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Delay in YCH wing has doubled York Countys cost NEWMARKET Delays in the construction of an addition to York County Hospital have skyrocketed costs forcing York County Council to almost double the contribution is ap proved two years ago The delays imposed by the pro vince pushed the countys share from million to million In addi tion the present plans call for 40000 fewer square feet of floor space than did the plans The delays have also caused such a serious shortage of space at the hos pital that the hospital board is con sidering seeking temporary accommo dation for some of its facilities Richmond Hill Reeve Don Plax- also charged that inflexible pro vincial 1 specif are forcing the cost of the new mil lion wing higher York County Council holding its final threeday session last week be fore turning over administration of the area to the new York Regional Council approved a resolution ex pressing its willingness to grant the hospital board a total of approved and made by the council Mr charge that the Ontario Hospital Services Commission put the hospital board into an admin istrative straitjacket because it left no choice in the building mater ials that can be used was offset by administrator The administrator said the prob lem was not inflexible specifications but rather the fact that public build ings had to be tendered as a package THE PAGES VOL NO CENTS Newmarket Aurora ONTARIO WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 1970 CENTS to protect the public and this proce dure didnt allow builders to take ad vantage of bargains as they came on the market during construction board C Boyd told council increasing costs were oc casioned by an increased demand for space which in turn was caused by the increased requirements of a grow ing community Our plan Is very flexible it is readily usable for additions in the future he said The new addition which wont be ready before 1974 he said will in crease hospital beds from to over and will also provide larger ser vice areas Xray lab outpatient The chairman said OHSC mini mum requirements were mainly in the area of floor space The cost increase was caused by see delay page IN LAKE AREA Salary dispute may slow school buses By LARRY ROBERTSON be severely curtailed the northern section of York County if members of the School Bus Drivers Association and Simcoe Coach Lines their employer cant agree on salary and a contract Mrs Nor PRESSURE BUILDING Town staff may explode NEWMARKET The new town council will be facing pressure for its own population explosion when it tak es office in January The councillorselect held a ser ies of meetings with town department heads during the past two weeks to find out what problems they foresee when the town expands Jan 1 To a man they foresaw the need for larger staffs to handle the new town five times its present area and with additional people and some also set their sights on new equipment and buildings Here are the main items the council will have to set priorities on early in the new year a request by Fire Chief Cliff Gunn for the addition of full time firemen to his present volun teer department a new fire hall hut in the nottoodistant additional staff and space for the town clerk and town treasurers offices and a new billing machine another building inspector and at least a parttime secretary for that a plan to enclose the Peter Gorman Swimming pool with a heated plastic dome so the pool can be used yearround al least three more people in the engineering department an addition to the works de partment building In addition to t a list of smaller items piled up a new aerial ladder for the fire department walkie- talkie and a twoway radio for the new fire truck twoway radios for the works department trucks enactment of properly minimum standards by law and the imposition of an ad mm is tion fee within the building inspec tors department for services to law yers and builders Recreation and parks director Dan Shannon reminded the meeting a longrange parks acquisition pro gram is needed The fire chief told the members of the 7172 council the 10 fulltime firemen he is requesting would give him two men on duty around the clock He said a second fire hall is needed because the present one is just too crowded The new council members seem ed to find Mr Shannons suggestion that they consider closing in the Gor man pool interesting The director said the lown badly needs more swimming facilities and he said closing in the existing pool for yearround use would be far cheaper than building a new enclosed pool To build a new indoor pool would cost he said Mr Shannon said the pool last year had a revenue of and broke even If it were closed in would certainly break even and might make money Two musical groups wellknown throughout northern York County joined forces after the recent New market and Aurora Santa Clans par ade Marching at Fairy Lake are the redcoated men of the Newmarket Citizens Band and the Pipe Band of Newmarket Legion Branch 426 Color Photo by Robert White Police HQ in Hub NEWMARKET Efforts to bring the Vork Region Police adminis tration headquarters to Newmarket are underway Newmarket regional councillor Ray Twinney a member of the police commission said two buildings in the town are presently under considera tion by the commission the Office Specialty building on Prospect St which Mr Twinney said has every thing wc need and the old York Manor building on St Loss of Metro grant for roads worries county NEWMARKET York Countys roads system is used by thousands of Toronto drivers So Toronto should help pay for it right Maybe so but starting next year Metro wont pay a penny towards York County roads In past years the metro polis to the south has paid per cent of the county roads budget But that ends in 1971 Its one of the consequences of regional go vernment The province has in creased grants to help the new York Region pay for its roads whose costs will double in the next 10 years But in order to qualify for maximum aid from Queens Park the region will have to spend more than it can afford on roads York County Council indi cated last week After tabling a mammoth report detailing roads needs and cost projec tions for the next decade county councillors issued a grim warning to the new regional government on the future of its traffic system We have been put in an unten able situation of a roads system that is utterly impossible for us as a muni cipality to maintain lamented Depu ty Reeve Wallace of North Gwillimbury He complimented the consultants who prepared the report but termed its contents shattering Fitzpatrick the Association said if the and Simcoe operator drivers school this week she would walk off the job and try to lead the Associ ation out with her The meeting was held after The Eras press time so no results are available The Association is seeking per hourly trip and a written contract in place of the present per run without a contract Some York County school bus per trip The pre sent mimimum hourly rate is per hour and will increase to per hour effective Jan A fiveman committee of the group recently rejected an approach by Teamster union official Jack Herd of Toronto to organize them We want to deal with Mr Ro bert Walker ourselves without the help of a union said Mrs The contract sought by the As sociation would ultimately affect school bus drivers in Sutton Keswick and Pefferlaw working for Simcoe Coach Lines We were told by Mr Walker that he had 52 drivers on payroll Mrs Fitzpatrick said but as far as we can tell there are about 45 It has also been rumored that he has 20 extra drivers lined up to replace us Airs Filzpalrick said it is unfor tunate that school children wiil be caught in the middle of the labor dis pute if the drivers walk out It is unfortunate as far as the kids are concerned but 1 can see no other way of doing this she said Mr Walker said before Tuesday nights meeting I have things well in hand and we have a meeting or diction To have a desirable system the report recommended that the new region assume 267 miles of township See LOSS page York planner edged from top job Costs going up up up for key county services end in sight York County Council learned last ithon threeday session council was child heights with told that The welfare budget The I Aid will I- by Dec to York County Hospital doubled in two years In order to bring the county roads system up to what will see its roads experts call costs double in For details desirable level the stories below and page 13 By JOHN Era News Editor NEWMARKET One of the original architects of regional government for York County last week was rejected in his bid to be come the new regions lop planning official York Regional Council last Thursday hired Murray Pound plan ning director for the Hamilton Went worth area as its first regional plan- Council had been severely cri ticized in some quarters for hiring incumbent county department heads to regional jobs without advertising Last week council decided to bring in a new face to the top planning post The job had been advertised Several sources said Mr Dow- sons reputation for challenging the province particularly his opposi tion to Metro grabbing rich southern portions of York County apparent ly didnt help his chances The region Is obligated to retain Mr Dowson at his present salary for see DOWSON page To try two men for trafficking NEWMARKET Varley 23 and James Ward 27 both of New market were committed by a court here last Friday for trial in Toronto on a charge of possession of mari juana for the purposes of trafficking The two were arrested in late August in a combined MctroRCMP police raid on a Vale Ave house Police alleged they seized some 40000 worth of marijuana The two will be tried by judge and jury in Toronto mmissioner Hell salary plu loving expenses from Burlington council ruled In the process council rejected the application of the present county planning chief Conroy who three years ago helped write the re port that eventually brought regional government to York Pressure from the province and public protest against hiring old re gime department heads apparently doomed Mr Dowsons application The Era learned Council sources told The Era that Donald Taylor a planning offi cial with the provincial government sat in on the screening sessions and advised councils personnel commit tee against hiring Mr EG property taxes up slightly over 1969 SHARON When East Township taxpayers get their bills this week theyll find theyll be paying a little more than last year but not too much more East council struck a mill rate of 2175 for public resi dential and farm property owners This compares to Newmarkets The 2175 mills means that a home assessed at 1 will pay taxes totalling after deducting the Provincial Government rebate of The same home last year paid tax es totalling Township Clerk Treasurer Jack Hopkins estimates that about 1300 taxpayers will pay more this year mostly due to the new reassessment Mr Hopkins estimates about half of these 1300 will have a tax hike of or less Owners of farm property will likely bear the brunt of the tax In crease and this is caused by re- years to spread their payments Taxes must be paid by Dec IS or there will be a penalty of one per cent per month on the unpaid balance Santa SANTA VILLE NORTH POLE Dec Dear Girls and Boys What a busy day today is The elves and I have just sat down to have a glass of milk and I thought I had better write you and let you know that were all still working hard to get finished by Christmas Eve and Candy my two special helpers that are in charge of the Big Black Book are making a final check and you wont believe that this year we only have a few black marks in it Oh I hope none of them is beside So remember now no fighting I must go now everyone Is call ing me to start back to work