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pithetore v x st johns closing a sign of the times textbooks will be closed and pens laid down for the last time this friday as st johns school for boys in claremont closes its doors the decision to close the school a shocking one to parents whose children attended its classes brings to an end 12 years of alternative education offered there and there was a loud emo tional outcry when the news was heard a school with oldfashioned values that always encouraged but never coddled its students st johns will leave an educational gap for the students who are there now and those who have long since graduated but the figures speak for themselvesdropping enrolment there were only 37 students and adminstrative difficulties contributed to the decision the schools approach to education which included cor- poral punishment for misbehavior is one that has fallen away in recent times unfortunately the closure is a statement that such traditional educational ideals are slowly dying uxbridge council not shy with builders when i was covering markham council last year for the markham economist and sun i got the impression that for a lot of issues councils hands were tied by the legalities of the planning act now i find that is not necessarily so whether it is naivete or fierce determination uxbridge council manages to keep developers pret ty much in line but before dissatisfied residents of uxbridge scramble for their pens to argue with that statement let me elucidate in markham there was a prevailing sense of fear permeating the air of the council viewpoint deb bodinechampion chambers fear that if council did not find appealing com promises with developers they would either desert the municipality thus depriving the town of a source of revenue or heaven forbid take them to the ontario municipal board but in uxbridge the air is dif ferent not only is it cleaner with the heady scent of manure stouf f ville uxbridge tribune publisher editorinchief editor director of advertising retail advertising mgr administration mgr promotionsdistribution mgr patricia pappas don bernard stephen houston debra weller susan berry chris bertram jennifer hutt published every wfednesday by metroland printing publishing and distributing at 9 heritage rd markham ontario l3p 1m3 tel 2942200 second class registration number 1247 the stouffvteuxbridge tnbune published every wfednesday at 54 main st w stouffvie is one of the metroland printing pubbskng and distributing group of suburban newspapers which includes the acton free press ajaxpickering news advertiser aurora banner brampton guardian burlington post etobicoke advertiserguardian georgetown independent mjton champion mississauga news newmarket era oakvbe beaver oshawawhitby this week richmond hilthomhavaugrian liberal scarborough mirror markham economist sun topic newsmagazine wlowdale mirror metroland prh- ting pubsshing and districting is a division of harlequin enterprises ltd national sales representative metroland corporate sales 4931300 6402100 6492292 here and there there is a strength of will that announces if you want to develop in our municipality you play by our rules this growing rural communtiy has declared publicly we dont want to grow up to be another markham dont get me wrong this is not meant to be a judgment against markham and uxbridge is not heaven on earth either like any community they both have their good and bad points but as it was growing into the urban metropolis it is today i think markham did lack a backbone and the spunk that uxbridge is showing as speculators flock to the area in an effort to increase their bank rolls the latest example of uxbridge chutzpah is what i refer to as the signs of status in union- ville people would assume i was referring to the mercedes in the driveway and the tennis court in the back 40 not so uxbridge council passed a resolution recently dictating that all developers must post publicly the status of the property they in tend to develop if a plan of sub division has not been registered with the township prospective buyers will know because the sign will be prominently displayed on site what a great idea im a firm believer that knowledge is power too bad it hadnt been im plemented a couple of years ago when hundreds of people in the town of markham were stranded because builders couldnt meet their closing dates granted many were a result of worker and material shortages but some resulted from delays caused by presales of homes in subdivision that got held up in the red tape of registration but thats not all you only have to compare the size of parks in the two communitie to see another substantial difference and the size of trees that are written into the subdivision agreements there are very few spindly twiglings in uxbridge neighborhoods several weeks ago uxbridge council denounced two models in phase v of testa heights because the entire garage pro truded out front of the house in markham is there any other kind and the present uxbridge council will not permit homes in subdivisions to back onto roads a common sight in other com munities in durham and in markham but probably the most refreshing attitude that uxbridge council exhibits is a resolute love of the land a respect for mother earth since several of the councillors are farmers that may not seem surprising but markham used to be a rural town too and look at it now uxbridge wants active farmland to remain active farmland not even a golf course is a permitted use on agriculturally zoned property and there are quite a few speculators attempting to shatter the councils resolve on that one of course there is a downside to all of this too in restricting lot sizes to two acres in the rural areas uxbridge is pricing itself out of the range of all but the elite the town of markham has done the same thing by only ap proving monolithic homes the only difference is the additional distance from metro is allowing the elite to own more property if they relocate to uxbridge and theyre doing just that uxbridge council does not necessarily want gargantuan homes scattered about the coun tryside but it is naive for them to expect developers to construct smaller more modest homes on the required two acre lots its just not profitable enough and money is the name of the game so as the estate homes pro liferate the per capita income of uxbridge residents will continue to rise and its already the highest in durham region and as more and more city folk relocate in the area attitudes are bound to change but for now uxbridge is a tough nut to crack markham may be more sophisticated more citified than uxbridge but when it comes to dealing with developers they could take a few lessons from their country cousins