The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

6 economist sunsuntribune saturday sept u 2004 s a metroland community newspaper 34 civic ave stoufmlle on l4a 7z5 publisher ian proudfoot letters to the editor thanks for supporting study re council considers theatre in school sept 9 i extend heartfelt thanks to whitchurch- stouffville mayor sue sherban and the rest of council for unanimously voting to move forward with a feasibility study on convert ing stouffvilles old town hall into a per forming arts centre their vision reasoned deliberations and strong commitment to our town earned them a welldeserved standing ovation i would also like to thank councillors rob hargrave and ken ferdinands for the hours they devoted to working on this concept and making it real to those who took time out of their busy lives to write and phone in support of this wonderful project thank you and to all those who made it a priority to attend the council meeting and to those who stood up to speak your strong presence and eloquent words showed a genuine and unwa vering devotion to our community and this project for this i give you my most heartfelt thanks the experience of sitting through a coun cil meeting filled such positive energy gen uine laughter and unbelievably strong level of commitment to our community lays a strong foundation on which we can build this project pammandich stouffville neighbourhoods need traffic help re promised improvements not done let ter to the editor by heinz nitschke sept 4 mr nitschke referred to a letter i had writ ten commenting oh your papers aug 7 inter view with regional transportation commis sioner kees schipper in my letter i addressed concern only about mr schippers comment that traffic calming in residential neighbourhoods played into congestion i was concerned about the dismissive nature of his comment given residents living on streets with excessive speed and infiltra tion from cutthrough motorists see traffic calming measures and i said nothing specifically about speed bumps as a means to restore safety and improve the quality of life in their neighbourhoods i fail to see how mr nitschke could extrap olate i was out to undermine every initiative mr schipper is proposing to alleviate traffic congestion im sure mr schipper and others in his profession are working diligently to grapple with huge transportation infrastructure chal lenges the region is facing as a result of explo sive unprecedented growth my comments were simply those of a res- opinion editor in chief advertising director debora kelly retail flyer sales susiness manager nicole fletcher robert lazurko advertising director director of classified real estate production events management john futhey gord paolucci xneed ident dealing as are many people in stouffville and markham with the impacts of excessive traffic through residential neighbourhoods in many cases these vehi cles are travelling at excessive speed and dis regarding stop signs surely residents livingwith this level of dis turbance this diminished quality of life and erosion of property values have the right to seek solutions that will control these impacts keeping traffic moving as mr nitschke puts it should not be at the expense of taxpayers living on residential streets appropriated by impatient cutthrough drivers and speeding motorists jillmcwhinnie stouffville whistles needed for safety re residents want train whistles silenced sept 2 i was dumbfounded and speechless after reading how brian roman and iggy natoli want to stop markham go trains from whistling at crossings i cant understand why anyone would want to champion a cause whose only pur pose is to decrease safety if the whistles were eliminated the only warning we would have would be two flash ing lights which can be blocked by a tall vehi cle or trees and a bell thats barely audible over ambient noise many tragic scenarios come to mind imagine a parent picking up and dropping off children from school and sports activi ties all it takes is a momentary lapse of attention on that parents part for tragedy to strike if mr roman and mr natoli are successful in their bid to silence the go trains what would be next eliminating sirens on police fire and ems vehicles george treheles unionville cameras not best traffic solution while i welcome efforts to make our streets safer red light cameras are not the best way to achieve this goal york regional chairperson bill fisch and the various mayors are being disingenuous when they claim they are concerned about the safety of children and pedestrians according to an article by radley balko in the online publication tech central station a study in fairfax county va where red light cameras are being used discovered by simply extending the length of time a light stayed yellow by 15 seconds red light running was reduced by 96 per cent thats far higher than reductions by red light cam eras more disturbing is some communities are now being investigated for shortening the length of yellow lights from four seconds to three to increase revenues rearend collisions also increase with the installation of red light cameras photo radar theother revenue generator premier dalton mcguintys term not mine is another farce the installation of photo radar in school zones does nothing immediate to stop a dri ver from speeding in fact the driver contin ues to speed through the community after he is captured on film how does this make the community safer photo radar and red light cameras also foster a twotier system whereby someone who can afford to pay is permitted to speed to his hearts content provided he is willing to pay a better alternative would be to have actual police officers in school zones with laser guns on a intermittent basis to stop speeders slow them down and enforce stop signs we all want safer streets but alternatives that are not as revenue friendly are hot being explored paulspence unionville towers no place to test emfs re higher wires could be good letter to the editor by percy barber sept 2 i find it amusing mr barber is baffled by sue fuscos letter opposing hydro ones pro posal to create a route of giant transmission towers from markham to aurora his 40 years as an electrical engineer have left a huge void in his knowledge of potentially harmful electromagnetic fields mr barber states at what voltage do emfs become harmful i say lets not con duct this experiment in our neighbourhood this should be carried out in a controlled setting such as a laboratory pdipietro markham truck traffic hurting businesses traffic on main street markham during the past few weeks has been a constant con voy of dump trucks especially on saturdays and sundays markham is always trying to enhance the shopping experience of main street stores and eateries and shop owners are trying their best to make the street appealing for locals and tourists the town has flowers and landscaping restaurants have outside cafes and the streetscape is appealing for a walk but the dust diesel smoke noise and congestion these trucks create is going to send clientele to another location it astounds me someone cannot force these trucks to take an alternate route charlie loveland markham editorial editor jim mason neivsroomcconsuncom advertising retail sales manager steve kane skaneyrngcom sales manager new business development distribution dawna andrews dandreivsymgcom classified manager ann campbell acampbellymgcom v v 1 finni real estate manager mike rogerson inrogersonyrngcom production production manager pam nichols pnicholsymgcom distribution distribution manager barry black bbuickymgcom administration office manager vivian oneil vonellyrngcom m 1 1 ftftttt rr frrtttttrrrtti york region events managing director debra weller dwellerymgcom shows manager stacey allen sallenymgcom york region printing general manager bob dean bdeanymgcom 4 9 i r 4 i 1 editorial 9052942200 fax 2941538 advertising 905 6421908 cxt 221 classified 18007433353 fax 8531765 distribution 9052948244 canadian ontario press circulations audit council board member suntribune a york region newspaper group community newspaper the stoufmie tribune published every thursday and saturday is a member of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd a whollyowned subsidiary of torstar corporation metroland is comprised of 70 community publications across ontario the yak regton newspaper group includes the liberal serving richmond hill and thomhill vaughan citizen markham economist sun stoufmlle suntribune georgina advocate york region business times north of the city yorfcregioncom and york region printing letters policy the markham economist sun welcomes your letters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the economist sun reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space letters to the editor the economist sun 9 heritage rd markham on l3p ims- email letterseconsuncom