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j yxwk y v l regional news volunteers to kicfcoffjufflfaising in november group needs site for safely village by rick vanderlinde staff writer safety comes first but theres still a lot of work to be done before the first york region child learns the rules of the road by driving a miniature electric car through a 5-mil- lion community safety village finding a location for the miniature village is the biggest roadblock to clear a volunteer community group called police and community together pact is looking for five acres of centrally locat ed land to get the project off the ground the group made a pitch to york regions police services board last week looking for support for an idea that has already seen success in regions across the gta and they may have got more than just moral support regional chairperson bill fisch said the regions politicians may be able to get land from developers who are adding about 30000 residents to york region each year fisch suggested a park land guaran tee property set aside in residential subdivisions be used we should be able to get a site in a number of different ways he said there are a lot of developers out there who are anxious to be community minded fisch also suggested the york region municipality where the village is even tually built could allow tax breaks and waive building permit fees for the non profit village aurora councillor steve hinder a member of pact said the group origi nally hoped to build the village in aurora because of its central location but it has since broadened its site selection by considering 25 possible locations the group is looking for a location with a minimum of five acres preferably more for future expansion a reasonably central location access to regional roads and transit land that can be serviced a relatively flat topography to cut done on grading costs building the village which would be run by york regional police officers and a fulltime civilian manager depends on both public sector and corporate dona tions corporations such as fast food outlets have their buildings replicated in the miniature village and pay an annual maintenance fee the annual operating cost not including salaries for two officers and a site manager would be about 100000 chief julian fantino has backed the concept by placing his endorsement on a fundraising brochure one of the underpinnings of this is education fantino told the board you have to get to the children hinder said a major fundraising campaign will kick off in november while there is litde statistical infor mation to prove the villages prevent accidents there is anecdotal evidence there was a young girl who recently got into a bike accident and when police spoke to her she told them that having been at a safety village allowed her to handle herself better hinder said the village would be used by school children as well as adults and other groups at night the site would include a classroom as well as the miniature vil lage to give road tests to children riding electric cars and bicycles monsieur felix mr norton pure enjoyment with every bite markham town square or ner of warden h vv y 7 g r a eroaomisteimsti ll o p e n i n g isftfi uyjfflfe the queens pantry is pleased to announce the grand opening of queensbridge mill furniture showroom 4160 i9th avenue markham 905 887ii27 north side of 19th between warden and kennedy for more information call the queens pantry 176 main street historic unionville 905 4774625 wwwqueensbridgecom dont miss ouropening specials s e p t e m b e r jo t h 1 9 99 open thursday friday saturday 10 0 0 am 510 0 pm announcement iat pictured above is the village grocer team which won the unionville slow pitch league championship tournament in a hard fought final game vvith mason international left to right back row is greg strike steve seymour craig berry kevin thistle lindsey kehoe bert hesselink patrick pasani and mark barbara- front row left to right is john poucher don turner david gebe evan macdonald john harding and robbie mcleodlly ill consolation round winners were the unionville arms team in a tight game over jones wood products this caps a great season of ball for our league and we wish to thank village grocer and the seventeen other team sponsors its a great league with a lot of heart