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:r bowmanville library 62 Temperance St. 1 -1.04 Bowmanville, Ont. L1C 3A8 Volume 67, Number 2 $100 GST Included Wednesday January 15, 2003 Serving Kendal, Kirby, Leskard, Newcastle, Newtonville, Orono, Starkville and Tyrone since 1937 Firefighters grounded at station >1 Archie and Cayanne, English Setters bred by Tim Tufts (R) of Kendal Hills Kennels, are to become residents of Helsinki Finland, when their new owner, Lars Ahlstrom flies them home later this week. V.Vf'.rt&tttïXXnXSki tJWWSllHRteïS SS*» HirtîïJRWÎ*;:; - ; £ .!«*:; "Citizens of Clarington in good hands," says Mayor By Anita DeVries Orono firefighters were unable to respond to an emergency emergency call last week because none of the three part-time firefighters available were licensed to drive the fire truck. Shortly after 2 p.m. last Wednesday, January the 8th, the driver of a car southbound on Highway 115 pulled over when the smell of gas seeped into his vehicle. The driver and passenger were able to exit the vehicle before it burst into flames. According to an OPP spokesperson, police received the emergency call at 2:10 p.m. Clarington Fire Chief Mike Creighton says their dispatcher dispatcher received the call at 2:18 p.m. Bowmanville fire fighters who attended the call arrived on; the- scene at 2:33 p.m. January 7, the day before, a number of Orono firemen responding to a call waited at the fire hall for ten minutes till a driver showed up. That emergency call came in at 4:11 p.m. for a motor vehicle collision collision on Taunton Road, just around the corner from the Fire Hall. Firefighters arrived on the scene at 4:25. The standard standard for rural response time is seven to ten minutes. No one was injured in this incident. As of January 1, 2003, the firefighters union began enforcing what has been dubbed the 'two-hatter' rule which means a full-time firefighter firefighter may not volunteer to work part-time for a fire department elsewhere. Fulltime Fulltime firefighters often work part-time in the communities where they live offering valuable valuable leadership and experience to the part-time force. This rule is part of the International Association of Fire Fighters (1AFF) constitution constitution and has been for decades. Over the past seven or eight years the Ontario Professional Fire Fighter's Association (OPFFA) has been trying to educate local chapters of the union on the health and safety dangers of being a part-time fireman. When a local chapter agrees with the stand they try to force the part-timers to quit. This year Clarington got on board to deal with the 'two hatters'. The municipalities, unwilling unwilling to lose their part-time firemen firemen tried to stop the unions from bejng able to force their members to retire from their part-time jobs. That is why Bill 30 was introduced at Queen's Park. Fire Chiefs had hoped that Bill 30, a Private Members Bill put forth by MPP Ted Amotf, which would have permitted fulltime fulltime firefighters to stay on as part-timers, would pass so that municipalities could keep their experienced part-timers, however however the Bill was defeated on December 11, 2002. Some part-time firefighters, firefighters, most of whom wish to remain unnamed, have decided decided to risk losing their jobs to help their communities. Tim Lee of Little Britain, is one of them. He works as a full-time firefighter in Whitby and part- time in Kawartha Lakes, "This system has worked for 150 years," said Lee in a phone Continued page 4 The citizens of Clarington are in good hands for this final year of the council term, said Mayor John Mutton in his annual State of Clarington address which he gave at Monday night's council meeting. meeting. The Clarington-wide recreation recreation wave will continue through this year with the completion of the new Courtice twin-pad arena, the design and public consultation for construction next year of the South Bowmanville Baseball Park, the purchase of the land for the Rude 11 Road community park in Newcastle, 1 and the development of the Robinson Ridge Neighbourhood Park in Courtice which will be a park from the Clarington Wonderland Parks program. Mayor Mutton also said he was absolutely committed to the continuation of transportation transportation and transit improvements across the municipality. The Clarington transit system, which consists of two busses will see enhancements. "We will be reviewing possible expansion of periodic transit stops at Wilmot Creek Retirement community and Orono," stated the Mayor. "I am also committing to immediately immediately starting talks to GO Transit at the staff and political political level for the purchase of a future GO Station site in Bowmanville." The second phase of the downtown Bowmanville facade project will commence this year and "improvements to decorative street lighting in the downtown will aslo be much appreciated," he stated. Last year Clarington came in with the lowest tax increase in Durham Region, said the Mayor. "This year we will again lead the way in fiscal Continued page 3 Firefighters extinguish a car fire on Highway 115 just south of the Armstrong IGA property on Wednesday afternoon. «