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ee a BGS tes "sgn ga RR 6 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, April 10, 2001 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" Gayle Stapley ADVERTISING MGR ... .Deb McEachemn PRODUCTION MGR . . .Pam Hickey REPORTER ........... Chris Hall PHONE (905) 985-7383 FAX (905) 985-3708 E-MAIL: editorial@portperrystar.com advertising@portperrystar.com Member Ontario Community' Newspaper Assoc, PUBLISH JER GENERAL MGR. -- Don Macleod oC ry wovanceoron Sermo () OCIA [JIRIOIR OFFICE MANAGER " . yl Wes OR passe LE T PER tot : Publications Mail Registration No. 07881 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) towards our mailing costs. Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Company Limited, 188 Mary Street - Port Perry, Ontario - L9L 187 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 1 Year - $37.45 (includes GST) EDITORIAL POLICY: Opinions expressed by columnists, contributors and letter writers are not necessarily those of The Port Perry Star. Letters must be signed and the telephone number (which will not be published brought to the editor's attention. We reserve the sight to edit or refuse publication of any material submitted. ADVERTISING POLICY: The publisher is not 5 { 4 subsequent issue or the refund of any monies paid for the advertisement. All daims of efor in publication must be made by Wednesday, noon, prior to the 2a ST, ll Merkei BUSINESS OFFICE: Judy Ashi. | Kathy Dudley, f EN / Canadian anet Rankin, Lesley Wes R Y \ 1 £ AR Community & CNA = Newspaper ' GInni i ; of Choy pe 2001 4 i C ) ADVERTISING: Ginni Todd, Cindy Jobin, Gail Morse, Sandra Spears, Linda Clarke, Lisa Monk, Janet Archer, Malcolm Lennox PRODUCTION: Trudy Empringham, Daryle Wright, Arlene Cheel, : Robert Taylor, Richard Drew Six Months - $19.79 (includes GST) ~~ Foreign 1 Year - $96.30 (includes GST) Freelance Writers. Heather McCrae, John B. McClelland, Rik Davie ) included. Requests that a name be withheld will be honoured only if there is a compeling reason to do so. Errors will be corrected if liable for Shop chanaes of nour lied errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher is not liable for other errors or omissions in connection with any advertisement in any next week's publication, and, if not made, will not be considered. No daim will be allowed for more than one insertion. Editorial Comment A board divided As meetings occur and the current edition of the Durham district School board takes shape, one thing is becoming increasingly apparent: This is a most fractious board, sharply divided along ideological lines. This dynamic was highlighted once again this weekend, when a source with inside access to the board and its meet- ings told a Star reporter that a certain segment of trustees are, in effect, being gagged by high-ranking staff. What initiatives were supposedly thwarted were not spec- ified by the source. But there was an jnsistence that there is a distinct split among trustees, and that staff are siding in favour of some trustees, at the expense of others. | Those allegations have been flatly denied by board officials. Board director Grant Yeo told us that it is the job of staff to remind trustees when they're stepping beyond their jurisdictional powers, but that there has been no effort to 'gag elected representatives. Since we don't have access to the kind of private meetings alluded to by the source, we don't know exactly what occurs. Sometimes - in fact, often - when there are sharp divisions, it can be the feeling of either side thatthe deck is stacked against them. Whether that perception is true or not can be difficult to ascertain. What is painfully obvious, however, is that this infighting is beginning to affect the effectiveness.of the board. Long hours are spent wrangling over procedure and personal cru- sades. There are so many issues facing the board in these times of limited funding and increasing demand, we have to ask: Do we really want to revisit issues that have been hashed out before? It's time for trustees to set a common agenda, that being the maintenance and improvement of Durham"s public edu- cation system. RECENT PROBLEMS AT THE NEW STATION HOLSE HAVE HAD AN EFFECT ON POLICE METHODS... SO HELP ME MCGURNK! {F YoU DON'T TALK TM GOING TO MAKE You DRINK THIS WATER/ . : Sy "i / / 241 7 7 7 / RAP PorT PERRY STAR LETTERS Coulcliff coming, at last To the Editor: project may have been overlooked On behalf of many of the resi- dents on Coulcliff Boulevard we would like to thank Scugog Council, especially Mayor Doug Moffatt, Regional . Councillor Ken Carruthers, Ward 2 Councillor Marilyn Pearce and chief adminis- trative officer Yvonne de Wit. Without their support, diligence and hard work this very important again. We are anxiously looking for- ward to the completion of the water, sewer and road. Al Shipley, Gary Menzies, and Charlie Norris, Coulcliff Boulevard To the Editor: For almost a year, Walkerton's contaminated water has focussed our attention on the importance of clean water. With the arrival of spring we will see red and white signs appear on front lawns in our community, reminding us that we are once again bathing the urban landscape with pesticides. We are contradicting ourselves when, on one hand we say we want clean pouring thes& poisons onto our Consider pesticide alternatives water, and with the other we are' lawns and gardens. The evidence is mounting that these chemicals are harmful, espe- cially to children and pregnant mothers. Let's take the 'risk' out of spring by considering alterna- tive lawn care practices. The Campaign for Pesticide Reduction in Ontario http://www.cprontario.org is a good site for additional informa- tion. Jay and Beverley Thibert Port Perry a -- _--