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fage the tribune mindly june 29 1967 canada centennial 18671967 rural postoffice job in dispute first electrical plant now smith welding puc inaugural meeting 1953 continued from page 20 utilities commission a threeman board to handle hydro and water puc inaugural jan 2 1953 the inaugural meeting of the public utilities commission was held on january 2 1953 the mem bers were reeve henry og- den and elected members reg stouffer and a e weldon the latter being elected reeve for the first year mr edward mad- dock of the ontario hydro consumer service attend ed this meeting and pre sented the new commis sion with a schedule of proposed new rates for the town a modest an nual salary of 75 was ap proved for each commis sion member hydros monthly billing to the stouffville commis sion had by now risen to 3700 however the sys tem was in a constant state of expansion and by the end of 1953 the town hydro department was showing a surplus of 584158 members by this time deemed it wise to launch into a much larger expan- sion program and deben tures for 20000 were ap proved for this purpose elmer daniels assumed the office of reeve with reg stouffer and a e weldon the other two commission members both council and com mission were beginning to take note of the growth of the community in 1955 and it was agreed that henceforth all subdivid ers should be required to pay the full expense of the installation of hydro into their developments this same year the commission engaged mr gordon brown as fulltime line man at a salary of 260 per month the commission now found it was suffering not only from pains of growth in the hydro department but in office accommoda tion in midsummer 1956 the commission took its first move towards new and completelyseparated quarters the first move was to th second floor of what was the municipal building and firehall of that time business continued good for the hydro department all during these midlifly years and the 1956 surplus was neary 10000 mem bers time became more valuable and pay was raised from 75 to 150 a year in 1957 a e weldon was forced through ill health to relinquish his position on the commis sion alter serving since its inception dr s s ball joined the commission to serve out mr weldons un expired term the person nel was further changed at the years end when reg stouffer retired from service and ed neville was elected mr geo stor ey the commissions first secretary agreed to conti nue at his post until 1959 in 1958 the commission was called upon to con sider an expenditure of approximately 60000 which would cover the purchase of a site and erec tion of a new public util ities commission building surplus funds in the hydro account had now grown to more than 11000 following mr storey as secretary mr elmer dan iels a former reeve took over the position during this period the commis sion was constantly occu pied with plans for servic ing new housing develop ments and the urge for more and better street lighting continued as well the budget for i960 to talled 33200 the greater proportion going for the modernizing of the hydro distribution system open new building on september 27th 1961 the new public utilities office was opened at the corner of blake and main streets the first move to wards new quarters had been made in 1958 but var ious delays held up the completion for three years the year 1962 saw reeve timbers filling councils position on the commis sion with elected members e h neville and w d atkinson much of th activity over this next period was of an internal nature a clerk was added to the office staff some bookkeeping routines were altered and salaries and fringe bene fits for employees review ed a new rale study was undertaken by ontario hydro at the latter part of 1963 and brought into force in the spring of 1964 this year also saw e h neville retire from the board in 1965 growth dictated the first move to obtain land for the erection of an additional substation this one to be at the east end of town and estimated to cost 41000 new types of street lights were altered contin uously over severe years and the service of much larger lights previously used only in the downtown business section was ex tended in the fall of this year e r daniels the commission secretary passed away and his position was filled by the engaging ot mr norman baker the pres ent secretary hydro has come a long way in stoullville in the past seventy years most of the dark corners in the community have been eliminated before stouffville be came an incorporated vil lage and as far back as 1837 there was trouble in the hamlet concerning mail delivery the mail was originally delivered by stage coach which at times was not too reliable how ever the real trouble arose over the office of post master and brought the deputypostmastergeneral onto the scene the following account of correspondence on the mat ter appeared in an early provincial publication the running dispute concerning the appoint ment of mr william doyle as postmaster of stouffville has resulted in dismissal through the office of chas berczy surveyor of post offices in upper canada the new appointee is mr james devine and to whom the expostmaster takes grave exception the authorization for the dismissal by mr berczy was recorded as follows i am directed by the lieut governor to inform you that he considers william a doyle should no longer be continued in an office of trust such as the post office department and his excellency therefore re quests you will make the necessary steps for his re moval in conformity with the instructions you have received from the deputy postmastergeneral at que bec mr doyle has replied officially to the dismissal as follows your favour of the 16th ultimo received and on reply would beg to say that all books letters etc belonging to the post of fice department in stouff ville have been delivered to mr devine as request ed this appointment should show the people the kind of men that hold posi tions under the despotic administration mr devine is altogether unfit and in capable of conducting the business of the post office he can neither head nor write and bare ly sign his name i do not mention this with any disrespect but merely to shew you sir and the pub lic what upper canada has come to at the present day there are other men who could fill the position but unfortunately they are all reformers like myself mr devine will be a good and faithful tool to answer to any wicked and deceitful purposes the gov ernment has that sir is the state of our public affairs at this present un happy day 1 would say without contradiction that 1 am as loyal to my native and adopted country as any person and i will do every thing in my power to re deem it from slavery and ruin w ii doyle memorandum i forgot to mention that mr devine said if he did not accept the post office it would be discontinued altogether w ii doyle new farmers pass through on sunday april 13 1882 two special trains passed through on the belleville to toronto line carrying english farmers who will be going to the west they had with them besides a wealth of expe rience about 700000 in cash threee more special trains with new farmers are also on their way from montreal temperance journal first stouffville weekly the first weekly news paper in stouffville was known as the stoullville alert it was issued for the first time on july 4 1877 and sought to promote the cause of temperance the paper lasted only one year the next newspaper ef fort here was 1882 when a w pemberton printed a weekly known as the stouffville advance it continued until 1892 the paper which has survived to the present day is the- tribune first published by harry hodge in 1888 a year later he was succeeded by william malloy father of the late howard malloy who pas sed away in 1966 two other publications sprung up in stouffville but were shortlived the stouffville sentinel com menced publication in 1894 and continued to 1900 and the stouffville free press only lasted two years 189596 first paper in 1829 the first weekly news paper published in york county outside toronto was printed in the little settlement of markham about 1829 the name of the publication has been forgotten but the publish er was william peterson in 1851 markham had grown to nine hundred persons and it was incor porated in 1872 its real newspaper life began with the publication of the economist in 1856 for many years the publisher was david rcesor a mem ber of one of the earliest families in markham in 1867 this publisher became a member of the senate of canada miji l j public utilities commission main street