Locals engage in Nuclear emergency 'Horse Talk' lntse Page 20 pa Page 4 Town balks at cost of detour Page5 United Way fails short of goal ýPage3 YUMA THE PUMA meets the Cougars -- students at Col. J.E. Farewell Public Sohool. Dale Gienow of Jungle Cat World of Orono showed Yuma to students at other Whitbysohools last Thursday. YPhoto by Joremy Drosar. Why Free Press 'Expernient'defenided By Mark Reesor Sinclair Secondary students and principal KayEgan are hotly defending the school's controver- sial 'directed study schedule' pro- Another hold.up For the second time i the past month, the downtown Whitby branch of the Bank of Montreal has been held up. A lone maie brandishing a knife escaped with a small amount of cash aftor holdin P the bank early Monday atr- noon. Police say a mani entered tho bank around 12:15 p.m., showed a knife and demanded cash. Ho also told a toIler ho had a gun, police say, but none was soon. The suspect dropped his knife as ho waa _eaving, and was last seen running forth Ofl the west side of Brock Street. He's described as a white mani who was .oain a purple hat with theoarspulled d , ak glasses and a jean jacket. Tho same branch was robbed Jan. 23, again by a lone maie bandit. gram. The oxperimontal program under which. students sponci Wednesdays engaged in sports or special interest activities of their choico, was roundly criticized by parents at a Whitby Parents Assernbl meetin, as roported las w'éZg heFY 08Pes. "The Wednesday program... give(s)- us knowledge that cannot ho taught in anormal' classroom envîronment, argues Grade 10 Sinclair studont Paintela Klaas- son (see letters te the editor, 'T eable to sign up for the Wednesdýyay tvtis we must ho swift. It forces us te get rid of bad habite such as procrastina- SE PAGE 31 recommendation Is exected Steennig, conim ittee report to be matü de pu bli.c .,today By -Mike Kowali It appears as if the arguments for retaining acute care health services at Whitby General Hos- pital have fallen on doaf ears.' A report to ho made' public today is-expected to recommend once' again that the 26-year-old hospital ho converted into a. rohabilitation treatment centre serving Durham ion. With some modifications, the report essentially supports a con- sultant's original recommenda- tion on the future of Whitby General Hospital, Tho Free Press has loarned. Services associated with a general hospital will no longer be offered in Whitby if the Durham Reg*on District Health Council and ultimately, the Ontario Igovernent, accept the report's findings. The report contains the final rrcomimendations of a special steering committee of the health council. The council, a local advisory body to the Ministry of Health wilIdecide tonight how it wilf deal with -the report. Council chair Gory Blake refused to confirm or refute what TIhe Free Press has been told. "I don't know where your infor- mation is coming fromh, but Fm notgoein~ to comment one way or another Blake said Frida. «Untii the report is officially released, its inappr ~rate for me to comment on whether it's the samne or substantially dif- forent. Blake also refused to respond to a suggestion that the health council is p lanning to urubber stamp» -the report and. send it on to the minisitry without further inpuilt from the. public. (Tho . heaith. council roceived more than 100 submissions from. across Durham last summier in response to a. "discussion paper» based on the consultant's report.) "The council will have a dis- cussion on dispoiton of the report," said Blak3e. - 4.It will become apparent Wed- nedynight,» ho said. ýWhile Blako and othor council members woro tight-lipped about the roport's contents, sources told The Free Press it basically supports proposais contained in last Mars discussion paper. That report was based on the consultant's study of future acute care needs in Durham ]Region. One way te make more offi- cient use of tho health care dollar is a restructuring of local services, such as converting Whitby Genoral into a. rehabili- tation centre, the study sugges- ted. Patients recovering from sort- ous illness, surgey or trauma would ho treated in the proposed contre. Local residents in need of omergoncy troatmont or ugr would go to expanded hospitals i Oshawa or Ajax, the study proposod. Hospital officiaIs iDurham Region were briefed on the steer- ig committee's report yosterday. A Press conference was sche- duled for this morning, while the health coundil will ineet this evening. Ward boundary review recomnended By Mke Kowall East ward councillor Dennis Fox continues te have concerns about possible changes to Whitby's electoral boundaries. ,Fox objected Monday te the wording of an operations commit- teo recommendation which directs Town staff te review the boundaries of Whitby's four wards. The two-part recommendation, which goos te Towh council next weok, loavs tho north ward (Whitby's least populated ward) untouched. If approved by council, staff will conduct its review but ho prevented from altering the size of tho ward. Taunton Road would romain the north ward's south- orn boundary. "I have no problem whatsoever with continued representation for the north ward» said Fox, who bas long advocated an ovor- haul of the ward boundaries. MBut the southorn boundary' seems to ho sancrosanct,» ho said. «Right now it (north ward) only includes five per cent of tho p'opulation. Why is it excluded? Im looking for t e rationale.» After Fox raised tho matter at last week's council meeting, Town clerk Don MéKay was ordered to prepare a preliminary report for the operations commit- tee of which Fox is chair. McKays report states that the ward boundaries date back to 1968 when the former Whitby township axnalgamated with the thon Towvn of Whitby. According te an agreement made at tho timo, the largely rural township was guarantood representation on the new coun- cil MeKay told committee. Ltowever, his report also notes that Whitby's growth over the last 27.yea-.s bas created dispari- 8PPA0E 9