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Vol. 116 No 4. Wednesday, December 23, 1981 48 Pages No large hike in local property assessment Residents of Scugog Town- ship are not going to exper- ience any dramatic changes in assessments this year the way some property owners in Toronto and Oshawa have. A spokesman for the provincial assessment office in Whitby said last week that Scugog properties were all reassessed two years ago when the Township went to the . market value assess- ment program. There has been a lot of publicity in recent weeks concerning some areas of Toronto where residents have received notice of sub- stantial increases in assess- ments. And last week the Regional council meeting, Oshawa Mayor Allan Pilkey raised the issue saying in Oshawa there are 3000 properties which are being assessed upwards for the 1982 municipal taxation year. However, the reason for these upward re-assess- ments in A Toronto and Ginger Bread - Village Page 15 Inside the Star Mike Adam in Slapshot Page 26 Oshawa was that the properties had been frozen for the past ten years. Scugog Mayor Jerry Taylor told the Star he has not received any complaints from Township residents about assessments since the notices were mailed out in November. ;And Township admin- istrator Earl Cuddie said municipal staff have received the usual number of enquiries about the assess- - (Turnto page 3) Now that's the Christmas spirit S 3 DW PAS \ J Bt LK = VN ~~ J Santa Claus gave these two lovely ladies a big hug last Wednesday evening at the Port Perry Legion during the Rotary Clubs Christmas dinner for some of the areas elderly. With Santa are [left] Florence Jeffrey and Vera Knott. More photos and story on page 21 Durham M.P. introduces bill to cut back R.C.M.P. search powers Durham-Northumberland M.P. Allan Lawrence last week introduced a private member's bill to abolish the controversial Writs of Assistance, which give R.C.M.P. and other federal officers wide powers for entering and searching buildings and premises. The bill was given first reading by the Commons on December 16, but whether it eventually will become law is very doubtful as federal solicitor-general Robert Kaplan has publicly stated that Writs of Assistance should not be abolished because he believes they are necessary in the fight against drug trafficking. That claim is disputed by Mr. Lawrence who believes strongly the Writs give R.C.M.P. and other federal agents too much power, and that the standard search warrant gives police enough power to combat crime. . Mr. Lawrence told the Star last Friday the chance of an opposition member's private bill being passed is virtually nil, and he fully expects the Bill will die on the order paper when this session of Parliament ends some time in January. "I will have to re-introduce the Bill in the next session," he said. He went on to say his real purpose in introducing the Bill is "try to goad the Government into taking some action on these Writs." He is also hoping the intro- duction of the Bill will help generate some public (Turnto page?) Occupants unhurt when car hits pond A Seagrave area woman and two young children managed to escape un- harmed after their. car slid into a pond on December 16. _ According to Durham Police, Carol Sturman was southbound on old Simcoe Street near Seagrave about 8:00.p.m. when her car went out of control on the slippery road, rolled down an embankment and into the pond of water. A police officer with the Durham 26 Division said it was fortunate Ms. Sturman and the two children were able to get out of the car as the incident 'could have been a real tragedy." After the accident, the three made their way to a nearby farm house. This is the second such incident so far this winter in Scugog Township as on December 10, a Little Britain man managed to scramble - from his car before it sank into 15 feet of water in a pond near Blackstock. _ SD Sv -- no NT Nok LY A , J €