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st ui iiimun vii jrin jsir iir 51 the tribune tuesday october 14 1997 p 3 harry bowes celebrated nine terms mike adler staff reporter more than 22 years ago harry bowes got himself elected to york regions public school board because he felt trustees werent talking enough with teachers and parents now thats hes decided not to run again after nine terms rep resenting whitchurch-stouf- fville things are starting to seem like the way they were then cooking lesson bonnie stern author broadcaster and store owner whips ups something special at a demonstration at angics last week they were pretty bad and it seems that theyve come along full circle now bowes said fri day a day after he withdrew his nomination for a trustee position in markham there wasnt any dialogue in 74 and there doesnt seem to be any dialogue now the 1974 teach ers strike kept one of his children out of school for 42 days but bowes was part of a group watching educational bureaucracy that sided with teachers against trustees they thought were too hardline web succeeded in replacing many trustees including one for stouffville but when the new trustee was suddenly transfered out of town bowes who had managed his campaign won the seat in a byelection the people just twisted my arm he recalled once at the board he chaired it for six terms bowes built a reputation as a hard worker who didnt bring any political agenda to the board table he always remembered that the board is losing a fine ambassador for the board and for the kids bill hogarth he was there for education said angela cumbers a former par ent council chair for orchard park public school bowes encouraged parent involvement met the heads of par ent councils reg ularly and fought hard to relieve overcrowding in stouffville schools she said hes always given a tremerf- dous amount of his time and effort to make things happen bowes did more than he need ed to do sponsoring a student award and going to every meet ing involving parents and even drama and music nights at stouffville district secondary school said principal rod leonard hes never not in attendance he makes being a trustee a pri ority in his life leonard said friday the board is losing a fine ambassador for the board and for the kids said education director bill hogarth bowes brought a sense of fairness to the board as well as an incredible knowledge of its history he said theres going to be a void harry bowes without him hogarth said bowes said he regrets going but wouldnt run against other candidates in markhams area 4 which had none besides bowes until last week the longest serving trustee on the board had already stepped aside in stouffville for east gwillimbury incumbent vir ginia hackson who got his blessing as a replacement after a while you do so much and you have to let someone else take over said bowes i i he always remembered that theres going to be a void take over said ttowes regional council hears plea to start paramedic service usa queen metroland staff dr larry bacher watched his 44- yearold neighbor die of cardiac arrest on the side of the road five months ago because york regions paramedics couldnt perform advanced life saving techniques bacher pleaded with regional coun cillors last thursday to improve yorks emergency medical service which lags behind other areas such as toronto london peterborough and lindsay bacher backed by vaughan councils lor bernie green another doctor and a dozen paramedics presented a 5000- name petition from residents demand ing better service they want to sec paramedics receive advanced life sav ing training to improve their chances of saving critical patients yorks ambulance personnel can now administer five drugs in the field compared to 1 5 in areas with advanced service but they cant insert the breathing tube or inject the intravenous drugs an unconscious cardiac arrest victim needs the group also wants to see defibril lators machines that shock a cardiac arrest victims heart into beating again paramedics perform a mock rescue council on thursday installed on fire trucks because fire fighters are often the first emergency personnel on the scene the group is encouraging residents to take cpr courses because trained bystanders arc often able to keep someones heart beating until emergency crews arrive theyd like to sec mandatory cpr training in high schools but officials suggested they wont be prior to the meeting of york region able to afford to beef up service because they are being hit by provincial downloading and pooling health and social services across the gta however bachcr argued better ser vice could save dozens of lives a year in york he told them how his thornhill neighbor real estate agent allan sidof- sky was shooting hoops in the drive way with his 15ycarold son in may when he suddenly felt dizzy and col lapsed sidofskys wife asked bacher to save her husband who had no pulse he started cpr while someone called 91 1 when paramedics arrived they hooked him up to a defibrillator and tried cpr again advancelevel para medics could have delivered needed drugs at the scene bacher said how ever advancelevel paramedics are not currently available in york region ambulance workers continued to work on sidofsky in vain horror was building during the third and last set of shocks the heart electrical activity completely disap peared from there there was no return bachcr said although he was pronounced dead at the hospital he really died lying on the side of the street in front of 50 family and friends dr earl teitelbaum pointed out york paramedics responded to 303 cardiac arrest calls last year but could only save the lives of eight with advanced care he argued as many as 50 would be alive today fifty york region residents who died last year might well have been resuscitated and gone on to live pro ductive lives teitelbaum said paramedics with advanced training could have provided better treatment to another 2200 patients suffering other ailments he added but while councillors said they want to improve service they suggested they cant afford to the region is being forced to take over funding of two provincially operated ambulance ser vices in the south part of the region in january at a cost of 1 1 million a year over the next two years council will decide how it wants to run ambulances throughout the region on a permanent basis options include operating the service directly or hiring a private contractor meanwhile provincial plans to share health and social service costs across the gta beginning next year will see york contributing 4 million toward ambulance service in metro council lors arc furious they have to pool costs especially since metros service is far superior to yorks in metro where paramedics have advanced life saving training there arc 84 ambulances for every 100000 resi dents compared to 34 in york georgina mayor rob grossi said any increase in yorks ambulance service will result in higher property taxes houston ford 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