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The balance of the Township is served by four Fire Brigades with a single tax levy of $6,650.00. Pickering Village Brigade serves the south-east part of the Township. Brougham Brigade, the central part, Claremont Brigade the northern section, except north-west part, which gets its service from the Stouffville Brigade. In January, 1956, a weekly garbage system was instituted in the urban area, for which a Budget of $15,643.00 was set up. There are 329 miles of roads in the Township, of which 18 are Provincial, 26, County, and 285 are the responsibility of the Township for upkeep. Many Townships are surveyed with roads one mile apart in each direction, ours being 1¼ miles by ½ mile, giving our Road Department much more work. The staff consists of an Engineer, a Bookkeeper, eight full time men, with certain part time employees. We have 3 maintainers, 6 gravel trucks, one pick-up truck, one fron-end loader, one backhoe, and a gravel crusher. The 1957 Road Budget is $204,500.00, of which the Province will subsidize us approximately 50%. It is the policy of the Council to lay from 3 to 5 miles of hard surfaced roads per year, of which we now have 24 miles. We have a power mower to cut weeds and 25 miles of roadway are sprayed each year as a deterrent to weeds. Road brushing is done in the winter months by the permanent men. Education is the most costly of Municipal services; in this field and in East School area No. 2, 52.8 cents of your tax dollar is spent and in the following breakdown: Local School Operation - .24 Local School Debentures - .10 General Township Equalization - .05 High School Operation - .08 High School Debentures - .06 To this cost the Province is expected to subsidize direct to the various 16 school sections, 2 school areas, 1 Separate School, and High School, $412,780.00, or approximately 40% of the cost of Primary education, and 60% of Secondary. There are 88 classrooms for Primary Education in the Township in which about 2700 children receive instruction. The Township pays approximately 1/5 of the cost of operation of the County of Ontario and this year will pay them $116,976.27, which will represent our share of the cost of upkeep of Fairview Lodge for our senior citizens, administration of justice, certain roads in the County, (of which we have 26 miles), Children's Aid, Registry Office, etc. To give the foregoing services, will require a tax Roll of $810,000.00.