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PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, October 16, 2001 - 7 po ---- -- a Question of the Week... Do you think the Port Perry hospital should Jeremy Ward help foot the bill for Yes, if it will help Lakeridge Health Uxbridge Hospital 00. Corporation's operating deficit? Phil Vander Ploeg Mike Blakey No, why should Port Perry Hospital Port Perry Hospital eams their money pay? so they should keep it. Tera Tennyson Kelli Nadin if we have the extra Port Hospital works room in our budget hard,so they should to afford it, then we help out because should. they are part of Lakeridge Corp. -- a || LETTERS Cowardly vandals strike To the Editor: This morning my three-year-old son went out with his dad to choose a pumpkin for Halloween. He selected a rather large one and it was placed proudly on our front porch awaiting the big day. His nine-year- old brother was suitably impressed upon returning from school. Last Thursday, by 8:30 p.m., that same pumpkin was smashed on the boulevard in front of our home. I have taught my children not to touch things which do not belong to them and to respect other people's property. Someone came onto our front porch, stole a small child's pumpkin and purposely destroyed it. This was not a harmless prank as Halloween is three weeks away. How do | explain this senseless act of vandalism to my sons? The pumpkin can be replaced but our: family's peace of mind cannot. We used to spend quite a bit of time and effort deco- rating the exterior of our house for Halloween. | am saddened and angered that I am questioning whether or not we will continue to do so. | would like to thank this cowardly vandal for robbing my boys of some of their childhood innocence. | didn't think that they were growing up fast enough anyway. Port Perry ein it. nt of any folks 'from Greenbank. ut the wells, some of th - dry, the folks said, gy 73 The region' manages the wells, said council. oh, sald the folks ¢ from Greenbank, and went home. I'm Then there are those callers who get councillors up from the WE dinner table to rant about their taxes going up, but don't know; Cathie Dutton, | ein about what comphises a. atax bill and | the Sunfcipality' S p Ir just lave to go see it all for themselves /s. Anyway, friend, if you ever hear someone sugges fie eet are boring, you know they haven't been list And another thing By Rik Davie The board stiff As this column grows closer to its deadline, | face another Durham District School Board meeting § with about as much enthusiasm as a do-it-yourself lobotomy, which while some trustees may think not a bad plan for me, is still not to be looked forward to. The steady decline of the board of trustees into a swamp infested with self-interest, petty arguments and pie-in-the-sky ideas for saving the taxpayer 50 cents by spending a dollar, it becomes increasingly difficult for me and my fellow media types to maintain anything resembling a balanced journalistic view of the board. It has, over the past year, become two teams of players. Persons who guess ahead of time what recorded votes will be will have two things happen. They will be right about 70 per cent of the time and they will watch as Trustee Paul Crawford, sometimes joined by Trustee Susan Shetler, refuse to record their votes except by raising their hands. They do this for no other reason than to prove the point that they do not have to. Trustee Martin Demmers of Scugog is determined to force board staff to compile financial reports that will duplicate what is already being done and cost money as well as staff time for staff members the board cannot spare. Yet Mr. Demmers' line of reason- ing is that it will make the board more fiscally respon- sible. A move by Ajax Trustee Melinda Crawford to include in a policy on homework some kind of a weight requirement on books so that students with backpacks will not suffer lower back damage or some- thing. I'm sorry, | lost track of that one after Ms. Crawford asked if perhaps text books were too heavy, and should homework be regulated by how heavy they are.... I think? The endless slaughter of innocent trees over motions by trustees that either have no bearing on the current cash crunch or are meant to show how in touch they are is becoming a weight that drags the board down into an abyss where nothing is getting done. Tonight trustees will begin the task of the five- year student accommodation plan. That will see parents pitted against each other as they fight to keep under-used schools open and build new ones. Parents like those from Uxbridge face an uphill battle to get much-needed reconstruction as southern trustees (who outnumber northern trustees by nine- to-two) pander to their own needs and wants. Whitby trustee Liz Roy, who is chair of the board, and her battered but brave vice-chair, Brock-Uxbridge Trustee Nancy Loraine, are helped somewhat by for- mer nemesis and now old-hand Whitby trustee Doug Ross as they attempt to keep some semblance of order, but Trustee Paul Crawford's insistence on being argumentative and challenging the authority of the chair at every turn must be finally dealt with. This board has so far been unable to deal with the most simplistic business, not because of a lack of training or the will to do so, but because of sabotage from within and behaviour better kept on the play- grounds of Durham schools and out of the boardroom. To the observer, it does not seem that this board can't work together, but that a minority of the trustees simply refuse to.