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p 4 the tribune f hursdxxlatiuary i 1998 st thetribune thursday january 22 1998 vol 110 no 6 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council man send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial s your home safe it could be the best 40 or 50 you have ever spent it could save your life and that of your family its as vital as the smoke detector in your home a carbon monoxide detector the sad story about a father and sonkilled by carbon monox ide poisoning over the weekend in toronto is a highprofile reminder of a deadly and odourless killer what few may realize is that every year carbon monoxide kills about 300 canadians and makes another 1 500 of us sick yet a simple investment of between 40 and 80 at your local hardware store can save you from becoming a carbon monox ide statistic while 95 per cent of homes and apartments in canada have smoke alarms under 15 per cent have carbon monoxide detec tors carbon monoxide poisoning looks suspiciously like flu as symptoms include drowsiness headache nausea and dizzi ness in severe cases victims lose consciousness and die from asphyxiation your home needs projection from carbon monoxide gas if you have any kind of fuelburning furnace or appliance or if you have one or more fireplaces carbon monoxide can come from the fireplace furnace gas dryer or stove even a faulty vent pipe from your water heater can be deadly and newer homes are more at risk because with better insulation invisible toxic gases cant escape when carbon monoxide gas is sensed the detector triggers an alarm so occupants can escape these simple detectors are already saving lives every day have you got yours library public opinion doesnt count reader dear editor on monday dec 1 5 1 997 i attended the council in committee meeting at latcham hall my purpose in attending was to ask questions regarding a report sub- mitted to council by merlin dew ing cad in this report mr dewing made several statements that in my opinion as both a member of the whitchurch stouffville public library board anda resident of whitchurch stouffville cried out- for clarification one of these statements was there are issues that the previ ous library board saw differently than the council many of which impact on the towns ability to letters effectively operate when i asked mr dewing how a ninemember board of which two are councillors could have that much effectimpact on the towns ability to operate i was told by mr dewing that if i want ed an answer i could call him at his office a further statement that i ques tioned in mr dewings report read the board although autonomous must be an arm of council and be responsive to community needs so they relate people should be able to choose cable channels dear editor you are to be complimented on your editorial buyer beware jan 17 the state of the cable services in this province in particular is deplorable to say the least one would have thought that the debacle of negative billing would have taught the cable companies a lesson in public relations but here they go again we now have a situation where the public is more or less compelled to accept a load of trash in order to be able to watch one or two acceptable channels a clear example of arm twisting how much longer do we have to accept the principal of a pound of apples is a pound of apples take it or leave it the store now lets us pick our own apples i suggest we are entitled to the freedom of picking our own channels and not being forced to buy the garbage i sincerely trust the public will not fall for this downright despicable method of doing business maybe advice could be obtained from the people of bc who fought it and won bernard graham to the big picture of delivery of services to the public when i requested clarification of big picture i was given no response at all i as well as numerous people in the audience that evening found that mr dewings responses as wejl as councils lack of action were both inappropriate as well as insulting most of the candidates in the election ran on a platform of openness and input if that night is any example of what is to come then broken promises are all i can expect councillor sherban was in volved in the latcham hall fiasco several months ago and when mr dewings report came out recom mending that the new library board be made up of half coun- cillors i expected some support from her no supportwas forthcoming but instead she moved the motion that the new board beseven members three councillors three school board and one mem ber at large this new committee will not only be decreased ie nine mem- bers to seven but will have one more councillor than the last board this means that council repre sentation is increased by 20 per cent throughout mr dewings report he constantly refers to the librarys autonomy given by the public libraries act it would appear to me that this new council does not understand- autonomy the public libraries act sets out the duties and responsibilities of a library board this boards duties include 1 daytoday operation 2 overseeing the financial aspects of a library 3 governance the act states that councils only control mechanism is the budget approval process it would appear that councils charges to the public library board are an attempt to find another control mechanism since the public library is a ser vice for the people of this municipal ity shouldnt the people of this town be the ones to decide how the library service should be run not council finally it would appear to me that senior town staff are not accountable to anyone nor being held accountable to any report they write further if this latest council meet ing is any indication then there is no accountability at that level either when the library board removed its agreement in principle to be part of the new town halllibrary this was done to insure the contin uance of one of the services provided by the library ie latcham gallery which wasnt being included in the new building this decision was made in an open forum meeting as an independent autonomous board we were allowed under the public libraries act to make that decision now it seems that when council doesnt get their way they exercise their muscle in a manner much like a school yard bully it is a sad day when the peoples opinion does not count mark dewar jstouffville stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper xlv patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debraweller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us news 9056402100 retail sales 2 905 6402100 jz u v classifieds 9056402874 vv- distrib 905 6402100 fax 905 6405477 email thetribistaiica 6244 main st the stoultvule tribune pul- liihfd i i hursday and sal of the melroland printing publishing and distribution croup of commu nity new 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