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page 2 the tribune thursday feb 19 1970 editorials wrthum an e for effort since its formation nearly 14 months ago the york county board of education has been the subject of some tribune criticism our comments however have not been directed against the board mem bers either individually or as a whole but against the system that we feel is too far removed from the people its too impersonal as for the trustees themselves we would not criticize but commend them for the work they have done under circumstances that have been any thing but convenient take for instance mrs louise ai- mone of thornhill she is the lone representative for all of markham township how can she hope to com municate personally with parents say in mongolia or cedar grove the communications chore facing vicechairman arthur starr is even more difficult he must renrpspnr nnr one but two municipalities in whit church townsup and stouffville in the town of markham mrs merna colbourne has done a marvel lous job she haj appeared before the council on several occasions and sub mits information regularly to the newspaper there and yet the im personalattitude of the county sys tem has been more harshly criticized in markham than anywhere else in the field of communications mrs margaret mclean reels off reams of reports every week keeping the press councils and ratepayers or ganizations well informed but still the vacuum persists it is our opinion that people in cluding parents arent really inter ested at all not in the accomplish ments of the past the plans for the present or the objectives for the fu ture they are merely using the ig norance factor as an excuse critical parking points near mishaps occur every day in town at three particular intersection points namely ninth nine north and thi- school crossing on main street at mill street and main and church and main in the first instance it would seem that to alleviate the danger not only for motorists pulling out of the ninth onto main and for the crossing itself parking should be eliminated from the ninth to the walk only last week this very point received some airing in traffic court where a motorist com ing onto main testified that he failed to see a westbound car due to parked vehicles in this area in the case of the other two points the signs prohibiting parking are lo cated very close to the intersection so that even when cars are parked with in the law the motorist entering the main street traffic will find himself well out on the road before he can clearly see any oncoming traffic at the mill street crossing there is a further hazard for pedestrians us ing the crosswalk with cars parked too close to the walk it is necessary for people to step right out from be side a parked vehicle in order to be seen there will continue to be a rash of minor collisions and close calls as long as this lack of visibility con tinues two wrongs not a right an 80bed nursing home is plan ned for a site on property adjacent to stouffvilles brierbush hospital construction is expected to begin soon but spring street likely to serve as an entrance to the premises from main is undersize only 33 feet in width to be exact planning board at an earlier meet ing had requested the applicant to donate sufficient land to bring the road up to standard this has been refused it is unfortunate that street of sub standard width was ever allowed in the first place but the town is only compounding the problem by permit ting another exit or entrance onto it while the law may permit the granting of a permit regardless of the road width it is our opinion that a little cooperation by both parties is in both parties interest editors mail for our children a heritage of ravaged countryside dear editor fighting to save the earth from man is the title of the cover story in time magazine feb 2 i hope it is read by municipal affairs minister darcy mckeough and mines minister allan lawrence and considered in re lation to uxbridge townships current application to the ontario municipal board the township council is trying to gain power to regulate the gravel mining industry which aims to strip off all the sand and gravel areas rep resenting about onetenth of the whole municipality thirtyeight gravel companies operate in this beautiful township which is close enough to toronto to be a dormitory area for commuters there are 48 existing nits some of these are huge fastgrowing scars beside the highway from these the trucks roll southward endlessly many of them overloaded to make an extra dollar in callous disregard for the safety and property of other road- users such abuses are presumably the basis for the mines ministers state ment to the aggregate producers as sociation of ontario clean up or close down the ontario government is show ing concern over the destruction of our environment through pollution of water and air but good earth is an other element that needs protection uxbridge township would be a good place for queens park to demonstrate that the land of ontario is going to get the protection humane sense de mands for it all over the world the need is be coming more urgent for more living space more breathing space more recreation space more space to grow things and more space for the dimin ishing wildlife if the people of this province allow large sections of one of the their most beautiful areas to be gouged into wasteland i predict that our children looking at the re- sfc gfoe wrthum established 1888 c h nolan publisher jim thomas editor noel edey advertising published every thursday by inland publishing co limited at 54 main st stouftvillc ont tel 6102101 single copies 15c subscriptions 500 per year in canada s75p elsewhere member of audit bureau of circulation canadian weekly newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mall registration number 0896 i i i arafra national costume sugar and spice crescendo a catastrophy isnt it odd how troubles come in batches you can sail along for as many as two whole weeks with everything going as smooth as cream then the roof falls in ours almost literally did last week when the ice piled up nearly two feet deep behind the eavestroughs and i couldnt find anyone to chop it off your run of calamities however usually begins with a few minor things like a toothache or the flu then builds steadily to a crescendo of catastrophe thats the way its been with me in my latest bout with the fates knobs coming off doors a broken tooth coming down and finding the front door wide open with mains of their plundered heritage will say they jnust havebeen raving mad money mad john e ricketts uxbridge br 4 dear sir congratulations to you and your staff for again winning prizes for the quality of your newspaper well deserved they are too i can not imagine and certainly have never seen a paper which serves its com munity better than do you keep up the good work we need you clark muirhead claremont rr 1 dear mr thomas the members of the stouffville minor hockey association want to thank the many people of stouffville and the surrounding area who supported the association during its minor hockey week program this includes not only ihe people who bought tickets and at tended the many games but also those merchants who donated door prizes for the different nights without this solid support from our community our association would have a most difficult time to operate we hope that minor hockey will continue to receive this excellent support during the closing half of the season it is something that is greatly appreciated by all of us con nected with minor hockey in stouffville keith sutherland secretary stouffville minor hockey assn where theres life staunch presbyterians in cars lined up beside the gas pumps pt mickey hunts sunoco station sunday morn ing is a sure sign that the ecumenical movement is far from dead its called efficiency sgt bill vance is an officer with the markham police department he is also a coowner with his brother in the vance ambulance service on sunday afternoon he was called to 16th avenue and cone 10 markham twp where it was reported that a snowmobile operator had suffered a heart attack what is the mans name asked a tribune reporter at the scene i dont know yet replied the sergeant seriously the ambu lance had already left before i ar rived by bill smiley the temperature 10 below and the fur nace straining to keep up wipers on the car broken down which is a fairly easy route to suicide the way its been snowing around here this winter then my car on which i recently spent 63 to remove the problem of its not starting in the morning started not starting again my gimpy curling knee got gimpy and ive been limping around ever since like a sailor with a wooden leg but these things you are used to and cope with one by one got my tooth fixed got a chap to hack the ice off roof got the doorknobs working the wipers working and the knee wrapped in an elastic bandage that cuts off the cir culation so badly my face is purple its the things over which you have no control that hit ybitright between the eyes like sunday noon when we got a call from my daughter announcing cheerily though with a touch of trepidation that she was calling from the hospital with infectious hepatitis you cant say that the kids nowadays dont live dangerously at any rate kim left for the city at new year having quit university to live in a commune i dont have to go into the commune bit again its the method some young people use in todays society to escape from the latter a commune is an idealistic utopia in which everyone shares the work and the food just one big happy family with no nagging parents and nobody stopping one from doing ones thing the commune has vague links with the early christians and the modern israelis which is a nice touch of irony there have been hundreds of attempts to form such communes in the past the only thing wrong is that they dont work unless they are rigidly sauthoritarian like the communities of mennonites kim spent a presumably happy week in the commune then caught hepatitis from one of the other inmates and lay sick semiconscious without eating for about two weeks she had too much pride feeling she had let us down to call we didnt have any phone number and were waiting for a letter we finally wrote she staggered out to the emergency ward of a general hospital where they gave her a shot of penicillin and threw her back into the snowbanks on a thursday night one of the members who had lately been getting a bit weird going on a big religious kick dressed himself in his best went to his room and set the house on fire the others barely got out into a winter night with the clothes they were in and nothing else he was burned to death the house was destroyed somehow kim got into hospital all shed saved was her christmas present a radio a friend loaned her some clothes shes feeling better but and there are some big buts we dont yet know what damage has been done her liver is affected its normal thing is 35 to 50 whatever it does a doctor told her that the worst case theyd ever had in the hospital was 3500 and then told her that hers was 6000 give us a prayer if you have a moment will you midwinter beauty at midnight the location of this midwinter scene is on the aurora road west of bal- lantrae the unusual photo at a five minute time exposure was taken by the tribunes peter harris the bright streaks were created by headlights of tl passing automobile peter harris 4mn the big blow and the good old days by jim thomas wednesday feb 11 will go down in the memory of most motorists as the worst day of the entire winter i say most motorists but not all i for one thought it was great in fact if it wasnt for inflicting ir reparable damage on the towns road budget id favor a big blow every week now i know what youre saying youre calling me a whitecollared pencilpusher whose only hardship is walking from a warm office to a warmer house a halfdozen blocks away and youre partly right the truth is my heart goes out to all you commuter chaps who daily must fight bumpertobumper traffic snarls in and out of toronto every morning and again at night im the first to admit that under normal weather conditions the trip is hazardous enough but take an afternoon like last wednesday and well its a temptation to head south and never look back but not me when the wind is whistling and the snow is swirling i love it it tends to turn the calendar years back a decade or two when mountainous drifts and blocked roads were expec ted and accepted but best of all it tends to change the personalities of people folks become friendly again i know because i met a few of them some i had seen before but couldnt call by name it was about 4 pm when i was overcome by a sudden and foolish urge to head north into the country minus snow tires or even a snow shovel i ventured as far as the boun dary limits of lincolnville that was far enough the highway up front jammed with cars trucks buses and plows what lay beyond was any bodys guess it was not my intent to add to the confusion but i could see people out helping each other pushing pulling huffing and puffing just like old times changing directions i went west towards bloomington the road what little i could see of it was good but visibility during wind gusts was nil on two occasions over a distance of 1v miles i was stopped by ap proaching drivers each relating tales of traffic tieups ahead i continued on reaching concession 9 without dif ficulty and then south to stouffville signs of winter at its worst or best were everywhere on the cn line south of main street was a diesel locomotive itself a kind of oddity in town the engi neer had left his steel monster to pick up a couple of cups of hot cof fee his machine had taken on a ghostly appearance the front packed with snow whats it like i called up to the brakeman still perched in the cab he shook his head indicating that the answer was obvious pretty bad he replied just like old times i learned that part of his freight load was still marooned back at mark ham the other half had been hauled as far north as uxbridge everywhere i went the topic of conversation was the same the weather and everywhere people were talk ing each relating his or her own par ticular experiences and always con cluding with just like old times but what were the oldfashioned winters really like if you remember the subject needs no explaining if you dont chances are you wouldnt believe it anyway but regardless of the tales told out of yesteryears driving conditions were never worse than last wednes day and property damage in the many thousands of dollars but unlike a split hame strap you cant mend a bent fender with a piece of baling wire attraction 1970 what is the newest attraction at stouffville dial secondary school mini skirts no maxicoats no sports cars no its snowmobiles on friday afternoon we counted eight of these vehicles in the parking lot