The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

- 6 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, April 12,1994 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" PORT PERRY STAR <| FEF DITORIAL ONY TINY nF ~&. NOL iSN'T THAT A\ Governmental a Jur HIKE UNGRAEFUL Random Jotting: by J. Peter Hvidsten Editorial Comment Ng s+ WaeS VARGAS Ove rl dp \ WHERE THEY WENT f The Toronto Blue When the Regional Municipality of Dur- ham was created in 1974, it was intended to bring a number of communities togeth- er under one jurisdiction. And while the region has grown and prospered over the past 20 years, there are two different forces at work that want the regional form of government disman- tled, both for entirely different reasons. Leading the charge to scrap Durham Region are Oshawa politicians Jim Potti- cary and Brian Nicholson. Councillor Nicholson argues that Oshawa is being taken advantage of, while the other municipalities are along for the ride. He argues in the last 20 years, the city has paid more than $1 bil- lion in taxes, with very little seen in re- turn. He estimates less than half of the money has been used in the community to upgrade sewers, roads and water facil- ities in the city. Councillor Nicholson is calling for a plebiscite in this fall's municipal election to take the issue to the people on wheth- er they are in favor of continuing in the present form of government or pulling out of the region. Councillor Potticary, on the other hand, is in favor of taking a slightly different route in reforming the current structure. He is in favor of dividing the eight com- munities into three distinct areas with Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington forming one community, Ajax and Pickering an- other and the three northern communities of Scugog, Brock and Uxbridge another community. This, he argues, would re- duce the number of municipal employees needed to perform the civic duties. Regional Chairman Gary Herrema is also in favor of scrapping regional gov- ernments, but in a totally different way with a different aim in mind. Chairman Herrema believes regional governments in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) should be scrapped to make way for a larger GTA government. This, he argues, would prevent the wealth and de- velopment from being sucked out of the downtown areas in favor of the cheaper rural areas. The purpose of governments and the politicians is to provide the best possible representation to the people they serve in the most effective way possible. All these solutions have taken thought and plan- ning and if one or all of these solutions provides a better and more efficient level of service then we must consider the op- tions. i V, Im 7 AT LE \ ae aap IN HER (100k! SHMaN| / / 7 I ETTERS Chief makes interesting points To the Editor: Chief Trevor McCagherty in speaking recently to a local group of gentlemen made some very interesting points. Regionalization in 1974 was designed to help pay some of the tremendous growing costs that were known to be just on the horizon. The cost of policing was one. Hi-tech equipment for example is not cheap. Police services cannot refuse to participate in modernization. The re- sult is our Durham Services are keeping up. As one who was involved back then along with the moves in this direction came some other problems. Calls for ser- vice and response times increased be- cause of population explosions. Police manpower has and will continue to be cut either through attrition or hiring practices. Not to mention that the types of calls have taken an alarming turn. We as citizens must realize that we have to accept some changes and not ex- pect the kind of service we have been conditioned to. What society should develop is a re- turn to an old adage. Protection is in numbers. The wagon trains of days gone by used the system. People formed cir- cles for defence knowing full well that Turn to Page 7 Jays successfully won their season opener at the SkyDome against the Chicago White Sox with a sell-out crowd on hand last week, and at least one Toronto television station jumped on the bandwagon running the . win as the lead news item of that day. Sports announcers joined in the hype as well, highlighting the scores of all the American and National League baseball games at the head of their newscast. What's all the rush with baseball? The Toronto Maple Leafs have only a couple more games left to play in the reg- ular schedule before they begin playoff action, and already they are taking a back seat to the very popular Toronto Blue Jays. The Leafs, who despite faltering in the homestretch, are still have a shot at win- ning their division championship. Yet they received no more than a mention ona CTV sportscast on the Jays opening day and then it was a negative comment about the Leafs having lost their last three games. It astounds me that hockey, amid.the final crucial days of the season, has been relegated to third page and mere mentions on Toronto television newscasts. Hockey will very likely be over in less than two months, while the Jays still have about 155 games left to go until they get into the championship series. Surely, the Leafs and hockey in general should be given priority over the popular Jays until their season comes to an end. It only seems fair! THE LISHMAN SAGA Sometimes the best laid plans just don't work out. For whatever the reason. Last week we reported that Bill Lishman and his partner Joe Duff were heading for Virginia Tuesday morning to bring back their family of 16 Canada Geese. But like inconsiderate teenagers, the geese took off before Bill and Joe could even leave Canada, and their whereabouts, as of Sunday afternoon, was still unknown. The geese are distinctively banded, and will undoubtedly somehow, somewhere, sometime show up in the near future. It was originally hoped the young geese would take the call of the wild and win their way back to Purple Hill without the help of Father Goose in his ultra-light air- craft, but it didn't appear as if they were prepared to make the trip alone. While speaking with Bill the Sunday before he was to leave to bring them back, he said it appeared as if they were too comfortable at the Arlie Centre, where there was plenty of food and protection. But that was last week and one week later, as I write this column, the geese have presumably flown north, while their impa- tient father, Bill Lishman, has driven south for a few days holiday before resuming the search for his missing geese. We're hopeful this story will end on a happy note, as the project has consumed hundreds of hours and cost thousands of dollars to date. But even more important than the time and money is the bond which Bill and Joe have acquired with the young geese they raised from eggs. For these men losing the geese, after all they' ve been through together, would be no less painful than losing a child. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Port Perry Star encourages its readers to make use of the letters to the editor column to express their opinions and viewpoints on just about any subject, as we feel a lively letters column will help make this a better community newspaper. We insist, however, that all letter writers sign their name and include a phone number for verification. Sorry, anonymous letters will not be published unless The Star believes it to be in the best interest of the public. We also reserves the right to edit letters with respect to their length, content or libelous comments. ATES TET sr Rp VL Fa Re RE TU thd ¢ MW at hcais et ti. So a A A AGL hE TE CT