Whitby Free Press, 13 Jan 1988, p. 5

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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY'13 1988, PAGE 5 On a hill north of Beaver, Ont., Lucas Letterpress, another lineup awaits. sometimes editor and prop. of The Flat Tail, is making his "They should be out in force today 1 one of the waiting fortune out of the January snows. customers.shouts* Every weekend now, cars with their little trailers line Lucas nods. "We keep 'em culled to makeit sporting. up outside of the Lucas acres, waiting to enter. Those in 'Wno vr the cars wear funny hats, snowsuits like three-year-olds Lucas holds out his mitt to the first in une. "Twenty and muffling mittens which they slap together in the cold. dollars for an hour," he says. "No extensions. Ar- Fights in the.lineup are common, although little damage munition extra. you can shoot from any fence une; those is inflicted. two towers - "Lucas points'to two 50-foot towers atop "Great day. eh?" one says. to no one in particular. No bv Bil Swan his on opposite sides of the -"can be rented for %AAUq AA ,&a. A& " , - ..r- - - one in particular grunts back. The sun is shining on the diamonds in the snow; the ground is pure white asfar-as the eye can see. "Next!" shouts Lucas. A car moves, the driver shoves a $20 bill into Lucas' double-mittened hand, and edges for- ward over the crunching snow. Thirty yardsinto the field the car stops, the driver and passenger unhitch the small trailer and pull the summer wraps off the two small vehicles resting under the tarps on the trailer. ý'Revvem up," one says, his exact words lost as a million angry hornets swallow the silence. The snow quivers. Two machines sit for a moment, spitting, until the two men mount and open throttle. Men and machines disappear in a spray of snow, a fog of blue smoke, and a dervish of raucous sound. It is snowmobile time again. "Got room for another?" someone shouts from down the line of cars. "Surely there's room for more than one at a time!" But Lucas just shakes his head and points overhead to the sign. The sign reads: Avaricious Acres! Snowmobile heaven 100 acres, no fences guaranteed thin ice $20 entry, limited access Private Enterpise "One every half hour or so," Lucas shouts back, after the distance had swallowed the snowmobiles. "You!ll get your money's worth. Where else you gonna get a weekend of snowmobiling for $20?" Where indeed? Lucas leaves the would-be snowmobilers at the closed gate, straps on his cross country skis and follows a well- rutted path over the hills. He keeps to a fenced laneway, sheltered from the snowmobilers. Only eternal vigilance keeps the laneway so; in the past four weeks Lucas has discovered dozens of attempts to cut fence with wire cut- ters, run down the fence itself, or extirpate the fence posts for firewood. Lucas shot'the perpetrators, and tied the bodies to the snowmobiles and dumped them in one of three lakes on his property. They would iaraud no more. Ten minutes and half a concession road later, Lucas pulls up to another gate below yet another sign. Yet an extra $20 for the hour. It's well worth it, though; from either of those you can see virtually the whole hundred acres. And there are two swivel-mounted inachine guns inside each. Great sport!" Each of the next two customers slaps an extra $20 into Lucàs' mitten and they head for their shooting practice. "Remember the rules!" Lucas admonishes, pointing to the sign over the gate.. Avaricious Acres! Machine Gun Snowmobiles 100 acres, no fences Live ammunition $20 entry, limited access ABSOLUTELY NO GARROTING As Lucas heads back across the back of his property, he can hear the snowmobiles buck and fly over the ruts. The few who have survived the thin ice are now hunting cross country skiers. This is why Lucas had fenced off this ac- cess lane; a solitary skier stands little chance. against a snowmobiler. Further up the trail Lucas can hear the chatter of the machine guns. With a little skill, a good shot can keep a snowmobiler dancing for the full hour before ripping the treads to shreds. Lucas smiles. To offer so much entertainment to so many! How else is a.city slicker to pay the taxes on cedar swamp land? Developer permitted to dig test wells A developer who wants to extend the boundary of Macedonian Village, has been granted a reprieve by Whitby council until he has an opportunity to test the water in the village. The request had been turned down by administrative committee last week citing lack of water in the village as a major concern. But council, by a vote of four to three, has given David Brennan an Proceedings initiated by the Town of Whitby against an Ontario numbered company to have two derelict boats removed from Whit- by harbor have been put over until Feburary 8. Solicitor for the Town, John Brady told the Free Press he is un- unspecified amount of time to drill two test wells in the area. "We are asking that the decision be tabled so we can provide the necessary information for council to make a proper decision," George Karakokkinos, a spokesman for Brennan told council. Karakokkinos said a number of concerns were raised about the quality and availability of water by residents of the village at previous sure at this time how the town will proceed as their main witness, bylaw enforcement officer Noel Best, is presently awaiting back surgery. "It would be different if we could set a specific day at court, but we are unable to do that until we know when Noel's surgery is scheduled FAMILY WELLNESS public meetings. He said Brennan is in the process of hiring a driller but could give no time when the wells will be drilled. Both will be 90 to 120 ft. deep, he said. Council approved the request for fear the applicant would take the Town to the Ontario Municipal Board if council went along with the committee recommendation. "If we support the committee and deny the application, he can only go to the OMB and he has support of for," said Brady. "We will just have to wait and see if something comes up by the next court date," he added. various agencies," said councillor Tom Edwards noting various departments of the Town, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication were in favor of the application. "If there is aproblem with the water surely we should satisfy our- selves first if that is the major con- cern," he added. "It would be grossly unfair to the taxpayers of Whitby if this were to go tothe OMB and we had to défend an undefenceless position," said councillor Joe Bugelli who along with Edwards and councillors Gerry Emm and Marcel Brunelle agreed to table the decision. "I accept councillor Edwards OMB suggestion but council should take a stand now and say this is not a good time for the village to grow," commented councillor Ross Batten who along with councillor Joe Drumm and mayor Bob Atter- sley opposed the tabling motion. "The developer now is coming to council with this. If he was truly honest he should have had this in- formation before the last meeting,' added Attersley. Brennan has applied to have the village expanded to create 18 new lots. But villagers have opposed the application, saying it would disrupt their way of life as well as cause problems with the village's water supply. No date was given on when the matter would be brought back to council. Injury causes delay in boat trial C L 1 N 1 C

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