The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

best available copy s-ayawjj- jptvt ewetlei ers j ufvae 640hoho j vol- 101 no 53 a metrolarid community newspaper countrye bflyme serving whitchurchstouffvilte uxbridge area country property specialist 6405090 joffliwhytnl wednesday december 28 1988 victims brother a witness a26 pages 50 cents traintruck collide in pickering maxine sharestrom staff reporter 30yearold claretnont man driving a pickup truck along sideline 12 friday afternoon saw his teenage brother hurled through the air when a cp rail train smashed into a tractor- trailer the boy was a passenger in seconds later merle timbers jr ran through the twisted wreckage of freight cars and truck metal to find 14yearold desi timbers lying in a ditch merle jr thought his brother was going to die in his arms their mother mary timbers said in an interview tuesday she said her older son lifted the boy up then saw his eyes roll back in his head when desi said dont leave me merle knew his brother was going to be okay miraculously desi suffered on ly minor cuts and bruises in the accident that derailed four freight cars and all four engines pulling the train westbound at the sideline 12 level crossing near claremont desi recalls little of the acci dent all i remember is being hit and thats when merle jrs nightmare began tractortrailer driver bill hubers 30 also survived the crash after spending a harrowing oneandahalfhours trapped in side the mangled wreckage of his cab he was treated for minor back injuries cuts and bruises at ajaxpickering hospital and released the same day after firefighters rescued him with the jaws of life mr hubers a cannington father of two said he had slowed down as he approached the train tracks he said he looked up the tracks to his left then all of a sudden i saw a set of headlights in a split- second i knew i couldnt stop or id have no hope of avoiding an accident he said he sped up hoping i could get the truck across it didnt work but although the vehicle was struck between the back axle of the truck and the front of the trailer desi credits mr hubers quick thinking with saving their lives if he didnt speed up we would have been hit dead on desi said tuesday still feeling pretty sore and achey follow ing the ordeal the trains engineer was also taken to hospital with a minor back injury mr hubers was driving a truck belonging to the timbers brothers sand and gravel ltd a company owned by desis family mr hubers said his brush with death made the holiday season special just seeing my two kids open all their presents and enjoy ing themselves well i know how- lucky i am to be alive he said officials said there were no hazardous materials on board the freight cars cp rail has routed a line of track around the scene to permit rail traffic until the derailed cars are uprighted funds roll in for kennedy family the cab of the timbers brothers sand and gravel ltd truck was a twisted mass of metal following a grinding collision with a cp rail pnotojim thomas freight train on friday although three people suffered minor cuts and bruises there were no serious injuries in the mishap trip of a lifetime search is on for mongoose by kate gilderdale vhile most people have been immersed in holiday celebra tions stouffville resident eldon smith has been preparing himself for the trip of a lifetime which will take him to a remote corner of liberia on the west coast of africa the 14year employee of the metro toronto zoo is visiting the area as part of a team whose task is to find and observe an ex tremely rare mammal called the liberian mongoose the existence of the animal on ly became known to western scientists in 1957 and it was not fully described until 1974 only twentyfive specimens debra set for return to school a new years resolution for stouffvilles debra surman is to return to stouffville district secondary school as a regular student it will be a big step for the resilient 17yearold who is still recovering from multiple in juries received in a single vehicle crash oct 16 near newmarket she spent 41 days in the hospital with a broken pelvis col lapsed lung damaged liver and ruptured spleen debra captured the heart of stouffville residents who follow ed her long and painful recovery and she was welcomed back by the entire town when she return ed home from hospital at the end of november now she wants to get on with her life the life of a happy and normal teenager shes already been back for a couple of classes but our aim is january to get her back full- time said debras mother terri who has been at her daughters side since the accident debra was permitted by doc tors to begin a fitness program to regain her strength and thanks to the generosity of a markham fitness club which offered her a threemonth membership she plans to take advantage of the opportunity and barring any setbacks it will be full steam ahead for the remainder of her recovery despite the accident and long healing process appearances of the old debra are resurfacing more and more like most 17yearold girls dur ing the festive season shes been christmas shopping and spending time with her friends have been collected to date he notes i presume theyre only skeletons they havent been able to get a skin we only know what the animal looks like from the descriptions of the natives the liberian mongoose is believed to be concentrated mainly in the rain forests of eastern liberia were going over to look at the status and possible conservation of an en dangered species mr smith describes the liberian mongoose as very similar to but a little bigger than a minklike animal weighing about two kilos early in 1988 another team consisting of a mongoose specialist from the royal ontario museum the curator of mam mals at the zoo and an assistant from the department of mam malogy at the museum spent six weeks at sapo national park in southern liberia during their survey the group studied the flora and fauna at the park and set up traps in an at tempt to catch a live specimen of the liberian mongoose although they were unsuc cessful one team member mongoose specialist dr mark taylor stayed on and visited the forests in the eastern part of liberia to do further research on the animal he found that while a lot of villagers knew of its existence they hadnt seen one for many years his search led him to the gibi forest where the people told him they knew the animal well and had been hunting some that day the only specimen he was able to obtain was one of about 15 continued page a5 stouffville more than 15000 has been collected in a benevolent fund set up for stouff ville accident victim ernie ken nedy say officials from two local banks friends and colleagues have rallied around mr kennedy who had both arms torn off in an in dustrial accident dec 13 while he was working on a gravel- separating machine at lee sand and gravel ltd in stouffville surgeons reattached mr ken nedys severed limbs in a marathon 18hour procedure following the accident but both arms had to be amputated only days later after doctors deemed the surgery unsuccessful meanwhile truck drivers at the firm mr kennedy works for as well as drivers at neighboring companies have donated thousands of dollars by carrying loads on behalf of the family frank busato who is organiz ing mr kennedys trust fund said donations have been going like dynamite mr busato estimates approximately 15000 in donations have been collected to date donations at two stouffville main street banks continue to roll in according to banking officials were collecting money from all over the place and putting it in the bank for them said connie hess an employee at lee sand and gravel ltd im exceeding ly happy i know that at one point there was over 10000 in the account and carol watson a main street scotiabank accounts clerk says donations continue to arrive at the branch things are going very well said mrs watson its really nice of people to be so generous especially at this time of year individual donations can be made at either of the main street cibc or scotiabank branches on behalf of the kennedy family mr kennedy is still in hospital in toronto and is listed in fair condition lighting spectacle claremont ray and darlene uzzell and family have done their place and their com munity proud their house located on station road claremont is winner of the best decorated home con test a project sponsored by the lions and lioness clubs for their effort mr and mrs uzzell will receive a well- deserved christmas gift of 50 second prize and 30 goes to wesley and lynn blanchard and family wellington street claremont perennial winners al and carole redshaw franklin street claremont placed third theyll receive 20 firefighters baffled by silo blaze i armeniabound laid from stouffville stouffville survivors of spviet armenias recent earth quake are receiving medical relief from stouffvilles mcneil pharmaceutical canada ltd officiais at the drug firm con firmed thursday that relief workers in the stricken region which was hit by a mammoth earthquake two weeks ago killing 65000 have received distress packages originating from mcneil the firm donated 1000 cartons containing boxes of tylenol ablets for survivors of the quake the donation is valued at ap proximately 4000 coordinated by marketing department employee ray mew the relief work involved co operation among several divi sions in the mcneil workplace says employee diane szymanowski the relief donation forwarded by mcneil was brought about by requests from a group seeking iclief assistance from various agencies ms szymanowski said it was done in record time and thats something were proud of she noted lemonv1lle stouffville firefighters are somewhat baf fled this week after fire broke out in a storage silo which hasnt been in use for three years stouffville deputy fire chief murray emmerson said thurs day its likely the fire spon taneously ignited among material left behind in the abandoned silo on mccowan road just north of stouffville road he said the single silo hasnt been in operation in recent years it stands beside jb truck repair initial investigation at tributes the fire to spontaneous combustion deputy chief em- merson said thats the only thing we can put it down to he said in an in terview its a little bit of a mystery firefighters quickly controll ed the blaze by hosing down the interior of the tower but didnt continue spraying to prevent freezing which could damage it said the deputy chief there is no estimate of damages in the incident no in juries were reported stouffville firefighters quickly extinguished a blaze in a silo thursday although the cause is a mystery fire officials believe it started by spontaneous combustion in the unused storage structure