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H.osvpital By ikeKowalskl th= byeneral Hospital will r.duoe I Mhur of its ernergency departmnent Efective March 31, emergency services wiil only b. available ié8 amr. to 10 p.m., hospital officiaIs announced Tuesdy Pro;n-pted by a reduction in provincial government funding, the. move ibexpected tosave the hospital b.tween $250,000 to $300,000 annually. No fial-time or part-time ernployees will loue their jobs, but some par-t-time to ý reueeergency hours employe will work fewei hours as result of the cutback. In maldng the announcernent, chief executivo officer Elizabeth Bartovn and hospital board chair Ed Buffett uaid financial rossons were behind the decision to curtail emergency hours. Funding restrictions and 'an "oinabîlity" to 'keep up" with the coet of poficingi medical services forced hospital oficiels to examine -ways of reducing expenses, Barton said. In deciding where to cut, officiels opted fora service that would have the 'least impact" on the community and emplyee, Barton amd "fweha not made this decision, we would have had to look at other ways of flnding the. money",she said. "W. anticipate very little impact on the population of Whitby and little on the employeesi of the. hospital." As Barton exlained, tle, avea number of persons now uslng the. emergency department between. 10p.m. and 8 a.m. is about 12.* oya l Upon clouer aznlyis, nya m percentage of tIhese visita could be termed "actual emergencies" - about 2.4 pur cent, Burton ssild. "The mjorlty of visits could b. deferred umtil the next mornlng," she said. Maintaining 24-hour service could therefore no longer b. justified on the basis of demaxid and the. availabilty of emergency services at nearby hospitals, Bart ol d. Emergency cases between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. will now go to either . B PAGE il NO -NC-R-E.ASE Town portion Of tuxbill won't go up dui to -change"s mi operations By Mr eKoaak Whitby rsdnswI eev break from h am ngn this year. For the second straight year there will be no increase in the Town's portion of the municipal p ro tax bu) Souncillorll Dennis Fox, Whitby's finance chair, announ- ced Monday that the muicipa- Iity's 1994 budget will hold the lune on taxes. Whitby Mayor Tom Edwards told The Free Press ini November thati avoiding a tai increase woul4. be difficut but not impos- sible.Tbe Region is also aiming at a zero increase and the Dur- ham Board of Education is work- ing toward a 6.7 per cent in- crease. In Whitby, last year's comn- bined current and capital budget of $3 1.5 million did not raise taxes, nor will this year's yt- to-be-disclosed final budget,Fo said. Battling a bout of the flu, Fox read a brief four-paragraph statement proclaiming the zero increase budget at the start of the meeting. Irnmediately after making the announcement, the aîling coun- cillor 1 was excused from the remainder of the evening's ses- sion by Edwards. Although not aIl of the final details have been ironed out, Fox saud «sufficient preliminary dis- cussions" on the budget indicate that there will be no tai hike in 1994. "This can be said because of a number of changes in our rnethod of operation and changes in administering public services," hie explained. A zero-tax increase budget is aparti*cularly significant» in that Ontario municipalities had to contend with a "mnajor reduction» SEE PAGE 22 KAY EGAN is already Working as prinicipal Schéol in Whitby. See page 10 for an of the yet-to-be-completed Sinclair High update on construction of the school. Photo by Mark Reesor. Whitby Fme Press Board to cons ider full-day kindergaten By Mike Kowalski A proposal for full-day, every-other-day indergarten classes in Durham Board of Eduication sehools bas run into opstion. Aimed at saving an annue$895,000 in transportation fees, the. kindergarten proposaI is on. of 34 cost-cutting ineasures being considered by sehool board trustees. However, some parents and trustees are questioning the. Wisdomn of changink the board's traditional half-day, every-day kindergarten Prlgp.teÏ the prcuected savinge, ojponents feel that subjecting fl*e-year-old children to ail-day classes istohihaSce tpay. "Itfs too much pressure on kids that younýg for fuil-day prograxns," caims Marjorie Campbell, a Whitby parent of three children. Campbell, whose eldest child enters ldindergarten in September, bas been lobbying trustees to vote against the proposai ever since the board released its list of possible program and service cuts laÊt fall. Faoed with a projected 6.7 per cent budget increase in 1994, eliminating noon-hour buming te and from indergarten classes would save the board $895,000. (Local taxpayers pay $432,285 of the cost, with the Ontario governinent picIng up the rel.naing$*462,715.) S I sure my flirt son can handile an ail-day programbecause he's been in nursery school," "But how will I know if mny second one can?" she asked. Pointing out that the provincial goverrnment has ordered ail Ontario school boards to, implement junior kindergarten by September, Campbell said that fact must also be considered by trustees. t'When junior kcindergarten cornes into effecýt, he worst case scenario - is three-and-a-half-year-old Idegoing te achool ail day," she said., (Citing financial difficulties, the Durham board bas, requested permission te delay implementing junior ldndergartern this year. Thfe board bas yet to receive a response from Campbvinelha discussed the issue with seven trustees te date, and of that number, two said they would not support it, while the other five were unsure of theiri vote, ah. said. Scugog trustee Bobbie Drew, chair of the boards. finance cormîttee said the kcindergarten proosaini on lei agenda for tonight's (Wedesda) comrnittee meeting. But Drew did not-know if it will b. diacussed this eveningr. 'W. will be starting te look at the. liat of SER PAGE 26 1