DBIAý batile.discourages Shopping, says councillor By arkReesr Tuh~ l battle over the, Whltby Downtown Busineà rovement Area (DBIA) is dlacouragin1t = 1'bmshop In nthe, area, a"mcentre;7 =onllrJohn Déstra. "Tii.. guys down tiiere iiad botter get thefr act tpier," am Doltra."NTv recelved a lot of calîs ini tilit two or three weks fr*cma lot of area teie -s..(Who) are upsot at a numiber of individuals in the. downtown cor.. "They'remaing that basically if O theti way they want to do business, a lot of people are flot gong to be ahveclown there. - r Co own there to apend mon they don't go clown ther. to liston te tthe political battiles." Doîstra aya h.'. been told smre downtown shopk..pers have bruit up thisu, with customers nd *they don't go down tiiere te listen te tthe , eiene... (they say) thoy won'tb. bc~k and it'gong A MIRACLE Food Mart striker puts another board on the tire to help ward off the cold durlng the intense but brief snowstorm mhat hit Whitby last Wednesday afternoon. te, Idlidowntown Wbitby." Dolstra maya the, people who'vo taiked to him have en in Whitby for 35 or 40 earsand are concerned "tiat é body wantstosait down and solve problema." hduled an information Untirg for Wednesday Jan. 9, 7:3 p.m., at the, Royal an t.iS. Leion Hall, 117 Dolmtra maa 8ie 'sa invited yrTom Edwards and al JOHN DLSTRAof council te tthe JOHN DLSTRA eeting.. "The. full board will b, tiiere and everybody la invited. Let's ait down and see wiie, Workers have concentratea on picketlng the Thickson Plaza A&P store (A&P owns Miracle Mart) during the seven-week-old dispte.Photo by Mark Reeso, Whilby Fre Prms we'regaong." Whitby council 113 Planning tu, hold a special public mneeting to deal with tthe DBA issue and a petition a * ant thei16-year-old organization sometime after It was announced recently that DBIA UAa Lynda Ijawson han been appointed as the executive-director of the, newl -ormed St. John Ambulance Durham Region branc. Lawmon, wiio's been wlth the. association for neazly eight yearm begins her new job Jan. 10. Marketing assistant ?aryMgrchuk sa:ys sheil b. jgolng after the. DBIA office. DoIstra maya ho imderatands the. board will wait until the. controversy la resolved, "hopefully in the, very* near future," befor. deciding on hirig a replacemient for Lawson. Ho sayaopoents aould take a look at tiie benefits othieTBIA. NUG Atlantic's on-site generator is a step doser By MkeKowaluld An on-miepwer2pt te pùPro- d u ce e le c r c t o r A i n i a k agnga awaitmg,final approval roine 0nal yr. A decision la exp.cted eal tuis yar on a Non-Utility Generator (NUG) that would serve tii he >sn Road South pagr rcycling factory. . nyimpediment te tthe NLJG proceding are non negotiations over ternso «power of sale» agreemnent bet- ween Hydro and the. proj.ctIs proens.acceptanco of an agreement te purchase electrlclty produced by the. proposed 50- megawatt igenerating rstation means the.plant could-b. operat- ing by 1997.> "We're now working on tiie finalpoe of sale agreemnent»" said Br)witZhGao spokesperson Scott Stevens. «It'. still. up te Ontario H!rdro but we're really optimistic. tiiink we've got lt,» h. said. A joint venture of Atlantic Packaging and British Gao, auE PAGE 23 Recession caused problems for politicians By ikeKowalokI Canala's lingering recession contnued te make 1fe difficult for local politicians in 1993. Fore to make do wlth les fundin a a resuit of provincial and feLral government spending freezes and cutbacks, school board trustees and municipal councillors had te perforni a jug- gllng act laut yoar. Th.y were expected te provide the smre level of services while also being teld te, hold the lino on taxes by angry ratepayers. To smre extent, this was accomplisiied in varyl*ng degrees by ur-amReglon, the Town of 0hitby and the. achool boards. But how these groupa cope with confficting demanda in an election year will not be known until their budgets are brougiit down in tiie next few montha. Whitby Maor Tom Edwards admits it wil be a "big chal- ,,ge for Town council te, bring in the sanie budget this year that it did in 1993. (For the. firat time in many years, tiiere was no increase in eitiier the, Town's or Durhiam Region's portion of the, property tax billi n Wlutby. Town councul adopted a budget witii no tax ncrease and was ahi , teahsorb the, 2.4 per cent increase in the, Region's portion.) «W're hoping te do the, sane again tus year, but I don't know if tiaspossible. It wiIl b. more difficult than in 1993,» said Edwards. Like otiier Ontario municipali- ties, Whitbyv officiala, were forced te review their finances lait year after the. provinciaI govenrnent announced its expenditure con- tro pogam. "W2, iiad a difficult year but we still iiad a. zero budget," said Edwards. «But the next minute the, government of Ontario says we won't b, gotting $750,000 in grant money ... tiat created a lot ofproblçm,' h.e said. Edwards saîddlh. was utremen- dously impressed7 witii the way council and the Town 's employees dealt witii.h chal- lenges posed by not only the. reduced funding, but the. govern- ment's 'inamous' socal contract legialation. '"ot just the, heade of depart- menti, b ut the, front-lino People responded in tremendous sgtyle,» ho said. Despite the headaciies caused by the, provincial cutbacks, there were poitive developments in 1993, Edwards said. "Tii one that gave me 'lie most satisfaction was the. conJu- sion of the. sewer and water extension to, Brooklin,» h. said. Noting that Whitb'y had been trying for more than 20 years te brin# samitary sewer and water service te Broki Edwards said "it could only ho o btained by SEE PAGE 4 4 "ýýf Ah