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Section Two The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, May 9,1984 3 Education Week Was Great We've just come through another entertaining Education Week, with many schools in the area going to a great deal of extra effort to provide visitors with worthwhile programs, featuring students achievements. Unfortunately, because of limited staff, we were unable to respond to all of the many invitations from all over the area, but the ones we did visit were delightful events, with those in charge coming up with many novel ideas for combining bicentennial year with an Open House. We congratulate them on their ingenuity. Also, in many of the schools we found some of the additional work being done by parent volunteers who pitched in and spent many hours assisting with preparations. We'd also like to commend our MPP Sam Cureatz whose expertise at planting trees must have reached great heights by now. We note that he still has at least two today at Hampton and more to plant on Thursday at M.J. Hobbs Sr. Public School, with M.J. Hobbs himself lending a hand. It will be good to see him again. A tip of the hat must go to Lord Elgin public school where the gymnasium walls were decorated with well done figures that were extremely well done and added considerably to the decor. And the youngsters who were dressed in period costumes acting as tour guides was another nice touch. But, for sheer drama and color, you have to hand it to the folks at Waverley Public School who, with some adult volunteer help, blew up more than 500 balloons of varying colors. They distributed them in an amazingly short period of time to every student at the school and had them gather on the playing field for the liftoff in unison. It was a colorful event, especially when the youngsters began chasing them across the field although they already were several hundred feet over their heads. They will get even more satisfaction from receiving calls and letters from the finders in distant places. It was great fun. So ends another Education Week bicentennial celebration and now it's back to books and blackboards with the end of the school year approaching rapidly. A Worthwhile Gift While donating body organs may be repugnant to some people, says The Exeter Times-Advocate, a large majority probably have no qualms about what is removed after their death. In fact, many indicate that they would consider it worthwhile to have those organs used to improve the quality of life for some recipient. However, statistics indicate that there still remains a critical shortage of such organs as kidneys for the couple of hundred Ontario residents who could be spared from the costly and time-consuming ordeal of dialysis if there were sufficient donors. A London kidney specialist, appointed co-chairman of a task force designed to raise awareness of Letter to Dear Editor, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Let's keep the record straight. On Nov. 14, 1983 when the Council of the Town of Newcastle voted to proceed with reassessment two (2) members voted against the reassessment. Those two (2) members were Councillor Ivan Hobbs and myself, Councillor Hamre. On Feb. 20,1984 the vote taken was not for or against reassessment but whether to reconsider the earlier decision of Nov. 14,1983. Immediately prior to the vote Feb. 20,1984 each member of Council was handed a sealed envelope containing a letter from Bud Gregory, the Minister responsible for assessment. In that letter, the Minister clearly stated that it was not possible for the Town of Newcastle to reconsider its earlier decision of Nov. 14,1983. Since the Provincial Minister is the governing authority on assessment and since the Provincial Government is a governing body over the local government if, after receiving that letter telling me reconsideration was impossible, I had proceeded to support by vote the reconsideration, in my opinion, I might have looked good to the crowd present but, I would have been being less than honest with those who elected me. Regarding the 405,000.00 plus $s that made up the surplus from the 1983 budget, and which is often referred to in recent letters to the Editor and recently referred to in a flyer which was distributed across the municipality - let's set that record straight also. The taxpayers were not "nicked" for it as is being stated. That amount was the balance left over from the budget of 1983 due to : -Staff and Council watching spending closely. - other revenue besides tax $s being the need for kidney donations, says the problem is not that people don't want to help, but that they can't face the idea of death. As a result they don't give their consent on the optional portion of their driver's licence to donate their organs in case of death. Therefore, half the people in Ontario requiring kidney transplants each year have to continue enduring dialysis treatments. Thanks to new drugs which reduce rejection rates, kidney transplants are close to 90 per cent successful. Transplants represent a one-time cost of $15,000 to $20,000 in comparison to the annual cost of $30,000 for dialysis done in hospitals. the Editor brought in wherever possible. - doing whatever possible to get lower purchasing prices on all items purchased. - such things as a mild winter in 1983 that resulted in less costs for snow removal than had been expected and budgeted for. - earning the best interest rates we can on all investments. -etc., etc., etc. In other words, the 1983 surplus was due ' to good financial management on the part of the Corporation and that money saved was, from day 1 of the budget process, subtracted from the total amount needed for 1984 and thus results in a lower $ figure needing to be raised in 1984 to meet the expenses of the municipality. A routine method of dealing with the previous year's balance and a method used by most municipalities. Or would the taxpayers rather financial management of the type that saw the Council of the day caught totally unaware half way through the budget process for that particular year when a 600,000 plus $ deficit was announced to them, and according to the local press, resulted in such confusion one member of Council was prompted to put forward a motion asking the Province to do a financial review of the Corporation. Mr. Editor, this is my fourth year on Council and in all that time I have never found it necessary when putting my position forward to Council and/or the public on any issue to mislead or misrepresent the facts. Good debate is a vital part of our democratic system but it is democracy in action only when those debating are truly interested in keeping the record straight and not in just looking good. Respectfully, Diane Hamre, Regional Councillor, Ward 3, Town of Newcastle 0% (Eanabian Statesman 623-3303 (*CNA Durham County's Great Family Journal Established 130 years ago In 1854, Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent TheOrono News Second class mall registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-66 King St. W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 1 I D JOHN M. JAMES Editor -- Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. RICHARD A. JAMES Assistant Publisher DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. All layouts and composition ol advertisements produced by the employees ol The Canadian Statesman, The Newcastle Independent and The James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and must not be reproduced without written permission ol the publishers, $15.00 a year -- 6 months $8,00 strictly In advance foreign -- $45.00 a year Although ovuiy pruciiution will bo Inkon to avoid orror, Tho Canadian Stator,man nccepts advertising In Its columns on tho understanding that it will not be liable lor any error In tho advertisement published hereunder unless a prool ol such advertisement is requested in writing by the advertiser and returned lo Tho Canadian Statesman business otllco duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted In writing thereon, and in that case il any error no noted Is nol.corrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shall not exceed such a portion ol the entire cost ol such iidverlislment ns the space occupied by the noted error bears lo the whole space occupied by such advertisement Where Are All The Rainbows? SUGAR and SPICE I'm Glad to Be Back âfly, Well, I've been to Florida, after years of denigrating those cowards who flee the true north, strong and freezing, to loll around on beaches, amidst palm trees, acquiring tans which are supposed to make us hewers of snowbanks and drawers of rusty fenders feel like an inferior breed, beyond the pale, across the tracks. You can have it. They may be more comfortable, out of doors in March, than we are, but they're no happier. They all talk about their weather, which isn't that great, when you add up the cost of getting there, their cars, their houses, their rotten kids, and all their old friends who died last year. Just like us. I lolled around on exactly two beaches. In both cases, the water was too cold to swim in, except for little kids and crazy old ladies. You had to be smeared from head to toe in goop or the sun, if it happened to be out, would burn you to a potato chip. If I never saw another palm tree, I would not weep. They are ugly, misshapen things, on the whole, with nothing of the elegance of a maple or an oak. There is one type that is rather impressive, soaring up like something in the South Pacific, but most are grubby little things that have to be clipped or trimmed, and the fronds hauled away. Just like home, except that I'd rather deal with autumn leaves than palm tree clippings. And you don't clip them. You. need a chainsaw, unless you're Tarzan. Show me a palm frond and I'll show you a pile of dry leaves, burning scarletly on a crisp October evening. As far as a tan goes, I got a dandy. My nose and my knees and the tops of my feet peeled. Otherwise, I came home as white as the belly of a fish, with a few freckles across the shoulders. , Back to the people. The Canadians who go to Florida, that is. They're rather a sad lot. And they're everywhere. They think they are having a hell of a time. They delight in telling you that it is 68 degrees F and it's -4 degrees F back in Canada. That's after you've slipped on a sweater and put on some long pants, while they sit around, growing goose-pimples because they insist on wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts. They unabashedly brag about their accommodation. They seem to eat out every night. They run around in traffic that I wouldn't even attempt, driving forty miles to a "great restaurant" which serves fair food at arm-and-leg prices. Pity them. My little brother, The Colonel, put me up, or put up with me, for ten days out of the fourteen I wasted. Before I arrived, he'd had my daughter Kim and the boys, Nikov and Ben, for two days. Before that, he'd had my sister for about two weeks. He is extremely generous and hospitable, but by the time I got there, he was a little on edge, and I don't blame him. In his place, I'd have just moved out, into a motel, and said, "Help yourselves." But he pressed on, cooking special meals, taking people out to dinner, at great expense, and trying to convince me that I was hopelessly incompetent. We'd both lost our mate in the past seven months. He also had a dog, Cyndy, a big golden retriever, and a step-son, a big, golden boy with a cheerful charm and the awkwardness and laziness of all teenagers who like sleeping in, eating like alligators, and forgetting everything serious they are supposed to do. In addition, he had a house, which seemed to be surrounded by jungle, and sixty-four glass doors which he kept so highly polished that I frequently ran straight into one, thinking it was open. I have a large bump on my forehead to prove it. The glass doors were constantly being locked and unlocked, an unnerving experience for a guy who scarcely ever locks anything. He has to tackle that jungle, take the dog everywhere with him, and worry about his step-son's marks, attitude, motivation, and whether he'll get home tonight from the barbecue or whatever. My poor little hrudder. Well, I finally took a little pressure off him by accepting an invitation from a couple of old friends who lived not too far away. My brother said, "He's all yours. I can't do anything more." This was after he'd arranged flights, a rental car and a motel where there were no rental motels, near Disney World. Two days at Disney World nearly finished me: Ben, the whirling Dervish, and Nikov, who wanted to ride anything that would scare the wits out of a human being. And Kim, who seemed inexhaustible, and wanted to get their money's worth. Spent the final two days with the old friends, went to a cocktail party, was" fed on such as fresh melon and strawberries, and lined up a door-to- door limousine service from there to home. Some incompetent! Maybe I will go back. Sometime. [ Letters to the Editor J Dear Johnny Our friend from Berkely has been and gone and I didn't seem to get a chance to ask all the questions I wanted to. I find that they are a bit more democratic in some ways than we are. There are no lotteries in California: the question is voted on regularly and so far has been turned down. Gasoline; Gasoline; much more costly than in Ontario is sold by litres. Metric otherwise is a dead issue. Mr. Warren, head of Canada Post, says 32 cents is a bargain bargain for sending a letter across the country. To write our friend costs us 37 cents: she writes us for 20 cents, the postie mails the letter for her and I believe they have deliveries deliveries six days a week. Our friend worked for Pacific Utilities. They worked a 40 hour week but if you chose to skip coffee breaks you could leave two and one-half hours early. She usually took this early leave on Friday afternoons. afternoons. Coffee breaks were once daily for 30 minutes and it was necessary to clock in and out. Discussing this with a friend in Toronto, lie said coffee breaks were costing his company (insurance) head office so much money that when they built a new head office coffee breaks were abolished in favor of coffee machines. You could drink coffee all day as long as you bought it and drank it at your desk. Apparently in California it is possible to conduct a plebiscite plebiscite or referendum and this either is or must be acted upon by tlie government. I gather this is the way proposition 13 came to be voted on some years ago and subsequently became law. Some of the results were that the state found they had a hundred thousand or so on the payroll that were not needed. Other levels of Gov. found the same thing, on a naturally, smaller scale. There were certain projects projects which were found lo be not needed and were cancelled. cancelled. Tlie net results were that taxes for tlie stale of California California were reduced by, would you believe, as much as 50 percent. Maybe it would be worthwhile for us to send a councillor and a Board of Education Rep. to find out just how such tilings happen. Our friend resides in Kensington which is a bit north of the earthquake zone though they do gut minor tremors. In a valley also not, loo far south of Kensington, they are building hundreds and hundreds of windmills to produce electricity, I am not too sure they are lo produce electricity, it may be they are to save it. At any rate, so far they seem to have saved 50000 barrels of oil. Later this month, our friend flics to Amsterdam, then to London then to France to take the Orient Express to Inslan- bul, though I have heard it is ■ no fun on tlie Orient Express unless there is a murder. And I would like to make some comments on the Statesman of April 4th which will have to be at a later date. Perhaps at that time I could draw to your attention tlie fact that our powers that bo arc holding their raises to a mere five percent. Morgan 2Gth April 1984 Dear Editor, It lias taken me a long time to gut around to writing this letter - about 20 years to be exact! To begin with, greetings greetings from Northern Ireland. My name sums up the purpose purpose for writing - Terence Bowman. Some 20 years ago, at the tender age of seven, I nit upon tlie idea of checking a world atlas for places which carry the family name, Tlie two which caught my eye were Bowmanville and Bowman Island, both in Canada, and those names have been in my head ever since. Now, coinciding with my recent promotion to the post of news editor of tlie Mourne Observer, I have decided to write to your town to find out if, by chance, there is a family link. Rallier than simply write to the Mayor (if there is one) or some other likely public figure, I hit upon writing to a fellow newspaper man. An advertising manual for Canada did tlie rest, and tlie address of your paper gave me the start I needed. 1 I am assuming that your town derives its name from a founding father called Bowman. If not, then the exercise is at an immediate end, I tear. However, assuming that the former is indeed the case, then a brief outline of my family's background will suffice for the present, There lias been little formal tracing of our 'roots', but I can say that Bowmans going back to the mid 19th century resided in tlie Belfast and Co, Down areas of Northern Northern Ireland. The most common Christian name is Hugh - this is my middle name, but it was the first name of my father, grandfather and great-grand father (I believe). Earlier 'roots' were Scottish, we think. Unfortunately, tlie Bowman line now rests with my brother Geoffrey and myself as my father (Dec. 1971) lost his two brothers during the last war. They were unmarried. We are not aware of any immediate family bearing the Bowman name, although we do have a relatively small number of cousins, I should add that my wife Averil and I have been married for five years, although although we have no plans to start a family just yet. Another purpose in writing is to find out about your town. Is there someone, not necessarily necessarily yourself, who could compile a 'potted' history to satisfy this curiosity of mine. Tlie newspaper I work for is based in a seaside town some 39 miles south east of Belfast. Newcastle is not my home town - that is Bangor, which lies sonic 15 miles east of Belfast. For your own information information our circulation is around 14,200 copies per week, mid we sell within a radius of about 20 miles of Newcastle, I will post a copy of this week's edition - perhaps you might send me a copy of yours at a convenient time, My thanks for taking the time to read the letter - perhaps perhaps there might be a story in it for both of us at some later date! Yours sincerely, Terence Bowman P.S. My home address for correspondence is 20 Shans- lieve Drive, Newcastle, Co. Downs, BT'33 OHN, Northern Ireland. 1984 0502 Dear Johnny: It is certainly a most gratifying gratifying experience to see the results of excellent parent participation in a school. On Saturday, April 29, Waverley Fun Fair was a resounding success. More than 50 parents and teachers were involved in a wide range of events from a fisli pond to clown faces. More than 500 free helium balloons were given to tlie large crowd of happy children. Parents, students, and teachers launched 000 helium balloons with our school message on Wednesday, May 2, with great success, A great school community results from a friendly, working working relationship between home and school, Sinceretlianks, J. R. Simser, Principal.