The Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) will be sending $ 1,482,200 to Perth Ontario’s way for 2010 according to Ontario’s Ministry of Finance. This amount is said to be $ 185,100 more from this year’s allocation from the OMPF which should be more than enough to bring a smile to even more people in the county.

The increase in funding can safely be assumed as a result of the concensus Report of the Provincial-Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review (PMFSDR) back in October of 2008. The report dubbed, “Facing the Future Together” was co-created by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the City of Toronto.

As a background, the OMPF has been set to aid counties with their social project costs which includes property assessments, the cost of policing, and other challenges associated with the municipalities in Northern Canada.

Some of the programs in Perth County that are directly affected by this allocation from the OMPF include the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and the Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB).
By the looks of this, it seems that 2010 is looking better than this challenging year already.

This article is speaking of Perth County in Stratford Ontario not the Village of Perth Ontario. If you are interest in further reading please visit: www.perthcounty.ca/page/news&iArticle=48

After 6 weeks of public clinics to give H1N1 shots from those who are among the priority groups to the general populace, the number of residents in the Perth County who showed up to get the vaccine has been nothing but staggering relative to the regular flu shot campaigns of the past. To be more specific, there have been more than 20,000 residents (which is roughly 27% of the county’s population) who have showed up to get themselves an H1N1 vaccine whereas records from the previous year’s showed only around 7,000 people have been getting the seasonal flu vaccine.

This only goes to show of how successful the public clinics and the people behind them have been in their campaign to protect as many residents as possible from the dreaded H1N1 flu. We all need to give the medical practitioners a big hand for a job well done indeed especially given such a circumstance.

There are still plenty of vaccine supplies to come around at the health unit just in case they will be needed. There are also plans of catch-up clinics to be held starting in the new year just to make sure everyone who needs them gets a chance to get vaccinated.

Thinking of libraries usually brings up images of rows of shelves stacked with hundreds of books, people silently reading or studying, and a no-nonsense librarian who takes even the smallest hint of noise as an insult to her domain.

The Perth library on the other hand, is a totally different case. The city’s public library has made some significant changes to it library services, programming it to be more aimed at bringing the youth into the library, and engaging them in wholesome and fun activities.

Over the past few weeks, the Perth library has brought in local teens to play some of the latest games in the market today. Most recently, a group of boys had a great time battling it up on the Wii’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  Aside from interactive video games, traditional board games are also available in the library, with kids able to select between, Chinese checkers, Chess, Scrabble, and Monopoly.

The kids who frequent the library are pleased to be given the chance to enjoy activities suited for their age bracket.

Dylan Hutchinson, a local boy from Perth, comments, “It’s really fun because we get to come here and play games. And it’s good because if you don’t have it at home you can come here and play it.”

Indeed, Perth’s latest endeavor serves as a good example for other learning institutions to follow. Libraries don’t have to be dull and boring after all.