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

10 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 3, 1984 It Just wasn't one of those days As they do every second Wednesday of the month, the 30 members of Regional council gathered for their regular meeting in the spacious chambers at the Durham HQ Bujlding on Rossland Road in Whitby. At 10:00 A.M. sharp, most of the councillors were in their places; some scanning through the Regional agenda, others peeking at the morning paper. The scribes from the Fourth Estate were also in their usual spots in the gallery, pens poised, waiting with breathless anticipation to duly record the of the March 28 meet- ing. As he always does at 10 sharp, the chairman made his way to his place at the front of the chambers. And as always, Gary Herrema was dressed in the black flowing robes with silver chain of office around his neck. There were no more than a couple of citizens of this Region seated in the visitors gallery, out- numbered ten to one by the media reps. As Mr. Herrema made his way to his place, the assembly stood to attention, and as is the custom at the opening, all present repeated the Lord's Prayer. The minutes of the preceeding assembly were adopted with little fanfare; the corres- pondence was quickly referred to the approp- riate committees, or discarded forever with a motion to "receive and file". Regional appoint- ments to five area hospitals were confirm- ed with no discussion (including Howard Hall of Port Perry who will be on the Board of Community Hospital here for a year's term starting April 1). The Committee reports which seemed to be as hefty as usual were next on the agenda; finance, plann- ing and public works. The recommond- ations from the comm- ittees on this day were approved with nary a word of discussion. «0° a trucks Most GM cars 814 Parts PONTIAC BUICK LIMITED 10 VANEDWARD DRIVE, PORT PERRY - 985.0474 politely Granted, the recommendations con- tained therein - were hardly of Region-wide significance. There were a few jokes among councillors as Scugog's rep Lawrence Malcolm ask- ed that a by-law be approved which would raise the parking fines in Port Perry. It was a routine by-law, and a quick show of hands was enough to make it all legal. The report of the management comm- ittee was the last item on the agenda for the day, and as just 28 minutes had elapsed since the opening of the meeting, a few councill- ors decided it was time to at least ask a couple of questions. There was a brief discussion on the Region's Emergency Plan (the one that is supposed to save us all if the Pickering Nuclear Plant goes for a fizzle). There was agreement that Durham should make representation to keep Brock Township in the same provincial rid- ing. Under proposed riding changes, Brock will end up with Orillia, of all places. And a councillor from Oshawa wanted some kind of assurances that a drug- alcohol treatment centre for women in that city would not have to close its doors for lack of funding. She got that assurance. At 10:44, members of the press gallery were speculating among themselves that the meeting would not last another five or six minutes, as one of the secretaries began to distribute the pay- cheques to the Regional councillors. The distribution of the cheques is always a sure sign the business of the day is nearly over, and the cheques were on the councillors' desks by 10:45 A.M. At 10:47 AM, Oshawa Mayor Allan Pilkey was on his feet seeking assurance that the appropriate mess- age of congratulations would be sent from the Region to Barb Under- hill, a native of Oshawa who teamed with Paul Martini of Orillia to win the recent World Figure Skating title. Regional councillors were unanimous (one of the few times) in agree- ing that this accom- plishment should be officially recognized. At 10:49 AM, Oshawa councillor John Aker, as is the custom, rose to read into the record of confirming by-law, a routine exer- cise which makes all the happenings in the pre- FORA 2900 TAS vv i i CE 3 ceeding 49 minutes legal and duly constituted under the Municipal Act. You can't do anything at a council meeting " without confirming it by law. At 10:50 A.M., the March 28 meeting of the council of the Regional Municipality of Durham passed into history. Although nobody keeps records of these kinds of things, the press gallery was alive with speculation that this was the shortest regular meeting of council since these things began way back % - i dia BT 2 MO Grand re-openin Action was slow at Durham Regional Council on Jan. 1, 1974. When the specualtion ended, members of the gallery wondered what kind of stories they "could come up with from a meeting that lasted just 50 minutes. This was an excep- tion. Usually, the bus- iness of the Region takes a little longer to conduct, and on some occasions when there is a "hot item" in the agenda, the debate, the motions, the recorded votes will carry on well into the afternoon. But March 28 was not one of those days. Frienry | 1) PETRA Ph Last Thursday was a big day for the Burns family of Janetville, when they officially re-opened the recently renovated Janetville Food Town grocery store. The renovations which started last Oc- tober, have made the store bigger, to accommodate even more grocery items. Above, manager John Burns (right) poses with his son Robert, the store's butcher, his wife Dorothy and grandson John. GEOFF TAYLOR & SONS 985-2494 (Ask for Geoff) PORT PERRY GARDEN SERVICE Complete Landscaping Design - Patios - Interlock - Full Maintenance Service - Complete Lawn Care - A Good Lawn starts now. Complete Spring Clean-Up. CALL: 985-9111 (Ask for Rob) PAINTING & WALLPAPERING *Spring Specials * Pine Ceilings & Wainscotting FREE ESTIMATES!