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Writ grant say councillors I KESWICK Georgina Township Council has never considered cutting grants to nieet cost of fighting current court action against the according to a majority of council Councillors Jean Noble John McLean Howard Shillington and Eric joined Mayor George Burrows and former Councillor John Hastings in confirming that council has never considered costs of a writ seeking to overthrow the December 1976 municipal election as a reason for refusing funds to the Georgina Chamber of Com- Their comments follow a statement by Sutton publisher Harry Stem that he is one of the parties named in an affidavit currently being investigated by the Ontario Provincial Police In a front page by lined statement in The Lake Simcoe Advocate last week Mr Stemp acknowledged that he had personal discussions concerning the court action and a grant Currently being sought by the chamber of commerce I do not know the contents of the affidavit but my sources tell me it contains charges that I acted as a gobetween between members of council and the chamber in an effort to buy off the writ by using the grant to the chamber as the purchase price the statement read Mr Stemp said discussions were held informally and without councils knowledge was mentioned during the discussion that council would like to help chamber funding but costs of the writ were unknown and could be large the council was reluctant to okay any large amounts of extra expenses until the matter was settled Chairman of counciPs finance committee Councillor Shillington told The Era I would never contemplate such a relationship at any time Its just not been discussed in council he added Mayor Burrows said the entire discussion around the chamber grant focused on the need for tourism and industrial promotional services not a tradeoff involving the writ Weve made a real effort to keep expenses down and this comes into it he noted We werent going to spend any more money than was necessary Several other councillors expressed strong feelings over the hiring of a new chamber manager but said a request that council opponents withdraw the writ has never been considered Mr Stemp said his statement was cleared by a lawyer before it was published I wasnt going to leave it to the rumor mongers he stressed They were simply made as suggestions It was just a common sense approach The Sutton publisher also denied reports he offered to writeoff a 200 bill owed by the chamber if it succeeded in having the writ withdrawn I waited a year because I knew they had financial problems he explained He is however prepared to take legal action to secure payment Chamber president Mike McDonald confirmed a discussion with Mr Stemp concerning the bill and said the subject of the writ being with drawn had not come up United Way drive ends 200000 short RICHMOND HILL York Region United Ways campaign will fail about per cent short of its goal With the extended campaign Counci costs us NEWMARKET Salaries for the chairman and councillors of the York Regional Council cost the taxpayers a total of for 1977 At its regular meeting Thursday council received a letter from the AID saying the submitted increases for had been allowed Broken down it works out to Chairman Garfield Wright being paid for an in crease of over and each councillor being paid for an increase of 50112 Of this money the chairman gets 2380619 as base salary with an additional 1190131 for expenses while councillors receive 609438 salary with an additional 304674 for ex penses Regional councillors receive separate pay cheques for duties performed at their local levels It is not known at this time what the increases for will be and will not be known until the region makes public its budget figures for slated to end this week executive director Bob Higgs said organizers are estimating that the drive has raised about 200000 Final figures arent available and Mr Higgs urged all volunteers to aid in the final tally by contacting the United Way office here before Monday He blamed the poor result on a campaign that still in its founding stages was con centrated into four months of the year In dollar terms the result represents a degree of disap pointment the executive director said Monday but we raised 200000 in the toughest four months of the year The 1978 campaign he stressed will put a new em phasis on an ongoing drive The United Way is a year round organization Mr explained People only notice the campaign during the sixweek drive he added but to offset that he hopes to publish a quarterly newsletter that will keep groups and individuals up to date on the organization An improved emphasis on training corporate volunteers and reporting incoming receipts will add to a spirit of teamwork that was lacking until this years drive was well underway said the executive director That sense of teamwork didnt get started until we were well into the campaign noted Mr There have been some real gains but there have also been some real disap pointments PAGES VOL NO Since 11852 South Snore KESWICK NEWMARKET AURORA NOVEMBER NEWMARKET CENTS CHRISTMAS FLOWER CHILD photo Michael Steyn two the youngest worker for Steyn Enterprises anytime now are big business since most households Inc Greenhouses in Bradford looks over the pouiseUias before they are not really complete at Christmas time without this colorful are to be shipped Shipping to Barrie and areas will start plant They can still look good during January and February COUNCIL DEBATES FIREFIGHTERS WORRY Vandals win the battle of Pefferlaw mill PEFFERLAW To Council it was a problem to volunteer firefighters nervewracking and to vandals a challenge Early Sunday vandals won out When the Pefferlaw mill went up in flames it represented the end to a problem that had most recently surfaced during councils finance and administration committee less than a week earlier At that time the committee voted to take no action on real estate estimates on the property ranging from to In doing so it rejected a recommendation from engineer administrator Gerry that council consider purchasing the property for the middle of the three options presented Theres certainly no way its worth 180CO as for as Im concerned Mayor George Burrows told the committee Theres nothing there except the problem Photo on page Sunday the problem disappeared While it represented another major blaze for soontoretire Pefferlaw Fire Chief Harry loss of the building also represents something of a relief Four times since Halloween vandals have attempted to burn the structure down It the point where the fellows were getting pretty edgy about this thing he told The Era Sunday I several of the previous blazes firemen have smelled oil when they arrived at the scene Sunday the stench of oil was back again and Chief is convinced the fire was the work of one or more arsonists Theres no assumption about it he explained It definitely was arson Only this time the intensity of the blaze indicated that more than oil was used Im assuming this time they used gasoline too he said Final blaze fourth in a month PEFFERLAW The fourth fire since Halloween destroyed the mill early Sunday When firemen responded to the alarm shortly before am they found the building engulfed in flames that were shooting through the roof of the wooden structure The thing was going so well when we got the call there was no chance to save it Pefferlaw fire chief Harry told The Era Sixteen men backed by a pumper and equipment van fought the blaze for about three hours While firefighters were unable to save the mill they prevented flaming debris from setting off new fires to the east of the structure There were a tremendous lot of sparks flying to the east explained Chief Waggett Buildings to the east in cluded a greenhouse storage area and private home Chief Waggett credited a thick blanket of snow and firemen who kept watering roofs with preventing the blaze from spreading to the house and storage area owned by Jan Vandenakker Mrs Vandenakker and Grace Thorburn teamed up to provide firemen with coffee and sandwiches while they were fighting the blaze Chief Waggett praised such efforts noting it was the second time that the ladies assisted firemen during the four calls to the mill All four blazes reported after am were Yule spot checks start this week Along with all the regular Christmas institutions such as Santa Claus carols and parties the York Police will be back on the road this year with their spot checks A police spokesman told The Era Monday the version of the spot checks will begin tomorrow Dec From then until the end of the holiday season officers will be stationed at random locations throughout the region making sure havent overdone It The four calls to the mill represent the only activity reported by firemen in recent weeks Those four calls however have been costly Chief said the calls represent an estimated in costs to township taxpayers No police favorites says chief NEWMARKET There has been no favoritism in handing out towing jobs to service station operators in Georgina ac cording to York Regional Police Chief Bruce Crawford The chief was replying to a letter of protest sent to the regional police commission last month by a Keswick service station operator who claimed that he never got calls from police for towing services According to the chief the service station in question is not open on a 24hour basis as are others which police use The operator of the station lives in Toronto making him unavailable from pm and equipment at the station is limited the chief added Chief Crawford noted that the complainant has in fact been offered jobs by the force but it would appear it has not been convenient for According to the chief He takes only what he wants to take while other stations are willing to come out day or night Chief Crawford said however that the complaining service station owner has had worth of business out of the force in gas sales QUALITY RATHER THAN QUANTITY DISTRESSING VAIL Hospital for imdinj M With 100 unapproved beds remaining unused York County Hospital Is pressing for Increased funding from the province The move couldnt come at a worse time with provincial constraints looming Details on page A3 Board to lose longtime worker York County Board of Education is about to lose one of its original em ployees Communications officer Margaret McLean will leave at the end of the year to join the Peel board of education She talks about the job shes leaving on page for With the first major snowfall of the winter arriving this week its about time to start con sidering Watsons annual Snowarama The big event Is scheduled for early February Story on page Hunt hunts the facts Era staff reporter Paul Hunt presents the moving tale of a man and his bear on page AI0 Your soy on ftdeml fundi Wasteful government spending question that Sine Stevens put to his constituents last week and one that we ask you this week in the People Poll on page DIRECTORY Church directory Georgina social Letters Ottawa report Sports Word for week AS AS A3 AID A7 HI IT HAPPENED IN YORK It took York Regional Police miles to catch up with the engineer of a train struck by a car Saturday The Winnipeg- bound freight train was finally stopped In after York Regional Police contacted the Canadian National control centre which radioed the engineer David Lloyd of Newmarket was treated tor minor injuries and released from York County Hospital following the St Johns Sideroad accident Police said Mr Lloyd was westbound about pm and apparently didnt see the train due to blowing snow A ON spokesman reported superficial damages to the and cars of the train Seven York Region join move to United States By BOB MARTIN Era news editor NEWMARKET One Newmarket doctor has left and a second is preparing to leave as York Region physicians join the exodus to the United States Across York seven of an estimated doctors have either moved to the United States or are committed to moving south according to Newmarket surgeon Bill Vail Others are still thinking about moving Dr Vail should know A director of the Canadian Medical Association hes also president of the Ontario Medical Association As such hes in contact with doctors from across the province and has been able to gain a special perspective on the emmigration problem The numbers he stresses are not over whelming The loss or potential departure of the seven York doctors appears on a par with the three per cent provincial loss Neither the loss in York Region nor the entire province represents a danger to patients Dr Vail stresses I dont think the public Is under any threat of any service interruption he explains Were not going to break the system by leaving Between 30 and doctors would have to leave York Region before patients would suffer the OMA official estimates At the moment in fact there are more than enough doctors graduating from medical schools When a doctor leaves hes legally bound to provide for his acute care patients as well as morally committed to notify his other patients Usually the practice is sold with patients having the option of continuing with the new j doctor or finding another physician While the number of doctors leaving doesnt pose a problem the actual people who are departing do according to Dr Vail What is distressing the quality that is going he ex plains United States centres are drawing doctors who on the average are In their and are considered top professionals in their field What they find is a fee schedule that is 75 to per cent higher than Ontarios and lower costs enabling them to work fewer hours while devoting more time to individual patients Dr Vail notes that an On tario doctor can earn a high standard of living but to do so hes going to have to make personal sacrifices including his family Hes going to have to work goddamn hard to do it he explains Dr Vail is apparently willing to make those sacrifices and has ruled out any move south To say that a lot of us have never thought of it would be ridiculous he responds when asked if he would make a move Hes ruled out such a change however because I have good and firm roots both in this town and country Despite his own decision however Dr Vail can sym pathize with his colleagues who are moving south Such moves he says represent a second phase in the wake of socialized medicine Initially everyone benefits then unhappiness sets in and finally open discontent develops says the Newmarket surgeon A natural tendency when the state takes over is a great influx of work and money he explains Now that the financial rewards have levelled off and been restricted notes Dr Vail the unhappiness that has triggered the departure of doctors becomes apparent The third phase open discontent is also becoming evident claims the vice president Some doctors are charging a service fee for benefits that are not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Program Such as telephone calls and filling out medical forms The doctor who bears the brunt of such chores the general practitioner is the one see DOCTORS page A3