reserves balance budget
TRANSCRIPT
FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2006CMYK B1
THE EXAMINER/FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2006 B1
CITY EDITOR: BILL GLISKY745-4641 ext. 251fax [email protected] CITY/REGION
Police Beat
Read our news on www.peterboroughexaminer.com
Marijuana growon Maria Street
A woman was arrested afterpolice found 21 marijuana plantsat a home on Maria Street during asearch Wednesday morning, citypolice said.
Sgt. Walter DiClemente said thesize of the grow operation wasaverage, but it wasn’t a situationwhere the house was used for thesole purpose of producing the plants.
Usually, growers buy a house, setup the grow operation and just visitto take care of the plants, he said.
“This is a situation where some-one had some plants growinginside and outside the house,” saidDiClemente, adding someone livedin the home.
The street value of the plantsseized is about $21,000, police said.
DiClemente said police discoverthese types of grow operationsthrough ways such as tips to CrimeStoppers or officers finding plantswhile investigating something else.
“It could be any one of manymethods,” DiClemente said.
Jessica Quann, 25, of MariaStreet is charged with productionof marijuana.
She was released and is toappear in court Sept. 7.
Festival of fightsfor 13-year-olds
Two 13-year-old girls were arrest-ed after two assaults on a 13-year-old girl at the Festival of Lights con-cert Wednesday night, police said.
At about 9:30 p.m. officers werecalled to the first assault at DelCrary Park. A 13-year-old girlreported she had been followed andharassed by another teen for mostof the night, police said.
Police said the teen then spit atthe complainant and punched herin the face.
A 13-year-old was charged withassault.
While officers were dealing withthe first arrest, police said another13-year-old teen approached thecomplainant, threatened her andpunched her in the face.
The girl reported the secondassault to police.
A second 13-year-old was chargedwith assault and uttering threats.
The complainant did not requiremedical attention, police said.
The teens cannot be named underthe Youth Criminal Justice Act.The first teen is to appear in courtAug. 21 and the second Aug. 14.
Office cash,camera stolen
A cash box, some money and adigital camera were stolen fromTire Craft on Crown DriveWednesday at about 4 a.m., citypolice said.
The south office window at thebusiness was pried open, policesaid.
Police did not release the amountof money stolen, but said it was“small.”
Damage to the window was esti-mated at $100, police said.
Police want anyone with infor-mation to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
City/Region ...............................B2,3Entertainment ............................B4,5Sudoku...........................................B4TV Listings ....................................B4Sudoku Monster ...........................B5Stocks .............................................B6Business .........................................B7
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! Discount coupons for shoppers.! Children’s Page.!Gary Ball’s Field Notes column offers fivesimple, inexpensive tips for catching more fish.
! Examiner sports columnist Don Barrie writes aboutthe upcoming world field lacrosse championships.! Peterborough City Rayco hosts Inter Oshawa inOSL East Division men’s soccer action.
IN SATURDAY’S EXAMINER:
Reserves balance budgetBy JEANNE PENGELLYExaminer Education Writer
Public school board trustees reluc-tantly but unanimously approved a$350-million 2006-07 budget lastnight, and managed to do it by dip-ping into reserves, rather than cut-ting programs or staff.
They also decided to send letters toEducation Minister Sandra Pupatel-lo and the Ministry of Educationindicating their dissatisfactionwith ministry funding formulas.
“We haven’t cut a single pro-gram,” said board chairwomanAngela Lloyd.
Nor will the Kawartha PineRidge District School Board handout a single pink slip to balance thebudget.
Two schools will run triple-grade
classrooms — including Young’sPoint Public School. But triplegrading was eliminated from fourother schools that were being con-sidered for it, education directorSylvia Terpstra said.
It will, however, transfer thebiggest chunk of money it’s everhad to borrow from its reserves.
Business superintendent BobAllison said the board will borrow$5,854,465 to balance the budgetfor the 2006-07 school year, halffrom operating reserves and halffrom the capital reserve.
It has $24 million in its reserves— $9 million in capital reserve and$15 million in its operating fund,Allison said.
It will also use savings of $1 mil-lion from the 2005-06 year, he said.
The board is facing decliningenrolment, resulting in less provin-cial funding. The board only learnedhow much in funding it would getfrom the province last month.
Trustee Cathy Abraham said itwas only with the use of “a few lit-tle magic tricks” that expenseswere balanced with revenue.
“We balance our budget becausewe’re expected to do it,” she said.“But we’re losing.”
The board’s budget came in at arecord $350,425,940.
Susan Cushing, trustee for Have-lock-Belmont-Methuen and TrentHills, wanted her dissatisfactionrecorded.
“This government hands out mil-lions and millions with one hand, andtakes it away with the other,” she said.
Since 1999, enrolment in theboard’s elementary schools hasdropped 11 per cent, the trend issimiliar in high schools, and there’sno end in sight, trustees heard.
More than 90 per cent of theboard’s funding comes from theministry, based on the number ofstudents.
Particular concerns for the boardinclude lack of funding for bothtransportation and special educa-tion, continued declining enrol-ment and the cost of utilities.
Some trustees requested time toconsider the budget and gather inputfrom the public, but instead theboard passed the budget last night.
School boards are required by theprovince to submit balanced bud-gets by July 31.
Andrea Houston, ExaminerLillian Lunn has been farming for 62 years and worries fewer young people are entering the field.
Writersgatherto swapstories
By SARAH DEETHExaminer Staff Writer
Writers of all ages and genres satdown to dinner at Fleming Collegeyesterday for some inspiration along-side their prime rib and potatoes.
Barbara Snasdell-Taylor saidshe’s always loved telling stories.
“Most recently it’s children’s sto-ries,” she said, as she cut into herdinner.
Writing is just like any other artform, she said, and inspiration canstrike at any time.
“There’s that searching for apiece of paper, to jot down an inter-esting character when you see one,”Snasdell-Taylor said.
The Ottawa native is one of about150 writers expected at this year’sCan Write! Conference hosted inPeterborough this weekend.
Conference attendees were seat-ed at tables with published andsuccessful writers, said conferenceco-ordinator Claire Sullivan.
“But everybody’s an author,” Sul-livan said. “You don’t have to bepublished to be an author.”
Snasdell-Taylor came to the con-ference to mingle with other writ-ers and learn from like-mindedpeople, she said.
She’s been writing for three yearsand has prepared a sample thatshe’ll show to a publisher for cri-tiquing during the weekend.
“There’s that to look forward to, Ihope,” she said. “I don’t know if I’llever be published but I’m having fun.”
Peterborough writer Ann Dou-glas said she got 15 rejectionsbefore getting two offers to haveher first book published.
Twenty-eight books later, Dou-glas is adamant that writers stickto their dream.
“You’ll need a lot of persistence,”she said. “You’ll get a lot morerejections than acceptance.”
Douglas, whose works includeThe Mother of all Pregnancy Booksand The Unofficial Guide to Havinga Baby worked her share of jobs tosupport herself while she pursuedher passion.
In 1992 she was finally able towrite full time, she said.
“A lot of people allow themselvesto be talked out of it,” she said.“You can’t believe the naysayerswho say you can’t.”
Farmers fear supermarketsThe next time you go to the big
chain supermarket and pickfrom the pile of strawberries
or choose that juicy vacuum sealedsteak, the farmers who pepper thecounty around Peterborough wanteveryone to ponder how it got there.
That was the message from thefarmers’ market vendors that fillCharlotte Street every Wednesday.
They have chilling words of warn-ing behind their beaming smiles.
The street was packed Wednes-day with people examining theday’s produce, taste-testing bakedgoods and experiencing the manydelicious cultural foods.
Perhaps it was the venue, perhapsit’s the time of year, but I found theoverwhelming majority were con-cerned with the same issues.
The topics on most people mindswere:! Big box stores and American sup-pliers threatening local growers.! The dwindling number of youngfarmers.! Environmental issues.!Regulations cutting into agriculture.! Pesticides and insects destroyingcrops.! Fear that supermarket chainsmay herald the end of the market.
Pino Brunifrom C. Bruniand Sons farmsaid his biggestconcern is thereis no incentiveto keep localfarmers becausethe ones whostruggle to sur-vive don’t getmuch help fromgrocery stores tosell their goods.
“I would liketo see localfarmers get bet-ter promotion,”Bruni said. “I goto a lot of mar-kets and farm-ers in generalare a dyingbreed.”
That is mostlydue to theimpossible com-petition most
growers have to go up against,Bruni said. It’s tough to competewith the prices offered at the bigchains that import their goods fromAmerican farmers.
Most national grocery stores havelittle local produce displayed.
Produce supervisor Nate Bromleyof Loblaws said the majority ofwhat comes in is from the U.S.,mainly because it is cheaper.
“It all just comes from the ware-house in Toronto,” Bromley said.
Most grocery stores are the same.Even though they are in seasonnow, the strawberries are importedfrom the United States.
“Why should I buy imported Amer-ican strawberries when they’re freshnow?” said shopper Jean Collins. “Ihad to buy American all wintercause I had no choice.”
Jackie Crerar of Cedar Rail Hand-crafted warns of a more dangerousthreat when buying: pesticides.
Crerar said consumers can neverbe sure how that berry was han-dled before it arrived.
“A lot of people think they areallergic to things such as strawber-ries when in fact they are allergicto the pesticides,” she said.
“I am terribly allergic to herbi-cides and pesticides. Food handling isso important and it’s just not observedwith the same care (outside of Canada).”
(See: Young...Page B3)
Readers’Reporter
By ANDREAHOUSTON
Andrea Houston isThe Examiner�sReaders� Reporterthis month. She islooking for storiesyou are concernedor talking about. Ifyou have a subject,pass it on to her at745-4641, ext. 246or [email protected]
No staff, program cuts in public school board’s $350M budget