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

Hats off to W.R. Chadwick and Gord Hague for their straight talk on the Waterloo public library issue. It would be truly remarkable if we could now get some straight talk from our municipal bureaucrats. Personally, I‘m not holding my breath. It appears to me that our loyal public servants have taken it upon themselves to steal our prize twoâ€"wheeler (uptown Waterlao} and give it to a kid from another block (First Gulf) in exchange for the promise of a "double ride" {mutually beneficial deal). And now that they have realized the other kid can‘t ride a twoâ€"wheeler (attract real tenants on their own}, they want us to buy and install the training wheels (become captive investors). Wake up Waterloo! You are being conned with your own money. The library is only the tip of the iceberg. It‘s high time that our elected offiâ€" cials take back the reins of power in this city and start acting responsiâ€" bly, in the interests of the taxpayers, instead of blindly following the (highly suspect) recommendations of selfâ€"interested and arrogant bureaucrats. Democracy has becâ€" ome nothing more than a really bad joke in this city. Hats off to straight talkers on library issue And on the issue of performance bonuses for city staff, it is high time that someone took a good hard (political or journalistic) look at curâ€" rent user and permit fees; and ask some hard questions as to how much profit is being made (or shall we say extorted) over and above the actual cost of providing a specific service and/or administering a speâ€" cific permit. I take issue with the selfâ€"congratulatory _ and _ highly questionable characterization that recent budget surpluses are a result of "efficiencies" realized by staff. They like to think they are operating "like a business", but there is preâ€" cious little competition or conâ€" sumer choice in their "marketplace" when the "customer" is forced (by legislation) to do business with them and the price. quality and level of service are not up for negotiation You said it QUESTION WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR THE SUMMER? lt:sr no wonder the City of Reporter did little research q fter reading Andrea Bailey‘s artiâ€" le ("Smoking bylaw continues to bring devastating loss...) it was clear that she did very little research for the article. Mr. Justice Reilly, the judge for the lawsuit against the region, said in court that the lawsuit lacks evidence of damage caused by the region‘s Smoking Bylaw. "Their saying so doesn‘t necessarily make it so, without sworn affidavits. If there‘s an absence of evidence, the court is entitled to draw an adverse conclusion," Reilly said. The bar and restaurant owners, except for one, did not provide audited financial statements supporting their claims. The one owner, Dary! Moore of the Lyric, showed an increase in revâ€" enues for the first three months of this year compared to the same three months of the previous year. If the bar and restaurant owners were truly losing business then why did they not provide audited financial statements? Waterloo has been voted one of the "best employers". Wouldn‘t we all like a job where the boss follows our directives, never questioning what we are doing; and where we are not accountable to the customers or shareholders either? Narrow views shown again Bobby's narrow views were once again shown in his column, complaining about the extended coverage the U.S. Open Golf Championship had on June 18. Instead of complaining about the preâ€"scheduled _ coverage _ (who knows when one player will domiâ€" nate as Tiger did), have him edit his section of this paper (or not}. Golf in North America obviously has many fans who enjoy the coverâ€" age. Take a look in the stands and all over the course as these Grand Slam Why didn‘t Andrea Bailey ask Sonia Adlys if the Huether Hotel was En m on The truly sad part of this dirty litâ€" "Sleeping. I also have to go to summer school for science." "I‘m partying, work ing and going out with my friends." Stephanie Milligan ) THE CHRONICL] COMMENT Pat McNeil the situation is that now our friendly neighborhood school boards have caught on to the "user fee" method too. When will we have the political guts to pull the plug on this public sham? events and see how popular it is. Divide his 80,000 fans at a European soccer game by 1,000 to give you a clue on how many people show up for soccer games in North America (I‘m sorry, were there any?). I see more diving going on in these excitâ€" ing 1â€"0 soccer games than at the Summer Olympics. (oops â€" give me a yellow card for that remark!) _Bobby, go join afterâ€"game mob where you fit in better. _ â€" one of the plaintiffs? 1 expect the proprietors for the Huether are on the list of plaintiffs Why didn‘t Andrea ask Sonia why they did not provide audited financial stateâ€" ments supporting their claims? It is important for reporters to do the research. In late January or early February, 1 called the Huether Hotel to inform the proprietors that I would no longer be patronizing their establishment given their indifference to the health of their nonâ€"smoking patrons. 1 asked for the name of the person I was speakâ€" ing with. It was Kelly Adlys. He never asked for my name. In further disâ€" cussion, I said to Kelly that it was no wonder they were losing business since they were sending a very negâ€" ative message to nonâ€"smokers, Kelly responded with a laugh and said. "You can‘t believe everything you read in the paper you know." I was quoting his comments from an artiâ€" cle in the Record Susanne Santi, S. Santi Applied Health Research "Working and travelâ€" ling. I‘m going to Virginia and Ottawa, and I have a job here at the (Conestoga) mall." "Partying. I‘m just hanging out with my friends and partying." Thomas J. Reinhart, Kristine Devlin Ray Koumovic, Waterloo Rob Milner Waterloo From the cuts to the Environment Ministry hampering the govâ€" emment‘s ability to protect air and water quality to the skyrocketâ€" ing homelessness created by the Tories‘ destructive housing poliâ€" cies, the cost of the Common Sense Revolution can increasingly be measured in lives lost. re are quite a number of ways to judge the success of a govâ€" I ermment. Some people like point to balance sheets, while othâ€" ers prefer opinion polls and electoral success as measures. Under the Harris government, a more disturbing macabre meaâ€" suring tool has become more and more useful: how many people have died as a result of their policies? Of all of the reckless and irresponsible things that our provincial government has done, however, the elimination of photo radar has to be near the top of the list. Promising to kill photo radar was an essential part of the Tories‘ 1995 campaign strategy and one of the key reasons that they won the all important "kneeâ€"jerk vote". Having commuted to Toronto when photo radar was in place, I can personalâ€" ly attest to its effectiveness. Quite simply, people slow down when they are conâ€" vinced that speeding is likely to cost them money. If they think they can get away with it, they will. _ Within days of being sworn in, Mike Harris made good (or is that bad?) on his promise and pulled the minivan cameras off the 401. People were again free to speed without fear of getting a ticket in the Photo radar was an effective deterâ€" rent, and removing that deterrent led to more people speeding. More people speeding leads to more accidents, more severe accidents and more deaths. The arguments for reintroducing _ photo radar now are much the same as they were in 1994, when it was first put in SCOTT place. The week after photo radar was PIATKOWSK introduced, 1 wrote the following words in defense of the initiative: "The best way to avoid getting fined for speeding is, as always, not speeding. In this way, getting ticketed and paying the accompanying fine is entirely voluntary. Speeders are breaking the law, endangering their own and others‘ safety, and causing unnecessary pollution. The governâ€" ment has always punished speeders; the new technology has mereâ€" ty made it easier to catch them." The outcry over photo radar is bizarre. Photo radar is no more a violation of privacy than is the security camera in a variety store. if an armed robber or shoplifter gets caught due to the security camâ€" era, few people would think that her or his rights are being violated. Yet, incredibly, photo radar is called "big brotherish" by some. Critics also argue that the photo radar system will be unable to combat offenses other than speeding. For starters, thase who comâ€" mit infractions such as following too close or weaving in and out of traffic are usually also speeders. In addition, none of the other enforcement mechanisms available to the police is being disconâ€" tinued. Moreover, the argumnent is like criticizing a cure for cancer because it does nothing to stop heart disease. The other main complaint about photo radar is that it is "a cash grab" by the provincial government. While this argument ignores evidence of the benefits of stricter enforcement (improved safety, lower emissions, increased fuel efficiency}, let us assume for the moment that it is a valid one. Governments use money that they raise to deliver important services, programs and infrastructure â€" including the very roads on which speeding infractions occur. Given the need for money to support these activities, the only quesâ€" tion is the méans by which it is raised. Collecting money from those who voluntarily break the law is not a bad place to find the money. _ _ i _ Since Mike Harris isn‘t known for taking my advice on policy matters, he might be more inclined to listen to the advice of the coroner‘s juror info an 87 car pileâ€"up near Chatham, which killed eight people and injured 45. In addition the a series of other safety improvements (including median barriers, better fog warnings and a crack down on aggressive driving), the 12 jurors argued that photo radar would help to slow people down, thus reducing chain reacâ€" tion collisions like the one with which they were dealing. Ralph Klein‘s Alberta is just one of several Canadian provinces where photo radar has been successfully introduced with little of the moral panic that marked its brief presence on Ontario‘s roads. Clearly, Mike Harris‘ opposition to photo radar is not a vital part of the right wing psyche. Instead, it seems to be based more on political opportunism ar.d stubbornness. That‘s a poor excuse for risking more lives Bring back photo radar