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gr # E y & al oy ® ; : Sa o , > . b i CL ¢ $i ; 7 3 Blackstock Nursery School is celebrating 10 years of service to the community this week and when the Star photographer arrived last week he found one of the classes busy with various activities. Above, Cait- lin and Amy show off their dresses as they proudly hold up an umbrella. Vol. 122 No. 23 Tuesday, May 3, 1988 Copy 50¢ 56 Pages In an effort to hold the line on tax increases and pay for some big capital items at the same time, Township council has dipped into the municipal reserve accounts for its 1988 budget. The budget, just over $5.8 million got unanimous approval from council Monday morning. And while overall spending at the local level is up almost 11 per cent in 1988, a healthy assess- ment growth rate will limit the tax hike to six per cent, or slight- ly less than $20 this year for a home of average value in Scugog. Finance committee chairman Harvey Graham called the budget a "responsible one," and said the committee's goal had been to lim- Design adopted The Durham Board of Educa- tion has approved the architectural design for the new public school in Port Perry. Scugog trustee Joyce Kelly said last week the design will be similar to several other elemen- tary schools in the Region, in- cluding the completed Pringle Creek School in Whitby. The school will be nearly 40,000 square feet on two stories for Kindergarten to grade 8 stu- dents. It will have the usual gym, library, resources room and in- clude a 2800 square foot day care centre. Mrs.Kelly said contract tend- ers will be let in the near future, and the target date for completion is September 1989. It will be built on land pur- chased by the board on the west side of Simcoe Street, about one- quarter mile north of Durham Road 8. Mrs. Kelly said a three-person committee made up of herself, Scugog trustee Debbie Tredway and former board chairman Ruth Lafarga has been set to come up with a name for the new school, and she said residents of Scugog are more than welcome to submit (Turn to page 12) Local tax hike at 6% as budget approved _ it the actual tax hike to six per cent. But to do this, the Township will take $690,000 from various reserve accounts to help pay for a wide variety of municipal projects this year. : These include $120,000 for renovations to the Blackstock Arena; $41,000 for renovations to the Blackstock Recreation Centre; $44,000 for grading and drainage at the Scugog Arena parking lot; $10,000 for re-tubing the ice plant at the Scugog Arena; $66,000 for a new workshop for the Parks department; $132,000 for purchase of a residential prop- erty on Water Street beside the Port Perry Marina; $60,000 as the second payment of a new emer- gency van for the fire department; $35,000 for future purchase of a new tanker truck for the Caesarea fire department; $125,000 for a new grader. Following endorsement of the budget, Scugog Mayor Jerry Tay- lor called the six per cent tax in- crease "reasonable, considering the amount of growth in the Town- (Turn to page 12) | Hospital may close six beds by September Community Memorial Hospi- tal in Port Perry may have to lay off staff and shut down beds this fall because of budget restraints, the administrator told the Star last week. David Brown said the hospital is facing a budget deficit of $271,000 for the fiscal year which began April 1, and unless there is more money from the provincial government by September, the cutbacks will be inevitable. He declined to say where staff layoffs might occur, but the Hos- pital Board is considering shutting down four to six beds in the 46- bed facility. Even in the wake of an- nouncements last week for Pro- ~ vincial treasurer Robert Nixon that Ontario will not cover any hospital operating budget deficits this year, Mr. Brown said he at least is hoping to meet with sen- ior Ministry of Health officials to make his case for more money for this facility. He said he hopes this meeting can take place in the next four weeks. "There is no other way for us to reduce the deficit, except by cutting service and staff reduc- tions," he said. The $271,000 budget deficit projected for this year includes about $170,000 deficit from the previous year. The hospital's budget is $4.7 million this year, about a five per cent increase over the previous year. Mr. Brown said there are a lot of hospitals in Durham Region and Ontario facing the same prob- lems. "If it was just Port Perry Hos- pital, we could blame oursclves (for the deficits) but it's not that way at all," he said. The hospital has experienced a 22 per cent growth rate over the past few years, but the amount of extra money for budgets from the province has been about six per cent. : And he points out that over the past decade, the share of health services total dollars ear-marked for hospitals has declined 54 per cent to 44 pcr cent. "We (the hospital) have been (Turn to page 3) i 5 6 Members of the MoJacks executive were in a evening when the team finally dispatched the Hanover Barons. And wh not, they have waited a long time to see a Port Junior C team in the all- Ontario hockey: championship. From left in photo are Gary McHugh, presi- dent Wayne Stainton, Maurice Jeffrey, Charlie Bourgeois, and director of hockey operations Murray Parliament. The celebrations were short-lived, however, as the MoJacks headed to Mooretown over the weekend and promptly lost the first two games of the final series to the Flags. Game three goes at the Scugog Arena Wednesday evening. (For details, see sports pages In this week's Star) oyous mood last Thursday wd b