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Vol. 20 No. 4, Folio 8 Tuesday, January 27, 1987 40 cents Snow catches up At least it was fluffy snow. The 54 centimetres of snow which fell on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, has meant the end of a low-snow winter in Huronia. Two centimetres of snow were record- ed on Friday, 10 centimetres on Saturday, and 44 centimetres on Sunday, at the weather station on Beausoleil Island. The three day accumulation boosted the total for this winter of 1986-87 from 116.4 centimetres to 170.4 centimetres, as of @e Sunday. During the same three days, the Midland Ontario Provincial Police in- vestigated 28 traffic accidents, including a nine-vehicle tangle Friday afternoon on Highway 69, a short distance north of the junction of Highways 400 and 12. Lottery underway Chances are better than one in 300 of winning the Centre d'Activites Francais' lottery this year. The 300 books of tickets have just gone on sale for $100 per packet. In each group of tickets, there is a ticket valid for every month of the year. Valid from April 3, 1987 to March 1988, the tickets can also be bought on an install- ment plan, says Richard de Grandmont, the program coordinator at the centre. If paid for by 12 post-dated cheques, the total cost comes to $120, or $10 each, rather than the one-time cost of $100. According to the director of the Centre, Frances Picard, the profits will be used to reduce the centre's operating deficit. "If things really go well, we can even in- crease and start new activities,' Picard said. Currently, ideas for new activities in- clude craft and pottery courses, photography workshops and a music rehearsal studio. Some bins available Of the near 1,000 recycling bins offered free to the pubic, about 75 still are available. A householder is supposed to put sorted glass, cans and newspapers in the bin, and place it at the curb for pickup on the day that a recycling project truck is schedul- ed to pass. Originally, a $6 deposit was required. A disappointing number of bins was taken by the public. The North Simcoe Waste Mangement Association decided that the e $6 was the problem. People who paid a $6 deposit for their bin can ask for a refund. Both bodies found The body of the second man drowned in Penetanguishene Bay two weekends ago was recovered 125 feet from the sunken snowmobile. The body of Victor Kubicz, 29, of Mississauga, was found first, 75 feet from the snowmobile. Police believe that Kubicz and his friend, Harold McKnight, 26, also from Mississauga, continued to struggle for- ward over breaking ice after their snowmobile broke through thin ice. The bodies were lying in 50 feet of water. The two men drowned early in the mor- ning of Jan. 17 near Whiskey Island, on their way to the Kubicz Midland Point cot- tage from Penetanguishene. St. Ann's School Emergency situation School board trustees now consider St. Ann's an emergency situation--a top priori- ty for a new building. That was the consensus reached at the re- cent Simcoe County Roman Catholic Separate School Board (SCRCSSB) English Committee meeting. St. Ann's Parents' Committee President John Gignac said he was quite pleased with the results of his group's efforts in educating the trustees about St. Ann's over the last two months. Striving to get the board to place St. Ann's on the top of its capital grant priority list and to have Director of Education William Bolger lobby the Minister of Educa- tion, the group has begun to make progress. "I'm delighted with what the board has done" Gignac said. "'The board has clearly identified St. Ann's as an emergency situa- tion. They (the Ministry of Education) can't send the matter back to the board any more." The trustees met at the Penetanguishene school to see first-hand the actual conditions. At the last board meeting, Jan. 14, a delega- tion of 60 parents presented a slide show to reinforce what the Simcoe County District Health Unit and Penetanguishene's Fire Chief have been saying--that the school is overcrowed and unsafe. Gignac reiterated the needs of the children at St. Ann's have, by guiding a tour of the school made up of portables. As the group toured, he elaborated on the problems noted by the Health Unit and Fire Department. The tour didn't finish in the school, but next door at '"'the butterfly school', which is leased by the Association for the Developmentally Handicapped: St. Ann's leases two rooms, a classroom for the junior kindergartens and a small gym. After the tour, trustee Gerard Danby com- mented "As an outside trustee, I didn't know what it was like and I'm very embarassed. I would have pulled my kids out a long time ago." Discussions about leasing a few rooms from Corpus Christi are just beginning, but Gignac says that is no solution. Instead, he said, leasing rooms across the street is laden with insurmountable problems. "It's potentially destructive, divisive to this community, and is fraught with all sorts of potential problems." Taxpayer A Penetanguishene man told Town Coun- cil last night to think before they increased taxes for 1987. But the issue of a municipal tax increase, says Egon Schwauss, comments negatively on the democratic system in Canada. According to Schwauss, town taxes in- creased by twice the rate of inflation. In the 1986 budget, he quoted, taxes rose by 7.8 per cent, while inflation rose only by four per cent. "There's no end in sight of these tax in- creases," he told the councillors. Councillor Lionel Dion told the taxpayer that a progressive, growing town has no - choice in raising its taxes. "Tf this council stuck to the inflation rate, "T would not want to see St. Ann's taking over two or three classrooms over there (at Corpus Christi), operating a class from the @ 4 Y 100 Years of Service Between father and son, the Royal Canadian Legion has been loyalled served for 100 years. Penetanguishene's Branch 68 recently honoured its faithful contributors. A World War One veteran who was one of the first to serve in the Penetanguishene branch was uestions it would be stagnant," he said. "You're like- ly to get an increase of more than the infla- tion rate. We have to have more money than inflation to go ahead." But Mayor Ron Bellisle contradicted the councillor only a few minutes later. "Our rate of taxes in the town was lower, nearer the inflation rate," he said. 'Our reason for the increase of taxes is the Sim- coe County Board of Education." "The minute Simcoe County school taxes are imposed on us, we have no choice,"'Coun- cillor Ray Baker told the taxpayer, as he cited Tiny Township's example of a few years ago. When the township refused to pay the taxes, interest was charged, and finally, the township was forced to pay the amount ow- butterfly school, a portable and its own building. That's no way to foster an identi- ty,' Gignac told the trustees. delighted when his 60-year pin was presented to him by branch first vice-president Bud Brown. Between Harry Hamelin and his son, Bob, the years of service top the century mark. budget ing plus the interest. Schwauss said he just wants the council to consider what the average citizen may think and want. He added too many decisions are made by elected officials without public consultation. "Where can we cut down? Mend the potholes, but don't resurface the road if you can't afford it,' he commented later. Currently, preparations for the 1987 are at the committee level, Administration and Finance Committee Chairman Don McNee said. Treasurer Shirley Bellehumeur has just sent out working papers to the committees, which will estimate their needs for 1987 like- ly at their next meeting. Brigade needs home soon...see pg. 5