CFN -You don’t need an expert to say there isn’t a person among us who can predict when a fire might break out.
Fires come unexpectedly.
Consider Truffles, the Cotton Mills, Shoeless Joe’s and St. Albert’s Cheese, the latter which shocked the community only four weeks ago.
Fires move swiftly, and can terrify, injure and kill. Remember the people who died in the Hawkesbury retirement home fire? Ironically, their deaths happened the very day a coroner’s inquest into a fire that killed seniors in Orillia had just wrapped up.
Ontario has the distinction of having the worst fire fatality record in North America, a research finding reported by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs.
Tragic? Obviously. Preventable? Potentially. That’s why Health Minister Deb Mathews recently announced that the province will pump $20 million into fire protection for seniors’ homes, immediately.
Yet, when Glen Stor Dun Lodge recently asked City Council for funds to finance a system that’s “functional” but finished, the administrator was turned down. The current plan is to fund the project beyond 2013.
According to one Councillor who works on the Board at Glen Stor Dun, discussions will resume next week.
Let’s pray our City follows the lead set by the Health Minister. The money’s there, and our innocent elders deserve the best we can offer, now.
You can post your comments below.
Thank goodness for this site and the articles of truth and concern for our city that are posted here. You are 100% our seniors do deserve better!
City hall is so ass backwards it’s not funny! Kilger has been asked to produce statements to the public on how much spending on lawyers, self protection and cover-up since he has been in power and he will NOT produce this. Taxpayers of Cornwall have no clue because the SF and the Cornwall Daily do not report this stuff. The money that Kilger and staff have wasted over the past several years would probably cover new electrical panels for all of the seniors homes in town and then some.
We do have Andre Rivette looking out for the senior. One of the very few that aren’t in the clique and don’t succumb to bullying.
Bottom line. We need to protect the residents of the lodge and I hope they will get their safety in the end.
GOD HELP KILGER AND COUNCIL IF THEY ARE EVER CAUGHT IN A FIRE!
I told all of you for some time now including on “Cornwall’s Toilet Paper of Record” that the “tax mahal” aka Benson Centre was not needed whatsoever. Cornwall is only 46K people and the vast majority are elderly. There are very few young people left in Cornwall and they will be leaving with the time – that is the vast majority of them and then who is left. You all would have had some money if this “albatross” that WOW quoted would not have been built. Your taxes are eating up the budget mostly because of this albatross. Everything is on the increase and it isn’t going to go down even if the house prices drop the taxes will remain extremely high. Utilities are going to rise as well and rise significantly especially since coal plants and other cheaper means of heating and lighting are being done away with.
I live in a high rise building like I told all of you lately again and during the summer the fire alarms were going off and the fire department came and wiring had to be brought more up to date and that scared all of us to pieces and we had to help bring down people who were elderly and disabled.
I said even about the former General that the building has to be brought up to standards and not to pay too much for the building since it is going to cost a great deal of money just to do repairs and bringing it up to standards.
Kilger does have to go without question along with the counsellors except for André and a man named Maurice Dupelle. I don’t know Mr. Dupelle but I sure do know André and the rest of them are losers. Kilger sure does have them all mesmorized and they are like zombies and I see the tension something awful in that room that you can cut it with a knife.
Councillor Duppelle is a the former co-owner of the Green Spot Restaurant that was situated at the old Bus terminal on tollgate. He works as well with the developmentally challenged at Community Living Stormont County. I know him personally as I was a frequent patron of the Green Spot and former employee of Community Living. Maurice is a kind caring man who cares for this city a great deal.
What happened to the editor of CFN was a travesty and should cost Kilger his job period. He doesnt care about free speech, the charter of rights nothing All he cares about is his 150.000 plus paycheck and the perks of a politician as proven at the last council meeting
God help us all when council decides that money is more important than protecting our parent & grandparents
Thank you Mary Anne!
This is a real eye opener and to be hope council and mister Levac see the big picture .I watched that meeting and mister Rivette had a way to replace the panel ect.. to bring it up to code and they all looked at him like he was nuts.Later the sf wrote that mister Rivette stormed out before the meeting was done .
To add insult to injury last meeting that universty study almost received money from the same jar that Mister Rivette wanted to use to bring the panel ect…up to code.
It is terrible when the mayor has a better link to the Police!
Than the seniors have to the Fire dept?
Say what you will Jules about our tax mahal aka Benson Center but to tell you the truth and sorry to burst this negative bubble, I have witnessed numerous out of town visitors using our facility for their tournaments. With three ice surfaces they can accommodate quite a few teams for a full weekend of fun.
To top this off Jules, the OHA uses these premises for most of their training for many hockey enthusiasts male and female of various age groups.
Quite rankly I believe this to be one of the best tourist developments we have ever been blessed with. Filling our hotels and restaurants with players, family and friends is a boon to Cornwall.
Being a multi-plex, I saw a New York State group bring all their youngsters over for a lacrosse practice/training on our soccer floor, as well as quite a number of schools using it for soccer play.
The tennis court is always rented for individuals and groups for tennis 2/4 and 8 sets of players for badminton too.
Seems those who don’t play sports seem to have such a negative view as a tax burden however, I believe that it is paying for itself as well as helping so much more of the community.
Please be sure of your concerns with this regard.
Thank you Jules for hearing me out.
Dave
sooo true. what a week cfn has had. we have been made aware with video evidence that the mayors need for protection is instantaneous and unlimited funds are available e.g. 7 police officers and indecently expensive lawyers paid from public purse. sorry seniors we have no money left over for your unimportant safety requirements. dont worry though because someone will provide a report about how it is ok to delay this item.
The time to jump on the alarmist bandwagon is certainly not now.
We (Cornwall taxpayers) have saddled ourselves with a dysfunctional council and a leadership that is blind to reality. Common sense dictates that the safety of Cornwall residents should be at or near the top of priorities, case in point the residents of the lodge. With taxpayers of Ontario trying desperately to support a provincial government rife with scandals, pockets have been drained. When basic expenses are purchased on credit by an increasing segment of the population one has to conclude that this is not a sustainable economic environment. Council had the opportunity to bring in a budget tied to the actual rate of inflation, arguably the way that the corporations that represent taxpayers should have been set up from the very start.
Odd is it not that money can be found to fund an already bloated agency that operates very inefficiently(Agape) , while other situations go on hold (safety upgrading at the seniors residence). I am most certainly a believer in donating to provide a HAND UP to those in need, a concept that has existed for generations. I am also a believer that the city council oversteps its mandate when it hands out my tax dollars to charities without providing me with a receipt for my income taxes. Kill the $500,000 allotment to funding charities of THEIR CHOICE and use the money to look after real priority needs. Our community has show in the past that we can collectively rise to meet the needs on our on with respect to charitable giving.
Thank you Mary Anne, Your voice has inspired me to comment and I hope that the Mayor will read it as well. As you well know that in the last few years I have been attempting to understand paranormal behaviour. My research has taken me in different direction. One of the best is from the book called “Hallucinations” by Oliver Sacks.
Because of that a new word has been added to my mind, Hypnopompic,(to see things with your eyes open that is not really there.) Is it possible that our Mayor does not see the same things that we see?
With in the spirit of the poem, “I Cornwall” I speak of the history, of those who fought for and many lost their lives. All in attempt to free us from that burden that we may have to face, should they give up their lives in vain.
In your column you have brought out many ways that fire could or could not happen. I am in favour in believing that it could. And as long as there is possibility that it could, then it will. (something about Murphy law)
I have been told many times that we should hold on to historical buildings. Especially Cornwall
Jail house. There is more history in the Glen Stor Dun Lodge than any building that is made out of stone. This history that I speak of is made out of blood, sweat, and I am shore many of tears.
Mr. Mayor this not a battle between the good guys and the bad guys. Because we are not the good guys or bad. We just do not want to be victims. Thank you.