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jeu 3 on to EE Rn SEES 6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday. November 13, 1990 a The Port Perry Star 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Nurnber 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $25.00 per year Elsewhere $70.00 per year. Single Copy 60¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Editor - John B. McClelland News/Features - Julia Dempsey Billing Department - Louise Hope News/Features - Kelly Storry Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Lynda Ruhl, Tracy O'Neil PRODUCTION Annabeil Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan BUSINESS OFFICE " Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Accounting - Judy Ashby ADVERTISING Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis All advertising subject putiisher's approval Advertising Sales Representative - Anna Gouldburn Note: No ads accepted # any balance owing over 45 days. CC) 2 (© Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Lid. Port Perry, Ontario Editorial Comment THE ED CENTRE There are probably 100 good reasons why the Durham Board of Education should go ahead with its plans to construct a new administrative headquarters building in Whitby. And just one reason why the Board should put the plans on hold for a few years: the taxpayers can't afford it. Trustees with the Board will be voting on this new building (called in the official documents the Education Centre) some time early in December. It is our understanding that the vote will be a close one, and hopefully it will go down to defeat. Not that Durham doesn't need a new HQ building for the 340 or so people who work in administration. They are pres- ently scattered hither and yon in five different offices in Oshawa and Whitby, and this fact does generate inefficien- cies. And the Board is paying out $670,000 annually to lease office space in two locations, which is a lot of money in any- body's books. However,with the country bracing for tough economic times next year, with education costs continuing to spiral up- wards, and with property owners in the Region already sag- ging under the weight of property tax increases in the double- digit range, surely this is not the time to be contemplating a $25.8 million administrative building. Documents prepared by the Board on the financing of this proposed 150,000 square foot building state that when all is said and done, the construction will cost the Board $800,000 per year, will add .56 per cent to the residential mill rate, or about $6.14 each year (for 20 years) to the tax bill of the aver- age residential property in Durham. At a recent public meeting in Port Perry, Board chairman lan Brown noted that the $800,000 annual cost is but a tiny fraction of the Board's total budget which in 1990 is $304 mi- lion. The documents also point out that to put up the new build- ing will require a 20-year debenture of $17.6 million. It will take $2.1 million each year for 20 years to retire that debenture. The Board further calculates that the new building will reduce current annual operating costs by $1.4 million (savings in rent and increased efficiencies, reduction of duplications) You can take the numbers and do any kind of arithmetic you want. Fact remains that the tax-payers of this Region sim- ply cannot afford another dime on their tax bills. We agree that there is never a "right time" for boards of education or municipal governments to embark on multi- million dollar building projects. But there certainly are wrong times, and this is one of them. The documents show that the Board expects to realize $7.1 million from the sale of administrative properties it now owns. That is a mighty big assumption. Property values are dropping everywhere in Durham. There is no guarantee the Board will even find purchasers, never mind those prepared to meet those prices. Equally troubling is that suggestion in the documents that the Board plans to finance just over $1 million from its re- serves. Reserve funds must be carefully hoarded for a "very rainy day," and not spent on new administration buildings. Replenishing reserve accounts over the next couple of years is going to be difficult, mainly because the building boom in Durham is over for the near future, anyway. We want to stress that we are not quibbling with the need for a new building, though in this age of fax machines, confer- ence calls, and sophisticated computers, the inefficiencies created with staff in different offices may be as dire as they were even a decade ago. The bottom line is money (or lack of) and the fact that property owners in Durham and elsewhere have taken it in the neck over the last few years with double-digit increases far and above the inflation rate, and certainly well above average wage and salary increases. Most tax-payers in Durham have reached the point where they want somebody to just say "no." The trustees should try "no" when they come to vote on this early in December. JOSEPH oF ARABIA «N\\ NW Random Jottings GETTING READY As most readers of the Star already know, the Star will be moving from our present loca- tion on Queen Street to 188 Mary Street in the early part of January 1991. Construction of our new building is entering the final stages and we should be ready to be- gin the moving process by late December. The move to new headquarters coincides with a milestone anniversary. In just two weeks the Star will begin its 125th year of service to the people of this community. The Port Perry Star has been under the ownership of the Hvidsten family for the past 27 years, and as publisher of this newspaper for fourteen of those, I'm very proud to have been a part of its 125 year history. While the Star has not been a family busi- ness for all those years, it is still in the owner- ship of independents, which by today's stan- dards in the newspaper industry, is somewhat of a small miracle. The Farmer family published the Star a to- tal of 56 years, forty of these under the capable leadership of Samuel Farmer and the remain- der by his family following his death in 1948. The establishment and early publishing years of this newspaper (then known as the Port Perry Standard) were under the direction of Mr. Edward J. Mundy and an assortment of short-term publishers until Mr. Sam Farmer took control in 1907. One hundred and twenty five years is a very long time, and in fact the Star is probably the longest established business still operating today in Port Perry. You'll be hearing a lot more over the next twelve months as the Port Perry Star begins to celebrate its 125 year. In addition to our move, the Star hopes to celebrate in a number of other ways during the next few months. We'll keep you posted as they develop. WORDS & ACTIONS About six weeks ago, the Star announced it would commence running a weekly opinion col- umn by friend, colleague and former owner- publisher of a weekly community newspaper, John James. At the time of his introduction | suggested that readers would be apt to find Mr. James hu- morous, controversial, thought provoking and outspoken, but it would be highly unlikely you would ever find his material dull. "Pressing Matters In One Small Town", still only six weeks old, has not been a disappoint- ment in terms of that introduction. Already Mr. James is embroiled in a controversy about teachers. But controversy is not new to Mr. James. If he feels strongly about a subject, any subject, he will stalk and attack it with vigor. This style won Mr. James the CCNA Nation- al Award for Best Editorial last year, when he at- tacked the Federal Government for the imple- mentation of the Goods and Service Tax. And his convictions were backed up not just with words, but actions. He also refused to run a two-page advertisement promoting the bene- fits of the GST. A decision which cost his news- paper about $1,800.00 in revenues, and a move not matched by a single other newspaper across this country, including the Star. As we said when "Pressing Matters" was in- troduced a few short weeks ago... you may agree with his comments or they may make your pressure rise, but one thing's for sure, he'll make you sit up and think. And occasionally he may even make you laugh out-loud. The comments Mr. James pens under his name are his personal views, and as a columnist he is as entitled to them as any of our readers are to theirs. Our readers, as you will notice each week, have the same privilege of opinion by way of our Letters to the Editor forum. Nothing is sacred....garbage dumps, pot holes, school boards, teachers, environment, rock music, and politicians are just some of the topics that have been battered about lately by columnists and readers alike on the editorial and comment pages of the Star. While the opinions of a writer and a reader can sometimes clash, we can at least be thank- ful we have the freedom to express our opinions about any subject we wish. Drop us a line.