The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

paw 2 the tmiblnk tbuodu marib 11 1371 m established 1888 c h xolax publisher jim thomas editor wna l published every thursdav bv inland publishing co limned at 54 main st stouffville ont tel 6102101 single copies 15c subscriptions s500 per year in canada s900 elsewhere member of audit bureau of circulation canadian weekly newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mail registration number 0896 ettitorial theyre asking why the town of whitchurchstouffville a new area with new people and new problems only two months have been completed under this expanded system of local government and already the change is noticeable stouffville ratepayers for instance seldom darkened the door of the council chambers they still dont at least not from stouffville proper theyre coming from whitchurch stouffville ratepayers seldom questioned anything they still dont but the rural residents do their first reply is why and this is good reaction of this kind may be surprising even disturbing to members of council not previously subjected to this kind of thing they may feel that their every decision is subject to criticism and theyre right it is but it does not mean that members should drift with the winds or sit on the fence it does mean that every decision is now being closely scrutinized by a more wary electorate and its about time a stupid law the department of transport has enacted a law a stupid law in our opinion that makes it illegal for school bus drivers to signal their red warning lights in 35 mile per hour pickup zones this means that traffic is free to proceed in both directions in such areas placing the lives of hundreds of school children in jeopardy every day while there are many 35 mile zones located on bus routes throughout the province the most hazardous is un doubtedly the don mills road between gormley and hwy 7 here the onus for safe crossing is placed solely on the shoulders of the boys and girls including 6 and 7 year olds is it any wonder the parents are up in arms is it any wonder the bus drivers are concerned is it any wonder the board of education is alarmed while correspondence between the board and the department has failed to resolve the problem one mother mrs joanne mclaren of victoria square is going a step farther she is preparing a petition in an effort to bring pressure to bear on the government and have this ridiculous section of legislation changed markham mayor anthony roman has promised the plea his wholehearted support perhaps just perhaps with this renewed effort and a new minister the change may come soon for some unfortunate little girl or boy even a delay of a single day could be too late new street signs needed street signs serve an important pur pose in any town particularly in the urban centre of an expanded area such as stouffville is today many of the identity markers here are no longer adequate some are so badly rusted the names are no longer visible council should approve replacements when doing the job members might consider illuminated signs if the cost difference is not too great and the maintenance not too high they would certainly be the best buy of equal importance are suitable road signs in the former twp of whitchurch many of these should also be replaced with more and more new people visiting the area street and road markers serve a very worthwhile pur pose they do not last forever and some weve seen have outlived their usefulness better weather should help there may be discord about a lot of things but about one thing we are all in accord its been a long hard winter not only has it been bad weatherwise but businesswise as well as we turn the final corner towards spring we can ex pect matters to improve efforts are being made by both the federal and provincial governments to ease the unemployment situation and these efforts should begin to show up in a couple of months there was a general cutting back through the frigid period which was bad for employees and businesses alike the effect of the long gm strike even seeped into our area the whole picture has made for a difficult climate particularly for retail outlets conditions should improve with the weather and with lower interest rates and other pumppriming moves create a more optimistic picture for the months ahead until these upturn signs begin to really show up very few will be making plans for expansion or major expenditures editor 9 mail dear sir i have read with interest the con troversy over whether stouffville residents should be able to phone toronto without longdistance charges i have another problem with regard to long distance rates which i believe is even more urgent we live near vivian in the northern end of whitchurchstouffville although we are now a part of the town of whit churchstouffville and our postal address is rr3 stouffville the bell telephone considers us part of the mt albert newmarket and queensville calling area therefore all phone calls to the stouff ville 640 exchange are longdistance we must pay longdistance charges to phone the school where our children attend kindergarten the high school our local community centre the local gar bage disposal firm the dog pound the municipal library skating arena swimming pool in other words most of the local services if we wish to deal with doctors dentists or merchants in stouffville we pay longdistance rates and im sure it is for this reason that many of my neighbours shop in newmarket although we are actually closer to stouffville if people in this area are to feel that they are a part of the town of whit churchstouffville they should certainly be able to phone the town which is the urban centre of the region i seldom have a phone bill under 2500 and would certainly prefer to pay a slightly higher basic rate in place of all the longdistance charges i would appreciate mayor laushways comments on this matter in his the way i see it column mrs lee wong rr3 stouffville dear sir your editorial of last week re bell canada service extension concludes with let those who use it pay for it as individuals while mayor ken laush- way asks for 70 percent approval to subsidize the cost honest homev j would jleer refer to mv better half as the official opposition l sugar and spice too many brains not enough hearts by bill smiley between the length and the depth of this winter the depressing unem ployment picture and the looming of new taxes perhaps a chap has a right to be a bit gloomy these days weve had about 13 feet of snow so far today i saw a chap up on a snowbank about twenty feet high crouched under the limbs of a maple tree he was trying to push the snow back enough so that hed have somewhere to put the next deluge and when it hasnt been belting down the white stuff its been freezing rain or mr mayor and mr editor it so hap pens there are many people like myself in the stouffville area who do not need and do not use schools or some municipal services because of age locality or other circumstances yet are required to pay high taxes in full amount nearly three quarters of it being thrown into two bottomless barrels marked educational expenses and municipal salaries for the sake of progress and community we pay our everincreasing bills realizing that education nowadays is not a luxury but a necessity and so is an efficient telephone service who lifts the receiver or who sits in the classroom is of secondary importance the primary being if the community benefits from it i am all for surveys and estimates but the amount of dollars or cents should not deceive our judgement i gladly pay 15 cents for 12 pages of the tribune instead of 10 cents for a 60 page toronto daily and learn that our mayor makes 13000 yearly that helps me understand mr laushways readiness to pay inflated long distance rates while people with less income refrain from any such calls or drive to markham or richmond hill to place free calls to metro therefore metro calls from stouffville will not reach the required percentage for a long time besides bell canada is making more money from long distance calls than it would by increasing the flat rates anything less than 100 percent number- tonumber written questionaires would not be a true survey for obvious reasons most stouffville merchants are opposed to the extension idea and for many a farmer the voice of a mayor or a newspaper editor still resembles the voice from heaven and finally a question to mr laush- way are you sure that 70 percent of the people concerned favored the name of stouffville to be hooked on behind the name of whitchurch nobody asked my or my neighbors opinion 4 years ago re the telephone and nobody asked our opinion about the marriage last year i am not complaining just feeling sorry for the car licence issuer who unsuccessfully attempted to type the long municipal name into space provided whats a few letters a zakis rp4 stouffville cold enough to freeze the brains of a brass monkey despite some statisticjuggling at ottawa unemployment figures have climbed steadily on paper theyre just digits but when they hit close to home theyre human beings its not just the transient or the unskilled worker who is laid off i have friends industrious sober intelligent workers foremen and management who have worked their way up through sheer guts and deter mination and are now suddenly in limbo drawing unemployment insurance after searching desperately for a job they become bitter and one cant blame them with mortgage and insurance payments to meet and just enough money coming in to put food on the table they feel cheated after a decade or two of hard work just when theyre beginning to see daylight financially they are tossed aside through no fault of their own perhaps we have too many brains at ottawa and not enough hearts the logicians with their figures convinced the top brains that they could halt in flation a fiasco interest rates are still crippling the cost of living slides slowly but steadily upward while the standard of living goes down or stays static dont ask the financial moguls or the banks or the credit companies theyre doing all right ask the small business man or the skilled worker whose unemployment insurance has run out hell tell you and then there are the sneaky taxes coming out of ottawa oh theyre not called taxes they are merely read justments or whatever the sliderule boys want to call them you move so much money from here to there and youre not increasing taxes merely re distributing the wealth one of these gimmicks is taking away the family allowance from those making more than 10000 that used to be the fabulous figure we all thought wed never make he probably takes home about 7500 after deductions lets say he has a batch of kids and is pulling in about 800 a year in baby bonuses every nickel of it allotted to education or clothing or something the government has just taxed him 800 call it what you like it doesnt bother me my kids are past the age but it hits some families like a sledgehammer now theres another sneaker in the offing the federal government has specifically stated its intent to tax another very large group made up of school teachers and other people who have not paid unemployment insurance it plans to hit them for this despite the fact that they have been paying into in surance and annuity schemes for years and that perhaps one in one thousand would ever collect again it doesnt bother me personally i can afford the 60odd dollars a year it domirte pardon me if i dont sit down by jim thomas im just getting over the flu brother what a bout the worst i can remember and just when i was priding myself that i was some kind of superhuman being totally immune to the pesky bug you see the kids have been smitten about four times each since christmas in fact collectively theyve missed so much school this year the principals j suspicious were hiring them out as child labor even my wifes been going around at halfsteam shes been just as sick as anyone but a mother of five cant throw up and quit its against the rules but i did for a halfday last wed nesday my afternoon off i folded up and died i could barely muster enough strength to crawl under the covers i wasnt alone from talking to other folks since ive learned that the miserable little microbe has at one time or another had half the town under seige so how should one react under such trying circumstances is it best to simply give up the ghost and flop into bed or should one stand his ground and fight personally i like the latter and for that reason i staggered into work on wednesday morning determined to beat the bug at his own game or die in the attempt by noon i was almost dead while its quite one thing to recognize the symptoms of a particular illness its quite another to treat it properly i received all kinds of helpful hints like lily medicine honey and vinegar anacin rum and butter hot lemonade a mustard plaster aspirin a hot bath a cold shower rum and no butter cod liver oil castor oil mineral oil camphorated oil castoria bromoseltzer alka- seltzer epsom salts 222s kaopectate pink pills for pale people and on and on but id have none of these instead i hauled out my old cold and flu cureall the electric heating pad now if theres one thing my wife cannot stand its heat ill swear she was born in an igloo it can be fifty below outside and shell sleep with the window wide open and the thermostat switched back to sixty but not me the hotter the house the better so to keep both sides satisfied we settle for something in between say about 72 give or take a degree on this particular occasion however she relented she placed the pad in the centre of my back and turned the switch to high but it shifted not the switch but the pad and somehow it worked its way outside its protective cover and inside onto my unprotected posterior yike i awoke with a start emitting a bloodcurdling howl that fairly shook the rafters everyone came arunning figuring i suppose that the fever had finally got to old dad and turned him delirious admittedly the pain for the moment at least was something fierce but it was difficult to pinpoint the rather personal position of the problem bring me some butter i urged my backs on fire they responded faster than ive ever seen them move before then in the privacy of the bathroom i spread it on good and thick using up a good half pound what relief but im still writing a portion of this column standing up a kind of shift system tomorrow ill bring a cushion that should ease me through the week right now im not quite certain which is worse the sickness or its cure will cost but its the principle that bothers me not only do i pay this but i will be taxed on the similar amount the school boards as employees will have to pay to the fund this will be several millions of dollars not to mention all the extra cost of administration to collect it and distribute it i got a lesson in economics today a student said why do we have to worry about all this when we graduate therell be a fixed minimal income and we wont have to work anyway maybe hes right