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IN. ITN ae, YY "A Family Tradition for 128 Years" P-. he -, S from our readers Unit delivers goods on measles To the Editor: ~ So parents who have children In line for their measles shot want to know why Public Health Units in Ontario got the job to eliminate measles in On- tario? There are two good rea- sons: qualifications and cost. Public Health Units are no strangers to mass immuniza- tion programs. They have con- ducted them in the past and continuously monitor immuni- zation and infectious disease outbreaks in communities - it's their job to do this. The goal of the current mea- Let's work on taxes To the Editor: The taxpayers of Scugog pay millions of dollars to maintain rural roads which serve no purpose. Let's start using these va- cant roads for family-style housing and keep the farm- land in the rear. This will in- crease the Scugog tax base at no extra cost; tax reduction for everybody. This will allow the pres- ently subsidized farmer to prosper, another tax reduc- tion for everybody. We have a need of afforda- ble housing, lower taxes, jobs, and prosperous farm- ers. The present system does not provide any of these needs so let's try to improve the system to benefit the reg- ular citizens and taxpayers. Let's not waste our impor- tant assets any longer. Lower taxes means more jobs and more spending for those necessities for good family living. Doug Wilson, RR 2, Port Perry sles vaccination program is not to just control measles, but to eliminate it entirely. To do this, it has to be done quickly and ef- ficiently over a short period of time. Public Health Units are the only agencies with the re- sources and training to do this work. Because more than two mil- lion young people will be immu- nized, Public Health Units have reassigned nurses from other programs to administer the vac- cine. Only fully trained nurses licenced by the Ontario College of Nurses will administer the shots. Public Health Units al- ready provide the public with flu shots for seniors and hepati- tis B vaccine. This program is costing four million dollars. The charge to OHIP for physicians to do the same work would be a mini- mum of 16 million dollars and could run as high as $70 million if a minor assessment was in- cluded. As a parent, this is the kind of use of my tax dollars which makes sense. Winston Miller, President - Ontario Public Health Assoc. Please: Save our soles! To the Editor: Am I wrong, or is it true that there is no shoe repair shop in Port Perry? As a recent arrival I am slow- ly orienting myself to the op- tions of living quietly in this lovely rural setting, next to the insanity of big cities. But surely with 4,500 plus people scurry- ing around our streets and walkways they must be wear- ing out footwear at a rate that would make someone a decent living, even part-time, repair- ing the obvious ravages that pavement make on leather. It seems ridiculous that one has to drive 20 miles one way to put a new heel on a shoe at the inflated prices that go with quick-fix repairs in a mall. This, to my mind, would seem to be a good opportunity for some en- terprising person to get in on the ground floor and provide a service locally where none yet exists. We bring in doctors to repair our bodies. Why not bring in someone to look after our soles! Owen R. Neill, Port Perry A few suggestions To the Editor: I wonder how many local resi- dents have heard about the phe- nomenon of our daughters be- ginning to lose their self-esteem as they approach the teenage . years? I'd like to pass along some information that might be helpful to parents trying to un- derstand and deal with this sit- - uation. First of all, to get a handle on the forces that contribute to the erosion of our girls' self-esteem, I highly recommend reading an excellent book called Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (Ballantine) by Mary Pipher, Ph D. (I bor: rowed it from the Uxbridge Li- brary). Secondly, there is a delightful magazine from the U.S. called "New Moon." It's for girls ages 8-14, contains no advertising at all, and is a great antidote to the media images which tell young girls that only anorexic people are attractive. This would be an excellent publication to have in our local library, since the indi- vidual subscription rate is pret- . Turnto Page 11 Editor's Notepad \, ; "0 by Jeff Mitchell - A MID-WINTER DAY'S DREAM Friday, Feb. 2 arrived as most days do at my house: Dark and cold. The significance of the day had not yet occured to me. It was, of course, Groundhog Day, that mid-winter point at which we weary Canadians attempt, albeit feebly, to find some reason for hope in the midst of dreary times. Will the rodent see his shadow and retreat into hibernation, or will he cavort happily under leaden skies, and forecast an early conversion of the seasons? Will spring ever come and ease my mind, or will | try to land a job at the Post Office just so | can become quickly disgruntled and show up one day and spray the place with bullets? No, | was going about my routine of trying to rouse 'sleepy children from their beds and convince them to venture across the cold floor to the breakfast table. So it was a dishevelled, preoccupied man who shuffled to the door upon hearing a weak knocking there. A cold draft swept up the leg of my long johns as | opened it. And there stood a groundhog. | stared dumbly at the beast, a bowl of oatmeal steaming in my hand. It was he who spoke first. "Whatsa matter, Mac? Cat got your tongue?" "Well," said the rodent, in the face of my stunned "silence. "I've been living in your crawl space there for the past couple of months, you know, and it's not bad, except for the odd draft, and the infernal rattling of that damned dog's toenails on the floor... You've been a pretty good host, so | felt it was only right that | should come and give you the word first: | have emerged from my burrow, surveyed the situation, and have decided that Spring probably will be here in time for the May long weekend. Have a good winter." And with that he waddled off my porch and down the driveway, hanging a right at the front of the house and disappearing into the gloom. My little girl, who is always dying to know what's going on, was tugging at the leg of my long underwear as | closed the door against the pressing cold. "Who was it?" she clamored, "who was it?" "Um, wrong number," | mumbled, heading back into the kitchen, where the coffee pot was giving its last few gasps | to announce the readiness of the morning java. Later, at my office reading the morning papers and returning some phone calls, | tried hard to convince 'myself it was merely a mid-winter apparition. Had to be. KE hi rl NA Arch A A ------------_ And if that holds true, it will be about mid-March before we can expect to get the occasional spring- like day. Justdon'tget too used to the warmth, untouchable. But this is the 90's and nothing falls into that category any more. Education, health care, municipal services will all Random Jottings errr i by J. Peter Hvidsten DO YOU BELIEVE IN LEGENDS? 4 q Apparently Canada's most LH famous groundhog, Wiarton Willy, er | didn't see his shadow last Friday Rl when he poked his head outinto the bitter cold. So, as the legend goes, we're in for an early spring. The other part of the Groundhog Day scenario sug- gests if he did spot his shadow on the white snow, we could count on another six weeks of winter. I'd bet we're going to have at least six more weeks of winter whether "Willy" thinks so or not. You canbe assured "ole man winter" isn't going to be swayed by predictions from a scrawny old field rat that's getting alot more attention than itdeserves. because we've all seen what March and April can do to expectations of an early Spring. You can bet old Willy, won't show up again until the sun shines brightandwarm... and | can't say as | blame him! THE CHOPPING BLOCK So far the Harris "Common Sense Revolytion" has not affected Scugog too badly. But we shouldn't get too complacent about what's in store for us and the rest of the province in the coming months. The most noticeable cuts so far locally have been to the municipal budget (a little under $400,000 for Scugog) and more recently a decision by the Board of Education to drop Junior Kindergarten as they try to wrestle with a $12 million cutin transfer payments from the province. But there willbe more, much more. Locally we are going to have to be prepared for cuts in many areas once considered sacred and be on the chopping block in the months to come, and our elected representatives are going to be faced with making tough decisions. Mayor Howard Hall, at the Blackstock Agricultural meeting last week, made reference to cuts in grants to the fair boards this year, as his council struggles to attain a 0% tax increase. It will be difficult with $400,000 less to work with, so taxpayers will have to expect cuts in services we have become accustomed to receiving. In Toronto many hospitals will be closed over the nextfew years. Don't think for a moment that we've escaped these cuts. Durham has hospitals in Whitby, Oshawa, Port Perry and Uxbridge, so there's little doubt some of these facilities will either be closed or amalgamated, resulting in less service and jobs. - Common sense says we have to get control of our growing debt, but the coming cuts are going to be hard for everyone to swallow.