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

2 - Orono Weekly Times 1937 - 2012 · Celebrating 75 Years Subscriptions $42.86 + $2.14 GST = $45.00 per year. No Refunds. Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund for our publishing activities." Wednesday, June 6, 2012 ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON L0B 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Production and Display Advertising - Roxanne Johnston Classified/Sports The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. It takes volunteers to make a community Of the four wards that make up the Municipality of Clarington, there is no question that Ward One ­ Courtice is by far the most populated and the most fragmented. Geographically the ward is mainly rural with a few hamlets to the north, an ever expanding urban area at the south west corner abutting the city of Oshawa and the industrial area between the 401 corridor and the lake. Families have moved out to Courtice over the years because of the affordable housing, its proximity to the 401 and major centres to the west where they work. While Courtice has amenities, it still lacks a downtown core or any focal point associated with a community centre or hub, which further adds to the community's fragmentation. There is no legacy of the community getting involved and throwing their support behind projects, yet a fledgling group of Courtice Rotarians put on an amazing fireworks display for the Municipality at the Garnet B. Rickard Centre in Bowmanville every Canada Day. This weekend, another group of dedicated volunteers from Clarington's Heritage Committee will be offering tours of some historical treasures in Courtice. The third annual Doors Open Clarington to be held this Saturday will be centered in Courtice and will feature some old and not so old buildings. The Eldad and Enfield United Churches, the Old Solina Schoolhouse were all built over a century ago and will offer glimpses into the past as will some of the century homes on the tour, and the abandoned home which was the homestead of Benjamin Lett in 1833. Lett's illustrious past includes a reputation as a fearless vengeful patriot which grew to romantic proportions during the Patriot incursions along the Upper Canada border at Niagara in 1838. In his rampage against the British establishment Lett was believed to have blown up the Brock monument in the town of Queenston in 1840 though it was never proven. The Doors Open tour also includes a former Courtice film studio which in the 1960`s and 1970s produced films in Ukrainian, Urdu as well as English is on this weekend's tour, as is the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station which will be offering behind-the-scene bus tours of their facility in Courtice which has been providing approximately 20 percent of the province`s electricity needs since it opened in 1993. As with Rome, which wasn't built in a day, the community of Courtice wasn't built in a decade or two. Community building can sometimes take a long, long time, but it has to start from within and that is done through volunteers rallying around a common goal. In the past few weeks a community has developed in south Courtice around an effort to stop a high density residential development in the Prestonvale/Bloor Street area. Over 20 residents from that area, mostly young adults, took the time off work to attend last Monday morning's public meeting to voice their concern with the planned new development included a number of three storey high apartment buildings, townhouses and single family dwellings. These people and many of their neighbours have formed a coalition to try and stop the intensification of their neighbourhood. It is interesting how the perceived devaluation of their property values through the introduction of lower income housing to the area has mobilized these people where the construction of a garbage incinerator in fairly close proximity to their homes could not. Who knows where this group will go with their newfound sense of community. Hopefully they will evolve into a group with a vision towards community building as it is the efforts of these groups that make a community what it is. The old churches on the Doors Open Tour and the Solina Community Hall, also on this weekend's Doors Open tour, have not only survived but thrived because of the dedication of the people who volunteer their time and talents to keep these places open. These shared community spaces provide a valuable resource and are the building blocks on which community is developed. From The House At The Centre Of The Universe by: Tracy Tonkinson This week I received something startling from my insurance company; an email that read: If the threat of flood is imminent: 1. Follow directions from your local authorities and monitor the situation in your area. 2. Prepare emergency supply kits for your home and car. 3. Store important papers in watertight containers and have a record of your valuables in a safe place. Move high- value items and property to higher areas of your home. 4. Avoid banks of rivers and streams, which may become unstable and dangerous, as well as washed-out roadways. 5. Check on elderly or disabled neighbours to ensure they are aware of the situation and make arrangements for your pets and any livestock. At first blush it seemed to me like overkill, but with a tornado touching down on Concession Road 6 on May 23, and power lines down in Newcastle last Friday, you would be forgiven for thinking that we are not in Clarington anymore. There were no witches crushed under houses or flying monkeys spotted over Orono, but in recent weeks we've had some surprising weather after the brilliant start we had to the No place like home year. Now suddenly Mother Nature has decided to throw a fit. We may not have been blown to Kansas by the tornado that touched down, but the fact that it touched down here at all means that weather patterns are changing, and with it the potential for disaster. All around the world, as close as the Toronto subway system and as far away as Australia there are floods. In England, during the 1990s, while their economy was still booming, the call for everyone to own their own home was a siren song to the populous from every developer in the land. Local authorities charged with water management, from the drinking water to the water that flowed picturesquely through the towns and villages of the country, let themselves be persuaded to relax their grip on the rules. The result was that new homes sprouted up like mushrooms in areas that for centuries had been left undeveloped because everyone knew that it was flood plain. Consequently, every year thousands of homes become awash in filthy river water, sewer systems collapse, unable to cope with the added stress of new development and insurance claims increase everyone's premium regardless of whether they claim or not. This problem is not limited to the U.K. In spite of having the best flood protection in Europe, the Netherlands still finds the need to work harder at protecting a population that effectively lives below sea level. And Venice, as we all know, is inexorably losing the battle to stem its rising tide. In Canada we have some of the best water management in the world, but still see the breakdown of old sewer systems impacted by development and flooding in places that had planned for flood, like Peterborough. The foresight of the City of Peterborough produced a 2005 Flood Reduction Master Plan but still could not prevent flooding in 2008 causing damage and distress to its citizens. The political soothsayers claim that within 50 years water will be the new oil; so rare that it will be expensively traded, jealously guarded and perhaps even fought for. True or not, in the meantime we will all no doubt give water scant attention, until there is either too much in our backyard or none at all. If our home is our castle and weather patterns are going to produce extremes of either heat or rainfall, a plan to protect it is something we should all take a closer look at. As Dorothy so sharply observed, when the whirlwind turned her life upside down, there is no place like home.