1. FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2006CMYK B1
THE EXAMINER/FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2006 B1
CITY EDITOR: BILL GLISKY
745-4641 ext. 251
fax 743-4581
newsroom@peterboroughexaminer.com CITY/REGION
Police Beat
Read our news on www.peterboroughexaminer.com
Marijuana grow
on Maria Street
A woman was arrested after
police found 21 marijuana plants
at a home on Maria Street during a
search Wednesday morning, city
police said.
Sgt. Walter DiClemente said the
size of the grow operation was
average, but it wasn’t a situation
where the house was used for the
sole purpose of producing the plants.
Usually, growers buy a house, set
up the grow operation and just visit
to take care of the plants, he said.
“This is a situation where some-
one had some plants growing
inside and outside the house,” said
DiClemente, adding someone lived
in the home.
The street value of the plants
seized is about $21,000, police said.
DiClemente said police discover
these types of grow operations
through ways such as tips to Crime
Stoppers or officers finding plants
while investigating something else.
“It could be any one of many
methods,” DiClemente said.
Jessica Quann, 25, of Maria
Street is charged with production
of marijuana.
She was released and is to
appear in court Sept. 7.
Festival of fights
for 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 were
called to the first assault at Del
Crary Park. A 13-year-old girl
reported she had been followed and
harassed by another teen for most
of the night, police said.
Police said the teen then spit at
the complainant and punched her
in the face.
A 13-year-old was charged with
assault.
While officers were dealing with
the first arrest, police said another
13-year-old teen approached the
complainant, threatened her and
punched her in the face.
The girl reported the second
assault to police.
A second 13-year-old was charged
with assault and uttering threats.
The complainant did not require
medical attention, police said.
The teens cannot be named under
the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The first teen is to appear in court
Aug. 21 and the second Aug. 14.
Office cash,
camera stolen
A cash box, some money and a
digital camera were stolen from
Tire Craft on Crown Drive
Wednesday at about 4 a.m., city
police said.
The south office window at the
business was pried open, police
said.
Police did not release the amount
of 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 ...............................B2,3
Entertainment ............................B4,5
Sudoku...........................................B4
TV Listings ....................................B4
Sudoku Monster ...........................B5
Stocks .............................................B6
Business .........................................B7
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IN SATURDAY’S EXAMINER:
Reserves balance budget
By JEANNE PENGELLY
Examiner Education Writer
Public school board trustees reluc-
tantly but unanimously approved a
$350-million 2006-07 budget last
night, and managed to do it by dip-
ping into reserves, rather than cut-
ting programs or staff.
They also decided to send letters to
Education Minister Sandra Pupatel-
lo and the Ministry of Education
indicating their dissatisfaction
with ministry funding formulas.
“We haven’t cut a single pro-
gram,” said board chairwoman
Angela Lloyd.
Nor will the Kawartha Pine
Ridge District School Board hand
out a single pink slip to balance the
budget.
Two schools will run triple-grade
classrooms — including Young’s
Point Public School. But triple
grading was eliminated from four
other schools that were being con-
sidered for it, education director
Sylvia Terpstra said.
It will, however, transfer the
biggest chunk of money it’s ever
had to borrow from its reserves.
Business superintendent Bob
Allison said the board will borrow
$5,854,465 to balance the budget
for the 2006-07 school year, half
from operating reserves and half
from 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 declining
enrolment, resulting in less provin-
cial funding. The board only learned
how much in funding it would get
from the province last month.
Trustee Cathy Abraham said it
was only with the use of “a few lit-
tle magic tricks” that expenses
were balanced with revenue.
“We balance our budget because
we’re expected to do it,” she said.
“But we’re losing.”
The board’s budget came in at a
record $350,425,940.
Susan Cushing, trustee for Have-
lock-Belmont-Methuen and Trent
Hills, wanted her dissatisfaction
recorded.
“This government hands out mil-
lions and millions with one hand, and
takes it away with the other,” she said.
Since 1999, enrolment in the
board’s elementary schools has
dropped 11 per cent, the trend is
similiar in high schools, and there’s
no end in sight, trustees heard.
More than 90 per cent of the
board’s funding comes from the
ministry, based on the number of
students.
Particular concerns for the board
include lack of funding for both
transportation and special educa-
tion, continued declining enrol-
ment and the cost of utilities.
Some trustees requested time to
consider the budget and gather input
from the public, but instead the
board passed the budget last night.
School boards are required by the
province to submit balanced bud-
gets by July 31.
jpengelly@
peterboroughexaminer.com
Andrea Houston, Examiner
Lillian Lunn has been farming for 62 years and worries fewer young people are entering the field.
Writers
gather
to swap
stories
By SARAH DEETH
Examiner Staff Writer
Writers of all ages and genres sat
down to dinner at Fleming College
yesterday for some inspiration along-
side their prime rib and potatoes.
Barbara Snasdell-Taylor said
she’s always loved telling stories.
“Most recently it’s children’s sto-
ries,” she said, as she cut into her
dinner.
Writing is just like any other art
form, she said, and inspiration can
strike at any time.
“There’s that searching for a
piece of paper, to jot down an inter-
esting character when you see one,”
Snasdell-Taylor said.
The Ottawa native is one of about
150 writers expected at this year’s
Can Write! Conference hosted in
Peterborough this weekend.
Conference attendees were seat-
ed at tables with published and
successful writers, said conference
co-ordinator Claire Sullivan.
“But everybody’s an author,” Sul-
livan said. “You don’t have to be
published to be an author.”
Snasdell-Taylor came to the con-
ference to mingle with other writ-
ers and learn from like-minded
people, she said.
She’s been writing for three years
and has prepared a sample that
she’ll show to a publisher for cri-
tiquing during the weekend.
“There’s that to look forward to, I
hope,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll
ever be published but I’m having fun.”
Peterborough writer Ann Dou-
glas said she got 15 rejections
before getting two offers to have
her first book published.
Twenty-eight books later, Dou-
glas is adamant that writers stick
to their dream.
“You’ll need a lot of persistence,”
she said. “You’ll get a lot more
rejections than acceptance.”
Douglas, whose works include
The Mother of all Pregnancy Books
and The Unofficial Guide to Having
a Baby worked her share of jobs to
support herself while she pursued
her passion.
In 1992 she was finally able to
write full time, she said.
“A lot of people allow themselves
to be talked out of it,” she said.
“You can’t believe the naysayers
who say you can’t.”
Farmers fear supermarkets
T
he next time you go to the big
chain supermarket and pick
from the pile of strawberries
or choose that juicy vacuum sealed
steak, the farmers who pepper the
county around Peterborough want
everyone to ponder how it got there.
That was the message from the
farmers’ market vendors that fill
Charlotte Street every Wednesday.
They have chilling words of warn-
ing behind their beaming smiles.
The street was packed Wednes-
day with people examining the
day’s produce, taste-testing baked
goods and experiencing the many
delicious cultural foods.
Perhaps it was the venue, perhaps
it’s the time of year, but I found the
overwhelming majority were con-
cerned with the same issues.
The topics on most people minds
were:
! Big box stores and American sup-
pliers threatening local growers.
! The dwindling number of young
farmers.
! Environmental issues.
! Regulations cutting into agriculture.
! Pesticides and insects destroying
crops.
! Fear that supermarket chains
may herald the end of the market.
Pino Bruni
from C. Bruni
and Sons farm
said his biggest
concern is there
is no incentive
to keep local
farmers because
the ones who
struggle to sur-
vive don’t get
much help from
grocery stores to
sell their goods.
“I would like
to see local
farmers get bet-
ter promotion,”
Bruni said. “I go
to a lot of mar-
kets and farm-
ers in general
are a dying
breed.”
That is mostly
due to the
impossible com-
petition most
growers have to go up against,
Bruni said. It’s tough to compete
with the prices offered at the big
chains that import their goods from
American farmers.
Most national grocery stores have
little local produce displayed.
Produce supervisor Nate Bromley
of Loblaws said the majority of
what 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 season
now, the strawberries are imported
from the United States.
“Why should I buy imported Amer-
ican strawberries when they’re fresh
now?” said shopper Jean Collins. “I
had to buy American all winter
cause I had no choice.”
Jackie Crerar of Cedar Rail Hand-
crafted warns of a more dangerous
threat when buying: pesticides.
Crerar said consumers can never
be sure how that berry was han-
dled before it arrived.
“A lot of people think they are
allergic to things such as strawber-
ries when in fact they are allergic
to the pesticides,” she said.
“I am terribly allergic to herbi-
cides and pesticides. Food handling is
so important and it’s just not observed
withthesamecare(outsideofCanada).”
(See: Young...Page B3)
Readers’
Reporter
By ANDREA
HOUSTON
Andrea Houston is
The Examiner’s
Readers’ Reporter
this month. She is
looking for stories
you are concerned
or talking about. If
you have a subject,
pass it on to her at
745-4641, ext. 246
or ahouston@peter-
boroughexaminer.com
No staff, program cuts in public school board’s $350M budget