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stouffville un thursday april 8 2004 serving the community of whitchurchstouffville 24pages1 including gst fj were moving and taking our old home with us letters 6 calendar 15 sports 18 classified 20 mom runs boston marathon for needy africans by joan ransberry staff writer robin steckley of stouffville has more than one reason to complete the upcoming boston marathon crossing the finish line of the 26- mile event april 19 will give the mother of 1 1 yearold twins a strong sense of accomplishment it will also help mrs steckley raise money for an impoverished east african vil lage stouffville igoma project matters a great deal to the 45yearold run ner a few months ago mrs steckley issued an appeal to friends neigh bours and strangers to send in pledges linked to the marathon 15000 goal mrs steckleys goal is to raise 15000 so far 8530 has been pledged every penny counts she pointed out the latest donation a 1500 gift came from the stouffville lions club she appealed to council for support at tuesdays meeting mrs steckley took on the igoma project as a personal initiative because she cares about the 42000 people living in the povertystricken east african village mrs steckley took notice last year when stouffville missionary church where she worships urged the town to enter into a humanitari an partnership with igoma the prompting paid off endorsed by council and backedby the provincial and federal govern ments the project kicked off in late december its the first time a town agreed to look out for the needs of another town project chairperson peter see we page 16 cheers to hospital staff photosteve somerville whitchurchstouffville councillor ken ferdinands his wife colleen right and margie smith enjoy markham stouffville hospitals 14th annual gala under the tuscan sky at le pare in thomhill friday the event drew 900 supporters and raised about 900000 for more see photos on page 1 1 and jim masons column on page 6 she sat at budget table former colleague argues mayor blames previous councils by hannelore volpe staff writer mayor sue sherban is blaming poor planning by former councils for the proposed 12percent municipal tax increase that led the new council to shut down the march 4 budget meeting previous councillors didnt have the political will to increase taxes she said in an interview they wanted to lessen the impact to residents and look good she was a member of the previ ous two councils mrs sherban cited reinstated payments into the- ontario municipal employees retirement system after a fiveyear hiatus the increased cost of firend emergency services and inflation as factors in the municipal tax increase for 2004 the town must con tribute 200000 into the retirement fund which represents 3 per cent of the operating budget reserve money used mrs sherban stated previous councils failed to take inflation into account when striking budgets some funds were taken from reserves to pay for operating expenses shesaid the town is going with a 26per cent inflation rate she sat at the same table as i did former councillor mark canoil said we planned and kept the services run ning the way the town and the resi dents expected us to rather than blame the past councils mrs sherban and the current council should sit down and work out the budget see town page 8 canister vacuum cleaners from w sales service installations 4355 hwy 7 union vllte beside railway tracks easter carats el barthau u jewellers 6312 main st stouffville 905 6404646