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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY AUGUST 20, 1986, WHITBY FREE PRESS WyPublished every Wednesday hitby _ BILL MCOUAT CommunIty Editor VALERIE COWEN Advertislng Manager The Free Press Building, Voice of the County Town Doug Anderson. Publisher 13 1nrockS treet North, Second class Mil Michael Ian Burgess . Managing Editor P1.O. Box 206. Whitby. ont. Registration No. 5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently ownred and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. - AMO expenditure cost effective - Next week a group of Whitby councillors will be attending the annual conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in Toronto. The three day event promises to bring delegates up to date on a broad range of issues affecting the business of municipal government, according to AMO executive director Mac Dun- bar and there is little doubt that the Town of Whitby will benefit from a broadly based ex- change of ideas between our elected officials and their peers from across the province. With a registration fee of only $170 per delegate, few would argue that the conference is an expensive one. The conference offers a full slate of guest speakers and workshops covering everything from waste management, recreation finàncing, assessment legislation, foodland preservation and welfare to labour relations, and the changing patterns of work and liesure. When you add to this the opportunity to meet and hash out ideas with some of the leading lights in provincial and municipal affairs, the conference would appear to be a bargain at $170 a head. What gave us some pause to reflect, however, was the news that the taxpayers would also be Letters To The Editor: To The Editor: The media has been reporting' on the on going conflict between Bluegrass residents and those interested in building non-profit sub- sidized housing in their area. The media has reported it as being a simple black or white situation, however I feel there is a better solution than either side has put forward. The residents believe that the housing will lower their property values and create a higher crime rate. I believe they're correct when they are refering to the type of project planned. Anyone who has had the experience of dealing with this type of government project knows that the con- ditions rapidly deteriorate almost as soon as they open and soon the entire neigh- bourhood is devalued. I do not intend to get into the reasons for this ex- cept to say that it seems that when the residents have no direct say in the running of the project with them receiving the credit or paying the price then you end up with apathetic residents who could care less. Now, we have a group of residents with valid concerns on one side and a group of families who need affordable housing on the other. Let's just leave the con- tractor out of this as he'il make his money anyway. To break it down even further we have those in Bluegrass who are trying to stop the development simply on legal zoning laws and the agreement signed between them and the city. It's'a lame duck way of doing it and I say to them that their area was once undeveloped and the town residents at the time could have fought Bluegrass out of a fear that the town would become a bedroom suburbia. There is a critical shortage of affordable housing at this time but for the grace of God anyone of you could be in the predicament of not being able to buy a new home yet stuck in places that you have no control over. We just came through a very tough economic period which is going to take several good years to erase the effects. I have lived in East Whitby Co-op for the past several years. We have 90 units with one unit used as an office. We are set up in townhouse pattern on the corner of Anderson St. *and Manning Ave. with our entrance run- ning off Ribblesdale Dr. We are totally self- sufficient in management. We em- ploy the services of a bookkeeping firm to record our transactions and we also have an auditor annually prepare a financial statement for the various government of- fices. At one of two annual meetings held for the general membership we elect ten members to a board of directors who then elect their chair- person, president and vice-president. These members serve for footing the bill for delegates Gerry Emm, Mar- cel Brunelle, Tom Edwards, Joe Bugelli and possibly town administrator Bill Wallace, to stay overnight in Toronto while attending the con- ference. When one considers that many people in Whitby commute to Toronto every working day of the week, year after year, it is probably a natural reflex to question the expenditure. After discussing the question with Wallace and Dunbar however, we discovered that there may in fact be some merit in putting up our delegates in hotels during the conference. According to Dunbar, some of the most important contacts made during the course of the conference are often made in the corridors or over drinks after a full day of workshops and guest speakers. There is also the schedule which on at least one day begins at 7:30 a.m. and can extend long into the night in the case of the annual banauet. specified periods of one to three years. Each is a member of all commit- tees and besides meeting monthly in the board room they also work with a committee. There is no monetary reward for any service in the co-op and any ef- fort is shared by all. We have the following committees who operate under the auspices of the board. All business conducted concerning the co-op is subject to final approval by the general member- ship at the annual meeting. We have an annual budget meeting where we set the budget for the next year which is then sent to Canada Mortgage for final ap- proval. Membership Commit- tee: processes ap- plications, interviews and educates perspec- tives, highly confiden- tional and members and size are chosen with this in mind. Finance: checks financial background, and makes recommen- dations to board. Grounds: cares for common grounds. Building: cares for outside of buildings and any structural changes eg. the construction of a recreation room. Communication - Social: plans and puts into operation events such as dances, bake sales, corn roasts, etc. Newsletter: published monthly. Education: brings members up -to date on new rules, regulations and by-laws. While the conference is usually~held in Toron- to, Wallace said it has always been the town's practice to provide hotel expenses for the delegates because it allows them the opportunity to take full advantage of everything the con- ference has to offer. "It's just not the type of thing you can fully participate in if you're flitting back and forth from Whitby to Toronto," said the administrator. Because the conference provides not only the edàcational benefits but the oppor- tunity for our representatives to meet with some of the senior provincial ministers with1whom they must do business, Wallace said he con- sidered the annual event very worthwhile. In light of these observations, it would seem the expense may be a wise one after all. Let's hope our delegates take full advantage of the op- portunity that has been extended to them. From time to time we also have adhoc or special committees set up to deal with specific tasks. The treasurer and co- treasurer under the umbrella of the finance committee monitors in- come and expenses, draws up the budget and reports monthly to the board. The original founders of the co-op received a 50 year mortgage at 8 percent along with a provincial grant of 10 percent of the total costs. In order to build they had to agree to cer- tain criteria laid out in a -Tri-partite agreement between the project, the town and C.M.H.C. and also had to incorporate under the "Corporation Acts 1973 (1978)". One of the stipulations was that they had to have 15 percent (16 units) of the project subsidized with the co- op choosing one and the Housing Authority the other. SEE PG. 18