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whitchurchstduffville public ubrsri urchsfooffyp p f fhrafv thursday feb 10 2005 h serving the community of whitchurchstouffville b 32 pages1 including gst christ church goes up beanstalk for 12th annual pantomime opinion 6 calendar 23 sports 26 classified 28 a playoffready under the helmets staff photosjoerd witteveen stoufiville spirit jr a hockey players jeff barbieri from left cory battista brandon walker and brock ouellet show off their playoff haircuts before practice monday at the stoufiville arena the spirit opens the north conference quarterfinals tonight at 730 at the arena against the couchichihg terriers the hockey haircuts and dye jobs are a postseason tradition for more information see story on page 26 stouffville bus ridership small but growing by hannelore volpe staff writer the small york region transit bus chug ging around stouffville is busier than it may sometimes look the service which had been requested by whitchurchstouffville residents for sev eral years started in september 2004 with 366 people paying their fare to take a ride numbers were slightly higher in october but in november ridership almost doubled to 634 introducing service at an early stage in a communitys development is critical in order to attract riders and establish a public transit presence york region spokesper son michael kemp said ridership numbers continue to increase he added the 30foot lowfloor bus on route 9 stouffville is wheelchairaccessible last municipality with service whitchurchstouffville was the last of the nine york region municipalities to get regional bus service east gwillimbury another largely rural municipality of rough ly similar size first received service in 2002 to see whether service will continue an assessment is made after six months to one year to see whether ridership targets are being met for a local route such as route 9 a mini mum of 15 passenger trips per hour is required to sustain service in november there were an average of 28 riders daily in stouffville the stouffville bus goes south on ninth line from millard street to markham stouffville hospital and from ringwood drive across main street to lori avenue hemlock drive and the eastern gate com munity it gives people access to the stouffville go station lebovic leisure centre parkview village and stouffville district secondary school among other destinations see seniors page 9 lobbying council to avert financial crisis gallery wants money from town by hannelore volpe staff writer latcham gallery supporters are lobbying whitchurchstouffville council to avert a potential financial crisis they say could threaten the existence of stouffvilles 25yearold are gallery an emergency meeting of gallery supporters was called early in january by board chairperson marg brock after the gallery received just over 6000 from 2004 town grants instead of the 30000 requested this year the gallery is requesting 40000 and 50000 in 2006 the aim is to increase funding from the town every year until the gallery is back at the level of town support it received in 1992 that year the gallery received slightly more than 48000 ontario grant money municipal funding and support are vital to maintaining an ontario trillium fund grant of 200000 the gallery received in 2004 gallery director roz pritchard said decreasing amounts are paid each year until 2007 when the gallery receives a final amount of 25000 it was made clear to gallery staff an increased funding from the municipality should be in place to replace the decreasing amounts from the trillium fund she said the gallery also has to maintain and increase its programming to keep the provincial funding in place over the next three years the gallerys other sources of income include the beyond craft christmas sale arty party donations see gallery page 20 j- houston ford ltd g 57b6 main st stouffville 3056404541 wvaawbllih6ustdnf6rdcom lwtnfyow choice of kh gaiifns ford jsssfm i unm ser plan qufty cot imunflmjli nottcflonftaiit quatyw ifuut 6312 main st stouffville 9056404646 wuwjm i i o