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WE WA Committees regional government brief declares should control their own destiny and perhaps local government should be restored here declares the brief on regional government prepared by the Actonians for Action committee which is being presented today Wednesday The enforced marriage of Acton and Georgetown in the new system of regional government was poor political judgment and proved to be dis ruptive and detrimental to the future of Acton the brief states The strongly worded four page presentation cites widening disparity between Acton and Georgetown loss of identity and in creased costs under regional government The brief is in response to a request from a committee of regional council studying Bill 151 which instituted regional government here The copy of the brief is being presented today to Don Gordon chairman of the committee Other copies are also going to councillor Pat Kenzie who sits on the committee councillors Les Duby and Peter Marks clerk administrator P Regional government should be reevaluated with intensive input from Acton citizens the brief declares Following Is the complete and encouraged citizen brief into local municipal decision making have all contributed to feeling or loss of iden Transfer of control of Sirs local water and sewer con We believe that mere are to Regional Works three major criticisms that personnel with vastly inferior can be directed towards knowledge of and experience Regional Government requirements has turecreatedbyBilll51inl973 created much bad feeling in These criticisms are directed Acton Frustration over the principally at the erosion of control over our tatlon of Regional Govern own urban situation is in the area of what is widespread Indeed today called Hills of Actons name First of all it is obvious itself has produced strong re after almost three and one- to the restructured government now operating in ment that one of the main prerequisites of a successful Previously nine elected regional system a strong officials from the community community of interest bet handled the various ween the amalgamated elements of muncipal parties has failed to develop government Today under in Hills Provincial theoreticians claimed that earning timet the salary strong community of interest former councillors are was a necessary If not vital spread too thin in their efforts Ingredient and yet proceeded represent Acton interests to legislate the amalgamation In the administration of of two geographically Hills We feel it is separate urban almost impossible for three Acton and George- people to satisfactorily look town which historically have after day to day needs of the had very little if any com Town of Acton in the areas of of interest between town administration works them Experience over the planning and recreation past three and onehalf years Experience has also shown has actually indicated a over the past three and one- widening disparity between half years restructured the former towns of Acton and government under Bill Georgetown We believe this that outsiders albeit duly has been caused by a feeling in elected to Halton Hills council the former Town of Acton of a have acquired a controlling gradual demoralizing loss of interest over the destiny of the identity Town of Acton This is made This loss of identity is the possible by the unbalanced second area of serious dissat representation at Halton Hills with Regional Council By virtue of their Government particularly numbers Georgetown Mills councillors now are able to The urban areas of Oakville influence votes on Acton Burlington and Milton all re- in spite of the wishes of after the Acton councillors Such is not tion of Bill possiblcinGeorgetown where their own area councils Such at least they have enough was not the case in Halton strength to retain a semblance Hills The merging of the control over their own urban centres of Georgetown autonomy Control over and Acton into one area decisions affecting local Acton council structure has had far people has passed into the reaching repercussions hands of a controlling Disappearance of Actons majority of ten non Acton resi Town offices and council dents who may or may not chambers transfer of ad support the wishes of Acton ministrative and works own three elected councillors personnel out of We do not accept that this town dissolution of most situation is either just or former boards which allowed Continued on page One Hundred and Second No ACTON ONTARIO WEDNESDAY JUNE 22 1977 Twenty Six Cents Back at Mill this Thursday BUILDING PRODUCTS OF Canada employees and management celebrated three years of accident free work Monday A party was held in the plant with special guests including Hills mayor Tom Hill A special cake with all the employees names iced on is held by Hector Daigle representative of Loc 603 of the United Rubber Workers on the right and BP plant manager Brian on the left Company officials came from Montreal and Toronto for the event Halton Hills engineering department and expectant merchants understand King Paving contractors could be back In town Thursday to continue their interrupted work of reconstruction of Mill St First task will be to remove the faulty curbing the cause of all the delay in the project New curbing will be in stalled by hand probably rather than with the large and intriguing machine which did part of the job last fall Work will begin at the Canadian Tire end or the street Town engineer Bob Austin thinks that as soon as a block of curbing is done the side walk installers will also be able to start to work They will be continuing the project of interlocking paving stones instigated by the merchants of the Business Improvement Area The paving will begin as soon as possible There will be when the street is closed off Mr Austin reminds Actonians The pa will definitely not be done before Back to Acton Days mal hall to Grand opening ceremonies the old town hall Thursday June at will herald the beginning of Back to Acton Days the exciting first presentation of the new Bust Association A weekend full or activities is planned ending with the firefighters fireworks on Sunday night The Dominion Day week end coincides with the mer chants ambitious promotion Although most stores are closed July l special events will continue The enthusiastic planner expect to draw people to the downtown irui for three full dai and Mill St hi blocked off from the tricks to the main corner for most of the time Willow will also be blocked off to the town hall The town hill has Ik en chosen as the focil for since it attracted so much interest in town recently Two per cent of grass salts on tin thrct days toward the new town project Tit Hie concern over the towns identity with the Back to hornier llachlin John lr lakes have ill been asked to participate the grand special fler which w 11 Seeking assurance town hall to be saved Hills councillors are eager to find out If the Acton town hall will be saved before proceeding with more plans for renovating the lire hall Alan Alan Associates sent a reprt to Halton Hills council Monday night noting part of the fire hall contract will include new shingles for the roof of the town hall Councillor Miller said he was wary of having this done in the event of the hall Is demolished later He said the town needs to find out if the hall will be saved before is spent on new shingles Mayor Tom Hill said the town is wailing to hear from the Acton commit tec to see if they can raise the funds to save the hall He d the town can wait for an answer much longer because will start working on plans for the fire hall boon and they will cost comey Councillor said the citizens fcroup was holding their third meeting Monday night and was working hard to find revenue to save the hill Hill thought residents were coming back to council with about grants with days corrected Hill noting he had suggested days when he wis pleading the residents case of a delay of the town s final decision on the hall there was no mention of a time limit of the citizens He urged be lowed to proceed with Continued on Page 2 go out in the mall next week will outline the program along with presenting the ads of all the cooperating merchants Special booths will be open on the mall and Thursday n jht there will be a roving concert by members of Acton t Band riday afternoon there will concert at the old town hall including Kent Tocher The Country Earl Burl others A barbecue and beer garden will be staged Friday and on Mill with a street dance Friday night There II be kids movies and free babysitting Other features arranged so far bake sales crafts anti cars demonstration More plans are being fin each day so there will be more in next week Free There will be a draw ind another draw for an supplied by Acton Proceeds ore for the town hall project July 1 coincides with The Great Canadian Birthday Party There II be parades and special activities in Ott The theme Is Canada I want to shake your hand Two plants stolen from inside home A baffling theft occurred Monday morning at the Sharp home on five north of town and police are in vest gating several clues Two large plants were stolen from the living room of the house which sits well back from the road Nothing else was taken Its incredible and say family mem They are offering a reward for further motion Anyone who can help with information is asked to contact One plant taken must have and would be very difficult to lift and get into a car It is a plant which has beautiful big leaves in shades of green yellow orange and dark red depending on the age of the leaf It is in a triangular yellow pot It about five feet high and Its value is between and The other is an ordinary Wandering Jew but a huge hanging specimen valued at about On sale Tickets are already on sale for an and cash draw with proceeds toward the town hall The draws are part of the big Back to Acton promotion Action brief being submitted this week The petition will read We the undersigned support the brief submitted by for Action to regional council concerning regional government under Bill 151 We hereby petition the province of Ontario to ish an Inquiry into regional government specifically to study the feasibility of restructuring the municipal of Halton Hills into two separate urban municipal within The sheets will be placed in stores and people are being organized to take them door todoor as well The petition sheets will be out until Saturday July a the committees decided at a meeting Monday night in the library The committee is expecting a significant response Marks heads board New chairman of Acton Community Services Centre board of directors is Peter Marks following the annual meeting and elections in the Wednesday of last week His sister was elected vicechairman and will also retain the duties of secretary for the time being Several members have left the board and newcomers joining It who were present are Rod Kruger Ed Howse Barb Heller and Eric Balk Mr Marks and tor Terry Grubbe reviewed the work and finances of the centre for the benefit of the newcomers Mr Marks ex plained that the goal has now been reached The centre is well established successfully used and funded by council Forty per cent of the funding came from the region forty Continued on Page Hinton on headships Halton teachers gutless high school teachers were branded gutless and accused of selling out to the Board of Education in the chairmanship issue Thursday by Trustee Bert As reported in this paper last week teachers and the board reached a compromise agreement on their dispute over a board plan to strip a large number of teachers of their title and extra pay as department heads minor heads and assistant heads and replace them with a much smaller number of school leaders to be called chairmen Director of Education Em Lavender announced the compromise at Thursday Board of Education meeting Trustees approved the plan The long simmering dispute boiled over in December when Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation placed an em against the board barring its members from applying for chairmen jobs in nine Halton schools which hadn already dropped the old department head system Six schools voluntarily dropped the old system of school organization in favor of chairmanships From the outset of new contract talks teachers made it clear chairmanships would be an issue When talks stalled in May a special Joint committee was set up to sort Continued on page 3 Chamber tradition For the second time In less than a week Ontario Hydro failed in a bid to get a zoning by law and Official Plan amendment to allow hydro corridors town Last Tuesday Hills planning board rejected the request and Monday council turned It down John represent Hydro said there were two lines in question Bradley to Milton and to Pickering He explained towers are up on the east west corridor and the land is owned by Hydro The public utility firm has permission to go ahead and put up the wire everywhere except In Halton Hills How is the public interest being served by further de lays on this route Boustleld asked He added he wean referring to the public In terest just In Hills but throughout Southern Ontario Mayor Tom Hill said he think there was much chance the town would change its mind and give Hydro the goahead for either the east west or north south corridors until residents get the independent study they are asking for Councillor Peter Marks said he was under the sion there is enough hydro in Southern Ontario right now and no industry was suffering because of lack of power said Marks might be right but his opinion was influenced by the great haste with which Hydro wants to proceed with the project He thinks it Is badly needed Councillor Miller said the town should stick to its decision not to approve the corridor He said he wasn I Impressed with the way Hydro abuses people Councillor George said council concern was with Hydro s lack of com plcte honesty with the people He wos worried approval of the east west corridor would prejudice the case against the north south line and added he know why Hydro was trying to come through Es queslng in two locations Many taxpayers are spending a lot of money trying to extract some honesty from Hydro declared On a recorded vote Hill Maltby Miller Marks Duby Pot Pal Patterson Mike Armstrong Peter and Roy Booth all voted to uphold the planning board Councilors Peter Morris Walter Biehn and Marilyn Serjeantson were ab sent See more on the corridor inside Beaming vet Citizen of Year ARMSFUL OF honors are held by Betty and Frank Oakes at the Citizen of the Year dinner in the Music Centre Friday Dr Oakes was the man of the hour the retired vet was active on council school board and in his church A happy group of friends assembled Friday evening in the Music Centre to applaud beaming Frank Oakes chosen this year Citizen of the Year The traditional evening is staged annually by the Chamber of Commerce with a feast speeches pre sentations and dancing on the program The event was successful as It always Is since friends of the honored fill the hall to extend sincere con tula t ions and thoroughly enjoy themselves The role of main speech maker went to long time friend councillor G W McKenzle who brought smiles and laughter as he rend the citation There wos huge bouquet for Betty Oakes and for Oakes presentations and letters from the Chamber of Commerce federal govern provincial govern ment Halton Council and Georgetown Chamber of Commerce Telegrams and letters were also read heap ing more praise on the night recipient The Oakes four children were here for the special occasion Carolyn with her husband Ernie Gregory from Hamilton Peggy Lawson with son Ted from Frances with husband Russell Gaulton and daughters Joanne and Kelly Grimsby and son George with wife Eleanor and daughter Nancy of Etoblcoke Unable to attend were grandsons Steven and Kevin and Douglas Gaulton Friend and past colleague councillor Peter Marks spoke and said there is no way our identity will die as long as we have people like Dr He presented a certificate of recognition Bert spoke on behalf of the board of education On behalf of Georgetown Chamber of Commerce dent George Gray presented Dr Oakes with a repro duction atlas and John McDonald book Sketches Julian Reed presented a scroll from the province Frank MP gave a framed letter from the Prime Minister Chamber president Louis Charlebois joked as he handed over the traditional engraved plaque A telegram was read for M P P George Kerr and a letter from region chairman Morrow Thanking the Chamber of Commerce Oakes recalled how he and Betty had picked Acton to live In and said that they have been happy to be part of the town If the would leave us alone enjoyed sharing a few of his reminiscences with his smiling audience He remembers dear old Miss Bennett retiring at a Continued on page