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8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, June 12, 1990 Street name changes Letters to the editor Voices strong reaction to column To the Editor: It is beyond my comprehension as to why you would change con- cession numbers to names and give new names to roads that have existing names. All other Townships use conces- sion numbers, it is less com- plicating. As K. White explained in the letter, May 29, if you are on Conc. 1 you can easily find Conc. 5 but if you are on one named road and have to find another named road you don't even know which direction to go unless you have a map with all the names on it or if you memorized the whole Township. Why is it that some roads which have two names are cut down to one name and other roads which have one name are given two names? Why are boundry roads given a name; doesn't boundry say it all? Will all the residents in the Township receive a map that shows where these "New Roads" are? Are we all supposed to change our driver's licences; they all state lot and concessions. I feel that this will be more con- fusing for all residents and non- residents. What about the cost? What is it going to cost the tax-payers for these changes? Yours truly, AnnJulia Bajema, Nestleton From Page 7 bage, must surely not be en- couraged to continue in irrespon- sible practices such as the use of disposable products. We must all take responsibility for the amount of garbage we create, and then work on REDUCING our personal ~<_contribution to the problem! On the subject of clear-cutting, the Viewpoint column suggested that environmentalists fly over recently-cut forests and are bothered only by 'the way the area looks for a few years." This It is beyond me why there are so many peo- ple in an uproar over a few simple street name changes. Maybe it is just an after effect of the postal code changes. Maybe people are still upset over changing those six little digits, that they do not want to be bothered changing an address as well. Sure we all have better things to spend our time doing, but when the Siages are being made for a good cause, | find it hard to com- plain. | admit that | thought the postal code changes were a waste of time when | heard about them, but now that it is over, it really wasn't that bad. There was a purpose to it, to have a more effi- cient service, which | believe we now have. Mail is still getting to your house and on time (and the bills are still there long before anyone really wants to see them). The street name changes have a reason be- hind them as well. And the reason bghind this new system is far more important than the one behind the new postal codes. The rea- son....... emergency response time.. Now that doesn't sound trivial does it? The streets must be changed for the 911 sys- tem to be able to work to its full capacity. | can- not see how anyone can fight against an im- proved method of saving lives, and property. If you feel that your road name being changed is so much ot a nuisance, | hope you ay -every night, that you will be one of the ucky few who never have to reach for the re- ceiver and dial the three lifesaving digits on the telephone. If something is going 10 save lives, and count- less amounts of property, | don't think anyone has the right to try and stand in its way. If you look at the current situation and take a few prime examples of duplicate streets, there is a lot of time that could be wasted on an emer- gency call. Take for example if your house is burning, or a car accident has happened out- side your home, more than likely you would be a little excited, if not hysterical when calling the report in. If the person calls and says her house in one fire, and she lives at 000 Simcoe Street and hangs up, the emergency crew heads straight out. Sounds easy right? Wrong! With the large amount of area that the police, ambulance, and Back Talk by Kelly Storry fire department cover, with this little piece of in- formation, it makes life a little more difficult. Does the caller live on Simcoe in Port Perry, Prince Albert, or does he live in Seagrave? In the case of an emergency there is a crucial amount of time wasted if the emergency servic- es have to spend it trying to figure out exactly where the call came from, and five minutes can save lives, and property. Now a lot of people are probably thinking that would never happen, but don't take it too lightly, it has before, and no one wants to see it happen again. Now | am also sure that the same thing could happen in the case of concession lines. If someone calls and says lhe) live on conces- sion 2 or 7 and that's it, well where does the help go. It could be Epsom, Seagrave, Scugog Island, or wherever. Ido agree however that it is easier to find one concession from another by looking at num- bers, Lord knows | have a hard time findin roads, and beaches without them on the Island. But, if the concessions are staying numbered, with a street name added, it will still be easy for us, but at the same time, the new names will precisely pinpoint an area of emergency for those services. The most ridiculous scenario happening about these name changes is the people who are not fighting the actual changes, but the name that their street is being changed to. | really can't see that that should make a differ- ence. As long as it is different from all others in the Township, it will serve its purpose. When you first bought your house on Queen, King, Simcoe, or any street, | am almost certain that the name of the street had absolutely no bearing on whether or not you decided to live there. So why the worry now? Maybe the only thing that can reassure those who insist on arguing over names, is that no matter what the street is called, in your minds, and in most that have lived there all along, it will remain what it is today. Take the case of Ghost Road. No matter what lettering is placed on the blue metallic sign between concessions 9 and 10, in everyone's hearts and mind, the legend lives on Ghost Road because we have grown accustomed to the name, and | know there are many others in the Township that will never change in that con- text. -- For Better or For Worse® MICHAEL THERE |S NOTHING WRONG £004 Leas, y strikes me as a bit of an over- simplification of what is surely a more complex issue. Admittedly I am no expert on this topic, but what I have read suggests that clear-cutting causes problems with soil erosion and the loss of genetic diversity, as well as the fact that inadequate re-planting techniques often fail to produce the desired regeneration of the forest. Clear-cutting may indeed be "cost effective for the logging companies," but does that also mean that it is the preferable method environmentally speak- ing? I wouldn't want to count on it. The column's defence of con- tinued reliance on nuclear energy also bothered me on a couple of counts. Anti-nuclear activists do not suggest that we replace nuclear energy with greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels, but in- sist that aggressive efforts at energy efficiency be given a chance. They believe we could conserve more than half of the electricity we currently consume just through energy efficiency measures, without much change in our lifestyles. Friends of the Earth spokespersons point out that nuclear facilities take 10 years to build and are prohibitive- ly expensive, whereas energy ef- ficiency programs can be im- plemented both more cheaply and more quickly. It's important too to keep in mind the other pro- blems associated with the use of nuclear energy, the storage and disposal of the wastes, the possi- ble impact on human health from exposure to so-called 'routine emissions" (for example there is now evidence to suggest that there are elevated leukemia rates among young children in the areas around the Pickering and the Bruce Nuclear Generating Stations) ; and last, but certainly not least, there is the risk of nuclear accidents caused by human error, a factor that we can do our best to minimize but will never be able to eliminate altogether. I must say I agree wholeheartedly with Viewpoint writer John McClelland's belief that there are at least two sides to every issue. Where the two of us part company is in his ap- parent willingness to endorse the comfortable status quo in response to the environmental problems we currently face. Per- sonally, I believe each and every one of us will have to question many of our attitudes, and to ac- cept that we will ALL have to make fundamental changes in the way we think, act, and do business if we are to develop a "sustainable" world. If we choose to rely on the opinions of people who have vested interests in the logging and nuclear industries, for example, rather than fully ex- ploring alternatives offered by dedicated environmentalists who have been calling out the warn- ings for 15 or 20 years, I believe we will do so at our own, and the planet's, peril. Sincerely, Janet Banting, Greenbank, Ontario. Please recycle this newspaper Editorial Comment (from page 6) bake sales, bottle drives and car washes. But if the project ever proceeds, this community is going to have to under-take a long term and innovative fund-raising drive, along the lines of the one done by the Community Hos- pital. A lot of expertise was collected by the Hospital's fund- raising efforts, and there is no reason why that expertise could not be put to use in the future to raise funds for recreation fa- cilities. As we said at the outset, Township council has some very important decisions to make on this issue in the not-too-distant future. It is not realistic to expect that the entire project could be built in a year, and we would hope that it never comes down to an "all-or-nothing" proposal. _ What we have suggested above are just a few of many aproaches that should be explored. If this project is ever to get off the ground, there will have to be room for compromise, and a great deal of creative thinkin g on how to pay for these things without unduly adding more to property taxes that many peo- ple know are already too high. EMMERSON INSURANCE BRO 193 QUEEN ST., PORT PERRY, ONT. LIL 1B9 PHONE (416) 985-7306 ALL LINES OF GENERAL INSURANCE HOMEOWNERS - FARM - AUTO COMMERCIAL * *