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Activities for Earth Day pages22"25 Agency investi- gation soon to begîn page9 Cassels contiraet awarded , g20 Double gold i triple JUflP page 29 RAY SANFORD and Litte Brother David Longley celebrate receiving awards at the Big B rothers awards night last week. The dynamic duo won the Whitby Optimist Memo ruai Award for most money raised $ $1 ,079) by a pair in the Bowl foi Millions undraiser. Longley also won the Hooper Trophy -- for the second straight year -- as he collected more money ($600) than any other Little Brother. Photo by Mark Reesor, Whltby Free Press No action yet on contaminated soul By Mike Kowalski Legal problems may be hani- pering the Town's efforts to force rernoval of contaminated soil from an abandoned industrial site. Ownership of the property at 112 Warren Rd. must be deter- mined before the municipality can order a dlean-up of the for- mer smelting plant yard, Mayor Tom Edwards said Mnay Until the ownership question and other issues are resolved to its satisfaction, Town council will proceed cautiously in the the matter, he said. 'The advice we get is to be patient and cover ail the legal ramifications,» said Edwards. "We don't want to g et into the problem that existed with the PEI," he added. The Warren Road site has been inactive since the first of several fires hit the smelting plant more than 20 years ago. However, soil on the property contains levels of copper and chromium that exceed provincial guidelines, according to a report prepared for a neighbouring business owner by a private engineering fîrm. At last week's council meeting, Edwards proxised that any con- taminatesoil would be removed as soon as possible. But he stressed that no action will be talcen until council is sure it will not become involved in another Prince Edward Island ferry boat episode. (Tfhe ferry sat rusting away in Whitby harbour for many years before Town officiais had the authority to order the boat's owner to remove the vessel. (The problem was compounded by the presence of PCBs in the boat's transformers. Various levels of government battled over where the PCBs would go, until the Whitby Hydro Electric Comi- mission agreed to allow the PCBs to be stored on its pre- mises.) Edwards' fear that Whitby may become embroiled in another PEI situation could pos- sibly occur, based on comnients from both an Ontario goverment officiai and a spokesperson for the Royal Bank. Although owned by Markham residents Jack and Leonard Lambersky, the Royal Bank holds the mortgage on the War- ren Road property. But as bank spokesperson Chris Anderson told The Free Press, «We don't have, and neyer have had, possession or control of the land. "We hold the mortgage, we don't own the land.» SEE PAGE 3 ...........E..................... Simtor supported By Mike Kowali A proposed waste processing plant on Warren Road-bas recem- ved the backing of Whitby's plan- ning and developînent committee once again. Despite objections from nearby homeowners, comrittee recom- mended Monday that council flot request an environmental assess- ment hearing into a proposai by Sirntor Environmental Ltd. If approved next week, the Ontario-Ministry of Environment and Energy will be advised that Whitby does not object te waiv- ing the need for a hearing under the Environmental Protection Act. However, Whitby's support of Simtor's application for a waste processing ,plant at 113 Warren Rd. will b contingent upon a number of factors, some of which were raised byangy residents. But after neary three hours of often heated discussion, commit- tee rejected most of the residents' complamnts and afflrmed its pre- vmous support of Simtor's plans. "You're talIng like this is some kind of nuclear waste site," councillor Dennis Fox admon- ished the 25 or so area home- owners opposed te Simtor's appli- cation. "Here we have a company wil- ling to corne *0 Whitby, invest in the town and hure local people and youre saying no to, themn,» said FOX. "Before I s"y-no, I want t0 hear what sort of environmental threat they poaée andlIstill don't W RPAGE 8 -Budget decisurn again 1postponed Town couxicil approva of a 1994 budget for Whitby>s downtown busineOSs maso iton bas b.eosen. mm Councfl'. operations committe. Ubasa she<uled *0 discuss a propcsed $148,522 budget for the, Downtowu Business Inmroveiz*nt Area (D1BI) on Monday. But at the. rquest of the. DElÀAmanagem~ent board, that discusion will talc. place at a date yet to b. det.rmined. The p ostpnemnent was the second time the matter had been put Off ta mnth. Committe. had been prepared to deal wth, the budget on April 5, but agre.d *0 a twowek delay at the b6ard's request. la both cases, the, board was awaiting tabulation of results from a questionaire sent to downtown businesses. The questionaire was prepared 1>y a speci al commgittee formed by the, board in reeponhe to criticisma of the. DBIA by dsgrntled members. Te questioniare covers most of the. contentious issues raised by critics, such as the bu~dget, DElÀ boundaries, Oenibilities d the board, and liow the. boad should e 'W. feit 1* was only fair to have as mariy questionaires as we could," mid DBIA chair Seau )Hogue. Thie committe. or 'taslc force» as Hogue desçr1bed 1*, includes smoin f the~ more outspolcen opponents of the. DBIRs operations, h. added. 'Ile coeumitte consstasof board inember David Jéhanzi and former mernber Ev. Heaver, as well as crities Doag~ Anderson (Whitby Free Press) and David Meadwell (Vck Insurance). This year's proposed budget is more than $7,000 b.low last years $155,974 budget. SE pGE 31 AUTO NEWS' Pages 14 m 19 Î-T-r-1