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OPINION The Carpet Palace saga and thats what a suppos- edly simple plan to demolish an outdated store and put a new one in its place has turned into may at last be heading to a conclusion. However, what seemed to be a relatively innocuous idea borne roughly four years ago is a shining example of bureaucracy run amuck. In a nutshell, store owners George Kanichis and Steve Klintsaris wanted to demolish their 150-year-old Norval shop and build a new one in the same location. Of course, any such a venture is expected to entail some red tape, but this matter has resulted in what Kanichis described as a stressful rollercoaster. There have been multiple presentations to Halton Hills Heritage, the Towns Committee of Adjustment, Town council, Regional council, and even an impend- ing Ontario Municipal Board date. Hours have been put in by lawyers, Town staff, Region staff, and local and regional councillors on this proposal. The plan also caused a rift among some residents in the normally somnolent village with vitriol replacing the normal calm and even an unnecessary (and, dare we say, unfair) protest staged. Look, we understand that any business/home owner simply cant level a building willy-nilly and erect a monstrosity and there are guidelines in place to protect against that type of thing happening guidelines those business/home owners should follow. But, just because Lucy Maud Montgomery picked up her mail at this building when it was a post office decades ago doesnt make it a historic structure. Just because the shops owners want a new building doesnt mean the Region should use that an excuse to expand a road many residents dont want expanded. Somehow, a simple business renovation project became a multi-headed monster. Those involved at the bureaucratic level should take a hard look at this case and make sure steps are in place to ensure it is not repeated. A sorry saga Steve Nease LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear editor, Re: The walls come down (June 7 editorial). You write that you have staunch- ly supported every government, health department and Town initia- tive to cure smoking and We hope this out of sight, out of mind approach leads to getting tobacco products out of peoples hands alto- gether. What a dreamer you are! Did you ever hear about prohibition? The attempt of the United States to out- law alcohol? It did not work. The stuff was available everywhere on the black market, provided by gangsters who made millions that way. It will be the same with tobacco. You are making sure that shady deal- ers will reap a rich return. It has started already. There is a black mar- ket for under age kids. Have you ever figured out what makes the air so bad that it is like poison on a hot summer day? Its not the smokers who poison the air, but the drivers in their cars. Would you give support to a cam- paign against car owners? There are many things wrong with our civilization, but to make outlaws of people who smoke or drink or eat too much is not a good way. Schoolyard bullies should not be tol- erated in politics or we will soon live in a police state. John Sommer, Georgetown Making outlaws of smokers is not a good idea Letters to the editor must include an address and daytime telephone number. Unsigned letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 200 words and may be edited for content and/or length. E-mail: jmcghie@independentfreepress.com Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1 Publisher Ken Nugent Advertising director Steve Foreman (sforeman@independentfreepress.com) Retail advertising manager Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@independentfreepress.com) Managing editor John McGhie (jmcghie@independentfreepress.com) Distribution manager Nancy Geissler (distribution@independentfreepress.com) ADVERTISING Advertising co-ordinator Jennifer Christie (jchristie@independentfreepress.com) Retail Sales: Jennifer Spencer (jspencer@independentfreepress.com) Brendan Louth (blouth@independentfreepress.com) Amy Sykes (features@independentfreepress.com) Andrea Lefebvre (alefebvre@independentfreepress.com) Brendon Stevenson (bstevenson@independentfreepress.com) Real estate: Sue Spizziri (realestate@independentfreepress.com) Classifieds: Kristie Pells (classified@independentfreepress.com) ACCOUNTING Rose Marie Gauthier, Michelle McEachern EDITORIAL Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@independentfreepress.com) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@independentfreepress.com) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@independentfreepress.com) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@independentfreepress.com) PRODUCTION: Mary Lou Foreman, Kevin Powell, Shelli Harrison, Dolores Black, Debbie MacDougall STAFF DIRECTORY Send us a letter! Phone: 905-873-0301 Fax: 905-873-0398www.independentfreepress.com Something bugging you? What do you think? Below are the results of our most recent online poll. For the current poll go to www.independentfreepress.com Halton Hills has experienced a rash of thefts from cars in recent weeks. Do you regularly lock your car? I lock my vehicle all the time (79%) I usually lock my vehicle but not all the time (17%) I rarely or never lock my vehicle (4%) The Independent & Free Press is published Wednesday and Friday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Editorial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE INDEPENDENT & FREE PRESS 6 Acton/Georgetown, Friday, July 18, 2008 Dear editor, On behalf of the Georgetown Lioness Club, I would like to sincerely thank you for your coverage of our recent Wellness Day. On the Friday prior to our event you graciously put a large article in the community section, advertising our fourth annual Wellness Day, not- ing some of the vendors and valuable organizations that our money would be donated to. The day of our fundraiser a photographer cheerfully snapped pictures and chatted with vendors and patrons. Then, a short time after our fundraiser you again included an article with a picture of one of the vendors demonstrating her ear candling technique. On June 7 our Lioness Club held our annual Kilometre of Koins (KOK), where all monies from this day are donated to the Georgetown Hospital. We were pleasantly surprised to see a photographer from The Independent & Free Press stop by the A&P and take a picture. Again, The Independent sup- ported our worthy fundraiser by including an article in the newspaper prior to our event. The Georgetown Lioness Club could not hold these successful fundraisers without the support of our community. The Independents cover- age of our fundraising events assisted in making both events a great success. Thank you for being there for us. Debbie Luck, Georgetown Lioness Club Papers support of fundraisers was appreciated Dear editor, I, too, drove by the police station and witnessed the recent protest, and since I recognized some of the young adults I stopped to talk to them. I did not find them ill-informed as Mr. Gray stated in his June 20 letter. In fact, I learned that some of them had gone to the Town hall that morning to find out how they could hold a protest legally. I was present when Staff Sgt. Masson came out to speak to them and I was impressed by how articulately they stated their case. At no time were they disrespectful or unruly, and the police had no issues with their protest. I also wonder how a sign that reads Support harsher disciplinary charges for police who use excessive force indicates to Mr. Gray that all police should be chastised. I know from speaking to some of these young adults that there are members of the police force in Georgetown for whom they have a great deal of respect, and that this protest was directed at only those who were involved in particular inci- dents. So the question that comes to my mind is, did you have all the facts Mr. Gray? You call these young people ill- informed. Perhaps if you had taken the time to talk to them instead of just judging them from afar, you could have been better informed about them. Marian Baidacoff, Georgetown Who was ill-informed?