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tribune 35000copies vol 3 no 20 a metroland community newspaper saturday may 16 1987 64 pages 25 cents its apple blossom time mary hill of markham takes time to smell the apple blossoms along with a friends huskie kayla at applewood farm in whitchurch- stouffville the farm is 105 kilometres north of hwy 7 and features pickyourown strawberries and apples in season weather forecasts for the long weekend seem favorable for plenty of other favorite outdoor activities sjoerd witteveen policy sparks debate by denise mcdonald a new policy eliminating sidewalks on dead end streets and non arterial roads in whitchurchstouffville has created yet another dilemma for members of town council on april 27 contrary to residents wishes council voted in favor of putting in sidewalks on beryl ave percy lane and sunset blvd in accordance with a subdivision agreement between victoria woods development and the town of whitchurchstouffville now two weeks later residents both for and against the installation of street walkways appeared before council after learning walks would not be put in on ironwood cres one of the reasons many people purchased their homes here in town is because sidewalks were planned for the street doug be nedict of 14 ironwood crescent said at tuesday nights council meet ing although i purchased my home as a resale i did consult the sales office and was told yes sidewalks were part of the project and that the builder pays for them as part of the development rw boudreau 10 ironwood cres also claimed he was informed in march 1986 that sidewalks would still be installed the major reason i moved from my pasttiome was the lack of sidewalks he said in a letter addressed to council members one of the children on my present street is handicapped its particularly unsafe for her to play on the streets according to ward 6 councillor jim sanders the towns policy to eliminate sidewalks on stub roads was to help create a more parklike setting however he feels this is not being communicated quickly enough to prospective buyers we cant look into the future and say by having sidewalks acci dents will be prevented mr sanders said we had to make a deci sion one way or the other and we chose the one we felt was best reid patterson of 128 ironwood cres speaking on behalf of resi dents opposed to sidewalk installation agreed i admit everyones major concern is child safety mr patterson said but after talking to all my neighbors everyone agreed most children will play in the streets anyway ninety per cent of speeders on our street are construction workers who want to get on and off the job as fast as possible any other drivers are residents who know kids are playing on the streets and are particularly cautious knowing it could be their child i myself never rush to get home when i went around talking to people i went into a garage and saw 200 of road hockey equip ment the homeowner con tinued my first thought was this is going to be a good safe residen tial community where parents arent afraid someone is going to come racing up the street he is concerned sidewalks would limit driveway space and force many residents to park in the street thereby increasing the danger of children running out be tween parked cars councillor ron robb said i raised my own kids without side walks and fortunately none were hurt but no matter how good drivers intentions are theres al ways one bad apple in the bunch ive seen some pretty close calls involving residents almost hitting a child if i could have sidewalks on my street today i would feel a lot safer explained mayor fran sains- bury when residents from aspen cres came in saying they didnt want sidewalks we decided to take cashinlieu for these streets rather than do them one at a time my concern was the number of streets in town requir ing maintenance hospital tenders opened by maxine share were one giant step closer to having our hospital markham- stouffville hospital president michael butcher opened sealed tenders vying for the projects construction contract thursday the low bid came from ellis- don limited at 42301000 hospital board chairman mac cosburn said all the bids the high est came from v k mason con struction limited at 44670000 were lower than anticipated cos- burn said estimates were approx imately 45 million but project manager michael barstow cautioned there are several steps before the contract contd on page 3 whats inside premier david peterson trade tailed damion pieri puzzles over a test question hes in french im mersion50