tribune 30000 copies vol 3 no 9 a metroland community newspaper 64 pages saturday february 28 1987 25 cents region rethink new sign policy by steve houston staff reporter an attempt to establish a re gional sign erection policy on york roads stalled in newmarket thursday while region politicians take another look at the proposal the plan to prohibit all except government signs lost in an 86 vote and according to stouffville mayor fran sainsbury that could mean changes to better suit the town as presented the policy would bar candidates from posting elec tion signs during campaigns one of the most common methods of advertising by those seeking office fines for infractions were set at 250 for a first offence 500 for a second and 1000 for subsequent offences currently six of yorks nine municipalities make exceptions for election signs despite other general prohibitions for road sig nage mayor sainsbury scored with the vote to refer the issue to the engineering committee for furth er consideration and says if pas sed iathat state the policy would be discriminatory i dont want to see people being fined when all theyre doing is trying to get known so they can serve their community the mayor said she added that a majority of stouffville residents live on re gionallyoperated roads although its york region tax payers that maintain them but regional councillor ron moran claimed at the meeting the election sign issue had clouded the policys original intention to regulate the deluge of commer cial sign advertising on regional roads we shouldnt lose sight of the bylaws purpose councillor hloran said many commercial establishments abuse the regula tions mayor sainsbury suggested sign sizes be standardized on re gional routes and insists the poli cy needs refining at the commit tee level before being brought back before council in stouffville weve never had them all along the roadside any way she concluded omb payments spark debate a newlyadopted general policy concerning ontario municipal board hearings is a further example of the towns prodeveloper approach to planning claims a whitchurchstouffville councillor ward 1 representative margot marshall voiced her concerns tues day as town council approved a planning advisory committee recom mendation requesting the proponent person or group submitting a given application pay the towns legal costs in the case of an omb hearing councillor marshall voted against the policy claiming it encourages the town to support developers because if anyone takes us to the omb its cheaper to go with the developer however planning advisory committee chairman wilf morley took exception to any inference that council would even consider bending the rules to favor developers that is not true mr morley said stressing councillor marshalls accusation is not founded mayor fran sainsbury spoke in support of the new payment policy saying its right for anyone who feels strongly enough about a particu lar issue to put their money where their mouth is before the omb town planner michael saunders explained the municipality will still be responsible for its own expenses in cases where it initiates an omb application what a windfall troy chown peers down the wind tunnel he made to test the effectiveness of different wing forma tions for the area f science fair held at ramcr wood public school on thursday chown a stu dent at ramcr wood placed second in the ap plied sciences and engineering category at the intermediate grade 7 to 10 level along with first place winner kathyrn oliver from franklin st chown proceeds to the regional science fair to be held april i to 11 al he nobleton senior public school thirteen schools were repre sented at the markhamstouffville science fair with each school submitting about 10 entries vacate- whats inside annederrett shes as mad as a ram6 dr pk basu has an eye to re search10 u ffs mssfmi