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4 Volume 124 Number 22 Copy 50¢ 68 Pages Blackstock asks support for new arena proposal Members of Scugog Town- ship council reacted cautiously Monday evening when present- ed with a proposal for a new regulation-size ice arena to be builtin Blackstock. : The proposal was made by Ann Ingram and solidly backed by leaders of several communi- ty groups in Ward 4, including the Figure Skating Club, Minor Hockey and the Blackstock Curling Club. And over 100 people, most of them Ward 4 residents, crowded their way into the council chambers in a further show of support for the propo- sal. "We are looking for support in principle for a new arena," Mrs. Ingram told members of council. She went on to say that if the proposal gets off the ground, the cost will be covered by fund- raising in the community and provincial grants. And while she asked that Township dollars might be needed for "bridge financing" Three gun shots fired into Region department A gunman shot three bul- lets into the regional works department office in Whit- by. "The occurrance happened sometime between 9 p.m. Tuesday night and 7 a.m. Wednesday morning when the office was empty. Regional chairman Gary Herrema announced the in- cident to councillors and re- porters at the beginning of ast Wednesday's regional council meeting. "The works department got shot up," he told people in the council chambers. "There's an indication we have a serious problem in Durham Region." The bullets penetrated an employees entrance door, the main door and a win- dow. The weapon used is be- lieved to be higher in calibre than a .22rifle. Damage is estimated at $1,000. the project, that money would be re-paid over a period of time. The push to get plans off the ground for a new arena pro- posal stems from the fact the current Blackstock Arena is due for an engineering inspec- tion in May. Although the current build- ing was declared structurally sound under two years ago, resi- dents of the Ward 4 are con- cerned that if the up-coming re- port finds serious problems with the building that require a lot of money to fix, the commu- nity could be without an arena next winter. Community groups which threw their support behind the project Monday evening includ- ed Dale Van Camp, president of the Curling Club, Heather Par- - son, past president of the Fig- ure Skating Club, Glen Ingram on behalf of Blackstock Minor Hockey, Sheila Burnett on be- half of the Nursery School, and Bill Ingram, representing the Blackstock and District Lions and Lioness Clubs. "It's important to keep Blackstock Arena going or peo- ple will be forced to go else- where (for hockey, skating etc.,) and that would be a shame for the people of the (Ward 4) area." We hope the inspection (this May) is favourable for this year, that at least will give us more time to plan for a new building," said Mrs. Parsons. While members of council indicated they were pleased to (Turn to page 13) pis Sand Jesus with the Children The Scugog Choral Society is performing the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar at Town Hall 1873. Pictured above is Walter Bone as Jesus Christ, with the children (Emily Brown and David DeJong) on Palm Sunday. The musical continues this week. See story and more photos on page 12. : Defends unpopular GST Federal finance minister Michael Wilson says farmers across the country will save about $240 million each year af- ter the Goods and Services Tax (GST) becomes law next Janu- ary 1. Speaking to a group of about 100 area farmers last Fri- day morning in the showroom of the Utica Farm Equipment dealership, Mr. Wilson ex- plained that some 40 "big tick- et" farm items will be exempt from the seven per cent tax. That, coupled with the fact the current Federal Sales Tax (FST) will be dropped, is the reason for this saving to the na- tion's farming industry, he said. Although the final list of ex- empted farm items has not yet been worked out, he suggested it will include such machinery as tractors and combines and likely will extend to bulk pur- chases of seed, feed and fertiliz- ers. And he said farmers will be able to apply for direct GST re- bates on purchases of things like a half-ton truck. . Mr. Wilson, accompanied by Durham MP Ross Stevenson and Ontario MP Rene Soetens, spent the better part of Friday morning in Scugog, speaking first to a group of Socal modis reps at the Manchester Hall, then moving on to Utica, where he fielded questions from the farmers in the audience. Later that day, he jour- neyed south to speak to high school students in Oshawa, then addressed a luncheon hosted by the Oshawa Chamber of Comtnerce. While he spend a lot of time defending the GST which is un- popular in most areas of the country, Mr. Wilson constantly kept coming back to the need to bring down the inflation rate and get the federal deficit under control. When questioned about in- terest rates (which hit an eight year high last Thursday) he re- plied "nobody likes high rates, Wilson speaks to Scugog area farmers but we like high inflation even less." He referred several times to the warning signs in the mid 1970's when inflation was run- ning at five or six per cent. "People thought they could live with that, but then it (infla- tion) took off and got out of con- trol." The result, he said was the recession of 1981-82, and "eve- Hone in this room bears some of the scars from that," he told the farmers. As for initiatives by the fed- eral government to get its spending under control, he said the civil service has been cut by (Turn to page 5) de 3) oS la lh nn B® ® of ov ey i I