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6 stouffville suntribune thursday march 8 2007 suntnbune 6290 main st stouffville on l4a7z5 wwwydriaegioncom publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly business manager robert lazurko director interactive media technology john futhey director advertising distribution barry black director circulation systems lynnpashko marketingpartnerships director debra welter york region printing general manager bob dean editorial vote with your wallet on aim charges its downright galling the banks are pulling in billions of dollars in profit and they hit you for 150 every time you want to grab a few bucks at the nearest aim ifs no wonder public perception of the banking industry is so low that a popular tv commercial depicts greedy bankers scurrying around a house uke rats while an exterminator outlines how to get rid of them bankers have so few friends on this issue that the free enterprise loving conservative government has jumped on the ndp bandwagon to put a lid on atm fees prime minister stephen harper pon dered aloud why canadians pay the high est atm charges in the world a claim sup ported by a british media report and hotly denied by the nations bankers finance minister jim flaherty held a tough talk session with bank ceos the other day and came out confident some or all would reduce or eliminate fees for low- income canadians it would be a welcome change from the current structure wherein the way to avoid nickelanddiming fees is to maintain a minimum balance in the thousands but how when the fees are imposed automatically at the machine does one go about targeting fee reductions to seniors students and the disabled as mr flaherty is suggesting why not eliminate fees for everyone as is done in britain holland ireland and finland the bankers say we wouldnt like the result i think regulations to the banks would likely result in less service across the coun try at a higher cost royal bank president gord nixon told the media last week after announcing rbcs record 15 billion income last year translation ill get my money one way or the other and if you make life harder for me ill make it harder for you sadly its true the government could regulate away atm fees the banks would just jack up our monthly service charge so do we just take it not necessarily there are financial institutions presidents choice macklin credit union and etrade bank for exam ple that do not charge atm fees which means if consumers are angry enough about fees they could choose institutions with low or no fees its working in the united states where several banks have eliminated fees to win customers if you can get a better deal from a different financial institution why not take it this comes down to putting your money where your mouth is carwtele letters to the editor build musselmans lake park on glendale beach site re how about some park money for musselmans lake council letter to the editor by bob and mary ann james feb 15 i too was shocked to hear of the money that will be allocated to the upgrades to the downtown stouffville park and the cost of the new park on bethesda road my parents moved to musselmans lake and purchased our property in 1967 since then many changes have occurred in the 1960s and 70s many shores of the lake were accessible for fishing swimming picnicking and just enjoying the shore and water it was so clean then in the early 1970s we had a popula tion boom at the lake a lot of the old cottages were bought and made into permanent homes a lot of shore at the lake was made private glendale beach on the south side of the lake was a very nice place back then there was a nice building where you could go and buy a pop use the phone or just meet friends there was big band music playing in the 1940s and people would come for miles around and dance in the 1970s they had country and western dances then in the 1980s the building was vacat ed the property became run down and fire struck its a real shame to look at glendale beach the stouffville suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the stouffville suntribune reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for darity and space write letters to the editor 6290 main st stouffville l4a 1g7 emailjmasonyrngcom or fax 9056408778 now the water is full of foam at the shores and is dirty i think glendale would be a perfect place for a park for all residents of whitchurch- stouffville bring back the beauty it once held lets create somewhere for the children to go and play and be kids we dont have anything here cedar beach is at the north end of the lake its fine for residents on that side the south end is where we need a park the roads here are so narrow and winding and hilly we have no sidewalks and it would be dangerous for kids to have to walk to cedar beach please council consider sharing some of your growth in stouffville up here our prop erty taxes keep going up and up and we have nothing to show for it up here we have no sewers sidewalks or bus ser vice here bring the beauty back to glendale beach and make a park of it give us something of which we can be proud joanne turcotte musselmans lake off the top with jim mason sorry electorate but you cant vote out a bad winter the weathers a lot like politics in this town everybody talks about it but few do anything about it especially on the climactic front and there was so much promise way back in the 1970s our climatol ogy professor spoke glowingly about the chances for weather reform heck the soviets remember them were all but creating rain clouds and floating them over enemy territory could the us be far behind apparently so even the president of the united states has to travel to the weather he cant order a sunny warm day in dc any more than he can win the war in iraq no one can guarantee the weather not even the bragging forecaster on the allnews radio station let alone change it and theres been plenty wed like to have changed this winter especially but you know that unless youve been in chile since october an abnormally dry and warm fall segued into a winter that made up for lost time wind chill warnings highway clo sures snow days welcome to canada if we werent shovelling or scraping the latest offerings from the sky we were waiting for the power to come back on from one of whitchurchstouffvilles many electricity outages this winter at this point you curse yourself for owning telephones that require electrici ty and for not investing in a 10 battery- operated transistor radio the lights and tv come back on and you thank the heavens youre not one of those customers of electricity entering your third day without the juice youd probably phone your councillor even though power at least of the electri cal variety is not a municipal responsibil ity politicians we can change the weather not so much jim mason is editor of the sun- tribune letters policy the suntribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the suntribuncrescrvcs the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space utters to the editor the suntribune stouffville on l4a725 jmasonyrngcom editorial editor jim mason jmasonyrmgcom interactive media marketing advertising manager dawna andrews dandrewsyrmgcom advertising retail manager staceyallen sallenyrmgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellyrmgcom assistant classified manager bonnie rondeau brondeauyrmgcom new business development manager mike rogerson mrogersonyrmgcom production team leader sherry day sdayyrmgcom pits coundl ape fdsag canadian oraitidons audt8om member ccab editorial 9056402612 fax 9052941583 advertising 9056402612 classified i8oo7433353 fax9052941538 distribution 9056402612 suntnbune a york region media group community newspaper the suntribune published every thursday and saturday is a division of the metroland media group ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across ontario the york region newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thomhillvaughan citizen the erabanner newmarket aurora markham economist sun georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorkregioncom and york region printing