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TIE r----------s a re TH. Vol. 126 PORT PERRY, ONTARIO - TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1992 Copy 65¢ ¢1¢+4¢GSD 40 Pages please see page 15. Members of the Port Perry Legion Branch 419 march along Queen Street with their Canadian flags during the annual Remembrance Day Parade held on Sunday morning. The parade made Its way through downtown Port Perry beginning at the library and ending at the Legion, where a ceremony was held. For more photos KELLY LOWN / PORT PERRY STAR Waste of money Kinsmen Club criticizes new welcome signs By Scott Anderson Port Perry Star New signs in Port Perry aren't receiving a very warm welcome from one local service group. The Kinsmen Club of Port Perry spoke out last week in op- position to the "Welcome to Port Perry" signs erected late last month. The signs were erected by Bill Barr, with permission from the Township of Scugog which agreed to bridge finance the pro- ject. Mr. Barr, who constructs purple martin feeders as a hob- by, also suggested council pro- claim Port Perry "the purple martin capital of Ontario." But the Kinsmen feel the signs are not needed and are a waste of money. Although the project is being funded privately by the differ- ent service organizations, Dave Robinson, president of the Kins- men Club, says the money could have been used for more urgent projects. "In this period of economic hardship for everyone, we mo- rally cannot support the spend- ing of $10,000 on these welcome signs when there are charities severely in need," he said. Mr. Robinson says the organi- zation also takes exception to the fact that it was not consult- ed about the project in advance and learned of the group's ap- parent involvement only when an invoice was issued for its sharein the project. The service chub i8 refusing to finance the construction of the signs. Only those that contrib- ute to the project will have their names displayed on the signs. Mr. Robinson questions the funding structure used for the roject, which he says differs by $400 $550 between clubs. He believes all groups should pay equally for the project and should not be judged by the size and financial health of the or- ganization. He believes it is odd that a number of non-service groups which the community supports were also asked to finance the project. Mr. Robinson says the com- munity should be proud of the service clubs it has and the work that they do and be willing to recognize them on the signs. He says it is "hypocritical" to charge them to appear on the sign while the community is ea- ger to promote the purple mar- tin. "It begs us to ask the ques- tion, who is our community prouder of, the volunteers who spend countless hours trying to improve their community or a small, but energeticbird with a voracious appetite which is na- tive to our community only dur- ing the summer months?" he asks. Mr. Robinson says the com- munity should trumpet the his- tory and way of life of the com- munity. He believes the signs received the endorsement of council be- cause Mr. Barr was behind the project and they were seeking to reward him for his years of ser- vice to the community. "It's a $10,000 monument to one man's hobby," he says. Although the project was co- ordinated by Mr. Barr and the township only endorsed the pro- posal, much of the criticism by the Kinsmen has been aimed at the township. "We greatly appreciate the township council's eagerness to save tax dollars wherever nec- essary.and we also appreciate the eagerness of a fellow citizen to volunteer their services to help improve the community. But does this absolve the town- Turn to page 3 Third of rural Ontario wells contaminated By Scott Anderson Port Perry Star More than one-third of rural wells in Ontario contain some form of contaminant, a govern- ment survey reveals. According to a survey re- leased in late October by Agn- culture Canada, 37 per cent of the wells sampled exceeded pro- vincial objectives for private wells. These contained high lev- els of nitrate and coliform bacte- ria. The test, conducted in the fall and winter of 1991-92, showed that 31 per cent of the wells had higher than the accepted con- centrations of coliform bacteria. Coliform bacteria occurs natu- rally in soil and decaying vege- tation. Twenty per cent of these wells also exceeded the acceptable drinking water objectives for faecal coliform bacteria. This bacteria is associated with fae- cal waste from man and ani- mals. The survey also found that 13 per cent of the wells exceeded the acceptable concentration for nitrate. Of the total, seven per cent had higher than acceptable concentration levels of both ni- trate and coliform bacteria. Six per cent exceeded the accepta- ble concentration for nitrate alone. Eight per cent of the wells had detectable levels of pesticides. The survey was conducted to obtain a comprehensive study of the quality of groundwater province-wide. John Finlay, agriculture rep- resentative for Agriculture Canada in Port Perry, says 12 wells were surveyed in the Township of Scugog. He could not provide separate figures for the area, however. But Mr. Finlay did not antici- pate problems with Scugog- area farms. He says the concen- tration of livestock is less than other areas. There is also a trend in the area towards the use of less nitrates and pesti- cides. Although he is not expecting any problems, Mr. Finlay says the findings province-wide are "alarming" and "something to be concerned about." According to Mr. Finlay, ni- trates from sources such as drinking water can cause tem- porary blood disorders to in- Turnto Page 8