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"A Family Tradition for 130 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, April 16, 1996 - 7 I _ETTERS Green Team takes aim at pesticides To the Editor: Scugog's Green Team has invited the town council and the media to a special break- fast to celebrate Earth Day. Our guests will sit down to a sumptuous array of organi- cally grown food. Councillors will also receive information on '"Pesticide-free Week" (April 21 to 27); this year the theme is "Building a pesti- cide - free community." In support of this concept, we will discuss with council ways that this objective can be reached in Scugog Town- ship. We are looking forward to sharing breakfast with all members of council, bright and early, Monday, April 22. Jay Thibert, Port Perry Hats off to volunteers To the Editor: In recognition of Volunteer Week, April 22 - 28, we take our hats off to Volunteers. A helping hand or friendly face can make such a difference. We applaud all volunteers. A sincere note of thanks to anyone who has: Qdelivered a hot meal Qcleaned a walkway Q driven to an appoint- ment Q visited someone who lives alone 0 answered a telephone avacuumed and dusted a client's home Q calculated an income tax form Qcut a senior's grass Take a bow! We couldn't do it without you. Dorothy Imperial, Scugog Community Care. Adminstrator, We're off to the OMB To the Editor So, we are going to the OMB hearing on May 1 to determine whether or not we deserve a park at the north end of Black- stock. I wonder if anyone recalls the issues that were raised, or if council hopes most citizens have forgotten. I wonder if any- one will show up to give their opinions. One issue in particu- lar concerned the fact that a number of neighbors would be interested in raising funds to develop the parkland, to make it more useful to the communi- ty, During the spring break, my two sons became restless in their own back yard, and with nowhere else to play made their way a full kilometre away from home to the nearest play- ground, in the area of the arena. I felt uncomfortable about the expedition but as long as they stayed together, I thought it would be okay. It wasn't. While at the play area, a group of young teens ap- proached my eight year old, and in front of his eyes, took his bike away from him. His older broth- er had just left for home, think- ing he was right behind. Instead, almost 20 minutes later a tearful, out-of-breath lit- tle boy arrived home. He told me it was "the worst day of his life." There were no neighbors nearby that he knew to ask for" help. I had no means of detect- ing anything was amiss until the deed was done and it was too late. If our children had a place in which to play closer to home, events like this may be avoided. I urge Blackstock not to for- get the park, please. Donnalee McKenna Blackstock Committee is watching To the Editor: The Save Scugog Island Com- mittee has taken note of recent press reports concerning the on- again-off-again casino project on the Mississaugas Reserve. Municipal and Provincial Governments seem unaware of what is going on concerning fi- nancing and environmental stress - which includes water ta- bles and sewage disposal, addi- tional housing on the Reserva- tion, road inadequacies, drainage, social consequences for Scugog Island residents, po- licing costs and the serving of alcohol. We will attend the April 19 and 20 open house and then have an open house meeting to discuss the concerns of the 500 plus citizens who petitioned the provincial government in oppo- sition to this proposal. We will announce the date and place of our meeting short- ly. Discussion may take place concerning prospective legal ac- tion against the project. Joel Aldred, Scugog Island. Give teachers a break From Page 6 60,000 hours of their time for your children. In many other boards school teams are coached by paid com- munity members. The cost to Durham for this extra time spent by teachers would be worth well in excess of $1 million. All schools have choirs, bands, drama and many other clubs which are organized by teachers outside of school hours. Durham region students are well served and cared for by their teachers. Bill Butcher, OPSTF Durham. Editor's Notepad by Jeff Mitchell SOMALIA MYSTERY SOLVED FOUND 'EM! ...It's okay now. The Military can call off its searches, if any more are planned. | have found the missing Somalia documents that shut down the army, navy, and air force for a full day last week. The documents, which have been withheld from the inquiry probing actions by members of the now-defunct Airborne unit during its mission in Africa, turned up in a shoe box under my bed. It was rather serendipitous; when | came across the documents, | was actually looking for somebody's address. That's why | looked in the shoebox. Everybody has a container somewhere that is a catch-all for stuff like that. In addition to the Somalia documents, | found in the box my birth certificate, warranty papers for a lot of household appliances | no longer have, a Dear John letter from an old girlfriend, a parking ticket from St. John, New Brunswick, and three bucks worth of Canadian Tire money. The birth certificate and CTC money | can use; the rest of the stuff is no good to me, so, of course, | put it back in the box (Warning: Never, ever throw this stuff out! Just because'it's of no use now, doesn't mean it won't be, sometime) and slid it back under the bed. The Somalia documents | put in an envelope, and mailed to National Defence HQ in Ottawa. They should be receiving them any day now. SERIOUSLY, NOW: Did you, like me, look on in disbelief while Canada's Armed Forces were ordered to stand down and go through their file cabinets and wastepaper baskets last week? | can just imagine: "You look in the tank, and I'll go over this frigate, here. Johnston, you're in charge of filing cabinets." It's kind of like the entire Bank of Montreal ceasing operations for a day because a branch manager in Moosejaw can't find his car keys. The sheer absurdity is disturbing enough. But what if we'd been attacked? Say Russia got bored with blowing the hell out of Cechnya, and thousands of Red Army soldiers came swarming through the Arctic. How would it look if all our soldiers were on their hands and knees, searching under desks for Somalia documents? | say we bring in those contractors who were hired to do renovations at the White House. They found the missing Whitewater papers, so giving Canada's military the once-over should be a piece of cake. OY, THAT HURTS: It was painful -- nay, brutal -- watching Greg Norman's crash-and-burn performance in Sunday's final round of The Masters golf tournament. How many of us duffers sat and watched, imagining his restrained agony as shot after shot went astray, and the commanding lead with which he entered the day dissolved? At the same time, it provided some insight: Even the greats have miserable days. Even they succumb to pressure, and choke. But prize money -- big money -- no doubt lessened the pain. Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten SHARING OUR HEALTH CARE FACILITIES As reported in Friday's Weekend Star, changes are coming into our a | health care system in Durham Region i in the very near future. Our first look at what's to come in health care forthe northern municipalities came last Wednesday when the Durham Health Council (DHC) released it's long awaited Acute Care Study. The DHC is recommending that Uxbridge and Port Perry hospitals work together to forma "northern health care network" by pooling current resources. By suggesting the services we have become accus- tomedto like,emergency, obstetrics, medical beds and surgery won'tdisappear, but will be delivered in different forms, Renee Soetenes, chairman ofthe Implementation Planning Committee skirts around the impact of what is about to happen. Mr. Soetenes was careful not to come out and say Uxbridge and Port Perry hospitals are going to haveto give up duplication of some health services being oftered atboth hospitals, but that's what he inferred. It's highly unlikely 24 hour emergency service, obstetrics and surgery will be performed at both hospi- tals in future. And there's a good chance the number of active treatment beds in the north will be cut drastically while hospital boards and administrative positions are merged to operate the hospitals jointly. But the DHC only makes recommendations, and is not about to make any tough decisions forthe north. Those decisions, about which hospital will provide what services, willbe left to the boards of Port Perry and Uxbridge hospitals to wrestle with. The boards will be faced with making tough, emo- tional decisions that will not be popular with their own board members, doctors, hospital staff and the pub- lic... but decisions none-the-less which must be made. If the local boards can't come to a mutual agreement on howto apportionthe health services provided by the two hospitals, it willbe thrown back to the DHC and ultimately the province. This would notbe inthe best interest of the residents of either community, so itis imperative the boards work diligently to come up with a solution that is acceptable to both parties. The boards have been given a veritable "hot potato" and are in a no win situation. No matter what they decide, there's bound to be negative reaction from both communities at the loss of some services to one orthe other. Hopefully, when the decisions have been presented to the public, the boards will be credited with having discussed and analyzed the health care needs of the north and taken into consideration the impact of changes on bothcommunities. Eventhough we'rein tor some belt tightening over the nextfew years, Port Perry and Uxbridge are fortu- nate tobe blessed with two excellent health facilities only 10 miles apart. But it's because of this close prox- imity and duplication of services that we are being forcedto share some ofthese services in the future.