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"Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - 7 Question of the Week... Do merchants on Tony Antoine Janine Proulx Joanne Sullivan Lisa Gabourie Chang Jung Water St. see a Absolutely. The Yes. Sometimes Yes. We had our At the Water St. Yes. We need protection here is we don't even put window smashed plazas especially. more protection. need for more lacking and Jie our garbage out last week after we My window was - We have a theft i 2 problems wit back because of asked some kids to smashed and we problem here that police presence: youth are the people hanging move along. had an arson fire. is bad. increasing. around. LETTERS F Some historical suggestions : 58 A PERFECT SUMMER DAY yy Jeff Mitchell To the Editor building on the property Sunday. morning, and the cof- of the water unblenished by so much as a wrinkle. I read with interest that now occupied by Port Perry fee's kicking in as | watch: David There is a deep serenity that creeps over you as there are plans fora restora- IGA (under which the creek Duval work his way around a you tread water, gazing into the heavens, and feel tion project on the small flows) in 1852. creek which runs through Port Perry from what used to be known as Poplar Park (now Victorian Village) under the IGA, past the old lawn bowling green and into Lake Scugog near the boat launch. If this creek is to be named when the work is completed, it's important to give ita name that reflects some of the history of this town. Many early maps of Reach Township and Port Perry do not even show this small creek, and those that do show it as nameless. Based on historical own- ership of the lands sur- rounding the creek bed on either side of Queen St., | offer the following sugges- tions when considering a name for the creek. It could be called "Platten Creek", named after Thomas Platten, who was the first person to erect a Or how about "Ireland's Creek", named after Dan Ireland, who erected a hotel on the current Jester's Court property in 1865? This hotel bumed to the ground in the 1890s. If a name reflecting even earlier history is desired, it could be called "Carnegie Creek", after James Camegie, one of Port Perry's most influential business- men of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Mr. Camegie built a beau- tiful red brick home next to the creek on Queen St. in 1914. That red brick home is currently known as the Jester's Court. And of course it could be called Bowling Green Creek, which would reflect the use of the property abut- ting the creek for more than 70 years, from 1909 to 1983. J. Peter Hvidsten Port Perry there' sa novel doh to >be pla 'and the grass : needs cutting but to hell with it. 'My son, hair tousled and wearing just shots, teeth unbrushed, face unwashed, fingernails dirty, reclines in a chair nearby, dividing his time between idly watching the toumament with me and playing a computer game. Mom, feeling energetic despite the heat, has run into town for breakfast fixings; she promised to stop at Tim Horton's, so there is a promise of more high-octane coffee soon. | have no plans beyond this moment. Neither do the others, most especially the dogs, who deal with the heat by sleeping, all day, directly under the ceiling fan. It is the beginning to a perfect summer day. How few and fleeting these days are; waking to that peculiar orange morning light of July and August, whiling away the day, then lingering long after the sun has gone down, at last, and awaiting the sporadic arrival of the stars. Sometimes, later on, when the boy's asleep, we can slip down to the lake and skinny-dip in the cool night air, the surface Bon Jousse, -in pursuit of the pen CO pionship. 2 and 3 open, pis ik ue. the rel lazing on the porch and re-reading John Up dike the kiss of the water; all is quiet, and as .you emerge refreshe 8nd walk Siler ne nor me, 'the nthe's immer, you Know? ing with the sun roof eighbourhood kids, books, shooting a round ofgolf with a buddy, driving to New Hampshire just for the hell of it, _mowing the lawn and then standing in the middle 'of it, drinking a cold beer, and admiring your - efforts, watching baseball games on television on weeknights after work, sleeping in on Sunday momings.... 'All this in comparison to that other season, which'is one long struggle just to stay alive, what with keeping the fire going, shoveling the endless drifts out of the driveway, and risking your life to . get to work over treacherous roads on dark, icy momings, when you'd rather stay in bed. So I'm going to appreciate this day, and revel in the obvious fact that life is better right now, and maybe, if | feel up to the challenge, | will devise a strategy to keep the squirrels, those stinking tree rats, out of the little crabapple tree | planted in May. Right after | watch Monster Trucks on TV with the boy. The Final Bell By Rik Davie Too little... too late! The terrible saga of abuse allega- tions near Blackstock continues, with charges laid against yet another member of the family. With a simple media release about the arrest of a 28-year-old former Blackstock res- ident, yet another unnamed person faces allegations of participating in the forced confinement of two boys who police say were kept in cages fashioned from baby cribs and denied that which the law deems to be the neces- sities of life. This latest person (unnamed to protect the identity of the boys) never saw the inside of a courtroom - his cooperation in the case noted by police in their release - and he will not face the glare of the probing eye of the media until a court date later in August. Last week, as the 49-year-old adoptive father of the two boys waved his dentures at reporters waiting outside the courthouse to witness his release on $10,000 bail - and the 40-year-old adoptive mother bumped into car doors while stumbling across the parking to keep her head covered - other scenes in this macabre tale of child abuse allegations played out at other loca- tions in the region. Teachers and senior staff at the school the boys attended began to be questioned by police officers attempting to answer the question asked by all of us in this most heinous of abuse allegations. Children who shared a classroom or bus seat with the two were sought out. Reporters turned bus drivers into child psycholo- gists. How did this happen? will be the question that will hover over the case until the truth comes out in a courtroom. Where was the school board? They admit it: in the dark. One senior staffer at the school had already been questioned, while another didn't even know the police investigation had focused on her colleagues. A senior staffer at the board of education involved had to admit he knew nothing of the questioning of staff members at the boys' school. Surely one question being asked should be why the oldest of the boys was not registered for high school, as would be the norm by the end of June. What, if any, plans had been made for his future? One staffer at the school cchoed the concerns of a senior board oihcial who called for a crisis team to be in place for schools in the region, whatever the time of year. The board involved has plans for crisis teams at the school in September... two months after the town of Blackstock was rocked to its rural roots by the shocking allegations. The kids who heckled and picked on the two boys - for being different - may be feeling tremendous guilt over their childish indiscretions. Teachers who once thought they had a pretty good read on the kids facing them every day have had some sleepless nights dealing with the question, " How could I not see it?" This alleged abuse that may have gone on for years, under the trained noses of degree-heavy teaching and senior staff, who now carry the most awful question of all around: "Could I have stopped it?" There are damaged people out there. Those boys, their friends, their classmates, their teachers, their town, investigators, child care workers. Seeping all the way down to the media members who carry the same burden as investigators. The burden of knowing more than you can tell. The board of education that had care of these kids can do something about it. They had better do more than sing a chorus of 'See You in September'.