PLAN TO BLAST QUARRY TOO EXPENSIVE?

PUSLINCH - The Hamilton Conservation Authority may have to abandon a
plan to dynamite a picturesque quarry to stop illegal swimming because
it can't afford it.

That could be good news to members of the pot-smoking Church of the
Universe, who claim the swimming hole as a spiritual home for their
controversial religion and have been fighting the demolition - albeit
unsuccessfully - in the courts.

The conservation authority (HCA) had estimated it would cost $400,000
to dynamite the quarry at the Fletcher Creek Conservation Area on Gore
Road and convert it into a wetland to deter trespassers. But the
authority received only one bid last month from a Hamilton company
that estimated the job would cost $742,000.

"If this remains, I won't be voting for it, that's for sure," HCA
chair Mark Shurvin said yesterday. "In my opinion, we don't have that
kind of money. We won't be moving ahead with this estimation staring
us in the face."

The authority has asked landscape architects Harrington and Hoyle of
Markham to negotiate with Rankin Construction to see if it can find
ways to lower its asking price. They hope to know an answer by the end
of the month, but authority spokesman Sandy Bell can't say if it's
achievable.

"I hate to second guess what may be worked out here, but I can tell
you that's a lot of money - $700,000 back to $400,000," said Bell, the
authority's manager of design and development.

Abandonment of the plan also jeopardizes $110,000 in funding from the
aggregates industry toward the quarry conversion and plans by McMaster
University and the University of Toronto to set up a research project.

The HCA has removed top soil from the cliffs above the quarry, but it
can still be accessed for swimming.

The HCA began considering dynamiting the quarry last year after
getting fed up with partying at the site. Swimming is banned, but
people have just ignored No Swimming signs. One neighbour reported
picking up 800 beer bottles after one weekend.

Reverend Walter Tucker and Brother Michael Baldasaro of the Church of
the Universe have made numerous appeals to the courts in the last year
to stop the blasting, but they have all been thrown out. Tucker was in
the Court of Appeal of Ontario in Toronto yesterday seeking further
leave to have the courts hear the case, but Justice Stephen Borins
dismissed it. He and Baldasaro, who ran for Hamilton mayor this year,
plan to file for an injunction within a week.

Tucker and Baldasaro ran their church at the quarry - which they call
Clearwater Abbey - until they were evicted in 1986 when the HCA took
over ownership from Steetley Industries. They have taken their case to
be able to move back on to the property all the way to the Federal
Court of Canada. The court ruled against them, but they have launched
a new legal challenge.

Tucker, who called removal of the top soil a desecration, was hopeful
the cost of the blasting might make the authority approach the church
for a settlement.

"If it is going to cost so much money, why don't they give it back to
the church," he said. Authority officials, however, have already ruled
out any involvement with the church, which embraces Christianity,
marijuana and nudity.