The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Being a private company,. its personal guarantee on mortgage investments was backed only by the wellâ€"being and integrity of the company itself. Reâ€"Mor‘s courtâ€"appointed trusteed in _ order to close down C and M. bankruptcy is the Toronto firm of Deloitte. The alleged conspiracy is said Haskins and Sells Ltd. $3.8 million. Morley not interested in ‘taxi service‘ Kitchener Mayor Morley Rosenberg says his city is not interested in operating ‘"a taxi service for specific groups of Waterloo resiâ€" dents,"" and, contrary to the wishes of Waterloo council, believes a transit service request should be dealt with again by the Transit Adâ€" visory Committee before Kitchener council studies it. Waterloo counciliors were miffed recently when the request to reconsider apreâ€" vious decision went to the committee instead of directâ€" ly to council. Reâ€"Mor is reported to have left more than 300 investors on the hook for about $6 million when it went bankrupt this sumâ€" mer. â€" _‘ Rosenberg admitted in an interview that if the issue is once again deferred to the committee "there is no way the buses can provide serâ€" vice (to the Maple Heights area of Waterloo) before the beginning of the school year." One man,. who didn‘t want to give his name, said he stood to lose $30.000 he inâ€" vested in Reâ€"Mor, a mortgage brokering firm based in Niagara Falls whose head and only shareholder. Carlo Montemmuro. was also president of Astra Trust. The busâ€"route skirmish flared up Monday night when Waterloo Council reâ€" jected the latest comproâ€" mise _ proposal from Kitchener‘s transit commitâ€" Acting as agent of the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, a federal governâ€" ment body, Clarkson began issuing cheques on Monday in Wateriloo to cover most of the customers‘ investments in the trust comâ€" pany. » But some had more than $20,000 in the > company and now don‘t know if they‘ll ever * see their money again. Another man said one lady had $140,000 tied up in the company and will probably have to kiss $120,000 of that goodbye. Management Corp., but that money wasn‘t insured by the federal insurance corporaâ€" Earlier this year resiâ€" dents in the Maple Heights area of Waterloo requested service during the peak hours (6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.) from Monâ€" day to Friday. Said one elderly gentleman "it‘s a sad thing. There‘s a lot of peopleé who are going to lose their shirt." Florence Wisswell of Kitchener said she lost $2,000 in interest normally due her. Some said they invested, through the Astra Trust office. in Reâ€"More Investment ‘They came from all over the region, from Guelph, Drayton, Paris and Brantford. They lined up and waited patiently at the nowâ€"defunct Astra Trust office at 104 King St. S., clutching their certificates and letâ€" ters in hand. A security guard let them in, one or two at a time, through a locked door that barred the press. _ 2: <l k E The people were former customers of Astra Trust, a relatively new trust comâ€" pany that went belly up early this summer, when the Supreme Court of Ontario ordered it "wound"up"* and appointed Clarkson Co. Ltd. as liquidator. _ They were insured up to $20,000 including interest for any one customer. By Stewart Sutheriland Waterloo councitendorsed By Philip Jailsevac The IIttle ‘bank‘ that went bust Alderman Doreen Thomas, who sits on the Transit Advisory Commitâ€" tee, called the compromise ‘‘unacceptable‘‘ and in an interview said, "I‘m not going to sit back and see (Waterloo) get shafted. ‘‘We have to buy our serâ€" vice from Kitchener and they have us over a barrel," she said in the interview. **We pay them and they give us a pittance and the back of their hand. Perhaps the Reâ€" gion should be approached to take over transit serâ€" vice." Rosenberg called Thomas‘ suggestion an ‘"‘"empty threat‘‘ and ‘‘not valid." **We don‘t want or need full service," Thomas said. ‘‘*With what we‘re paying Kitchener (for transit serâ€" vice) they‘re being very unâ€" fair to the city of Waterloo." That committee‘s comâ€" promise proposal recomâ€" mended that transit service be extended to Maple Heights 12 hours each day, seven days a week at an adâ€" ditional cost to Waterioo of $19,000. the.scheme and sent it off for approval to Kitchener council, who rejected it. The city then voted to send the matter back to Kitchener council but it ended up beâ€" fore the Transit Advisory Committee instead. The alleged conspiracy is said to involve $3.8 million. That company went bankrup\t in 1979, after an application by the Ontario Securiâ€" ties Commission to the courts in 1978 for an order to close down C and M. Montemmuro. meanwhile, is facing charâ€" ges of conspiracy to defraud the public in relation to the affairs of another company he controlled, C and M_Financial Consulâ€" tants. & Cowan said he was a shareholder in Astra Trust and said the investment he stands to lose is **a lot more than anybody else." The Waterloo office was one of five branches of Astra Trust,. located mainly in cities in the Niagara Peninsula. f The trust company and Reâ€"Mor were not legally connected. although there was apâ€" parently some liaison due to Carlo Monâ€" temurro‘s position in both companies, He claimed Astra Trust had acted in good faith with its customers and said "I‘d have to be shown otherwise"" to think differently. On the other hand, one lawyer involved in the legal settlement of the affair has said chances of recovering any uninsured money are "virtually nonâ€"existent." He claimed all the facts about the demise of Astra Trust haven‘t been divulged yet and said *it‘ll all come out in the courts. I have the feeling you‘ll have lots to write about." He claimed the management of the trust company is ""most sympathetic‘ to the siâ€" tuation of its former customers and refusâ€" ing to explain added "the government moves in strange ways." In regards to the monies liable to be lost by investors, he said it isn‘t lost yet . claiming trustees ‘"earn a big fee before they disburse anything."" * Many of the customers at the Waterioo office were elderly, retired people who had In a phone interview. Cowan of Sunview St. in Waterloo, said he left his job as manager last Januarysbecause of personal, not business, ‘reasons. . been looking for a good way of investing their little nestâ€"egg. * Some said they were advised by investâ€" ment consultants and insurance company representatives .to seriously consider the attractive interest rates offered by Astra One man said hevinvested, because 1 trusted him (former Waterloo branch manager R.H. (Bob) Cowan)." _ ‘‘The Region wouldn‘t get involved in innerâ€"city tranâ€" sit. They rejected the idea several years ago,"" Rosenâ€" berg said. 7 He said that if Waterloo is upset with transit service ‘‘they should buy their own buses and run their own transit service." "It‘s a viable alternative and we‘d be happy to work with them in setting up a transit service,"" Rosenberg said. Rosenberg said there should be another public meeting to discuss the tranâ€" sit request from Waterloo because he said, "it‘s imâ€" portant to get public feedâ€" back...there‘s no use putting it in if they (the residents) don‘t want it." MORLEY ROSENBERG But Thomas rejected the idea of another public meetâ€" ing. © **We _ know _ what (Kitchener) will say if there‘s another meeting. We‘re just getting the runâ€" around,"‘ she said.~~ HE GOT HIS MONEY â€" Aivin Wilhelm of Baden leaves the former Astra Trust office on King St.S. in Waterloo after collecting the money he had invested in the bellyâ€"up trust firm. Wilheim was happy his money was insured and that it was under $20,000. Some others were not so fortunate. (Continued from page 1) visory committee, chaired by Alderman Robert Henry. The alderman said the committee will meet once more before presenting its recommendations â€" likely a list of alterâ€" natives â€" to council on September 15. After the meeting, Henry toid reâ€" porters there might be circumstances, such as a station wanting to match the hours of operation of stores in a plaza in which it is located, to warrant a special permit for longer hours being issued by council. f + Such a plan, Henry said, would be ‘"a logical compromise‘‘ between keeping the status quo and scrapping the bylaw altogether. Rob Hinsperger, who manages the Canadian Tire gas bar on Victoria St. in Kitchener, said the public deserves some consideration in the gas bylaw controversy. He put forth the suggestion that staâ€" tions be allowed to stay open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.: C 5 Hinsperger said the public ‘"deserve service when they want it. That‘s what we‘re there for."‘ Am Among those attending last night‘s meeting was a representative from Shell Canada Ltd. Jim Ryan, London district manager Stations still divided â€" Waterloo Chronicle, Wednesday, August 27, 1980 â€" Page 3 for Shell and a member of the Ontario Petroleum Association, said he came to tell the committee his company would not "obligate its dealers to stay open if the bylaw is rescinded." ‘"If they came and asked us if they could extend their hours for a six month trial period and it didn‘t prove profiâ€" table," he said, "then we‘d reimburse them for their losses." He said his company‘s operators have ‘‘nothing to fear about income loss through experimentation‘‘ should they choose to remain open longer hours. Jim Goodyear, who has operated a service station in Kitchener for 25 years, said he‘s concerned that small operators would be forced out of business in comâ€" petition with oil companyâ€"backed operaâ€" tions if the bylaw was scrapped. *"What would happen to the small guy who helped the community and grew along with it, if he‘s forced out of buâ€" siness,"‘ he said. "I must be competitive and the present rotating schedule gives me a fair shake. It helps to spread the profits around, not keep it in one pockâ€" et." But Hinsperger said "I have a lot of respect for those men who have owned their service stations for 25 years, but what about the customers that have been doing business with them for 25 years?" â€" .