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Firefighter Terry Smith accepts a donation from a Kitchener Transit driver at the fifth annual Muscular Dystrophy Toll Bridge held Sept. 5. The event raised $5,300 in bills and $1,200 in coin. Mark Bryson photo Waterloo Regional Council would be making a big mistake if they decide to put an end to the Muscular Dystrophy Toll Bridge, says the local firefighter in charged of the annual fundraiser. Firefighter Bob Hebert says such a decision would be be both unfortunate and wrong, but vows it would not put an end to local firefighters‘ participation in raising funds to battle the deadly disâ€" ease. ‘‘I don‘t want to see it go because it is a good fundraiser. But if they (council) decide to put an end to it, I‘ll just have to find another way because I‘m certainly not going to stop battling Muscular Dystrophy," said Hebert. * The Bridge Street event managed to raise $6,500 in this, its fifth year. The success of the twoâ€"day toll bridge was seconti to none, says Hebert. Melodee Martinuk Chronicle Staff Waterloo trustee John Hendry vows to fight approval of an affirmative action policy by the Waterloo County Board of Education. In an interview Monday, Hendry said he plans to lobby his fellow trustees with the hope of convincing them to overturn the decision by a board committee last Thursday to adopt affirmative action. The decision, passed in a 10â€"toâ€"4 vote, is expected to be ratified at this week‘s board meeting. ‘‘There‘s no damned way I‘m giving up. I‘m fighting itâ€"doing all the lobbying I can to get some support on the board. If that doesn‘t work I‘ll go to the public to get the decision reversed," said the rookie Waterloo trustee. Hendry was one of four trustees voting against the policy statement, taken from a 1984 provincial report on affirmative action, which reads: "In demonstrating its commitment to achieve equal opportunity, the board *‘We had a few complaints but we had a lot of accolades. Things _moved very well and the traffic was seldom backed up," said Heâ€" This, he said, was vastly different from the Shinerama fundraiser which tookplace the same day. ‘"‘I‘m not knocking Shinerama, but it caused a lot greater distraction to traffic than the bridge didâ€"and that‘s right across Kâ€"W," said Hebert."I just hope they (council) let us do it again next year." Success of toll bridge was ‘second to none‘ Hendry lobbies against passage of affirmative action policy hereby undertakes a program of Affirmative Action for its women employees in order to diversify their occupational distribution within the system and to eliminate barriers to their full and equal participation in employment."‘ The policy adoption arose out of a discussion concerning responsibilities of the board‘s employment equity officer. Trustees voted in July to hire an employment equity officer from within its own staff for a twoâ€"year term, replacing Helen Thormanâ€"McLean whose threeâ€"year term ended Sept. 1. Hendry is fighting the policy for two reasons. First, he doesn‘t like the way it was dealt with by the boardâ€"he believes an issue of such importance should have been ‘"‘fully debated" by the entire board, not passed ‘"in the last minute‘‘ when one third of trustees were absent. Of greater importance, however, is the fact that he is ‘"‘philosophically opposed"‘ to affirmative actiion because it leads to ‘"reverse discrimination‘" and "hiring At a Queen‘s Park meeting Monday, Curling told Waterloo Mayor Marjorie Carroll and UW President Doug Wright that a $1 million interestâ€"free loan is curâ€" rently being examined to help with the first phase of a $7 million townâ€"house project slated for the northâ€"end of the UW campus. The construction will mean a home for 400 university students when and if the project is finally completed. And while the two Waterloo representatives came away from the meeting with a "positive feeling", Carroll remained cauâ€" tious to not count any chickens before they have actually hatched. ' ‘"It‘s by no means a fait accompli but we were very encouraged by the minister‘s response," said Carroll. Chronicle Staff A longâ€"awaited 100â€"unit townâ€"house project at the University of Waterloo received a much needed shot in the arm this week as Ontario Housing Minister Alvin Curling all but assured a pair of local officials that provincial help is on the way. And although the UW project was the main reason for the Queen‘s Park venture, Carroll and Wright didn‘t miss the chance to impress upon the minister other problems facing the city of Waterloo. Curling told the pair that he would attempt to find out if the $1 million was coming UW‘s way before a board of governors meeting scheduled for Oct. 7. If the board were to receive the much anticipated positive reâ€" sponse, Carroll says construction should allow for occupancy by the fall of 1987. Construction would begin next spring. It is expected the university will have little problem raising the remainder of the cost. Using statistics from Waterâ€" loo‘s recently completed student housing task force, Carroll outâ€" lined to Curling on what a great impact the student population has on the city. With 22 per cent of Waterloo‘s population made up of students, only Kingston, at 18 per cent, comes close. There was also discussion about other task force findings as well as talk about the city‘s lodging house licensing and the zero vacancy rate. The loss of previously studentâ€"inhabited homes was also an area of interâ€" ‘We had to discuss solutions facing Waterloo in the longâ€"term, UW townhouse plan could be boosted by provincial aid not just the UW project," said Carroll. WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1986 â€" PAGE 3 Wright and Carroll first apâ€" Chronicle Staff A group of Allen Street residents, which last week dropped court proceedings against the Church of the Holy Saviour and Mutual Life, will ultimately benefit from the yearâ€"long parking lot controversy, says Waterloo‘s chief administraâ€" tive officer. Don Roughley believes the future benefits will stem from the cityâ€"initiated Maryâ€"Allen Street neighborhood enhanceâ€" ment study, a factâ€"finding mission launched midway through the oftenâ€"heated controversy. The recommendaâ€" tions from the study, expected to be released later this month, could possibly go a long way to mending any souredâ€"feelings that the controversy has caused. ‘"‘While some of the neighbors aren‘t happy with the end result we can only hope they will be happy with the future development of the neighborhood," said Roughley in a telephone interview Friday. The approximately 20 homeowners put an end to the battle last week because their $5,000 legal bill was getting out of hand. When announcing the end to their legal pursuits last week, the residents also said they are expecting big things from the enhancement study. $ Meanwhile, Mutual Life‘s external relations assistant John Dinner says the issue has left the company with mixed emotions. ‘"Obviously we‘re pleased the matter has been resolved and we‘ll continue to be a good neighbor to the residents. (But) any time our name is brought forward in a negative fashion, you have to be concerned," said Dinner, adding that he believed the courts would have eventually ruled in Mutual‘s favor. ‘"‘It‘s an ongoing process to keep our image a positive one," he said. For his part Roughley also feels the city may have come out looking the part of the villain to some. O â€" And despite the decision to not act on its ‘"commercial use‘ bylaw in this case, Roughley does not expect a flood of similar situations to occur in the Uptown area. "I guess it really depends on who you talk to," said Roughley, "but I think we were fair in our response." _ "It wasn‘t an easy task to bring the parties together. Parking issues are not easy to deal with near a core area." Benefits could come from end to Holy Saviour legal wrangles quotas."" He fears the quality of education in Waterloo county will suffer if affirmative action is passed because the ‘"best people‘"‘ may be passed over for promotion. He would prefer to see the board adopt a policy guaranteeing the equality of rights and opportunity for all, "despite race, creed, sex, religion and all those things. â€" â€" â€" o ‘"As soon as you say for women, it means the exclusion of other minority groupsâ€"that‘s totally epposite to what employment equity means. It doesn‘t make sense to hire an employment equity officer then give him or her the mandate to discriminate," said Hendry. "I know people will call me a chauvinist, but I‘m not. There‘s no doubt there are inequities in the system that must be addressed, and I‘m not suggesting women aren‘t capable. But 1 still feel strongly that the best qualified person should be promotedâ€"no one should get a job as a token gesture. No one should be promoted because he or she is a member of a minority group." proached the minister for the meeting in February of this year.