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6 economist suntribune saturday june 22 2002 stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper 9 heritage rd markham onl l3p 1m3 opinion publisher ian proudfoot editor in chief debora kelly director of advertising debra weller editor jim mason classified manager ann campbell reduction manager pam nichols retail sales manager stephen mathieu istribution manager inside sales manager barry black stacey allen electronic communications business manager robert lazurko manager john futhey office manager vivian oneil letters markville bullying arrests made after threemonth investigation re problems at markville secondary blown out of proportion letter to the editor by claudia so june 15 to say that i was appalled at claudia sos comments re bullying at markville secondary school is an understatement the comment that bullying has been a factor in our society for many years and i feel all of a sudden when teenagers are arrested our society reacts as if it has never happened before has one shred of truth yes bullying has been a factor in our soci ety for many years so have murder extor tion violence of all types and kidnapping to mention a few of the horrendous things that happen in our society however to express the thought that all of a sudden when teenagers are arrested our society reacts as if it has never happened before is a unprecedented comment the old adage actions speak louder than words definitely comes into play in this sit uation the actions of those who bullied the markville students display their character without even knowing who they are i can say they do not possess positive character traits if ms so had read and comprehended kathleen griffins article then she would have understood that the bullies were arrest ed after a threemonth investigation at markville secondary school i cannot imagine how any civilized mem ber of canadian society would have the gall to condone such behaviour toni fletcher markham mayor most of council ignores residents on stouffville growth well the end has begun on tuesday i went to the whitchurchstouffville council meeting concerning the proposed develop ment plan for stouffville the meeting was packed people were standing in the hall the town was out in force to be heard for four hours the people said in one resounding voice that they did not want stouffville to become another suburb of markham they objected to a plan which calls for the i hao il l the federal liberals are cutting taxes the ontario tories are raising takes whats wrong with this picture destruction of character of this town they wanted more green space they wanted larg er lot sizes they wanted to stay country close to the city they wanted the secondary plan that everyone had worked so hard to create listened to i heard it said every way by every person in the room from the wellspoken pleas to those that could only stumble for the words to express their opinions the message was consistent and clear even when the flowery speech was not there the objections were unanimous the only time that silence was heard throughout the meeting was when the mayor asked for any supporters to the plan there were none i heard the emotional cries of a 17-year- old student who asked the questions that everyone else was trying to putinto words is this a done deal is this only about money is anyone listening the mayor never did answer the question directly but at the end of the meeting when the councillors and mayor gave their opin ions the answer was quite clear when you wade- through all the flowery speeches and excuses the answer was loud and clear this is a done deal it is all about money nobody is listening all the respect that i held for mayor wayne emmerson has disappeared his clear support for a plan that none of the citizens want showed that although he heard he didnt care only one councillor mark carroll had the courage to say that it was wrong the rest fell in line with their excuses blame the province blame the developers we need to be like everyone one else why we cant we cant we cant goodbye stouffville your days are num bered democracy is truly dead in this town frank daigle stouffville many thanks to volunteers sponsors of markham festival i would like to thank all those who con tributed to the success of this years markham village music festival even though the weather challenged us at times everyone was flexible and enthusiastic the many guests who attended appeared to enjoy our extended emphasis on music and talent shows thank you for supporting the festival many thanks to the volunteers and spon sors who made the festival possible espe cially to the town of markham and the economist and sun tribune brian a ling festival chairperson firefighters union guilty of empire building in stouffville open letter to the international association of fire fighters re toronto fire fighters asked to quit here tribune june 13 your work to protect firefighters is admirable your empirebuilding attitude for your union is anything but i live in a small town where more then two thirds of the firefight ers are volunteers the town cannot afford fulltime fire fighters and historically has used volunteers for more than 100 years today some of these firefighters are what you call doublehatters men who work full- time in a nearby large city these men are now being told they should resign from the volunteer positions because of their fulltime work that is empire building and it is why peo ple all over north america hate unions its not about safely its about control and power who are you to tell people what they can do in and for their own communities if you want to improve relations really strengthen your union and peoples accep tance of unions in general you ought to reconsider your stance remember even the greatest of empires eventually fall doyou want yours to be soon er or later peter mitchell stouffville unionville councillor left constituents unrepresented re avoiding conflict best policy june 8 i think you were a tad too generous to markham councillor joe virgilio in september councillor virgilio had a clear choice he could either support his constituents at the public hearing on the firkin pub pro posed for unionville main street or as he puts it one of my best friends he chose his friend the developer of the firkin if at that point he had just declared a conflict of interest and stepped back his con stituents would understandably have still been unhappy however he did not he acted and still acts as the developers lawyer he says he got another councillor on- side to represent the area in the meantime what he did not say was this took several months to accomplish the impact was that during that period not only were his constituents not represent ed but also without the leadership or over sight from any member of council the firkins parking requirement was reduced from 24 to 15 stalls it was only when this association retained lawyer donald hindson to investigate the entire matter that this was discovered now as the result of the efforts of our members and mr hindsons legal opinion the developer reached a settlement with this association by paying to the town the sum of money specified by the town to construct the extra nine parking stalls in other words because councillor virgilio chose to act for his client and not his con stituents this association was forced to do not only his job but the job of town staff as well the bottom line is that his constituents are now out of pocket more than 5000 in legal fees we just hope the town andor councillor virgilio will have the decency to reimburse us richard talbot president village of unionville property owners association letters policy stouflville tribune welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the newspaper reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space write letters to the editor 9 heritage rd 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