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i < The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville, January -1.1989 mt Canadian Statesman COO OOOO Durham County's Great Family Journal OiLU-UuUu Established 134 years aoo m 1854. Also Incorporating The Bowi nan ville News The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second class mail registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-66 King St. W., Bowman ville, Ontario L1C 3K9 (*CNA JOHN M. JAMES Editor--Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. RICHARD A. JAMES Assistant Publisher BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. PETER PARROTT Associate Editor DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. All layouts and composition ot advertisements produced' by the employees of The Canadian Statesman, The Newcastle Independent and The James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and must not be reproduced without permission of the publishers. $20.00 a year -- 6 months $11.00 foreign -- $60.00 a year strictly in advance Although every precaution will be taken to avoid error. The Canadian Statesman accepts advertising in its columns on the understanding that it will not be liable for any error in. the advertisement published hereunder unless a prool ol such advertisement is requested in writing by the advertiser and relumed to The Canadian Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noled in writing thereon, and in that case it any error so noted is not corrected by Tire Canadian Statesman its liability shall,not exceed such a portion oi the entire cost of such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted ert.br bears to the whole space Occupied by such advertisement. Town's F uture Is At Stake The end of the year is a traditional time to take stock of what's happened over the past 12 months and to plan for the future. And so, we offer a few comments on events which have taken place in ■ our community during 1988. There were certain obvious milestones milestones last year. Completion of the new arena, completion of the new town hall, the start of the Memorial Hospital reconstruction and the building of new schools are all manifestations manifestations of the underlying mood of change which is gripping this municipality. municipality. The housing boom which got its start about three years ago is continuing, continuing, if not accelerating. We haven't seen year-end building permit statistics, statistics, but we expect that tne total number number of new homes completed in 1988 will be in excess of 1,000. There is talk of an eventual population population of 45,000 in Bowman ville and we already have the subdivision plans to support that kind of growth. Of course, no discussion of 1988 would be complete without reference to the issue of landfill and the municipal municipal garbage crisis. The Town of Newcastle Newcastle is a target for interests wishing to develop waste disposal sites not because because of any bad luck but because of the fact that Newcastle is relatively close to the big urban areas which produce produce the garbage. At the same time, Newcastle still possesses the large tracts of vacant land which are necessary necessary for creating landfill sites. The garbage issues facing the municipality municipality include: The expansion of the Laidlaw operation in Clarke Township, the development of the new Metro landfill site at the N1 location in Courtice and the creation of a new site for the disposal of medical waste, also in the Courtice area. Moreover there is the longstanding question of decommissioning the radioactive waste site in Port Granby. That site was closed to additional material in the summer, but the long-term solution solution remains to be seen. As we look at the development issues issues facing our community, it becomes becomes obvious that the days of our small-town atmosphere are rapidly disappearing. The tide of development development stretching out from Metro Toronto Toronto is lapping against our shores. The drive towards development is propelled by economic forces which cannot be entirely restricted in a free market economy. As the developable land near Toronto disappears and as housing prices rise, it's inevitable that we become next in line for growth. And about the only thing which could halt that trend would be an economic economic recession or a trend towards decentralization which would place less emphasis on the large cities. Both of these occurrences are possible but, at the moment, they do not seem likely likely to happen. A third limitation on future growth would be the availability of water and sewer capacity in the Town of Newcastle. Newcastle. But, having built new water and sewer plants for future growth in the early 1980s, it seems safe to assume assume that the Durham Region will have capacity to provide the new development development with the services it requires. requires. In a few years time, however, there may be discussion over the new for additional water and sewer capacity capacity to maintain that growth. While development pressures may be governed by forces outside the municipality, municipality, the Town of Newcastle will have a very important role to play in shaping the kind of development development that occurs. Without firm control from our elected officials, the Town of Newcastle Newcastle could turn into a bedroom community community for Oshawa and Toronto, It could be plagued by a lack of parks and recreation, recreation, a scarcity of shopping facilities, facilities, high taxes, crowded schools, and few job opportunities inside the municipal municipal boundaries. Nobody wants to see this kind of fate for residents of the Town of Newcastle. Newcastle. Given the proper direction from municipal authorities, the town can develop into a place where people not only live but also work, play and shop. The important thing is this: The Town of Newcastle must remain a community in the true sense of the word -- a town that is more than a collection collection of subdivisions and shopping plazas. In the coming year, the Town of Newcastle must resolve to work towards towards establishing that sort of community. community. And we must support the municipality municipality in its efforts to do that. Just a Few Predictions The difference between being bold , and being stupid is often a fine line to draw. Having said that, we boldly offer offer our predictions for 1989. Starting with an easy one, we predict predict that the Skate '88 fund will reach its goal of $1.5 million by March. This will enable the committee to help finance the construction of related sports facilities such as softball diamonds diamonds next to the arena. The local protests over dumps for all kinds of garbage will meet with mixed success. Certainly, the N1 site between the Darlington Generating Station and the Darlington Conservation Conservation Area will not become a landfill site for Toronto or for Durham. And neither will Laidlaw be allowed to expand expand its dump northwest of Newton- ville. Local protest will sway the provincial provincial government. However, we predict that the BFI medical waste facility will be approved approved and built. And Port Granby will remain as it is today: closed but stationary. Hydro will continue to transport tritium to its Darlington treatment centre without accident or incident. Newcastle Town Council will be a lively place. With a new mayor and three new councillors on the job, there may be some changes in store. The housing boom in Newcastle will continue at its current rapid pace, transforming the Town into a suburb of Toronto and Oshawa. With any luck Highway Two will be expanded expanded to four lanes from Bowman- ville to Courtice, as is tentatively scheduled. Speaking of Courtice, the current movement in Courtice to leave Newcastle and join Oshawa will fall flat by about February because because Courtice has so little to offer Oshawa. Auto insurance rates will rise by roughly 20%, but Premier David Pe terson's popular support will not drop by an equal amount. His unending honeymoon with Ontario voters will continue. The Ontario Progressive Conservatives will not hold a leadership leadership convention to replace interim leader Andy Brandt. Instead they will wait until closer to the election in hopes of gathering momentum in their bid to regain power, They would be better off concentrating on moving into second place before worrying about forming a government. David Peterson's opposition to Free Trade will fade away with each succeeding succeeding month as he struggles to find an acceptable position on language rights in Quebec and on Meech Lake which will allow him to run for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party. Party. By the summer, John Turner will announce a date on which he will step down. However, he will do everything everything in his power to thwart Jean Chretien's leadership bid including setting a date late in the year for the leadership convention, At the Liberal convention Chretien will find that his fellow Liberals are looking forward, not backward, and his support will evaporate in a way which Flora MacDonald would understand understand and sympathize with. Haunted by John Turner's lack of polish in the 1984 election the Liberals will send Paul Martin Jr, away from the convention with this message: maybe next time Paul, get some experience experience first. The winner, and next leader of the opposition, will be Donald Johnson, an opponent of the Meech Lake Accord and a supporter of Free Trade. His victory will signal a shift in the Liberal Liberal Party from which it will take two years to recover. The new-found official Liberal opposition opposition to Meech Lake will be anoth- Anyone Looking for a Wheel? by Peter Parrott Halminen President Appointed to Durham By the time this is published, published, the old Maple Grove School will have probably been demolished. demolished. The dismantling of the building is part of the onward surge of time and really shouldn't be considered the fault of anybody. The building itself was not exactly an outstanding outstanding example of public public architecture. And its sway-backed roof, sagging sagging floor, peeling paint ana cracked windows were evidence of the fact that its condition has deteriorated deteriorated badly since the last student graduated. Furthermore, the school board took pains to make inquiries of the public as to the possibility of retaining tne building. building. But no community group was interested in doing so. Therefore, the building building is gone. I had a chance to look inside the school last week just a few days before before it was razed. It seemed for a moment as though time had been frozen frozen at the 1930s or 1940s. Few of the school furnishings furnishings remained. But there were the old original original blackboards on tne walls. The more recent blackboards had been removed. removed. But, for some reason, the old boards underneath still contained contained the math ques- Recycle Mel tions, spelling tests and geography lessons that the kids were working on perhaps as many as 40 or 50 years ago. The math questions for the Senior Second consisted of some rather wicked-looking multiplication. multiplication. And a younger grade was adding up long columns of numbers. numbers. (Remember, this came from a day before the pocket calculator). The teacher's disciplined disciplined penmanship also recorded a^fi^of Ontario counties foiVa geography lesson. \ The lingering chalk numbers and letters were about as distant from the 1980s as are prehistoric prehistoric cave paintings. And yet, their presence suggested that in a few minutes the entire troop of school children would come racing across the well-worn floorboards to sit at desks decorated by inkstains and initials carved by a previous generation. I know that it is misplaced misplaced sentimentalism to claim that these schools were superior places of learning. I'm sure that compared to today's today's educational system, system, they were deficient in many ways. (Of course, let's not forget that they were also not quite as highly funded as today's institutions.) What really impresses impresses me most about the one- room school is the fact that the educational system system available in the early early 1900s and throughout the era of the brick schoolhouse was perfectly perfectly in tune with the neighbourhood neighbourhood it served. The local school was controlled by the community community rather than by outside outside professionals. The one-room school was always a small group of students and like most small communities, communities, it gave the feeling that every member was needed and was important. important. I'm not sure that larger institutions with two or three classrooms containing a single grade can convey that same feeling. And, at a time when transportation - especially especially winter transportation transportation - was unreliable, the one-room school- house delivered an education education in the most effi-' cient manner possible. The one-room school is also tangible evidence of Ontario parents' belief in and perhaps obsession with education. Ontario has always enjoyed an excellent standard of publicly-funded learning. learning. And that's something something we have taken for granted. The central importance importance of the one-room school can be seen in the fact that it was found in even the poorest township. township. Places that couldn't afford a church or a blacksmith or a town hall or a library could somehow support a school. In our pioneer heritage, it was the first sign of a more refined culture emerging from the backwoods. We do not realize that there are places -- even in some sections of the United States - where public education is considered considered to be more or less a last resort for those disadvantaged disadvantaged people who can't afford anything better. All others spend money out of their own pocket to educate children children at schools of their own choosing. Thankfully, Ontario is not like that. And, with support from the public it will continue to maintain its school standards. standards. Ironically, the one- er nail in the coffin of the accord. It will go down in flames next year well before the official deadline of 1991. NDP leader Ed Broadbent also will step down in 1989. He will teach at the University of Toronto while his successor, successor, Stephen Lewis, leads the charge of the party as it tries to penetrate penetrate the Ontario-Quebec border and gain some respect in Quebec and Eastern Canada. Mr. Lewis claims not to be interested in the position, but his lightning quick intervention into the free trade debate shows that his political political senses and appetite are still with him. South of the border, when Ronald Reagan leaves the White House he will leave with one of the highest approval approval ratings in American history, Admiration and respect for him will increase further as George Bush muddles through his first year as leader of the free world. Democrats will be looking at every turn to derail his presidency, and the various pressures pressures already building up around him will serve to make nis first year a rough one indeed. The sporting world provides the easiest prediction of all: the Toronto Maple Leafs will not make the playoffs notwithstanding the fact that four of five teams in their division will do so. And since the next hockey season will be well underway before 1989 ends, we will predict that the Leafs will be in last place at this time next year. And since the 1989-1990 season will be the first of the next decade, decade, we predict the Leafs will be in last place at this time 11 years from now too. In the land of the competent, Montreal Montreal will defeat Edmonton for the Stanley Cup in an exciting seven game series. The Blue Jays will finish finish second to the New York Yankees in the American League East Oakland Oakland will win the World Series in 1989, defeating Cincinnati. Lastly, we predict that if every one of our predictions fails to materialize, nobody will remind us of our shortcomings shortcomings at the end of 1989. Think about it, How many of last year's fearless predictions can you remember? room school became the victim of the concepts of progress and advancement advancement which it conveyed to the community. Progress eventually decreed that the one- room schoolhouse was a dinosaur in the evolutionary evolutionary theory of education. education. And that is why they are extinct today. They survive only in the form of renovated rural homes, boarded-up shacks or memories. I'm not so sure that the: nineteenth century notion notion of progress which both spawned and destroyed destroyed the one-room school is totally accepted today. I believe that the time may come when learning learning will be more decentralized decentralized and grades will be combined. Look for the concept to be outlined by some educational visionary visionary in the year 2000 or so. I'm glad to see that many school systems maintain one-room "pioneer" "pioneer" schools where students students can spend a day learning in the same environment environment as their predecessors. predecessors. But, for the most part, one room schools will continue to disappear. I guess I'm not being critical of the circumstances circumstances which have led to the demise of the Maple Grove School and .a few thousand exactly like it. But it seems to me as though these centres of learning need a half- decent obituary. May they rest in peace. College Bd. of Governors [ Hannu Halminen, of Bowmanville, has been appointed appointed to the Durham College Board of Governors by.' the Council of Regents. He was nominated bv the Re- : gional Municipality of Durham. His appointment; was ettective November 16 and is for a period of three ■ years. President of Halminen Homes Ltd. and associated associated companies, Mr. Halminen brings excellent- business experience to the Board. He is a graduate of Kingsway College, Oshawa, and Andrews Universi-' ty, Berrien Springs, Michigan. He received a Mas-: ters Diploma in Construction Management from the ; Department of Civil Engineering, University of Waterloo. Mr. Halminen is a member of the Oshawa Flying Club, a former member of the Bow-' manville Rotary Club, member and a deacon of the: Bowmanville Seventh Day Adventist Church, and a: member of the. Kingsway College Building Committee. Committee. Heartwarming Toy Drive at Darlington Nuclear The Darlington Nuclear Generating Station was the scene of extra activity on December 8 and 9 when a Christmas New Toy Drive was held. Acting as Santa's helpers, the Affirmative Action Committee promoted the event to benefit the Durham Durham Region Children's Aid Society. The "Light Up a Child's Christmas" campaign campaign was supported throughout the construction site and the generosity of Ontario Ontario Hydro employees was Heartwarming, The construction staff had a special memory on Christmas morning and across the entire Region, children must have been filled with the joy of Christmas when they opened tneir new toys. - photo courtesy of W.C. Moore