Head, Clara & Maria may Still Get 911

There may be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel in Head, Clara & Maria's attempts to get on-line with the county-wide 911 emergency phone service.

Councillors in the township were not optimistic about being able to use the service two weeks ago when they learned they might be excluded for lack of a fire department.

Reeve Lita Therrien brought some good news to councillors last week, though, when she reported that an upcoming provincial symposium of fire chiefs will be discussing how to deal with similar municipalities who don't have their own fire departments, either because of small populations or dwindling finances.

Renfrew County has also set up a special committee to examine the issue, the reeve said.

"I don't think we're unique in the province in not having a fire department," Therrien said.

The headaches involved with civic addressing - a necessity with the 911 service - may also be assuaged somewhat by the news that rural roads in Crown lands will be numbered, rather than going through the long process of naming each of them.

"It may not be so horrendous now that we don't have to name all these back roads," the reeve stated.