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6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, October 3, 1989 The Povf Peery Sar 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: InCanada $20.00 per year Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten Editor - John B. McClelland News/Features - Julia Ashton News Reporter - Rob Streich PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan BUSINESS OFFICE Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Accounting - Judy Ashby Billing Department - Louise Hope Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Linda Ruhl ADVERTISING Advertising Sales Representative: Anna Gouldburn Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis /-- Con a A Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Lid. Port Perry, Ontario i , Tracy O'Neil Editorial Comment \ N RAIL SERVICE We are not entirely sure what to make of the myriad of signals last week surrounding the future of passenger rail service, specifically, the Toronto-Havelock- Peterborough line. It appears almost a certainty from leaked federal doc- uments that this Via line will get the axe, and the axe could fall as early as January 15. Though federal Transport Minister Benoit Bouchard did his level best in the Commons to stick-handle around all questions concerning the future of this and other Via lines, the writing looks like it's on the wall. The official announcement is expected this week, pe- haps next, but who knows. No sooner had the press been filled with reports of the pending cuts in the Via service, when Durham Region Chairman Gary Herrema jumped into the fray. Last Thurs- day, a front page story in the Toronto Star quoted Herre- ma as saying that GO Transit will replace the Toronto- Havelock service, once the feds dump it. Actually the ser- vice would terminate at Peterborough, not Havelock, ac- cording to the article quoting Herrema. 'That came as a surprise to officials at GO Transit. In fact, the followling day, this paper was told by a GO spokesman that chairman Lou Parsons says GO has not discussed taking over any of the Via lines that may be dumped by Ottawa. Parsons issued the statement from Florida in response to the article that appeared in the To- ronto newspaper last Thursday. So, what's going on. Here we have Durham chairman Gary Herrema, who is a vice chairman of GO Transit, by the way, telling a newspaper that the provincial agency will take over the Toronto-Peterborough Via line. And the -next day, the chairman of GO says no way, that possibility has not even been discussed. Perhaps the answer lies in statements last week from the provincial Minister of Transport Bill Wrye who has tak- en an active role in the Via situation. He said the Ontario government will not abandon people left stranded by federal Via cuts. The province will play a major role in finding alternative transportation (for Via services) along with municipal government and the private sector. That is good news indeed. And would tend to re- inforce the statements made by Regional chairman Herre- ma, that yes, indeed, when the Via service gets the axe, the province of Ontario is ready to jump in to keep the ser- vice on the rails. It takes no more than a quick glance at any map of south central Ontario to understand why the continuation of passenger rail service from Toronto to Peterborough makes extremely good sense. Metro East is filling up with people at a rapid rate, and there is no indication the growth is heading for any kind of a slowdown. Many of these people work in Toronto. The road links into Metro are already stretched to capacity, the existing GO rail along the Lake Ontario corridor is stretched to capacity. The Toronto-Havelock line, even if it terminates in Pe- terborough, would be used by daily commuters. And the possibility of an aggressive marketing program to entice tourists to use the train has never even got off the ground. The track is there, the stations, such as they are, are there, and over the past few years, the number of daily rid- ers has gone up, despite out-dated rolling stock prone to all kinds of break-downs. (Turn to page 8) NIRS a RR am RES L----- 5 PAA TUE UA NV RRA AAA 0) EES ANNE NNEIINN NNN ONNNNNNN NN © ) \ X a AD : A 8 DN "IN ET SD EEE RRR ALL FAIR SONATE or SRN -- + NN - \ > I] NN mY \ NA N \ Xe \ NO NN N -- Dy | "aay IN + <3 AR WN 7 wr ' 4 y/ 7 Kn i 2 \ 774 14 '/, 5 74 2 ZZ IAAI Spr YW LL Snips, "a Ss gy Ya GI prem Eh ka H 7: Zid 2 4 trees YH, 4s Cecttttiires, LY ree. Yirrs, 7 "i IIIT 77% res, RZ way " \1 WouLD SEEM THIS RECYCLING BINGE 15 NOW INTO FERTILIZERS. " JAY FEVER Blue Jay fever hit its highest pitch last Sat- urday afternoon, when the "birds" clinched the American League East pennant I'm just one of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have become wrapped up in the pennant race this summer, and last Saturday's game was a real nail biter. If you're a ball fan, you'll already have read dozens of reports on the weekends games, comments from the players and coaches, and the predictions for the the American League Ti- tle which gets underway today (Tuesday), against Oakland. Nancy and | were fortunate to be invited to the Skydome restaurant, known as "Windows", last Friday night for the first of the three game series against the Orioles. It was Nancy's birthday, and the fact that she doesn't particularly like baseball wasn't enough to have her refuse the offer, having nev- er seen Skydome. Aside from the excitement of the game, it was an exhilarating experiance sitting two feet away from the huge glass windows that separ- ate the crowd from playing field of the incredible Skydome. What a fantastic view. The bright green ar- tificial turf glowed under the bright lights, and close to 50,000 fans were whooping it up like has never been heard at.the Dome before. The advantage of watching the game from "Windows" is we were seated at a table and able to chose our diner from a fabulous buffet, which included salads, shrimp, salmon, pork chops, shiskabob, and some of the best prime rib cuts I've ever tasted. And the dessert table was something even the "sweet tooth fairy" would have been proud of. | can't even imagine where they came up with all of the incredibly delicious receipts. No | didn't taste them all, but | gave it a good try. With the game in progress, we were able to sit comfortably at our table and watch from our perch just under the famous "Jumbotron". Al- though we could not see the giant screen, "Win- dows" has dozens of remote TV screens throughout the restaurant which can be viewed from any seat in the house. Random Jottings by ]. Peter Hvidsten If there's any downside to "Windows Restau- rant", it's that you do not feel part of the excite- ment taking place on the field. Even with 50 thou- sand people screaming and yelling just feet away from us, it was all but inaudible in the restaurant. But for a night out on the town, "Windows" is a geal Place to go. The food's great, the view alii ing and it's just an hour away from Port erry. PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT We've been one of the many families mak- ing good use of the new playground equipment at the lakefront recently, and our young lad loves the new facilities. There are now teeter-totters , spring mount- ed elephant and tractor, swings, small slide, monkey bars, etc. and it seems to be getting lots of use, especially from young local families. | have been told by a member of the Recrea- tion Committee there is more equipment coming, including a larger slide, but some of the items are on back-order. Although there may be a few who feel the equipment is inadequate, most seem very pleased with the new facilities. It's a great im- provement over the old equipment which was adly in need of repair. CEMENT SHOES If any parents out there find cement packed into the treads of their kids running shoes, you might want to ask them where it came from. Township work crews poured about 12 feet of new cement up the street from our house last week, and blocked it off from pedestrian traffic with a picnic bench at each end while it dried. But you guessed it, someone thought it would be great to make their mark in the wet ce- ment. Now | can remember kids (including myself) scratching our initials into wet cement, but never have | witnessed this much destruction. Whoever the culprit, or culprits are, it ap- pears they deliberately walked through the entire stretch of wet cement, then turned around and walked back before leaving the scene. It wasn't young children, as my size nine shoe barely fills the holes left in the pavement by these vandals. I'm not sure what the cost of that (Turn to Page12)