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

p 4 the tribune tuesday february 3 1998 st tuesday february 3 1998 vol 110 no 9 the tribune is a member of the ontario press council the tribune- comment opinions send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial regions action plan has potential on the surface york regional councils call to look into amalga mating of its fire transit and sewage services seems to make sense the region announced its action plans for 1 998 after a conference in georgina last week and they appear to be steps towards more efficiency however things are not always as simple as they may appear of course the idea of avoiding duplication and saving taxpayers money is a good idea these savings though must not be realized at the expense of public safety this is particularly true in the case of the fire departments the thought of stations being closed down for strictly economic reasons is simply unacceptable a municipality that has worked hard to build its own firstrate fire department shouldnt be forced to com promise service to its residents to facilitate amalgamation there is also a danger that departments which rely on volunteers such as stouffvilles will get hung out to dry another major con cern is the potential for confusion that would stem from one central dispatch system trying to serve different municipalities with simi lar street names a better coordinated and regionwide transit system sounds like it has great potential its certainly needed with five different municipal transit systems not to mention the ttc and go which also run routes in york region public transportation in the region is a dogs breakfast any improvement would be much appreciated by the regions growing number of transit users yknow hillaryy0u arrwhemyourakecharse sex scanmi warroqm ftrget it bill quit complaining and run for council dear editor re the letter from margaret may on the retirement party first of all she should feel hon oured to have received an invitation to barb smiths retirement party i am one of the us who did not letters although i have known barb through the years from going to the library and im sure her invitation is the same content and not personal i cant believe the letter writer put in print why one person should receive a better party than another from thei library with fewer years service why does she care how many invi tations were sent as long as she got call to cheer on your olympic favourites dear editor the 1998 winter olympics in nagano are just around the corner and people in communities across ontario are eagerly looking for ways to get involved in the spirit of the games people in your community can enhance their olympic experience without leaving home the bell olympic connections line offers people an opportunity to directly share in the emotions of the olym- pics by calling 1888439team 8326 olympic wellwishers can leave messages of encouragement for their favourite canadian ath- letes in nagano messages wili be transcribed and sent via the internet to special email addresses created for athletes and accessed at the olympic village kathy pashby bell canada rnie or who made the list barb made the list herself as to a gift i dont believe she was asked for any money in this invitation to buy a gift from us so why is she so con cerned by receiving an invitation all she is asked is to be there her choice have a good time enjoy the goodies and wish barb a happy retirement i am sick of seeing this womans let ters in the papers obviously she has nothing better to do than sit and write complaining letters about everything if she is not happy about the way the town spends our money then perhaps she should for office on the next council isobel hoover stouffville hells musak will play only the best of rap as the rrsp deadline draws ever closer mr wallethead arid i are both deeply involved in forward planning whiie my practical spouse works on our investment portfolio to ensure that whoever survives longest has sufficient funds to live on i am putting together a program of events for my wake he has a file in the computer which tells us exactly where we stand financially i have a file which lists the music i would like to accompany my shuffle off this mor tal coil- the eclectic repertoire includes girls just want to have fun by cyndi lauper no need to argue by the cranberries bring me the wine and the dice from aspects of love the only lloyd webber musical i didnt get tired of hearing kates corner kate gilder dale after half an hour and elgars lux aeterna sung by the choir of new college oxford id also like them to play jerome kerns the way you look tonight for no reason other than i love it and youll never walk alone by gerry and the pacemakers because thats the song that saw me through the bad times after fny father died 6f course im not planning to quit this life anytime soon buiyqii cant take anything for granted and- id hate someone to choose the wrong swan songs for my final cur tain imagine sitting helplessly on your cloud plucking at your harp arid watching your nearest and dearest send you on the ultimate journey to the strains of say billy ray cyruss achy breaky heart meatloafs life is a lemon and i want my money back or i write the songs by barry manilow you may be in heaven or that other place but here on earth your image will lingeron embarrassingly in the sound of musak if hell is my destination i have a hunch that a compilation entitled the best of rap will reverberate my ears for all eternity that it will be february for 12 months of the year and that i will spend my time emptying the mailbox which will be stuffed with an organic pile of rrsp mailings mutual fund newsletters fitness club member ship specials and flyers for gated adult lifestyle condominiums when im not thus employed i will be elected to participate in an endless round of committee meetings where i will take minutes which i cannot for the life of me read back the pubs will serve only soft drinks ted rogers will be prime minister and the only chan nels available on basic television will be devoted to financial planning sports and 24hour coverage of bill hillary and monica sponsorship for the latter will be provided by manufac turers of extrafirm hold hair gel and purveyors of cosmetic dentistry as for my epitaph i have decided to follow the lead of the late british comedian eric morecombe who when asked by his sidekick ernie wise what he would like to see inscribed on his tombstone plumped for the short and simple back in five minutes stouffville tribune a metrbland community ncvspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey alien classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager- about us i- news 90564023 i retail sales 9056402100 classifieds 905 6402874 distribution 805 6402100 s fax 9056405477 email thetnbistarca 6244 main stf stowftoiu ont ma1e2 i the stouffville tribune pul- lished evorytuesday thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publiwhing and distribution group of commu nity newspapers which includes ajaieickcrlng news advertiser ahibton yferaldourier barricy vadvance brampton guardiah burlington cslyparcnt colllnroowpa heath con- nccti etobi- coke georgetown lode- pend ec pros g kings acck lindsay this weekmarkhbm economist 4 sun midiandperictangulthcrie mirror mhtoticanadian clianiptont mis- glsaauga news newmarketaurora erabanner 1 northumberland newv northyork mirror oakville bruvur oriilia ftsday oshiwa- whltbylnrinbtoiport perrj ihls r week ipeierboro week j rjctondndjmlwniornhillasughan h uberal scirpiiglismirrbrand uxbridgc tribune todays seniors contents cannot be reprinted with out written permission from the publisher permit 1247 the pub- juher reserves the right to refurf or classify an advertisement f creditfor advertisement liroilcd j to space s error occup letters policy the tribune welcomes your letters to the editor please keep letters to no more than 300 words note that letters may be edited for space libel spelling grammar while we endeavor to print as many letters as possible we regret that not all let ters may be printed