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

Carolyn Anstey _ Amy Hachborn Circulation Manager _ Circulation The Waterioo Chromicle welcomes letters to the Editor They should be signed with name. address and phone num ber and will be verified for accu racy. No unsigned letters will be published Submissions may be edited for length. so please be brief Copyright in letters and other materials submitted to the Publisher and accepted for publication remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproduce them in print. electronic or other forms Our mailing address is 75 King St S . Suite 201. Waterioo N2] 1P2. our e mail address is wechromcle@®sentex net. and our fax number is 886â€"9381 WATERLOO CHRONICLE <> sK1 Letters Policy 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 (A division of Southam Inc.) Publisher: Cal Bosveld 886â€"2830 Fax: 8B6â€"9383 Eâ€"mail: wchronicle@sentex.net Lynn Mirchell Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 136379 International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0832â€"3410 Mailed subscription rate: $65 yearly in Canada, $90 yearty outside Canada. +GST Jim Alexander _ Gerry Mattice The views of our columists are their own and do not necessarily represent that of the newspaper. The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southam Inc. Norma 7(Zry(a Director of Sales Supervisor Advertising indrea Bailey Reporter Cal Bosveld Deborah Crandall Publisher Editor Audited circulation: 26,056 i' 3#\ | las "?“ Laune Ridgway Sports Editor Bub s rharsi Bill Karges To Ashley, Sarah, Slonee and Monika I say thank you. You will notice I did not show their ages for that has no bearing on what they have said or accomplished Regards, Norm .. notice no age is given! As one who has spent a life time in education, creative thinking, innovation and problem solving, this letter is an excellent example of the thinking abilities we have yet to tap. The final comment about our thinking of how the letter was wrtitten and how they solved the issue demonstrates the great potential of thinking and ideas that "kids" have and how we as adults are perceived. We canâ€" not pull the wool over their eyes nor can we dismiss their thoughts and ideas for they have truth and reality as their value system. I would suggest you expand this idea and go out looking for more kids who have ideas. They may be kids in the sense of age, but they are adults and the future in their ideas and thoughts Ager so many decades of reading the Waterloo hronicle, the "What us kids think" letter (Aug. 2) is fantastic! Increased traffic only occurs when housing is far away from places of work/study. If anything, we should be complaining about the traffic problems caused by the new housing developments on the west side of town. Why don‘t 1 drive it to caused bV the school? â€" Because over # [ such short a distance, new housmg driving takes just as long developmems as â€"walking. Starting my car, negotiating traffic, on the west finding a parking spot, 7 and walking from a disâ€" side Of[OlUrl. tant parking lot to my class takes just as long as walking directly to class from my front door {around 10 minutes}. On my bike, it takes only four minutes, since 1 can ride right up to the door of the building. Far from any services or places of employment, their residents will almost certainly clog our roads {and lungs) with cars. We can‘t pull the wool over kids‘ eyes Case example: 1 live about 0.75 km from UW I do have a car, but it usuâ€" ally sits in my driveway unless I am getting a big load of groceries or going home for the weekend (both done during nonâ€" peak traffic times}. n last week‘s Chronicle, D. Coughlan and Gladis IFlarl expressed concerns about increased autoâ€" motive traffic if the proposed 14â€"storey housing complex is built. Their fears of hundreds of addiâ€" tional cars plugging the streets during rush hours are unfounded. Why? Because, even if we do have cars, us students don‘t drive to school, unless we live hopelessly far away from campus. But the proâ€" posed location of University and Weber is only a half kilometre from Wilfrid Laurier University and a little under two kilometers from the University of Waterloo; far too close by to make driving an efficient activity. Extra students won‘t cause extra traffic Alex Matan, UW student and citizen of Waterloo Prof. H.N. Socha, visiting scholar, University of Cambridge, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England If anything, we should be complaining about the traffic problems caused by the new housing developments VIEWPOINT Maybe like on so many other things. it just didn‘t want to get involved We may never get the real answers. For example, we may never know why the govâ€" ernment backed off in so many fields, including sadly the protection of water sources The common factor in both communities is that their counciliors suddenly seem to have money to burn. Let me remind you that it was only a couple of years ago that these same communities were pleading that provincial downloading would leave them flatter than a sumo wrestler‘s instep. But oh what miracles have since been wrought. Granted, Ontario‘s economy has been acting as if it‘s been ingesting pep pills, but that‘s not the whole story. As strictly an incidental, it has purchased a seedy bar as one method of making it go away and, in yet another inciâ€" dental, it has purchased a buildâ€" ing site to keep the setting for Homer Watson house unblightâ€" ed by a neighboring dwelling. Or something like that. Kitchener councillors, more practised in shelling out big dough, are, for example, underâ€" writing a children‘s museum, helping drama projects and financing a new farmers‘ marâ€" ket. Take the megaâ€"millions recreation centre, the ritzyâ€"ditzy hiking trail, the Laurel Creek beautification effort, and so On â€" and so on. Ontaric‘s highest court has ruled that Portisment has a year to amend its marijuana laws or eise Ontarians will be able to possess pot legalily ... Even Waterloo, which has always been exempt from any temptation that calis for the spending of money, has suddenly been stricken with the urge to blow the bankroll. On a Spree: Something must have got into the air or water in the northern part of Waterloo Region because our councillors seem infected by an urge to spend, spend, spend. This summer by any yardstick will go in the record books as a dud. About all you can do this summer is stretch on the back lawn in a bathing suit and get a sootburn. ost summers give you two good Melcclrical storms at most, but this year we‘ve been treated to at least one a day. Well, at least it seems that way. By the way, speaking of storms, you have to wonder how they described giant hailâ€" stones before pingâ€"pong balls were inventâ€" ed. Suddenly, there‘s money to burn SANDY BAIRD Oh? In his first formal assessment, he lambasted Harris and the Tories and comâ€" mented that Ontario has virtually no control to prevent a Walkertonâ€"style contamination from the deadly E.coli bacteria Wow! It‘s lucky he‘s a friend of the PCs Otherwise he might have led a lynch mob on Queen‘s Park. Two. The Opposition ripped the governâ€" ment and Gord Miller when he was appointâ€" ed fairly recently as environmental commisâ€" sioner. He was assailed as a PC lap dog and a chum of the premier. DYy A couple of other points have surfaced in the wake of the RD Walkerton shambles. One. Environment Minister Don Newman was on holidays in recent weeks. Holidays? With Ontario‘s worst enviâ€" ronmental problem in his hands, couldn‘t he have deferred his holiday? Like maybe by a year. But, holy cow, the silver lining apparently knows no bounds. More and more unsafe sources are coming to light. As this column pointed out at the outset of the mess, if it hadn‘t been Walkerton it would ultimately have been some other community. Cereen ce If fairness to Mr. Harris, the ho ‘ water mess didn‘t arise fullâ€" AUBM| biown during his regime. It‘s Il Y ‘ common sense that some of the * | woes were developing during the tenures of David Peterson â€" and Bob Rae. With its usual prescience, this column forecast that there might be a silver lining if the disaster led to the discovery of other unsafe water sources. Pipe Dream: You‘ll have to pardon Mike Harris if he‘s sorry he ever heard of Walkerton. His government has been tarâ€" nished bigâ€"time by the taintedâ€"water tragedy and the worst maybe has yet to come. What a jolt for drivers! Yes sir, there‘s one thing worse than seeing a flashing red light in your rearâ€"view mirror. That is not seeing it and backing into it. Just the Ticket: Judging by the cars haltâ€" ed at the curbside, it strikes me that police are making more stops. Could it be that a crackdown is under way? But it should be stressed that the environmental steps taken by the PCs have all proven to be paces to the rear. What‘s been done to the environmental minâ€" istry shouldn‘t happen to the Grand River iceberg patrol team announced today it »ilfnow base their in another story ... out of Ontaric.... * â€" The Chronide