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| | Catch up on your reading Now's the time to catch up on your reading! Multiple Sclerosis Society representative Wendy Fairty (centre) was at R.H. Cornish Public School last week to talk about the upcoming MS Mystery Sleuth Read-a-thon. Above, she goes over some printed clues with Grade 8 students Jodi Carnochan (left) and Dawn Park. See story on page 2 for details. Province may buy Regional building Durham Region chairman Gary Herr- ema says the Region and the Provincial government are "quite close' to an agreement for the province to pur- chase the Regional headquarters building on Rossland Road in Whitby. Mr. Herrema made the comments at the start of the January 18th regular meeting of Regional council. While he didn't mention any figure, the sum of $5 million has been cited as the amount Durham wants for the building. Mr. Herrema and pro- vincial Government Services Minister George Ashe have had discussions recently on the possible purchase. Mr. Ashe is quoted as saying that the provin- cial government is will- ing to buy the building. It now leases about 80 per cent of the space in the building for such things as courts and the assessment offices. If Durham and the provincial government can reach an agreement on the price and the building is sold, it could open the way for a new Regional Headquarters on land just to the south of the Rossland site. And that would bring the Region's many departments under one roof. " At present, the Region's finance, works, planning and social services depart- ments are located in leased offices in Oshawa and Whitby. The need to bring all the departments (with the possible exception of social services) under one roof has been kicked about on more than one occasion by Regional council in the past frew years. The major stum- bling block has been money as the provincial government in the past has been luke-warm to the idea of buying the present building. With negotiations now moving along between Durham and the Pro- vince, the issue could become a political hot potato as last week at the council meeting, Oshawa councillor Bruce McArthur de- manded that Regional council "be informed before the building is sold out from under- neath us." "There are too many unanswered questions, and one of them is do we (council) want to sell this building in the first place," said councillor McArthur. Durham OK $750,000 for Vol. 118 No. 8 It has taken four years, but it's finally happened. Yesterday (Monday) Scugog Council gave its approval in principle for Handi Transit Incorpor- ated to begin serving the physically handicapped people in this Township. Community Care co- ordinator Liz Fulford made the presentation to council, with the backing of more than 20 representatives of various social agencies throughout Durham Region. "Somebody said to me, what are you fight- ing for today?" she quipped, and then add- ed, "but I'm not here to fight. We've all come to you for a need we have identified." The need is felt by the many handicapped people in this area who find transportation diff- icult or impossible to come by. Although Community Care has traditionally supplied rides to many residents, it cannot handle, for example, severely handicapped people in wheelchairs. Many of the volunteers who work for Community Care are senior citizens who could hurt themselves by lifting another per- son. "There are 150 people currently served Tuesday, January 24, 1984 'Handi Transit gets approval through Community Care but it's the people we miss, that are falling through the cracks "somehow," Mrs. Ful- ford explained. "Over the years we've come to "know the people we can not serve." Getting to the post office, stores, banks, the library and the hospital is often out of the question for some handi- capped people in the area. According to Mrs. Fulford's statistics, 185 people in Scugog and Uxbridge Townships alone would be served by the proposal put to Scugog Council. The same proposal will be (Turn to page 8) 32 pages computers By a very slim margin, Durham Region council voted last week to allow Regional staff to pro- ceed with the purchase of a new computer system at a cost of about $750,000. Actually, Regional - council had approved' the acquisition of hard- ware and software from Digital Canada and Adnet Information Systems last December 21. But Ajax Mayor Bill McLean expressed strong reservations about the purchase at that time and he intro- duced a motion at the January 18 meeting of council calling for a re- consideration of the earlier decision to buy the equipment. McLean, who has extensive knowledge of computers and is on a leave of absence from IBM, was harshly crit- ical of a consultants report to the Region (Turn to page 3) Group to make a bid for plowing match The Durham, Rama and Mara Plowman's Association will be mak- ing application to bring an International Plowing Match to this area. Last Wednesday, Regional council backed the application which will be presented to the Ontario Plowman"s Association annual con- vention next month. Stewart Diceman of Port Perry, who is a director of the OPA from this area said after the meeting last week that if the application is approv- ed, it likely will be eight years before the com- petition comes here. In its bid to bring the matches here in 1992, the local Plowman"s Association has three possible sites in mind -- the Degeer property near Mount Albert; the - Bob Jibb farm on Highway 12 just south of Sunderland and the Pearce farm on Highway 12, north of Sunderland. To stage an interna- tional plowing match, Mr. Diceman said an area of more than 1000 acres is needed as the event will attract thousands of spectators and competitors. Hydro, telephone, temporary (Turn to page 3) For Meritorious Service Mr. and Mrs. Walter Wright were presented with the prestigious Agriculture Service Diploma at the Blackstock Agriculture Socie- ty annual meeting last Friday night. The award is for 'meritorious service to agriculture," and it is just the second time it has been presented to a member of the Blackstock Agriculture Society. Mr. and Mrs. Wright have had a long and close association with the Blackstock Fair, and this award recognizes their contributions. (For more on the annual meeting, see stories and photos on the Blackstock page in this week's Star) lt ls NG OG 8 GPG 5 TS a