Residents in and around the county continue to deal with the aftermath of the major ice storm that hit southern Ontario on Dec. 22.
Linda Dickson, the county’s community emergency management coordinator, said during the ice storm recovery county emergency officials stayed in touch with emergency officials at the county’s seven lower tier municipalities and Hydro One, which provides electrical service throughout the county.
“Each municipality was working through things on their own and keeping the larger county group appraised of some of their efforts,” Dickson said of the plan put in place during the ice storm recovery.
“The ice storm was bad, but it could have been worse. I think the event shows the value in individual preparedness.”
On Jan. 6 the county announced the provincial government was extended its grocery card program to help compensate residents who lost food during the ice storm power outage.
The program, first announced for residents of the Greater Toronto area, was extended to include Guelph and Wellington County.
The program provides a $100 grocery card for families and $50 for individuals. Residents applying for the cards had to declare that they were without power for at least 48 hours during the ice storm, lost perishable food as a result of the outage and experienced financial hardship to replace the food.
Stuart Beumer, the county’s director of Ontario Works (OW), said applications were coming in quickly after the county publicized a telephone line number prior to Tuesday.
County social services administrator Eddie Alton said applications were being processed and cards will be mailed out to eligible applicants.
“We are taking the applications and distributing the cards through our OW program,” Alton said.
“The reason for mailing the cards is it makes the logistics easier and consistent.”
The province provided the county with 1,228 cards valued at $61,400.
“We hope this will allow us to assist approximately 650 households,” Alton said.
Beumer said the program concluded on Thursday.
Given the ice storm damage to thousands of trees on private property throughout the county, county council has approved waiving the charge for accepting brush removal at four of its facilities until the end of January.
“Until January 31, Wellington County residents can drop off ice storm related brush material free of charge, from 8am to 4pm at the following waste facilities:
– Aberfoyle, 6922 Concession 4, Puslinch Township, on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday;
– Belwood, 8585 Wellington Road 19, Centre Wellington Township, on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday;
– Harriston, 5668 Highway 23, Town of Minto, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; and
– Riverstown, 7254 Sideroad 5 West, Wellington North Township, Tuesday to Saturday.
