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Fisheries officials have been catching - and tagging muskie on the south side of the causeway during the month of April. The fish Vol. 118 No. 21 are tranquilized, tagged and then put in this tank to recover before being let go back into the lake. (See story). Tuesday, April 24, 1984 36 pages | Tax hike kept under 6 per cent Property owners in Scugog Township will be facing an overall tax increase of just under six per cent in 1984. On Monday afternoon, Township council gave final approval to its 1984 budget of $3,275,236. Coupled with the Regional levy of $1.3 million; an elementary school levy of $1.9 million; a secondary school levy of $1.6 million; and separate school levy of $113,000, the total amount of money to be raised by the Township in 1984 through taxes, various fees and from subsidies is $8,381,475. That represents a net increase of 5.87 per cent over last year. In terms of a net impact on the average homeowner, it means that a residential property valued at $70,000 will pay $66 more in taxes this year. A residential property valued at $85,000 will pay $81 more in taxes in 1964. The local budget approved by Township council Monday shows a surplus from 1983 of $69,448 and this amount was rolled into the 1984 budget figures. Some of the budget highlights include $168, 000 for the Port Perry Unit of the Scugog Fire Department ; and $143,000 for the Caes- area Unit of the fire department. Included in the Caesarea depart- ment budget is $45,000 for a new Midway pumper truck. The Township this year budgeted $75,000 for the Scugog Library; $99,000 for parks and pool maintenance; and $156,000 for community halls and the two arenas. This figure includes grants of $30,000 to the Scugog Arena and $51,000 to the Blackstock Arena. The largest single item in the 1984 is for transportation services where the Township has budgeted $1,595,000. Included in this figure is $50,000 for purchasing trucks and a sweeper, and a similar amount towards construction of a new dome for salt storage. The bulk of the $8.3 million total will come from property taxes at (Turn to page 9) Keeping tabs on Scugog muskies Officials with the Ministry of Natural Resources have long suspected that the Osler -Marsh is an important spawning ground for the largest of Lake Scugog's game fish. * And a muskie tagging operation which began April 3 and will continue through the end of this week, has confirmed that a lot of these big fish move into the area south of the Highway 7A causeway each spring to spawn. MNR fisheries techni- cian Mitch Phinney and assistant John Blackmore have spent the last three weeks working out of a small boat on the south side of the causeway just east of Port Perry, netting and tagging muskies. This is the first time that a spring tagging operation on muskie has been carried out in this area, and Mr. Phinney told the Star last week the reason is to assess the importance of the Council on junk about to declare war on" junked cars. Charlie Lown of Port Perry took up woodcarving about five years ago and is now turning out beautiful carved birds of all shapes and sizes. They are hand-painted in brilliant colours and about 20 of the carvings will be on display at the Scugog Library until May 10. On April 28, Mr. Lown will be demonstrating the burning techni- que he uses fo get the very realistic look of feathers. This demonstra- tion will take place at the Library from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. marsh to the muskie species and get some idea of how many fish use the area to re- produce their young. In the period from April 3 to April 18, well over 100 muskie were trapped in the long hoop net, then taken from the water to be tagged, measured and released. Most of the muskie have been in the 10-12 pound range with some smaller ones in the six pound range. And there have been a couple of ge- nuine lunkers show up in the net. "We had a lot of fun officially i J about five weeks ago, but starting this Sunday things should begin to look brighter. Daylight-savings time begins this Sunday morning (2:00a.m.) and we can all begin to enjoy with those two," Mr. Phinney said with a smile. The tagging operation is a time consuming pro- cedure as each fish must be handled carefully when taken from the net. Because the muskie is a powerful fish with a wicked set of teeth, each one is first tranquilized for about seven minutes. They are then sexed, measured, weighed, and a small yellow tag is in- serted under the skin behind the dorsal fin. The technicians take a small sample of scale to deter- (Turn to page 11) Spring ahead... an extra hour of light in the evenings and dark- ness for another hour in the morning. So don't forget this Saturday night before you go to bed, "it's time to turn your clocks ahead one hour'. declares war car owners Township council agreed Monday after- noon to give the by-law enforcement officer the green light to send warning letters to pro- perty owners with junk- ed vehicles, and if that isn't enough to get the vehicles removed, the Township is going to start taking the owners to court. Enforcement officer Ray Penney told council there are more than a dozen properties in the Township where junked vehicles are becoming a problem, and in a couple of cases there are up- wards of 50 junkers on the property. Aside from being un- sightly, junked vehicles can pose a threat to the environment with leak- ing fluids getting into the water systems, especially in rural areas. Mr. Penney said dis- cussions with some property owners about the problem have not resulted in them remov- ing the junked cars, and several members of council said they re- ceive periodic com- plaints from neighbours and ratepayers. Councillors agreed that the only solution is a get tough policy through the courts, although members con- ceded that court action could be a costly and time consuming way of dealing with this problem. Lawrence seeks action to keep water level up Durham-Northumber- land M.P. Allan Law- rence has asked the federal Minister of the Environment to take immediate action to ensure that water levels in Lake Scugog are kept up this year, especially in the late mer. In a letter to Environ- ment minister James Caccia, Mr. Lawrence says the issue of Scugog water levels is an urgent one and demands immediate attention. Mr. Lawrence says that Parks Canada offic- ials who control the flow of water at the dam in Lindsay should "put in the impediments to the water flow at an earlier time in the spring or summer than they have been used to doing'. The letter to the environment minister was sent last week following the public meeting in Port Perry on the topic of Lake Scugog water levels. Mr. Lawrence attend- ed that meeting and says "the view has been forcibly expressed that the lake water level controlled by the dam.... could be used more effectively to keep the level higher, especially in the late summer'. The entire text of Mr. Lawrence's letter to Mr. Caccia is printed in this issue of the Star.