wht bh6tme established 18ss charms h xolan publuher james thomas associate publisher and kdltor kobkkt mccalsland advertising manager published every thursday bv inland publishing co limited at 54 main st stouffville ont tel 6jo2101 single copies 15c subscriptions s300 per year in canada s9q0 elsewhere member of audit bureau of circulation canadian weekly newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mail registration number 0896 editorial police service not satisfactory the general public and most par ticularly the business fraternity is already realizing that their worst fears of an integrated police force are coming true surveillance accorded such urban sections as stouffville and markham is only a shadow of former days in stouffville noise and lawless driving take full swing on the main thoroughfare in the evenings completely unhindered by the sight of any police protection some effort was made in the early days of the new system to have at least one officer on the beat but this idea has ap parently gone by the boards and to come across either an officer or a cruiser in the evening is a rare sight i told you so is common comment from those who have always held to the opinion that the new system could only mean more money with less service as traffic increases and population grows the service must of necessity be in creased not decreased there are complaints of difficulty obtaining police help even after trouble i occurs residents from one end of main st to the other are finding that once darkness has arrived bedlam and drag- strip activities take over and living in the downtown area becomes more and more unbearable our complaint and we trust those of townsfolk too is in no way to be taken as criticism against individual officers who comprise the york regional force most we have met are courteous and efficient but the area to be patrolled appears far too large to provide the personal service stouffville residents once knew and still expect taxpayers wont be threatened what is the basic summary of the new committee on youth report it is a vast program of handouts for youth running into the millions of dollars all to be paid for from the public treasury and a threat that if these giveaways are not forthcoming the youth will make trouble it is most unlikely that the canadian taxpayers and their representatives in government can be whipped into line in this fashion in all these tremendous schemes there is nary a word nor a tear for the poor taxpayer he will suffer in silence but only for so long youth programs are fine but to say pay us or else will not be tolerated more welfare more free travel bigger loans are all wonderful but theyre just as wonderful to hundreds of thousands who are not in the youth age bracket for one group which because of age is only transient to make such demands under threat is ridiculous there is no limit to the committees proposal for access to public funds even the fact that the government itself should spend a half a million dollars on a report with so little knowledge of reality must make the hardworking taxpayer cringe each can play a part about four weeks ago wm hodgson mpp york north posted throughout the riding 19000 questionaires the questions eight in total were simplestraight forward they didnt require as much as a yes or no reply only a tick in a space provided we filled out the form in something less than three minutes and yet to date only 6 percent or 1130 have been returned a pathetic response on several occasions john roberts mp york north has conducted similar opinion polls the response has been comparable strange isnt it how we the electorate continually complain about alleged in competence and inaction at both provincial and federal levels of govern ment and yet when were offered an opportunity to participate to let our members know how we feel and where we stand on important public issues we suddenly grow weak and tfnft government by the people we dont deserve it editor s mail dear sir it is hard to put into words what we felt after reading your editorial buyer beware words such as disgust and alarm might serve as well as any it may be that editorials are a necessary thing but yours was based only on the heresay of the go kart track owners themselves and is certainly less than acceptable it is my feeling that this is nothing short of cheating the public and trying to force a biased and uninformed opinion upon them it was after a visit to your offices at which time we tried to present to you our case on behalf of the concerned residents of the 2nd concession that your editorial appeared why is it you chose to com pletely ignore what we had to say we suggest that you get out of your ivory tower and collect the facts which are available at the township offices we who are most concerned with this noise garbage which is being thrown over the fence of the go kart track and the seemingly complete disregard of the existing bylaws demand also to be heard trusting that you will not totally disregard this letter also hj magill rr3 stouffville dear sir your editoral buyer beware in the august 19 issue truly amazes me especially after mr magill and myself visited your office to show you the letter you call the antikart protest this letter contrary to your suspicion is certainly not the work of newcomers since more than half of the residents that have signed it have lived in the area for more than five years but why you ask after ten years in business is all the fuss made now well let me tell you residents of the 2nd concession have complained more than five years ago about the noise and one of them actually moved out because of it the question is the firm operating longer hours now certainly cannot be answered no since the operating hours were extended from 9 pm to 10 pm by the bylaw no 1559 on april 27th 1970 let me also assure you that since 1966 when i bought property near the gokart track the noise has most certainly increased simply because the number of concession karts has tripled before the complaint had been submitted to council mr magill and myself visited the gokart track and found eight karts running completely without mufflers and that one cannot call cooperation or consideration on the part of the operators in a recent meeting on which you reported a letter from the canadian environmental law research foun dation was introduced saying that noise readings had found a minority of karts exceeding the 90 decibel limit set by the bylaw and the track operators responded by saying readings taken by pollution probe on their behalf had shown no kart exceeding the 90 decibel limit since the letter introduced in the meeting was for labok vay yej jo cotye sugar and spice farewell old car by bill smiley well it looks as though any more travelling i do before summer bids us farewell will be on foot kim passed her driving test today it was a pretty tense morning for both of us she was afraid she might fail her test i was afraid she might pass it just to complicate matters she turned up for her test at 930 am only to discover that she was slated for 330 pm she claims it was their mistake but knowing my daughter i have a good idea who made the error however the chaps giving the tests managed to work her in at 10 am when someone else failed to show up so that meant i had time for only about ten cigarettes as i waited pretending to read the morning paper but it gave me a chance to look at the people preparing for their tests quite a crosssection they ranged from a addressed to me i would like to clarify this matter the canadian environmental law research foundation and pollution probe is affiliated and we are talking about the same readings which were taken by mrs reed who works for both organizations mrs reed will verify that she informed the operators of the gokart track that some of the concession karts did exceed the 90 decibel limit which certainly makes me doubt the credibility of the statements made by the operators of the track gf lauterback rr 3 stouffville dear friend i have just reread your editorial in the aug 5 issue of the tribune entitled co operation only doesnt work and yes i agree it is unfortunate but honest efforts to at least try as you exemplify are commendable wouldnt it be a wonderful world if people would use their godgiven grace of common sense i wish also to express my appreciation of your articles and news items con cerning birds and birdwatching long a keen interest of mine in the story three boys enjoy bird- watching aug 5 i appreciate the inclusion of the information that their politeness and respect for other peoples property is a credit to their parents as well as themselves again i say as i did in a previous letter kids today arent all bad em starr rr3 newmarket skinny 16yearold boy who wanted a drivers license for his motorcycle to an old chap with a hearing aid and almost blind in his left eye both passed but i hope i never meet either on the highway then a couple of former students of mine walked in they are the type who have probably been driving for several years without a license and have finally been nailed they are pleasant lads but while neither is dumber than an ox neither is smarter their procedure was typical they filled out the application cards wrong and had to do them over again when mike was asked by the officer where he lived he jerked his thumb at peter and said two houses down from him while the officer rolled his eyes he wanted an address then the pair sat down at the long table to fill out the written test ten minutes later they were sitting brows furrowed with about three out of forty squares ticked off i toss them a word of en couragement it might be easier if you could read and write eh unfazed they just grinned peter retorted yeah we shouldnta gonna sleep in all them there english classes fine physical specimens both theyll probably make excellent but dangerous drivers im not implying that the driving tests are easy theyre quite tough when i got my license the job of testing aspirants was a political sinecure the tester told me to arrive at his place of business at 600 pm he locked up the store told me to drive him home about eight blocks i gave him two bucks and that was it when my wife got hers some ten years later it was the same procedure the police chief had her pick him up at the office they drove around three or four blocks and she took him home to lunch at his place not ours today theres a whole battery of physical tests a written test on the rules of the road and the actual driving test a good many people are flunked and im all for that what id really like to see is a compulsory test for every driver about every two years and a good stiff one could you pass jack with your color blindness could you pass lady with your total inability to parallel park could you pass grandad with your arthritis i think a great many of us would be put out to pasture anyway kim returned i expected to see her with a face as long as a foot she was beaming my heart sank theres going to be a fight here every day until she gets back to school a wining example on main street by jim thomas it was a thursday morning the day was sunny and warm a bit on the humid side one of those kind of lazy days thaf most folks long for on weekends some couldnt wait a few lads in their teens were spread out in the shade at the corner of market and main a barefooted traveller with a bedroll on his back was quenching his thirst on a coke in front of the clock tower behind him two children waded about in the cooling waters of the town square fountain carefree or careless perhaps a bit of both continuing on west a voice seemingly out of nowhere attracted my attention shoe shine sir he repeated while still not certain to whom the question was directed the very fact that a young lad should address anyone as sir was reason enough to stop and say hello but greetings of this kind no matter how sincere do little to satisfy the hunger pangs of a boys piggy bank so i set my size 10 on the top bar of his little wooden box and he went to work oh how he did work spreading on the polish and snapping the shammy like a pro i was impressed not only by the high shine he restored to my shoes or by the gentlemanly manner with which he went about his business but by the idea that any eleven year old should be ingenious enough and yes ambitious enough to seek employment entirely on his own between rubs and buffs and snaps he talked but never once did he take his eyes off his work i learned without asking his first name was van van carter the informal in troduction was branded into the side of his box in the few minutes that followed i learned a lot more van resides at 111 william street coming from toronto to stouffville two years ago he has six brothers and sisters two are married in spite of his age van with his curly red hair freckled face and appealing blue eyes boasts considerable ex perience for a couple of summers he applied his trade at the corner of queen and yonge where shoeshiners are plentiful but so are people in a single hour it wasnt uncommon to attract twentyfive customers in stouffville hes waited an entire evening and at tracted none my folks say its fine and it gives me something to do he explained a boyfriend made his shoe box he pur chased his own brushes and polish van rotates his shop site between main street in front of bings restaurant and the a p plaza hes the first to admit that much of the downtown pedestrian traffic is in and out of the iga unfortunately however most of these folks according to van are women and women dont make good shoeshine customers m most people are friendly he says as long as im careful not to get polish on their socks he has no set fee folks pay what they think the job is worth ranging from ten cents to 150 only one customer refused to pay anything but he was drunk van said the usual is twenty- five or fifty cents van denies that shining shoes is really hard work anyone can do it he claims anyone that is except girls he therefore fears no rivalry from his 10 year old sister jill it takes muscle he said and girls dont have much of that since van is selfemployed he establishes his own working hours his goal is to earn enough money for a day at the ex after sept 6 however his business will be restricted by school but van intends to set up shop on weekends if nothing more than to retain the franchise in town the interview over i left walking proudly on shoes that sparkled in the j morning sun across the road the group of teen lads still loll in the shade in front of the clock tower the bare footed traveller begs for a ride on the north side of main a boyish voice calls out shoe shine sir now theres a man