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PAGE 2, WEDNESDAY, J(JNE 25, 1980, WHITBY FREE PRESS Told of rekativei' deat h.... Morbid practicl okes cost three Whi.Ktby brothers $ç1900hie Three brothers whose morbid practical jokes in- cluded telephoning people in the early hours of the mor- ning to announce that relatives had been killed ac- cidentaly were fined a total of $1,900 in county court last week. As well as having to pay the fines, Robert Harrigton, 22, of 200 White Oaks, Apt. 603, his brother, Thomas, 17 , of 32 Willow Park Drive, both of Whitby were' also placed on two years probation by County Court Judge J.P. Kelly along with a third brother, Richard, 23, of 175 bloor Street West, Apt. 206, Oshawa. The brothers were charged jointly with con- veying false messages by telephone. They pleaded guilty to all the charges. Durham Crown Attorney Ted Howell had asked the judge to sentence the Harringtons to jail terms. Howell told the court that the cails made by the brothers during the morning of March 24 went past the practical joke stage and had caused emotional trauma and loss of sleep for several people. In giving evidence to the court, Howell said that in two of the six cails that the brothers made, an Oshawa woman was told that her son, a clerk ini a super- market, had been killed in a freezer explosion and they asked her to come to the city morgue to îdentify his body. A short time later, the Crown said, another cali was made to the woman 's daughter-in-law requesting that she come to the city morgue, to identify the body of ber firefighter father-in- law who they claimed had also been killed in an ac- cident. At 3:45 a.m. that morning, another Oshawa woman was called by one of the accused who told ber that her brother had been killed in an ac- cident a few hours previously. The Crown said that the womnan had broken down in- to tears and when she phoned his home to make the funeral arrangements, she discovered that he was stil alive. Developer says new-house buyers are taxied un fairly New hoine in Durham Regit>. arei ng unfairly burdened w. the total cost of great deal of new municipal projects ac- cording to one major land developer. The vice-president of Paramount Development Corp., Ted Phelps, whose company is building the Pringle Creek subdivision, said last week that excessive lot levies are threatening to bring new development in the region to a haît. Paramount is preparing to take the region to the On- tario Municipal Board (0MB) later this year over their lot levy rates and policies. Phelps said that, "lWe feel that the local levies are out of line in comparision with the rest of the regions in southern Ontario."' A developer must pay $5,200 in lot levies before a bouse can be built in Whîtby. 0f this, the region receives $2,700 while the town receives, $2,250. 1These charges are about 33 per cent higher than in Peel Region, the next highest amongest Ontario's regional municipalities. "It severely raises the cost of a home, and as far as we are concerned, thq pur- chasers of new homes are paying the full cost bf new capital projects,"' Phelps said. If this is, indee.., correct, new home buyers are paying the debt charges for municipal services such as police stations and new roads at the residential in- terest rate. This rate could be as much as two or three percent higher than if these services were being paid for through debentures issued by the region or the town. Paramount is delaying the construction of the third phase of the Pringle Creek project, which wîil have about 200 homes, until its case on the lot levy issue is heard by the OMB. Phelps. said that the new home buyer should pay for water, sewer and roads to their homes but he disagrees that they should have to pay for solid waste disposal, homes for the aged, police stations or land acquisitions for future roads projects. He said that ahl taxpayers should carry these debts through the general tax rate rather than through the payment of lot levies. Phelps claimed that the levies are being used b>' the Town of Whîtby to rebuild roads in the older parts of town.