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weefcender- november 281987 p residents rally to restore park markhams old morgan park could be in for a com plete makeover if a group of residents there have their way plans to redesign and improve features in the park are now in the making and will soon be forwarded to council for consideration more than a halfmillion dollars would be needed to restore the old park bill lanning metroland awaits unions reaction to final offer metroland printing publishing and distributing has tabled a final contract offer to the union repre senting its nonmanagement editorial employees metroland which publishes 17 community newspapers in the toronto area including the eco nomist and sun stouffville tri bune and the weekender has offered increases of more than 22 per cent in the first year of a two- year contract the southern ontario news paper guild which was certified in february to represent 160 re porters photograhers and sub editors has not yet indicated whether it will accept the offer the union will be in a legal strike position and the company able to lock employees out effec tive midnight sunday metroland intends to continue publishing in the event of a strike or lockout the contract dispute does not affect senior editors or employees in advertising dis tribution production or adminis tration our committee has met with theirs more than 50 times since march said metrolands chief negotiator and company vice- president john coleman we feel we have answered the vast majority of their many many de mands and tabled a wage propos al that is as generous as we can afford if we are to remain a viable business the company would im mediately raise the fulltime editorial employees average weekly salary from 400 to 479 and their annual income from 20851 to 25632 during 1988 for ty per cent of employees have less than two years seniority and six tyfive per cent have less than four years with metroland metroland has also agreed to a 35hour work week sixmonth pregnancy leave and seniority rights including chainwide bumping in event of layoffs weekly wage rates in the com panys offer range from 350 for a reporter with no experience to 585 for a twoyear subeditor all rates would increase four per cent in the second year of the contract in addition to employees earning a progression increase based on experience the company has also guaran teed a five per cent wage increase in each year of the contract to all employees at or above the top grid rate for their classification the company has also offered two floating holidays in addition to nine statutory holidays three weeks vacation after one years service raising to six weeks after 25 years and an improved be nefits package by deb bodine champion with a little help from its friends markhams morgan park could be restored to its for mer glory once the central park of markham village morgan park attracted visitors throughout southern ontario to its oneacre rose garden a creation of the markham rose society sunday afternoon concerts were performed in the bandshell for the enjoyment of the commun ity and the park provided a focus for recreation and leisure and is still used today because of its historic signifi cance and strategic location in the heart of town a group of citizens have joined forces to create a plan for the future of the park the proposal is designed to link the parks colorful heritage with the future needs of todays com munity included in the plan is a smaller rose garden a water play area a bandshell with washroom facili ties a revamped tot lot play ground a senior playground and an area designed for seniors with table and chairs horseshoe pits and shuffleboard facilities developed by the morgan park project steering committee mppsc with help from land scape architect and committee member ken hoyle the new plan outlines key objectives the development is intended to reflect existing uses with an even tual balance between active play- field use and passive use to be phased in gradually the report stresses a desire to retain the water recreational aspects of thepark in some form while introducing a number of other familyoriented activities the pool facility we under stand is running into problems and may require significant money for upgrades says harry french a planner and member of mppsc french hopes the park will re flect its historical background by including such facilities as the rose garden the bandshell and de corative wrought iron fencing he also stressed the need to link the park with main st activities with the creation of an access while integrating it with the sur rounding churches and schools the mppsc wants the park used as a real community re source says french the mppsc first convened in march 87 through a series of doortodoor interviews with resi dents living nearby a list of con cerns and possible improvements was compiled frequent users of the park were also contacted to determine views and plans for future use of the park including the markham softball league tennis clubs lawn bowlers churches schools and daycare centres using information gleaned a number of proposals were re viewed with residents council lors gord landon and tom newall and the markham parks and recreation advisory com mittee in august barry hughes depu ty director of parks joined the re sidents group barry acted our advisor and guided us through the process of presenting this to council says mppsc spokesman elizabeth plashkes the estimated cost of the five- phase project is 627226 the first phase is being considered by the town for inclusion in the 1988 budget the 1988 phase of the project calls for the creation of a master plan for the parks future design and development of its features but the parks and recreation department has the final say in deciding details of the request submitted to council they have done a lot of good work the department of parks and recreation is in agreement with the basic ideas of the project and there will definitely be a sub mission for the 88 budget but how much is yet to be deter mined says hughes vandals start fire firefighters responded to a blaze sunday night at an abandoned house at 221 wellington st east markham fire chief ken beckett said the fire which causqdjpm0d3 bill jlanniue ism the vacant building on the site of a future medical centre was slated to be moved to another location