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p4 weekender january 24 i wiii 1987 weekender new plan moderates growth residents of the town of mar- kham can breath a sigh of relief proposed changes to the towns official plan arent nearly as dramatic as many people had feared although the plan alio ws for sig nificant residential growth up to the year 2000 about 30000 people more than designated in the cur rent plan approved in 1976 that growth will take place in logical areas adjacent to existing urban areas although we have some re servations about the future of box grove one of the new areas de signated for high growth in the official plan the proposals are conservative they maintain 16th ave and 9th line as limits of de velopment and provide for a con siderable increase in industrial growth the spectre of urban sprawl spilling over 16th ave and ex tending to major mackenzie dr has been dispelled with some ex ceptions the plan is sensible and really slows the rate of growth in the town the question now is can the town maintain this kind of moder ate growth in the face of intense pressure for development north of 16th ave and east of the 9th line only time will tell news item according to revenue canada markham has the second highest per capita income in canada hats off to local firefighters having barely survived the hail of bullets fired in this direction lately by somewhat perturbed readers i am now convinced of one thing we are definitely being read now hopefully youll have noticed perhaps even appreci ated that for the past few weeks this space has been filled with noncontroversial dissertation obviously there is a strategy at work here now that everyone is talking about this rather opinionated fel low on page four of the weeken der theres no way im going to play into their hands by serving up another zinger lesson learned so in the interests of further making the peace we ha ve picked yet another safe topic today were going to pay tribute to those hardened haulers of the hose those renowned rescuers and re- suscitators those oh get on with it the firefighters of the town of markham and what better occasion than on the eve of markhams main st f irehall becoming a full time per manently manned operation the markham hall now joins its un- ionville milliken and thornhill counterparts by having a regular crew on hand 24 hours a day the job of firefighter is some thing like being a soldier you do a lot of exercises never knowing when you might be thrown into the fray as with the military man there is always that fear of the unex pected which is in the back of the minds of all members of the mar kham hose co since the sabotage of the village lanes plaza it can be dangerous enough fighting a fire without worrying about an unexploded bomb that may be waiting to go off i guess it could be said that this is just one more indication that markham has arrived as an urban centre unfortunately we have to take the crud with the cream firefighters tend to be a tight knit group and a little defensive perhaps for there are those who like to lump them in with school teachers when talking about soft touch professions that line of thought has only two things wrong with it first schoolteachers arent asked to lay their lives on the line in the course of their duty second and this should never be forgotten a good schoolteacher is one of the most precious assets our society has at its disposal morale on the markham fire department has always been among the best in the business since its inception in 1971 there have only been two smokeeaters who have chosen to leave two others have retired with one serving as district chief of the markham volunteer corps you talk to any of the old boys of the department and youll get a good mix of hair raising experi ences and rather comical anec dotes obviously they prefer to talk about the anecdotes like mar khams jim miles and his great disdain for cats it was a known fact throughout the department that jim had no use for the four legged creatures then one day theres this house fire and jim is found sharing his oxygen mask with a feline that had been overcome by smoke kind of shot his image some of the funniest stories in volve the hazing of the rookies the newcomers to the depart ment one poor fellow was sent to the town works department for a gallon of compression sure enough the boys in the yard played right along with the gag sending the poor bloke back with a gallon container filled with some substance or other and stouffvilles bill vliek will never forget the yard sale he held shortly after he got married bill an avid hunter had been kidded by the boys on his- crew that he would have to sell all his guns once he tied the knot what he hadnt counted on was his buddies running an ad in the local paper listing each gun he owned as being on the block for the big sale so good luck to the new full tim ers wholl be manning those yel low firetrucks on main st mar kham and heads up rookie dont let them hose you t conomist sun the tribune weekender bruce annan publisher 9 heritage rd markham l3p1m3 2942200 4959440 6402100 6492292 published every saturday by metroland printing publishing and distributing at 9 heritage rd mar kham ontario l3p 1m3 tel 2942200 second class mail registration number 1247 the markham economist and sun published every wednesday and saturday at 9 heritage rd markham is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing group of suburban newspapers which includes the acton free press ajaxpickenng news advertiser aurora banner brampton guardian burlington post etoblcoke advertiserguardian georgetown independent milton champion mississauga news newmarket era oakville beaver oshawawhitby this week richmond hillthor- nhitlvaugnan liberal scarborough mirror stouffville tribune topic newsmagazine willowdalo mir ror metroland printing publishing and distributing is a division of harlequin enterprises ltd national sales representative metroland corporate sales 4931300 don bernard jim thomas 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