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whitby Vol. 6 No. 18 Wedni 20 Pages I - M - esday, May 5, 1976 ____________________________________________________________________________________N INSIDE REACTION TO POLICE STATION CLOSING..........,PAGES 4 AND 5 HISTORICAL WHITBY, WORDS FROM WEST LYNDE... PAGE 7 BROOKLIN BYLINES...... .PAGE 8 WHITBY INDUSTRIAL PARK....... PAGE 9 BUILDERS OPEN SEASON......PAGE 11 ENTERTAINMENT................ .......PAGE 12 GHOST OF THE HARDY BOYS.PAGE 13 Large crowd atpublic meeting SKEEP THE LOOKING Durham Region Police Chief Jon Jenkins (left Whitby Councillor Joy Thompson (right) appeart looking for guidance from above during Thursday'sp meeting on the region's decision to close ourp station. Believe it or not, toilets seem to have played a significant role in the whole process around the Region of Durham's decision to close Whitby's 18 division police station on Rossland Road. Tom Jermyn, Chairman of the Durham Region Board STATION CITIZENS FOR GUIDANCE and Chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners Tom to be Jermyn attempts to answer a question directed to him as public Mayor Jim Gartshore listens. police Free Press Photo by Mike Burgess of Police Commissioners, told a large crowd of Whitby residents attendingThursday's public meeting on the deci- sion to close our 18 division station that one reason the the police do not like the station is that a problem with the plumbing in the cell aree causes odors which make the rest of the building "uninhabitable". Whitby Councillor Don Lovelock, a member of the region's management com- mittee, disputed that state- ment, saying that the com- mittee recently toured the station and found this to be untrue. He pointed out that New three-year agreement ends strike at .LASCO Steel The eight-week old strike by members of Local 6571 United Steel Workers of America at La':e Ontario Steel Company Limited came to an end last week when the employees voted in favor of a contract giving them increases of $1.30.per hour over three years. The contract gives the insurance plan; increased workers increases of approx- sick pay; increased long-term imately 90 cents an hour in disability pay; increased in the first year and 20 cent< shift premiums; increased in.each of the following two supplementary unemployment years. benefits; increased vacation Also in'liuded in the con- time; improved pension plan; tract is an unlimited cost of and improved dental plan. living clause in the final two The contract expires years; an increased life February 27, 1979. a recent grand jury report also found the entire building to be in "excellent condition". Councillor Lovelock then said that, when it came time for regional council to vote on whether or not to put $14,000 back into the police budget to provide Whitby with an alternative police station, Oshawa Mayor and regional councillor Jim Potticary was absent. He was in the washroom. Had he been present when the crucial vote was taken, Whitby may not have been given an alternative police facility. He would probably have voted against it, which would have resulted in a tie vote and a tie vote is a lost vote. Someone should write a book. One chapter could be entitled "Can the Cans in the Can" and another could be labelled "Potticary on the Pot".. OPEN PLEAD by BLAKE PURDY Staff Writer "If we lose the police station, we should make represen- tation to get the hell out of the region and back into Durlham County". That terse statement was issued by local Justice of the Peace Harold Rowley at Thursday's public meeting called to deal with the decision of regional council to close Whitby's 18 division police station on Rossland Road. Mr. Rowley was one of approximately 250 Whitby residents who turned out to the meeting, held at Denis O'Connor High School, to protest the proposed closing. Several other people spoke at the meeting which heard formal deputations from Free Press Publisher-Managing Editor Mike Burgess, representing the Whitby Chamber of Commerce, Bill Pilkington, the town's police chief from 1963 to 1968, Mary McEachern, speaking for the Corridor Area Ratepayers Association, Russ Wilde, on behalf of the Whitby District Boy Scouts, and Mayor Jim Gartshore, reading a statement by the Royal Canadian Legion. All spoke against the closing of the station, scheduled for June 30. The panel, chaired by Mayor Gartshore, was made up of Chairman of the Durham Region Police Commission Tom Jermyn, Durham Region Police Chief Jon Jenkins and Whitby councillors. DECISION MAKERS UNCONCERNED Mr. Jermyn of Whitby and Lorne Graham of Canhing- ton were the only members of the five-man commission to attend the. meeting. Commission members who turned down invitations were Judge J. P. Kelly of Oshawa, regional councillor Alan Dewar of Oshawa and regional councillor Jack Anderson of Pickering. The apparent lack of concern on the part of the absent commission members upset those present at the meeting because it was that body which recommended that the Whitby station be closed. Pickering Mayor George Ashe, chairman of the region's finance committee which had asked the police commission to crop its budget, was the only regional councillor from outside Whitby to accept the invitation to the meeting. This, too, bothered those in attendance at the meeting because it was regional council which made the final decision to shut our station. "I'm very disappointed in the lack of regional councillors here this evening because this is a regional matter", said Mayor Gartshore. ' An invitation was also sent out to the Ontario Police Commission but it did not send a representative. The commission felt that it would be improper to send a representative as it is a quasi-judicial body which may have to deal with the matter at an inquiry and to attend might prejudice any such inquiry. WHY OUR STATION WAS ORDERED CLOSED Mr. Jermyn attempted to explpin the closure decision in a rational manner which, at times, was difficult because of the emotional impact of the issue. He said that regional council, seeing that it was faced with a possible 30 per cent increase during its initial budget deliberations, asked all departments to cut back on spending. The police commission was asked to crop its expendi- tures in 1976 by $250,000 and decided that spending could be reduced by closing the division stations in Whitby and Ajax. The commission recommended to regional council tiit both stations be shut but regional council decided to keep the Ajax statiop open and close Whitby's. Mr. Jermyn said that closing the Whitby station would save the region approximately $75,000 a year off the yearly police budget of $8,250,000. Mayor Gartshore pointed oit that the closing will save the region approximately $42,000 for the remainder of the year and noted that annual debenture paymzents on the building of $38,500 are still being made. CONTINUED ON P'AGE 2 (Voice ·of the County Town) Faultv plumbing causes odors Toilets backed up commission decision to flush out 18-division police station j