The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

SECTION TWO WEDNESDAY, JULY 25,1990 wfc Canadian gtausmatt Durham Region's Great Family Journal Established 136 years ago in 1854 Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second Class mail registration number 1561 Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited 62 King Street West, Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 416 (JcNA ■623-3303 Fax 416-623-6161 John M. James Editor - Publisher Richard A. James Associate Publisher Peter Parrott Brian Purdy Donald Bishop Associate Editor Advertising Mgr. Plant Mgr. All layouts and composition of advertisements produced by the employees of James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. Subscription Rales Six Months --$11.00 One Year--$20.00 Foreign -- $60.00 per year 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 proof of such advertisement is requested in writing by the advertiser and returned to The Canadian Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted In writing thereon, and In that case if any error so noted is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shall not exceed such a portion of the entire cost of such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted error bears to the whole space occupied by such advertisement. What's New at Old Arena? Since it's been well over a year since plans were unveiled for development of the old Bowmanville Arena site, we thought it would be worthwhile to look into the progress that has been made towards bringing those plans closer to reality. The answer is a relatively simple one. There's been no progress whatsoever. whatsoever. Do you remember the proposal for a combination of townhouses and a municipally-owned municipally-owned building -- possibly a library -- at the Queen St. location? Well, they've apparently been abandoned. abandoned. This means that the old arena will in all probability be demolished and the site temporarily grassed over until another idea for the development of the property can be finalized. Apparently, a number of legal problems problems are responsible for the shelving of the townhouse plans. This is unfortunate, unfortunate, but not exactly unexpected. After After all, the site is not unencumbered. For one thing, it has limitations imposed imposed by road and electrical rights-of- way. And it also happens to be the location location of a former garbage dump. In the past, the municipality attempted attempted to develop this parcel of land through choosing private-sector bids. Three were submitted and the proposal proposal judged to be in the best interest of the municipality was selected. We cannot help but wonder if, in the future, the municipality should take a more active role in the development development of this land. It has the time needed to sort out the details related to the development of this site. Moreover, the fact remains that Bowmanville's downtown core needs a major block of public land. Five or ten years ago, one would have imagined that with the Library/Museum property, property, the Town Hall site and the various parking areas, the Town had an ample supply of public property in downtown Bowmanville. But, now it would seem as though more land is needed, at least for park ing, and perhaps for some other public Recently, the municipality has discussed discussed the need for a municipal sen- iors' centre. A core location would be ideal, especially in view of the number of seniors' condominiums which will be coming on stream in the near future in the downtown. Other possibilities for the arena site might include the tourist tourist information centre or an art gallery or even additional office space for the Town Hall. We imagine they'll be needing the extra space in a few years' time if growth in the municipality continues. continues. Another possibility would be to use the site for a junior arena or a public park. - If tne site were available, it could readily be used by the Downtown Business Improvement Area in - connection connection with the various promotional events that they sponsor throughout the year. There would be no need to close part of Temperance St. if the arena arena site were available. The only glaring inadequacy of this site is the fact that it is located at the foot of a rather steep hill and therefore has an accessibility problem. However, one of the proposals submitted a year ago when development ideas were solicited solicited called for a building on the site to be linked to the downtown by a pedestrian pedestrian overpass. That's an idea which could work. Certainly, given the ideal downtown location, the arena site's accessibility problems could be minimized by careful planning. One thing is certain: As the municipality municipality grows, there will be a need for additional public lands in Bowmanville's Bowmanville's downtown core. The former arena arena site is probably the only place where such land is available. Perhaps it should be the municipality, municipality, rather than the private sector which will plan the future use of the site. In that case, the delay over developing developing the land' which occurred last year may prove to be a blessing in disguise. disguise. The arena lands are a blank slate, on which the Town can write exciting plans for the future. Curtain Closing on Council Believe it or not, Newcastle Council has almost completed its three-year mandate. When members of Council adjourned adjourned Monday for the traditional summer recess, they had completed the second of three seasons of committee committee and Council meetings. By this time next year, the preelection preelection process will bè in full swing. On occasions like this, one traditionally traditionally takes some time to assess the actions taken by the municipality over the past year or two. Tne following are our observations: Development issues continue to take up an overwhelming amount of Council's time. We would conservatively conservatively estimate that two-thirds of the Council agenda is related to development. development. In fact, at a typical committee meeting, meeting, over half the time is usually spent on the planning portion of the agenda alone. This trend is persisting even though the pace of building has rapidly rapidly slowed in the past six months. In other words, although there are fewer homes and apartments under construction, construction, developers continue to proceed proceed with the paperwork. This means that when the economy moves into a growth cycle once again, we can expect massive amounts of activity activity from all those subdivisions which arc now in the approval stages. So far, the traditional division of a community into pro and anti- development camps has not yet occurred. occurred. In general, Council can be characterized as pro-development. Indeed, Indeed, there are few projects which do not eventually get local government approval. A new trend seems to bo towards the development of higher density residential residential dwellings -- something Hint the public should watch carefully if it's concerned about the general quality of life in this municipality. Wo don't need to repeat our lament over the lack of now industrial and commercial development. There are a few recent exceptions. But, for the most part, the planned commercial growth in the Town of Newcastle is located located alongside the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It s just boyond our reach. Although it is necessary for Council to spend a lopsided proportion of its Lime of development issues, we cannot help but wonder if other municipal do- Letter Writer Questions Direction of C.L.G. Role partments are getting their fair share of attention. Departments such as community services and fire protection are important to the quality of life in this Town. And yet, they occupy little time at a typical Council meeting. Is it only on planning matters where Council's Council's input is needed? A final comment pertains to the lack of debate on local Council. Elected officials seem to be more than willing to hear the viewpoints of the various citizens who appear regularly at Council Council and Committee meetings. Indeed, one controversial issue drew about a dozen speakers. But, once the public portion of the meeting is over, there seems to be little little debate or discussion around the Council table. Gone are the days when Council meetings dragged on into the small hours of tne morning. And that's a good thing, too. But at least some of those meetings produced interesting debates and exchanges of opinion. Today's meetings see vast amounts of recommendations approved without comments or questions. This leads us to several possible conclusions: Perhaps, Councillors do not have many diverging opinions. Perhaps they arc discussing matters privately in advance of the meetings. Or, perhaps they are relying chiefly on the advice of the town's professional staff and rubber-stamping these decisions. decisions. Of course, wo realize that our elected elected officials are in a no-win situation. If they debated every issue, they would bo accused of bickering and not acting ns a team. And if they do not dcbatc is- sucs, they can be accused of acting like a flock of sheep. However, a course of action somewhere somewhere between these two extremes would probably bo in order. That's because because people not only like to see decisions decisions made in public but also want to see the reasons behind those decisions explained and debated. Finally, wo note that elected officials officials anti staff, like all of us, deserve n break from the rigors of weekly committee committee and Council sessions and the criticisms and irate phono calls that go with such meetings. The role of an elected official is usually usually a thankless task which you cannot fully comprehend unless you've served in some elected capacity. Happy holidays! Mrs. Patti Barrie, Clerk Town of Newcastle 40 Temperance Street Bowmanville, Ont. L1C 3K6 Dear Mrs. Barrie: It would be appreciated if this correspondence could be provided to Council through the Minutes of the next Council meeting, I believe July 16,1990. For several months, the Newcastle Community Liaison Liaison Group (appointed by the Federal Siting Task Force) has been meeting in our ' community. I have attended a number of their meetings, and am very concerned about the direction in which the CLG is headed, which I shall address as follows. For your information, the CLG meets every Tuesday, and has had several "community" "community" meetings (i.e. Cour- tice, Kendal, Newtonville) which seemed to be information information sessions for area residents. residents. Unfortunately, these community meetings have been postponed indefinitely. Why is this unfortunate? As we all know, the general population does not necessarily necessarily "come to you." If a particular organization, consultant, consultant, etc. requires direct input from a community, and is serious about a commitment commitment to receive a higher level of public participation, then "they must go to them". There is, in my mind, a far more serious concern which I feel must receive Council's immediate attention. attention. Without reviewing the history of the Port Granby Low-level Nuclear Waste Site in great detail, the primary primary factor here is that, based on the wishes of the residents of this community, Council has previously passed a Resolution which states its position that the nuclear waste is to be re- Lots of Thanks Dear Mr. James: On behalf of brother Dan and myself, my mother and father, we would like to thank you for the photo taken taken on their retirement from the business. Art and Lill would like to thank all their customers for their patronage and loyalty over the last 45 years. Dan and I hope we can offer offer the same commitment to service that has established our business in this community community over the next generation. generation. Attention B.H.S. Reunion Committee: I would like to extend my congratulations to the committee committee for the excellent job on organizing such a fantastic fantastic event. It was great to see old (young) football stars of the past like Peter Werry, Charles Ewert, John Hooper, Hooper, the McFeeters boys, "clean" Phil Johnson, Don Jamieson, John Kilpatrick, Jim Kitney and many more former students and grads, who shared many a memory of their past days at good old B.H.S. Unfortunately, I could not attend the play presentation presentation but from my parents' reviews it was a success, also hats off to Bob Sheridan and all the people involved. Let's do it again in another another 10 years. Yours truly, Ron Hooper. Curator Says Thanks to All Dear Mr. James: I have rend many articles in your paper about "Bowmanville "Bowmanville Boosters". I feel that the real boosters in Bowmanville are the local merchants and business people. people. The Bowmanville Museum Museum recently held two largo events: The 10KM Fund Run, and our annual Canada Canada Day Celebrations. Neither Neither one of these events could have been hold without without community support in the form of donations. Over twenty local businesses donated donated money or prizes to help make our events successful. successful. I think that local businesses businesses deserve our patronage, patronage, and should bo commended commended for keeping the spirit of Bowmanville alive. They not only support various various Museum programmes which benefit focal people and attract visitors, but their Business Improvement Association is constantly busy promoting the Town through contests and special events of their own, It is nice to see such an active group trying to preserve preserve Bowmnnvillos unique character when it seems to bo in danger of being "swallowed "swallowed up in a son of now subdivisions". Yours truly, Charles Taws Curator moved (which has previously previously received support from then Opposition Leader, Brian Mulroney). Council has quite recently reaffirmed reaffirmed this position. However, However, it is a fact that the CLG continues to review the position position that Newcastle must consider being a "host" community. community. Through historic misadventure, Newcastle is a "source" community - albeit albeit an unwilling one at that! There are very serious implications about becoming a "host" community. One that immediately comes to mind is that if the location on the bluffs at Lake Ontario Ontario is unstable (serious erosion erosion being one of the problematic problematic factors), then my question is: "Where in the Town of Newcastle will the Nuclear Waste be sited, if the CLG is considering offering offering Newcastle as a "Host" Community? Will there be other future wastes? I suggest that the process is not working in the best interests interests of this community. In 1986, when the Siting Process was in its development development stages, I, and many others, participated in the formulation of the process. It appeared to be a great improvement improvement in previous methods methods of siting (based on the "DAD" principle - Decide, Act, Defend) Iwhich were entirely entirely negligent in the area of public participation, information information and " agreement. As Council may recall, the previous previous process led to serious confrontation. I now ques- . tion if the current process is working any better? The CLG was to go before Council recently to provide a verbal interim report on its progress. This was postponed postponed -1 don't know for how long. Last week a motion came before the CLG which suggested that an invitation be extended to Council to attend attend the CLG meetings. It appeared that the intent was to provide Council with an opportunity to provide some background discussion on Council's Resolution to not be a "host" community, meet the members of the CLG, etc. However, despite sarcastic comments from a CLG member, that "Council communicates to us through the newspapers", the motion was defeated. In summary, I am providing providing you with some of my own personal observations. I wish to emphasize the following: following: The CLG members have all signed a contract. It appears appears that, based on their contractual obligations, they feel they must consider the possibility of being a "host" An Era Ends • Dear Johnny: As an era comes to a close today, July 25, 1990, we wanted to express our feelings feelings and thanks. As the past three months have put a strain on some relationships, relationships, there were others who supported us immensely. We have been subject to criticism, criticism, ridicule and slander, but WE HAVE SURVIVED. SURVIVED. We stood up for our beliefs, and for that WE DO NOT APOLOGIZE. Sincere thanks to - Johnny James and his staff-we have enjoyed working working with you throughout the years. - Councillor Hooper - the only councillor who valued ana fought for our service. - To Fred and Jennifer - for their pleasing personalities personalities - a real benefit to the Town. - To the people who suggested suggested contacting Government; Government; agencies - A BIG THANKYOU. - To Randy, we bare you no malice for the job you were directed to do. - And last but not least, to the several firefighters who supported us, but who could not be vocal, TIIANKS FOR YOUR CONCERNS. In closing Johnny, it has been our extreme pleasure to servo the Town of Newcastle. Newcastle. Wo leave with many friendships and fond memories. memories. Jeannine Winter Judy Dnvoy. (former Fire Dispatchers.) Odd Mailbox? Dear Editor; I mil interested in compiling compiling n pictorial collection of rural mail boxes in Ontario. Should any of your renders have or know of a mail box which they consider to be unusual or one-of-a-kind and a contribution to our rural rural heritage, I would appreciate appreciate hearing IVoin them. A brief description nnd locution locution should be sent to me nt <15 Chevrywootl Dr., Nepean, Ontario, K2II Gill. No photos photos plonso, Many thanks, Helen R. Webster community, despite Council's Council's directives and the wishes wishes of the residents of this community. It is worth noting noting that the CLG's in both Port Hope and Hope Township Township signed identical contracts. contracts. Furthermore, their respective Councils passed similar Resolutions indicating indicating their desire to not be a "host" community. These two CLG's seemed to have had some particular motivation motivation which encouraged them to observe their Council directives. directives. In addition, there was a direct working relationship relationship with their Council, including Council presentations, presentations, Council attendance at meetings, etc. I wonder why it is that in Newcastle there has been no move to develop a direct working relationship relationship between our CLG and Town Council? This situation is mocking the democratic process - no head of Council's Resolution - no direct communication with Council - no clear direction direction of CLG mandate - perceived perceived interference from the Siting Secretariat. Who is in charge here - the community, community, Council, or Ottawa? It is my hope that Council Council will take some time to review review this matter in depth. Are we going to address the wishes of this community, but more importantly, are we going to deal with this environmental blight? Sincerely, (Mrs.) Helen Macdonald, R.R. 1, Newtonville, Ont. LOA 1J0 And on the Seventh Day...We Shopped People have always said those who forget history history are doomed to repeat it. I've heard that phrase used often and always thought no one would ever repeat something bad that happened. For example, who would want to see another another Hiroshima or any other type of war take place? But I realized last week that little events, with far reaching consequences, consequences, that have happened happened in the past could easily happen again if people aren't careful. I thought of this while viewing an exhibit currently currently on at the Clarke Museum Titled "If a Tree Falls in the Forest...", it's about the deforestation of the Ganaraska Watershed and the massive reforestation reforestation project to rebuild the area that took years to complete. For the past year and a half, I have heard from a number of different sources about the Ganaraska Ganaraska forest being destroyed destroyed almost a century ago. It somehow slipped my mind to enquire about the reason for the destruction. destruction. The Clarke Museum answered that question. Around the late part of the 19th century, huge sections of trees in the Ganaraska area were destroyed. destroyed. Through sheer ;,ar~ ignor ance, Mark Jackman, curator curator of the museum, explained, explained, the farmers removed the trees from their fields thinking the more land they had for crops, the more crops they could grow and the more money they would receive. They destroyed the trees and, after four seasons, seasons, found they had no topsoil left in which to plant their crops. All that remained was sand and sandbanks everywhere. everywhere. (Great if you want a beach but who needs it if you're miles away from water.) At that time, knowledge knowledge of the ecological system system was not extensive. They didn't know that the waste byproducts of the trees were necessaiy for the soil to exist. Without trees then, there was no soil. If there wasn't any soil it was impossible impossible to plant crops. It didn't take long for the farmers to abandon the ship. Yet other problems emerged from the giant oceanless beach that had been created in Clarke Township as well. Water erosion left gaping gaping gullies in the landscape. landscape. Black and white photos of the destruction on display resemble areas of the badlands out west that had been etched out by glaciers. Except, as these photos show, water was tne culprit in this landscape. ■ ' ' W And then there were the floods in Port, Hope and other downstream sites that took place because because there wasn't anything anything to absorb the water or stop it from its route to Lake Ontario. It is understandable why the environmental group Save the Ganaraska Ganaraska Again (SAGA) came into being. I, for one, having just seen photos of how the area once looked, wouldn't want to see it re semble that again. Hopefully, we in the 20th century are not as ignorant as our forefathers forefathers and won't allow this type of destruction to occur occur again. If you're interested in the history of Clarke Township or would like to learn about why trees are important to the environment, environment, take a tour of the Clarke Museum. Once we learn about history, the odds are we won't let it be repeated. Debate Continues Over Sunday Shopping Rules Dear Editor: In the Store Hours debacle debacle we hear of Fair Shopping and Fairness for Families. The committee for Fair Shopping states: "When it comes to Sunday Shopping the real issue is Fairness. And your Right to Choose." What about Fairness for the Storekeeper? What about Fairness to the Mall Tenant? What about Fairness to the Franchisor? Does the Mall tenant not deserve the freedom to exercise exercise his/her right to a day of rest? Shouldn't the tenant be protected from the landlord landlord who is only interested in royalties on sales and the bottom line regardless of the cost to principles or family? Does the Franchisor not deserve protection from the Franchisee who only looks at financial returns only nt the cost of nil else? Should a Land Lord have the right to consider n ten ant in default of rent if that tenant because of religious convictions refuses to open on Sunday? We don't think so. The legislation Bill 113, now declared unconstitutional, unconstitutional, didn't either. One section, Clause 5a states: "A provision in n lease or other agreement that has the effect effect of requiring a retail business to remain open on a holiday is of no effect even if the lease or agreement was made before the coming into force of this section." We urge the Provincial government to have like legislation legislation in place protecting the tenants and/or franchisors franchisors from landlords and franchisees. franchisees. The lead taken by Scarborough Council is commendable commendable and should be followed followed by all municipalities. Respectfully, J.IInns Vnnucr Stoop, Executive Director RCBPO Reformed Christian Business nnd Professional Organization "Resting Fox" by David Ley Winner of Award of Merit in the Visual Arts Centre's Seventh Annual Juried Photography Contest and Show