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

Celebration and destruction of nature Dear Editor In reference to the May issue of Focus on Scugog — once again your well-loved publication presents stories of the lives of Scugog residents along with i ion about the happ that make our township a wonderful place to live. Through personal involvement I could not help but no- tice the juxtaposition of two of the issue’s articles. The first, “Greenbank Dustbowl” — detailing how the landfill project at the Greenbank airport has negatively impacted the quality of life of local citizens. The second, “Springing to Life” — an article about a family event hosted by Friends of Nonquon — a volunteer organiza- tion dedicated to providing free educational experiences for families aimed at increasing their understanding of the impor- tance of this provincially significant wetlands. The locations of these two “events” — one a celebration of a natural area and one the destruction of one — are in close physical proximity to one another. The fill going into the Greenbank site is of questionable origin, only a small fraction is actually tested for contaminants and what unknown “nas- ties” will leach into the water table, creeks and streams that drain directly into that same Nonquon wetland is a scary thing indeed. Ihave been a Greenbank resident for 42 years, a volunteer in my community for more than 30 of those and am currently a volunteer educator with the Friends of Nonquon group. And one of the personal regrets I harbour is that I did not throw my efforts full steam at trying to stop the destruction at the airport lands. I settled for trusting my elected officials to heed our concerns and to make decisions that would protect both the human and natural environment in which we live. So what I write here may well fall under the category of too little too late — but the irony of the two stories in one issue was not lost on me. Thank you again - for a wonderful publication and making us all think. Cathy Galberg MORE LETTERS ON PAGE 32 Greenbank our cover Ever had the urge to try stand-up paddleboarding? Well Jenn Sunnerton and Syd Trefiak (left), owners of Port Perry SUP, will be holding lessons June 21 to raise funds for the Port Perry Library children’s program. Paddleboarding is, great for people of all ages and almost anyone can enjoy this popular new water sport. For more information see page 38. Photo by J. Peter Hvidsten 2 FOCUS - JUNE 2014 Service clubs deserve support Dear Editor Thank you very much for your article in the May edition of Focus on Scugog regarding the Port Perry Lions Club. The Club has a long and proud history of service to the town of Port Perry and beyond. I would like to expand on one of the points made in that article. One of the underlying principles of Lions Clubs International is that all money collected from the public must go back to the public. When a club holds a fund raising event they are allowed to take the legitimate costs of running the event, such as material, license and permit fee etc., out of the funds raised. The profits must all go back to the public. All Lions volunteer their ime. There are administrative costs associated with running a Lions Club, including the cost of rent for meeting space, which is becoming increas- ingly expensive. Any administrative costs of running the club come out of members’ pockets through dues that are collected annually. The club is currently searching for a less expensive location. Lions are proud to be able to say that our administration costs to the public are zero. They are paid for by the individual Lions. This is one of the main reasons for the New York Times declaring Lions Clubs International to be the number one service organization in the world. Lion Lloyd Clifton District Governor, District A-16 Lions Clubs International Dirt testing at Greenbank site Dear Editor The recent article in the May issue of Focus on Scugog regarding the Greenbank airport was well written and much appreciated, however, there was a huge misunderstanding about how many trucks are actually being tested at Greenbank. It is not the one-in-10 trucks described in the article. That would be great! The reality is that Greenbank is required to test one soil sample per month for each of its source sites, Considering that the site is currently per- mitted to allow a maximum of 200 trucks a day, six days a week, this requirement is completely inadequate. The Township has the authority to go in and do audit testing of the fill, something they should be doing. Lakeridge Citizens for Clean Water has repeat- edly recommended that, at a minimum, for any large fill site, the approval authority should be doing their own independent testing, charging costs back to the fill site owner and taking at the Please turn to page 32