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PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, January 25, 2000 - 7 areas"? Do you think commercial vehicles, such as school buses, should be allowed to park in residential Geraldine Cooper No, they shouldn't be allowed at all. A resi- dential area should be kept residential; a com- mercial area is a com- mercial area. Colleen Donaldson It's not a big deal if it's on someone's property. If it's hindering no one then it's not a problem at all. Shirley Love It's not really a prob- lem, unless it's out on the street. If it's in the driveway and out of the way then it's not a big deal. Rob Marko It depends, really. If it's out in the country it's not really a problem. | don't think there's a problem, but it depends on the neighbours. Della Cavanagh Commercial vehicles in a residential area are unsightly and should not be there at all. Letter to the Textbook situation is 'unreal' Editor To the Editor: I'm a Grade 8 student at R.H. Cornish Public School. The other day I was sit- ting in my history class. We had to use our Grade 8 text books and we have to share them between three peo- ple sometimes even four. It's unreal. How are we supposed to do our work with the new curriculum and sharing textbooks between three or four people. | also don't understand how we could just afford to paint the halls and all inside the school, when each of our classes such as music, history, geography and French we need new textbooks. Kelley Manitius I thik the way that our school looks is less impor- tant than our textbook needs. Kelley Manitius Port Perry To the Editor: A very simple solution to the overcrowding of our emergency departments in the hospitals would be a charge of at least $5 for A simple solution for overcrowding every case. Some of the people who are now part of the problem would not be there. J. Vandermeulen, Brooklin PORT PERRY - Young athletes iin this picturesque town on the -.shores of shimmering Lake Scugog | were celebrating yesterday news of a federal bail-out package for their sport. 3 } Federal Industry Minister John Manley ended months of speculation by announcing that the Liberal government has earmarked $200,000 as part of an ~ assistance package for the area's embattled road hockey teams. The teams, loosely associated groups of youngsters who gather Saturdays and after school to play in driveways, school yards and cul de sacs, have for months been threatening to pack up and move to greener pastures in the south if the government fails to recognize their plight, and provide funding. They cite non-existent revenues and ever-increasing costs for nets, goaltenders' pads and tennis balls among the pressures facing their sport. "It's either we get the funds we need or we're out of here," said Timmy Shaw, 8, a member of a squad known as the Port Perry Pokemon. "Oshawa, Pickering, wherever... they've got the fan base and the kind of conditions teams need to survive and thrive." Asked about the feasibility of he and his mates moving to another centre when they're barely old enough to cycle to the corner store, Shaw said he's held discussions with parties that may make it possible. "Mom said she'll see after she takes my sister to ballet," said Shaw. | Minister Manléy, who announced the funding at a hastily-convened news conference in the parking lot Page Seven FEDS FINALLY COME THROUGH by Jeff Mitchell behind Brock's Department Store, said the federal funding package was deemed necessary to ensure _ the continued operation of road hockey teams here. "Road hockey is, as we all know, an important part of our national fabric, and one we're not going to simply watch wither and die," said Manley. He then donned goalie pads and faced shots from young snipers as photographers snapped pictures. The minister, who failed to stop a single shot, blamed a gimpy knee and the flash from news cameras for his - ineptitude. Not everyone was cheering news of the bail-out, however, Scugog Mayor Doug Moffatt indicated his council will take a dim view of the requirement that the local municipality contribute funding as part of the aid pack- age dictated by the feds. | "It's not that I'm against road hockey," said the mayor, .it's the precedent. We fund these kids, and what's next? Threats from the lawn bowling club that they're going to move to Cannington?" The matter is to come before council as budget dis- cussions are held over the next few weeks. Also crying foul are members of the community's other sporting organizations, as well as representatives of cultural and recreational groups. "What about us?" asked Edward (Stumpy) Timberlake, 36, whose stamp club has met for years in the basement of his mother's modest bungalow in Caesarea. "We can pick up and go too, you know. We've had offers. Oh, yeah." Farmer Edwin Weese of Yelverton had this to say: "Well, if they can't fund agriculture, at least they're spending the money on something important." 4 The following story starts back in 1834 when two Random Jottings by J. Peter Hvidsten RESEARCH UNCOVERS FASCINATING TALES One of the most fascinating things about researching the history of Port Perry and the former Reach and Scugog Townships is uncover- ing stories that have for years been buried in the fragile pages of our old newspapers. Such was the case. recently, while scanning through pages of the 1870s, when | came across an article about a Reach Twp. farmer who uncovered a grave consisting of some 150 skeletal remains. Last week, if you read Sketches of Scugog, Paul Arculus related a tale from the same era, where bones found under a tree stump that were believed to have been human were eventually discovered to be that of an old horse buried years earlier. men, Robert and Samuel Baird, made their way through the bush into Reach Township, eventually set- tling on the 14th concession of the township. The 'Bairds built a home, cleared the land and lived the tough life of early pioneers. More than 40 years after they settled on the property, Ontario Observer editor James Baird (not sure if he's related), published a letter about a strange finding on the property. The story relates that on the 15th of March, 1878. J.S. Baird of lot No. 17, 14th concession of Reach, while gathering sap in his woods, discovered a large depression in the surface of the ground resembling the mouth of an old well. Further investigation proved the depression to be an excavation in which had been interred the remains of an estimated 100 - 150 human beings. The pit was described as circular, about eight or nine feet in diameter and about seven feet or more in depth. All of the bodies had been laid face downward, with the heads facing towards the outer rim of the pit. At the time of the article being published, nearly one hundred skulls had been removed and the bottom of the pit not yet reached. The writer said that when he first came across the site, "it presented the most ghastly sight | ever saw for the mouth of the pit was bordered with about seventy grinning skulls while the bottom of the hole presented literally one mass of bones." He related that within a few feet of the burial pit, they found a large mound, eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet above the surface of the ground. Upon digging into the top of it a row of stones was found about level with the ground, and upon one of those being removed, a stick could be quite easily run into the ground, three or four feet when it would come in contact with something hard. The writer assumed there was something buried there and that it was something that had not decayed, as the bodies had in the other pit, as there was no visible depression on the surface of the ground. The article was submitted by an anonymous writer identifying himself only as "Reach". His final words speculated that an Indian battle had been fought there and the bones found were the remains of the slain. Not another mention of this unusual incident could be found in any future newspapers, so the mystery remains today, much as it was 125 years ago. This story is just one of the many strange incidents in our community's sometimes strange past.