The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

task force on church sites by steve houston staff reporter a religious needs task force will be created later this year in response to markhams new rural area bylaw that prohibits chur ches in the towns outlying areas the task force is expected to address church site and religious needs of various jroups in and around markham church officials town staff and local politicians are expected to make up the group the task force will also deal with markhams diminishing church sites that have been designated within those town limits but many of the intown sites are at premium prices and in many cases too expensive for religious groups says regional councillor bud bonner bonner said many local church congregations have outgrown current facilities resulting in numerous applications for site ex pansion building additions and new facilities he also said the town has had to release land for development after being set aside for religious uses within growing subdivisions new churches have since been constructed outside the towns traditional urban boundary the rural area bylaw must now be amended to allow churches he added but markham councillor gord landon claims some applications received by town planning staff are for churches that dont serve local residents he added that the preference for sites north of town boundaries is based on cheaper land prices and the need for larger sites prior to the towns rural area bylaw that prohibits church uses unless they serve outlying areas applications were multiplying he said what we were finding was that every corner in the rural area was going to be a church landon said recently we want to establish a framework to see where we can accommodate them in the town he said markham would likely compromise with groups that have outgrown facilities and noted that churches are more fre quently used for nonreligious purposes local clubs daycare agencies and private school organizations now use churches on offservice days landon pointed out but he questioned the possibility of outside church groups using markham for new sites and said the task force will address that question there are a number of sites needed landon said but its a matter of are we going to provide for church needs in our area or for the needs of the metro toronto area bonner said the task force will have to deal with markhams diverse religious denominations and their various beliefs will in fluence their requests for example the requirements of certain religions may effect site selection the task force has to take in church denominations no matter what they are bonner noted it wont be looking strictly at sites it will be looking at their other needs 1987 commemorative stamp series 31 vandals set fire on roof by paul pivato staff reporter a drunken rooftop party turned ugly last weekend when vandals burst a gas line and set a mar kham industrial building on fire local firefighters doused a fuel- fed blaze atop the ontario decal building on riviera dr early sun day morning fire chief ken beckett said the roof was littered with empty li quor bottles and the parking lot below was strewn with broken glass vandals used a concrete block to puncture a natural gas line and tore vents off the roof said chief beckett a rooftop unit heater was des troyed by the flames and water seaped into the building through the vent holes firefighters had to scrape away about 100 square feet of burnt asphalt on the roof it doesnt look like much from the road but theres a lot of dam age up there said chief beckett damage to the building is esti mated at 60000 company sales manager peter romer said the incident has left employees baffled it sure as hell scares you when they do these sort of things he said was it straight vandalism and stupidity or was it planned romer suspects that the person who lit the fire with a lighter was burned by a fireball when the gas ignited and now has burns to the hands or face i hope they find somebody he added you lie in bed at night and wonder is someone else there giant complex coming by steve houston staff reporter markham has pulled off another corporate coup mayor carole bell will announce monday details of a new multimillion dollar development plan being undertaken by the in- ducon development corp bell said yesterday the develop- ment compares with those of the seltzer organization and the pres idents choice development that nears one million square feet in size she also said this latest corpo rate acquisition will generate more tax dollars and jobs for the town and its residents this development is the third major announcement within a year last fall the seltzer group announced plans for a multi- million dollar buttonville office development while a presidents choice project nearby joined the town in the new year this is sort of typical of whats happening in markham with the investment that developers are willing to make said bell yester day every new building that goes up is a huge new job creation program she said the project will prompt a visit to premier david peterson weekender october 17 1987 p3 markham firefighters number four station sped to 42 riviera dr in markham early sunday morning to douse a fire started by an explo sion the building is occupied by ontario decal bill lanning trustees want 13 projects funded by deb bodine champion the york region separate school board is hitting the minis try of education hard with a plea for completion of 13 projects for 1988 two in markham and one in stouffville the fiveyear capital expendi ture forecast of the york region separate school board was rati fied tuesday at the number three position on the list of priorities is a new school in milliken mills the fourth separate school in the area on last years fiveyear forecast the project was placed at number 15 slated for completion in 1990 due to the rapid development of the area north of steeles avenue east of mccowan road the school is intended for completion next fall pending government allocations of funds enrollment in the milliken mills area increased 226 per cent between sept 30 1986 and sept 9 1987 the new milliken school will accommodate 668 pupils it is to be located on featherstone ave south of denison st mother teresa catholic school is number eleven on the 1988 priority list upon completion 350 pupils would be accommodated in a 10pack addition to the present school a 10pack is a group of 10 port ables contained under a common roof it is the preferred method of increasing classroom space in areas where it is uncertain that additional space will be required in the future we have to guarantee future pupil places with the ministry explained ken bourrie manager of services otherwise we may have trouble getting new schools allocated because of the empty pupil places the construction of a perma nent addition to st mark catholic school in stouffville is 10th on the priority list for fall 1988 comple tion designed to accommodate 350 students a new milliken mills catholic secondary school is included in the fiveyear capital expenditure forecast scheduled for opening in 1989 the school will house 1500 students but the location is not yet known i dont know how this new gov- enment will view this said john zupancic director of education they have a big majority and well have to work hard to make our views known the york region separate school board has placed three high schools on the list of priori ties for 1989 phase ii of st eli zabeth high school in thornhill north central catholic high school in aurora and the milliken mills project the separate school board is hoping for special allocation of funds this fall in order to get the top priority projects started as quickly as possible we deliver we con deliver your dyers for as little as 35c each call advertising al 2942200 or distribution at 2940244 1987 flyers delivered looctl iconotiiislsurvtribunk 11599200 mdrtilandostributirij- 256111900 f lyfoc with weekender saturday super centre ftoademit carvel ke cream mp ica pinaville ultra mart tuesday zelters sears almirapine