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p 4 the tribune thursday december 8 1997 st the tribune thursday december 18 1997 vol 109 no 84 comment the tribune is a member of the ontario press council send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial timing is the worst how ironic that the week after the world environmental conference in kyoto the town of whitchurchstouffville discusses a plan to disband its own environment advisory committee the recommendation to kill the sevenmember citizen committee not only looks bad it is bad and the timing could nt be worse thankfully faced with irate taxpayers upon its first meet ing the newlyelected council is temporarily shelving the recommendation council has now promised to review the recommendation to disband the committee and come up with a set of guidelines and references for the group some charge that the committee stepped on councils toes and tried to get involved in planning matters it may have put out some members of town staff and some members of council perhaps thats why theres a move afoot to kill it yet the fact remains that environmental and planning issues are two sides of the same coin they are very much involved any council of the 1990s should be pleased to have committed caring citizens with professional expertise who are willing to give advice to council and taxpayers and promote ecological issues best of all the committee certainly gave taxpayers more than its moneys worth they have accomplished a lot given that they had little or no direction for 150 if given a mandate and a new lease on life the environment committee should provide farreaching benefits over the next three years environment group should be protected people of whitchurchstouffville and the new council wake up and smell the coffee council may decide to get rid of the town environmental advisory com mittee a threepart committee con sisting of the trees committee waste management committee and the ket tle lakes committee the mayor and council may take more public input out of our town decisions quite possibly in the area that directly affects us most our environment think about it people on kettle lakes how do you feel knowing the history of our town in dealing with problems and creating the problems in the lakes you live on if you live in the heritage areas of stouffville look up at the trees see the decay see the trees falling down around you is this a good decision or is this a step backwards how about that garbage contract that will be coming up again do you remember how it did not go to tender before would you like the public to have proper input this time im not saying this as a politician who just lost an election if it were not for the system this town created and letters perpetuated for so many years not only would i not have run for mayor in the last election but i would not have been a councillor i probably would never have even come back to a sec ond council meeting years ago lets learn from our mistakes talk to the people work it out look at how many user groups or residents groups formed in whitchurchstouffville why were these groups formed because people needed strength in numbers they found out there were other people like themselves feeling ignored and mislead is it smart to get rid of the people who care about preserving our lakes trees wetlands and other areas of environmental concern within the town of whitchurchstouffville look around you is it cost efficient to let our towns environment get any worse the trees in heritage stouffville could have been properly maintained we could be planning for our future by looking after them they will cost more to repair or replace in the long run in the meantime we have to look up when we park our cars and wonder if it is safe to swim in the water or even safe to drink the water this is not tree hugging this is common sense and proper planning the people who felt strongly enough to work on this committee received only one real assignment the whole threeyear term of the last council so we found our own initiatives some of which were lake testing pro grams for clark simeon preston and musselman lakes initiation of stew ardship programs for the above lakes kettle lakes newsletter photographic study of the shorelines of preston and musselman lakes initiation of map ping of all environmentallysignifi cant areas within the town reviews of the waste management and recycling programs reviews of the forestry ten der earth day tree plantings for schools sapling handouts to students and residents and greenspace articles in the paper do children understand message of giving dear editor re the other g word what to get and where to get that special gift the frenzy seems to start earlier every year hardly lim ited to the twelve days or to what we can afford lost in the hubbub for many is that central message that the big birthday is really about giving sure wc adults know that message but the commercial focus is on kids is time taken to explain the reason for gift giving and celebration are there other ways kids with little or no money of their own to spend can show thanks perhaps a prior suggestion is worth repeating and that is of taking an unwrapped gift chosen from under the tree and given to a church or charity even after the birthday selflessness and consideration of others arc virtues that need to be taught to our little loved ones happy holidays herb bell ballantrae we took it upon ourselves to do these projects the total cost of all of these projects to the town was under 150 where else can you get that kind of bang for your buck certainly not from staff and there wont be the incentive for them to go the extra mile this committee was made up of res idents from all areas of our town with all kinds of expertise we had owners of recycling companies organization presidents people who do environ mental assessments for industry pub lishing personnel certified arborists horticulturalists and your nextdoor neighbours as a member of this committee i was disgusted at how under utilized we were there is so much potential there but the public involvement con flicts with development plans in our town no one in our town offices includ ing the mayor and most council mem bers has ever been willing to see the two can go hand in hand itjust takes proper longterm planning to benefit both new and existing residents needs maybe this is for the better at least now the mayor and council cannot take any credit for our work and will stand alone with staff on all environ mental issues to every one who helped me in my election and voted for me thank you very much and merry christmas it certainly has not taken long to sec peoples true colours open govern ment at its best to everyone else enjoy your new town hall but remember we will be back in three years for a rematch with great regrets mike watson stouffville stouffville tribune patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising 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