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economist suntribune news thursday may 23 2002 staff photoerin riley honouring 200 years of whitchurch history daniel lamarche 4 and his brother jordan 7 are in period military costume during the unveiling of a sign com memorating the 200th anniversary of the first settlement of whitchurch township the ceremony was saturday at the whitchurchstouffville museum in vandorf the men in red are from the 12th york battalion of the upper canada volunteer regiments organization the township and the village of stouffville were merged by the province into whitchurchstouffville in 1971 york region homeowners bilked by phoney brick sales by kathleen griffin staff writer residents in new subdivisions across york region are being warned by police about a scam artist who has bilked dozens of people of thousands of dollars according to york regional police a man approaches people in new hous es offering deals on interlocking brick driveways walkways or patios most recently hes worked subdivi sions north of 16th avenue on woodbine avenue in markham and at leslie street and major mackenzie drive in richmond hill but police are sure the scam is operating across the region the man carries catalogues from a wellknown interlocking brick suppli er but he doesnt have business cards or a company vehicle he tells people he can give them a deal then draws up a written contract for the work right at the door using forms available at any office store then he collects a deposit or in some cases the total amount i talked to one victim and as i was leaving the house a man flagged me down and asked if i was here about the interlocking brick said const lawrence stevenson he said he was out 10000 the man is a suspect in at least 30 inci dents one victim paid 1200 for the brick but said he would do the work himself a pile of broken brick collected from another site was dropped off at the house and and the salesman has- nt been seen since but the victims all say the man is very friendly added const stevenson he recommends if people come to your door dont hand over a cheque if they say they represent a com pany ask for a business card or make a call and check it out dont provide money the first meeting get a quote and a callback number police say a man who sometimes calls himself joe has been charged with similar offences in durham and peel regions they want to hear from any more people in york have been fleeced by the ploy if you are a victim or have informa tion call 9058811221 ext 7541 and ask for const stevenson or the fraud squad demoltion of house ends with 10000 fine by kathleen griffin staff writer a markham developer and his contractor were fined a total of 10000 tuesday for demolishing a 127yearold heritage home illegally last fall wynberry developments inc a subsidiary of ballantry homes was fined 7500 its contractor metric contracting services corp of brampton faces a 2500 penalty for raz ing the andrew wideman home circa 1847 without a permit last november the maximum fine is 50000 town of markham solici tors agreed to a joint submis sion on the charges which was accepted by the courts charges against ballantry principals president dave hill and directors bobby bhoola and atul vanmali and metric directors ennio and frank liorti were dropped in the deal in all circumstances the town agreed to put these fines forward as an appropriate res olution to these charges in these specific circumstances said markhams assistant solic itor steven omelia ward 4 councillor george mckelvey said the fines were likely lowered because the incident was a first offence for ballantry and he reminded residents the town has already negotiated a private reparation deal with the highprofile developer i think the fine was about as much as we could expect for a first offence councillor mckelvey said as additional restitution to the town ballantry has agreed to build a 250000 reception and research centre for the markham museum using goods and services from its contractors while a nearby subdivision is being con structed im not sure the public realizes this developer could have gone to court paid the fine and walked away councillor mckelvey pointed out i think he learned the hard way but thats not good enough for resident cameron macdonald who lives next door in another heritage home built by the wideman family its a joke he said theres no deterrent here it gives developers open season to destroy rather than pre serve he complained about the huge pile of rubble all that is left of the redbrick gothic revival homestead that still sits on the property six months later mr macdonald also ques tioned whether the courts meted out a lighter penalty in light of the restitution offered to the town but mr omelia dismissed that the judge did not take into consideration and was not advised of the offer to the town he said this penalty was reached independently of other con siderations ballantry president hill has maintained the demolition was an error a mix up between his company and metric in earlier interviews he said metric was supposed to bull doze three outbuildings on the property instead it destroyed the heritage home and left the sheds despite desperate pleas at the time from neighbour macdonald and former tenant lindsay draper however ballantry neglect ed to obtain demolition per mits for any of the structures on the site leading to formal charges the loss shocked the com munity and coun cil with mayor don cousens brokering the additional resti tution deal the widemans were a prominent family in markham in the late 1800s in 1902 andrews two sons albert and harvey founded a h wideman hardware and jewellery at 85 and 87 main street north a building that still stands today councillor mckelvey said he believes the agreement between ballantry and the town in addition to the court fines will encourage other developers with heritage buildings on their land to do the right thing i think any major develop er in markham certainly gets this message said councillor mckelvey we are sending a strong message and this case will now serve as a benchmark if s a joke theres no deterrent here wideman house neighbour cameron mcdonald one on one persona fitness traiiiiiis markham 98 main st n 9054715433 wwwwhytefitnesscom whitby 1501 hopkins st 9056665392