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I I I I I I ft network aids V ice during I Mm PI 1 VOL NO 5 PAGES KING ROAD 15 education centre The York Region separate school board has become the first organisation to officially Scanlon Creek Outdoor Edocatioo Centre A report on the boards decision appears on page What ghost Carol Corleys topic this week is ghosts in From the Aurora Desk on page Confused So are others The confusion over road signs in King Township could result in tragedy a resident has warned council For details see page RC board backs Tigers and coach part company Aurora Tiger coach Gene parted company with the Ontario Hockey Association Provincial Jr A club Saturday For details see page Flyers finally tame Tabbies Ernie scored a goal with less than two minutes in the game to give the Newmarket Flyers a 54 win over the Aurora Tigers Sunday night For a look at the Flyers first win over Aurora in this seasons Provincial Jr A play turn to page How dry it is A bungle may have cost Fairy Lake its water supply An editorial comment on page Coburn loins salary team Margaret Coburn whose husband Is a York Region high school teacher has been named to the York Region public school boards salary negotiations team Details are on page Project loses coordinator The Maple Leaf community school project hat lost Us coordinator For the reason why see pages DIRECTORY ports is Malefic brief is BOtboard r Bin hi deaths Chess game of week Editorials Entertainment 17 Huron Highlights Mary Real 18 to 22 Roy Green 1 I J Pi I Since NEWMARKET AURORA KESWICK ONTARIO FEBRUARY CENTS EAST GWILLIMBURY CITIZEN OF THE YEAR Title will be presented mm Paul Cosies Photo Irene Thompson The Eras correspondent for almost a quarter of a century has been named East Citizen of the Year Mrs Thompson who will turn this month has been active in church and community affairs most of her life First NHS Career Day NEWMARKET Representatives of man walks of life will be on hand next Wednesday at the Community Centre here to offer advice and counselling to about 300 Newmarket High School students who are facing the biggest decisions of their lives Guidance teachers at Newmarket High have booked the Community Centre for their first Careers Day and hope to give students from their grades 1112 and 13 classes a wide selection of career advisors to talk to Representatives from area community colleges will be on hand a spokesman for the York Regional Police Department will be there as will people from the forest management department at the YorkDurham Forest Bell Canada will send a spokesman and such business areas as banking real estate and marketing will be represented as will the social services field travel agencies and an airline the media and the legal profession A whole panel representing the career op portunities at York County Hospital will participate Although organizers said the Career Day will not be open to students from other schools because of space problems they hope parents of Newmarket High students will attend along with their sons and daughters It will be from to pm Feb Irene Thompson day after her 90th birthday QUEENSVILLE February 19 and 20 will be one of the biggest weekends in the long life of The Eras correspondent Mrs Irene Thompson On Sunday Feb 20 Irene Thompson will celebrate her birthday The previous evening she will be honored as East Gwillimburys Citizen of the Year Mrs Thompson was selected for the award which is jointly sponsored by the East Optimist Club and the Com munity Communicator for her past contributions and for Ihe con tinuing service she is giving to the community according to a spokesman for the selection committeee Irene Thompson has been The Eras correspondent for nearly a quarter of a century In fact the evening last week when a representative of the selection committee called to inform her she had won the award she was not home although it was snowing She was traced to United Church where she was covering the churchs annual meeting for The Era Although almost Mrs Thompson maintains her keen interest in local affairs and is able to boast that she has voted in every election for which she was eligible since she turned 21 An accident in her home about a year ago put Irene Thompson in York County Hospital for weeks with a broken back Although it may have slowed her down a bit it failed to break her indomitable spirit or dull her keen sense of humor As one nominator put it Shes always ready for a bit of fun and teasing GRAND LADY Other nominators found other phrases to describe Mrs Thomp son A wonderful person a grand old lady a truly fine Canadian thoughtful helpful and loyal and everybodys idea of a favorite grandmother Irene Thompson has been active in a wide variety of civic organizations over the years Shes been a member of the Womens Institute for years is a life member of the Federated Womens Institutes and has been the Queensville institutes historian for many years She is an elder of Queensville United Church and is a former organist choir leader and Sunday school teacher there She also is a longtime member of the Queensville United Church Women and the historical coordinator for the church She was a teacher in the Canadian Girls in Training organization When she was able to do volunteer work outside her community Irene Thompson was an active member of the York County Hospital ladies auxiliary and a volunteer worker at York Manor Home for the Aged both in Newmarket She is a life member of the Order of the Eastern Star and the Lady Ross Society Mrs Thompson is also an accomplished singer and pianist and took voice training at the Toronto Conservatory of Music After her marriage to Sidney Thompson who died six years ago she moved from where she was born to Toronto Her husband worked for the MasseyHarris farm implement company He travelled extensively for the company in South Arnericai and western Canada so Mrs Thompson was left for long periods on her own in Toronto She look the opportunity to continue with her music and for six years she was a lead soprano soloist with the Canadian National Exhibitions Exhibition Singers and for a time was a member of the Mendelssohn Choir Murder confession repudiated TORONTO Heather Giles was alive when 43yearold Shenton Whorms left her Aurora home May the Toronto man told a Supreme Court jury here Monday Whorms who has been charged in the murder of the 21- yearold Jasper Dr woman spent about four hours in the witness box denying statement he had made to the police confessing to the murder and calmly relating his version of what happened in the early morning hours of May The case was expected to go to the jury yesterday The key defence witness said a fight broke out in the Jasper Dr home after he had walked from Bradford to Aurora The incident occurred after he Miss Giles Glen Gray and John had gone to the race track and later the Village Inn in Bradford where an earlier fight erupted When Wyatt Gray and Miss Giles left for Aurora after he was questioned by the Bradford police and then released Postal building to start in spring OTTAWA Tenders for the new ft postal sorting station to be built on Mulock at Sandford St this spring will be called in March MP Sinclair Stevens said Monday The confirmation of the tender date was made in Parliament after Mr Stevens questioned the government on the plans The building due to be occupied next fall will serve as a sorting plant for 38 post offices in the area encompassing Sutton Pefferlaw Tottenham Bradford Oak Ridges Mount Albert Newmarket and Aurora Most mail sorting for the area is currently being handled at the Aurora post office testified he started walking to Aurora Near Holland Landing he spotted a car resembling Grays and when he stepped forward after it had slowed down and stopped the vehicle sped up and drove away running over his left foot He hopped back to the Jasper Dr home to sleep testified not knowing that Gray or Wyatt were there until he saw Grays car in the driveway The fight erupted said when he knocked on the door and Wyatt opened it asking What do you want nigger Miss Giles came towards the door yelling for both of them to stop according to Whorms and both men picked up chairs threw the chair which struck Miss Giles and knocked her down Whorms testified adding that he didnt remember seeing any blood on the woman at that time He said she fell on her rear got up fell again and got up He said he did not throw the chair he had been holding but left the house because I knew Johnny was a vicious type and I didnt know how far he would go explained his wandering route out of Aurora by saying he took back roads and fields because he did not want Wyatt to find him I didnt want to be involved in a fight with Johnny or anyone else Whorms told the court He described Wyatt as a good fighter and said he did not think he would be able to defend himself told the court he did not go to the Giles home with a piece of pipe as a weapon and reminded the jury that police never recovered any such weapon even though he retraced his route out of town with them denied asking police how Heather was or see MURDER page 2 St plan e Kerwin NEWMARKET A proposal to build a Ponderosa restaurant an automotive service centre and a commercial building on the fouracre site formerly designated as The Mill Hotel location received a cool reception at a Newmarket Planning committee meeting last week The posposal was made by Jeff of Developments Ltd and in cluded three separate buildings Councillor Dave Kerwin attending his first planning committee meeting came out strongly against the terming it a gar age development and Councillor Bob Scott criticized It for having inadequate garbage storage facilities Mr Kerwin said the west side of Yonge St with Upper Canada Mall York Manor the new Childrens Aid building and the jd provincial courthouse is aesthetically pleasing and said he opposed this real dirty type of plaza being allowed on the east side A very similar proposal which also includes a Ponderosa steak house was made last year for the four acres adjoining the Carsdel property to the north Planner Kunio told the committee these two properties and 2A acres immediately north of this second site are the only remaining undeveloped Yonge St frontage which are zoned highway commercial Mayor Bob called for a planning review of the three sites to ensure their street patterns etc are developed according to an overall plan He also suggested that under the towns new official plan ap proval of which is Imminent the existing highway commercial zoning might be upgraded to allow a higher quality development than the proposal now shows The committee agreed referring the Carsdel proposal to the planner and to town engineer Roy Howard for reports NEWMARKET Palm Springs Yellow Bikini Chubby Bunny Drunken Indian and a host of others were the unsung heroes of Fridays major snowstorm Theyre all citizen band radio operators and during the height of the blizzard the air waves crackled with messages that made life a little easier for both drivers and York Regional Police Police commandeered three channels to supplement their own radio network Ironically two days earlier York Regional Police Com mission had approved the purchase of a CB monitor for roundtheclock checks on channel nine Traffic reports accident reports and plotting the progress of ambulances all became part of the task as the storm intensified When one mobile unit radioed that the Second Con cession south of Newmarket was plugged with cars that couldnt be spotted in whiteouts the with police permission sent units to warn drivers The police were busy keeping calls that flooded meanwhile up with the their radio room By midafternoon coffee and doughnuts were sent in to aid all officers in the radio room Despite efforts to keep up with the onslaught of calls response at some points was running minutes behind Ontario Provincial Police at Oak Ridges called in offduty officers to cope with the workload created by the storm About pm were told the only sure way of reaching York Regional Police was on their units since all telephone lines were plugged The three YRP police dispatchers on duty were sup plemented by senior staff with detectives deputy chiefs in spectors and even Chief Bruce Crawford answering telephones and lending moral support It was just unbelievable police commissioner Ray of Newmarket told The Era Monday They were working their butts off Mr who toured the radio room during a police commission meeting Friday izzard said I knew that they got busy but I couldnt believe it Friday afternoon The storm created havoc at York County Hospital with some staff members working double shifts and coming in on their day off to relieve what amounted to a combined staff shortage and increased workload In the hour and IS minutes between 230 pm and 345 pm Friday the hospitals emergency ward handled 3d cases While only three resulted in admission overnight hospital officials had to house and feed seven other persons who were stranded and couldnt be reached by relatives until Saturdays Hospital workers were stranded both on the job and at home Those on the job turned in a double shift while the estimated 25 employees who couldnt make it into work were quickly replaced by parttime and full- time workers living near the hospital Everyone who was on he job just stayed put until the mess was cleared up in emergency a hospital spokesman said Monday It looked just like a disaster area The scene on the roads wasnt any different When the blinding blizzard was at its peak York Region pulled all its plows off the roads Callers to the regions road reporting service were told to stay put Nobodys going anywhere Drivers attempting to go somewhere had to dodge snowdrifts skirt accidents and manoeuvre in a manner that took one driver two hours to travel between Keswick and Newmarket Double the regular number of operators were brought in to handle Bell Canada calls with callers encouraged to postpone any unnecessary long distance calls Local callers were greeted with lengthy delays while waiting for dial tones with direct distance dialing customers turning to the operator when calls couldnt go through resulting in double the number of regularlyhandled operator calls School bus tanker collide in storm NEWMARKET A school bus which collided with a tanker truck between Davis Dr and Herald Rd on Woodbine Ave caused fear of an explosion during the height of Fridays drifting snow storm No children were hurt in the mishap but the Mount Albert Fire Department was called to the scene to make sure the tanker did not catch fire The accident completely blocked travel along Woodbine for several hours In other parts of the region police were forced to close roads as the need arose A York Regional Police spokesman told The Era Monday that several of the regions northsouth routes were closed at varying times Police said it would be impossible at the present time to estimate the number of ac cidents that took place during the storm which whipped up drifts from the noon hour to 5 pm because accident reports were still being filed Monday afternoon The cooperation of the public in staying off main routes during the storm was praised by police Ontario Provincial Police at Oak Ridges reported that High way southbound was closed in several areas due to blowing conditions and accidents Off duty provincial police officers were called into work during the height of the storm to help investigate the accidents and block sections of the high- Highway 11 was not of ficially closed according to an OPP spokesman but visibility reached near zero in sections between Richmond Hill and Newmarket Three cars were involved in a minor collision just north of Oak Ridges while ap proximately vehicles became tangled near comer of High way and St Johns Sideroad Police reported no serious injuries in any of the accidents Provincial Police also considered closing Highway but the route stayed open due to lack of manpower during the storm xi7 Multivehicle accidents were reported on Highway at Major MacKenzie Pinnacle Hill and the Gormley Eyewitnesses travelling north said the medians and ditches were lit tered with southbound traffic unable to navigate through the poor visibility One officer who in vestigated an accident on High way 400 near the Teston Rd said it took from 1 pm to 3 pm to clear the vehicles from the southbound lanes Valentine ted planned by club NEWMARKET First Valentine tea of the season will be held Tues Feb by the Newmarket Christian Womens Club at the community centre Special feature of the day will be a demonstration by Pat Carmichael of Finger and Faces of Main St Vocalist will be soprano Ruth Knight of Mount Albert and speaker will be West district counselor of Christian Womens Clubs The tea will be from to 3 pm and a free nursery will be provided in the Christian Baptist Church lo auditorium ERA TODAY NEWMARKET This issue of The Era marks the newspapers 125th anniversary The newspaper was founded in the first week of February by G S porter and passed to the ownership of Jackson a year later From then until it remained under the editorship of Mr Jackson and his son Lyman It had a number of owners between and when it was purchased by the present owners It is now operated by the Inland Publishing Co Lirnited i