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Port Whity marinaoen Officials of the Town of Whitby celebrated "an histo- rie day" in the words of Treasurer and Development Director Forbes McEwen, as they officially opened the Port Whitby Marina Friday afternoon. "This is an historic day," said Mr. McEwen, the man who was responsible for co- ordinating this major pro- ject. "The age of sail is returning in greater force to Port Whitby. This area will again be the focal point of the community." Mayor Jim Gartshore offi- cially opened the new marina before a roomful of dignitaries in the new head- quarters building for the marina. This building was formerly the sales office for the Otter Creek subdivision and should be'i-eplaced with a permanent building within a year at least, he said. Mayor Gartshore said the town came up with the con- cept of a public marina two or thrèe~years ago and "got extraordinary and exceptio- nal assistance from thé fede- ral government," as well as the province and private citizens and agencies. "Three -years ago there was nothing but marsh on this location," he said.. "Forbes McEwen was the main driving force behind this project," said the mayor. Without him, it wouldn't be in this particular shape today. Work was still continuing the night before the opening, and the sod had been laid the, day before, just in time to meet the deadline. Mayor Gartshore explai- ned that the marina has a capacity for 400 docks. One hundred have already been imstalled, and another 100 will be ready by the end of August, he said. Already 45 to 50 slips have been rented, and Mayor Gartshore presented Port Whitby Marina shirts to Tanker and Joan Jones, the first people to rent a slip in the new marina. Mayor Gartshore said the next phase of the harbor development will be the creation of a public park at the north and west sides of the harbor, and anticipated it will take another four to five years to complete the entire three-phase project. "We have the finest marina between Toronto and, Montreal," he said. "We see this as being a venture not in competition with the yacht club. We are not a club--we are a public marina. We are together in this toal-lakefront - operation." Mr. McEwen pointed out thatthe opening of the Port Whitby Marina has brought the town full cycle over a period of 150 years when Port Whitby and its lumber and grain trade was the reason for Whitby's exis- tence. "From about 1830 to 1895, Port Whitby was a busy place as the products from an ever receding forest area were shipped to Eastern Canada and the States," he said. "The community revolved around the harbor. In later years the harbor was used tor importing first coal and' then oil, but other means of transportation reduced the importance of the harbor. The age of sail came to an end around the turn of the century." Mr. McEwen outlined how about 20 acres of land was acquired by the town in the 1930's by charging a 100 year-old estate taxes for land "to the water's edge", and how 50 acres of bull rushes were acquired by Mayor Harry Jermyn for the town in 1956 in a land swap with the provincial government. Last year- Mr. McEwen negotiated on behalf of the municipality to purchase 30 acres along the east side of the road to the psychiatric hospital. Mr. McEwen outlined how the yacht club started in 1970, Wegu Rubber purcha- sed land because of the harbour in 1973, and the town tried to arrange for water access for three boat manu- factuters in 1975. "Out of this effort we made application to the Saml Craft Harbors Branch of the Department of Fisheries, Federal Government, for federal dredging," he said. Cont'd on P. 2 Grade.6parets-arrange meeting Parents of Grade 6 stu- dents from E.A. Fairman- and Florence Heard Schools met at Florence Heard School, Monday evening to discuss what to do about enrolling their children in school in the fall. · On June 18, the Durham Board of Education voted to proceed with the transfer of) Grade 6 students from these two schools to the Whitby Senior Public School in the, fail of 1979. Ninetyon- stüdents, are affected by this move;whicli is the result of overcrowding at Fairman and Heard Schools, and the board deci- ded to transfer them to Whitby Senior because there was space available there. About 200 parents are strongly opposed to the action of the board on this matter, although they report they have still not had offi- cial notification of the June 18 decision to implement the transfer plan. Paul Coath, a spokesmen for some of the parents, has applied to Durham West MPP George Ashe to have a meeting with the deputy minister of education, but no .reply has come back yet. One parent reported last week that five parents.:have tried:to register-theirGrade 6 -children :at other schools such as Dr. Robert Thornton, R.A. Hutchinsôn and Palmer. st9n, but the principals told them their children could not be .registered at these' schools, under orders from the Superintendent of Schools. This applies only to children presently attending Fairman and Heard Schools, she said. She stated that some parents have already regis- tered their children in the Separate School system, and others have enrolled their children in a private church school. The purpose of Monday's meeting was to get the parents from both Fairman' and Heard Schools together to decide on what options are - open tothemr nôw ;that the hbo ,as r4lgd that their childen have to attend Whitby Senior School. The parents are very upse.t about 'the board's decision, one resident said, and one man has even put his house up for sale because of it. She said the parents have to decide if they are going to enrol their children in the fal, and if so, where can they, enrol them so they won't be in the senior school. The parents have expres- sed concern about putting young Grade 6 children in an open concept school with older Grade 7 and 8 children. One parent said that the move would remove the older children from Heard and Fairman schools who are being trained as safety patrôli3;'ving the, sechools with grade 4 and 5 students wvho' re tcb ouhg'for the job, Anothertconcern was that the parents did not want to have 10 year-old children attending school dances with 14 year-olds. "We have got to do some- thing now", said one of the parents who attended Mon- day night's meeting. LASCO Steel workers stage walkout again More than 600 production workers of Lake Ontario Steel Company walked off the job Friday afternoon, claiming the company is not living up to the terms of its recently-negotiated contract and is deliberately harassing the employees. Ray Slavin, president of Local 6571 of the United Steelworkers of America, which represents the work- ers, said they are legally in a position to strike as the agreement ratified by the membership in April has not been signed. He claimed the signing has been held up by LASCO's unwillingness to implement some of the changes that had been agreed to in the con- tract. Mr. Slavin says the compa- ny has ignored changes in the employees' dental plan which would have given them 100 per cent coverage on two new provisions. He also charged that LASCO has failed to pay a $20 raise in weekly indem- nity pay for the first two weeks after the union retur- ned to-work April 16 after a one-month strike. Mr. Slavin said the union met with company officials Friday and presented them with a list of grievances but there was no. progress toward a settlement. He predicted the workers would stay out until they get what they want, and that could be quite a while. Meanwhile, apprentices and probationary workers at the steel plant reportçd for work as usual Saturday mor- ning with the full backing of the union The union voted in April to accepta three-year contract, and now says the company is reneging on accepting an improved wage scale and vacation bonuses as well as improvements in the dental plan. Kathy (Cuddy) Richardson, Cathy (Cockburn) Johnston and Blair Johnston examined a display of press clippings from 1962-63 in one of the welcome rooms at the Henry Street High_ School reunion Friday. More than 2;00-former students-and their spouses visited the school and the Iroquois Park Arena that evening to renew old friendships. For story see page 10. Free Press Photo by Brian Winter ,,.' ..-. HENRY HIGH MEMORIES