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

5 | WATERLOO CHRONICLE Dwayne Weidendorf Gerry Mattice . Group Sales Director, Retail ?kQMmlgen‘ Ken Bosveld Deborah Crandall Associate Publisher . Editor, Ext.215 The Waterloo Chronicle welcomes letters to the Editor. They should be signed with name, address and phone number and will be verified for accuracy. No unsigned letters will be published. Submissions may be edited for length, so please be brief Copyright in letters and other mate rials submitged to the Publisher and accepted for |"mhlirmion remains with the author, but the publisher and its licensees may freely reproâ€" duce them in print, electronic or other forms. Our mailing address is 75 King St. S.. Suite 201, Waterloo N2J 1P2, our eâ€"mail address is wechronicle@sentex.net, and our fax number is 886â€"9383 The Waterloo Chronicle is published every Wednesday by The Fairway Group, a division of Southern Ontario Community Newspapers Inc., a division of Southam Publications, a CanWest Company. Andrea Bailey Bob Vrbanac Reporter, Ext. 227. Sports Editor, Ext. 229 Lynin Bartol Laurie Ridgway Regional Classified Classified Manager Sales, 623â€"6617 Deb Duffield Karen Dwwer Circulation Circulation Manager, Ext. 225 Assistant 75 King St. South, Suite 201 Waterloo, Ontario N2J 1P2 Associate Publisher: The views of our columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper. International Standard Serial Number Sales, Ext. 223 _ Sales, Ext. 222 B86â€"2830 Fax: 886â€"9383 mail: wehronicle@sentex.net Norma Cyca Melissa Hounslow Letters Policy Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number Ken Bosveld 905â€"523â€"5800, Ext. 239 Audited circulation: 26,056 ISSN 0832â€"3410 40050478 Some wellâ€"meaning people who oppose the library board‘s plans have put forth costâ€"saving meaâ€" sures that simply won‘t work. In trying to make expansion of the current main library building a more attractive (cheaper) alternative to building a new library, they propose expanding the library in the most unattractive ways. They eschew skylights that the library‘s consultants recommend as necesâ€" sary for visibility and natural lighting. They propose stacking yet more shelving on top of existing shelvâ€" ing, thus putting many books beyond the reach of the young or the elderly. They propose crowding the library floor with more shelving by creating narrow aisles, preventing access for the handicapped. They propose circumventing current building codes and safety regulations by having the 36â€"yearâ€"old library declared as a historic building. Over a period of five years, the board of trustees for the Waterloo public library (library board) has forâ€" mulated a plan to bring the library up to a reasonable level of service. It‘s not an extravagant plan. It does not set its sights on transforming the Waterloo public library into a model for other Canadian cities to folâ€" low. It intends to meet the current pressing needs of this city and it allows for growth to match population growth in Waterloo. If I have any criticism of the plan, it is that it is too conservative. Full implementation of the library board‘s plan won‘t be complete until 2016, with the gradual phasing in of branch libraries after a strong core facility needed to anchor services for the entire system is built. At the end of the implementaâ€" tion period, only then will the Waterloo public library be on par with the rest of Canada in terms of number of books per capita and in terms of library space per capita. Only then will we be merely average. Although I cringe at calling for us to strive towards mediocrity, the best that we can hope to achieve within the next decade is to try to match service levâ€" els for other communities of our size. And yet such a modest plan is meeting loud oppoâ€" sition from a group of people dedicated to denying us the new library that we need and deserve. Reeling from the news of the RIM Park financing, some have proposed that Waterloo halt any further capital conâ€" struction projects until the RIM Park debt has been paid. This is unrealistic. While we must come to grips with how the debt incurred by the city must be paid, we must also continue on with life and with city govâ€" ernance. It is unreasonable to expect that roads be left unrepaired, that we watch our neighbourhoods burn for want of enough fire stations, or that the reading needs of this city be neglected. A city left neglected is a city left for decay. Some people who have opposed the library board‘s proposal decry that it is too expensive for a city with our limited finances. They suggest that we merely fill in the parking lot below the main library‘s overhang. This modest addition in space comes at the expense of parking spaces, which then requires the addition of a costly parking garage. Worse still, such a modest addition may be meant to save some money now, but will cost this city much more in the long run since it will force us to expand yet again in the near future. Anybody who has visited the emerâ€" gency ward in a hospital knows that the worst remeâ€" dy for a badly wounded patient is to put on a bandâ€" aid, send the patient home, and hope for the best. Such a policy of denial, though it may be touted as a cheap solution today, will end up costing us all dearty. ver the past three decades, the Waterloo pubâ€" Olic library has sufféred through continual underfunding from the city. The problems are apparent to all those who use its facilities: purchase of new books is curtailed, operating hours are drastiâ€" cally reduced, waiting lists for popular books are very long, and public education programs are practically nonâ€"existent. Library staff valiantly offer an excellent service under trying and crowded conditions. That Chapters in Waterloo now serves as a de facto third library and that many citizens in Waterloo pay an annual fee to use the Kitchener library underscores how poorly our current library facilities meet the needs of our community. Waterloo citizens need a new library Continued on page 9 VIEWPOINT Here‘s hoping their generosity bears real results, and we can look on Waterloo as someâ€" thing more than the place that celebrates the gustatory delights of Harmony Lunch. The key focus of the centre is what the physicists call quantum gravity, the quest to discover one theory which unites the subatomic world of quantum iga= mechanics and the cosmic EOO expanse of gravity. Now that shouldn‘t be hard, should it? It‘s the holyâ€"grail goal of physicists that Albert Einstein pursued in the last decades of his life. And, for those too young to remember, Prof. Einstein could massage mathematics to a fareâ€" theeâ€"well. The Perimeter centre is the brainchild of Mike Lazaridis and the RIM entrepreneur sounds a note of confidence. Quoth he: "Every time we‘ve D unified forces in science, in g physics, it‘s led to complete industrial revolu tions." Incidentally, Lazaridis gave $100 million to launch the centre, and two of his colleagues kicked in $10 million apiece. Slip of the Lip: A University of Waterloo team is going to investigate the ins and outs of our smog. Good. The study can‘t come too soon. The other day I hiccuped and broke a Fowl Play: It‘s no wonder that Wall Street these days has more chickens than bulls and 11 that Torontoâ€"centred talk about "a A;arbage strike" left the wrong impresâ€" ion. For quite a while, I thought they were talking about a TV shutdown. Reaching for the Stars: "Have Shovel. Will Travel." PM Jean Chretien could pass out such a calling card to cover his regular visits to Waterâ€" loo. Maybe he‘d even consider keeping a hotel room here. It‘d save him a bit of fuss. The centre is modestly dedicated to discovâ€" ering The Theory of Everything. That‘s the inner workings of the atom as well as the forces that control the stars. We‘re all clear on that, aren‘t we? Although the turning of the sod has just taken place, the institute has been operating for more than six months and has enlisted many of its final staff of 50 worldâ€"class researchers. Anyhow, the Lifetime Ruler of Canada was in town again the other day, this time to turn the sod on the Perimeter physics institute and announce a $25 million federal grant. Chretien can really shovel it After a succession of scandals, The Street HRONICLE | It‘s a terrible feeling nowadays when you see the prices that the cash register rings up. That‘s why they don‘t keep razors near the checkout counters anymore. The sad fact is that Canada has a stronger economy than that of the excited States, but the American pace is a drag on what‘s hapâ€" pening in Canada. Each of these scandals serves to prolong the misery on the U.S. stock markets. It leaves Americans puzzled. They ask humbly how can you lose savings on something called securities? Mob Scene: It looks like Jean Chretien pulled a slick one in holding the Gâ€"8 meeting at some place that can‘t be spelled in Alberta. The result was that mob protests were miniâ€" mized. There was a little ruckus in notâ€"soâ€"near Calgary, but that was about all. At that, they say it was only 40 minutes to Cal â€" by telephone, that is. Koi ma(ion Digits: Do you )\ I R remember back when the stories lNMY on the monthly inflation gains really rated some space and some analysis? Not anymore. It‘s a sign of lessened inflation, but the subâ€" Take what was said about May the other day. It said that "sharp drops in the price of gasoline and natural gas slowed the annual inflation rate to 1.0 per cent in May, the slowest advance since DY December, Statistics Canada said D yesterday. "The inflation rate ran at 1.7 per cent in April. But the soâ€"called core rate, an inflation gauge that strips out volatile comâ€" modities such as energy and food and is the key benchmark for the Bank of Canada when it comes to interestâ€"rate policy, was stuck at 2.2 per cent in May..." This continues for a few more graphs and says the core rate could herald higher interest rates. Yup, inflation isn‘t so bad now, but our prices bear the weight of past inflations. That means things are so high that some people go to the supermarket to get an estimate on dinâ€" Ho hum! George Dubyah has made the same spiel as he always makes when some of his tycoon buddies are caught with their hands in the till. Heads will roll, etc. What hapâ€" pens? Nothing much. has the one thatears them all â€" the Worldcom mess. It‘s a little matter of $3.8 billion that‘s been purloined from the company, and when it comes to robbery that makes the Brinks‘ job look like petty larceny. ject rates only a few graphs these