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stouffville suntribune thursday november 2 2006 3 stouffville says by hannelorevolpe do you know who you are voting for in the nov 13 election asked at sobeys maria liscio no we discuss it as a family after seeing the lawn signs and reading the local newspaper john walker im not sure yet because i just moved into a new area i do read my local newspaper and consider information from candidates knocking on my door or leaving pamphlets kelly celestini no i dont pay nearly as much attention to the municipal election as the federal one in the local election you see candidates signs every where but you dont hear enough about them rita nye no i will vote for anyone who will slow down development until we catch up with the serv ices and also do something about the traffic on main street next staff photobill roberts six tigger gets set for a shot while alfie 4 waits his turn at a rabies clinic at ballantrae com munity centre saturday the cats are owned by lorri pearce the clinic was hosted by the ballantrae and district lions club and veterinarian brian laing of town and country animal hospital town refutes charges of large de by hannelore volpe staff writer allegations the town of wwtchurchstouffville has been operating with large deficits in recent years have been refuted the town is in good financial shape with one of the highest reserves among york region municipalities town treasurer marc pourvahidi says in an interview with the stouffville suntribune he responded to questions about the towns finances posed by res ident margaret l may in a letter sent to all council and mayoral candidates ms may has kept an eye on the towns finances for many years often putting her findings into letters to the editor and ads in local newspapers ms may charges that after spending millions on the second ice pad the ballantrae fire hall the librarypool complex and other buildings the town ran into a deficit beginning in 1999 by 2002 2003 and 2004 these had reached significant amounts she wrote calling allegations of deficits misinformation mr pourvahi di said the towns audited finan cial statements show a surplus every year since 1999 to 2005 we have had a surplus all the way through he said to check for yourself you can log on to the towns website at wwwtownofwscom and look over page 6 of the audited finan cial statements since 2001 the towns reserves have been in the range of 10 million to 1 1 million with the exception of 2002 when they went down to around 8 million because of the building of the lebovic leisure centre mr pourvahidi said ms may also wanted to know just how much money the town has in reserves that amount has grown mr pourvahidi said in 2000 the town had about 20 million to run its operations with income coming from property taxes longterm investments reserves and accounts payable today that sum stands at around 40 million to run an increasingly larger town and when it comes to who is in charge of town spending the buck stops with the treasurer who works at the direction of town council ms may also put the question as to whether the towns pur chasing bylaw is as effective as it should be when the town expanded its municipal offices on the fourth floor on the imperial centre last year council approved 150000 for renovations but when the time came around for the 2006 budget talks council was informed that the town staff had committed another 100000 for the town office project in order to have matching furniture and work stations ms may wrote thats because there wasnt complete information yet at the november budget as to how much it would really take to complete the renovations mr pourvahidi said that budget was pushed for ward to the spring by councillors rob hargrave and phil bannon who wanted firm figures before approving a budget the new amount forrenova- tions was then approved in the budget brought to council in april briefly walmart set to open superstore wednesday the longanticipated and delayed opening of stoufmlles first walmart will take place wednesday the 160000squarefoot store on hwy 48 south of stouffville road is one of three supercentres a new con cept in canada being opened this month the other two stores are being remodelled while the stouffville store was built from the ground up the store includes a fullsized gro cery store complete with fresh food plus an oil change centre drug store and photo lab the store will be one of the first walmarts in canada with lcd tvs suspended from the ceilings and showing commercials media reps and special guests will get a sneak peak at the store tuesday the store was scheduled to open last month streaking spirit takes on unbeaten aurora tigers something has to give at the stouf fville arena tonight the stouffville spirit 9611 unbeaten in seven games takes on the unbeaten aurora tigers 16001 in provincial jr a hockey league action game time is 730 aurora is in first place in the north conference and the spirit in third the spirit won the conference in a six- game series with the tigers last spring for more on the spirit see story and photograph on page 18 and go to stouffvillespiritcom you can listen to tonights game live atwhistleradiocom correction hiltons view of park a story in saturdays suntribune incorrectly stated councillor susan hiltons views on a corridor through memorial park she is in favour of a road that would allow residents from the subdivisions to the south of the lebovic centre to have access to burkholder street and from there to roads leading to main street as one possibility she suggest ed having a road beside the current laneway leading to the leisure centre the suntribune regrets the error contacting us have a news tip please phone us at 9056402612 email us at jmasonyrng com visit our offices at 6290 main st in downtown stouffville i demand an apology i here for opinions it has come to my attention that the follow ing groups are seeking redress in the form of an apology and cash from our government for various heinous acts well i want my apology too and a little yorkregion com it clicks home cash would go a long way to making me feel bet ter you see when my family first moved to canada about 50 years or so ago from holland i was teased about my inability to speak english my funny clothes and strange sandwiches these dreadful wrongs were committed by canadians so pay up mr harper or ill come to ottawa and stomp all over you with my wooden shoes for the rest of the story visit blogs on yorkregioncom read john slykhuis in the right in our blogs section