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

mad 6- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, April 6, 1999 " "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice CheiPocliPeornfSiack 188 MARY STREET - PORT PERRY, ONT. - LoL 1B7 PHONE (905) 985-7383 FAX (905) 985-3708 E-Mail: port.perry.star@sympatico.ca BUSINESS OFFICE .....Gayle Stapley Accounting...Judy Ashby, Janet Rankin Retall Sales....... Kathy Dudley, Heather Callan, Leslie West @ Loma Member of the Canadian & Ontario Newspaper Assoc. Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ld. - 188 Mary Street - Port Perry, Ont. EDITORIAL: Publisher................. J. Peter Hvidsten Publications Mail Registrations No. 07881 Publications Mail Agreement No. 1389068 Subscription Rates: 1 Year - $37.45 6 Months - $19.79 Foreign - $96.30 Includes $2.45 GST Includes $1.29 GST Includes $6.30 GST General Manager .... Don Macleod Managing Editor ..... Jeff Mitchell News Reporters .....Chris Hall Freelance - Heather McCrae, John B. McClelland PRODUCTION Trudy Empringham, Pam Hickey, Rhonda Mulcahy, Robert Taylor, Barb Bell, Richard Drew, Daryle Wright, Scott Ashby ADVERTISING Advertising Mgr. .......... Don MacLeod Advertising Sales: Deb McEachem, Ginni Todd, Cindy Jobin, Gail Morse, Lee Nowensky Editorial comment Cheers and jeers for news makers With the end of winter, Scugog Township has come back to life. This upsurge in activity has resulted in developments both good and bad. With that in mind, here are some cheers and jeers for the newsmakers. Cheers to the organizers of last Thursday's town hall meeting, held in Utica. Forums such as these are an essential part of democracy, a fundamental aspect of which is accountability. You can keep politicians on the right track by asking the right questions, and giving the right direction. Jeers to those who didn't show up. They may have had good excuses, but we should have seen more local representation by elected rep- resentatives. Even if they weren't on stage, it would do them good to hear first hand what's on the minds of the people. Jeers to the boneheads who have been mak- ing life miserable in Cartwright, by going on an extended vandalism spree. On Good Friday they burned a building to the ground, caused some other mischief, and then, for good mea- sure, smashed windows in the Nestleton United Church. Idiots, one and all. | Cheers to the Sanderson Monument compa- ny, whose representatives were to be at Cartwright Memorial Cemetery this morning to repair damage done by vandals, for free. Cheers to the provincial government, for pumping much-needed funding to the health care system. Jeers to the same bunch, for going on a cost-cutting rampage that caused all the trouble in the first place. It needn't have been this way. NOTICE! IN COMPLIANCE WITH AMUSING NEW GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES, WE GUARANTEE THAT PATIENTS IN E.R. WILL RE ASSESSED WITHIN 1S MINUTES OR RECEIVE A FREE P1ZzzA\ | HN ={e} [ed § HERE YOU ARE S\R - ENJOY! RppoA Por PeRRY STAR To the Editor: - Hosed at the CR: 5 CE pump, once again Despite the fact that Ottawa takes in Another holiday, and another increase in gas prices. It never seems to fail. Queens Park has claimed it will inves- tigate sudden price increases at the pump. While gas prices in the U.S.A. are as low as 85 cents a gallon, prices in Canada are up to 57 cents a litre. That's a whopping $2.57 a gallon. Ripped off again by the oil cartel. Over the years I have questioned sharp increases in gas prices. I have written the Minister of Energy Mines and Resources in Ottawa and got the following reply: "The Federal government does not have jurisdiction over consumer prices of petroleum products." yt 008 8 A 3 CRAZE billions in car and road related taxes, it spends little on much-needed road repairs. A car dealer told me the taxes on a new van are a whopping $4,216.80. Soon, as the major Petroleum compa- nies run the independents out of business, they can charge whatever they like. We will be at their complete mercy. Gas could hit 70 cents a litre. For every 1 cent hike in price, the oil majors net a weekly wind- fall of $150 million. Support the independents - once they are gone, motorists will be the sacrificial lambs to the corporate cartels. Dean J. Kelly, Port Perry a Tans Le Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten LAKE LEVELS & COLD WATER Now that the ice is out of the lake, we can set our sights on spending the next six months enjoying the beauty and variety of entertainment Scugog offers residents and visitors. Unfortunately, there's a problem this spring. The water is so low in many places it would be impossible to launch a boat, let alone navigate the waterways without running aground. | In fact, the water thus far this year seems to be lower than it was towards the end of last summer, when it got perilously shallow. From what we've been able to determine, Lake Scugog is not the only waterway with the problem this spring. Reports indicate Lake Ontario and others of the Great Lakes system are also much lower than normal. In fact, Lake Ontario is about six inches (14 cm.) below its average level for the month of March. Lake Scugog is part of the Kawartha chain of lakes, and throughout the entire system, water levels appear to be lower than normal. Unless April brings us lots of showers with which to replenish the lake systems, chances are this won't be the best boating season in Lake Scugog this summer. Summary to these comments, just days after the ice left the lake, a few brave souls rushing the season launched their boats into the near freezing water of Lake Scugog. Over the Easter weekend, we saw at least three sail- boats, which is a rare occurrence anytime during the season, and a number of powerboat enthusiasts giving their craft an early initiation. Even though the sparkling waters of the lake look inviting, it should be noted that should for any reason a boat get into trouble and the passengers have to bail out, the near freezing temperature of the water could prove to be fatal, life preserver, or not. Just be careful this early in the season. KOSOVO There can't be a soul on this earth, perhaps other than in Serbia, who doesn't feel for the plight of the tens-of-thousands of Kosovars as they are herded up like animals and driven from their homeland for fear of being savagely murdered. The images being broadcast across our televisions, and printed in the pages of our daily newspapers, is disturbing to say the least. There has been so much written about the situation in Kosovo over the past few weeks, there is nothing new | can add, except that Canadians should feel extremely fortunate to live in a country like ours, free from political and religious strife of this magnitude. When we compare our problems in dealing with Quebec next to the atrocities that are happening in Kosovo and the other Balkan states, we should be ashamed. Our problems are so frivolous and minute by comparison they should not even be mentioned in the same breath. NATO's bombing of strategic Serbian locations is progressing, but very slowly, and unfortunately hun- dreds of people are being murdered every day. Nobody likes war, but it appears as if NATO has no choice but to deploy ground troops if they hope to put an end to the ethnic cleansing program of the Serbs. This is an action not one of the 19 NATO countries wants to face, but they must have known when they started the bombing it may come to that, even if they won't admit it openly.