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BOWMANVILLE LIBRARY 163 Church Street 1.1.05 Bowmanville, Ont. L1C 1P7 $1.00 GST Included Wednesday November 17, 2004 '" l il 1 |li!ll|«J!til2,i i !llijroiuLj.«ii-' 'litÙ" 'miiiii.hiiiii Orono Town Hall Serving ^ai Kirby, Leskard, Newcastle. Newtonviile, Orono, Starkvilie and Tyrone since 1937 New rules for Clarington cabbies Clarington cabbies will soon have to operate under new rules. The municipality is in the midst of reviewing their taxi by-law. Under the new bylaw, bylaw, taxi companies will have to pay more for ~ their annual license fee. The current fee structure (which was initiated initiated in 1996) charged $25 per year to vehicle owners, $20 per year for the broker broker or business _ owner and $20 for 2 years to cab drivers. This fee structure according to the municipal clerk, did not reflect the true administration costs of the licensing by-law. Under the new structure, vehicle vehicle owners will pay $44 per year, broker/business owners will pay $316 per year and divers will pay $105.25 a year for the license to operate a cab. There will also be a cap on the number of taxi cabs "...either they must provide 24- hour service and say so, or make it an option" --Councillor Jim Schell their vehicles," he said. "There are other companies that don't even answer their phone during the week." stated stated Fernandez, who claims he runs his business with seven cars, provides around-the- clock service all long, week through the slow week days . as well as the busy weekend evenings. There are companies in Clarington who only operate operate Friday and Saturday nights during the busy times. This item was referred back to the Clerk's Depart- Concession in Orono. Propane blast still under investigation Thp fin. which occurred last approximately 7:45 p.m„ ^imously Tuesday evening, November 9, at the Caledon Propane Storage facility at 40 Port Darlington Road, Bowmanville, is still under investigation. Damage from the fire is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of $1.5 to $2.5 million dollars. Residents in a one mile radius were evacuated from their homes overnight. Hydro to the area was cut. Both the 401 and the CN railway line were shut down for several hours. The tire which began at caused numerous propane tanks stored on the property to explode. As of 9:24 p.m. there were no further explosions, however two small fires were still burning. Fifty firefighters were on scene at the height of the blaze, and crews worked through the night keeping the 35,000 lb tank cool, to prevent it from exploding. Orono firefighters staffed the Bowmanville station while the Bowmanville crew attended the blaze. Clarinuton councillors lution Monday directing the Municipal Planning Services to prepare an amendment to the zoning by-law pertaining to bulk storage tanks. The amendment amendment would remove bulk storage storage of fuel as a permitted use in the M2 - general industrial zone. Any future applications seeking the establishment ot a propane distribution centre would have to make a site specific specific rezoning application, which would be subject to municipal scrutiny. allowed to operate in the municipality, where currently there is none. The proposed by-law sets a cap of one taxi for every 3,500 people in the municipality. With the current population, 25 cab licenses will be issued, up from the current 22.. There will be no limit to the number of driver's licenses issued. The new by-law does state that the Clerk shall be satisfied satisfied that any taxi cab broker is able to provide 24 hour taxicab taxicab service for each day of the year, prior to being issued a license. This was a real sticking point for Joe Fernandez of Bowmanville Taxi, who spoke on the matter before Clarington councillors, Monday morning. "We have taxi eabs in the the area that only have one car," according to Fernandez. "They can not provide 24- hour service and still maintain ment for further clarification. According to Councillor Jim Schell, the wording in the proposed by-law was somewhat somewhat ambiguous. "It should be, either they must provide 24 hour service and say so, or make it an option," he said at Monday's General Purpose and Administration Committee Committee meeting. Since most cab rides are in the day time, a 24- hour service is hard to maintain, maintain, Schell said. A new taxi tariff schedule all cabs will charging $2.80 for the first one tenth of CABBIES seepages