The Sydenham Current has picked the Top 10 Stories of the Year. Have a look:
#10 – Bear sighting outside Wallaceburg
Back on June 1, the OPP said a black bear was spotted early in the morning in Northern Lambton County. The OPP said black bears are not strangers to Ontario and in the past few years they have seen bear and moose inhabit areas of Lambton County. Several other black bear sightings were reported over the next few weeks, with the closest being just outside of Wallaceburg. The St. Clair Region Conservation Authority said a confirmed bear sighting was made on July 5 at the McKeough Floodway channel near Hwy. 40, about 12-16 minutes by car from Wallaceburg. No more sightings have been reported since, however a black bear was struck and killed by a SUV near Strathroy on July 8.
#9 – Paramedics sign new 5-year deal
With the contract set to expire with Medavie EMS this year, a merger between Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the Fire Department was explored in Chatham-Kent. Ken Stuebing, fire paramedic chief in C-K, created a proposed plan to amalgamate the two services. However, this sparked a petition by local paramedics in Chatham-Kent, who became vocal about their displeasure about joining forces with the firefighters. Eventually, despite a recommendation by Stuebing to combine forces, council voted it down and awarded Medavie with a new five-year contract.
#8 – Seth Griffith’s NHL journey
Wallaceburg’s Seth Griffith started 2016 off as a member of the Boston Bruins, and actually played in the outdoor Winter Classic game with the Bruins on January 1. Seeing limited action with the NHL club last season, Griffith excelled in the AHL, ending up second in the league in scoring and a first team All-Star. With his eyes on cracking the Bruins roster full-time for 2016/2017, Griffith was placed on waivers in training camp. He was picked up by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who released him after a month. He was quickly scooped up by the Florida Panthers, where he has now been seeing regular time on the club’s top line.
#7 – Crossing guard program cancelled in Chatham-Kent
An Adult Crossing Guard Service Review was completed in Chatham-Kent back in 2013. Citing many challenges and based on 2016 budget deliberations, it was determined the service was no longer sustainable. Council eventually approved the installation of Pedestrian Crosswalk Devices at various locations, including in Dresden and Wallaceburg. The program was halted at the end of November, and the new devices will not be installed until June 2017 at the latest. Concerned about the safety of students walking to school, businesses in Dresden and Wallaceburg took it upon themselves to hire the former crossing guards from Dresden Area Central School and Holy Family Catholic School in Wallaceburg.
#6 – Shaun Suisham released by Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers announced on June 24 that they released Wallaceburg Shaun Suisham, after he failed a physical. “Unfortunately Shaun incurred a setback in his recovery from knee surgery that won’t allow him to compete in a timely manner,” said Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert. “Shaun has played a significant role in our success during his time in Pittsburgh. He has been the consummate professional on the field and in our community. We wish he and his family all the best in the future.” Suisham joined the Steelers in 2010 and converted 124-of-141 field goal attempts and each of his 173 extra point attempts through the 2014 season. He spent the 2015 season on the team’s reserve/injured list after suffering an injury during the Hall of Fame game at the start of the pre-season in 2015. While the word “retirement” was never mentioned, the words in Suisham’s classy statement following his release, hint towards his professional career being over.
#5 – The Water Wells / Wind Turbine ordeal
Two local wind turbine projects, the Otter Creek project north of Wallaceburg and the North Kent project in Dover, continued to push forward throughout 2016. Simultaneously, the Water Wells First group was launched. The group blamed the wind turbines already installed in the Dover area as the reason water wells in the rural area were being damaged and negatively impacting the water. An environmental tribunal was launched, and eventually axed after a report concluded the installation of turbines had no impact on the wells. The group is still active in their fight and the two wind farm projects continue to go through the process towards construction and installation.
#4 – Walpole Island gas line construction
Despite objections made by members of the community, Walpole Island is moving forward with a gas line project on the First Nation reserve. A group of grandmothers on Walpole expressed their frustration and stood in front of machinery in opposition to the proposed natural gas project on the First Nation reserve. The group also expressed their frustration in front of Walpole Island band council this past summer, along with holding demonstrations at the Walpole Island bridge. Walpole Island First Nation officials posted a press release on their website on Monday, July 27 last year announcing Walpole’s partnership with Union Gas and the approval of the first phase of natural gas infrastructure expansion in the community. Shovels have been in the ground for months as the project has moved forward.
#3 – Dr. Steven McCabe completes historic surgery
A former Dresden resident led the charge this week in a historic surgery performed in Toronto, the first of its kind in Canada. Dr. Steven McCabe led a multi-disciplinary team to the successful completion of the country’s first transplant of the upper limb. During the procedure, which lasted approximately 14 hours, a team of 18 surgeons attached the forearm and hand matched from a donor to a patient who had been evaluated as a suitable candidate. “It is basically a symphony orchestra of people coming and going,” Dr. McCabe said. “We have the anesthesia specialists who are there, all the operating room nurses and the operating room team. So all in all, we have many times more than that number. We have to have a process of six months of preparation. Everything is detailed. Who is going to come and go when. What pieces of equipment are needed and when, so they are coming and going in and out of the operating room. X-Ray machines, operating machines etc.” McCabe came back to his hometown to speak at the Rotary Club banquet back in April.
#2 – Wallaceburg water option approved
A story that packed the Sydenham Current headlines in 2015 came to a close in 2016. An eight person evaluation committee, tasked with analyzing each option for the future of Wallaceburg’s drinking water, elected to stay with the status quo. And the Chatham-Kent PUC also changed their course announcing their “preferred solution” is to rehabilitate the Wallaceburg Water Treatment Plant. Wallaceburg’s water source will now remain in the Syne River, after the Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commision put the stamp of approval on a staff recommendation to keep the status quo. The consultants hired to do an environmental assessment of the future of Wallaceburg’s water, had originally stated their preferred alternative was for Wallaceburg to connect to the Chatham water supply.
#1 – Chatham-Kent Health Alliance saga
Stemming from a Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Board of Directors meeting for the St. Joseph’s, Public General and Sydenham District Hospitals in January, CKHA officials stated they were projecting a year-end deficit of $1.8 million.
After this, the floodgates began to open for the local hospital.
Eventually governance activities between the hospital boards were halted, and new plans for the future of the CKHA were put forth, separately by the Sydenham District Hospital board and the Chatham boards. The Medical Advisory Committee for the Alliance put their support behind the plans being made by the Chatham boards, and Dr. Indraneel Ghosh, chief of emergency medicine and the senior medical director of strategy, access and flow, stated many physicians refuse to work at the Sydenham Campus in Wallaceburg because they feel it is “unsafe.”
By June, the Ministry of Health and the LHIN stepped in and ordered an investigation into the CKHA.
By August, the report by Bonnie Adamson was released, which completely bashed the leadership at the CKHA and recommended a supervisor be appointed to the hospital. Shortly afterwards, the Ministry followed the recommendation by Adamson and hired Rob Devitt to take on the supervisory role.
Devitt got to work right away, and within days the CKHA president and CEO Colin Patey was no longer with the organization, and interim CEO Ken Deane was hired. The following month, Sarah Padfield, the chief operating officer at the CKHA, joined Patey as a former CKHA employee.
The search for a permanent CEO began, and Devitt began working on a new vision for the CKHA.
In December, Dr. Pervez Faruqi was named as Chief of Staff for CKHA and Lori Marshall was named President and CEO of the CKHA.
Marshall is due to start her job in March.
We anticipate more and more news coming out of the CKHA in the coming months, as they work towards securing the best possible health care for the region.
*Editor’s note: We chose these 10 stories to highlight this year based on a number of factors. By looking at online traffic, social media interaction and our thoughts on what stories made the biggest impact on the community. Let us know your thoughts by contacting Aaron Hall at aaron@sydenhamcurrent.ca.
Great for Seth, great for Wallaceburg!