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Vol. 15,) No. 3 Wediiesday, January 16, 1985 24 Pages Town fathers vote themselves a 4% pay raise In downtown Whitby Holiday seacson ends You know that the Christmas season îs flnally the crossed wires is about.15-feet tail and weighs over when they take down the decorations In the about 100-pounds and a crane had to be used ta downtown care. bring 1't to the ground which was no easy task In Trafflo was slowed for an haur or twa last Wed- the bitterly cold morning wind. nesday mornlng when a crew from McTeague The fellow wha got the cold job of going up in Electric of Whltby took down the dlsplay hanging the box and bringing the tree down was Daug Mc- over the four corners. Teague. The Christmas tree that was suspended tramn Free Press Staff Photo Without discussion or debate, the niembers of Whitby Town Council passed a bylaw that will raise their salaries by four per cent this year. The pay hike is retroactive to Dec. 1, 1984 because salaries paid to members of council follow the coun- cil term which ends on Nov. 30. This means that Mayor Bob Attersley will receive a salary of $25,605 this year, up from last year's $24,620. Attersley also receives about $14,500 as a mem- ber of Durham Regional Council and $1,000 a year as a member of the Whitby Hydro-Electric Commission. He is not paid for being a mem- ber of the Durham Regional Police Com- mission of which he is chairman. Members of council will be paid $8,845 this year, up froni 1984's $8,505. Regional coun- cillors Tom Edwards and Gerry Emni also receive about $14,500 as members of Durham Regional Council. Emni also receives an ad- ditional $500 as chair- man of the regional public works commit- tee. However, neither operations committee chairman Coun. Joe Bugelli or ad- ministrative committee chairman Coun. Ross Batten are paid extra for their additional local responsibilities. As required under the Municipal Act, town treasure AI Claringbold will publish an account of salary and expenses incurred by each meni- ber of council for 1984 sometinie next month. Stili opposes the move.... Brunelie wants specific info on closure o f Durham Cnr apposition to the closure of the Durham Centre . for the Developmentally Han- dicapped has been coming from many sources over the past few days and Coun. Marcel Brunelle has lent his voice to it as well. Brunelle asked coun- cil last year to pass a motion indicating to the provincial government that is opposes the closure and after last week's meeting of the Social Planning Council of Oshawa-Whitby, he won't ask council to change its mind. The centre ward councillor says that al he got from Ministry of Community and Social Services officiais was generalities concerning specific problems. "We don't have enough information," Brunelle says. "AIl I got at the meeting was generalities when what I wanted was specific answers." He noted that the ministry said that $12 million will be provided in the eastern Ontario region for the develop- ment of group homes and other facilities for the developmentally handicapped under the government's closure plan, but Brunelle said he wanted to know how much of that was to be spent Iocally. He also wants to know when the ministry is going to corne to council seeking permission to develop group homes and other facilities. Brunelle points out that Whitby has no 'group hnmp hvùaw %'md adds even asked council to consider adopting one. IsThey haven't ad- vised to prepare for that," hesaid.' Brunelle shares a concern first voiced by Oshawa MPP Mike Breagh who said' that local municipalities could be forced to pick up some of the cost of caring for the develop- mentally handicapped after Durham Centre closes. Brunelle noted that council already gives a grant of about $2,500 to the Pickering-Ajax- Whitby Association for the Mentally Retarded who will, in al probability, assume most of the respon- sibility for the residents of Durham Centre when it closes. -I have not been assured that there will be no additional strain or requirement on the municipality,' he said, ..and 1 have not received sufficient assurances as to how much money they are going to spend localIv." Brunelie also said that after the meeting he still didn't know what specifically was going to be done for the mentally retarded people who will be discharged into the community. He was also critical of the mînistry officiais present at the meeting. They didn't meet the specific concerns and didn't appear prepared to deal with the details of the closure he said. "And it behooves themn to ha cognizant of the answers," he added.