulty funding medical clinics and hospital construction. County policy has changed from not funding “bricks and mortar” to doing it. Then groups look for help with clinics and how to attract doctors and nurses.
White wants a policy in place and asked if all councillors want to sit in. He said they “should be able to strike a committee.”
He said it will not be an ongoing set of meetings and he hopes to find a “drop dead” date to resolve the issue once and for all. He said even setting a number of meetings for a decision is possible.
Councillor Lynda White volunteered for the committee, saying it is “unfortunate to have to ask for hospital funding.”
Councillor George Bridge is chairman of the economic development committee and said he can see a role in this issue for his committee. People moving to an area usually check the availability of health care, and it has an effect on the ability to attract businesses.
Councillor Joanne Ross-Zuj suspects every municipality will want to have a say on the committee.
White said a full report come to county council.
When it comes to signs, White acknowledged some municipalities are far ahead of the county, giving a nod to Centre Wellington.
He cited entrance signs and said it is probably best to have a representative from each municipality on the committee. It could come up with a mapping strategy for all. The committee could determine where signs would go to welcome people to Wellington.
Councillor Lynda White said all local councils should be involved.
Warden White said, “The idea is to get it up and running. We don’t want to wait for the strategic plan.”
Councillor Lou Maieron wondered if the signs could also advertise local events as people enter Wellington.
Councillor Bruce Whale supported a coordinated approach and noted his municipality, including his, are already considering new signs, or redoing old ones. He liked a representative from each municipality on the committee.
Councillor Shawn Watters said there are places the county can “piggyback on” and cited Centre Wellington.
But, “I don’t want to overpopulate the ruralscape with signs. There’s a lot of signs out there. It may be appropriate to look at what’ out there.”
White said the first step is to determine what is there and its condition. He said seven mayors can be a part of the committee. “We’re going down uncharted territory,” he said.
In other business, White announced the June council meeting will be at the usual date on June 28 – but with a twist. The meeting is in Guelph, but council will travel to Harriston for re-opening of the new library there at 3pm.
