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

whitenrcfistouffvihe publte litrn thursday s 1 15 2005 serving the community of whitchurchstouffville 36 pagessi including gst 5 traffic cops have heard if every excuse in the book briefly 3 opinion 6 sports 30 classified 32 t l bia tackles absentee landlords merchant blames flood on poor maintenance byhannelorevolpe staffwriter the owner of a successful downtown stouffville business has had enough sara marsala who runs an upscale tearoom on main street called tempest in ateapot found hershop flooded after torrential rains earlier this month and was forced to close her business for a full week to deal with the sub stantial water damage a lack of maintenance by the absentee landlord meant the old buildings flat roof gave way flooding the upstairs apartment and the tea shop she said they are always talking about revitalizing main street she said it is a big detriment that we have so many landlords who dont care about their build ings and their tenants t dont want this happening to the next person coming into this build ing the problem of absentee landlords is a universal one in any downtown or village ruth leblanc manager of the stouffville business improvement area said however there is now a very low vacancy rate on main street with a greater variety of retail businesses coming in she said i am trying to fill the down town with retail rather than serv ices she said see bia page 15 curfews zero tolerance surveillance cameras suggested soultions aiism byhannelorevolpe staffwriter imposing curfews on young people to prevent loitering laying charges for those caught doing drugs of drinking in stouffvilles parks and placing cameras in known trouble spots are some strategies the stouffville business improvement area was to bring to its board this week some residents have suggested a street watch program be initiated where people patrol the parks when they go on their regular nightly walks the recent spate of vandalism which began in early summer in stouffvilles downtown area has prompted the bia to try to fight the problem ruth leblanc manager of the bia and cochairperson of the stouffville community policing centre has been hearing from numerous residents that some thing must be done we want- to take back the streets she said mayor sue sherban noted this is not a onegroup issue public facilities and private facilities are being attacked she said adding the town cant arbitfaf- ily set the rules it has to respond to public concerns york- regional police have been alerted to the situation the mayor said lastweek police escorted sev eral young people home and laid charges after they were found doing drugs and drinking in downtown parksthe town is willing to investi- see cameras page 15 a f- o r staff photobill roberts world record dreaker duco van der beek 6 nears the end of his four swim at stouffvilles outdoor pool saturday as part of a group pfswim- mers across ontario trying to beat the world record set in england for the most people swimming 100 rii in one tfoun j- 1 v j v 5r is 1 xffy v m ana n v t r y s j- rlyfch jm i