Chronic care expansion plan beside hospital By Debbie Luchuk Whitby General Hospital's chronic care facilities may soon be extended by a 68-bed, one- story facility if the Ministry of Health approves the project, a joint venture with a private nursing care company. The hospital board of gover- nors, at last Thursday's meeting, passed a resolution in favor of an addition, hospital administrator Jim Miller said. The hospital* had previously been granted ministry approval for 36 chronic care beds, and Miller expects the Ministry of Health to approve the facility. The new chronic care building will be physically separate from the existing hospital building, except for an adjoining corridor. (Originally, there were plans to add at least one story to the hos pitalfor chronic careY "Construction will take place from the beginning of planning and Ministry of Health approval, in about 18 months," Miller said. "They've approved (similar) plans before. It may well be that they (ninistry) will take longer (to approve the facility), but I expect that they will approve it," he said. Extendicare, a private nursing care operation for the chronically il, will be sharing in the project with Whitby General. Extendicare will pay part of the cost for construction and will SEE PAGE11 Whitby company gets museum contract A Whitby boat company has been commissioned to build a half model of a Basque fishing boat for the Canadian Museum of Civilization, under construc- tion in Hull, Que. Walker Boat Building Com- pany will build a half section of the boat, to specifications taken from an actual ship of the period, for exhibit in the architectural history hall of the museum, owner Willie Walker said. "We heard about it (boat pro- ject) through the fellow doing the design of the boat. We had talks with them (museum officials), the project was tendered and we won the contract," Walker said. The ship is modelled after a ship found off the coast of Labra- dor. From this ship, a marine archaeologist took measurements for the ship reproduction that Walker Boat Building is con- structing. "It is just the stern section, 30 feet long and 25 feet high. People are going to be able to actually walk inside of it, and there will be two floors. "It's not built of the original oak, because the building isn't strong enough to bear the weight. It's made of red cedar, and is covered with pith, as the original boat would have been. "It is all the original look, with the right kind of bolts, sails, but will be glued with epoxy." Walker said that a Kingston sailmaker will be making the sails and riggin to original stan- dards, and a blacksmith there SEE PAGE 4 Accident claims life A 25-year-old Pickering man died after a pick-up truck travel- ling west on Dundas St. W., hit a hydro pole just west of Cochrane St. at 11:40 p.m. last Friday. Dead is Brian Andrew Vargo, 25, of 734A Krosno Blvd. Vargo was a passenger in the pick-up truck. He was pronoun- ced dead at Whitby General Hos- pital. A second passenger, Ryan Locke, 20, also of Pickering, was treated for minor injuries and released from hospital. The driver of the truck, Glen MacDonald, 24. of Kingfisher Dr. in Pickering, has been charged with inpaired driving causing bodily harm and death, danger- ous driving causing bodily harm and death, and having more than 80 millligrams of alcohol in his blood. Trafflc on Dundas St. W. was re-routed to other streets as police and emergency crews wor- ed at the scene, between Wel- lington and Cochrane/Annis Sts. Hydro and cable were out for a couple of hours in the area until the damage to the pole was repaired. Slippery proposition MATHEW WORMAN was one of the 3rd (B) Whitby beavers who handled a boa constrictor brought to last week's meeting by an Oshawa resident. Free Pres photo HIARRY ANDERTON and Carol Miller rehearse in preparation for the Whitby Courthouse Theatre presentation of the British farce 'Noises Off' Feb. 16-18and 23-25 at the Centennial Building. Tickets· are available at the door or at Middleton's Vinre Ohprecio - Free Press photo Rumpelstiltskins, zoning don't mix, says Drumm, as council rejects duplex By Mike Johnston Whitby council has denied the expansion of an illegal duplex at 805 Centre St. N. "If we approve this we will have a bunch of Rumpelstiltskins weaving threads of gold through the zoning bylaws of this town,» said councillor Joe Drumm, argu- ing against the duplex. Therezoning request was made by Frank Snyder and was, opposed by street residents. Had council approved the rezoning it would have made the duplex use legal. "We are not against Mr. Sny- der trying to improve his pro- perty. We are against the spot zoning to allow t he duplex," said Joan Mann, representing the residents at the meeting. She told council that the spot zoning would set a dangerous precedent in the neighborhood, noting that empty lots adjacent to Snyder's property could house duplex and triplex dwellings if council approved the rezoning. "We have an obligation to keep that area single family," said Drumm, while east ward council- lor Dennis Fox argued that rezoning would set a precedent. Snyder's application was to expand a part of the single fam- ily house into a garage he had recently built adjacent to the home. He agreed with council that the garage was an eyesore to the neighborhood. He said the expansion would improve the area. But councillors disagreed and voted 6-2 against the application. Mayor Bob Attersley, regional councillors Joe Drumm, Tom Edwards and Marcel Brunelle, west ward councillor Joe Bugelli SEE PAGE 9 Resident has judged Canada's best boxers See page 22 Area business news See pages 13-15 s,