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^ Orono Weekly Times. Wednesday. .January 12. 2000 - 7 911 system down for 5 hours Monday A malfunction in Bell Canada's Oshawa switching station caused the 9-1-1 emergency emergency system , in the entire Durham Region to fail Monday. During the failure it was learned that people who dialed 9-1-1 were then unable to use their telephone, as the 9-1-1 system had locked up their telephone telephone line. By 11:50 a.m. Bell Canada had rerouted all primary 9-1-1 lines in Durham Region to the seven digit emergency lines, thus permitting Durham residents residents access to 9-1-1, albeit without the advantage of the caller's identification being made available to the 9-1-1 Centre. At 2:45 p.m. the system returned to normal. Arthur Black TOODLEOO, TUVALU Sometimes it's odd, living on an island. You forget that your options are circumscribed by a moat. That you can't drive to Winnipeg or Kamloops or Yellowknife. Not without getting getting your feet wet. My island isn't THAT extreme. There's a regular (well, pretty regular) ferry service. service. There's a bush plane on floats that 1 can catch at least once a day. And in a pinch I can always try sweet-talking a shrimper or a crabber into giving me a lift. The island that I chose nestles nestles in the Strait of Georgia, just a few miles from Vancouver, Victoria and the US border. I played it safe. Other people look for islands as far away from the rest of terra firma as they can get. Gaughin chose Tahiti. The mutineers from The Btiunty opted for a gaggle of godforsaken rocks that would become Pitcairn Island. Many of our predecessors decided Newfoundland looked like a good place to be. Others fetched up on Prince Edward and Vancouver Islands. Could have done a lot worse. They could have chosen Tuvalu. Tropical paradise, Tuvalu. An archipelago of coral atolls that sits in the Western Pacific, just to the northwest of Fiji. Tuvalu is home"to 10,000 souls who live an Edenic life on a diet of fish, home grown veggies and tropical fruit. Tuvaluans are utterly unruffled by the pollution, pollution, the wars, the overcrowding overcrowding and all the other turn of the Millennium crapola that you and I deal with as a matter of course. Only one problem with the perfect paradise that is Tuvalu - it's disappearing. You see, you'd never get an altitude nosebleed on the atolls of Tuvalu. It sits, on average, a mere 91 centimetres above the Pacific Ocean. Ninety-one centimetres. About the height of a decent pair of hip waders. Experts expect the sea level to rise by anywhere from 50 to 100 centimetres centimetres over the next century. If the advance hype about global global warming and glacial melting is even close to accurate, Tuvalu is doomed. Already the sea is insinuating insinuating salty fingers into Tuvalu daily life. Formerly sweet and potable ground water has turned brackish, sour and toxic. The root crops on which the population population depends are beginning to die. Effectively, Tuvalu is drowning. drowning. And it seems there's not much anyone can do about it. The irony is we've been this way before - if an observer as DURHAM REGION New Hope Provincial Homelessness Initiative Fund This Inaugural Newsletter, called New Hope, Is provided to all Durham Region social service agencies who work with the homeless population. population. The purpose is to provide provide "work in progress updates" on the programs and Initiatives from the funding funding provided by the Province of Ontario. Durham Advisory Committee on Homelessness The Durham Advisory Committee on Homelessness was established December 18, 1998 to address the issues of homelessness in Durham Region. Larry O'Connor, Chair of the Health illustrious as Plato is to be believed. Twenty-four hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher wrote of a huge and fabulous city/state he called Atlantis. Plato said the people of Atlantis were so advanced as to be godlike. godlike. He swore the very walls of the city were plated in gold, silver silver and bronze. Atlantis, alas, vanished. Swallowed up by the sea, the legends say. Apparently that's how it is with many islands - they come and they go. I know somebody's going to write and say "Idiot - Plato didn't didn't describe Atlantis as an island - he said it was a continent. True. But what's a continent, if not an uncommonly large island. Atlantis. Tuvalu. Australia. North America. Next? newsletter Takes Place at Your Local Public School The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board's Junior and Senior Kindergarten programs offer excellent beginnings for your child's academic, social, emotional, and language development We are pleased and Registration for full-day, every-other-day junior and senior kindergarten is taking place at public elementary schools until January 28. Since registration times vary, please contact your local school for details. You may register your child if either of the following applies: •Junior kindergarten-child must be four years of age by December 31,2000 •Senior kindergarten-child must be five years of age by December 31,2000 Please bring a birth or baptisimal certificate or equivalent proof of age and current immunization information. Students who are already registered need not be registered again. If you are not sure which school your child should attend, please call us at (705) 742-9773 or toll-free at 1-877-741-4577, ext. 2123. R.(Dick)T. Malowney Director of Education Catharine Tozer Chair of the Board Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board & Social Services Committee, is the chair of this committee. committee. The purpose of the Advisory Committee is to have an open forum where community partners have an opportunity to discuss and develop programs and initiatives initiatives to help the homeless. Membership is open to interested interested groups, organizations, business representatives and consumers to advocate for the homeless in Durham. The Advisory Committee developed developed the proposal specifying the allocation of funds from the province. The proposal was brought forward and approved by the Health & Social Services Committee and Regional Council for implementation in June 1999. Funding Initiatives The PHIF initiatives involve four key areas: (1) assist those who are homeless, (2) assist those on the verge of becoming homeless, (3) enhance services to the homeless, and (4) co-ordinate service delivery. These Initiatives Initiatives include: a. Durham Rent Bank; b. Durham Community Trust Fund; c. Emergency Shelter Monies; and d. Community Service Coordinators Coordinators (2) At the June meeting of Regional council, adoption of ,the proposal to assist the homeless was approved. A motion was put forward and approved for the Region to allocate an additional $65,000.00 to enhance the current service delivery to the homeless. Homeless Support Centre For information on the PHIF or other issues related to the homeless, please contact: contact: David Borysiak (905) 721-6169 or Deborah Hilts, (905) 721-6170. FRENCH IMMERSION Parent Informatio i Meetings Parents: are you interested in enrolling your child in our French Immersion Senior Kindergarten program for the 2000-2001 school year? Please join us at one of the following information sessions. Parents are welcome to attend any meeting, but the session at the French Immersion school your child will attend will be the most helpful. If you're not sure which one to attend, please call the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board at (705) 742- 9773 or toll-free at 1-877-741-4577, ext. 2123. All of our schools are please and proud to serve all students. The information meetings will be héld: Monday, January 17,2000 7:30 p.m. Ridpath Junior PS 39 Ermatinger Street Lakefield, Ontario Tel: (705) 652-3811 Tuesday, January 18,2000 7:00 p.m. Westmount PS 1520 Sherwood Crescent Peterborough, Ontario Tel: (705) 742-7871 * Wednesday, January 19,2000 7:00 p.m. Courtice South PS : 1685 Bloor Street Courtice, Ontario ' Tel: (905) 436-2054 Edmison Heights PS 1111 Royal Drive Peterborough, Ontario Tel: (705) 745-0722 Thursday, January 20, 2000 7:00 p.m. Prince of Wales PS 1211 Monaghan Road South Peterborough, Ontario, Tel: (705) 743-8595 Tuesday, January 25,2000 7:00 p.m. C.R. Oummow PS . 287 Gravely Street * Cobourg, Ontario Tel: (905) 372-9752 Wednesday, January 26,2000 7:00 p.m. Ontario Street PS 116 Ontario Street Bowmanville, Ontario : Tel: (905) 623-5437 Catharine Tozer Chair of the Board R.(Diek)T. Malowney Director of Education Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board