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p 4 tribone rj6vember firr st comment graylane was murdered by thieves stouffville tribune here lies graylane boutique 1986 1996 rest in peace such would be the inscription on a tombstone for one of our towns finest businesses if we had grave yards for such things but you might add a corollary to its grave- marker murdered graylane served high fashion to stouffville women for a decade it brought highend clothing at affordable prices from the sole dominion of the fancy shops of bloor st and hazelton lanes to stouffville countless special occa sions were celebrated in a gray lane outfit and countless more gifts were purchased there on a street where retailing has been in a downward spiral for much of the past decade graylane was one of a handful of bright lights people came from miles around to shop in the quaint pink and grey store on main st now it is gone after two sense less assaults on her store in the past month by thieves irene kubi- ca has packed it in her dream has been murdered and this town is the worse for it yet another business person has had to suffer need lessly because of thieves kubica said if i was to quit or move i wanted to make that decision but i cant theyve criminals have made it for me we hope the thieves who shut this business down are caught before they can murder another persons enterprise our condo lences irene mo i sttlt 8yttrku0m 6244 main st stouffville ont l4a1e2 905 6402100 905 6492292 classified 905 6402874 fax 905 6405477 publisher patricia pappas general managereditor andrew mair editorinchief jo ann stevenson director of advertising debra weller retail manager mike rogerson classified manager stacey allen distribution manager barry j goodyear administration vivian oneil operations mgr pamela nichols questions news andrew mair editor joan kansberry julie caspersen mike adler reporters sjoerd witteveen steve somerville photographers retail advertising joan marshman catherine dunkeld classified bonnie rondeau real estate joan marshman distribution arlene maddock reception ruth le blanc the stouffville tribune published every wednesday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publish ing and distribution group of community newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post cityparent collingwoodwasaga con nection east york mirror etobicoke guardian george town independentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week midlandpenetanguishene mirror markham economist and sun milton canadian champi on mississauga news newmarket aurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawawhitbyclarington this week peterborough this week richmond hillthorn- hillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror todays seniors uxbridge tribune contents cannot be reprinted without written permission from the publisher e3le1 time is ripe for amalgamation beyond toronto heres a weather report the winds of change will not bypass stouffville or uxbridge last week during a conversa tion with one of the brightest pub- he servants of all time i paid close attention to the silence its not what david crombie said its what he didnt say as we all know silence can speak volumes as chairman of the province- wide who does what panel crombie is about to unveil the new face of ontario with about 10 days to go before the report will be made public crombie is naturally keeping things close to the vest crombies careful hes intense hes quiet hes got something important to tell uswed better brace ourselves not only did crombies panel look at who does what its advised the government on ways to elimi nate duplication how to handle overregulation and blurred responsibility for the delivery of local and provincial services as well the panel is helping to imple ment the changes with the public feeling unloved and overtaxed the panels goal is to reduce cost and make govern ment more accountable there are lots of questions is duplication an issue here at home in york and durham regions there are a total of 17 municipali ties this means we pay 17 chief administration officers each about 100000 a year while were at it we employ 17 fire chiefs 17 plan ning directors 17 public works directors and on it goes believe me not one of them comes cheap heres another question do york and durham really need 17 may ors and aboutloo municipal coun cillors and why do we need four joan tan s b e rry megasized school boards covering york and durham while were short on teachers were overdos ing on trustees and administra tors the who does what final report seems to be proactive it will not sit on a shelf already weve seen major tax reform and more recent ly changes to child welfare crombies worn many hats city councillor toronto mayor and fed eral cabinet minister a while ago he headed up the mega burling ton to clarington waterfront study giving public access to lake ontarios shoreline crombie proved himself a long time ago the little man can do a big job when people like crombie are in charge i sleep better at night in our chat i pointed out that the question most often asked on the homefront is will whitchurchstouffville be swal lowed up by markham heres crombies answer all options are on the table he added were not down to exact boundaries and borders but its all within the context of what were doing while were on the who does what subject im giving the thumbs up signal to a plan to create a super city to be known as toronto since this move would eliminate metros six municipali ties it addresses a duplication problem with one city taxpayers would no longer would be paying the extra cost that comes with having toronto etobicoke scar borough city of york east york and north york when it comes to the plan to build a 25 million town hall in whitchurchstouffville my jurys still out especially when i think about the town halls in uxbridge and in markham maybe we should be thinking amalgamation mega superstores overstimulate the senses on a recent weekend in defer ence to my yuppie origins i vis ited one of the new mega book stores which are being touted as the wave of the future you could tell it was a real bookstore because it had a star bucks cafe where faded 40- somethings such as your corre spondent could sip on a cappuc cino or latte when the strangled screams of echoboomers protesting in the wake of par ents determined upon improv ing their malleable little minds became unendurable of course you had to line up to get a seat and before that you had to line up to get a parking spot but if you want to hang out at the happening places you have to be prepared to make sacrifices despite having been open only two weeks the store already looked wellthumbed small children were every where some hung onto their daddys pant leg in a vain effort to gain attention others thun dered up and down the aisles between bargain priced biogra phies and literature and fic tion scraping the serious browsers leg with the sharp edge of a toy airplane en route there were lots of books all right more than 100000 on everything from philosophy to needlepoint along with racks and racks of magazines cd roms and other stuff which was beyond the comprehension of this technologically chal lenged consumer as a dedicated bibliophile i had expected to be enthralled at the prospect of being in the presence of so many books instead i experienced the kind of battle fatigue which sets in whenever i enter the portals of a superstore on the plus side no one greet ed me as i came in or invited me to have a nice day at any stage of my visit however as a person who once spent half an hour at a sal vation army thrift shop trying kates corner kate hebe to decide between two jackets each of which cost one dollar i am clearly not the target audi ence for todays mega stores with their massive inventory and army of employees i even began to develop a sneaking sympathy for imelda marcos and her daily ordeal of choosing one among the thou sands of pairs of shoes which were her trademark for me the ideal bookstore is an intimate place where the owner knows my taste in books and where conversation and ideas are exchanged in the com fortable ambiance of a country house library to the accompani ment of soothing classical piano music or perhaps some mellow jazz if a book i want is not on the shelf the owner can always order it for me and that will give me an excuse to return and enjoy another prolonged browse when i visited the book super market however it put me in mind of a cross between a large daycare centre and a fast food restaurant in one area a recently pub lished author was trying in vain to read excerpts from his works over the hubbub of squabbling children and exasperated par ents whose attempts to instill the finer points of literature into their offsprings brains had clearly misfired overwhelmed by the whole experience i left emptyhanded but perhaps i was just suffering from postreading trauma as defined by the late robertson davies there are times when i think that the reading i have done in the past has had no effect except to cloud my mind and make me indecisive