Region to buy 81.5 acres 'on Thickson Road south of 401 Land purchase makes Whitby regional industrial centre Thursday's announcement of the location of a $40 million Liquor Control Board Warehouse in Whitby was followed-up the same day with approval by regional council for the purchase of 81.5 acres of land in the Oshawa-Whitby industrial Park, and an offer to purchase a further 37 acres. The regional council, in deciding to purchase the 81.5 acres from JDS Investments at an undisclosed price, has made the Oshawa- Whitby industrial park, south of Highway 401, the nucleus of industrial development for the Durham Region. The 37 acres will be pur- chased from the Canadian. National Railways and will be used partially for construc- tion of a road along the Whitby-Oshawa boundary. The region will use a $1.7 million interest-free loan from the provincial govern- ment to complete the unfinished portion of Went- worth Street from Thornton Road in Oshawa to Thickson Road in Whitby, and for construction of the boundary road. Construction of these services will begin immediately. . Development of a 1,000- acre industrial park on the Whitby-Oshawa border is in conjunction with the pro- vince's Toronto-Centred Region Plan of May 1970 which emphasised growth east of Metro Toronto, and the Durham Sub-Region report of 1976 which made provisions for financial assistance to the region and the servicing of 2,300 acres of industrial land. . About 70 per cent of this land will be in Whitby and Oshawa, of which about 45 per cent is covered by the plans announced Thursday. The main entrance to the 1,000-acre industrial park from Highway 401 is along Thickson Road and Went- worth Street. The region is $40 milion Ontario liquor warehouse for Whitby Whitby's industrial economy got a real boost Thursday when Ontario Consumer and Commercial Relations Minister Sydney Handleman announced that a $40 million storage and distribution warehouse will be built in this town by the Liquor Control Board. The first 'stage of the LCBO development will consist of a building occupy- ing 600,000 square feet with a value of $40 million, in the Thickson Road Industrial Park, south of Highway 401. The building will be located on a 51-acre site west of the Oshawa boundary and south of Wentworth Street. Construction of the build- ing, which will service 320 stores in eastern Ontario, will begin in 1978 and is expected to be completed by 1980. Mr. Handleman's office reported the LCBO warehouse would provide 100 jobs, but Durham Region Chairman Walter Beath expects the work force to reach 300. Mr. Handleman said the LCBO building is the first step in implementing pro- mises to generate growth by locating government tacilities in areas east of Toronto. Mr. Beath said the ware- house is "the major announce- ment since the region was created, as far as industry is concerned". Mr. Handleman said a $1.7 million interest-free loan for servicing industrial land in the Durham Region, announced earlier by Housing Minister John Rhodes will be used to provide road access and other services to the warehouse. Work will commence immediately on the servicing, and opening of Wentworth Street from Oshawa to Whitby, said Mr. Beath. The LCBO warehouse will be the largest in the board's chain of such centres.and will accommodate three million cases of wines, spirits and imported beers. Mr. Beath said he saw the decision of the Liquor Control Board to locate its warehouse and distribution centre in the Oshawa-Whitby Industrial Park as a caialyst to spur future industrial development in the area. hoping for work to proceed as soon as possible on recon- struction of the Thickson Road-Highway 401 inter- change. The present inter- change, the region says, is badly in need of reconstruc- tion. "The servicing plan pro- posed to the province by the region as adopted by council was enthusiastically endorsed by the province as 'a bold and immaginative' approach to attainboth the provincial and regional goals for industrial development", Beath. said Mr. "This is the culmination of seve ral weeks of co-operative effort on the part of the region working with the province through the office of Honourable John Rhodes, Minister of Housing". Daytime police office is proposed A daytime-only police station is what the Durhani Region's finance committee is going to suggest to the region's Board of Police Commissioners. Last Wednesday that com- mittee agreed to ask that the Whitby Police Station be kept open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. rather than 24 hours a day. A telephone link would be provided between the Whitby station and the Oshawa headquarters between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. the committee proposed. The decision came follow- ing a 45-minute closed meeting between the com- mittee and representatives of the police commission. The police commission says that operating the station on a 9 to 5 basis, it could save the salaries of four officers, amounting to a total saving from June to the end of the year of $45,666. The total saving would be $67,122 from June to the end of the year if the station was closed entirely, and $31,059 if the station was closed and another one opened in the downtown during the day-time, says the commission. Councillor John Aker, chairman of the finance committee, said he thought the committee's decision would be viewed as a logical one by the Whitby town council. He also said that Police Commission Chairman Tom Jermyn had said keeping the station open in the daytime was the most acceptable of the three alternatives. He quoted Mr. Jermyn as saying that the police department does not need a station in Whitby. APRIL IS CANCER MONTH April is Cancer Month, and the Whitby branch's campaign industrial chairman; John Visser, campaign chairman; BiH started off Friday with the raising of the Cancer flag at the Irwin, co-chairman; and Mayor Jim Gartshore. This year's municipal building. Taking part in the flag raising, from left Cancer fund goal in Whitby is $21,000, and canvassers will to right are: Mike Burgess, publicity chairman; John Town, be going door-to-door throughout April. Free Press Photo Mi bus service proposed for seniors A mini bus service for senior citizens instead of subsidized taxi fares may be a possibility for Whitby, says Councillor Jov Thompson. Councîllor'Thompson said at a recent council meeting that there is an offer for the purchase would vol unteer of a vehicle which be manned by drivers. This, she said, would replace the proposal to subsidize taxi fares, which Councillor Thormpson says would cost $90,000 a year., iaclyivoednth The town has not become proposaI yet, however it is More time for study The town council has because they cisagreed with obtained a 30 day extension a number of conclusions of from April 11 in which to phase one, the study of the review phase one of the financial and transportation Donovan Pinker Brooklin impacts of Brooklin growing study, and decide whether to 10,000 people. to proceed with phase two. Mr. Pinker and his staff Two weeksago the Durhan held a public meeting March Region staff asked that phase 30 to explain phase one to two be temporarily shelved Brookin residents, andvanswer questions. f c o assisting the Rotary Club in financing the operation of a van for the handicapped which the Rotary Club recently donated to Oshawa Handi-Transit. The Corridor Area Rate- payers Association approached Queen's Park last fall for information about subsidizing taxi fares for senior citizens, and discovered that it was legal for a municipality to do so. The matter lias been before the town's operations comin.ttee since thei. Second youth convicted for assaulting boy A 17-year-old Whitby youth was sentenced to 18 months definite and 18 months indeterminate in a reformatory for "an unpro- voked and vicious assault" on a 1 2-year-old boy last fall. Sentenced last week was David Jurgen Lawitzki, 602 Perry Street, who had pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing bodily harm when he appeared in court March 1. County Court Judge Donald R. Shearer described the boys two assailants as "cowards" as he passed sen- tence. A second youth, David Stanley Archer, 16, of 507 Dundas St. W. was sen- tenced to 18 months definite and 18 months indeterminate in a reformatory, in connec- tion with the same case, Nov. 12. He also pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm. The assault occurred Oct. 5 near the Jeffrey Street bridge in West Lynde, when a 12-year-old boy was beaten, stripped of his clothes, forced into Lynde Creek, and kicked repeatedly. The victim suffered facial lacerations, a broken tooth and a bloodied nose, the court was told. Crown Attorney Neil McCrank asked for a jail sentence, stating both assail- ants had equal roles in the beating. Defense counsel Gary Shewan told the court that Lawitzki had been drink- ing heavily and was drunk at the time of the offence. Judge Shearer recommend- ed that the jail terrn be served under the Temporary Absence Program.