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

the tribune wednesday august 23 1989 p3 property tax rebate changes irk local farmer the ontario governments pro posed ehangesno the farm pro perty tax rebate program will cause serious problems for those struggling to make ends meet local farmers say these changes will definitely affect farmers who depend on the rebate to pay the taxes ontario federation of agriculture member and local farmer brian gibson said in an interview last week how can a farmer pay the taxes if he cant afford it i dont think farmers on the whole are very happy with the changes because most need the rebate the farm property tax rebate is paid to owners of farmlands and buildings to protect them from bearing disproportionately heavy municipal and school taxes gibson said because farm families own more land than urban families they often pay more municipal and school taxes despite using the same amount of general municipal services as urban landowners and to compensate for the discrepancy the ontario govern ment passed legislation two years ago to give farmers a tax rebate to balance the system but in june the provincial cash for news help us to be the best com munity newspaper possible we need the most up-to-the- minute news as it happens if you see news in progress callus at 6402100 we pay 1 00 for the best news tip of the month you can remain anonymous if you wish but if not your picture may be published in the newspaper no school buses allowed to park on street overnight school buses will not be allow ed to park on city streets for an extended period of time whitchurchstouffville council determined aug 8 in a lively debate near the end of a long tiring council meeting councillors agreed to disallow bus drivers the right to park their photomatt nicholls ollie pellett smooths out screenings and gravel in front of his home on hawthorn ave the 40year resident grew tired of waiting for the town to fix the rough spots on his street and like some of his neighbors he took matters into his own hands stouffville man makes street repairs himself a stouffville man took matters into his own hands last week and fixed the damaged street in front of his home ollie pellett 60 of hawthorn ave spent over an hour last wednesday patching up part of the badlyeroded street in front of his home because the town failed to do so i just didnt like the way it looked the 40year resident said in an interview i like the looks of my house and something like that doesnt improve it pellett says the condition of hawthorn ave is terrible and both it and other streets in ward 5 should be repaired and he thinks the town has a responsibility to do something about it as soon as possible i dont blame the town at all but something had to be done so i did it he said pellett who works for markhambased miller paving ltd said other hawthorn residents have made similar repairs to the street im not the only one who has done something he said my neighbors just put in their own culvert and others have patched up the road ward 5 councillor doug alles who lives on nearby north st said the problems will be addressed very soon alles said the towns road repairs budget for 1990 is large enough to cover the costs of fixing damaged roads in the area i definitely want to get the roads fixed alles said its a very expensive procedure but we will try to fix the bad spots one of the main reasons improvements to the roads have not been made is because a new traffic light at stouffer st and main st is being installed alles said thats a priority and it took up a lot of our budget but soon we will work on the roads vehicles on the streets because it would set an undesirable precedent the buses take up six or seven spaces which is too much mayor fran sainsbury told coun cil and do you know what we will end upjwith in the future transport trucks will park on streets too mayor sainsbury said a similar problem is cropping up in scar borough where parked buses are becoming a threat to driver safety they just shouldnt be on the streets she said but councillor ron robb disagreed with the mayor saying he supported the bus drivers right to park near their own home this isnt kingston rd this is whitchurchstouffville robb said were still a small com munity and i just think its un fair all bus drivers want is to park their vehicles near their homes robb said he could think of no justifiable reason to disallow buses on the streets theyre not bothering anybody he said whats next are you going to tell me i wont be able to park my car in my bloody driveway council voted in favor of bann ing the buses despite councillor robbs protest council holds on retirement lot decision whitchurchstouffville council will wait until early october before voting on revisions to the towns official plan concerning retirement lots on farms town planner michael saunders told the tribune this week that council will make a decision after the ontario ministry of agriculture and food votes on the issue in late september or early october the ministry was supposed to vote on the issue in the spring but a new policy was not propos ed mr saunders said theres no use in proceeding with this issue until the ministry of agriculture and food votes on it mr saunders said it would be a waste of time for council to vote until a new policy comes out the decision to implement a new policy regarding retirement lots for fulltime farmers is a touchy issue with many local farmers mr saunders said some local representatives of the ontario federation of agriculture have expressed an interest in obtaining a special policy for retiring farmers while other members want to prohibit retirement lots off active farm ing operations previous councils have also been divided on the issue mr saunders said government revamped the rebate policy making it more dif ficult for certain farmers to ob tain the tax rebate under the new legislation multiple income farmers and farmers renting their land will receive significantly smaller rebates for these parttime farmers the rebate will fall five per cent for every 1000 over 40000 the farmer makes outside the farm and the rebate will be zero when offfarm income reaches 60000 but to many local farmers who depend on multiple incomes and renting land to survive the new changes seem unfair many local farmers need a se cond income to offset expenses said ted barry a local market farmer many farmers rent their land but these changes penalize you for that barry said many young couples interested in starting family farms will be hurt by the rebate changes because startup costs are very high young couples often need two incomes to make it he said and its pretty hard to take something away once youve had it the government gave this without people asking and how they want to take it back well theyre going to have quite a fight local farmer harvey brown thinks the governments decision to alter the rebate system will hurt some ontario farmers but he doesnt think the changes will force farmers to alter their profession i dont think it will drive farmers out of farming brewn said but it will put up the cost of farming farmers actually are the hardest people to drive out and this new policy just makes it harder brown said agricultural groups across the province are currently fighting the proposed rebate changes movie mayhem photorick madonik a joint canadianfrenchgerman production of nick francis novel bloodsport is underway the film in the frame has been in production for six weeks in canada last saturday the film crew blew up a farm house on sethesda rd west of kennedy rd as part of one scene the project is set to return to germany for more shooting next week earn extra money become a carrier today attention flyer advertisers we can deliver your flyers for as little as 3 h cents apiece so far this year we have delivered 956632 liirs doortcnioor in markham unionville moliken stouffville uxbridge and sur rounding rural routes we can deliver your flyers on the day you want in the area you want any quantity from 5000 to 35000 call advertising at 2942000 6402100 or distribution at 2948244 6402100 i call 2948244 or 6402100