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whtehurchstouffviiie public libfsrt stouffville thursday march 102005 serving the community of whitchurchstouffville 32 pagessi including gst plenty of fun on tap during bruces mill maple sugar days around town 8 calendar 21 sports 25 classified 27 phototom barnett season ends for spirit newmarket hurricanes chris gill tries to score on stouffville spirit goalie dan mcwhinney during tuesdays sixth game of their provincial junior a hockey league south conference semifinal series at stouffville arena newmarket eliminated the spirit with a 42 victory see page 25 for details paramedic shortage hits home in emergency by roy green staff writer when doug sheppard accompanied his ailing father on an ambulance ride to hospital this week he got a firsthand look at the prob lems facing paramedics in york region every day mr sheppard is chairperson of cupe local 905 the union representing municipal employees including the regions 300 emer gency medical services paramedics im not ems but now i understand what these guys are experiencing mr sheppard said of his sixhour wait in the emergency room before his father was admitted delays of anywhere from three hours to eight hours are becoming more common place all the time youve got two paramedics and an ambulance tied up for hours until the patient can be transferred over to the hospi tals care wait times endured by paramedics offload ing patients have increased 57 per cent in the past four years and cost more than 1 million in lost hours annually and they translate into critical shortages of personnel and ambulances available to han dle a crisis york region ems manager brad meekin said at any given time of day we can go down to less than one ambulance for each of the nine municipalities in the region mr meekin said our objective is always to have coverage in every municipality but it isnt uncommon where well be down to three or four covering the whole region the problem which affects the entire gta also contributes to slower response times mr meekin said when were down to five or six units theyre driving further distances which increases response times the mandated provincial standard response time is 11 minutes 39 seconds and the average time for york ems crews is only seven seconds off the standard and although a task force is reviewing the see n0page 14 fights at sdss til call police if necessary by joan ransberry staff writer an upswing in fighting at stouffville district secondary school has principal arlene smith warning parents and students she wont hesitate to call police if necessary there are students who seem to believe the only way to solve their differences is through physical fights said mrs smith who is meeting with police and students to find solutions she also addressed the problem in the schools most recent newsletter there are also students who seem to enjoy the sport of watch ing she noted violence will not be tolerated at sdss mrs smith stressed adding students involved in fights will be suspended and the school will sup port criminal prosecutions students are being told those who instigate encourage or pro mote fighting will face discipline under the provincial safe schools act regardless of whether they actu ally participated in the fight members of student council have met with the principal and vice- principal to discuss the problem president tim dunham said they asked for our thoughts and opinions so we could help out he said i dont think theres an astro nomical increase in the incidents but people are getting caught more mr dunham saidthe students are see york page 5 y ou 11 hometown 18 m bhoustons experience the ail wheeldrive capability of the five hundred and weuu freestyle behind the houston ford ltd il tmggssbbsm vvrittl aimu 57sgjirvsrouffyille v vfvsa- drive one v v j 905b404541 www billhoustonf ord com 15 minutes north of markham off huvy 48 l head s ff parthau jewellers 6312 main st stouffville 905 6404646