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Durham Northumberland M.P. Allan Lawrence says he's ready to fight against proposed changes to ~ the boundary of his riding. Mr. Lawrence told the Star on Fri- day he will be launching an appeal this week against the changes which were handed down April 7 by the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission. In fact, Mr. Lawrence has been - asked by a group of about 20 Ontario MP's from all parties to spear-head an appeal on their behalf as well. Mr. Lawrence described the pro- posed changes to Durham Nor- thumberland as a "'real mangling of the riding." In fact, if the changes go through, Mr. Lawrence will no longer even live in the riding. His home in Manvers Township north of Bethany will become part "of Vic- toria Haliburton riding. The Electoral Commission Com- mission is proposing to drop the name Durham Northumberland and Pay hike for council FesesaDurham Region councillors have * = voted themselves a raise in pay. The council last week endorsed a recommendation from manage- per cent pay hike, retroactive to + January 1 of this year. a. The four per cent for councillors amounts to about $660 over the year and means Regional councillors in -- Durham are now earning $17,225 per : year. The pay increase of four per cent ~ also applies to the salary paid chair- man Gary Herrema who will now be earning $60,000 yearly. Regional councillors are also allowed to collect expenses for mileage and meetings. Chairmen of the standings committees of the council earn an additional stipend. All regional councillors also receive salaries paid by their local municipalities. The amounts vary across the Region. ment committee calling for a four' nm _ ps Allan Lawrence says he'll fight riding changes re-name it Durham. The new boun: daries would take in all of the town of Newcastle, all of Scugog Township, all of Uxbridge Township and the northern half of both Oshawa and Whitby. The areas of Port Hope and Cobourg would be included in a riding stretching to Trenton, while Manvers and Cavan areas would end up in Victoria Haliburton. Mr. Lawrence said the proposed changes would break a tradition that goes back to Confederation as .. the communities of Bowmanville, Port Hope and Cobourg have been in the same federal riding since 1867. «Fhe boundaries of the present On- tario and Oshawa ridings are also .proposed to change to account for the massive population growths in these areas over the last few years. Mr. Lawrence said he accepts the reasoning behind the proposed changes in these two ridings because of the population spurt, but he suggested that rather than "lig- gle the present boundaries of Durham Northumberland, the Elec- toral Commission should have con- sidered creating a new.riding in the 'Ajax-Pickering-Whitby area. Mr. Lawrence will appeal the pro- posedrchanges to a committee of the - __House of Commons which has the choice of rejecting it out-right or referring it on to the Electoral Com- mission which is made up of a judge and two professors. This three-man Commission will have the fipal say on whether the boundaries change or remain the same. "I wish they would leave things as they are (in Durham Nor- thumberland) for a while," said Mr. Lawrence, noting that Port Perry and Scugog Township have been moved three times in the past several years. The current Durham Nor- thumberland riding has 86,000 peo- ple which is considered an optimum population for a federal riding of an urban-rural nature. Mr. Lawrence said that in an ef- fort to bolster support for the appeal of the proposed changes, he will be seeking resolutions from municipal councils throughout the riding. Vol. 121 No. 20 -- Mike Kosurko as rock star Billy | certainly was the idol of hundreds of screaming teenagers at the highly successful Durham Region air band contest held at Port Perry High School Friday Rockin' at the Air Band contest night. The Billy Idol band, all from PPHS, wow- ed judges and students alike and wound up with first prize. See inside for more pictures and story. ! Net impact will add $60 to average tax bill across the Region Durham Board approves $211 M. bud : Trustees with the Durham Board of | Education put their stamp of approval on a $211.5 million budget Monday evening, . a 15.2 per cent increase over the previous year. The net impact on the average home in the Region will be about nine per cent, which means a tax hike this year of just over $60 for education purposes. Coupled with tax hikes for Durham Region of about $20 and a similar increase at the local level, the average homeowner in Scugog will be facing a total tax hike of about $100 in 1987 The education budget approved by Durham trustees Monday evening calls for $124 million for elementary schools and $87 million for secondary schools In presenting the budget to trustees, the Board's finance committee chairman Ian Brown outlined several major reasons why the overallspending has increased 15 per cent in 1987. He noted that in 1986, the Board added 219 new staff positions and a further 69 positions will be added this year as Durham continues 'to experience rapid population growth in several areas The cost of transportatioh for some 16,000 bus students is-up 16 per cent in 1987, said trustee Brown. The Durham Board this year has added a 1 per cent special 'surcharge' far capital costs in an effort to maintain the Board's long standing policy - of not issuing debentures for construction of new schools "And trustee Brown noted that Bill 30 which extends full funding to Separate High Schools across Ohtario has resulted in a loss of 12.5 per cent of assessment for the public board which translates into $2.7 million property tax dollars. Trustee Brown told the budget meeting Monday evening that Bill 30 this year ad- ded about three per-cent te the total in. crease in spending for the Durham Board. As in previous years, the major cost for the Durham Board is in salaries and wages. This represents about 86 per cent of the total budget in*1987. In the capital construction area. the Board has allocated $947 000 for an ad dition to Greenbank Public School $600,000 of this amount will come from the Board's reserve accounts and the remainder from the capital budget Trustee Brown noted in his address that despite the increases in overall spending this year, the Durham Board continues to be "one of the lowest spending boards in the province." » nt Reaction among the trustees to the budget was overwhelmingly favourable. Several called it a "responsible budget," a "bottom line budget' with no room for further cuts. a. Scugog trustee Debbie Tredway said she is "pleased with the budget because the increases are at the school level," and. she said that will continue to put the quality of education up. She admitted, however, that the spending increases - "will be tough for some people to swallow." a Trustee Joyce Kelly, who along with (Turn to page 13) : 4 /