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

Ite En- stwj Keswick Oat Wed 2 THE ERA Serving York County Sinn DAVID HASKELL CARTER JOHN Need a new assessment category for speculators York Region farmers stand to benefit by a recent court decision that farmland must be assessed on its productive value not its market Also benefitting will be land speculators who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for farms near urban centres where subdivisions mil soon go but under the ruling can only be assessed taxes on the land productive capa city as long as they raise a crop or graze a few cattle For instance speculators and developers pay as much as 10000 an acre for farmland near Newmarket They hope soon to be allowed to subdivide the land and reap handsome pro fits yet they have only been assessed in the past on the market value of their property for farming purposes Now under the new ruling they will pay even less Their assessment will drop from about an acre to around an acre Real farmers probably wont benefit very much in the long run Their municipal govern ments must still raise the same amount in re venues each year so mill rates will simply go A new category is needed for assessment purposes to differentiate between working farms and those held by speculators An ideal system would be the one already in use for golf courses and other recreation openspace areas Golf course operators for instance can by request be assessed at a very low rate as recre ation facility but if the owner has his course for a higher use assessment automati cally switches to the higher use retroactive to the first year of operation and all the bad taxes become due at once Congratulations on new arena pool Newmarket is on the verge of acquiring both a new municipal swimming pool and a new arenacommunity centre and if all goes well both will go up next year In most towns of Newmarkets size such major capital projects would be the subject of lengthy debate a good deal of noisy oppo sition often bitterness and almost always tax Newmarket is acquiring both projects painlessly at minimum cost to present tax payers Town council has required the builders of two major developments which hope to come to town to agree to build the recreation facili ties as part of their contributions towards the amenities they must provide for the new resi dents they will bring Both projects must still be cleared by regional and provincial authori ties before work can start however Council and particularly Mayor Bob For ban and Councillor ili Iwiiiiiey who did the bulk of the negotiating should be commended for their hardheaded foresight The people moving into town who are cre ating the need for new facilities will bo paying for them through the price of their homes in stead of having the facilities levied against the general mill rate Perhaps the pool and arena will even shave a percentage point off the de velopers profit Thats the way it should be NEWSROOM NOTES Theres no joy at Mosquito Manor mighty Haskell has splashed out Basher outsmarted me Now thats an admission for you But its true Basher outsmarted me in the joust on Fairy Lake on Saturday I can only hang down my head in de feat and learn from experience Bashers crafty tactics started soon he accepted my challenge He whis pered words into Mr Vanden ears from the very outset Mr Vanden goaded by Bashers whisperings vented his rage on referee Murray McKelvey Basher even got me mad at the referee But with Mr VandenBergh the hos- It even got so bad that Mr Vanden Bergh was going to dump McKelvey and Big Reds dingy into Fairy Lake Earlier on I sent Basher and Sealbeam Vineham splashing when I pulled the fire cracker trick I had that trick planned for weeks and it was designed to end the joust in a hurry without me getting touched by a drop of water But this is where Basher outsmarted The firecracker trick worked all right but the joust hadnt officially started Basher with his yapping confused me I had thought the referees starting pistol had fired But no was still rowing down the lake against my fancy footwork The only t ble was I couldnt get fancy with my foot work This is where Basher outsmarted me still again I took up my position in the bow Bash stood in the himself in the and planted his feet firmly on the bottom It would have taken a Mack truck to dis lodge him My thrusts bounced off him like flies off a windshield It then became only a matter of time the unequal con test would end with me winding up in Fairy Lake I have only myself to blame for my loss and give every credit to Basher for the gentlemanly way he conducted himself dur ing the joust But I find two things about the joust rather curious Why did referee warn only Mr Vanden and I about using unfair tactics Why did referee present the Jack Groves trophy to Basher and Seal- beam and congratulate the winners I thought a referee was supposed to be unbiased and impartial But I really knew my cook was goosed before the joust when I saw Basher riding into Fairy Lake atop Clare Salisburys con vertible flanked by Mr and Mrs Autumn Festival It became more evident that I had had it when the entourage was preceded by the Legion Pipe Band Then the red car pet was rolled out for Basher However it didnt really sink in until I saw Bashers boss on the shore cheering him to victory For you see Bashers boss name is Buck Rogers And you never fool around with Buck Rogers Or is it Roy Rogers Old Ontario sketch of on obondonid THE Readers ERA spoce is reserved for the comments lions and drawings of The Eras read- Please feel free to send yours All we ask is that include r name and address Approves Of sec anyone Jesus people The part that pleased with something like that me most personally was But Jesus Christ is the the paper signs that answer to the genera were put up on the fence gap If both genera on Fairy Lake I dont Hon groups could get to know who was respon- ii but I certainly a- and faith with them whole- a wonderful place I walked by would be will all become firmly St grounded in Christ Id Hospital like to see them coming to Sunday school and his family church There is a pew in my church with only resut front Id love to have bounty Hospital for a worship God staff is like happy family having guest in their home vhat SIRS LONSDALE RRI Newmarket PS My church Church of the BILL SMILE AND SPICE School another snafu Teaching in our school this fall has been a combination of walking the plank and running the gauntlet When school opened about fifteen hundred kids and teachers walked into something that looked as though the Irish Republican Army had been using it for a couple of years as a test ing ground for bombs A new audition about the third since came here was in its glorious death throes That means it might be finished in six months It was begun a year ago It wasnt so bad during last winter and spring because most of the construction was out side brick piling and steel work In fact it was quite lively especially in the spring with the Italian workers ogling the girls through the windows and being ogled back and drinking beer on the job and yelling and laughing But during the summer the termites the in side workers got into the mausoleum and the re sult for a while at least is complete chaos The termites are the electricians plumbers BILL GAMBLE Girls should be boys have been boys that is if the fathers had bad way A survey declares the psychologist has proved that most newlywed fatherstobe it much but armed with such information sagacious teenage girl particularly if she hap pens to be an only child could have a good thing going for her example honey lets suppose he was expecting a boy someone to propagate and illu minate his identity it isnt really news to you You guessed it all along Now that you come to think of it that paint job on your old nursery walls isnt green at all but a distinctly faded shade of blue And that old of jours that wal lows tn mildewed misery In comer of the attic shows spots of anemic azure between Hobs of time hardened And names like Denise Joanne Roberta and Fran seem to establish certain parallels with male handles So what Fathers are like that a little egoism and a little laziness just someone to carry the fishing tackle and wash the car But it doesnt mean that he loves you any the less Anyway since you stopped him in his tracks by being a girl the least you can do Is try to make up for by being a dutiful daughter He wanted a boy so it should be fairly evident that he likes boys This being the case Is your duty to see that he was a goodly amount boys around the house at all times However any old bunch of boys wont do they should be handpicked according to quali fications For example having an auto mechanic on your list would be an asset In case the old mans should need a fast tuneup This is one off the things he had In mind for that son he And in the event your boyfriend does get the old heap running it would do dads ucler no end of good if afterwards the two of you would try it out along some quiet country road In every neighborhood theres a nice boy who considers himself to be an expert on grass and If you really have papas Interest at heart youll add this one to your list also After all yon wouldnt want to stand by and see the old man cut the stuff himself now would you In fact having the right boys around you might be advantageous in another way Lets say for instance that your accountant friend you know the boy whos a whiz at fiddling books does a particularly good job on dads income tax returns saving him a few thousand dollars You could hit him up for a new car If In turn he hits the roof all you have to say is that hes saving money on you all the time chiefly because you are a girl Point out that if he had a son hed be spending money galore on some other mans daughter and still end up buying a car If you just think about this you might do all right for yourself Anyway honey Im only putting you wise to all this so that you wont feel too despondent about your fathers preferring a boy to you Some girls could end up with a trauma over a thing like that and spend the rest of their lives wearing skin tights and drinking beer in bed Dont ever regret not being a boy Think of the things youd miss when yon get a little older things like mink coats backless gowns dia monds the thrill of your very first spindrier and the licence to cry real tears during the tele vision snap operas If you were a boy nobody would hold the chair for you to sit down or hold the car door open for you or give you the rightofway at an intersection And besides your husband might not care much Belles of York sssnsnV wilt bo an October In fad on Oct 1 bride for on that night sfio Be comes Mrs Jack Bowing Judy at tended Huron Heights in a stock car and joys playing the pi- By Robert White IP J floor and ceiling men and others of that ilk you arent tripping over an electric cable or walk ing through some freshpoured The library isn reid there is no cafeteria and the gym is not finished These are pretty important areas in a school that size Did you ever try to teach poetry with a Wasting a few feet away Its like trying to have an elegant garden party in the middle of a monsoon that so full of somebody elses junk equipment that you couldnt see your students even if you had lights Just to compound the confusion the num bers of all the rooms have been changed Thus my old room 2G9 is now or Im still room is I would answer with sublime confiden ce Sure Just along the hall to the boiler room turn right and its about three doors down on your left Now I havent a clue where Mr room is I think hes moved somewhere and the place is so big I couldnt tell the kid how to get there If I did know It took me half an hour to find the new staff lounge which turned out to be a square bleak underground hole with no windows and a couple of light bulbs hanging from the celling In the proposed a bastard word if there ever was one the windows were sealed off because it would be airconditioned Then it was learned that it wouldnt be airconditioned Can you imagine what It will be like in there with the smells of cooking and five hundred bodies on a hot day It seems to me that school architects are in a class by like carpenters who would never tackle anything bigger than an outdoor privy Perhaps I wrong them Perhaps they are hampered by rigid budgets But I cant imagine any firm that specializes in designing schools be ing asked to build something that combined aes thetics and utility However theres always a bright side to things The public address system is not working The bells are not working These are two boons and I hope they never get them working None of the teachers has gone stircrazy yet despite the architects fetish for rooms In fact theres a certain gaiety and esprit corps among the staff the sort of thing that always emerges in a great disaster like a bomb ing blitz or a paralyzing blizzard And the kids love it Kids love confusion especially in their teens when they begin to bitterly regulations rules and rigidity They can wander through the tend they got lost chat with the workmen and he late for class Thats living