Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday,-November 20,2002 - 12 Long-time Royal Winter Fair exhibitors honoured Above photo digitally enhanced by Herman Zwart Local sheep breeders, Lloyd Ayre (Newcastle) and Lloyd Skinner (Tyrone) took part in the opening ceremonies at the 80th Royal Winter Fair in Toronto last week. They were honoured as being long-time exhibitors at the Fair and were escorted into the ring by this year's Sheep Queen Ashley Driscoll (Lloyd Ayre's grand-daughter) with the Supreme Champion ewe of the show. Tower power Location, location, location is everything in the world of telecommunications towers. There are currently 20 telecommunications towers in the municipality the majority of them having been erected in the last three years. The towers towers are predominantly located along the 401 and Highway 115/35 corridor, and in the residential, residential, commercial and industrial areas. The municipality has received a number of complaints complaints regarding the location of these towers, and the lack of consultation with neighbouring neighbouring property owners prior to their installation. Industry Canada which is responsible for licensing radio and telecommunications carriers, carriers, give the final approval to the installation of towers and antennas. Local municipalities do not hàVe the power to prohibit prohibit the installation of a telecommunications tower. Industry Canada does however require carriers to consult with local municipalities and DUCA fflff flit Mortgages SOVv 6 month closed 3 years closed 5 years closed Variable Rate Great rates & Bonus Shares 4.40% 5.10% 5.65% 4.00% ' rates subject to c/imiÿn without notice DUCA Financial Services Whitliy Branch: 1818 Dumlas St.E. Tel. (905)728-4658 Manager: Mr. Paul Muller Bowmanvllle Branch: 200 King St. E. Tel. (005)623-6343 Manager: Mr. Tom Broarlfoot 0-mall: duca.lnlo@ducn.com Website: www.duca.com encourages public consultation with the municipalities. Clarington has just come up with a policy to provide direction direction for selection of appropriate appropriate locations for any future towers and ensure there is a public consultation process, before any more towers are erected. This new policy encourages encourages telecommunications companies to share their towers towers with each other, avoid placing towers in areas of visual prominence, maintain a minimum of 15 metres from road allowances. Wireless telecommunications providers will be required to sign a Letter of Undertaking with the Municipality, before any new towers can be erected. Mr. Stephen D'Agostino representing Telus Communications told committee committee of council that if they could not put towers in optimum locations they would have to install more towers to give their customers the service they require. He said the Letter of Undertaking read like a contract, and his clients didn't didn't like the time delay required to process the paper work. D'Agostino was not able to assure the Mayor that his clients would not erect any more towers without a Letter of Understanding with- the Municipality which prompted the Mayor to state, "1 will do everything in my power with Federal M.P.'s to stop cell towers towers going in without the Letter of Understanding." The decision making power rests with Industry Canada in all matters relating to telecommunications telecommunications towers. The Motels and Van (Part 3) by Myno Van Dyke For most of October, my wife Judy and I made our very first road trip to the west coast.. We thought we would try two different routes. We would go there through the northern states on Hwy 2 and return through Canada on the Trans- Canada route. We tried our best to avoid busy highways and cities and headed north up Hwy 12, then Hwy 17 and crossed over into the States at Sault St. Marié. The U.S. Customs officer was efficient and friendly. She carefully checked our passports and questioned us as to our destination. destination. She looked into the back of our van and asked, "What's all the stuff back there?" We explained that we had some of our daughter's possessions possessions and were taking them to her new home in Vancouver. "That's a long drive," she said. As she handed us back our passports she added, "You sure are great parents!" It's a long drive to Vancouver. The return trip was 10,000 km. That meafts five" steady driving days each way. On the first day, we stopped at Munising, Michigan. There were a number of motels there and plenty of vacant rooms. Most wanted $60 for a nonsmoking nonsmoking with a queen size bed. It sounds reasonable but that makes it over $100 in our money and we thought we would check at bit more. At the one end of town was a weathered weathered sign with an arrow "Scotty's Motel - One Block". We drove over to it and after a cursory look, I was ready to head back to the highway. It looked much like , the Bates Motel in the movie Psycho. There was one car parked , there that likely belonged to the owners. owners. I advised that I was sure I had seen this motel on an episode of COPS a few weeks previous. Judy insisted that we at least look at it and she went into the small office. She came out right away and I accompanied accompanied her over to the room. It wasn't locked and actually looked quite nice inside. I figured figured the pictures on the wall were to cover up bullet holes, but I was wrong. I told Judy to check for a chalk outline under the covers but the sheets and blankets were clean. There was no evidence of yellow crime scene tape anywhere. It was likely the best room in the place and even included an attached carport for our van. The price was $32 U.S., which was quite reasonable. It was very quiet and much to my surprise we were not awakened by a police helicopter. 1 also expected to see the owner come over and tell us, "If we had known you were staying all night we would have changed the Sheets," but that never happened either. From then on we decided to stay "off the highway" and found some great bargains. We had also just joined CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) and many motels gave us a nice discount just for showing the card. In Havrej Montana, we checked oùt every motel there and ended up staying at the nicest one in town. The railway lines were close by but that was the case with every building in town. We showed them our CARP card and they quickly dropped the price to $40 U.S. A breakfast was also included for that one. In Hanna, Alberta we stayed at a motel that we were certain was abandoned. There was just one old broken down Ford van with no plates parked there and we had quite a time finding the office in a house next door. It wasn't fancy, but for $42 (Can.) we had a nice large room with fridge and a comfy queen size bed in a quiet location at the north end of town far from the highway. There were no other tenants in the whole place that night either. When we woke up it was about minus 10 with a light snowfall One of the most common questions people asked us during during and after oür trip was "how was the van?" I think a lot of folks thought we would get stranded with it. In keeping with our,motel policy, we opted for a 1994 Lumina van with over 260,000 km for the trip. We had about a month to test it out ahead of time and everything everything seemed to work fine. If you want to properly test drive a vehicle, I would suggest driving driving it to the west coast and back. The first part of the trip is easy, especially if you have cruise control. Most of the western states and provinces are flatter than pee on a platter. When you get into British Columbia it is a much different story. There is no way you can make good time. Long steep grades and sharp turns for almost two days is enough to give most vehicles a good workout. We used about one litre of oil on the trip there and the only problem was the "engine service soon" light came on in Montana. I remembered remembered our friend Leigh Parker, who has a similar van, told me that the same light in their van has been coming on for the last five years without any problems. problems. So, we just ignored it and it came on and off during the whole trip. Actually, during the return trip (when the light was on) the van used no oil at all and got better gas mileage... (Part 4 Is next)