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Dramatie increase, in break-ms locally Page2 Newborn's death investigated Page 13 Shepher d opts out Of pensi onpl an GTA mayors warned of more Page 181 bureaucraCy Page VYTFH B acko ut on Monday By Mike Kowaloid Thousands of Whitby residents were without electricity on Mon- day, for the second, time in a week. Seven days after the, Most extensive power outage, pn Whitby Hydro's histoiy an.-m-, Unme switch on one of the utility's feeder limes failed and many parts of, twn.wijhout .)ydpS, moie than three hours. The blackouts pccurred shortly after 5 p.m. and it took until 8:30 p.m. before power was re-estabi- ished in aIl sections of. Whitby except for those areas closest t the-failed equîirnent. sic HFydro lime crews did mot resut in complete restoration of power until two hours later. A press release issued Tuesday by the Whitby Hydro Electric Commission stressed that the mechanical failure was not rela- ted to high energy demands or last week's moreo severe power outge. Althugh not as extensive as the previous week's two consecu- tive days of disruptions, Mon- day's outage was -of suflîcient duration to cause comoern at, Towm council. Mayor Tom Edwjards, coumil's representative on the Hydro commission proised. to pursue the matter at that level. "I will make it- my business to tmnd out why we should have this second one follow so closely,» said Fdwards. "Accidents çan happen, but we need to' know what stepsý are: being taken to prevent it ini the, future,» he sàid. Iwas Edwards' understand- ing at thé ýtimé tàthe é necai- cal failure was due to an overloa- ded system which caused a transfer substation in, west Whitby to explode. To the best of his, knowledge,, the problem was not related to the -one which plagud hitby Hydro last week, Edwards noteci. SIn that incident, a major sub-, station on Garden Street had' been taken out of service to allow for installation of a new com- puter system. But work was to have been completed before last week's heat wave hit southern Ontario. Record hi h temperatures, combined with the' substation, shutdown, meant Hydro couldý not keep up with the demand for, electricity and blackouts occur-- red. In respone to the problems, the commission formed a speciali SEE PAGE 13 Optîmism over futr o ospita By Mike Kowalski A long and healthy life has been predicted for Whitby's embattled general hospital. Despite a still undetermined future, the 26-year-old -faciliy will continue to serve the health care needs of Whitby residents, a confident hospital board'chair Jim Souch promised last week. Although its primary role may ge l-hange Souch conceded. eplýe the liospital will sti provide a «wide range- of aer- vices." Souch's optimistic prognosis was delivered during the hospi- Blance of Town pledge wanted- tal's annual meeting at Heyden- shore Pavilion lest Wednesday afternoom. About :100 people attended the business portion of the meeting which was followed by a fun- draising din ner at Cullen* Gar- dens-later that night. Departing from his prepared text, Souch devoted most of bis remarks to the controversy that has enveloped the hospital for the past year.* He reiterated the hospital board's position with respect to a Durham Region District Health Council study which recommends that Whitby General be conver- ted into à rehabilitation treat- ment cemtre serving the entire See page 3 Local residents in need of emergency or- other acute care services would go -te expanded hospitals in Oshawa and Ajax, the study -- which is now before the provincial government -- pro- poses. "We agreed te rehab as an addition te existing services,» So0uch- said in explauming the! board's conditional support of the study. "But the fumding must be there if it's to be a centre of excellencet (as, the study purporta)',»"ho4 ernphasized. 'We're not going to lower our, standards for the Mimistry of~ Health.» That comment drew applause when Souch prefaced it by mon- tionimg the« hospital's recent, receipt of a four-year accredi- tation with distinction award from the Canadian Council on SEE PAGE 18' 23 County own arn'i*v'a, 1 Supplement INSIDE