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- Ia SUE BT a an PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 7 -- Question of the Week... How have you 1 Duncan Ashworth been dealing | like the heat. with this recent Its never hot enough for me. heat wave? B= Dan Thompson Don Turner I've got central air I's good; | really don't mind it when it's hot like this. at home and I've been working nights so it hasn't been that bad. Chris Jones Brent Rogers It hasn't been that I've been keeping good. It's nice cool by doing lots where there's air conditioning, and I've been drinking plenty of water. of swimming. I Community Care's Tag Days returning Aug. 16 Scugog Community Care volunteers will be hitting the streets beginning the morning of Thursday, Aug. 16 for the annual Tag Day fundraiser. This event is the largest fundraiser for Community Care and it helps raise the much needed funds for programs such as Meals on Wheels, transportation, home help, home mainte- nance and foot care clinics. Volunteers are still needed for shifts running through to the evening of Saturday, Aug. 18. If you can help please call the office at 905-985-8461. CNIB orientation is Aug. 15 The Canadian National Institute for the Blind pro- vides service to over 1,300 clients in the Region of Durham who are blind, vision impaired or deaf- blind. Volunteer orientation is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 15 with two sessions available from either 10 a.m. tonoonor6to8 p.m. Orientation takes place at the office located at | Mary Street North in Oshawa. We are currently looking for people to assist clients, provide office support, and become a committee or board member. If you would like to join us as a volunteer, please call Natalie Manders at 905- 436-7732. You can e-mail the editor: editorial@portperrystar.co Hello there Ath It' sa blast furnace out here, isn't it? But your zinnias always look 50 lush. You re quite the gardener. ~~ "Say, did you hear? I'm going to doa column for the paper. No no, not that rag. I'm 'writing for The Port Perry Star. Yes, | agree. We're very fortunate to have a plucky independent inaseaof corporate newspaper chains. Maybe you can help me out. You know everybody and all the scuttlebutt, friend. Let's just keep having - these regular chats over the fence. I promise I'll never use your name. Did I ever tell you Peter and I took only 10 minutes to decide to move to Port Perry? We drove out here about eight. years ago and bought a house the very same day. We oad waterfront. He loves boats. 'And we knew we wanted to raise our children in a small com- munity. | was born and raised in Sackville, New Brunswick, a town about the same size as Port, so you know I'd rather gargle with Prano than live in Toronto again. How did we discover Port Perry? Me, I first got to know Scugog when | came up here to cover events for the Oshawa Times, back in the late 80s. | remember once driving up to Scugog Island to report on the dis- covery of a body on Ghost Road 12 years ago. Jack Kane found the corpse while picking bottles. Now | walk and ride up that road all the time, Sometimes 1 wish Jack hadn't shown me where he found it. And 1 used to board my horse just south of town, Fern Filion's old place. It's High Point Stable now. Aha Ire +; Seagrave now. : Ohno, at the time we never dreamed we'd be living here. What do I love about Port Perry? Aside from the lake and postcard architecture, it's all in the people - people like, for instance, Bill Lishman and Dr. Paul Puckrin. Come now, friend. I don't have a thing for men with beards, though Dr. Puckrin's is magnificent. I just admire bred-in-the-bone individu- als who tread their own path but use Shelr tlents to . contribute to the community. 'There are just so many funny little r reasons 1 adore 3 Port, like those great sermon-chats by Rev. "just call me Bob" Lepage at Port Perry United; seeing Jeff Reid . stocking his own grocery shelves; and the sound of Foster Hanson's bagpipes wafting down the waterfront. You don't suppose his wife makes him go outside to practice now, do you? And have you ever noticed the inepreséible cheer- fulness of Eleanor Buckler at Lakeview Dry Cleaners and Sheila Williamson at the Greenbank bakery? | think those ladies put something in their tea. But they can make me smile on the dreariest day. Goodness, I've been doing all the talking! Now I have to run and pick up my wee daughters. Good talking to you friend. See you again soon for another chat over the fence. P (Ty al ar , long before 'we met. He used to come up here to int Lg on Lake ~ Scugog with his friend, Norm Phillips. Norm's a good * guy. He runs Northwood Exotic Animal Ranch up in The Council Table By Chris Hall the next one for us. yesterday. Back to work soon Like eager young children who circle the return of school in September, we too here in the newspaper business have our own dates, the 27th of August being That's the day members of Scugog Township council officially return to work, with their first regularly scheduled meeting set for two weeks from It's not fair to suggest that local councillors haven't taken care of any municipal work since their last formal meeting on June 25, however their return to the council table is an event which is celebrated here in the media. As expected, the news usually slows to a crawling pace in the summer, and while each week there's enough copy to throw together a worthwhile product for you to read, we do look forward to the return of council and some consistent, local news. Once again we're not saying there hasn't been any news come out of your local municipal government. They're still working hard, in most cases. Local coun- cillors met for a special summer meeting just last Wednesday, and the evening prior to that the township hosted a public meeting on the Test Hill area. A few weeks prior 10 that a meeting was held in council chambers concerning the creek which flows under- neath most of Port Perry. So, yes, council has been up to a few things, however there are a number of people also eagerly awaiting the local politician's return to work later this month. Those looking to have rezoning applications heard or even to voice their opinions and disapprovals also have Aug. 27 circled, which leads us to suggest that perhaps council look at meeting every third week or so during the summer months. It's not much really; a couple of hours every so often to do a little bit of housework, if you will. It would serve to keep councillors more in touch with their community, and allow area residents and others a chance to have their say before local politicians. Beating the heat It's a relief to hear from animal control officers here in Scugog Township that the number of com- plaints filed here concerning pets left to bake in the hot sun has been uncharacteristically low this year. For some reason this year, those people who seem determined to take their dog(s) with them everywhere have exercised a little common sense by leaving them home during last week's horrible heat wave. At least that's what animal control officials are saying anyway. Somewhere out there, someone has been guilty of leaving their dog in the car during a quick trip into the grocery store, there's no doubt about that, but at least it's heartening that the number of complaints filed with animal control have dropped this year. According to officials, the number of calls received from concerned members of the public regarding pets both left in steamy cars and in the backyard with little or no shade has fallen to two during the summer of 2001. That's good news, considering that animal control officers had to deal with more than a dozen calls last year. During this time of budget cuts and downsizing, staff at the Uxbridge-Scugog Animal Control shelter are busy enough dealing with the normal day-to-day requirements of their jobs and shouldn't have to be going out to rescue animals carelessly left out in the heat by their owners. ii I _.,I"hY