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Society of Friends confirm plans to renovate historic meeting house NEWMARKET The Yonge St meeting of the Society of Friends has decided original basically unaltered According to David one of 20 members of the Meeting and leader of the planning the renovations a modern basement will be built under the frame meeting house The meeting house was built Last July Mr Included in the planned renovations will be installation of plumbing electrical wiring and central heating The new basement a poured kitchenette toilet facilities an area for the central heating unit and storage space The changes will allow the Meeting to use the building year- round it is presently closed all winter and provide room for its other activities such as First Day School Sunday School Architect Napier Simpson Jr one of Canadas best restoration specialists is designing the changes and overseeing the project which is the meeting house which now sits on stone pillars will be skidded away from its present location the foundation built and then the building replaced The building is basically sound said Mr and little restoration will have to be carried out in this area outside the installation of the new THE ERA Since 1 NEWMARKET AURORA KESWICK ONTARIO DECEMBER 12 Yearend bills for school space upset users Shannon NEWMARKET Yearend bills from the school board for use of school facilities by Newmarket groups are coming in much higher than many users expected Recreation Com missioner Dan Shannon says Most are being charged between 140 and for space for their activities he said Mr Shannon said the charges wont force any of the groups out of existence but he said they are keeping some groups from using the schools at all Girl Association and the Newmarket Badminton Club He said the badminton club is also upset because it school board authorities Mr Shannon has been working over the past two years for free use of the schools in return for the towns offer to the board of free use of its arenas pools and other facilities for students Last week he announced that his department has hired University of Guelph recreation and physical education student Rill Robinson as a fulltime community use of schools co ordinator He said this is another step towards his departments long- range goal of developing the full community centre potential of schools Perhaps eventually we will even be assisting the schools in programs he said If we can put a supervisor in me schools as an act of goal troops especially are having great difficulty financially because they have to pay for using schools for meetings he said The commissioner said the Guides are hit harder than Cubs and Scouts because the boys organizations are sponsored by the Optimist Club The girls must pay directly out of their pockets he said He said a number of other groups voiced complaints about the school charges in cluding the Hills Ratepayers Association the Thistles Soccer Club the Quaker Hills Over 30000 in grants NEWMARKET A quick trip to Queens Park paid off in over in provincial grants for Newmarket last week and raised the possibility of another chairman Hay and Com missioner Dan Shannon joined Bill Hodgson at Queens Park and after visiting provincial officials came away with approval for the grants The Ontario government has agreed to a grant on the Hoi lings worth Civic Arena a grant for the Quaker swimming pool for Dennis Park for Park for and for the Fairgrounds It also approved nearly for the addition to the Lions Club Amphitheatre provided the facility is transferred to the town Preliminary approval for a grant of up to was also received for the proposed community centre Board asked to spend on eight school yards listed the adventure playground which both Ihe school staff and local residents have asked for assistance in building the playground apparatus backstops and soccer field equipment and at Maple Ixaf school ball diamonds Mr Shannon reported to the committee that school board financial superintendent George Ford asked for town suggestions following the that the town was shortchanged Its the first time the board has ever gone to a community and asked for its requirements would like to see the school board spend some money im proving The committee approved a list last week which it had or dered Commissioner Dan Shannon to draw up following accusations it made late in October that the board is short changing the town On Mr Shannons list Development of the childrens play area at Rogers Rd school and the soccer and Softball fields there the Newmarket High School soccer field which Mr Shannon said has not been in use for the past two years the soccer fields and tracks at Huron Heights Secondary school the ball backstop and play apparatus at JI Bell school Mr Shannon described these as being in terrible shape two backstops the rack the playground equipment and general landscaping at Stuart High ami dry after Hie pond was drained this fall this mudcoated Fairy Lake swan struts across the grass while waiting for the dredger behind to deepening he pond used by the swans and ducks Fairy Lake will be refilled in time for winter skating NEWMARKET Fairy Lake will be refilled in time for freezeup and used as a skating surface according to insurances given by South lake Conservation Authority manager Jim lake in the centre of dredged The pond is used by he i resident ducks and swans as a nesting place but so much silt rolled into it during the reconstruction of Church St that Die depth was reduced to a few inches of water week members of he town recreation and parks committee expressed that the lake would be available for skating this winter but Mr Gosnell told The Era be no problem The lake was the most popular outdoor skating area in town last winter according to Recreation Commissioner Dan Shannon Mr Cornell pointed out that the Authority drained the lake about a month ago and hen was hit by heavy rains Even with the gates open the lake filled up overnight he said The Authority manager said by draining the lake before those heavy rains we provided a Price for doubles in King KING TOWNSHIP Its getting more expensive to control dogs and King Township Council doesnt know what know what to do about it At a com mittee meeting Monday council heard that the Ontario Humane Society wants almost for said Mr Shannon but he said Mr Ford cautioned hat the committee must bear in mind hat the hoard has limited funds except for educational pur- At the meeting where the shortchanged charge was made Mr Shannon said as far as he could tell the board has spent no money on school yard improvement in Newmarket this year He also charged at that meeting that recreation department programs In he schools were being issued with the very worst equipment but last week he said this changed dramatically after The Era reported his amount the township paid per capita his year In 1967 when King first entered into an agreement with the society the rate was 35 cents DeputyClerk Mel Lyons explained that he proposed hours per week additional patrols and collection of fines for picked up strays little bit of flood control for Newmarket and it also shows how little it lakes to fill that He said the problem with the dredging has also been the continuous wet Trucks have not been able to haul the fill out without becoming mired the ground cither dries or freezes hard enough to hold the trucks Then lake will be refilled Scrap skating on Christmas Day Newmarket either Christmas Day or New Years the town recreation committee decided last Wed nesday The committee said it has keeping an arena staff on the job In other years for holiday skating hut that so few people took advantage of the skating it was not worth keeping the arena New law may void teachers resignations AURORA Uncertainty and confusion surrounded contract talks between the York County Board of Education and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation late Monday night following the introduction at Queens Park of emergency legislation to nullify the resignations by high school teachers in the region The were among the 7800 teachers across the province who resigned following contract disputes with 17 school boards Contacted at their Aurora office late Monday night OSSTF District officials were unable to comment on the bill because they had not been able to examine the legislation The bill bans teacher walkouts and sets fines of to per day for teachers and trustees who act in defiance It got first reading Monday but Ontario education officials were to meet with teacher and board groups yesterday and second reading was not expected until late last night or today While provincial leaders for the 7600 teachers hinted that the bill may be challenged by teacher protests and legal ac tion District officials declined to take a stance until they had examined the legislation The emergency amendment to the Education Act came as a surprise in the legislature In addition to contradicting earlier legislature statements by Education Minister Tom Welts that there would be no interference in contract talks at this stage the bill refutes statements made by Jim Nut- tall Mr Wells executive assistant in an Era Interview last week At that time Mr Nuttall said the ministers policy was not to Intervene in the talks unless his assistance was specifically requested by both parties Mr Wells admitted outside the Legislature Monday that the bill had been hastily prepared loopholes resulted which could precipitate other legal and ef fective pressure tactics by teachers such as worktorule Meeting for its regular session of the year on Monday the school board received a verbal report from negotiations chairman John Mr referred to the legislation briefly but since the bill had at that point received only first rending he introduced a motion that should legislation be scuttled Jan and would be considered non- instructional days in order to reorganize the schools The motion carried but ironically there was no move to formally accept the letters of resignations presented td the board almost two weeks ago Mr did state however that seven of the letters submitted by the OSSTF provincial officials were deemed Invalid by the boards legal advisors The negotiations Crawford noted chairman said the seven teachers had been offered the right to terminate their con tracts under standard board procedure There was no in dication as to how many of the seven resubmitted their resignations Following the meeting Mr Honsbcrger told The Era that the new legislation apparently contains provisions for binding He added that if mass resignations take effect the boards ceilings would be ad justed proportionately to a point where the is neither losing nor making money In his report to trustees Mr stressed that no matter what the outcome of negotiations between the two sides the board is required by law to keep the schools open in the new year Those negotiations are now displaying some momentum Mr said The two sides have approached the issues quiet systematically to pinpoint a total of issues Agreement has already been reached in of the areas while five other clauses are being redrafted In an attempt to reach a settlement Harkness is named new deputy NEWMARKET Wally Is York Regions new deputy police chief and Do Hillock has taken over super vision of the forces detective branch the regional police commission confirmed last Mr 39 formerly a staff inspector in charge of detectives was promoted to deputy chief in charge of operations filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Bill Mr has accepted a position with the Ontario Police Commission Mr Hillock was promoted from detective sergeant to in spector and assumes command of Yorks 18rnan detective unit Detective John Moorhead was promoted to detective sergeant and Constable was moved from the uniformed branch to the detective branch The commission confirmed the new posts on the mendation of Chief Bruce Crawford who noted that all those promoted had passed promotional examinations and interviews by a selection committee of administration Deputy chiefs Hood and exchanged jobs the day before Mr Shimmin resignation was received Chief York will take over Ontario planning powers Era News Editor NEWMARKET After nearly four hours of often chaotic debate York Regional planning powers now held by he provincial government The change proposed by Wright repeatedly had to gavel for order as councillors huddled with each other walked to the gallery to consult with local staff and created a general buzz of inattention throughout session Richmond Hill Councillor claimed council was being forced to act with Indecent haste It was meeting Thursday morning and had to report its decision to the province by the next morning A council majority agreed sending off a lastditch telegram urging the Legislature to delay passage of a bill creating a regional land division and Newmarket Mayor Bob collided repeatedly on points of order The confusion Chairman Garfield Vaughon Mayor Garnet by a point of order Mayor Dales sat down and said Are you lost Yes are you replied Mayor j being forced to deliberate through its lunch hour so that staff could make a pm meeting in Queens Park It reached a point where she proposed a motion to kill debate nearly every time a new motion was placed before council Finally after a short recess late in the session council adopted planning commissioner Murray Pounds recom mendations on the delegation of powers with one amendment all inside of 10 minutes- Council agreed to indi cate its willingness to accept powers proposed ice DELEGATION page 13