PRAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1978, WHITBY FREE PRESS whitby Voc e of. th eCou nty Town Michael la Mie oui>'Whitby newsPaper independently owned and open SERVING OVE'R 28,000 READERS an Burgess, Publisher-Managing Editr, aeu Dy vvWioy resîuents for vvntoy resiaeiiis. Community Editor -Brian Winter Published every Wednesday Contrifffiting Editor -Jim QuÎl 1 Production Manager -Marie Burgesi Prîint'& Promotion.' by Mî.B.M. Publishingi Manager -Robin Ly.oa and Photography IBC..Ciassîfied Ad Manager '-S. vau-oe Phone 668-111 1Circulation Manager "-Sr*onDL"Vkg Mailing Permit No. 460 Thé Free Press"Building,' Member of the: 131, Brock Street North, Btter Business Bureau of Toronto l'O. Box 206. Whtby, Ont, Whltby Chamber of Commerce On surveys...,,,,,,uiin~mm Let's tel it like it is Now that we have had time to study the recent retail survey of Downtown Whi tby done by the- planning department, we feel a few comments are in order. Flrst we have tg tip'our hat to Tom Mcleague who did the research and especlally to the planning department to have had the foresight f0 get involved in an area that ls very Important to the welfare of the downtown businesses. Few merchants have the resources, time or money to do market research and most usually have difficulty ldentlfylng their market., lt' not unusual for our advertising people to be told by a Whitby merchant that he is flot interested'in the Whltby moiarket and that his customers wlll corne-from out of town and hence doesn't minc spending blgger bucks to advertlse ln larger out of town newspapers etc. etc. But this isn't really the way If 1.' Most businesses wlll do most of their business in their own locale. So lt's not surprislng to see this survey conflrm that 83.7% of the sale going to Whltby residents and only 16.2% to out-of -towners. Ther percentage 0of dollar value of purchases looks a 1lIttie dif ferent, about 65%.Yo to 35 %. in favour of Whitby residents, but obviously the buyers dloser to the stores don't mmnd making more trips than the buyers f rom ouf of town., If you study the statistics of this survey you quickly see that the Individual expenditure increases the furfher away from the downfown the buyer cornes from, and neediess to say the number of buyers drops quite drastically. lt's almost the old story of what would you rather have? 425 sales at $60.98 each for a total of $25,919; or 2,195 sales (5 times) at $22.50 ea ch for a total of $49,389? Too offen merchants try to reach that market (at a much higher cost f0 themselves) that' s just a little too far away, and neglect their primary market thaf will produce 83%, of their business. Withouf wanting f0, make these comments sound like a biatant plug for local advertisîng, let's give an exampie of Joe Blow, local retailer who selis ice cream cones. He says "I wanf BIG coverage", "I wanf f0 hIt lots of people" etc. etc. So, for a mere $10,240 he can buy ONE minute of air tîme on the CBC TV network. but is our Ice cream ouf let really-going to attract business from Vancouver and Halifax and across Canada? On the other hand, he can run a haif page ad wifh us every Issue ail year and still have enough money left over to take the famnily for a nice holiday overseas ... actually he'll have MORE money-because the primary market advertising wlll have produced more results. lt's difficult for refailers fa decide where Is the best place to invest their advertlsing 'dollars, espetially when they're bomfbarded by salespeople who ail dlaim their product is'the best... .and that's the good thing. about Impartial surveys ... they tell if like if really is. Justlfo give an exampie, a National Company came, to Whitby and sfarted advertising, but not in the Free Press... .So we asked themn why. They said that there were 50 many media around that if was nearly a Flip of the coin, but what convinced themn was another newspaper that claimed to have paid circulation in Whitby. The* didn't know thaf the Free Press doesn't charge or ask for donations, so they decided to do their own market survey. if was very simple. They ran idienical coupons in the newspapers for a month with identifying marks on therni and then counted the resuits. Their-Whitby store collected three fimes as many coupons f rom the Whitby Free Press as they did fromn the newspaper they had originally thought was the one to go with ... no need to fell you who fhey're advertising wîth now. Another national company does a similar Box 206 Report from Queen's Park By George Ashe MPP Recently the Honourable Frank Drea introduced a number of changes which refl-ect the Ministry of Correctional Services' flexibility in dealing with current issues confronting the Ontario government. 0f special interest is the Community Involvement Program which allows an inmate or group of inmates to participate in a work project or rehabilitation program outside the limits of the institution as part of a cornmunity service. Under this Program, the Oshawa/Ajax area is one of seven centres around the Province where the Ministry is conducting a three year pilot project to get petty offenders out of jail and into community service work, and has been organized by the Probation and Parole Services. Persons convicted of ininor by-law, traffic or alcohol violations, petty theft and vandalism are eligible for participation in the Program. The type of work offenders are performing range from small projects involving only one or two inmates, to sizable undertaking utilizing large work parties. People sentenced to do community service work are flot paid for their work. A basic condition placed on each project before its inception is that no wage paying job in the community can be replaced due to these projects. itather than sending offenders off to jail, they are obliged to perform community services such as maintenance work for a senior citizen or cleaning out a ravine. The jobs are performed during the offender's spore time. Should'the person not perform the set task, then a stiffer jail sentence will be imposed. The purpose of the Communit>' Service Program is two-fold. First, and most important, it will save the taxpayers money. Supervised probation of a non-violent offender is estimated to be about $2.50 per day. Keeping the same person in prison costs about $40.00 per day. As well, the Ministry also hopes this Program will resuit in effective rehabilitation. Many of our jails are correctional institutions are overcrowded with people who might be better rehabilitated through this new system rather than being locked up for a short perîod of time. If the program proves to have some positive aspects to the rehabilitation process, it will then be determined whether or not it should be initiated throughout the province. The key of course is supervision while inmates remain in the communîty. Resuits of the pilot project, started last August, demonstrate that Community Involvement Programs are a viable and positive alternative to incarceration for persons convicted of non-violent offences. Developers want Pringle Creek sewer A diversion sewer along the Pringle Creek will be considered by the Durham Region Works Committee in its 1979 capital budget discussions, but there is no guarantee that it will be buit nexf -~ar. 1»ývui-opers owning land along. the Pringle Creek are anxious for the sewer to be buili through inadequately serviced areas, but a Toronto lawyer for the developers was told at a works committee meeting last weck that there is no guarantee that next year's regional council wiIl decide to build the Pringle-Corbctt diversion scwer. The lawyer, Lewis Miti, ofn the firm of Master and Brown, appealed to the committee to allow the developers to use an existing single-home sewer line for one of the subdivisions planned for the Pringle Creek area. A decision was needed, he sa id, because the developers have to begin construction before the end of 1978 to qualif>' for federal financing assistance. Mr. Mitz said he cou- sidered that if holding tanks and pwnps were built the rcsulting sewers wbould be adequate. He expressed concern about reacbing a compromise, as the region two years ago cancelled vx~Pansion of-the Victoria and Hlarbor Street pumnping stations because of cost restraints. "The alternative would be for us to ask for a writ of mandamus fromn the courts which would force the region to accept construction of multi-unit residential buildings on the properties ini question." said Mr. Mitz. Works Committee Chair- min Garnet Riekard told Mr. Mitz that it was unlikel>' the sewer construction costs would ho approved b>' the 1978 couneil, and since this is an election year, the 1978 council cannot guarantee bow the new council of 1979 will act. A staff report recoin- mended that no further connection be permî.tted to the exising sewer system until stage one of the Pringle-Corbett diversion, is built. Councillor Alex Robertson said that if any more connec- tions were mhade to the exist- ing system the region would be in deep trouble with environment ministry because of overflow problems in the area. The committee voted to upnold the region's decision not to approve any more connections to tie existimg sewer, although talks with regional officials and bealth officers are expected to continue iu an effort to flnd a solution. J WA7-41R-e,, WE'y eriEAZ WlJe .e-7lVOWjl L