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PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, July 11, 2000 - 7 of the Question Week... Scugog Township recently received its first install- hS Bob Ainsworth Alex Knight Florence McCullough Colin Kemp Jim Green ment of cash from the casi- |nfrastructure forthe A pool and other stuff ~~ Rollerblading (rink) or A reduction in taxes. The roads. The no's slot machines. What kids. Things that are for the youth to do something else for They're too high and roads here suck do you think the money suitable for the kids. instead of destroying the youth, like a they'll get even higher should be used for? } : unless the provincial stuff. swimming pool. I'm and federal govern- all for that. ments change the way services are financed. LETTERS Merchant went the extra mile To the Editor: Recently, we broke a tie rod as we turned on to 7A from the Port Perry Plaza. Unable to go forward, we backed up to Canadian Tire. Although all the bays of their auto center were full, they had a mechanic ( a gentle- man with a beard) come out, inthe rain, to look at the car. He discovered the tie rod was disconnected and new parts would be required. . I mentioned that | had a trunk full of groceries, some of it frozen. My mechanic said: "Just a minute." He returned saying, "Jeff will drive you home". The gentleman named Jeff not only moved most of our groceries from our trunk to his vehicle, he drove us home and then carried most of our groceries into the house. We discovered, in con- versation on the drive home, that Jeff was the Canadian Tire store owner. How do you say thank - you to such a busy man? Cam Crawford Scugog Island Disappointed with Festival Days To the Editor: Disappointment. That was my feeling Saturday afternoon after a visit to the new Festival Days at the fair- grounds. Nothing more than a small-town fair without the local exhibitors - just a trav- elling carnie show with noth- ing else. What was the point of this? Never mind the over- priced food stands and the constant din from the mid- way. The most truly interest- ing part of the day was the Renaissance exhibition. These well-meaning folks were forced into ankle-high wet grass, while the story- telling was marred every 10 minutes by the roar of the helicopter, intent on gouging the public of even more tourist dollars. Put Festival Days back downtown or just let it go away. As a proud resident of Port Perry, | am embar- rassed. Mac Ward Port Perry It being summer now, accord- ing to the calendar, and monsoon season being past - one hopes - we have officially arrived at the media Silly Season. That's when we dirtbags in the news business, starving for any substantive bit of info upon.which we may seize, begin to scour not only our own domains but the entire planet for something - any- thing! - with which to fill the pages that yawn before us, white and insatiable, each morning. On Thursday the Toronto Star led with a story about a Sports lllustrated writer who has concluded, after much research and deep thought, that David - (Boomer) Wells, our Budgies' pitching ace, is (ahem) fat. ~Itis not news that David Wells is fat. Nor is it par- that fact, compete with pictures that are far less than flattering, might upset Mr. Wells. But it is July, and the editors concluded, quite rightly, that one more picture of the front-runners in the Canadian Alliance leadership race might lead the readership, collectively, to upchuck. So Boomer it was. We here at the nerve centre of your hometown journal succumb to the silliness too. Just last Friday we ran a front page story about a major auto parts company holding a job fair in the area.... and having just 16 people show up, most of them merely looking for a signature so they could go back to the pogey office and obtain their next cheque. ticularly startling that a national magazine trumpeting Page Seven THE SILLY SEASON by Jeff Mitchell There are millions of them, when you have the time, and summer's when you have the time: A man who has taught his dog to sing. A family of ducks that will not leave a suburban swimming pool. A tree with shoes nailed to it. A bachelor farmer who carves likenesses of dead Prime Ministers. One of my favourite features on my Internet ser- vice suppliers' home pages, both at work and home, is their daily News of the Weird features: Man electrocutes self with curling iron. New Zealand sheep sprout purple wool. Funeral home misplaces 12 bodies. In case you may think | do not recognize this trend, | know this is a theme to which | return with some regularity. It's just that now, in the months between the graduations, annual general meetings and awards presentations of the spring and the arrival of big, grotesque vegetable season in the autumn, there's a little time for... conjecture, if you will. What if Lake Scugog was determined to be an ancient landing strip for alien craft? What if ospreys did begin nesting in Bridhouse Willy's chimney? What if someone phoned, right here and now, announcing that he'd taught his cocker spaniel to sing Blue Bayou, and held the receiver our to the pooch so | could hear for myself? Alas, we dwell in the real world, and convention, not to mention libel laws, confine us here. It's gonna be a long summer. Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten days of activities. MOVE FESTIVAL DAYS BACK DOWNTOWN Port Perry's Festival Days have come and gone for another year, and there's no doubt organizers will be sitting down to analyze this year's festival, event by event, over the next couple of weeks. The directors and organizers of the Festival should be congratulated on the efforts made this year to change the venue. It's a huge undertaking every year to organize this event, with literally hundreds of hours spent in preparation, and hundreds more over the three | was most impressed with the number of events and activities taking place over the three days, in particular those for kids and families. Organizers pulled out a few of the tried and true, like the Mutt show, Teddy Bear Picnic and Kiddies' Parade, but added in many new activities like the Kids' Challenge, Volleyball Tournament, Baby Derby and many more. Despite the efforts to make this one of the best festi- vals in many years, it would appear as if the move to the fairgrounds was not successful in attracting the large crowds experienced in the past. After the dust has settled, the directors have had time to catch their breath, and the event is analyzed, undoubtedly there will be many decisions made regard- ing how and where it will be run next summer. Personally, | think moving Festival Days out of the downtown was a mistake, as do many others who have commented on last weekend's event. Western Weekend, the forerunner of Festival Days, was designed by the Chamber of Commerce as an event to bring people into the downtown of Port Perry. Closing down the street and turning the town into a two block mall for a couple of days always attracted large crowds, and the merchants who took advantage of the extra traffic always did well at the cash register. We understand the Chamber was encouraged by a few merchants to move it out of the downtown, but lis- tening to the vocal few was is not in the best interests of the event. Since its inception in 1972, there have always been a few merchants who did not want the street closed down for the festival, but a vocal minority should not be allowed to interfere with the festival. This past weekend in Mel Lastman's Toronto, there were a number of major streets and intersections blocked off for the city's summer festival. Surely, if Toronto can close down sections of Yonge St. for a cou- ple of days, closing down Queen St., in Port Perry is not such a big deal. Over the past 30 years, Festival Days has been one of the most positive promotional events planned and run by the Chamber of Commerce. The event has intro- duced literally thousands of new people to this commu- nity, especially our attractive and vibrant downtown and lakefront park. Obviously, the fairgrounds do not have the same appeal for the public. The large crowds attracted to the downtown in the past certainly did not materialize at the fairgrounds. There's something magical about a street mall, and it's my hope the directors will look favorably on moving the event back into the downtown next year.