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vol 102 no 43 a metroland community newspaper wednesday october 25 1989 40 50 cents j residents fined false alarms are causing grief for fire dept officials tracy kibble staff reporter whitchurchstouffville and area residents could be slapped with hefty fines to cover climbing false fire alarm costs whitchurchstouffville firefighters spend 17 per cent of their time answering false alarms at a cost of nearly 20000 for local ratepayers fire chief bill brown told council incommittee at last tuesdays meeting the volunteer department sends out a vehicle about 35 times a year to answer dud calls a high per cent for one category he also said some of the false alarms are repeated at the same residence but the department has no power over the companies operating the alarm systems the problem area seems to be with automatic dialers to alarm companies caused by anything from shower steam to burnt toast he added bell manhole workers sometimes set off an alarm just by touching the wrong thing the chief said the fire marshall suggested charging repeat of fenders for a false call as a deterent for repeat occurrences ive been called out of bed several times at one or two in the morn ing the problem happens continually with alarm companies some stationed in ottawa with thousands of customers he said councillor doug alles said he would like to see a letter sent to the province and suggested a device to record the calls should be on record otherwise we dont have foresight to see what were dealing with councilloremmerson said residents should be informed more clearly that the whitchurchstouffville fire department is not full- time but works on a volunteer basis it takes time and money answering to false alarms chief brown told council the costs include mens wages costs of a vehicle and operational costs which three years ago totalled to about 560 an hour it would be considerably higher now he added drop a 700 bill on someones plate and theyll look at something other than burnt toast said town treasurer ed blackburn ironically it was reported several calls were to townowned buildings such as the recreation complex and the library stouffville store target of thieves york regional police are still looking for suspects who broke into the stouffville national sports centre store at the stouff ville sales barn this weekend according to store manage ment and police officials the thieves gained access to the building sometime after closing friday by driving a vehicle probably a truck through the side door of the store once inside the thieves drove away with a large quantity of stolen goods and damaged the door structure police arrived at the store at about 745 am after being called by the stores hockey department supervisor dean lacoursiere the employee made the discovery saturday at 6 am store management said police told them the vehicle used was probably a truck because of the high hit or impact marks set high up cn the door but neither police officials nor store manage ment will reveal the cost of damage or stolen goods until a press release is available however a spokesman for the police said a detective has been assigned the case to uncover any clues the thieves may have left behind new arrival vvvv pholorick madonik doug and barb todd of stouffville were visited by the stork quite literally last week jocelyn 6 and aynsley 3 welcomed home a new sister alexis and the yard sported a large white and yellow stork which announced to the neighborhood of the babys arrival contest faowcohtest see page 16 washpfornem v help us to be the best community newspaper we can be we need the most current news as it ou see news in progress or if you know of fa good story call us at 64021 00 in stouffville iay1mforhebettnews runners vtf sdss tried but couldnt retain crosscountry crown see page 12