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i il iQ BT . antit ~ 6 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, February 27, 1990 pint de Tie aR The, Rovt Levey Slay 235 QUEEN STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO PHONE 985-7383 FAX 985-3708 The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: InCanada $20.00 per year Elsewhere $60.00 per year. Single Copy 50¢ EDITORIAL Publisher - J. Peter Hvidsten ~~ Office Manager - Gayle Stapley Editor - John B. McClelland News/Features - Julia Ashton Billing Department - Louise Hope News/Features - Kelly Storry Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Linda Ruhl, Tracy O'Neil PRODUCTION Annabell Harrison Trudy Empringham Darlene Hlozan BUSINESS OFFICE Accounting - Judy Ashby ADVERTISING Advertising Co-ordinator - Valerie Ellis Advertising Sales Representative - Anna Gouldburn An AOIAN COMMUN Cw | A 4, ps» > 2683 £3305 by Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd. Port Perry, Ontario Editorial Comment RIGHT DIRECTION Glancing over the budget submitted to Township coun- cil's finance committee last week by the Scugog Arena Board, there are some surprises. First of all, the total. It's going to cost about $314,000 to operate the Arena this year. That's a fair chunk of change, not too far off $1,000 per day, every day of the year. Most people who attend a hockey or ringette game, or take their kids skating on Sunday afternoon, are probably not Bais of just how much it costs to operate this community fa- cility. The second surprise is that of the $314,000 projected budget, not all is covered by revenues. In fact, the tax-payers of Scugog Township will be asked this year to contribute $56,000 towards the cost. No doubt there are ratepayers who will say this is not right, especially those who may not use this facility in the course of a year. But this arena has been getting direct financial help from the tax-payers of Scugug since the day it opened 13 years ago, as are virtually all community owned arenas any- where in Canada. What is interesting, and we think a positive step in the right direction, about the Arena budget submitted last week, is that the requested increase in the tax-supported grant for this year is $3,000, or just slightly over five per cent. What the budget also does is put more of a financial onus on the users of that facility. The so-called "prime time" rental rate is going from $75 to $85 per hour, effective in September, assuming of course, Township council endorses the budget as presented last week. : That will impact the Scugog Mens Hockey League, Broomball, the Junior C hockey team, and private individuals who rent the ice on a casual basis for a game. The so-called "subsidized rate" is moving up $4 per hour, from $55 to $59 per hour. That's the fee charged for ice time to such groups as Minor Hockey, Figure Skating, and Ringette. There has always been a two-tiered rental rate, and the rationale is to have a lower rate for the youth programs, which in turn keeps registration fees down, which in turn encourages more young people to participate in hockey, ringette and figure skating. In this day and age of heavy tax burdens at all levels, we think it is encouraging to see the Arena Board inching slowly towards putting more of the financial burden on the di- rect users. Perhaps next year, the Board will not need to ask for any increase in the tax-supported grant. In saying that, we think it unrealistic that the day will ever come when the "users" will pay for the total operating costs. But the philosophy of "user pay" is one that this munici- pality and others must start working towards. In fact, we would venture to say the Arena Board could quite easily have hiked the rental rates by $20 and $8 per hour without too much negative impact on those who are using the - facility. Let's look at what the $10 per hour hike might mean to the Scugog Mens League. Eight teams use slighty over four hours of ice time each week. The increase is going to cost about $50 per week. Divide that by eight teams and the num- ber is $6.25 per team. Divide that by the 15 players per team and the increase is less than the price of a cup of coffee for each player each time he steps on the ice. Let's look at what the $4 per hour might mean to Minor Hockey, as an example. If two teams using an hour's ice have 25 players in total it will add 16 cents to the cost of hockey for those players each time on the ice. Surely, parents can hardly quibble with that. We know that hockey, figure skating and ringette are very expensive. In fact for some parents, the cost is just too (Turn to page 8) Jottings WHAT'S IN A NAME? Have you ever thought what the name "Township of Scugog" mearis to anyone not fa- miliar with our community? Not much | suspect! When I'm asked where | live, | usually reply Port Perry, but then have to explain that Port Perry is part of the municipality of the Township of Scugog, our governing body. Confusing? You bet! Just try to find Scu- gog Twp. on any road map of Ontario. It just ain't there friend. While we wrestle with trying to explain where Scugog Township is located, there is a much easier solution. For example, in our neigh- bouring Township of Uxbridge, residents of that community can simply say they live in Uxbridge. That's because both their Township and town have the same name. And you know what? You can actually find Uxbridge on a map, making it much easier for people to find the community. Naming a township after the major popula- tion centre not only makes a lot of sense, it would undoubtedly create far less confusion for the public. Another example of confusion is the Town of Newcastle, in which Bowmanville is the larg- est commercial and residential centre. Residents of Bowmanville are in the process of petitioning their council to have the town named after Bowmanville, the largest of the communities in their municipality. They say they want to see the name Bow- manville restored to common usage, and once again be displayed on public buildings like the Town Hall and Library. They're tired of being a non-entity. Another neighbouring town to the west, Stouffville, fought to have their community in- cluded in the new name when Regional Govern- ment was formed. Because of their insistence on retaining some identity, the Township is now known as Whitchurch-Stouffville. Although that may be a real mouthful, at least Stoufiville is recognized as being part of the community. This whole idea of Regional Government and the re-naming of century old communities has been a farce from day one. Another idea contrived in the mind of some well meaning poli- tician, then rammed down the throat of a very unsuspecting and reluctant public. Far too many communities have lost their identities through the formation of this third tier of government, and have been gobbled up by the larger communities. But as long as Region- alism is a reality, and there is no reason to sus- pect it won't be with us for a long time, most of the small towns and villages will have to live with the fact they are governed by a larger mu- nicipality, in our case Scugog Township. Maybe all the communities can't be recog- nized individually under the Regional system, but wouldn't it be nice to see Port Perry once again displayed on the outside of our public buildings, and have organizations named after the town. After all, it is the largest of the munici- palities in the township. If the Federal government doesn't see any necessity in using Peugog" in the name of Port Perry Post Office; the Rotary, Kinsmen and Li- ons Clubs (just to name a few) all identify them- selves as being Port Perry Clubs and Communi- ty Memorial Hospital retains its Port Perry identity, why bother with Scugog at all? The only "Scugogs" that exists in my mind are Lake Scugog and Scugog Island. Historical- ly, that's the way it has been for the past 150 years and that's the way it should remain. Scugog Memorial Library should be re- named Port Perry Memorial Library; Scugog Hy- dro (which only services Port Perry) should be Port Perry Hydro and most important of all, Scu- 90g Township should be renamed Port Perry ownship. Some may argue that the use of Port Perry Township as the official township name would be unfair to other communities within the town- ship, but they can have heart in knowing, that the same applies for the present name. It would be far easier to point someone in the direction of Port Perry than it is to Scugog Township. And for that reason alone reverting to Port Perry makes a lot of sense. A PS I |