ELLIS

ELLIS,

Dorothy (98) – June 18,1920 to December 4, 2018. Dorothy was born in Port Maitland, on

June 18, 1920, living there her entire life. She married Charles Ellis on December 10, 1938 and they had four children, Arnold (Bernise) Ellis, Nancy (Ches) Keddy, Brenda (Steve) Adams,

Bob Ellis, nine grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren. She was predeceased by her parents, Laura and Ira Smith, her husband Charlie, three siblings, Edna Churchill, Bernard & Leland Smith, two grandchildren, Linda and Paul. She was a dedicated member of the Port Maitland Wesleyan Church and supported many overseas mission projects. In 1994 she and her husband were privileged to visit Israel with their grandson. She taught a Sunday School teen class for many years, and was actively involved in other ministries of her local church, along with singing with her husband. During World War 11 she was involved in the local Red Cross while Charlie was away in the service. She enjoyed handmaking quilts, knitting, and camping especially at Keji and Cedar Lake. In 2014, she moved from Port Maitland to live at the Meadows Nursing Home, in Yarmouth. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Sweeny’s Funeral Home and Crematorium, Yarmouth. Visitation took place one hour prior to funeral time on Saturday Dec 8, 2018 from 10-11 am with the funeral starting at 11 am, all from Sweeny’s Funeral Home Chapel. Dick Bourque and Rev. Barry Vernon officiated. Interment followed in Port Maitland/ Beaver River Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations in her memory may be made to the Port Maitland Wesleyan Church - contact Barbara Adams, treasurer, 3276 Highway 1, Port Maitland, NS B5A 5T3. On-line condolences may be sent to: sweenysfh@eastlink.ca or you may sign the guestbook on-line at: www. sweenysfuneralhome.net

The president of the Yarmouth Firefighters Association has sent a letter to Yarmouth town Coun. Clifford Hood, seeking an apology for comments Hood made at an October committee of the whole meeting.

At that meeting Hood questioned Yarmouth Fire Chief John Verrall about monthly fire reports, saying it seemed like the average monthly dispatch numbers had spiked around the same time that contract negotiations for fire services had begun.

“It went up by around 100 a month starting in April and continuing to this day, compared to what was previously the case,” Hood said at the Oct. 24 committee-of-the whole meeting. “Is it maybe deliberate to try to build their numbers up in terms of the number of calls?”

Chief Verrall responded to Hood’s comment, saying, “I don’t think they would do something like that.”

Hood asked the fire chief to look into the matter, saying it appeared to him there was an anomaly, to which, he said, “that anomaly can only be attributed to some new activity or to deliberate manipulation of the numbers.”

In a letter sent to Hood by Lynn Seeley, president of the Yarmouth Firefighters Associated, dated Nov. 29, Seeley said he was writing “out of great concern regarding unwarranted comments that were directed at IAFF Local 2094 dispatchers.”

“To say that we are dismayed and disappointed with respect to your public comments would be an understatement,” he wrote, saying Hood insinuated the increase in calls may be related to negotiations with the union local.

In his letter Seeley wrote, “the local doesn’t dispute any councillor’s right to question a report, however, these types of comments are both hurtful and disturbing.”

“The Yarmouth Fire Department dispatchers pride themselves in their professional approach to their positions and have conducted themselves with integrity and honesty,” Seeley said, adding later in the letter, “you could have easily asked for a report on the increase in the number of calls without suggesting that there was some form of wrongdoing by the dispatchers.”

Seeley asked Hood withdraw his comments and apologize to the dispatchers.

Hood told the Tri-County Vanguard he does not intend to withdraw his comments from the October meeting, saying his remarks at the time were based on a legitimate question that arose from the anomalies he had noted in the monthly reports that come to council. He also said when the fire chief came back to a later meeting an explanation about the reports – which he asked for – that he was satisfied with the explanation provided about the numbers.

In April, the town informed the union it would be laying off the four fire dispatchers and outsourcing the service to save taxpayer money, saying as things stood at the time the town’s taxpayers were subsidizing fire dispatch services for much of Yarmouth and Shelburne counties, and parts of Digby County. There were efforts to try to dissuade the town from this decision, but without a new funding formula agreed to by all sides, the town said it would stay on track with the layoffs and outsource the service. By then some fire departments in the region had already outsourced their fire dispatch.