The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Whiby Fr. Prou. W.dnuday, June 15, 1994, F10015 No mnore delays council approves DBIA budget FROM PAGE 1 that the. original report from the. Town treasurer on the budget was postponed, McKay felt the budget changes did not alter the treasurer's recoin men dation. (Axnong the changes mnade ta the May 16 budget were paying off the board's -long-termn debt and killing its controversial 'Your Downtawn' advertising newspaper.) «As faïr as In concerned it was properly before the operations commttee and properly before council this evening," said McKay. Dundas Street hobby shop owner Paul Savage read council a letter from Rick Coburn a member of the Toronto lawffrmn Borden & Elliot. It was Coburn's opinion that Pledges can b. made at local golf courses to support the 1994 Longest Day of Golf, raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society Each participating golf club is sponsoringr a foursome this month an d in July -- a total of 56 golfers. Each club i ompting for the 'nost money raisertrop li,' won by Four Seasons in 1992, White- vale in 1993. Trophies go the foursome who coilect the most nioney in pledges and to the foursome who golf th e most holes. Dates have been scheduled when foursoînes will golf. The foursome of Tom Summers, Teckle Skinner, Denis Seary and Gus Kruger golfed June 8 at Winchester and another four- some of Robin Megra, Jayson Hicks, Kevin Jones and Bilan council erred in not seeking Ontario Municipal Board (0MBM aproal of DBIA budgets nxeeingtie original $10000 budge en the DBIA was for- med in 1978. Presenting the letter to Edwards, Savage asked that the budget be put on hold until the Town's solicitor could review it. However deputy-clerk Michael Davy read a letter from the Ministry of Munici ai Affairs which stated that 0?M> approval of amendments ta the original bylaw is not required. «Based on that, I cati vote for it (budget) without any fear of le gai action,' said Edwards. I n addition to Perkins and Savage, council heard from Free Press publisher Doug Anderson, sports store owner Linda Pea- cock and Shirley Scott, who spoke on behaif of severai down- McCue will golf at Winchester June 22. Ryan Hughes, Tom Hendrik- son,' Steve Makita and Chuck Storey will golf at Lakeridge Links, although the date has yet to be announced. Dan 0'Hallaran, Chris Jones, Graydon Jemmott and And3 Earle willI golf at Thunderbirg also on a yet-to-be-announced date. Greg Laird, Gary Gear, Gavin Carnegie and Eddie Monder will golf at Oak Rîdges in Ashburn on June 27. Apart fromn the Whitby courses, other participating courses are Annandale in Ajax, Deer Creek in Ajax, Four Sea- sons in Claremont, riverside in Ajax, Seaton in Pickering, Cerry Downs in Pickering, Whi- tevale, Foxbridge in Uxbridge and Crestwood in Manila. town busmnesses. Anderson presented council with the resulte of yet another petition from disgruntled DBIA members. (Earlier this year, council rejected a petition, signed by 85 per cent of the DB ' member- ship, which demanded that the 8pca levy be heid in abeyance fo woyears.) The newv petition, which gar- nered 215 signatures in oniy three days, Anderson noted, asked that the budget not be approved until it hadl the mem- bership's endorsenient. It also requested that council p~lace control of the DBIA in thé hands of a separate body coin- manding the. «confidence' of thie membership and that it report back in 90 days with specific propsale for reforming the «Until Town council decides ta act on behaîf of the. majority of downtawn merchants, there will be more petitians and opposi- tion," Anderson warned. In her remnarks, Scott said DBIA. critica were foroed ta, use Ontario's freedoin of information legisiationÙ in order tao btain details of a DBIA survey of the membership. When Fox asked why they had ta go this route, Scott said a "gag order" had been placed on the DBIA employees. "We were told we have ta go through their lawyer,» she said. During his presentation, Houe disputed Scott's dlaim. «I'm not aware of the freedom of information coinplaint. I know nothing of it, nor did I put a gag order on anyone,» he said. (However, in a May 30 letter ta Peacock obtained by The Free Press, board marketing co- ordinator ]Marcy Marchuk states that two letters from Peacock, pertaining te DBIA matters, were referred ta the board's soli- citer.) Although he did not wish it ta be interpreted as criticism of the current board, Fox said h. had ta «reluctantly" vote against the budget. "FmI not against what our staff and council are trying ta do, I think the downtown is very im- portant,» said Fox. «What I object te is the fight- ing that's going an downtown,» he said. "Before w. could even discuse this we had ta be told we won't be breaking the law. That's what this has degenerated to.» Fox said council and the DBIA board must rcognize that it is no Ion&er a «adul» of people oppseatothe existing system. '"W.vl have to realize -change has ta happen » he said. donto106 r cent in support of downown itby but 1 can no longer believe that by going ahead and pattingpeople on the head and making rah-rah speeches will salve the problem. "The rift wilbe deeper and wider and 1 don't know where w. as a council can go from herm. While they may have shared many of Foxe sentiments, no one else was prepared to cat a nay vote. Councillor Joe Drumm said he did not want to preside over the "demise' of the downtown by not suipporting the budget. Drunim urge downtown mer- chants to band together ini view of the threat pose-d by establ- ished and future sho >ping malls. Councillor Ma=1ce runelle, thinking ahead to Liongfleld's motion, said the budget hâadtobe passed. «W. need to support the budget because it gets us from hore to where we want to go,," said Brunelle. Councillor Ross Batten concur- red. "Mhe DBIA has to b. main- tained, but there is a need te change the structure and the membership has ta feel they are a part of any changes," h. said. Longest Day' i*s cancer fundraiser çà kt . . . . . . . . . . . . .