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All citizens of Whitby who are interested in the future of the County Town Carnival are urged to attend a general meeting of the carnival com- mittee at the municipal building, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. Because of a conflict over the booking procedure for carnival events, the carnival committee feels that control has been taken away for it to run this event, and the recreation department of the Town of Whitby appears to want to run the County Town Carnival. The purpose of the April 24 meeting will be to decide whether to proceed with a carnival in 1979, said General Chairman George Heath. "The past 13 years of the Whitby County Town Carni- val have been a success bçcause a committee was able to co-ordinate events and booking of facilities," said Mr. Heath. "This com- mittee has had complete control of the carnival and been able to resolve pro- blems among groups and the Town of Whitby. This is not the way this year." The carnival committee has been responsible for booking Iroquois Park Arena and then the groups book their events through the car- nival committee, said Mr. Heath. There has been an under- standing with the recreation department that this period of the August Civic Holiday weekend and the 10 days prior have been reserved for the carnival. In mid-March, the carni- val committee discovered at a meeting with Fred Beckette, Deputy director of the Recreation Department that this year the arena has been booked by the Whitby Lions Club for a beer garden on Friday Aug.3 and Satur- day Aug. 4. This booking was made Oct. 31, 1978. The two days booked by the Lions Club have been scheduled as days for the trade fair sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, the organization which started the carnival 13 years ago. "At no time has the Lions Club attended a carnival meeting in 1979 to advise us of this booking or did the Recreation Department con- tact the committee," said Mr. Heath. The executive committee of the carnival met and instructed the General Chairman George Heath to contact Bill Whittick of the *Lions Club to see if the event was confiri'ned and could the dates be changed. The dates were confirmed and Mr. Whittick said they could nlot be changed, Mr. Heath reported, The General Chairman was then instructed to con- tact Joe Drumm, the town councillor in charge of the Recreation Department. Councillor Drumm met with the General Chairman and Executive Director Jack Woodward, and the carnival committee's position was explained. A meeting was arranged with Don Johnston, president of the Lions Club and Vice- President John Bint. This meeting was chaired by Joe Schooltaxes are up $19-$26 Whitby's Public School supporters will be paying $19 more in taxes and Separate School supporters will be paying $26 more in 1979, now that both.boards of education have passed their budgets. The Durham Board of Education adopted an $85 million budget April 9, which is 8.1 per cent higher than last year. The Durham Separate School Board adopted a $13.5 million budget April 10, whichis up by more than il per cent. The increase in public school taxes was kept to 5.9 per cent as a result of an overlevy in 1978 and a change in provincial grants. Whitby School Trustee David Sims, chairman of the board's budget-audit com- mittee, said no change in programs will take place this year. the budget provides for an increase in the number of special education teachers in elementary schools and includes provision for a reserve fund to cover 50 per cent of the board's share of employee retirement benefits. Mr. Sims reported that the provincial share of the total budget remained almost unchanged from 1978 with a 7.6 per cent increase in grants from last year for a total of more than $46 million in 1979. Trustee Linda Dionne, chairman of the Separate School board's budget com- mittee said the cost of in- struction, which includes teachers' salaries will be more than $9.9 million, an increase of 11.2 per cent from 1978. The cost of operat- ing and maintaining school premises will increase by more that 26 per cent to $1 .5 million, she said. The provincial government contribution to the separate school budget will be $11:2 million with $2.1 million raised through local taxes. Drumm in an attempt to resolve the problem. "The Lions Club will not change and the Recreation Department will not do any- thing as they say a contract has been signed," said Mr. Heath. "At this meeting it was brought out by the Lions Club that the Recreation Department approached them last October to book the arena for their beer garden," said Mr. Heath. "Councillor Drumm agrees the Recreation Department made a mistake in booking the arena but there is noth- ing he can do to correct this mistake." 'When the Town of Whitby wanted to get Iroquois Park going, they came to the Carnival Committee to move from Centennial,;Park down to Iroquois Park," said Mr. Heath. "We moved but had doubts about our success, but it has proved to be the correct move and now it is too large fGr another area." These employees of the Whitby Public Utilities Commission posed proudly last week with their accident frequency award from the Electric Utility Safety Association. The award was presented this month for the first time to the Whitby PUC for having more than 51,000 man hours without an accident. General meetingceprill24l Car ivl oud be cancelled "The Carnival Committee has worked with the Town of Whitby in assuring an orderly and well organized event," said Mr. Heath. "The town does give the- carnival a grant of $7,500 but we in turn pay back $2,500 for the arena and $450 for the firemen to look after the fireworks display. We have a population of 30,000 which is a cost of 25 cents per citizen." The carnival's executive committee met April il and diseussed the events which have occurred and have the feeling that control has been taken away from the com- mittee and that the recrea- tion department wants to run the event, said Mr. Heath. The carnival committee has decided to put the matter to the citizens of Whitby at a general meeting April 24 and make a decision based on public comments on whether to proceed with a carniVal in 1979. Posing with the plaque, in the front row are Dan Wilmot, Jim Whiteman and Phil Keates. In the back row are Chuck Butterworth, Cec Jordison, John Haldane, Jack Daubney, Dean Taylor, Tom Chupa and Gord Dent. Free Press Photo by Brian Winter Firestonefire injuresone worker Static electricity was the cause of a fire in the gas room at the Firestone plant last Wednesday, which slightly injured one worker. Deputy Fire Chief Tony Vandolweerd said the Whitby Fire Department had the fire under control within minutes of the arrival of its trucks at 11:40 a.m. The fire was confined to the gas roor, which was specially built for the use of volatile chemicals, and the sprinkler system prevented the fire from becoming a serious disaster, he said. Durham Regional Police report that Kenneth Burd, 35, of 325 -Banff Avenue, Oshawa, a worker at thp plant, was mixLnn chemicals in the concrete gas room when the fire broke out. Police said Mr. Burd was treated for shock in the plant's first aid room, but he was not seriously injured. He was sent home from work but returned the following day. The blaze was first spotted by Doug Bird, a security guard at the entrance gate of the plant. Mr. Bird said that the flames dere higher than the building and shot out halfway to the road. He said he did not hear any explo- sion. Witnesses at the Lake Ontario Concrete plant about a mile to the east reported they saw a huge ball of fire followed by dense smoke. Deputy Chief Van- doleweerd said the fire was confined to the gas room and there was no damage to the rest of the plant. The outer wall of the gas room was extensively damaged as it is designed to give way if an explosion occurs, he said. The Deputy Chief reported that the gas room is used for the mixing of chemicals such as naptha, alcohol and resins for the making of tires. Damage is estimated at- $7,000. Deputy Chiel Van- doleweerd said this is the first incident to occur in the gas room in the 25-year history of the plant, "which is a pretty good record". NO ACCIDENTS HERE! R E PRýE - ---I- - -IL