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Wednesday, 24 January 2018 11:03

L&A County invests in Denbigh ambulance base.

Lennox and Addington County Warden Bill Lowery said something that is music to the ears of Denbigh residents last week in the context of the announcement that the county has purchased the property in Denbigh that it has been leasing for 15 years to house an ambulance base.

“Lennox and Addington County’s purchase ensures that ambulance service will continue to have a location in Denbigh,” he said.

The continued operation of a service based in Denbigh has been debated a number of times by Council, as pressure to upgrade service to the population centres in the southern rim of the county had put pressure on the ambulance budget.

The Denbigh service was pegged back from a 24 hour to a 12 hour service 5 years ago, and its continued existence has been debated at least twice since then. Over a year ago, county staff were instructed to try and find a suitable piece of property for a new base, but that did not happen.

The fall back option was to purchase the existing building, which had been identified as deficient in its current state, and renovate it. And that is what will happen now.

“The County will continue to operate one ambulance for twelve hours per day from the newly purchased base”, said a media release last Friday, and “will make improvements to the building including installation of an automatic generator to ensure operations are not disrupted as a result of power outages.”

Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg said that he is “relieved” that the property has been purchased because it signals that the service will be maintained in Denbigh after all the threatened closures in recent years, but he noted that even with planned upgrades the Denbigh base will not be on par with the bases that have been built elsewhere in the county in recent years.

“It at least gives Denbigh a foot hold, even if it is not being built to the standards of the other bases,” he said.

The Denbigh ambulance service was established in 1982 by the Province of Ontario, with local volunteers playing a key role, as a pilot project to provide service to remote corners of L&A, Frontenac, Greater Madawaska and Hastings Counties. It was subsumed under the County of Lennox and Addington when ambulance service became a municipal responsibility in 2001.

Published in ADDINGTON HIGHLANDS
Wednesday, 20 December 2017 14:38

Tim Trickey, devoted cadet leader, dies of cancer

Tim Trickey was well known in the Land O’Lakes region for his tireless efforts to to start up and maintain a cadet program at North Addington Education Centre for kids from Addington Highlands and North Frontenac. Even after his cancer diagnosis he continued to work with the cadets and as recently as last month, he led them at the Remembrance Day Service in Flinton. He died on December 17 at the age of 51.

Trickey was the co-ordinator for the volunteer ambulance service in Northbrook in the 1990’s and then served with L&A County Emergency Services as a paramedic for over 14 years. He also served on the Central Frontenac Volunteer Fire department.

Tim was married for 30 years to Darlene (nee Kelford). The couple have a son, Jordan, and a late daughter, Natasha. Tim is fondly remembered by his extended family, friends & co-workers.

Tim's family will receive friends at the Milestone Funeral Center, 11928 Hwy 41 Northbrook on Friday from 2-4pm & 7-9pm. A Celebration of Life & Tribute Service will be in the Chapel on Saturday, December 23, 2017 at 1:00pm with visitation 1hr prior to the service. A Gofundme campaign is underway to help Tim’s family.

Published in ADDINGTON HIGHLANDS

If 2018 Frontenac County budget were a head of hair, and county council a barber, no one would notice the haircut that was administered last week.

The draft budget set the requisition to the Frontenac Townships at $9.775 million and after a snip of $12,400 dollars the final budget trims that figure to $9.763 million.

Either way the number rounds off to $9.8 million. In percentage terms the requisition increase now sits at 4.4%, down from 4.5%.

Each of the four townships will combine their share of county costs with the amount that they are charged by the Ministry of Education. The County levy in 2017 was $9.35 million.

When they met last week, (November 5) some members of Council had greater ambitions for cuts, but only two cuts were made. The first was the elimination of a $6,000 commitment to an education bursary for foster kids to Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac Lennox and Addington (FACSFLA). The second was to curtail a planned parking lot restoration project at the county office/Fairmount Home by $20,000. Of that $20,000 in savings, only $6,400 came from Frontenac County ratepayers, the rest was to come from the City of Kingston.

The gallery at the meeting was crowded, and the observers were on hand for one reason, to see if the proposed $55,106 annual commitment to the University Hospital Foundation of Kingston would remain in the budget.

In a previous meeting, the proposed commitment, which is set to run for ten years, was supported by 6 of the 8 council members, but the Frontenac News took an editorial position opposing it, and North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins used social media to solidify opposition in North Frontenac.

When the matter was raised again at the meeting last week, council members who had expressed lukewarm support or did not speak at all the first time around came out strongly in favour. Councillor Nossal from Frontenac Islands said that for her constituents the hospitals are an essential service and a cause they support.

“This might seem like comparing apples and oranges,” she said, “but on Howe Island we get no benefit from the K&P Trail but our money went towards its construction. Now we are looking for the other townships to come through for the hospital foundation.”

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle and Central Frontenac Mayor Francis Smith both said they thought the commitment was important. Even South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, who opposed the payment in the first instance, had a change of heart.

“I am not going to support the increase in this budget, let me make that clear,” he said, “but in canvassing my council last night and the community as well, not many people in South Frontenac seem to have a problem giving this money to the hospital foundation, so I will not vote against this item. We need to find savings elsewhere.”

With that, when Ron Higgins moved an amendment to cut the $55,064 from the budget, there was no one to second his motion.

After the hospital foundation supporters left, Ron Vandewal proposed the bursary cut, saying “is anyone here from Children’s Aid as he did so.”

Other cuts that Vandewal floated included trimming a $35,000 expenditure on Economic Development, which did not proceed anywhere.

Vandewal also want council to consider not following through with a 24 hour ambulance to Wolfe Island, which was a decision made two years ago but is still causing a budget increase in 2018 because it has been phased in.

Chief of Paramedic Services Paul Charbonneau was asked if an alternate service model, the use of an Emergency First Response vehicle, staffed by one paramedic, could provide the same level of service on Wolfe Islands a full 24 hour ambulance. Charbonneau said that with contemporary knowledge about emergency calls and medical technology, the First Response Vehicle could provide a high level of service even if it meant transport would have to wait until an ambulance arrived from Kingston via ferry.

Dennis Doyle argued that to shift away from the 24 hour ambulance just as it was about to come about would have negative impact on Wolfe Islanders.

“I am asking Council to provide this service to Wolfe Islanders,” he said. “It is important and if it is abandoned it will bring down property values and that won’t help anyone in Frontenac County.

That was the end of the debate.

The motion to approve the budget and prepare an enacting bylaw for approval on December 20 passed without further changes.

(Note – The final budget estimates for overall expenditures in 2018 are set at $41.3 million, which is unchanged from the draft version. The budget cuts approved last week fall within the rounding error)

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

It seems that every time Lennox and Addington County Council considers making changes or upgrades to its ambulance service, the question of whether to keep the Denbigh service up and running comes up.

It happened again last week, at a meeting of Council on November 15. Council is intent on establishing a service in Stone Mills township, and one way to help finance it would be to cut the 12 hour a day service based out of Denbigh.

“I am getting tired of continuing to have to argue that even though there are not a lot of calls to Denbigh, the service is essential because of the distances involved. There are also two provincial highways that meet at Denbigh, 41 and 28,” Hogg said when contacted over the phone after the meeting.”

A motion was passed at an L&A Council meeting last year which instructed staff to look for a location in Denbigh where a permanent base can be constructed, but that has not led anywhere. And when the agenda came out for a discussion about the proposed Stone Mills base, one of the options on the table was cutting the Denbigh service and serving the north from the Northbrook base, which has a 24 hour a day service.

At the meeting last week Council decided to proceed with a new based in Stone Mills, seek a permanent location for the Loyalist base. An in camera session followed, and after that the following motion was passed: that the current ambulance service level be maintained in Denbigh, and that council direct staff to proceed with the purchase of ambulance vehicles as required.”

One of the concerns about the Denbigh service is that the current location for the ambulance is in a rental property.

While the details of the in camera session were not revealed, the minutes from the meeting say that after the in camera, Warden Lowry “reported that Council considered a potential property acquisition in closed session.”

Township float for Northbrook and Denbigh parades

At the Santa Claus parades on December 2 in Northbrook (10 am) and Denbigh (6pm) there may be a new float.

In response to a proposal by Teri Woods, the wife of township road crew member Rodney, council accepted her offer to decorate a trailer for use in both of the parades. Council will also spend $200 for candy, etc. To give out during the parades, and members of council will ride in the parades as they wish.

Council meeting times set to change

In response to a proposal from Councillor Helen Yanch, meetings will be held on Tuesdays starting in January. The first meeting of the month will take place on the first Tuesday of each month at the Flinton Recreation Centre at 1pm, and the second will take place in Denbigh on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. In the months of January to March, November and December, the meeting will take place at 1pm, and from April until October it will take place at 7pm.

Published in ADDINGTON HIGHLANDS

Frontenac Paramedic Services (FPS) superintendent Todd Fisher received the Governor General’s Emergency Medical Services Exemplary Services Medal at the Ontario Association of Paramedic Chiefs (OAPC) 2016 Annual General Meeting in Collingwood, which was held Sept. 27 - 29. Part-time FPS superintendent Todd Lamorre, who is a superintendent in Hastings County as well, also received the award. The award is presented to paramedics who have served for at least 20 years in way that is characterized by the highest standards of conduct.

At a formal ceremony during the OAPC gala on Thursday, Fisher received his medal from Honorary Lieutenant General Richard Rohmer and was joined on stage in front of hundreds of his peers by FPS Chief Paul Charbonneau and Deputy Chief David Gemmill. Fisher has been with FPS since 2004 and was stationed at various services in Alberta prior to that. Lieutenant General Rohmer is Canada's most decorated citizen and the Honorary Chief of the OAPC.

“I am proud to be the Warden of a County that is served by such amazing paramedics as Fisher and Lamorre and I am very pleased to see this kind of acknowledgement for them,” said Frontenac County Warden Frances Smith. “The County and the City of Kingston are well served by such outstanding paramedics and I encourage everyone to take a moment and express their gratitude to all of them.” The Emergency Medical Services Exemplary Service Medal was created in 1994 by the late Governor General Romeo LeBlanc, as a component of the Canadian Honours System. Since the Award’s inception, there have been approximately 1,750 Ontario recipients of the Medal.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

On April 30, two accidents took place at almost the same time at different locations about a quarter of the way along the route of the North Frontenac Spring Volunteers ATV Ride for Dad. Both accidents were in areas without cell service, and one of them resulted in a serious injury.

Three women suffered injuries and one of them, the driver of a two-seater ATV carrying one of the other women, was seriously injured. In responding to the accidents, all the preparation and training that the North Frontenac and neighbouring fire crews have undertaken over the years came into play.

At Saturday’s run, George Ross, the deputy fire chief for the Ompah crew of the North Frontenac department, was overseeing emergency operations at the Ompah fire station.

“We had three outfitted emergency ATVs rolling on the day,” said Ross, “and it was one of them that came upon the rollover that involved two riders.” When they called the accident in to the Ompah station at about 11:30 am, the call also went straight to the emergency dispatch centre in Kingston. Paramedics from the nearby Robertsville station in North Frontenac were the first on the scene, and were followed by two Lennox and Addington crews.

“The location of the accident was not accessible to the ambulance trucks,” said Ross, “so they went to the closest spot, at Arcol Road and Hydro Lane. The emergency ATV crews had to bring the women out to them in what we call a basket.”

Because of the nature of the injuries, progress along the 2½ to 3 kilometre stretch was slow, at walking pace, to make the ride as smooth as possible. Over 850 riders were participating in the run, which is one of the premier tourist events in North Frontenac each spring, so other fire crew members dealt with traffic flow to ensure a clear passage.

Once the women were delivered to the ambulance, the paramedics took over.

The victim in the second accident was ferried out to the same location by one of the riders she was travelling with.

By the time the paramedic services took over, the decision had already been made to engage ORNGEs, the Ontario Air Ambulance Service, because of the nature of the injuries and the distance to hospital. The seriously injured victim was transported by ambulance to the Ompah helipad, where the air ambulance was waiting. After a few minutes were taken to ready the patient for the transfer, she was loaded onto the helicopter and whisked away to hospital.

Although the name of the woman has not been released, she is known to be an experienced rider who has participated in most, if not all, of the previous ATV runs, and is a seasonal resident of the township. She is recovering in hospital, the News has learned.

The logistics of the rescue, which involved the run’s organizers, fire services, dispatch, and air and ground ambulance in a remote location with no cell phone coverage, and in a circumstance where time and careful treatment were of the essence, is something that could well have been imagined as an emergency preparedness or first response exercise. Coincidentally, the accidents took place on April 30, the day before First Responders Day, May 1, and the kickoff day for Emergency Preparedness Week, which is May 1 to May 7.

As for the ATV run itself, according to one of the organizers, Denis Bedard, the 850 riders was a record number. The run raised $15,000 for the Ompah Community Volunteer Association; $7,500 for the Ride for Dad program, which combats prostate cancer; $2,000 for the North Frontenac Food Bank; and $500 for programs at Clarendon Central Public School in Plevna.

“All in all, the weather co-operated, the participants enjoyed themselves, and the volunteers out-did themselves,” said Bedard.

Published in NORTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 16 March 2016 19:14

Time running out for Denbigh ambulance base

Lennox and Addington County Council is preparing to debate closing its 12-hour ambulance service in Denbigh and transferring it to a base in Loyalist Township. In a last ditch attempt to save the base, L&A wrote a letter to Frontenac, Renfrew, and Hastings counties, asking each of them if they are “prepared to assume a greater financial responsibility for the ambulance service located at Denbigh in order to maintain the service for your citizens”. In a report to Frontenac County Council, CAO Kelly Pender recommended against Frontenac County providing supplementary funding to L&A to keep the base open.

Pender said that providing funding to subsidize the operation of a service in another township runs contrary to the established practice of only paying neighbouring districts for actual cross-border ambulance calls.

“The request from the County of Lennox and Addington [is] to assume a larger share of the cost of operating the Denbigh base. This request is contrary to the general intent of a seamless service delivery model and represents a shift from the generally accepted “incremental” cost recovery system. It is not a model that can be supported by staff,” wrote Pender.

He then wrote that there “may be opportunities to investigate alternative management models that would allow L&A to enhance their service delivery while achieving a measure of cost containment,” although the report contains no details about those models. The closest base to Denbigh that is located in Frontenac County is the one at Robertsville, close to an hour's drive away.

Renfrew and Hastings counties will be considering the request from L&A at their respective meetings later this month.

The Denbigh base responds to 133 calls per year, on average. Of those 34, about 25% are located in Frontenac County.

The L&A proposal is for Frontenac County to pay 25% of the $750,000 annual cost of maintaining the service, phased in over three years. That would translate into $62,500 this year; $125,000 in 2017; and $187,500 in 2018 and annually thereafter. 

Published in ADDINGTON HIGHLANDS
Wednesday, 03 February 2016 13:12

Re: Northbrook Ambulance Service to be reduced

For the past 4 years Northbrook ambulance service received back up assistance during its day shift from the Denbigh ambulance service. Denbigh ambulance was moved to Northbrook base when Northbrook was on a call. That is, Northbrook was receiving ambulance service from 2 ambulances.

This will no longer happen if recommendations presented to L & A County Council on January 11, 2016 by L & A Chief of Emergency Services, Mark Schjerning, are put into operation (L&A County staff call for closure of Denbigh ambulance service, Jan 14/16). The 12/7 daytime service at Denbigh will no longer exist. The Denbigh ambulance will be transferred to Loyalist service to make Loyalist a 24/7 full time service.

This means that Northbrook service will have one ambulance 24/7 with no back up. It also means that Northbrook ambulance service will need to do an additional 190 daytime calls that the previous Denbigh service did each year. That involves 1/2 hour to get to Denbigh, plus 1/2 hour to return to Northbrook, plus the time required to complete each call by going to a hospital in Renfrew, Bancroft or sometimes Napanee. A call where the patient is taken to Renfrew would likely involve the Northbrook ambulance being away from Northbrook for 3 - 4 hours.

Under this proposed arrangement the closest ambulance service in L & A County to Northbrook service will be Napanee ambulance service. A second call for ambulance service in Northbrook's service area would need to be done by Napanee ambulance service. For the patient involved that means 35 - 45 minutes wait for the ambulance to come from Napanee to Northbrook and another 35 - 45 minutes to return to Napanee hospital. A call from areas beyond Northbrook would increase the response time and combined return time to Napanee hospital by 2 minutes for every mile beyond Northbrook.

Calls from or beyond Vennachar Junction on #41 highway would in all probability require that the patient be taken to Renfrew hospital or Bancroft hospital if the patient's condition or injuries were life threatening. Ambulance dispatchers are required by regulations to have the patient delivered to the closest hospital in life-threatening situations. For an ambulance from Napanee to deliver a patient to Renfrew and return to Napanee would require 4 - 5 hours.

This information is presented to show some of the ramifications of Chief Schjerning's recommendations. Our L&A County Council needs your input by whatever form best suits your situation. Addington Highlands' Reeve Henry Hogg and Deputy Reeve Helen Yanch need your support to help them resolve this issue.

Published in Letters

In 2008, politicians in Lennox and Addington (L&A) County were faced with the option of closing the Denbigh Ambulance Service and re-allocating resources to the south end of the county to satisfy an ever-increasing demand. At that time they resisted.

In 2012 the same issue was before Council and that time they cut the Denbigh service in half, opening a new base in Loyalist Township and allocating one of the Denbigh shifts to the new base.

Now, County staff recommend making Loyalist a 24-hour operation, and closing Denbigh. They also propose to start up a service in Stone Mills within a year or two. The arguments are the same now as they were in 2012.

The Denbigh ambulance was called out 190 times last year. Meanwhile there were 542 calls for service from Loyalist Township during the 12 hours a day when the Loyalist base was closed. On one level moving the shift looks like a better allocation of limited resources.

There are other factors, however. Those night calls in Loyalist were handled mostly by nearby Kingston-based paramedics from the Frontenac County service (80%) or from L&A paramedics in Napanee. The service would be quicker if they came from Loyalist, by a matter of minutes.

If there were no Denbigh service, most of those 190 Denbigh calls would be answered by paramedics stationed in Northbrook (20 minutes from Denbigh), unless they are out on standby somewhere or on a call of their own. In those cases the ambulance will need to come from Renfrew or Bancroft (40 minutes away) or the Frontenac base in Robertsville (60 minutes away).

The time factor is dramatically different

Moving the shift would save five minutes or so in the response time for 542 calls to Loyalist, but could increase the response time by 30 to 75 minutes for calls in the large Denbigh catchment area.

Which is more important?

Once again, as happened in 2008 and 2011, municipal politicians are faced with these kinds of life and death decisions that should never be forced on politicians at this level.

Another factor is at play in the staff report.

Closing the Denbigh base is being proposed as the first link in a chain of changes that would result in improved service in Loyalist Township, Stone Mills, and the City of Napanee. Politicians from all three of those jurisdictions would be working against the individual interests of their own constituents if they support the Denbigh service over these enhancements.

Asking a politician to work against the interests of their constituents, particularly where emergency services are concerned, is an easy sell. Yet that is what Addington Highlands Reeve Hogg and Deputy Reeve Yanch are faced with doing this week. The first step will be to play for time by seeking a deferral, and even if that works it is hard to see what the next step will be.

In order to make an impression, there needs to be community support from Denbigh for Hogg and Yanch when they make their pitch for the Denbigh service to L&A County Council.

The activists from Denbigh who led the public fight the last time around will likely be the same people who will have to come out this time.

Interestingly enough, these are the same people who have been leading a bitter and sometimes personal fight against Addington Highlands Council when it comes to wind turbine proposals from NextEra and RES Canada.

That fight has been focussed on Hogg and Yanch in particular and is by no means over.

Different issues result in different sets of allies and enemies.

Published in Editorials

That November day in 2010 was just another day at work for Frontenac paramedic Veronique Trottier, doing the job she’d been wanting to do since high school. For Roksana Rak it wasn’t “just another day”.

Roksana was travelling east bound on Highway 401 near Gardiners Road in Kingston when she was involved in a single vehicle crash, and was ejected from the rear window of the car. Her brother Peter and mother Anna were also in the vehicle. Veronique was the first paramedic on the scene and upon arrival Roksana wasn’t breathing and had serious head and leg trauma.

Veronique immediately began resuscitating and managed to keep Roksana alive until fellow paramedics Kelly Crawford and Tania Pelletier arrived on the scene. Together they transferred their patient to Kingston General Hospital and once Roksana was admitted, the three continued with their day and finished their shifts.

During the weeks following the accident, Veronique checked up on Roksana, and while she was still in a coma in Intensive Care, there had been improvements. It wasn’t until three years later that Roksana reached out to management at Frontenac Paramedic Services (FPS) and asked to meet with Veronique, Tania and Kelly. They had dinner together and continue to stay in touch.

“My father stayed by the side of my bed for months when I was still in the hospital in Kingston,” said Roksana. “Later in my recovery he told me that Veronique came by and checked up on me and I decided I wanted to find out who saved my life,” Roksana said.

“That is so rare. I have received flowers from a patient before or sometimes a card, but Roksana is the only one who reached out to me like that,” said Veronique who has been with FPS for 13 years now. “At the end of the day we did our job and we didn’t do anything different than we normally would. We don’t expect to be thanked, but it is very nice.”

Frontenac Paramedic Services’ Veronique Trottier (left) had a visit from Roksana Rak in Kingston late November. It is the fifth anniversary of Roksana’s accident. On that day in 2010, Veronique was the first medical responder on the scene. Roksana’s parents Ivan and Anna are also in the picture.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
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