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whitchurchstouffvilie publiclbrari thursday nov 4 2004 serving the community of whitchurchstouffville b 28 pages1 including gst mgp i wbk a mm it 3 student conceit performer from musical family opinion 6 calendar 19 sports 22 classified 24 smoking rooms not up to snuff across region by roy green staff writer more than 75 per cent of the cost ly designated smoking areas in restaurants bars taverns and bingo halls in york region failed to meet minimum standards according to a report from the regions health serv ices department the report comes as ontario health minister george smitherman announced he will introduce legislation this month that will effectively ban smoking anywhere other than in private homes there are 102 premises with the completely enclosed and separately ventilated smoking rooms some of which cost as much as- 350000 to build but the report says most of them fail to meet bylaw require ments due to poor maintenance insufficient air supply and exhaust overcrowding or failing to keep the door closed according to tobacco control officer dave harrison work at first they work when theyre first built but we go back a year later and we find doors are left open the fil ters havent been cleaned or theyre not getting the amount of air theyre supposed to get mr harrison said the bottom line is theyre not meeting the criteria owners are issued a 255 ticket for the first violation but that could accelerate to a court summons and fine as high as 5000 for repeated offenses the high number of failures in the smoking areas is not surprising according to markham regional councillor jack heath a member of see three- quarters page 8 jhb staff photosjoerd witteveen it wasnt me ref stoufiville district secondary school spartans erin button left and laura moller claim inno cence as markham district high school marauder tara macleod goes down with the ball in a york region senior girls high school basketball game at markham tuesday markham won 3830 retirement money pulled out from under greenbelt plan leaves farmers out in cold by mike adler staff writer buying farmland you expect to see developed is no different than buying a lottery ticket you hope wins a million dollars theres no guarantee bob bedggood says were not going to pay for hope added mr bedggood appointed with former federal agriculture minister lyle vanclief by the province this year to find out how agriculture can survive ontarios urban growth their findings distributed last week were meant to help farmers who find their lands in the provinces proposed golden horseshoe greenbelt and its longterm plan for growth in southern ontario after listening to rural residents in york and other areas this summer mr bedggood and mr vanclief advised against compensating farmers who wont be able to sell to developers because of the greenbelt or other anti- sprawl initiatives mr bedggood a former president of the christian farmers federation of ontario knows some farmers will dis agree perhaps starling monday when the province hosts a public meeting on the greenbelt at markville secondary school in markham the greenbelt would cover the holland marsh and duffin rouge agricultural preserve in both markham and pickering planned developments in queensville aside it would halt loss es of farmland everywhere in york north of the oak ridges moraine terry oconnor president of the york federation of agriculture said he needs time to digest the plan but see farmers page 16 l uvfcc yj u ft n metowim foro hekb3 houston ford ltd 57ss main st stouffville s056404541 www billhoustonf ord com only 14 up to 80 months or cash incentives up to u3 3ljlj on selected models uixkits left iim parthau jewellers 6312 main st stoufiville 9056404646