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6 economist suntribune saturday aug 24 2002 s stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave stouffville ont l4a 7z5 opinion publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly director of advertising debra welter editor jim mason classified manager ann campbell production manager pam nichols retail sales manager stephen mathieu distribution manager barry black electronic communications manager john putney inside sales manager stacey allen business manager robert lazurko office manager vivian oneil letters bystanders ems make markham accident easier to bear we as a society cannot thank the mem bers of our emergency medical service and fire department enough personally i had not needed either of their services prior to aug 8 having lived in the village of markham for nearly 20 years and holding a 30year clean driving record i was not prepared for the effects of a motor vehicle accident the accident happened at the intersec tion of hwy 7 and albert street a familiar route home i have travelled numerous times after receiving immediate attention and concern from two young gentlemen luciano and his colleague from super touch luciano kindly provided me the use of his cellphone i was then attended to by nicole and her colleague from the markham fire depart ment two ems gentlemen also arrived on the scene and were very comforting and consid erate to both me and my youngest son a very unpleasant situation was made easier by these members of our community please show them you value their often hero ic efforts by moving out of their way when their lights are flashing if anyone was at the above intersection around 615630 pm and has any informa tion please call opp const ts negus aurora detachment 19058415777 tmbachand markham concerns dont address flaws in municipal planning process re omb running out of patience with environmentalists column by david teetzel july 11 mr teetzels lead question why cant municipal governments at least try to pro tect more green space from development has a long history across ontario of equally long history are concerns about the arminarm relationship between developers and councillors and the repeated calls for citizens to hold coun cils accountable on planning and zoning applications for laws to preclude council lors from accepting election funds from developers and for more vigorous police investigations of wrongdoing by the devel- letters policy stouffville tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the newspaper reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space write letters to the editor 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 email letterseconsuncom opment industry as legitimate and appropriate as those concerns calls and reforms might be how ever they do not address the fundamental flaw in the planningdevelopment process in this province that is upon failing to get their way with councils committees of adjustment etc developers and their agents appeal or threaten to appeal to the ontario municipal board omb the omb can and frequently does reject the positions of councils the opinions of planning staff and the expressed values and attitudes of citizens the critical and necessary first step in achieving political accountability cleaning up the election funding mess and achieving communitybased planning zoning and development processes is to remove the omb from the field of action if that is not done then no matter how many letters are written and voices are raised in protest developers will continue to dictate what is built where and when in every municipality in ontario which brings me to the statement the ombs idea of a compelling argument is so technical and complicated as to be incom prehensible to just about anyone but a pro fessional planner it is my experience very few omb mem bers have sufficient education or experi ence in statistics mathematics operations research economics environmental sci ence research methods geography pedol ogy hydrology ecology geology sociology biology engineering architecture etc to even begin to fully comprehend and syn thesize the evidence presented at many hearings that being the case who is kidding whom about the competency of the omb to make judgments about sound planning principles the time for the omb to be abolished is long past as whatever usefulness it once had is long gone professor barry weller department of geography university of ottawa stouffville bia cloes fine job with flower baskets on main street let me say how much i have enjoyed the barrels and baskets of flowers along down town stouffville provided by the stouffville business improvement area bia they surpass all other years the variety and blaze of colour at the train station are a compliment to our people and town im certain others have appreciated this as much as i have helen ratcliff stouffville regions newsletter just a promotional waste of money it has been three or four weeks since york region published york works 2002 vol 1 in it the region makes the claim it devel oped its own model of smart growth in the 1990s i cannot believe residents have not jumped all over the region for such a state- stouffville tribune serving the community since 1888 he3 dde canadian circulations 1 audit board member ontario press council subscription rates by mail 1 year 6955 thursdays only how to get in touch with us telephone 90564o2612 fax 9052941538 email classified newsroomeconsuncom advertising 8532517 distribution 18007433353 9052948244 9 heritage road distributioneconsuncom markham l3p 1m3 ment am i the only one to have read its promo or the only one to take it to task for such an outright overstatement i have been to several public meetings throughout the area put on by the region to sell road improvements road widening to you and me the overwhelming feedback from the public has been to reject the land development plans presented as the basis for the road widenings most people do not want any more of the sprawl they see throughout the region today and said so when will the region listen to residents this newsletter is nothing more than self- promotion why is the region wasting money on useless projects like this henry root newmarket politicians antismoking vendetta out of touch with reality re get tougher on cigarettes aug 1 0 so vaughan councillor joyce frustaglio thinks the answer to tobacco problems is to ban tobacco she says if a product is illegal its off the shelves and its no longer a prob lem has she heard of the drug problem did banning drugs solve the drug problem with or without drugs ms frustaglio is living in a dream world jack sands markham speed bumps unnecessary stop signs increase problem of idling for those of you out there who are not jewish and have been wondering about the word chutzpah here is your perfect defini tion politicians are asking us not to idle our cars unnecessarily i havent seen anybody idling their car intentionally in years not because people have become more pollution conscious but mostly because of the high cost of gas what i have seen is thousands of motorists involuntarily idling their cars every day at thousands of unnecessary stop signs speed bumps and traffic calmers these same politicians have bestowed on us most of the time you have to stop three or four times or more as every car has to stop right at the sign again or get ticketed despite the fact there is no opposing traffic and in many cases no intersection of course as charles de gaulle once remarked since politicians themselves dont believe a word they say they are always sur prised to hear other people believe them does that remind you of prime minister jean chretien and mp sheila copps and the gst bernard lewis thornhill stouffville tribune published every thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd group of 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