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rn aa Lancia lashes out The president of the Tiny Township Ratepayers Association has called his local council "gutless and without any backbone." Anthony Lancia, also publisher of the monthly Tiny newspaper, The Quill, was expanding upon a letter he wrote to Tiny council. In it, he chastised members for supporting a new landfill site in Perkinsfield. Lancia called the deci- sion "truly unfortunate." The losing candidate for Tiny reeve last municipal election, Lancia says his association (TRAP) has reviewed the township's proposals and has several reasons why he must op- pose a dump _ in Perkinsfield. "Obviously, the first reason I have to give is the potential for contamina- tion. We've already ex- perienced the hazards of the Pauze landfill site; why do we want to do it again?" he asks. Lancia says he's suspicious of the site selec- tion process. He suspects the process was destined to choose Perkinsfield as the dump site no matter what the findings. "The methods used just weren't right. Most sites were north of the Ninth Concession. Almost every site was pre-ordained to be turned down. It appears Perkinsfield was always the choice and the selec- Insuring the past against A Huronia man wants to insure the past against the abuses of the present. If the director of the Huronia Museum has his way, Tiny Township will be able to learn a lot more about its past and ap- preciate a heritage that ex- tends for hundreds of years. Director Jamie Hunter wants to designate specific areas of Tiny and other municipalities as ar- cheological zones. He says he wants to create an "'ar- tion process just gave a veneer of legitimacy to the operation," he said. Lancia also has problems with the guarantees Perkinsfield residents have received about the dump being "safe."' "J mean, why are dumps always 'safe' for Tiny? If they are so safe why don't other municipalities want them in their back yards?" TRAP has also conclud- ed the soil in the Perkinsfield site is inap- propriate for a landfill site. "Tt is composed of sand and gravel. This is not a good base on which to put two feet of undercoating protection," he says. Lancia admits that what he says might sound like the 'Not in my backyard"' syndrome. Peripherally, that's what he is saying. But the association presi- dent says to be fair you have to go back to the pro- blems surrounding the Pauze landfill site to ap- preciate the frustration of Tiny residents like he. "The Midland industries were the biggest polluters of that site. Now everyone's paying for their mistakes. "TJ blame the Conser- vative provincial govern- ment of those days, I blame the industries who profited from polluting the soil," Lancia says. He says Tiny is being literally dumped on because council won't "'put cheological master plan" for the entire Huronia area eventually. Hunter's plan is simple. He will inform a municipality about the ex- istence of "heritage sites." These sites can _ be specifically labelled in a town's planning schedule. That way, when develop- ment occurs, the museum will be able to determine if it will ruin the heritage site. In other words, you don't want a bulldozer to dig up the ruins of an Indian Police impasse Neither the Town of Penetanguishene or the Police Association are go- ing to budge right now in the contract negotiations between the two parties. An impasse has been reached. But a strike or work slowdown does not appear to be a possibility. The clerk of Penetanguishene says the next step is conciliation and if that fails, arbitration. Clerk Yvon Gagne would like to see the dispute solv- ed before 1988. He says in that case, the town would have to settle contracts for both 1987 and 1988 and that, he says, 'would be rather silly."' Councillor Don McNee, who is also chairman of the administration and finance committee, says the two sides "have to get down to . business." "There were a lot of absences on the negotiating teams during the summer,' McNee ex- plained. "I guess that's to be expected. But we really haven't done that much about it since the Fall ses- sion began." McNee says the issues in this dispute are simple: money and pensions. But he says he can't reveal specifics because negotia- tions continue. Constable Don Penrose agrees with McNee's ap- praisal of the salient issues. But he says the Police Association should reach an agreement in the con- ciliation stage of the bargaining process and not wait for binding arbitration to settle matters. "The arbitration process is firm. We have to accept | whatever comes out of it. Usually the conciliator says, 'Look, you might as well get the best deal here because you won't get it in arbitration,' " he said. Penrose cautions the public against expecting any disruption in police service. "There will be no work- to-rule and certainly no limited strike action. We have never considered these as options. In fact, I would consider either ap- proaches as very unprofes- sional conduct." up a good fight." Lancia adds, "We're vulnerable because our council simply has no backbone. It's unfortunate to say, but I'm sorry - it's true. But Dr. Peter Brasher, the deputy reeve of Tiny Council, insists the dump site choice was no mistake. "Basically, the Perkinsfield area is a site which won't be en- vironmentally impacted by the landfill site' he says. He asks why a new area should suffer when Tiny has already had a dump in its vicinity. In his letter to Tiny Coucil, Lancia wrote the "positive goal of no dump in Tiny' should have been the "rallying point" for Tiny's citizens. "This is not a positive goal. This is a negative goal," Brasher points out. Brasher says an attitude like Lancia's is essentially one which suggests that the town should evade its responsibiliies. "A municipality has the responsibility for its own garbage. We can't keep ex- pecting everyone else to do our dirty work, it's a com- pletely selfish attitude."' Brasher expects the dump to be ready for use in about three years, at which time it may be used by all six municipalities in the North Simcoe region. village from the 1400s. "There are at least 50 historical sites in Tiny alone," Hunter says "and many more that haven't been found yet." One example is the cemetery on the Seventh Concession, an area Hunter claims is 'rich in native culture." The museum director says there is no actual dif- ference between an "ar- cheological site' and a "heritage site" although the two terms suggest dif- A local hero J.C. Caron might not have saved any lives recently, but he does a large service to society nonetheless. Caron's store in Balm Bay, Marion's, is the only store ferent definitions. Hunter calls his program "a mechanism to insure the past." He cites an incident last May to show how impor- tant that insurance can be. Then, the museum learned of a road was going straight through an_ar- cheological site in Medonte Township. "We saved that site from destruction," says Hunter. He was able to alert developers to what was under the soil being dug Mixing work with play At Dion's Flowers and Gifts, Halloween is taken vey seriously. In fact the staff came to work prepared for a howling good up. Indeed, a lot was under that soil. "We found a 1624 token minted in Nuremberg, a pendant of a bear, various clay pipes and beads. The list could go on and on," he says. Hunter's plan wouldn't cost Tiny or any other municipality any money. It is reliant entirely upon public interest, the resources of the Huronia Museum and the co- operation of developers. "Obviously, we have no time. If you don't recognize these ghastly creations, the clown is Anne Robbins, the in the area to give senior citizens a ten per cent dis- count every day of the week, 365 days a year. present legal right to tell any developer that they can't use a certain parcel of land because there might be old coins buried underneath,"' he admits. But he adds "most developers are sym- pathetic to a communities heritage: they don't want to destroy the past." Hunter describes his idea as "'an early warning system which will enable us to get financing from the relevant government agencies in time to prevent the loss of archeological sites." At least one municipal clerk has jumped en- thusiastically on the idea. Guy Maurice, the clerk ot Tiny Township has already passed the information on- to Tiny's planning director, Roger Robitaille. He says the plan "interests him very much." Although Maurice is not aware of anv archeological sites, he says he is anxious to find out where they are. * ghoul is Sharon Dion, the devil is Gail Akerman and Morticia is Jackie Dyer. Wednesday, November 4, 1987, Page 3