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it explosion alerts occupants of fire v j vandorf an ex- plosion in the garage alerted mrs r j leach to the fire that was raging in that part of her ivandorf rd home dec 23 she called in the alarm at about 6 pm by the time stouffville firefighters arrived the garage was enveloped in flames the blaze spred to the house but was contained by fireman fire chief walt smith said that the garage was completely gutted along with fire damage to two bedrooms and a bathroom on the upper floor of the dwelling i jf mrs leach was at home j with her mother at the time of the fire chief smith said that the fire was under control in about 30 minutes although firefighters attended for nearly six hours the chief said that the cause of the blaze is not known he estimated damage at between 1520000 n neighbor sees fire in house green river a green river man saw the main part of his house saved in a blaze early monday morning arthur lattman who was renting the dwelling from the provincial government managed to escape the blaze a neighbor calledin the alarm to the markham fire department who relayed the all to pickering firefighters seven trucks fought the blaze for nearly four hours a the main problem was water three tankernrucksran relays bringing water from as far as three miles from the scene of the fire t the fire started at the front of the house and damage is estimated at 4000 the cause has not been determined ff lrustee harry bowes ltvtttt figk goies oil fbi- vol 88 no 34 whitchurch stouffville december 31 1975 20 cents 12 pages adventure playground well advanced the initial portion of the ballantrae public school adventure playground has been completed and as can be seen from this picture it is being made good use of the sand lot ringed with upended logs has been completed and the rest of the playground equipment will be erected in the spring it was originally estimated the project would cost 13000 but with donations of time and money it now seems the 1300 collected by selling shares will be sufficient for the first phase the bell telephone dug the trench for the stockade which was installed by parent and teacher volunteers and dalton hicks of gormley sand and gravel donated over 200 tons of clean sand the home and school association has been backing the adventure playground and according to their presentation to the board of education because of busing we have children with as much as two hours free time at school these kids need something that will occupy their time constructively the creative playground which is suitable for climbing sliding and balancing avoids the stereotyped play provided by conventional playgrounds other items to be constructed include a pipe slide to be built onto the side of a mound of earth a suspension bridge spring seats made of car springs with rubber tires mounted on them a tire alley for crawling through climbing trestles and spring logs for bouncing on a series of other pieces are to be built at a later stage john montgomery private day care to open soon stouffville a private day care centre will open in town in february if it receives a regional licence sylvia loftus who is t mrs loftus who has 15 years daycare experience was the supervisor of the trillium nursery in markham she told the tribune that after making starting the centre said she havan unsuccessfuhrid to purchase been in contact with regional officialswho told her there is no reason why she would be refused an operating licence the facility will move into the christ church on sunset blvd and mrs loftus is hoping for 34 full day students i airport demise tops 1975 events mayor by john montgomery stouffville in summing up the events of the past year mayor gordon ratcliff mentioned the cancellation of the pickering airport as one of the most important as far as af fecting the future of stouffville the town rightly opposed the airport since it was first announced in 1972 he told the tribune and obviously we were pleased to hear that it had been cancelled themayor expressed confidence that the towns evidence at the airport inquiry were considered by the powers that be at least provincially the only unfinished business according to mr ratcliff are the results of the ambient noise study he felt the results of that study would provide valuable evidence if there was ever any attempt to revive the airport ive discussed that airport so much that ive run out of words he jokingly concluded 1 we have welcomed many new residents to the municipality during the past year he said and many more will be coming into the thicketwood subdivision in the beginning of the year i four new subdivisions were started during the year he continued these are the extension of felray the ratcliff subdivision thicketwood and the popovitch subdivision at bloomington the planning board has been quite active and have resolved to start the official plan consolidation in 1976 he explained he said the secondary plan for ballantrae and musselmans lake is nearing completion with public meetings expected the latter part of january the mayor said he is quite pleased with the see mayor pg 8 v that business she decided to open her own in stouffville she said lfthe centre cannot get 34 full day students they would be willing to take some morning and afternoon students 1 love children is the reason she gave for opening the school she hopes to employ another qualified instructor an assistant and a cook she said she would rather see children in day care than pushed from one babysitter to another in spite of the poor response to the recent regional day care survey mrs loftus is confident the service is needed confidence is necessary as a considerable expenditure will be required to outfit the facility the yard at the church must be fenced canvass cots bedding toys and dishes will all have to- be purchased mrs loftus said she will save money by building some of the toys and equipment herself she hopes to construct painting easels toy cupboards and some wooden toys she cant commit herself to applications until- shereceives- her licence but she said she would bevinterested in hearing from parents who need this service mrs loftus can be contacted at 6402109 parents sending their children to private day care centresare- still eligible for regional subsidy if they qualify- r planning board heaps praise on pit owner stouffville in a rare change of pace planning board recently had words of praise for a gravel pit operator rather than criticism james sabiston appeared with his attorney don hindson to ask the boards permission to expand his gravel pit onto the eastern half of his property at bloomington rd and extending from highway 48 almost to the 9th mr hindson showed slides of the part of the property which has already been reclaimed and he told them the part they now want to excavate will be reclaimed within four years he said the lopsoil would be kept for berms and then spread back over the land this is probably one of the few gravely operations m the municipality that does this kind of a job remarked councillor cathy joice and councillor merlyn baker also commended mr sabiston planning board are con cerned as the eastern portion of the pit borders on the hamlet of bloomington the board voted to allow the pit to operate as a non conforming use as it was estimated it would take a year to get a rezoning a site plan agreement will be required markham men arrested in theft stouffville two markham men have been arrested and charged with stealing a lincoln continental from grant ford mercury sales on main st on december 24 the car dealership was broken into and the car along with some other property was removed emerald isle motors war allegedly entered by the same pair according to york regional police the men dropped some of the goods off at their residence and then drove to toronto they were stopped there and one of the men was charged for impaired driving and for driving while under suspension toronto police discovered the other man was wanted on a bench warrant by york regional police for failing to 3 appear in court on a charge of causing a disturbance v through an investigation by regional police it was learned the two were in possession of the stoien car and other articles from the car dealerships one of the men was discovered to be in possession of a quantity of marijuana christmas day they were transferred into the custody of yorregional police patrick lindsay 18 of the markham motel has been charged with break enter and theft possession over 200 possession under failure to appear and possession of marijuana the other man roderick jones 20 also a resident of the markham motel has been charged vwith break enter and theft possession over 200 possession under impaired driving and driving while under suspension stouffville j- local trustee harry k bowes termed provincial capital expenditure cutbacks a severe setback to all our hard- work in a year end statement to the tribune mr bowes said that the reduction in provincial grants has effectively killed three projects in stouffville these include renovations to summitview public school ordered by the ontario fire marshalls office in 1974 an addition to orchard park and the addition of a gymnasium and resource centre at summitview it is a difficult blow and we will have to work all the harder to achieve our aims and ob jectives he said it seems to me that the premier and the minister of education have abdicated their responsibility for equal educational op portunities for the children of ontario anything not passed in sketch plans by nov 1 1975 will be reexamined the trustee said of the provincial govern ments move mr bowes was critical of the way cuts are being affected in the education field he suggested that the ministry has approved grants for things that are unnecessary he pointed to a recent decision by the york county board of education to hire a special coordinator for com munity use of schools mr bowes felt that the only reason the board hired such a person was that a provincial grant is available to pay the saary the board is budgeting 29000 next year for a librarian and books for the professional library in the new ad ministrative building a french program will cost 100000 next year and rise to 300000 in three years mr boweselt these projects could have been delayed w s- v thing they should be cutting down on hesaid limiting the mill rate in crease will not be easy and could well provide the biggest challenge for the board in 1976 i think its going to mean a tightening up and re- evaluation of some of the programs that i have always felt were questionable the whitchurchstouffville trustee said he said that to hold a 10 per cent increase in the mill rate would mean cuts of greater than 10 per cent in the budget as teachers salaries are fixed by contract providence saves barn stouffville it was only providence that saved the barn of jake grove saturday night mr grove and his wife were returning home and as they pulled into the driveway mr grove looked toward the barn and saw one corner on fire mrs grove quickly called the stouffville fire department which easily extinguished the blaze a heat bulb used to keep pipes from freezing is behevedto have caused the blaze they were very lucky it just burned off some boards fire chfef walt smith said he estimated damage at 400 the grove farm is south of stouffville rd on theth cone provincial cuts could hit ss board stouffville reduction in provincial grants for capital expenditures in 1976 couldhave grave consequences for the york region roman catholic separate school board board chairman jack mcdermott told the tribune last week mr mcdermott was one of a number of board chairmenj from ontario attending a meeting t education minister thomas wells m toronto dec 18 t grants for building capital expenditures will be cut from 1 the 1975 figure of 125 million to 89 million next year v mr mcdermott expressed concern at the cuts because the york region board is undergoing major expansion it is one of six boards of education in the province experiencing significant growth he said that between september 1974 and september 1975 the yrrcssb enrollment increased by 1000 students bringing the total to about 6800 this current school year enrollment increase is estimated at about 800 mr mcdermott said our worry is that we will have to build more schools he said some of the big local stories of 1975 by don bernard stouffville at years end we often look back on events fof past 365 days and some of the if milestones in our lives it is the same with a newspaper often looking back through the pages one comes away with an impression that the year was one full of in- teresting and varied news 4 i ijr and 1975 was a year of some big stories in the tribunes readership area looking over them one has the feeling that the one news story the biggest of the year in our opinion dominates the others in significance the cancellation post ponement of the pickering airport made us feel we were part of an event that could have great historical significance the story itself bobbed to the surface early in 1975 when the government published the report of the airport inquiry commission headed by justice hugh gibson the commission not sur prisingly favored the pickering t airport but opened a can of worms with a suggestion that malton be expanded until the t v i t- 1 r- full pickering project could be built hidden in the reports bowels was the suggestion that property in claremont be ex propriated and that property in stouffville should be acquired by the government the report raised more questions than it answered and the people or planes group took up the fight now joined by the newly formed save stouffville committee a march along stouffvilles main st in february dramatized the op position i on feb 20 the federal cabinet decided to build the pickering airport but with only one runway later the federal government agreed to fund an ambient noise study of stouff ville to be conducted by noise expert andrew s harris whose evidence had been cited in the gibson commission report in relation to noise levels in stouffville he had been hired by the towinof whitchurch stouffville to present evidence at the commission hearings in the summer the provincial government asked t federal government for a twoyear delav in the airport to work out cost sharing for ser- 5 i -ffyr- vicing the airport the federal government declined and a group of local women vowed they would offer passive resistance if construction was begun on the airport demolition work began on some of the houses and a con frontation was brewing then the provincial election in tervened the government of william davis was returned with a minority and at the first cabinet meeting after the election the decision was made to refuse to provide services for the airport the nexjday sept 25 1975 see news pg 3 t vearl crowder58 katedi6oura probably earned the most money withs sponsors earfikated 17 hours last year but said he should be allowed to skate one hour lets for each year older hegets y f ft don bernard