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

v p 4 tribune january 15 1997 st comment email address stouffvilletribune pressnetnet confusion reigns over announcement we are still playing the wait-and- see game with the new education funding formula john snobelen the ontario minis ter of education announced on monday massive changes to the edu cation system in ontario he said he will be cutting the num ber of boards and crippling the cur rent power base that trustees enjoy he also said the funding for educa tion will not be coming from the property tax rolls instead snobelen expects revenues to come from busi ness income tax and provincial grants were going to focus on the class room he stated in his address in toronto monday but what the new changes mean to you have yet to be disclosed will taxes go up will they stay the same or will they drop what happens to those boards with huge deficits how will smaller communities like ours manage with a representative potentially from a larger centre what kind of service will we receive these are just a few questions that spring to mind trustees will be making far less those that survive what will the standard curriculum announced be like what reliance will the government place on the parent councils to take up the slack left by fewer trustees the plan may be in place but we think it will be ages before we can even begin the contemplate the ramifi cations wait and see stouffville tribune 6244 main st stouffville ont l4a 1e2 905 6402100 905 6492292 classified 905 6402874 fax 905 6405477 publisher patricia pappus 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 raaslxjrry kathleen griffin mike acller reporters sjoerd witteveen steve somerville photographers julie caspersen copy editor 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 collingwoodavasaga 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 oshawawhitby clarington 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 bbhbwmbmmb bb3bbhr9 inconvenience of highway noise deserves a tax break if i had a dollar for every time ive written a story about noise id be able to retire to a quiet place take it from one who knows noise garbage and the safety of children make up the nimby agenda i didnt have much use for not in my back yard nimby types until the provincial government announced plans to run a high way through my familys back yard my letter to the province read something like this dear province i want the route for hwy 407 changed dont get me wrong ive got nothing against highways providing one doesnt touch my life sorry guys but im not going to sit idle while you murder my farm if i dont speak up ill wake up to find your 407 sitting- smack dab in the middle of my west 100 i cant believe youd do this to me there are lots of places you can put your highway run it through bill reids farm hes a tory a heck of a nice fellow hed get a kick out of watching the traffic as for me i dont need it i dont want it and i dont like it so stop it xoxo joannie last week i wrote another nimby story i like nimbies since life starts at home we should protect our backyards about 30 vandorf residents have filed an official noise com plaint against hwy 404 claiming noise from the provincial highway is making life difficult christopher dymond of execu- tive drive said he wakes to the drone of traffic and it carries on night and day in vandorf youre in the country but you cant hear a off the record joan ransberry bird sing the only time the resi dents cant hear the 404 is when the train whistle blows the province has been told noise affects comfort use and enjoyment of property not to mention resale value the high way curves alongside vandorf and the noise increases by the natural valley terrain which causes trucks to gear down for the change in grade on both sides of the valley noise reduction tech nology exists a combination of berms barricades and tree plant ing along the 404 from vandorf sideroad to just south of the auro ra sideroad might do wonders the highway will always be there but its only fair to take steps to eliminate or- limit the effects of noise on communities beside the 104 if the province wont muffle the noise then prop erty taxes should be lowered i support the 32 residents who have filed individual appeals to the provinces assessment review board requesting that their 1997 taxes be lowered if the noise isnt muffled while the process appears to make no concession for noise in a number of cases taxpayers have successfully argued before the board that noise is a valid basis for reducing assessed value and in some countries noise is a big deal in finland noise pro tection is based on law before a new road is built research work has to be done to prove that the traffic on the possible new road will not produce too much noise for the nearby residential areas no new residential areas may be planned before its proved peaceful enough like the fins the resi dents of vandorf appreciate the quality of life my hat goes off to them resolution 310 may be a bit of a problem its 1997 and fame continues to elude me the latest venture to pique my interest is broadcasting this is because a i am a broad and b i could win 1000 if i turn out to be one of the national institute of broadcastings best new voices if i dont win an award i can pay the nib to take courses which may or may not make me a household name in barrie the more usual route would be to get a real job and thats some thing im seriously considering new years resolution 310 get a real job there are however a few nebulous reasons i havent yet embraced this course of action for instance my qualifi cations are a bit behind the times when i worked in an office i keyboarded letters and memo randa on a sweet old fashioned typewriter before the verb to keyboard was invented type writers for those too young to remember them were machines without screens into which you placed maybe five pieces of paper each separated from its neighbor by a sheet of messy inky carbon once you had anchored every thing in place by means of a metal bar you bashed the keys with gusto thus transferring the gibberish in your notebook direct ly onto the page the trick which i never quite mastered was not to make any mistakes because making a mis take meant you had to use white- out not just on page one but on all five pages then you had to wait several minutes for the copies to dry so you could mistype the next line without gumming everything together one of the companies that employed me expected us to type everything on green paper my memos liberally decorated with correction fluid appeared to be suffering from an advanced case of giant whitehead syn drome and when you used the copying kates corner kate gild e rd a i e machine the copies came out wet and had to be draped over desks and chairs to dry every time someone opened the door the resulting breeze would blow your work onto the floor where it would get smudged and crumpled and you would be obliged to start all over again todays human resources per sonnel departments dont give a toss about your ability to hang copies out to dry but they do require you to be pc literate pc stands for personal computer i have a personal computer but because its made by macintosh and not ibm or a clone thereof i am somehow considered pc illit erate employers also require profi ciency in mysterioussounding disciplines like excel word per fect lotus 1 2 3 or windows its no good pointing out that your mac had windows before your potential boss was out of diapers if its not ibm it doesnt count all this wouldnt be so bad if i were a team player another pre requisite for the job market du jour as it is i may qualify to start a franchise but you need money for that be a building superintendent id have to leave home or stuff envelopes assem ble jewellery or staple books together and earn up to 1500 a week in my own front room the experts tell you that talent alone is not enough what you have to do is market yourself which is like selling which is what i used to do and gave up because i was so bad at it what ever happened to being discov ered this weekend im going to buy a lottery ticket