,ITCHELL ADVOCATE vee Citizen of the Year to be recognized Sept. 29 INDY BADER The 2023 West Perth Citizen of the Year will finally get his moment n the spotlight at the end of this month, fittingly after a junior C n y game. Cory Broughton, the president ind general manager of the Mitch- ‘ll Hawks of the Provincial Junior Hockey League (PJHL), was orig- nally presented the news of his ecognition in April, but a ban- uet date couldn’t be scheduled 70 a hiatus was taken. But last week, the Kin Club of Mitchell & {rea, new sponsors of the award, announced that Broughton will be feted at the Mitchell & District aa after a Hawks’ game Sept. The ‘Kin Club took over sponsor- ship of the award from the Rotary club of Mitchell. Rotary had con- ‘inued the well-respected award rom the former Mitchell Jaycees who started itin memory of Doug Ludwig almost 35 years ago. Specifically, the award for 2023 was for Broughton’s “outstanding Perth County Paramedic Services seeing increased call volumes BILL ATWOOD she County Paramedic Services : a ‘inues to see an increase in am- 4 ‘ance call volume and is close to Joubling the number ofcallsithad bei 10. years ago, its chief says. Ks eae a mid-year report to an County council Sept.5, Mike ‘air told councillors the para- medic service has i a WPFD COMMITS TO MD officially donated $9,062.58 to Muscular Dystrophy Canada earlier this month at a recent fire practice, pro- ceeds from their annual road toll boot drive earlier this summer. Since 1977, WPFD has collected and donated $165,962 to MD Canada, thanks to the The West Perth Fire Department (WPFD) community's support. Back row (left): Matt Rock, Chris Ben Thompson, John Wight, Brad Brace, Chris McKone, Stephanie Singeris of MD Canada, Amanda Pennings and Chief Ken Monden. citizenship and volunteer work with the Mitchell Hawks.” Broughton helped steer the vol- unteer organization through a ainful calendar year in 2023, both on and off the ice. A much-publi- cized fraud case came to light, seeing the club’s treasurer at the time plead guilty to stealing over $48,000 of the junior C team’s funds dating back to May 2022. L] pandemic, Adair noted. The re- port, which focused on the first six months of 2024, indicated the paramedic service should expect to respond to just under 14,000 calls for service, a sharp increase from 2023, when it saw less than 12,000 calls. Perth County Paramedic Ser- vices is also monitoring the \7 per cent increase in call volume year over year, can last time there was a de- ; ae in call volume was 2020; ing the peak of the COVID-19 amount of at hospitals during offload delays beyond 30 minutes. According to the report, paramedics are project- dito spend the equivalent of 68 12-hour shifts at Stratford General Broughton, who works at Wal- lenstein Feed & Supply in Monk- ton, was nominated for the award by Ryan Duck, the club’s equip- ment manager when Mitchell won the Pollock division title in 2021-22. Duck is a current West h ill ingth Cory and his wife Michelle have two children, Logan, 13; and Mad- die, 11. A beef on a bun banquet in Broughton’s honour will be held at the arena at 6 p.m. on Sept. 29, immediately after a Hawks’ home inst Kincardine. Tickets, Logan Ward, and is the alternate governor of the Fergus Whalers of the PJHL. Hospital in offload delays and the 16 12-hour shifts at other Perth County hospitals. While this is slight decrease compared to last year, which saw 78 12-hour shifts delays in Strat- ford and 15 at other hospitals, the numbers have still increased no- ticeably since 2021, which boasted 33 shifts delays in Stratford and only four at other area hospitals. Adair told councillors the Strat- ford hospital presents a particular challenge since “there’s only so much space to actually physically put (the) patients.” for $15, are available from Faust Home Hardware, B&B Pets or any member of the Kin Club. + Wise, Curtis Vessie, Rick Cook, Matt Krug, Joe Graul, Cody Feltz, Emily DeWetering, Kory McKone, Ryan Osborn and Rob Lealess. In front are Deputy Chief Mike Montgomery (left), Brad French, Cory Broughton Adair, though, also pointed to the recent funding announcement by Perth Wellington MPP Mathew Rae for $109,000 to combat these offload delays. “We're real excited about that. during peak hours and times of withthemandseewherethatpro- , : ‘am goes. The service also received ap- * yesterday, and they’re experienc- ing the same thing that we are in terms of just numbers of individ- uals going into the emergency de- ment.... This may help them and us just work together in order to turn the ambulances around a little bit quicker,” Adair said. “If we can have that extra staff 3 Pp wa involved in a collision earlier this year. The damage wassoextensive + thatthe vehiclewasdeemedatotal * loss. The total cost of a new vehi- cle, retrofitting and certification is $175,000. The insurance payout ‘was $46,322.10, so the remaining $128,677.90 will come from the fleet’s vehicle reserve budget.