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4 the tribune thursday january 8 1976 wht wribunz established 188s charles ii nolan publisher itkvrn published every thursday at 5 main st souvilieont tel mm101- barre beacock toronto phone 34i1u0 single copies we subscriptions m m per year in advertising manaeer bailor canadasitmelsewhere memberoi audit bureau o circulation canadian 6 community newspapers associatioa and ontario weekly newspapers association secorid class mail registration number 089 y75fck4 the tribune is one ol tbe inland publishing co limited group oi suburban newspapers which includes the ajaxwhitbypickenng news advertiser bramplon guardian burlington post etobicoke gazette v markham economist and sun newmarketaurora era oakville beaver oshawa this week and mississauga news i i i i i 9 i i i i e editorials private fundraising needed there is obviously a great disparity between the amount of money library board requested to build a new library and what council has offered them the difference is 135000 as the boards request of 385000 was reduced to 250000 by council me first rule warps decisions me first still appears to be the rule in many decisions by durham regional council most recently a uniform water rate across the region was approved by council but a regional sewer rate was blocked by oshawa councillors who fear a rise in taxes through the plan at present a chargeback method is used taxing each municipality for its own share in the overall bill while it is true that oshawas taxes would rise with a regional sewer rate it is also true that earlier municipalities such as uxbridge absorbed a rise in taxes as a result of regionalization while oshawa gained finan cially a regional sewerrate would help even up the score we hope council bypasses the oshawa blockade and approves the plan rather than go to a facility that would only be a minimal improvement over the present quarters we hope that a portion not all the difference could be obtained from the private sector the library is after all the towns cen tennial project and it would be a rather meaningless one if it is built without the participation and contributions of the com munity it would be sadly ironic if a building constructed to commemorate the pioneering spirit that settled this community had to be funded entirely from the public coffers because the citizenry were too disinterested to get involved we feel the service clubs could make a valuable contribution to the community by organizing some fundraising activities an advantage of this approach is that funding through a wintario grant might be available the way this works is that if a grant is approved wintario will match private contributions dollar for dollar in effect doubling the communitys contribution it is our opinion that before going too much further library board and council should meet with the service clubs and ask for their support the service clubs are experienced fund raisers and could probably give some kind of a rough idea as to how much money they think they could raise this step would give the planners a more accurate idea of how much money might eventually be available provincial cuts doom three local school projects sugar and spice comments on cockeved world regional concept fails again one of the main weaknesses of regional government in our opinion has been the un willingness of council to take regional per spectives on issues this was never more apparent than at the council meeting last week at that meeting regional council ap proved debentures worth 1125000 for the town of markham with the exception of vstennis courts worth around 150000 the debenture request was not substantially different one made earlier in december at that time council rejected markhams request under the region of york acubill 102 the responsibility for debenturing rests with the region that means regional council must approve debentures and is the body which actually issues such debentures 1 to make it clear the region is the one that signs for the loan thus while the region cannot regulate what projects are approved at the local level the region can refuse to issue debentures to finance such projects this is what happened in the markham case however as is always true with a hit and 30 years ago this week excerpts from the tribune from january 9 1946 wont use cars consideration was given at the inaugural meeting of the town council on tuesday night to purchasing a new truck for the fire department and taking the present small truck used for carrying the chemical ap paratus for use by the town the town seems no longer able to get workmen to use their cars and a trailer for hauling dirt and doing other chores for which a truck is needed and are faced with having their own outfit markham richmond hill and other towns find it necessary to own a truck and the town maintenance man george middleton told council he wouldnt do the work unless he was provided with a truck streets cleared snowplowing thus far this year has cost 11250 at a rate of 250 per hour this is the first year the municipality ever attempted to keep the streets open around town and the approval of the citizens in general is very encouraging members of council stated horsefeathers the reeve received three complaints made one morning last weekend to the effect that the town plow was pushing snow out of a farmers lane so that a truck could get in to take away a dead horse when the streets were not plowed out in town investigation proved that there was just a tittle of truth in the complaints the plow was making a way through the cemetery for a funeral strange isnt it how stories can be built up ice harvest the heavy overburden of snow lying on musselmans lake is preventing the ice from thickening atpresent there is about six in ches of ice which is so well protected that the thickness is not- increasing no doubt carl k rose who does most of the cutting vill find it 1 vnecessarytto remove snow from an acre in t to let jackfrostdo his worki so that tigood- ice blocks wiilbe availabletfory bar- vesting- 4i v ih- miss approach the action failed to ar bitrarily jump on markham was unfair to say the least the region should set down some guidelines for debenture spending to cut markham off as was being at tempted was unfair yet regional council should be taking a look at adding over 1 million to the regional debt the region has a certain allotment for any given year if that is taken r up with recreational facilities known in the jargon as soft services then much needed borrowing power for sewer and water facilities known as hard services could be used up it was this concern that prompted regional council to turn markham down in the first place if the council had stuck to its guns it would have been a major first it would have shown york regional council making a decision based on regional considerations as it was pressure from markham succeeded in having the debentures passed a proper set of guidelines on debenturing fairly regulated could have prevented the confrontation that eventually developed its a pretty cockeyed world we live in these days everything my generation was brought up to respect and admire has become a subject of derision everything we were taught to despise has become an object of veneration or so it seems to these rather glassy eyes theres no denying its an interesting time to be an inhabitant of the world just as it must have been an interesting time in about 600 ad to be a roman citizen raging in flation vandals at the gates but free bread and a new smash hit at the colosseum bill changed every thursday perhaps the only thing for the sage or the cynic to do in order to retain his sanity is to stand on the sidelines and chuckle the alternative is to stand on the sidelines and sob s i prefer to chuckle with only the oc casional quickly choked sob im chuckling with about the same amount of hilarity as cassandra the trojan princess she was given by the gods the gift of prophecy with the proviso the gods always had a catch in it that nobody would ever believe her glimpses into the future right now im chuckling merrily about the olympics about two years ago and again last year i spelled it out loud and clear right in this very space we were going to be tooken as we have never been tooken before just recently we entered phase 2 of my predictions that outstanding canadian that huge frog in the big puddle mayor dropout of montreal was right on schedule he dropped out and turned over a debt of about half a billion not million billion dollars to an even bigger frog in an even bigger puddle m bareassa the name itself is prophetic thats the way were all going to wind up phase 3 consists of m bareassa handing over the muddle to pierre fuddleduddle the biggest frog in the biggest puddle of all and i dont think i have to tell you what phase 4 consists of if you cant see the hand writing on the wall either you have a reading disability or you are not a taxpayer let me assure my readers my assistant department head miss sauve and my shuffleboard partner mr chenier that the foregoing remarks are not racist i am not even a zionist i dont care whether im conned by a jew or an arab a chinaman or a texan a presbyterian ukrainian or a black catholic all i care about is the fact that im being conned in fact my liberal and unprejudiced views are known far and wide with the ex ception of one walter somebody a jap in alberta one of my best friends in the air force was an american one of my favorite students is an australian i mean how broadminded can you get well that dispensed with lets turn to other examples of our crazy mixedup world everything is either backwards or upside down even closer to home its a crazy world for the first time in her life my wifehas a weight problem shes gaining instead of losing at the same time she has acquired a longslumbering passion for gourmet cooking with typical courage she has tackled both problems simultaneously she sits serenely reading her books on exercise and dieting then she tosses them aside and picks up one of her four new cook books s she gets all her exercise hustling around the stove concocting something that would turn an eel into a porpoise are children safe by madeline nevins winter paints the landscape a special shade of greywhite and this gives an eerie ghostly look to the trees which have a snowy covering it is a wonderland for a photographer and is a special challenge to capture the magic of it all unfortunately the snow covering quickly dissipates on the tree branches returning them to the realm of the ordinary f john montgomery having three children aged 5 3 and 1 i have become extremely interested in childrens car seats and car safety i began by reading frightening statistics such as the fact that in 1974 there were 1748 collision deaths in ontario of the 778 drivers killed 46 were wearing seat belts but 536 were not the rest are unknown as of jan 1 legislation was instituted making the use of seat belts mandatory seat belts are not recommended for children under two years therefore car seats are essential children over two are safer in a seat belt than with nothing at all but they can receive ab dominal injuries in an adult seat belt for this group also car seats are essential i began my research by telephoning the federal governments consumer and cor porate affairs department who said they do not set any regulations on infant carriers i then telephoned the consumers association of canada five years ago a citizens group was formed by them to work in cooperation with the federal government to study childrens car seats their mandate was to gather information to urge parents to use car seats and to help the government set stan dards for childrens car seats after the government took this out of their hands and set their own regulations the group continued to study new car seats and safety tests done in the us and continued to advise the federal government the consumers association of canada recommends two seats for infants the general 7 motors infant carrier and the peterson safety shell the advantage of the peterson is that it converts to accommodate an older child both are extremely safe even for newborns the child faces inward towards the passenger seat of the car in a bucket shaped car seat anchored by the car seat belt the toddler stage poses a problem the consumer and corporate affairs department have set rigid standards and are constantly updating their lists of recommended seats as of their nov 1975 safety standards they are recommending the doral travel guard no 085 the kantwet care seat no 985 the peterson safety shell 74 and 75 and the swingomatic the consumers association of canada who as mentioned above have been studying car seats and their testing for five years warns that there was grave danger if the parcel shelf strap of the travel guard and the swingomatic were not used this strap may be bolted into the parcel shelf at the rear of the car or hooked into the rear seat belt if the car seat is used in a front seat most people can not be bothered using the parcel shelf strap but the seats are not safe unless they are in stalled accordlig to manufacturers in- structions tests have shown that it is less dangerous to omit the use of this strap with- the kantwet the peterson seat does not come with or need a parcel shelf strap the cac was quite concerned with the fact that the travel guard safety tests were not as extensive as the petersons that is travel guard would improve their seat each time there was a complaint the travel guard crotch strap could prove to be dangerous for male babies the strap should be done up tightly if left loose the genitals could be injured unfortunately the safest toddler seat is no longer available in canada the ford tot guard which can be purchased in buffalo if prior arrangements are made with a ford dealer does not pass a canadian test which says that the head must not swing more than 18 inches regrettably this test wrs carried out in very small cars where theehild might bump its head but cac felt that this one disadvantage was insignificant in comparison to the superior safety factors of the ford tot guard this seat passes all us safety standards the child is protected by a sturdy cushioned frontal piece anchored by the car seat belt the tot guard also lasts longer than most seats in that it could hold a small 7yearold the peterson is small and will probably only hold up to a 3yearold older children who have outgrown the car seats should always be seated with an adult seat belt if thev are trained from a very young age it will be automatic for them to sit in the car properly buckled in not only is this the only safe way it is the only sane way as it reduces discipline problems in the car i am simply appalled at the lack of con cern on the part of parents who let their children jump around in the back seats of cars thinking that they are safe because they are in the back the politicians lack of concern in this area is equally appalling surely if we relayed our anxieties to our members of parliament and ithey in turn applied pressure on the ministries concerned better standards would be set and car seats would not be constantly put on the market and then pulled off we should ask the government to reevaluate the ford tot guard and make it available to canadians further information can be obtained from the consumers association of canada toronto ontario telephone 922- street 3153 editors note mrs nevlns of church st stouffviile submitted the above article to the ltu 1 7 8 mt ration makes it a timely warning- f by bill smiley m e i i i