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When Bonnie Solomon heard Christine Jessop's body had been found within minutes of Port Perry, she instinctively felt she had to do something to protect her own children. The death of the Queensville youngster forced Mrs. Solomon to realize how vulnerable her kids are when it comes to dealing with strangers, and frighten- ed her enough to accept small towns aren't im- mune to violence. Vol. 119 No. 16 "It made me even more aware as a parent, of what we have to do," she said. Her newphew had been taking part in a program called Outreach, design- ed to inject little street smarts into children from kindergarten to grade four, and she'd heard nothing but glow- ing reports. So she looked into the program, decided it was a worthy project, and figured out a way to bring it to Port Perry. Tuesday, March 19, On March 5th, an in- troductory meeting was held at R.H. Cornish Public 8chool to describe the Outreach program to a group of 25 or so parents interested in street-proofing their kids. In the phone book, Outreach is described as a women's group but the Oshawa organization is equally devoted to preventing child abuse and has set up a two part program to help families protect themselves from 1985 Outreach program to street-proof kids ', acts of violence. In the first session (tentatively scheduled in Port Perry Thursday May 2nd), parents only meet in the evening to learn various street- proofing techniques. In the second session (May 4th), parents and their children get together to apply those techniques in a full day's worth of activity. The fee for the entire program is $20 per fami- ly, no matter how many (Turn to page 3) EJ A tractor, several appliances and eleven cattle were lost in a late afternoon fire, March 12th at the Delong farm on Highway 7A, just west of Blackstock. Three and three from. Port Perry were called in to fight the blaze, which caused an trucks from Caesarea, Scugog Township council wants to wait a year before making any decisions on the "first response' system bet- ween the fire department and the local ambulance service. Council has accepted a finance committee report that the existing fire department policy of responding to fires and accidents should be left in place and the "first response" system will be reviewed in a year after looking at the system at work in other municipalities. Basically, "first response" would allow trained firefighters to respond to a life threatening situation if the local ambulance ser- vice is busy when the call comes in. An Ambulance Service spokesperson in Oshawa and Pickering, Ajax and Whitby Fire depart- ments are part of the first response system now, and they will send personnel to the scene if the dispatch determines that the fire department can reach the scene in shorter time than an ambulance. The situations usually involve victims of heart attacks or choking, and it is essential that fire department personnel have all the proper first aid training, including CPR. The spokesperson said it is only under infre- quent circumstances where it is determined that firefighters can reach the scene quicker than an ambulance. One important factor the Township committee The MoJacks had a lot to lose Saturday night ---- mainly their pride, and they lost it in style when the Port Perry Old Cees beat them for the third year in a row. Adrenalin was running thick and fast before the game, however, and sponsor Ken Jackson was forc- ed to separate team captains Harold Fair and Scott Wallace. The final score for the Minor Hockey Association benefit game was 7-6. po aiid estimated $100,000 damage. The barn, which was engulif- ed in flames before help arrived at the scene, burnt to the ground, but firefighters were able fo save a neighbouring barn full of chickens. The cause has not yet been determined. Council to review first response considered is that the local fire departments . are manned by volunteers who must leave their homes or places of work to respond to an emergency. There may not be any time sav- ed in getting to the scene because of this. However, the commit- tee left the door open for a review of the issue next / year Property owners in Scugog Township will be paying an even smaller increase in Regional taxes this year, thanks to an additional allocation of grant funds from the provincial government. When the Durham Council set its 1985 budget on March 7, the net tax increase impact for Scugog Township was calculated at 3.3 per cent, or about $5.90 per average household. However, Durham was informed a couple of days later that the pro- vincial government is kicking in an additional $552,000 in grants this year, and just how to use that extra money touch- ed off an hour long debate at the Regional council meeting March 13. The council's finance committee recommend- ed that the full $552,000 be applied against the general levy which would have reduced the tax impact by 1.8 per cent. Scugog ratepayers, for example, would end up paying just 1.5 per cent more in their regional taxes. But in announcing the - grants, the provincial government made it clear that $319,000 of the total should be ear- Tax hike lowered marked for police ser- vices, and many coun- cillors argued that the Region should put this amount towards the police capital budget for a new computer system. After considerable debate, council decided by a slim margin to re- ject the recommendation of the finance commit- tee, and the money will go towards the computer system with some $233,000 being used to reduce the general levy requirement in 1985. But this course of ac- tion took a tie breaking vote by Regional chair- man Gary Herrema. Scugog's Regional councillor Lawrence Malcolm was one of the members who argued that the full $552,000 should be applied against the levy this year, rather than putting some towards the police capital budget. However, even with Just the $233,000 applied against the levy, the average impact across the Region will be reduc- ed from five per cent to 4.2 per cent, and proper- ty owners in Scugog are getting an even better deal where the net tax impact is now calculated at 2.5 per cent, or about $4.50 per household