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PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, December 5, 1989 -- 7 ia TRUCK LENGTHS The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) is gearing up for a fight to convince the Ontario Government that truck lengths should not be al- lowed to increase in this province. At present, the maximum truck length for trucks in Ontario is 23 metres (75.5 feet) The CAA is fearful that the provincial govern- Bo by allow that length to increase to 25 metres (:1:) And in a statement released last week, the CAA says the Province is bowing to pressure from the trucking industry. Groups and organizations, like the CAA, which represent the motoring public are adamently opposed to longer truck lengths for safety reasons. The trucking industry has been successful in western Canada and Quebec in convincing govern- ments to increase the lengths to 25 metres, but the ~CAA notes that Ontario, with nearly one million trucks registered, has far more trucks on the road than the other jurisdictions. According to CAA figures (which may be mis- leading) Ontario has 46 trucks for each kilometer of provincial highway, compared with 7.7 in Quebec, and 15 for B.C. | Sa¥ this number for Ontario may be a bit mis- leading because the CAA figures cite only Provin- cial Highways in Ontario, and they obviously don't include all the kilometers of Regional and ounty Highways, which get a lot of truck traffic. But that's splitting a pretty fine hair. Personally, | agree with the CAA. The Highways (Provincial, Regional and County) especially in southern Onta- ~ know exactly w - Viewpoint by John B. McClelland rio, and most certainly in the Golden Horseshoe, are already jammed with cars, trucks and motorcy- cles. Longer and heavier trucks would just add to the congestion, and in my opinion, make our roads less safe than they are now. Perhaps there is room for some compromise, i.e., allow the longer trucks only oh designated mul- ti-lane highways like the MC Freeway and only dur- ing low volume hours (11:00 PM to 6:00 AM, for ex- ample) . But | can think of any number of two lane high- ways where longer trucks would truly be a threat to safety. One that readily comes to mind is Highway 7 from Peterborough to Ottawa. If you have driven that stretch, sspeutaly on a summer weekend, you at | mean. UNREASONABLE . It's not too often | have much sympathy with the plight of developers in their negotiations with lo- cal and Regional councils. Development companies are in business for one reason: to make money. They are constantly at loggerheads with municipal councils. And quite frankly, | like it when a local council "gets tough" with a developer and demands that certain require- ments are met when it comes to a new subdivision or shopping mall. Lord knows, there are any number of "horror stories" right here in Scugog about problems that come to light a year or two after a subdivision has been approved and even completed. Solving these problems at this time is difficult. But | have to wonder about peugog Township council's demand that the Ridgeland company build a new road into its Oak Hills residentiai and golf course development in the southwest corner of cugog. Ridgeland has already developed a nine hole golf course and about 60 estate lots for luxury mes. The company is now seeking the green light to add nine more holes to the golf course and/ or 23 estate lots or up to 40 large (2,000-2500 sq. ft.) condo units. The only road access into the Posen develop- ment is via the former Plunkett S members of council are adament that Ridgeland must build a second road (along the road allowance between Concession 2 and 3) to connect the devel- opment with the Brock or Ashburn Road. Councillors feel this second access is needed in the event the present access ever became blocked and emergency vehicles were not able to get to a fire or other emergency in the develop- ment. - Ridgeland obviously does not want to spend the huge amounts of money it would take to con- struct a second access, and the company says it is prepared to construct a special entrance into the development from the Chalk Lake Road for emer- gency vehicles only. - IY Surely, this special entrance via the Chalk Lake Road would suffice in the unlikely event that the Plunkett Side road was blocked at the same time a fire was underway in the development. In- deed, the local Fire departmerit says it would prefer an emergency entrance from the Chalk Lake Road. Why put Ridgeland to the large expense of (Turn to page 12) eroad. Several Letters io the caitor Remember When? 45 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 21, 1944 Flying Officer Bruce Beare, R.C.A.F. paid a brief visit at his home here over Monday night. Bruce is en route from Claresholm, Alberta to Uplands, Ontario. We regret to hear of the unfortunate accident of Mr. Bill Carnegie who broke a leg on Monday while working in the bush. All roads blocked, schools closed, mail delayed. One storm like this is enough. It is many, many moons since there has been such a storm in South Ontario as we have experienced over the last few days. 35 YEARS AGO | Thursday, December 16, 1954 The sixth annual banquet of the Central Ontario County High School Board and Teaching Staff of the High Schools at Port Perry and Uxbridge was held in the High School, where a turkey supper was enjoyed. The Ladies Night Christmas Party of the Lions Club was a jolly evening this year, held at Del's Little Norway restaurant. Lion Whitney Martin of Bancroft, Deputy District Govenor of District A3 was guest speaker. 30 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 24, 1959 The winners of the Women's Hospital Auxiliary doll draw were: First Prize, Mrs. Michael Hlozan, Jr., Port Perry - $50; Second Prize, Mr. Lee Sturman, Seagrave - $25; Third Prize - Mr. J.L. Sweetman, Scugog Island - Doll. Bveryone except the weatherman, did their best to make Santa welcome when he paid a visit to Port Perry last Saturday , afternoon. Merchants and private citizens alike made a gala showing in spite of the miserable icy drizzle which the weather- man saw fit to dump on the area that particular day. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 24, 1964 Little Margaret Vokins, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Vokins, Port Perry, had a chat with Santa Claus and had a chance to sit on his knee at the annual Legion Childrens Christmas Party held at the Legion Hall last Saturday afternoon. Dr. Helen Bathie, who had her miniature poodle Askher, entered in a 10 day dog obedience training course conducted in Oshawa recently, was awarded 191 points of a possible 200. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Hunter, Prince Albert, who reached their 59th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday and were visited by their family. Santa, riding in a truck this time, visited Wanamaker's store ," (Turnto page 10) They do listen, it just takes time! To the Editor: Hark! The people speak! A wonderful cartoon by artist Ting; so simple, so timely, so ap- propriate. Indeed, caricatures of any number of our elected representatives at various levels of governments could easily replace that of Mr. Mulroney's -- too many to suit me. What with VIA Rail cuts across our nation, the imposition of Ontario's French Bill 8, surely they've all gone completely berserk. But wait a minute: I recall a situation hardly ten years ago We must continue to encourage recycling To the Editor: } The dramatic increase in blue box programs in recent years has created a supply of recyclable materials greater than market demand. This has created market disruptions, a drop in price and tightening quality requirements. Like all other program operators in Ontario, Durham Recycling has experienced some marketing problems, although to a minor degree when compared to Metro Toronto's problems. Two roll-off containers of con- taminated glass weighing a total of approximately 20 tons have been landfilled out of approx- imately 2000 tons collected this year to date. Approximately 80 percent of all newspaper collected in Ontario outside of Metro Toronto is now being exported. Our facility has been chosen as a point of export due to our high density compact bales. ) » Durham Recycling is continu- ing to establish markets for all materials collected through the blue box programs and drop off depots in the Region of Durham. We encourage residents to con- tinue to separate their materials for recycling, paying special at- tention to keeping ceramics and window glass out of their blue boxes. when a serious accident, another one occurring at Paxton and Bigelow, prompted a worthy pro- . posal from neighbour Cathy Reid before our local council to replace the Yield signs on Paxton with Stop signs on Bigelow. She was in- formed then that Bigelow must remain a through street like all other north-south streets, but a Stop sign would be erected on Paxton however. Cathy would be pleased to know that a by-law is finally being drafted which will make Paxton a through street -- just as she said it should in the first place. Now how do you like that? -- goes to prove that some politicians do listen. It takes a little time, that's Yours truly, gj. Glenda Gies, Durham Recycling Centre Inc., Yours truly, Whitby Leslie A. Parkes, Port Perry, Ont. Smile For The Day ---------- "If youlive at the North Pole how come all your stuff ismadein Hong Kong?"