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RONO Weekly Times Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 GST = $32.00 per year. Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. " Orono Weekly Times 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 Email: oronotimes@speedline.ca • Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart 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 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. union smohes out volunteer firefighters When most of us go to bed at night we do so fully expecting not to have to get up in the middle of the night to respond to an emergency. Yet there are 25 individuals, living in this community community (and individuals like them in numerous other communities) who voluntarily respond to ! their beepers, day or night, to drive to the fire station station to deal with whatever emergency situation generated generated the call. Often, full-time firefighters will volunteer at the stations in the communities where they live. These firefighters bring to their local communities the full benefit of their experience and training. That was till their union cracked down on the practice, and began pressuring these full-timers to quit volunteering volunteering to work part-time elsewhere. "Volunteer" fire departments really a misnomer because the part-time firefighters -- including the "two-hatters" -- who respond to calls in Clarington are paid close to $20 an hour. One has to wonder what the real reason is behind the union's attempt to end this practice? The public safety issue doesn't quite wash. The deal with the volunteer firefighters is that their response is voluntary. While they have a responsibility responsibility first to their full time position, and secondly to their part time position, the firefighters themselves themselves have to judge whether they are capable of responding to a late night beep and still be in good shape for work the next day. Since a part time firefighter is not mandated to respond to their beeper, is the union saying their members are not capable of judging when they should be available for their part time jobs and when they are not? Ideally, every fire station would have a full-time complement. However, the cost of fully staffing small urban and rural stations is cost-prohibitive for many municipalities. Clarington currently pays $1,000,750 in wages to staff its two full-time stations stations -- Bowmanville and Courtice. The part-time staff at the remaining three stations, plus the volunteer volunteer contingent at the two full time stations, cost the municipality just under $400,000 annually. Is the union so worried that firefighters who work cheaper part-time for the same department or other fire departments, weaken the ability of its members to make money working overtime or on fire call-backs? When experienced firefighters are prevented from responding to fires in their own communities by their union, you have to wonder whose best interest the union is serving? Letters to the Editor Flaw in provincial funding formula To the editor, Two weeks ago you published published an article on the consultants' consultants' report to the Kawartha Pineridge School Board. This inflammatory document held several points that upset me, but what struck me most was the obvious flaw in the provincial funding formula, formula, which was pointed out. It has always boggled my mind how a community could build a brand new school and then fill the backfield with portables even before the school opened. Now it makes perfect sense though, because the provincial government demands that all schools be "over-capacity" in order to receive extra funding. So our children (our future) are stuck in unhealthy, improperly heated, heated, tin shacks placed neatly by a twenty two million dollars school. Yes, I've heard the argument about the "cellulose-free" "cellulose-free" portables, but the kids still need to put on a parka to go the bathroom. That whole train of thought is flawed, and unhealthy. The provincial government must know that the billions of dollars being used to close schools and build schools in areas that already have adequate adequate coverage is the largest waste I've ever heard of. Both Orono, the Pines, and Kirby have lots of available land. To the Editor, Re: Business section - Toronto Star (11 Oct. 02) Arthur Anderson... paid a half million dollar fine for its direct involvement in the many billion dollar collapse of the Enron Corp. Thousands of people lost their jobs ...lost their pensions ...lost their future ...lost their dreams. Thousands of people who invested in this "rock solid blue chipper" were Expand the schools, keep the almost new playgrounds, and close portables. One last thought. Call your MPP and tell him this money- wasting policy is nonsense and it's making our kids sick. Yours truly, Shane Hartwell Kendal financially destroyed. Enron investment funds, Enron creditors, creditors, Enron bank loans are now a fraction of their original original value. This 90-year-old "trusted" Chicago accounting firm was sentenced to five years probation probation for obstructing justice and "since this is a corporate conviction... conviction... no one will serve jail time." The corporation was at fault, not the people that ran the corporation--innocent Continued ptgt 3 Kangaroo injustice