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4 Friday, May 27, 2022brooklintowncrier.com When contaminated soil was found on the original property of Valles Fruit Market, owners Pat, Mario and Joe Misasi were devastated by having to shut it down on Thanksgiving Monday of 1993. Located just south of Brooklin near Lynbrook Park, Valles became the victim of an Ontario government bureaucratic mess that made it impossible for them to continue operations. From the time the Misasi brothers established Valles Fruit Market in a 5,000 square foot building, they specialized in the sale of fresh fruit and vegetables. The store also stocked a small deli, dairy and a snack food section. The building included the gas bar they owned, though the attached restaurant was run by the Kapushinsky family (see photo). The hardworking brothers developed a loyal group of customers, serving local traffic between Brooklin and Whitby, including tourists and cottagers. Gas station closed In 1952, ten years before the Misasi brothers opened the store, a nearby gas station had gone out of business. The province bought 20 feet of highway frontage from the station owner in order to widen highway 12 to four lanes. At the time of the sale, the government paid to have the gas tanks removed but they failed to check if the work had been completed. So, in 1986, when the natural gas company was working in the area, they found the tanks still in the ground. The government was notified, however its work order was again overlooked and nothing was done to have them removed. Four years later, it was discovered that these tanks were leaking onto the brothers' property, the beginning of the end for Valles. Representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Highways came calling with an order giving the Misasi brothers a month and a half to clean up something that was not even on their property. They hired a lawyer who demanded the province take control of the situation. Major clean-up After testing the area, it was clear the clean-up was going to take a few months of digging with no guarantee the problem would be fixed. This meant the Valles could be cut off from their customers for a prolonged period. When the brothers asked for compensation for the damage to their business, they were given two choices: either let the government buy them out or close the business temporarily without compensation until the clean-up was completed. They had no choice but to accept the buyout offer. The closing left seven full-time staff and six summer students jobless, a big loss to the community. After the sale, the Misasi brothers were not allowed to use the Valles trade name for five years. Once the time had passed, Mario re-established the store at 8880 Baldwin Street, north of Brooklin, where today his family continues to provide the kind of service their customers had come to expect. Valles Fruit Market By Jennifer Hudgins Brooklin and area hit by a "derecho" What's a derecho? A derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system. Derechos can cause hurricane or tornadic-force winds, actual tornadoes, heavy rains, and flash floods.