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economist suntribune saturday nov 23 2002 stoufmle tribune serving the community since 1888 publisher ian proudfoot letters to the editor pedestrians must pay attention re markham student hit by car dies in parents arms nov 5 ive read several letters to the editor regarding the heartbreaking accident that killed jorge luis martinez jr nov 1 these let ters plead for drivers to slow down and be more careful i agree and add my voice to that plea i must go further and ask all pedestrians to please obey all traffic signs and signals to use common sense when crossing roads and to please put your life in your own hands not in the hands of a driver i travel our local streets every day and every day i must stop slow down and shake my head at kids crossing against red lights crossing against walk signals and just simply not looking before entering a busy street most of these occurrences take place around markville secondary school on carlton road and on bullock drive between centennial community centre and markville shopping centre all the kids involved are teenagers on one occasion a number of kids were crossing mccowan road from west to east on the south side of carlton they started walk ing on a yellow light and crossed the centre barrier on a full red light i was turning left onto carlton with one truck in front of me and i could see the kids were not looking and that cars were fast approaching a green light from behind me one kid out of five looked and grabbed the rest before they were all struck by oncoming traffic the driver approaching the intersection would never have seen the kids because sever al of the vehicles at the intersection were trucks many times while driving along bullock beside markville shopping centre i see kids are crossing the street and never look to see if its safe many kids cross through the centennial community centre parking lot and never watch traffic around them theyre teenagers and to some degree they feel theyre invinci ble theyre not drivers need to be more careful so do pedestrians david kates unionville private nursing homes bad idea population growth especially in the toronto area is creating a huge problem for the ontario government how to take care of the fast growing number of elderly first came the expensive community care access centre system then a lucrative business was created for private corpora tions owning longterm care nursing homes a very expensive setup for taxpayers at a time when hospitals badly need more beds opinion letters policy the stouftvillethbunc welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the tribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the tribune 9 heritage rd markham on l3p1m3 email letterseconsuncom more modern equipment more doctors and nurses instead of privatizing elder care why not build new nursing homes as extensions to existing hospitals these nursing homes would be less expensive professionally run safer and faster for needed help during medical emergencies a nursing home connected to a hospital would certainly be willing and able to provide the treatment to save lives i say yes to more funds for hospitals and no to publicfunded privately owned and operated nursing homes arvidsezakis stouffville thanks for supporting veterans i would like to express sincere apprecia tion to the ap store in stouffville for its financial support of veterans activities and for the use of its property for our band as a cor porate citizen in our community ap is number one as veterans we could not have won your freedom in the war years without the support of dedicated women who worked so hard back home to supply needed guns and supplies they worked in ammunition plants drove trucks buses and streetcars they worked on construction jobs operated cranes and bull dozers and toiled on assembly lines they even took the time to send us knitted socks and sweaters these unsung heroes have never been formally recognized or thanked for that they did for their country today these women continue to volun teer their time and service to veterans at legion halls across our great land i would personally like to thank them for their courage commitment and support h payne royal canadian legion stouffville cops should curtail rude drivers weekday mornings around 845 i drive down unionville main street to unionville gate then south on kennedy road on most morning i witness three things drivers who are good neighbours and extend courtesy to others such as not enter ing an intersection until they know they can clear it before the light turns red drivers who take advantage of those who try to keep intersections clean they nose in and steal the rightful place of the courteous drivers drivers who believe they are so impor tant they deserve to get ahead of all the good people patiently waiting to make the turn from main street they zip down the right lane turn in the deadend then muscle their way into traffic ahead of everyone else i cant condone road rage but who among edrror in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director marketing new product development brenda larson advertising director retail flyer sales nicole mathieu advertising director classified real estate events management gord paolucci us hasnt wished a calamity on those discour teous jerks who steal our time patience and rightful places those louts who rob us of our good natures or vandalise a good day those bad drivers arent just bullies and thugs theyre thieves they selfishly take from the rest of us to squander on themselves but we can do something whenever you see a driver being deliberately courteous like not entering an intersection when they wont make it across lets all give them a little wave an approving nod or a thumbsup but to those who would take the roads from us give them a headshake no or a finger wag some sign of disapproval maybe we should all start doing this to the stop sign runners too in an ideal world the police could enforce a local traffic only bylaw south of unionville gate but i wonder if a ride unit down there between 730 and 9 am once in a while is the answer just make a point of stopping the queuejumpers for about 10 minutes each phill giles unionville taxes on gas guzzlers will solve suv problem re suv lovers dont ask about environ mental effects nov 14 credit goes to staff writer mike adler for highlighting the apparent carefree attitude of buyers and sellers when it comes to the envi ronmental impact of vehicle purchases given consumers and car companies arent behaving in a sufficiently responsible way environmentally i urge the federal and provincial governments to legislate the need ed behaviour through higher related taxes i would support an immediate tax increase to raise the price of gasoline to 2 per litre annual vehicle renewal fees for eight and 12cylinder gas guzzlers should be raised each year and peak at around 3000 a year by 2007 doing this would give current owners of inefficient vehicles time to wear out their cars and give auto makers fair notice the market for gas guzzlers will shrink the likely benefits of this approach are people would drive less and buy more fuel efficient vehicles governments would reap extra tax revenue which could be used to subsidize buyers of cleaner vehicles busi nesses for whom gasoline is an expense would have to charge their customers more for products and services thereby causing prices to more accurately reflect true includ ing environmental costs until the dollar cost of driving does match its total true costs however too many of us are getting a virtual free ride whereby our use of gas guzzlers is unnaturally cheap it is our environment that continues to pay more than its fair share of the price bruce rhodes richmond hill editorial editor m mason neivsroomeconsuncom advertising retail sales manager steve kane stevekyorkregioncom sales manager new business development distribution dawna andrews daiulrcivserabanncrcom classified manager ann campbell annceralxinncrcom real estate manager mikerogerson production electronic communications manager john fnthey jfuiheyyrngcom distribution distribution manager barry black bblackeconsuncom administration office manager vivian oneil voneileconsuncom york region events managing director debra weller dtvelleryrngcom shows manager stacey allen sallenyrngcom york region printing general manager bob dean bdeanyrngcom editorial 9052942200 fax 2941538 advertising 2942200 classified 1-800- 7433353 fm 8534616 distribution 9052948244 bhujgiipic canadian ontario press circulations audit council board member stouffville tribune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the stouffville tribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hin and thomhill vaughan citizen markham economist sun stouffville tribune stouffville sun georgina advocate york region business times at home good life yorkregoncom and york region printing