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

nd TIPE Pa dnad Pout SPS SA hi The man convicted two " weeks ago of attempting to abduct a young Port Perry girl was sentenced October 14th to a two year penitent- iary term, In passing sentence. on John A, Thorpe, 48, of Alberta, county court Judge Donald Lawson said he had to take into account the man's long criminal record, dating back to 1947 and including such conviction as rape, abduction of a female under 14, armed robbery and assault causing bodily harm, Thorpe, a drifter and itinerent carnival worker "was arrested by Durham Region Police August 10 in Port Perry. At his trial two weeks ago, court was told Thorpe twice offered the young girl money to go with him in his car to Scugog Island. She refused to get in the car, but did agree to shew him to the liquor store and library, and then had a hamburger in a Queen Street For attempted abduction an gets two years in jail restaurant. . It was at Emiel's Place 'Restaurant, where owner Kathy Kroonenberg became suspicious and questioned the young girl and the man. In passing sentence on Thorpe last week, Judge Lawson commended the initiative of Mrs. Kroonen- berg who refused to let the young girl leave the restaurant with Thorpe. She - drove the youngster home and her parents notified police who made the arrest a short while later. During his trial, Thorpe declined to testify on his own behalf, and when asked by the judge whether he had anything to say before sentence was passed, he replied "no." The maximum penalty for conviction of attempted abduction is 2 and one half years. Thorpe had pleaded not guilty to the charge. The court ordered a ban on publication of the identity of the youngster involved. Vol. 115 No. 47 36 Pages Wed nesday, October 21, 1981 ¥ Council turns down "raise by close vote members of . Durham Region chairman Gary Herrema will get a raise in pay this year, but councillors will have to continue to scrape by on "$13,890. By a vote of 15-13, Regional council turned: down a recommended pay increase of five per cent last week. However, council decided that Mr. Herrema should have a raise, and they approved a 12 per cent hike to his current salary $38,015. : i That increase works out to about $4,500 but it still leaves the Durham chairman as one of the lowest paid of all regional municipalities ., in Ontario. The same is not true for members of Durham, whose annual $13,890 salary is the highest in the province. "The council last week also rejected a recommended Driver escapes injury increase of $250 for the chair- 'man of standing committees who now receive an addit- ional $750 over and above their salaries for these duties. - The vote on the extra $250 for the committee chairman ~wound up in a tie, and it was "broken in the negative by Mr. Herrema. - His reasoning was that 'since only one of the committee chairmen had supported the pay increase, - "he had no other choice but to ..go along with their wishes -and turn it down. Scugog Mayor Jerry Taylor was attending a funeral October 14 when the salary debate and vote took place in the Regional council chambers on Rossland Road in Whitby. However, he told the Star after the meeting, he would not have voted for the increase in councillors' pay. when truck flips over A truck driver with Sipco Fuels of Port Perry escaped serious injury last Wednes- - day when his partially loaded fuel truck flipped over near Columbus, south of Port Perry. Gilbert Barrow of Bow- manville, driving a truck owned by Ron Davidson of - Port Perry, had to take to the side of the road to avoid a car that was stopped. : " The truck was carrying about 2000 litres of gasoline and the driver was on his" way to Toronto for a full load - when the accident occurred, After hitting the shoulder, the truck flipped over onto _its left side. The driver was not injured and there was a small amount of damage to the Firefighters were on' the scene just in case any fuel escaped and caught fire, but just a small amount leaked onto the road. The accident took place about 8:00 a.m. under foggy conditions, : Mayor Taylor has main- tained the position that any increase in pay for members of council should come at the local rather than at the Region level." . Scugog Township's :regional councillor 'Lawrence Malcolm was at .the meeting and he voted against the increases for councillors, the chairman and the committee chairmen. "I think the present rates are reasonable. The chaijr- man and members of council (Turn to page 2) An Apple ADay... It was Boy Scouts and Cubs apple day last Saturday in Port Perry and area and the streets of town were canvassed by the young lads. The Star photographer caught these two young cubs as they walked along the street. That's Craig 'Sweetman [left] and Alec Cran of crisp Macintosh apples. mer of the 1st Port Perry pack with their baskets - Rural hydro rates will drop Ontario's 530,000 rural hydro users will see their annual electricity bill drop an average of $60 next year. The réduction will be the result of the provincial Government's introduction of legislation -to drop rural rates to a level 15 per cent above urban rates. Energy Minister Robert | Welch told the Legislature that to lower electrical bills for rural customers, bulk rates for all customers will go up by 1 to 1.5 per cent or about an average of $6 a year for an urban customer's bill. The total cost of dropping the rate differential from the previous level of 28 per cent is $34 million. Mr. Welch said that cost will be borne by all "hydro customers. ; The Government's action followed a long campaign by' 'rural residents and opposi- tion MPPs to bring the rural rates more in line with urban rates. . Last year, the Government said it would reduce the differential between rural and urban hydro customers, and it gave a $20 million subsidy to Ontario Hydro to bring down the 1981 rural hydro rates. "That brought down the rates from, and I'm talking in round figures 30° per cent to 20 per cent. This takes it down to 15 per cent," Mr. Welch said. - "Each year more of the densely populated parts of rural Ontario are becoming part of our municipalities. Therefore, the rural cost burden is being shared by a decreasing number of people .in our more sparsely settled areas.' Mother fears for safety of kids near hunt area A Scugog Island mother of two is concerned about the controlled hunting area and wants changes made to keep hunters away from the 13th Concession Road. iT Mrs. Pat Gracie of Carne gie Beach told the Star last week her main concerns are the fact that children must walk along the concession road to catch the school bus, and the fact that the 450 acre controlled hunting area reaches right to the north edge of the road could be a safety threat. "I think there should be a no-hunting buffer zone along the road, and hunters should be out of the area before the school bus drops children at 4:00 in the afternoon," she said. 4 Mrs. Gracie said the con- taced the Ministry of Natural Resources, which operates 'the controlled hunt, and said she didn't get much sympathy. She has been in contact with the Durham Board of Education and will contact Durham-York MPP Ross Stevenson to let him know her concerns. - The MNR has operated the controlled hunt on the (Turn to page 2)