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RE py Volume 124 Number 2 PORT PERRY, ONTARIO - TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1989 Early morning fire claims life of lady A fire in downtown Port Perry early Tuesday morning claimed the life of an elderly lady, and sent at least two residents of the same building to hospital for observation and treatment. The fire, which broke out about 1:30 a.m. this morning was first noticed by Tammy Emond and Dave Smith who occupy apartment five, above Settlement House. Tammy told the Star in an early morning interview, that she awoke from her sleep, and although she didn't smell any smoke, felt there was something wrong, Going to the door, they no- ticed the faint ringing of a fire + alarm, so they opened the door to find the hall was completely engulfed with smoke. They quickly vacated the t,. and when Dave a arimer er Lisi ammy was safe, he ran back up the stairs into the smoke filled building to try and warn other residents. He told the Star he pounded on some of the doors, but he could not make it to the apart- Durham Region Police have charged a 23 year. old for- mer Ajax resident with first de- gree murder in connection with the death of Alfred Meitner. Durham detectives, with the assistance of the Vancouver Police Dept. and the RCMP, ar- rested Gary Melville Newman on November 28, in Vancouver. A Police spokesman said detectives believe the murder of Meitner was "drug related" and "may have involved the theft of a sum of money." nient where the elderly lady lived because the smoke was so thick. He than ran back to his apartment, grabbed their coats and shoes and got out of the building. When he was informed later that the lady had died, Dave broke down in tears, saying he had. really tried, but couldn't get throught the thick smoke. "I was choking", he said. Another witness to the tragic event was Robert Craddock, - Police charge man - with murder for ~ Ghost Road slaying He declined to say how much money may have been in- volved. Newman, formerly of 77 Falby Court in Ajax, was re- turned to Durham Region last Friday and was to appear in court early this week for a bail hearing. The badly decomposed re- mains of Alfred Meitner were discovered October 29 in a field beside the "Ghost Road" on Scu- (Turn to page 16) Apple Valley walkway is off limits to snowmobiles The pedestrian walkway from the Kpple Valloy subdivi- sion to Highway 7A is a side- walk and out of bounds for snowmobiles. With the arrival of winter, the Township has already had at least one complaint of snow- mobilers using the walkway to t out of Apple Valley to Lake Bog. But the new snow machine by-law adopted by council earli- er this fall forbids the machines on all sidewalks in Port Perry. Snowmobilers living in Ap- ple Valley may be able to get to the lake by using Carnegie St. crossing Highway 7A onto Wa- ter Street. But they won't be able to use the pedestrian walkway. . Wrye a who occupies the apartment across the hall from the de- ceased lady. Mr. Craddock said he and a friend were just returning from a local restaurant when he heard screaming on the front street. He later found out it was Tammy Emond who was shouting "Fire! Fire! Fire! There's a lady still in the apart- ment." It was then Robert noticed smoke coming out of an upper window, so he ran to the top of the stairs in an attempt to warn the residents, but said there ' un was just "no way" you could get by the smoke. "I layed down on my' belly, but the smoke was all the way to the floor", he said. Realizing there was nothing he could do, he ran back to the bottom of the stairs the Fire Department had arrived, and he gave them directions and a general layout of the apart- * ments inside. Gil Rowntree and Pierre Le- duc, both residents of the apartments above Settlement House, were taken to Commu- nity Memorial Hospital for ob- servation. . The name of the deceased lady was being withheld until relatives could be notified. Firemen scale a ladder to get at a fire which started in an apartment above Settlement House early Tuesday morning. The fire, which threatened to destroy one of Port Perry's landmark buildings, was brought under con- trol in a short time, but not before it claimed the life of an elderly resident of the building. The Ontario Fire Marshal has been called in to determine the cause of the fire. Province will not take over operation of VIA Rail service There is no chance the Pro- vincial Government is going to take over the VIA Rail service from Toronto to Havelock on January 16. That was the outcome of a meeting in Toronto Monday morning between Scugog May- or Howard Hall, provincial transport minister Bill Wrye and members of the Toronto/ 'Havelock Passenger Associa- tion. Mayor Hall told the Star af- ter the meeting that Mr. Wrye stated clearly the province is not going to take the service over on January 16, the date VIA will pull the train from the rails on order of the federal gov- ernment. ' But the Mayor said Mr. d that the Toronto/ Havelock service will be the subject of a study on such thin as operating costs, ridership and potential revenues. Mayor Hall said he was dis- appointed but not surprised at the answer from Mr. Wrye. Three weeks ago, when he met in Scugog with Premier David Peterson, he was told the same thing. "The Province thinks VIA (the federal government) should continue that service," he told the Star. Though it now appears that commuters who use the line to t to their jobs in Toronto will ave to find alternative ways as of January 16, Mayor Hall said he is prepared to write to feder- al Transport Minister Benoit Bouchard in one final attempt to convince him to keep the To- ronto/Havleock train on the rails until at least the results of the provincial study are known, The Mayor said he knows that's a very long shot, at best. Mayor Hall went into the Monday meeting with Mr. Wrye armed with letters of support from the mayors of several oth- er communities served by the VIA line, including Pickering, Whitby, Newcastle, Manvers and Peterboréugh. They do not want to see the service dis-continued as of Jan- uary 15. Mayor Hall briefed mem- bers of Township council about the outcome of the 90 minute meeting with the provincial minister, Council "wants Scugog to now to continue to press GO Transit to set up a bus service from Port Perry to connect with the GO Train in Whitby. And council was disap- pointed that the provincial gov- ernment at this time has no plans to continue the rail ser- vice. TE at Yi Bat TN AI. be TE a a Ie PU 3 f rari rang