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

WItby Fre Presa, Weckday. Novembor 1,1995, Pop 3 Councillors hope frDBAdecîsionsoon By M0k. Kowahsk At toast two Whitby counciilorp want a decision made soon on the future of the. Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA). Councillors Judi Longfield and Shirey Scott hope that council wil deal with .a request te formally disband the. DBIA prier te its Christmas break. Tii. two feel that bath aides on the. issue cf whether te keep the. 17-year-old organization functioning have waited long enough. "I think the. legal opinio ns have corne in and now it has te be a political decision," said west ward coun.cfilor LongfielcT Id like to see Still j, PROM PAGE 1 benefits everybody, regardless of who yen are," sh. said. "W. are ail sort cf responsible for keeping the downtown nice." Dundas Street East hobby shop owner Savage told Edwards and Brunelle ho would b. willing to am"ia hi. fellow merchmanii w hatever activities they may plan. ."But I made it clear that wasn't asachairman of the DBIA, butau a merchant," said Savage. «I made it clear to the. Mayor that w, cant start operating as a BIA wh.n it'. a dead issue," ho said. Altiiough he ha. flot been told when the matter will be comin before council agai, Savage .aid council will stili b. ignoring the. "real"issues. «Hf the downtown i. going to survive, the. playing field has to be levelled" heséaid. "Until this is addressed, it'. not economically viable to make an area like tbis work." Savage said there have been more buainesses leaving the. downtown ini recent montha and predicted that it will only get worse. "Even ifitfs brought back, a BIA wouldn't do the. job," he satid. 'Me. problem we have today is a lack cf planning sud what new greenfield development is doing to the. downtown. «Unless that's addressed by the. Town and (Durham) Region, I can't ee it (viable downtown> happening." Board member Iànda Peacock shares Savage's sentiments. "It's (DBIA) just a bedspread," said Peacock, who with huéband Gene operates a sports and trophies store on Athol Street. "Having a BIA covers up thinga they dodit want to handie," she said. "As a board member I wish they would mae a decision. I think the. Town is doing the. downtown a big injustice by flot making a decioion." Among the. options facing council are reducing the. size of 'the improvement area and/or having a special levy charged to only those businesses which benefit from an improvement area. But according to Anderson, any decision other than disibanding the. DBIA outright is almost certain to be challenged. "The. Town can do what it likes, but anybody can appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board, that'a what it hinges on," said Anderson. 'Iiey could reduce the size cf it, MÃ"ARY CSHCALMIARS pizi*Numfbers tôtoct 1-1 1632 1262 280l 673 1064 :1l060 2332 1996 CALENDARS now available at Donald Travel plus any other Rotary Sunrise member. it corne befor. the. end cf the. y.ar because .verybody needs an answer," ah. aaid. Last Aprit, council deferred a request from the. DBIA management board to kiIlthe. business association. Although a referendum of DBIA members in March narrowly supported scrapping the oraiation, council opted to seek tegal opinons on whether .a business improvement area Can b. retain.d while the eristing structure is modified. Among the options council chose te explore was tue possibility cf designatig a euoed but someébody would- be bou±id te appeal it," h. aaid. "If yen try te fi ddle around witu the. legalities cf it, somebody wil Anderson conced.d that "some sort of organization" i. needed te, make decisions sud co-ordinate downtown açtivities, but 'not through the cur-rent DBIA structure. Ho points te the succesaful promotions put on by Port Perry merchants as an example sud Contrasta it with Whitby. "lt was expensively convenient te have aomethig (DBIAê office) tuere te do it, but look at the tuings Port Perry dees," aaid Anderson. .'There' a huge budget that gees inte it, but it makes money, not Costa money," ho noted. 'T7hia (DBIA) doesn't have te be loeked at as sometbing that costa money, but can be self-supporting. wYou can have some seed capital, bat you don't need $150,000. The temptation is te spend it." Anderson also rejected arguments tuat tue March referendum was net a true refiection cf tue membersiiip's feelings. "The powers-tiiat-be basically accept that fact (proper vote)," h. said. "Yes, it was a close vote, but it was the firat elected DBIA ever sud the procedures were bounced off (Town dlerk) Don McKay.- Anderson added that "every single Candidate" in tast year's board election promised te, honour the referendum resùlt. 'l tbink ail would have abided by the resulta if it had gene the other way." improvement area sud/or having a speciat levy ciiarged te only tuose busign.saes that benefit from an improvoment area, Under tu. 1978 Whitby bylaw, which created tue DBIA, al business.. (rotait sud profeasonal) within a specitlc area belong te tue DBIA. AUl must pay a special tax which is used te improve tue dewntewn'a appearance and ' sponsor promotions aimed at attracting shoppers. Centre ward councîllor Scott echoed Longfield's- desire for a decision within tue next two months. "Both aides want it sèttled sud we siiould," said Scott. "Meanwhiie, as tue centre ward councillor ]rm prepared te hèlp in any way I can." Scott was referring to a recent meeting .h. sud Longfield iield with downtown Mrcat worri.d about a non-functioning DBIA witii tue Christmas eason approachlng (se. separate atory). *I hope coundil would help eut, oapeciaily witu tue tree-lighting oeremony, tuat'à an important co mmity function in. the downtewn," said Scott. "As far as business iielp, who knowa?" ah. said. "Becàuse tuer.' ne decisien on which way tue DBIA is going, thq wstiielP- with tue Christmas season sud tuat'a undertadal." LogeAgreed witu Scott tuat. merchanta are entitted --te assiatanço with "Chiristmaa planning' or whatever," but etr.saod that it can only bo don. voluntarily. "If coundil decides te fund downtown Whitby, what about RoWsandi Road? wiiat about Thickson Road?" ah. asked. Instead, downtewn merchants must teck te tuemselves for help if tuer. is te b. eany Chiristmas activýities, Longfield said. "There'a netbing te stop 10 individuals from. getting togetuer and throwing $20 inte tue pot sud aaying were going te fund tuis," ah. said. ."Roaily, tuis ha. te corne from tue bottom up." Although coundil ha. yet -te revisit tue issue, tuer. is ne doubting Scott's position. Prier te her election last November, Scott was instrumental in su suti-DBIA petition campaign. "In my opinion, tue boundaries ahould b. brought in sud tue people who benefit from it should pay for it," ah. said. "Perhaps a fiat fee for merchants or people on tii. upper floora who dont ,benedit fr-om walk-in bumiiess could pay leas." Scott. believes council should vie* the. downtewn in a different ligiit tian other commercial areas of Whitby. "You dent have a town without. a downtown. It's everyone's downtewn, it's community-wide,", ah. said. "Me merchanjvds downtown pay commercial taxes sud tieiy shouldn't have te pay extra taxes. ltes (downtewn) everyone"s responoibility.ff Although ah. agreed witii DBIA critica that new development in :Whitb7 han avoided the downtown core, Scott cited a lackcof infrastructure as the reason. "I don't tiiink the services have been th.r. te promoe a -big development," ah. said. However, with improvements ini thia area, Scott foots a concertedl effort ehould b. made to attract a major project. "W. need sometiiing to build on. W. aiiould try to get on. big etalamn to draw people, in," she .aid. "In Bowmanville, the. business seis to be there -and cf course, everyone taika about Port Pprry." 'ile Scott ha. ne specific ideas cf ber own, ah. wants the. Town's marketing .sad' *economic development department to pay special' attention to downtown "I think Our marketing department and (director) Peter Lebel should go to work and get sometiiing don.. "W.e need something te sgpark it (downtown revitalization) and b.' the. focal point." " PA- TTLE-EXTRA-HELP"' TUTORING SERVICE "A* we use only Certified Ontaro Teachers ..7b. we tutor in YOUR home, and *we teach the classroom curriculum- - please cail 668-7841 for a brochure! Franchise.s owned and operated by Certied Ontario Teachers 0 , G rnT41%,d * Apai s- als OnBuy * Rpars 3D s Bi rd S Get 3rd at *Remodelling. Original Handcrafted 1/39OFF 211 Brook St.S. Wh itby 666-4612 ... ------ l1996 SATURN SL1 *HASSLE FREE ENVIRONMENT B GREAT LEASE -PLANS *FLEXIBLE FINANCING OPTIONS M GOOD COFFEE A Different Kind of Comp-a- A Different Kind of Car 1520 Dundas St. E., Whitby *(0)4025 v 'M.. o 1- z h Lao Vv a (905)430-2350