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stouffville suntribune thursday oct 2 2003 3 stoufiville says by harinelore volpe do you think opinion polls influence the way people vote asked in stoufiville garry schickedanz polls dont really matter because they are surveying only a smali number of people i dorvt think polls swayvoters that much mike clarke people tend to listen to the polls and then vote for the person who is most likely to win i everyone wants to vote for a winner jennet abbott bppifig igp hbr- m mb r kme hhts jtscysbu praijk vvyffs lit 4 aiwmsj they dont influence me my mind was made up weeks ago i dontcare what the polls say i know who i am going to vote for rebecca greco polls are interesting but we make our own decisions based on all the information that is in the media tliifeeamgo staff photohannelore volpe retiring whkchurchstoirffville politicians mayor wayne emmerson left and councillors peter dobrich and cliff dunkeld wear fire helmets presented to them at party at station creek golf club in gbrmley monday for more on the farewell party see jim masons column on page 6 regions fire calls centrahzed but two big towns opt out by simone joseph staff writer york region plans to move aheadwith a central fire- djsfe patch i system vyithoiisi richmond hill and markham regional council voted to form a central fire dispatch service for the seven other municipalities its a step in the right direc tion said whitchurch- stouffville mayor wayne enjnierson who has led the move to a cenjtral service the amalgamated service will be housed iri a building in the bales drive industrial pairic in the south endof east gwiliimbury- which will also house the regions 911 emergency call centre and police dispatch combining the regions dis patch services has been dis cussed for years but has repeat edly been abandoned because of squabbling between munici palities amalgamating services is seen as a major step toward hbusing all of the regions emer gency dispatch services in one centre one reason the region wants to combine dispatchservices is to gain control over two proviri- r dally run ambulance dispatch centres which it says are badly managed and cause dispatch delays jsr amalrlating the fire dis- patch services will save the seven municipalities 31 mil lion by 2026 according to the regions report but richmond hills politi cians opted but of the system because they believe the region overestimated the towns sav ings were staying out of it until we can be sure they richmond hill residents will get better service at the same or lower cost richmond hill regional councillor david barrow said the region predicts it will cost richmond hill 887800 to run its dispatch service next year richmond hill estimates it will cost 685000 if we dont start with accu rate numbers i dont think cost and savings projections are accurate mr barrow said v richmond hills mayor called the regions projection a myth 0 were telling people you are going to pay more under this unified service bill bell said in a phone interview thursday but mr emmerson believes markham and richmond hill face extra costs in the long run by not joining the central fire dispatch service five years down the road they will have to add people and equipment he said if markham joins the service it will have to give up state-of- theart technology it has pur chased over the past three years as well as training it has given its dispatchers markham councillor bill odonnell said we dont want to throw it away he said if markham joins the central service it will have to adopt new technology along with the other municipalities mr odonnell said markhams fire dispatch service is responsible for more than just sending out fire trucks it also takes afterhour emer gency calls to the town switch board and monitors alarms at municipally run buildings if markham joins the central service mr odonnell is con cerned the union would not agree to firefighters taking on these extra duties and markham would have to hire new staff for latest election results logontoyorkregioncom its election day in ontarfo and if youre looking for our coverage click onyorkregioncom we will be providing up-to-the- minute updates from noon on on the york region newspaper groups website ourteam of journalists is report ing from markham oak ridges thornhill vaugharikingaurora and york north with breaking sto ries and anecdotes from the cam paign trail y you can read about the candi dates reflections oh the campaign voters opinions and what the pun dits think will happen as soon as the polls close at 8 pm well be bringing you regular updates of results photographs arid reactions from the candidates theres an election message board that lets you share your opin ions and you can take our election day opinion survey if you still havent decided who is getting your vote there is an archive of our previous stories about major campaign issues such as education health transportation justice and environment this is the start of an exciting new phase in our coverage editor in chief debora kelly said we have been filing breaking news stories to yorkregioncom practically everyday for the past few weeks but we have never attempted to provide online coverage on this scale we expect yorkregioncom will soon be our daily newspaper so check out yorkregioricorn today quofeworthy admittedly we dont have the facilities of a markham a woodbridge or an uxbridge but we do have the expertise columnist jim thomas on whitamchstouffyille getting its own fall fair see column on page 7 js v y contacting us have a news tip please phone us at 9056402612 email its at jmasonyrngcom visit us at 34 civic ave stouffville 3