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NEWMARKET THE ERA Ceuil Sine ii Li HASKELL IOTER JOHN WALLACE Time for an answer on the sewage plant Natural growth in both Newmarket and Aurora will grind to a halt after this summers building season and wont be to start again until the two towns are allowed to expand their sewage treatment plants Two years ago an Ontario government edict limited Auroras residential growth to per sons and that quota was immediately allotted to the two subdivisions and a project by Investments With their completion even minimal growth in Aurora now is out The Newmarket plant was able to ac commodate the residential phases of Quaker Hill subdivision one project on the lands and the Valley of the Cedars subdivision The town fathers were also able to juggle sewage capacity figures to squeeze in the Yonge and Davis Dr shopping centre and three factories in the new industrial park but the full sign is up on the Newmarket plant now too York Regional council has endorsed recommendations from both communities to the Ontario Environment ministry that the plants be allowed to expand The assumption at the time was that the ministry would wait for Treasury Economics and Intergovernmental Affairs minister John White to decide on a revised population ceiling for York Region before answering So everybody waited The new population ceiling was announced nearly a month ago and Newmarket and Aurora are still waiting It is to be hoped they v be asked to wait until Ontario builds its muchheralded trunk sewer from Lake Ontario to Newmarketsaid last year to be a 10year project but if its follows the Highway pattern 20 years away at least We agree with provincial economists that sewers are a grand planning tool and that growth should be carefully controlled in this But the growth of a town simply doesnt follow the nice straight line on a graph so beloved of economists It comes in waves often called subdivisions and will have to be phased in a cyclical pattern over the next years To do this Newmarket and Aurora need some sewage treatment capacity to last them the decade or more it will take to build the trunk sewer Most of this summers crop of new homes are already sold at prices which a few years ago would have been considered out of most families reach Consequently housing prices in the rest of town are skyrocketing Soon unless the housing supply is supplemented only the very well off will be able to afford to buy homes in Newmarket or Aurora Mr White revised his population quota assigned to York Region to meet Yorks modest requests and now his colleagues in the Ministry of Environment should give a green light to limited expansions of the and Newmarket sewage raiment planls A place of peace Built In as a refuge for indigent people in York County old York Manor began falling before the wreckers hammer this week Except for the installation of electricity the manor has changed little over the years During its last few years It served as a militia armoury and more recently as the home of the Newmarket air cadet squadron Old York Manor is being demolished this Once known as the House of Industry and Refuge County of York the building has been a landmark on Yonge St since it was built in When it has gone a new county courthouse will rise on the site and eventually if all goes according to plan a complex of government offices will be developed on the front portion of the Manors acre farm During its years the old manor served as a home for hundreds of York Countys less fortunate citizens and many of them lived out the final years of their lives there At least 165 of these people He buried in a longneglected overgrown cemetery near the back of the property In the new scheme to develop the property into a prestige government centre this small corner should be set aside as a place of peace THE Readers ERA his space is reserved for the comments pinions and drawings of The Eras read- rs Please feel free to send yours along ill we ask is that you include your name address- NEWSROOM NOTES A nightmare ride champagne with a prince PSI ByB Martin Hike licences absurd reader I never have limit is absurd is I dilnrs proposition ill be The think that bicyclists an what be First of all in discussing Hive virtues- the very thing is llicy really like kids ami the tt kids know it These guards perform their duties vuth sense rcsponsihilty They seniors need lor help had a twister lit Si Quaker Meeting House that something be done to mark Newmarkets origins at Wesley Brooks Since last Thursday Ive fallen in streams slid down hills been crowded with about other journalism types into the back of a truck for a nightmare ride across the King Township countryside drank champagne and beer and Coke dodged horses dodged halter tops become lost on a acre farm and experienced just about everything else that can happen to a soul trying to grab a glimpse of royally And since it was all in the line of duty all I could do was grin a sunburned grin and bear it The whole thing began many months ago when the people over at Jokers Hill decided they were going to invite royalty to come for a visit Utile did they know what they were getting me into And less did they care I suspect Prince Philip accepted their invitation to attend the opening of the threeday horse trials at Jokers Hill an impressive retreat west of Newmarket owned by drug store and hotel millionaire Murray Koffler As and company laid the groundwork for Fridays visit Era photographer John Cole literally laid our own groundwork As enterprising newsmen we figured it be to know the Jokers Hill layout in ad We set out early Thursday afternoon before we even got inside the gates should have been enough warning to send us home but we continued After sitting in on the competitors briefing The Eras dynamic duo set out for a lour of the crosscountry course the competitors would ride on and Prince Philip would tour a day were already in place and while they may have been a challenge for the competing riders they were just plain barriers to Cole and Martin After being guided back on course by a Quebec rider our tour was completed and we returned to our respective homes to dream dreams of royalty When Friday did dawn a dream it wasnt As we assembled at the press briefing I knew something was wrong Our location was near the dressage ring a healthy distance from the royal helicopter landing site visited during the previous days jaunt Surely we must not walk I mused to myself And the press to be taken lightly did not walk We were loaded actually it would best be described as the back of a truck for a rapid run to the landing sile There we dailies and regional weeklies side by side hanging on for dear life during a jolting ride across Murray Koffler country It wouldnt have been so bad but the trucks sliding door to slide pinning the fingers of the late arrivals who thought they were in for boarding just before departure That problem was solved only to have Ihe door start to slide off its hinges and on to our heads After some pounding and screaming those big city types are more rambunctious than we regional types the driver consented to stop long enough for some hasty makeshift repairs It was a stop that drawn out irii a half miles goes up down as much as it goes thats a different story To make matters he jumps on the championship course royal party were already on ground when dust covered press corps arrived The formalities were few and the Prince wa soon settled in a Land Rover for the trip back the dressage arena And the press Im sur most of my counterparts would have walked had the aforementioned truck turned up again but this time we were provided with a haywagon- still uncomfortable but somewhat safer than the New problems arose following the formation of a press pool to follow the Prince on his af ternoon tour of the A mile championship cross country course While local papers gained ac cess to pictures taken during the tour no local photographer accompanied the royal party But that didnt stop John Cole Armed with his newfound and still footsore knowledge of the Jokers Hill terrain Cole charged across the countryside to catch Prince Philip and his en tourage at three of the more than 20 stops hey made Brow streaming with sweat his resourcefulness endeared Cole to at least one press official accompanying the royal party and The Era photographer was given every op portunityencouraged in fact to take the pic tures he wanted During all this was time for drinking champagne and hobnobbing with the rich which means in this particular instance anybody who could post the patrons fee Saturday long after the prince had departed for Ottawa it was back to the realities of beer Coke neither of them on the house and work Hence that dummy you saw tripping and crashing through the bushes and pulling his muddied muddled frame from the stream just east of the water jump was likely no mere dummy but an Era reporter who could only wanly smile and wearily offer logic that its all in a days work rigins even it the Quaker is expanded into an complex After Ned Roc pointed out ii5iiKnb with children say Walk around Hie pool rather than don l MIIJ 1 I I I 11- cheerful and doit t iik but relate then being not that far removed from ski dims 1 1 Klvor Drive Park than icy do IM this brush lo the to look after town that contribute I Newmarket being such town I would like author la irket Miss should Ron firevn Here some plays to watch in next provincial ballgamei The province says whatever we want to do well do and where the ball game ends The speaker was Mayor Bob of Newmarket and he was referring to the Ontario Governments new policy on land planning The province in effect can disregard the official plan of any municipality including regional municipalities and set down its own idea of how any parcel of land can be zoned and the way I read the reports seemed surprised and dismayed at idea Im sur prised thai he is Dismayed yes But surely he must know by now that the province considers itself allpowerful and able to do exactly what it wants do Regardless of Ihe people it is supposed to serve Selfappointed government apologists claim the new policy will only be used in areas where there is no official plan or where the land in 1 municipalities are involved The overall grand scheme in effect such as the Niagara Escarpment plan and the green belt an- nounced some months ago While I certainly hope the apologists are correct no one in the upper levels of the Davis seen fit to say just that Not that Any political parly that has been in power for some years must feel I guess thai it does not have to to explain itself Especially when it received such an overwhelming mandate in Ihe last election We have been told Prime Minisler came within an ace of losing his power in the last federal election because his party had become unresponsive to public He was classified as arrogant and convinced of his partys invinciblily Many good people wept out of office only because they were Liberals and a vote for good Liberal was a vote for the censored guy It is my personal opinion that this was the case here in York Bill Hodgson in Ihe next provincial battle The same feeling of unrest of dissatisfaction towards the Liberals expressed last year is now being manifested in feelings towards the Davis provincial elections because of Bill Hodgson I know people who were very active in Hodgsons reelection campaign who also worked just as hard for the federal reelection of Liberal John Roberts Many of these people are now upset and hurt at what they feel is a desertion by the PCs from peopleconscious policies They are torn between their respect and loyalty to Hodgson and a growing disillusion with provincial government since the last election A number of provincial decisions or rather lack of decisions concerning people In his area are going to be raised by his opposition in next rundown Lets examine some of these The development policy mentioned here earlier for one There is a very strong suggestion that province which has already shown in decisiveness in its TorontoCentred Region Plan can and will overthrow its own guidelines The TCRP population ceilings as amended recently brought joy to the hearts of regional politicians and planners No one has as yet expressed fear that these could be changed again The most certainly could considering the inconsistency of the government The longpromised commuter train now appears to be wiped out in the form with which it was promised Instead we have GO- buses which if anything are slower than the previous Grey Coach system If any form of commuter transit comes about at nit it will be at the urging of the federal government and not the province which to all purposes has opted out of discussions on this subject The longawaited fourlane 104 Expressway has now become a twolane a second Don falls While it will certainly help it is no better than a stopgap measure and will be costly change or add Inter If indeed it is ever added to The province has given unwavering support for the recommendations of the McLaren Report on flood plain land The Report recommends that large sections of ninny municipalities up to per cent in some cases bo declared unfit for most development Instead of using the Report as a guideline the province has taken those recommendations verbatim The abrupt about face performed by Queens Park on the Family Life Centres After suggesting that the region involve itself in these counselling projects and giving verbal assurances that would be equal partners in their funding they withdrew all support This came about only after the region had allocated to those centres on the promise thai Queens Park could contribute a like amount The centres continue today but no one knows how long they will be able to do so The suggestion that a addition be built onto the Ontario Hospital in Aurora without any Input from the Newmarket and District Association Mentally Retarded and other similar groups These associations contain some of the most forwardthinking people inthis field They had to demand a delay in plans for the institution while they could make some suggestions about the care and education of this segment of our society Add these local Items province wide alarm with the and the awarding of a contract toa company owned by a friend of Bill Davis conflict of interest row which saw Darcy McKeough leave cabinet at least temporarily on and off energy lax and a number of other items which have embarrassed the government and it isnt hard visualize at upsel for the long standing party at Park Yes it the province will do whatever Ihey want to thereby ending the ball game They should be casting a long eye lo the provincial world series one year