PAGE 2, WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 1,.1987 MAIL CARRIERS and police officers clashed during the rotating strike that took place at the Whitby post office last Tuesday and Wendesday. Police arrested four men after carriers attempted to obstruct vehicles entering the post office property. Michael Barker, 34 from Whitby, William Scott, 44, and James Moss, 33, both from Oshawa were charged with mischief. Douglas Swoffer, 33, of Oshawa was charged with obstructing a police officer. Strip mails pose biggest threat to downtown, sa, EAssocites, benefit consultants, scholarship in football, has lived Communication improved - plan- FROM PAGE 1 moved to Whitby from Oshawa in "on and off" in Whitby for the past ning director Bob Short told thq people." 1980. Buffett, a Toronto native who 15 years. BIA about a grant program. Later His firm, Buffett & Taylor attended Southern Mississippi on a He remembers the days when Georgina Phillips was hired as the b mld"talk about full-time manager despite claims COSTS SOA RING!! Before you renew your Auto or Home Insurance Call and Compare... For a complete Insurance review, Call and arrange a mutually convenient appointmefnt... Of course there is no obligation PETER DILELLO 24 RESOLUTE CRESCENT, WHITBY ' 666-2090 AUTO-HOME-LIFEGROUP-DISABILITY-RRSP St rawberry Orchard s For daily picking conditions phone: 655-4501 or 655-3217 HOURS: 8a.m.-8p.m. BJIA memuers wuWULi &U the things they couldn't do" and the budget was $10,000 annually for one or two events. Now there's $70,000 and available funding. "If you told me after that first meeting that you would spend half a million on the downtown I would have looked at you askance," he says. "But I felt the downtown always had potential - a lot of people didn't share that point of view. " He admits later that "There are still those who question the value of a BIA. "We have some converts, but some that will never be won," he says of the BIA, now counting 380 members. He expects that number to increase "dramatically" when the new medical centre and other developments open. Buffett says conceptual drawings by Totten Sims Hubicki of "what could be done" downtown provided the spark within the BIA member- ship. "People started saying "Is there something we can do downtown?," he says, a question accompanied by growing merchant interest after several years, since the BIA was formed in 1976, of "Iseeking the raison d'etre" for such a group. After the conceptual design, Buf- fett pleaded with merchants to go to council at that time to request an additional levy - the levy doubled to $20,000 from $10,000 when many merchants turned out. by some that the BIA "shouldn't do it." "For all intents and purposes, the beautifiction has been realized," Buffett told members last week, while announcing his resignation as chairman. The group has come a long way, he told them, "But much remains to be done...we have barely scratched the surface." He sees two major challenges for new chairman Rob Morton and the BIA board: educating council to recognize the impact of strip malls ("There's still some work to be fr~ ED BUFFETT ys Buffett done. We're perceived by some as a nuisance but we're responsibleto our mernbership.") and more up- scale stores ("It doesn't take a brain surgeon to see that there are tremendous stores but also - others that are less attractive"). Absentee landlords are a problem, ("We have some good landlords and, frankly, some that are unacceptable.") "We would like to see businesses get shares in their building, if they have sufficient capital. Or at least have owners get interested in sprucing up their buildings. It benefits them, too." The downtown also lacks variety; "We still have some gap in the type of merchandise available. But selling people on a downtown com- munity is not the easiest thing to sell." He looks back on his term as a "good experience," and one that brought many friends and enemies. "I've done what I can. Now it's up to others to do what they cari do. And I'm leaving at a good time." He says Morton will have a "dif- ferent style" than himself, and that might be a timely change before members perceive the chairman- ship as a platform for Buffett. Buffett wasn't BIA chairman, but interested parent, and citizen, when he spoke loudly on the con- troversial Iroquois Park recreation issue. ("I Iost"). He will rernain as board member of the BIA, no longer in high titie for the organization. But probably no member expects him to remain mute. "If they need a committee mern- ber, I've told them I'm interested." Evacuation plan is 'misleading' Whitby's Iroquois Park recreation complex is an inadequate facility as an evacuation centre in the event of a nueclearmishap at Pickering, says a member of Durham Nuclear Awareness. A pamphlet advising Ajax and, Pickering residents on what to do in an emergency was recently. released. The watchdog group says the pamphlet doesn't contain enough formation and doesn t reallyaddressapossible disaster. "They're saying the worst case scenario is a controlled release," says Gail Cockburn of Whitby, a member of Durham Nuclear Awåreness. The group wants the size of the emergency planning zone in- creased and wants residents to be supplied with stable iodine tablets. "The plan is misleading and un- workable," says Cockburn. The emergency plan is being distributed to residents within a 10- km. radius around the Pickering nuclear generating station. "The evacuation zone is too small," says Cockburn. "It should be a 30-km radius." She says the plan is "cleverly- worked" so that decontamination is "not stressed at all." She says the plan also does not address the traffic problem that would occur in the event of evacuation. "There's not enough buses to get people out of the area. The traffic problem would be horrendous," says Cockburn. Thickson sign to be studied A sign placed across Thickson Rd. warning drivers that students are crossing is being investigated by the public works department. The sign would be required for students who have to cross Thickson to get to the future Bellwood school. Public works director, Dick Kuwahara, says the sign would only work with a key carried by a crossing guard. He could not give a cost for the sign. More details will be given at a July 13 meeting of Whitby council. Tlirmon iI o 8th C Md.reftBrae e0 -z or KneaIe Brougham q No. Hwy. Brookln N.- Whitby PICKING SUBJECT TO WEATHER & SUPPLIES BRING CONTAINERS MEASURED IN QUARTS (eg.6qt. basket) PLAYGROUND PROVIDED FOR CHILDREN UNDER 12 •RS. OLD. 71h Concý g 4 4