The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The Acton Free Press Wednesday Jan Editorial Page Small town problems Canadas small towns which are growing at a rate greater than cities are also developing a feeling powerlessness because of reduced local autonomy So says a report done for the federal Urban Affairs Department by Queens Urn versity school of Urban and Regional Planning They seem to be talking about Acton The study concludes small towns and villages have a new problem The major decisions affecting their future are made in the board rooms and bureaucracies of the big cities and have reduced local autonomy and engendered feelings of The new thrust toward trahzation imposes standardized regulations and policies This has undercut traditional small town leadership the report finds Before the local groups of leaders were accessible and visible which gives a democratic flavor to local decision making Now power resides now with the bureaucrat People feel the in creasing remoteness of power and decisions Our community is organizing to buck this trend Maybe other communities can too Could be emulated Some Acton people have banded together committee to review the progress made by that com since the formation of re gional government and to try determining the future of Acton in Hills and Region Specific aim of the group in its own words is to promote and foster efficiency in all levels of govern ment but more particularly at the municipal level through a program of and informed public opinion as well as striving for creased influence in determining the future course of government in Acton A detailed study of the future of Acton and regional government is being prepared to determine what would be most beneficial to all those who live there Alternatives to regional government are also being considered The committee intends to make its findings public We wish them luck If they unravel the complexities of tax structure grants and vices which have revolved around the introduction and implement ation of regional government in Halton they deserve commenda tion from all the taxpayers of Hills In fact perhaps the people of Georgetown and Es should form similar com mittees to find out if possible and compare living under the old form of municipal government as op posed to the new There is a strong feeling that regional government has increased costs and multiplied staff and at the expense of tax payers Any information which would either confirm suspicions or refute them would be welcome In deed it is our feeling that a joint committee of representatives from all three former municipalities might be formed to investigate whether we were further ahead under the corporations of George town Acton and or as Hills In a speech to Georgetown Chamber of Commerce April 22 Ontario Treasurer Mc one of the architects of regional government maintained regional government has been less costly than people believe Where sharp increases in spending or taxes have occurred they are for good and understandable reasons he claimed Collectively he admitted Ont reorganized governments spent per cent more money 1975 than was spent in 1970 but he said the increases dont really tell the story He blamed growth for the increase in spending and said it would have come with or without the new governments unless residents in those areas were pre pared to do without services they needed or wanted And of course inflation also came in for a share of the blame Theres some truth in Mr Mc Keough statements especially where he said the fairest way to measure spending is in terms of amount spent per household That is a good indicator as far as the financial side of regional govern ment is concerned but does lot measure the loss of autonomy or the feeling of helplessness over a larger more impersonal govern If some committee can make a reasoned financial and social com mentary on the effects of regional government in Halton it should do much either theair or clear the way for changes which would make the new form of government more tolerable In effect these changes should be initiated at the provincial level However Mr has indicated he thinks changes should come from within the system not Queen s Park We doubt that any Halton regional council would challenge the present set up unless there was considerable popular agitation for change Perhaps the Acton committee will start a popular movement to change aspects of regional govern ment people find too remote or in tolerable but we suspect their aim is to pull Acton completely out of Halton Hills In any event this is the time for a review following the first council term without grinding any axes From The Georgetown Independent Of this and that Heartiest congratulations to Kevin Parker a lad whos on his way up He won the junior mens title in the Central Divisional Figure Skating championships in Guelph and now proceeds to the prestigious Canadian champion ship in Calgary This zippy skater attends high school here and lives out in Nassagaweya in the district His accomplish ment brings a sense of pnde to the whole community More congratulations to Marie and George Hargrave who have benn honored by the St John Ambulance brigade Their dedica tion and quiet competence have meant much to many over the years Wouldnt you know the Acton ians for Action committee didnt get any great overwhelming re sponse to their appeals for com ments on regional government Yet they know there are many com plaints and convictions out there Whie people back from Florida are telling stones of the snow and frigid cold there a former Acton tan in northern Manitoba says he can scoop up dust in his yard and hes been out in his shirt sleeves this winter Its good to notice that although the police report increases in law breaking the churches are re porting increases in attendance too Church annual meetings are producing encouraging figures The Baptists report crowding the Pentecostal church has engaged a second pastor Night school classes organized by the Board of Education are down this semester Registration was spread too thin and most of the courses are cancelled People J CONTESTANTS IN snowmobile rally crest a snowy hill Sunday afternoon Total pledges of 4 rode on the machines and the At participants Swanstons Farm Equipment building was headquarters Proceeds are for the park project and Lions organized the event again Sugar and Spi by bill smiley flu this week took a couple of days off work That mnde 10 days in Ihc lusl 15ycarsonthejob And I rediscovered the reason will lime and again loiter off to work when practically on my hands and knees with some ailment II s because I nearly out of my skull with boredom whin I home sick I m not saying my ife 1 delightful conversationalist or a charming comp anion She Is Hut when you have he flu you wont neither delight nor charm You just want to be left alone like an old dog to live or die as the Lord decides She brings me a big breakfast to bed when oil I really want is sharp knife After once spending a year in bed in a sanatorium I hale eating in bed Trying lo balance a tray on the knees Spilling coffee on the sheets with the inevitable blast from Ihc laundress Dripping gooey egg down the front of your pyjamas Then by lunch lime I so bored with bed that I stagger up and dress dying or not And she starts I should have some lunch to keep m strength up Have you taken your pills dear Ma be you should w atch TV for i while lo keep your spirits up Would you like inotliLr tup of lea I don want mother cup of lea I m drowning in it already I don want an sardines on oast or bits in the oven or nice soup My pills make me dizzy This has got to flu Am I really mgorwilll just Doe God really exist if Ik does why is Me dumping this on mi Well all that is bad enough Hut during this session Ihe worst happened I ran out of reading matenat By the end of Djy Two I had whipped through three library books two daily papers twice a day and half a dozen weeklies a couple of news magazines and directions on the cereal box in English and trench The inevitable occurred I was forced to read one of those women magazines that ARTHURS ORCHESTRA is pictured in the old photograph loaned by Martin Hassard now of Oakville The date was about 1910 Some of those identified are Hanna Wallace Ettie McDonald Minnie Holmes Gnndell Monty McMillan Alex and Jack Arthur Miss McQueen and Jessie Mary Ann Dora and Alva Harvey The last names were Mr Has sards aunts and the daughters of John Harvey who came to Acton in 1886 having purchased the grist and flour mill from the Nickhn estate still get your name in the paper Just Great So writes Rosalind Hall Fryer who read about her neardrowning in the 20 Years Ago column lives in B C now still alive and well thanks to my fast thinking neighbors Thank you Free Press you have made my day she writes Thank you too Ros A letter like thatmakesOURday Fred Salt mentioned this week that he and his wife still use a bread knife they received many years ago as a gift when they renewed their subscription to the Free Press He thinks it might be years old it has outlived several other knives and is still going strong phoned up past the deadline too late to be counted Recreation department has courses underway and the Y is getting ready for its next session Theres plenty of opportunity for pleasant off hour hobbies Some of those goofy mistakes m thePree Press in the last couple of months may be attributed to our new touchy computer The equip ment cant figure out how to get quote marks on straight and some times it lurches up into capital when it means just a little Give it time its just a youngster How does it feel to live over 3000 miles away from Acton and my wife buys occasionally at the super market when she sees an interesting recipi it plunged mc into an even deeper suicidal depression One of the feature I must love myself first if 1 were going to amount to anything I plowed through it with grow in disgust considering thai at the moment I despised myself modern cine my wife and anything else 1 could think of When I got lo list of things 1 must stop doing if I were to love myself and read Not having orgasms I threw up a over the rug After settling my stomach with a hot toddy that I I read twice I picked up the maga zineagam in sheer desperation feature article plunged me once again into abysmal gloom It was called Chart Your Way to Suecess When read about the author lhal she is a professor of educational psychology 1 should have stopped right there I know how much Ihose birds know about real life They live in dream world of stuff like positive reinforcement and negative feedback Hut I pressed on After wading through endorsements from people whose whole life she had changed I went on lo this You loo follow in the fool steps of Lee Mark and Doris toucan de fine and attain your own success It seems that all you have do is make a divided into three periods each representing a third of your life beginning al the age of five Then you list Ihree sue cesses for each period and opposite each list why It was a success for you Out of sheer ennui started a In the first period from five 15 I could think of only one success I won one fight witii a belligerent urchin named George Cornell with whom I tangled frequency It was a success for me because was the only one I ever did win Inthesecond period fromlltoSO again I could think or only one success I learned to fly an airplane But this wasn such great success since because of it I spent a strelch in a German prison camp In Hie third period from 30 on Icouldnl think of single success became a news paper editor through sheer accident All that got mc was years laboring as a galley slave to pay off morlgageon Ihe paper Then I became a teacher which dnmfool could become In those days They were pulling bodies In off the streets be cause of the baby boom hitting the high schools I became head of the English Department purely because nobody else was qualified not on merit experience or dedication 1 became a syndicated columnist by chance All that gels me is a deadline hanging about my neck like a big old alba Iross By the time I d finished making out the chart I realized not for Ihe first time lhat I was an utter failure and that it was going to take a lot more than a to change things It was then lhat I made my one and only resolution for I will never again should I be forced to peruse nothing more exciting than the small print on toothpaste tubes read another woman magazine from a supermarket Immediately I made this resolve I felt a lot better and next morning was back at work The Free Press I Back Issues 10 years ago Taken from the the Free January A proposed extension to Acton disposal plant sparked a lengthy debate Tuesday night when council members were split on a decision as to what capacity addition build A vote to accept Ihe engineers supplemental report for an extension lo serve an additional A persons and lo proceed with preliminary application to the Ontario Water Resources Commission and other contingencies squeaked through on a count Ernie Marks was named the chairman for the Committee of Ad just men I on Monday evening during the in augural meeting in the council chambers The first centennial flag to fly in Acton was raised last Thursday afternoon in a ceremony about as unpretentious as could be Legion treasurer Cord McCul the blue and white flag below the Canadian flag the Legion flagpole with an audience of none Over 150 veterans enjoyed a hot roast beef dinner as they recalled memories of past wars during the annual Acton Legion veterans dinner Saturday In the Legion Hall Chairman for the dinner H introduced head table guests first vice- president James fire chief Mick Holmes Corporal Ray Mason of the Acton OPP detachment Mayor Les Legion president Max Storey Rev Dwight Engel from Trinity United Church Rev A H McKenzie Legion Padre and minister of Knox Presbyterian church 50 years ago The township of Nassagaweya has com Us first century of municipal organ nation The first meeting of residents of the township to consider the election of a council and township officers was New Day lhat time William Tridgcon was town clerk Peter Masales and Donald assessors Robert Flijah William David Scott Solomon Winter road masters Robert pound keeper Henry talker and John Smith town wardens Hogs to be free commoners after six months old In several cases descendants of the original officers have from lime to lime served the Township and the County Among those is our present capable County Treasurer David Esq the annual meeting of the library board an honorarium of was voted to Mrs Watson for special work in ing and listing additional books during the year The book committeeappomtcd for year was The Rev A Stewart Rev A E Nickhn and P Moore Mr John Cameron was appointed reader of several suggested books before acceptance for the library The trucks still continue to run quite freely and a few motor cars are ing the depth of snow 100 years ago What this country needs just at present is sure and speedy process of killing the man who never thinks of shutting the door behind him New with a population of appro 1 has 5 saloons or one to every 175 of its inhabitants The Georgetown Herald in a clumsy sort of fashion insinuates that a couple of jobs of printing done by us for the Township of were sent elsewhere to be executed It very ill becomes the Editor of the Herald flatter himself that he has not yet set fool upon the threshold of the first stage of hypocrisy Once more the father of little Charlie Ross has been called from his home on the false report that his boy had been found The hearts of sympathizing parents must go out to this sorely afflicted father and the grief stricken family There has been of late a wide extended cry times Nevertheless people are dressed as well as ever and we notice thai the luxuries of life still arc used with great freedom THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office Mtntgtf CopvriQM