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GeofgetownAaoo Wednesday Feb 1983 TELEPHONE Button Founded In Ken Bellamy Don Ryder PublshCf Direct of of Advertising Hartley Coles Managing Editor Wednesday by Pitting PuUatung ltd it Siren ion Telephone par year Cants 30 In other than Canada and The Free Pima is on the Printing and Lid group which include The I Whitby News Advertiser Aurora Banner Tha Bob on Enterprise Brampton Guardian The Poll The Weekend Post The Guardian Georgetown Independent The Hamilton Wenrwoth Pint and Sun The Champion The Mmmauoe Newt The Newmarket and Sun The Mil on Champion The Newi The Newmarket Era The North York Motor Oakvdie Beaver Friday Beaver Othewa Tho Week Weekend The Richmond LKier The Scarborough Mirror The SloulhnUe The El Vaughen Newt EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor Gord Murray New Edttor Helen Murray SportK Room Inacoe Paul Nolan Cherfe Payne Darkroom Nancy ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Advenklna Manager Cook Kirk Davy Suaen McKkwon Carolyn Debbie Mac BUSINESS ACCOUNTING OFFICE Office Manager Joan CltcuUitton Dan Alls well that ends almost well anything may prove to be a small price to pay for the trustees to get a better financial handle on their plus million a year system We have been quick to throw stones at the board for spending our money al most like drunken sailors in the past Like Halton Board of Education trustees Halton taxpayers are also breath ing sighs of relief that the board has its million back from Crown Trust Alls well that ends al most well Other than several weeks of anxiety and the whole fiasco didnt cost the board or public much which was lucky Its heartening to learn now that board staff did know the extra million was trapped with the original 4 million Staff had received verbal notice of the additional problem it was only the written notice which sat in an envelope in the finance department for several days unopened It shows the boards staff had a better handle on the situa tion that people formerly suspected While it is regretable that the fiasco cost the board Were glad to be able to throw them a bouquet now It appears trustees have be come very serious since last years shocking budget about going through the nuts and bolts of their system and spending prac tices to find waste reshape policies and generally being more accountable for how the staff spends our money The new committee looking at investment policies is just another welcomed step in this recent trustee pro gram of increased financial responsibility From the editor Ross has financial smarts Thank firefighters and their employers This weekend the firefighters hold apprecia tion night for all the people who help them do their tough job the employers who allow the firefighters to leave work when the alarm sounds In the wake of the big Thompson Fuel fire it seems a good time to give a public vote of thanks not just to the firefighters but also the employers Both are selfless and make a ma jor contribution to Acton The Thompson Fuel fire could easily have turned out much much worse When our reporters arrived on the scene seconds before the firefighters got there just a couple of minutes after the call went In we had visions of the whole block going up the flames were licking at the two homes on either side that closely Nobody could have saved Thompson Fuels but the truly herculean efforts of the volunteers did save the two homes maybe the whole street Its unfortunate that it takes a crisis a big fire or a near death situation in the case of a resusitation call for the whole community to see just how efficient and competent our firefighters really are We fortunately dont often see the evidence of their hours of training and practise procedure But the employers deserve a round of applause too In the case of the Thompson Fuels blaze men were lost to Acton employers not for an hour or two but from near 11 am until after pm about five hours of production lost The fire fighters werent just work ing fighting a fire for a cou ple of hours after it was wrapped up on Young St they had another couple of hours back at the fire hall cleaning up their hoses and equipment readying for the next call which could come at any minute Well done firefighters and employers Acton thanks by Gord Murray Free Press editor People who deal with money end budgets are supposed to be pretty dry humorless fussy types Well Im happy to report nothing could be further from the truth when It comes to our Towns new budget chief Councillor Ross Regardless how you feel about performance at council or his stand on Issues If youve watched him at council for any length of time like I have you have to appreciate his financial smarts Ross does a good job of watching our dollars and cents But hes far from a dry humorless fella In fact Ross can be pretty witty and from time to time perks up a dull meeting with a Joke or rib tickling line A case in point is the recent Acton Business Improvement Area annual While the acUons of the BIA are Important to our town and certainly news worthy Ive never gone to one of their meetings and had a lot of laughs during the business portion At the recent annual meeting Ross was asked to speak Instead of giving a speech like most politicians would he told a couple of jokes In our continuing effort to put a little humor Into the paper thats why we carry local broadcaster Jack Carpenters on the front page each week our version of the morning smile Ill share one of Knechtels Jokes with you Its paraphrased not an entire quote but the gist is preserved Seems Trudeau passed on and was welcomed at the pearly gates by St Peter The chairman of Heavens council asked our PM to employ his experience in handling meetings since the meetings up there became rowdy once in a while He asked Pierre to sit on his left side and advise him St Peter was going to overlook political problems on earth A short time later Joe Clark also passed on to his reward Ross told this joke before Joe lost his Job While Joe had a really rough time In earthly politics St Peter felt he too could be of assistance in handling an unruly caucus so he asked mat Clark sit on his right side at the next Heaven council meeting Well here the three were Pierre St Peter and Joe sitting at the front of the chambers presiding over the meeting when an unex pected new arrival arrived in the hereafter to be processed into his new life The new arrival None other than the blue eyed himself Peter Lougheed And what did he say upon arriving in the Chambers and seeing the trio at the front Why St Peter youre sitting in my seat One last item new business at council At every meeting the councillors are polled to see what they want to discuss in the area of new The subjects are usually ques tions for staff They generally result in the councillor getting some ink the public being Informed of an Issue or concern and sometimes some immediate feedback from Town staff or a report coming to council In the future It all seems to be a pretty reasonable way to conduct things to me But for some reason a few veteran councillors object to this practise just about every time quite a few items are raised under new business They scold their colleagues that instead of bringing things up at council they should call staff during the day and have their questions answered then Guess their feeling Is that nothing that isnt orchestrated In advance should come out council to be scribbled down by we nosey reporters Also staff should never be embarrased and when new business results in a big story coming out the whole council might be a little flushed Thats why I figure a few dont care much for new business The official reason the plainers about new business use is that staff doesnt carry around every tidbit of information In their heads and cant get an answer right away for the councillor but they could If they were called during the day I dont buy that explanation for opening new business so what If the staff doesnt have on answer right away Since staff is paid good money to keep the municipality running on a daily basis I hope new business doesnt end and calls to staff become the order of the day Not much will get done between and Monday to Friday if department heads are on the phone with councillors all day Its been suggested at council but never acted on that new business be moved from near the end of the meeting to the start so staff can nip out and get the an swers before the adjournment I hope the next time someone beefs privately or publicly about the rash of new business items that council takes that step and eliminates the official complaint about new business In conclusion one good thing about new business that nobody ever seems to mention Is that when a new business item is reported In the paper a lot more citizens are informed about something than Just the ciUzens who called a councillor about an Item or con cern Crewsons Corners is ready to expand again A neighboring dally newspaper datelined a story from Crewsons Comers this week outlining the fact Township baa set aside some acres for industry the triangle bounded try the CN tracks Highway and the Seventh Line of the township Ontario Housing recently ap proved on amendment to townships official plan to the land for todustry the only tract outside of eight acres Rockwood which la deemed suitable The M acre tract poor agricul tural land and has no services available except by road but the township council going back to the days when Warren Parkinson was rem and Donets deputy h s a mod to attract some Industrial taa base to Eramosa Corners la la the unique position of being at the Join ing of four two of them to Halton Region end two In Wellington County Town Line roads fan out from the tug Erin and Townships and the Towoaof HHki and formerly tot In that created Province decided with consider able pressure from then Reeve Anne that township would be allowed to stay as a unit with Milton and Una retain some of ha Identity Earner the plan had been to cut the township in half give the land north of IS to Halton Hills or Acton and pah- the rest off with Anne raised such a ruckus down at Queens Park and scared the then George Kerr so much the reeve got own way and common sense went out of window one slice of the carto graphers pen So now we have the Town of Miltons borders a couple of of Acton Servicing and all rural dwelled expect are parcelled out from the old county town down the road It has been argued that Helton HHh never really wanted north cod of any way store would bare been around the tax hate Certainly there wasnt much hi the way of taxes but events hare proven thet the top end of ma at the corner of all these boundary lines little changed over the century since it was named for Crewson family who were once numerous and well known in this area The people Corners once had plana to erect a growing town there But when the Grand Trunk Railway went through back in and built their station In Acton Instead of the Corners dreams of grandeur faded with other dreams of oil and natural gas once purported to be In the area in large quanUUes The people of Crewsons Corners said then that the railway had made a clerical error building a station Acton instead of the Comers But like now railways never admit a mistake The station stayed in Acton then Just a modest country village Now Comers is ready for another kick at trialcaL The railways of course with federal transport are at their great scheme of dumping U me passenger service sir Pepin has said that the blame or the decline anyone from this area who used to use rail for travel can tell you Its an old trick First of all the lets the equipment get out dated Then they cut back on schedules hike the fares ex perience long and repeated break downs and delays severing with other modes of trans portation then they plead for an end to the passenger service they destroyed Now Mr Pepin wants to abandon another per cent of the rail lines across the country which still carry passengers Instead of trying to build up a rail service to let people get off crowded high ways and enjoy reasona public transportation again Indeed if it hadnt been for BID Davis and his Tory Government this area would not have any rail ser vice at aD Then- GO Transit service has proven that moder- nndng and trying to operate a good nil service can be done Its too bad Mr Pepin never opened eyes Back in IBM when railways Brit went through Acton there were men of vision at heed of transportation of this country Not B they want to do dose service to the public sad Thats progress Last week I closed this column with a few remarks about the diffl- Frank Tom faces with motorists asking direction to the Hide House This week John proprietor of Johns Texaco at comer of Young St and the tracks called He says he agrees completely with Franks observations about lack of explicit directions However John says that since he is in sight of the Hide House there are few enquiries but there are scores of people asking where they can find Gardens Gardens of course a mail order business is located just outside Rockwood but their mailing address Is Acton Naturally motorists expect to find it here He thinks there should be directions to get there as well as Uw Hide House He also wants to know how he can have sign Installed which of Uw community knowing aU the restrictions which exist from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications Others can Any answers out mere 10 years ago February Plans are afoot to move Actons CN Railway station to a parkland location- Acton Lions Club would like to see the station used only twice each day for rail passengers preserved as an example of early Canadian railroad architecture Ellis Taylor a Sixth Line North resident told the township council this week he is opposed to opening Toronto Inter national for Sunday racing Ellis recounted several violations of the current regula tions governing use of the track Ellis suggested they keep racing in Toronto with thelr Acton Y elected its executive Chairman Pat McGrenere vicechairman Allan TremlUs secretory Ellen Wlsseni and treasurer John Last 20 years ago February 14 1M3 R J Cunningham was returned as chairman of School Board for another year Shirley Armstrong Is vicepresident The meeting was held at the home of Miss Ruth Evans Parking meters are being considered for Actons downtown area by Town Council Reports of traffic and parking problems in dicate the twohour parking bylaw has failed to solve the problems on Main and Mill Streets Reeve H H opposed the meter proposal saying the council should attempt Instead to enforce the two- hour limit Acton firefighters were called to Milton to help fight the blaze which levelled Uw 100yearold Milton flour mill 50 years ago February 1933 All councillors agreed to a per cent reduction In salary Farmer clerk and treasurer has the same salary KS0 per annum J MacPherson Municipal Officer received last year cut from the year before and this was cut this year to Chief MacPherson said he was not paid for assisting the Provincial Police He ran his own cor for the benefit of the municipality and last year travelled over l 000 miles securing Jobs for unemployed men on Uw forms Jas Mills who Is paid 3 per day for days worked will receive a day The standard wage for teams and trucks is cents an hour and laborers 20 cents per hour E salary remains at 3750 per month from the municipality and a month from the various mer chants The position will be reviewed 75 years ago February IMS The two week storm has abated and roads ore fairly well broken There Is much need for removal of snow on the main streets of the village Rev Father Feeney concluded a decade as pastor of St Josephs church He has been longer in his present charge than any other pastor In town He Is very much beloved It very much looks as if the Disciples congregation has definitely decided to discontinue the use of their church at the corner of Church and John St as a place of worship permanently The electrician has Men ordered to remove the metre and fixtures This building would make a fine place for a gymnasium and reading room 100 years ago February The skating carnival on Tuesday evening was largely attended The competition for costume prizes was keen Mr Max was the subject of a most painful operation at The Eye and Ear Infirmary Toronto in removal of a tumor of con siderable size from Ms right eye Woollen and cotton hosiery is being manufactured In premises known as Academy Mr Alex McMillan calls his new business Academy Knit ting Works Those heaps of coal ashes about town are unsightly The social st Mr Grays residence raised for the wood fund Toe at Church are to beta a new church to