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5 i fi | p | Council passes "lean and mean" budget By Scott Anderson Port Perry Star Scugog Council approved a 'lean and mean" budget on Monday which sees a small in- crease in the amount of taxes for 1992. The proposed budget calls for a 1.47-per cent hike in taxes for the 1992 fiscal year, amounting to an increase in taxes of ap- proximately $6.20 for the aver- age household. __ The budget provides for ex- Vol. 126 No. 19 penditures of $6,273,838 with revenues of $2,827,631. It re- uires a general tax levy of 93,446,207 . In presenting the budget to council, Yvonne Christie, Chair- man of the Finance Committee, said it was "a good news/bad news budget." On the one hand she said it didn't increase taxes by a great amount and allowed the township to maintain ser- vices, butit didn't give the town- ship much in which to work. "I don't think there are things in the budget that can be called excessive spending," she said. A major portion of the $6 mil- lion budget is dedicated to the maintenance of roadways. The budget earmarks an estimated $2,169,000 for the upkeep and maintenance of the township's roads. Supplementary funds from the province have not been factored into the budget. Despite almost one-third of the budget being slotted for roads, Councillor Christie is concerned about the quality of the roads in 1992. She says the money earmarked for the roads will be enough to handle the pro- jects, but the work may not be done as quick. Other figures in the budget included General Administra- tion at $944,234, Environmen- tal Services $544,320 and the combined expenses of the two fire halls at $443,110. The township was dealt a large blow late last week when it learned of the Ontario Gov- ernment's intention to cancel the PRIDE Program. This pro- gram matched dollar for dollar money spent by the township on specific improvement pro- grams. Councillor Christie says as a result of this decision, the town- ship must spend full dollar amounts for the projects if it Turnto Page 10 44 Pages General Motors and Union come to terms on concessions By Scott Anderson Port Perry Star The future of General Motors in Oshawa looks alittle brighter following an agreement on man- datory overtime and other con- cessions. After marathon bargaining sessions, and a failed vote earli- er this month, General Motors of Canada Limited and Oshawa Local 222 of the Canadian Auto- workers came to the agreement last Friday. The agreement will be voted on by the 15,000 union members on Wednesday in Oshawa. It is expected the workers will ac- cept this deal, unlike a failed vote on the same issue two weeks ago. Under the terms of the agree- ment, workers would be re- quired to work up to nine hours on two days during the Monday to Thursday work period, and Saturday shifts would be re- duced from eight hours to six hours. No change occurs for the Friday shift or the other two days. The nine-hour shifts are to be identified when the agreement is implemented, and manage- ment is required to give ad- vance notice if it wishes to alter the days. The car assembly plants in Oshawa will be designated for a 30-day demonstration period. This will begin two to three weeks after the ratification vote. Stew Low, GM Canada spokesman, says the tentative deal reached at 4:30 p.m. on Fri- day, gave both sides what they were seeking. Mr. Low says it puts in place good ground work to make the Turnto Page9 A Sunday drive or a Sunday dive? Motorists on the 7A causeway stopped to watch as Rodney Bosse and Mike McCourt of Scugog Island did a little puddle jumping on the open waters of Lake Scugog. Reaching speeds of about 100 miles an hour, the two men skimmed their '89 Phazer and '89 Mach 1 snowmobiles across the open water. The men told the Star they do it for the thrill and excitement, and al- SR EY/ PORT PERRY STAR DEMPS though it may look dangerous, they say there is very little chance of going into the water. "The speed is what gets you across," says Mr. Bosse. When asked how fast one has to be going, Mr. McCourt says he likes to be going "as fast as | can." There are actual competitions for this sort of thing and the men say the record for driving on open water is 11 1/2 miles. Pictured above is Mike McCourt. Ice fishing a popular sport Record number of huts on lake this year By Kelly Lown Port Perry Star Ice fishing is becoming an in- creasingly popular sport accord- ing to a 1991-92 survey of Lake Scugog angler-activity per- formed by the Ministry of Natu- ral Resources. A complete creel (angler sur- vey) was performed on Lake Scugog this winter and showed that ice fishing activity has al- most doubled since the last creel was performed in 1988, Lois Deacon, Kawartha Lake Fisher- ies Biologist, told the Port Perry Star. Fishing activity is measured in rod hours. A fisherman using two lines would count for double the rod hours as a fisherman us- ingone line, said Ms. Deacon. The total number of rod hours for the 1991-92 season was SCUGOG'S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER OF (010 [0] 2 264,000 compared to 142,000 rod hours four years ago, she said. The increase in fishing in the area could be directly related to the state of the economy. "I sus- pect with the economic condi- tions there are lots of people out of work (thus there are more with time to go fishing), she said. "When we see changes in eco- nomic conditions, we see chang- es in anglers' habits," she told the Star. For those out of work it is too expensive to go to Lake Simcoe, as it is too far. It is easy to fish Lake Scugog for a very minimal cost, she added. "And the waters are not near- ly as treacherous as Simcoe. It (Scugog)is a lot safer to fish." Conservation officers were more visible on the lake this year than in past years. They spent at least five days on Lake Scugog conducting the angler survey, as well as enforcing ice fishing and related regulations. The officers interviewed 1,086 fishermen at different in- tervals during the week to pro- duce a statistically-sound anal- ysis. Fishermen were asked ques- tions such as where they lived, TurntoPage 11 Post office meeting A public meeting concerning the Blackstock Post Office will be held on April 14 at the Black- stock Recreation Centre. According to Deby Martin, Canada Post Media Relations Officer, Canada Post will meet with the residents to discuss the changes to the postal service in the community. Canada Post recently an- nounced its intention to close the Blackstock Post Office in A FAMILY TRADITION FOR 125 YEARS mid-June and switch the ser- vice to a retail outlet. Ms. Martin said the residents will be given an opportunity at the meeting to choose the form of mail delivery. She says the options include a retail postal outlet or community mail boxes. She stresses rural delivery will not be affected. "It will be the mode of delivery of the majority of the people," she said. = etm, A Ds a 7