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weekender march 7 1987 p21 nse says regional councillor frank scarpitti an open letter to the residents of the town of markham 01 n tuesday february 24 1987 markham council rejected a 50 metre pool a people project which would have cost an additional 15 million dollars over the cost of a 25 metre pool the money needed for such capital projects are funded through developers lotlevies provincial grants and revenue generated by the sale of municipal lands not through property taxes paid by you on that same evening council rammed through the approval for a new civic centre which is projected to cost over 20 million dollars in order to cover this major financial committment the corporation of the town of markham will have to completely drain a 145 million dollar reserve fund even with this reserve fund being used there will be an estimated 5 million dollar shortfall in 1988 that figure is expected to double over the next ten years thereby creating a significant capital deficit the town will then be forced to borrow the funds to cover this deficit the effect of which will be to create an unnecessary tax burden for you that night i took a stand which in my opinion represents the interests of the people of the town of markham i supported financing the public facilities such as the 50 metre pool and the new arena road projects like the widening of the john street bridge and the urgently needed firehalls because i strongly believe that these capital projects will serve the needs of the community more effectively than a municipal civic centre i opposed the civic centre to ensure that your tax dollars would be invested wisely rather than unnecessarily in addition i expressed my concern about the lack of public involvement regarding this project there will be more public information meetings on parks transit and even the pool despite the fact that the cost of the civic centre consumes almost half of this years capital budget my comments have been referred to as being juvenile immature and irresponsible and i have been ridiculed for my stand by some of your councillors if these councillors are laughing at me then they have to be laughing at you too which is unfortunate because i am convinced that you are very concerned about the disturbing financial implications of building the new civic centre please let me know your views on this issue or for that matter any other issue please write to frank scarpitti regional councillor 72 wellington street west suite 206 markham ontario l3p 1a8 or just call at frank scarpitti regional councillor or 4777000 monday to fri 830430 thank you for taking the time to care about our community yours truly frank scarpitti regional councillor this letter has been funded at my own personal expense because i really care about this issue