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10 Georgetown Acton Wednesday Dae IMP Eight reasons to oppose new municipal complex Dear Editor As a co citizen I have made a aerioos effort to under stand the issues surrounding the Complex affair I have concluded that council plans for the purchase tad develop of the Steven property and the construction of a new municipal complex arc not acceptable Here are my reasons 1 Legality The Municipal Act does permit a council to purchase more land than is required for municipal needs and to sell off the surplus if by doing so they obtain a more advantageous overall deal However it does not give clear per mission for a council to turn Itself into a development company speculate in real estate and seek to make a profit by turning raw land Into saleable building lots legal opinion has suggested that the courts could veto this planned action At the very least the council should have obtained a clear ruling that their plans would be acceptable prior to spending a large amount of public funds Acceptability Many of the citizens of this town already have enough trouble with the existence of inefficient crown corporations and the intrusions of government enterprise into the private sector We do not elect governments to have them turn around and com pete directly and with pri- vatedtitens We are reigned to the fact that Ottawa does it all the time and now even Queens Park But surely Hills doesnt have to follow suit Cost The suggested cost of 4 million noted in the councils own study Is in dollars and even provide for a fur nished building Government building programs have a sorry way of going over budget By the time the Complex is built it will likely cost 10 million or more We need that type of extra vaganxa We donl live in the Big Apple and we neither want nor need a world class city hall 4 Payment The council has so far failed to account for how it will finance such a plan If federal and grants do exist then these should be named and shown to be applicable Otherwise the council is obliged to state public ally the probable level of Increased tax burden which residents will have to shoulder The suggestion that every one of us could be facing an increase of per cent in crease in our property taxes for the next decade is probably not far off People want a complex which will cost that much Other Sites No information received from council to date Indi cates that a full study was done of alternatives to the Stevens estate It would even appear that ranch of the information which was studied on alternative sites was submitted by a gentleman who acting as the agent of the Stevens estate He may have been a fine and honest man but no astute consumer would ever ask a CM salesman for opinion of Ford and Chrysler and then make a decision based on that opinion alone Further it would appear that no study was done durmg the past year on the Trafalgar site which gives adequate proof to the public that this site is not acceptable 1 am forced to conclude that our coun cil mind was already made up long ago and that the skimpy material on other sites is merely window dressing Misleading Promises For be council to claim and for one councillor to claim in the paper that the land would be FREE Is an unfortunate and very damaging assault Its credibility The land is not free If by the time council sells off part of the property as serviced lots there Is found to be no legal impediment and there is an adequate supply of water end the real estate market does not drop significantly then and only then will the profits from the sale of land cover the original purchase price No one can poss ibly guarantee the future in this way Yet that is exactly what the claiming to do by stating that the land will be free 7 Is it really needed Council has claimed that the present cramped and muni facilities lead to low staff morale and inefficient operation While the present offices are ad mittedly far from palatial and at best somewhat tacky they are still a lot better than the surroundings in winch many of our citixens have to work every day The office staff whom the public has the pleasure of meeting when they do business with the town are really quite a fine looking lothardly the suffering vitims of horrendous working conditions There no question that some improvement Is re quired But that doesnt mean that we need to spend a fortune It has been suggested that an more successful way to raise staff morale would be ts take the funds that would have to be spent for a new complex and divide them among the staff as a Christmas bonus The effect on morale would be stunning Neither is efficiency a very compelling reason since by efficiency they do not mean that we would have better roads or better snow removal or better parks or better traffic lights or lower taxes Efficiency here merely means greater convenience and ease of interaction among the council and staff Again there would appear to be some need to improve on the present situation But sorer a modest improvement reason able cost is what called for Invalid supporting arguments A letter appeared hi the paper from a supporter which cleverly implied advantages to a municipal complex which on closer examination are blatantly invalid To imply that if the munldpal simplex go ahead then the nursing home would be Jeopardy is hard to believe Those respon sible who planned and are now building the nursing home were never so foolish as to pin tbeir for its financial wellbeing on some speculative real estate deal of the future The nursing home will be maintained regardless of the future of the municipal com plex Were this not to we would Immediately demand the resigna tions of those responsible for its undertaking Trying to raise the spectre of the unfortunate elderly being caused to suffer if the com plex go ahead is a shoddy political chimera likewise attempting to suggest that unemplyment will increase if the complex is stopped is mislead ing It wont The nursing home and the hospital will not employ any more people or any less people to any significant degree Neither will the town If anything the vaunted efficiency of municipal be achieved by having all functions under one roof and suggestion that this efficiency thus lead to a less costly municipal government can only mean one thing Fewer staff Dragging to the good names of virtually every social and volun teer agency In town and making it appear that these groups are on the side of the supporters of complex a sad clumsy and the effort to appeal to peoples emotions to the absence of any credible factual arguments These groups have not publically said that they support the complex and any attempt to picture them as having done so does more to expose the of the position than anything else May urge the councillors who voted for the purchase of the pro perty and thus obviously for Its planned development and the erec tion of a major complex to recon sider May urge the of Georgetown Acton and Eaquesias to study the Issue carefully and if you reach the same conduslon I have to sign the petition and let the council know bow you feel Respectfully submitted Craig Copland Georgetown Halton Hills Animal Control adds to its area Two car collision Issue wreckers Halton Kills Animal Control has been hired to patrol township In Township Council made the decision at a recent council meeting at a cost of for the service Any animals caught will be impounded In A collision at the Intersection of Main St and Thompson In Milton Thursday morning resulted in damage to cars driven by two local men William Manes of had about damage done to the car he was driving report police A car driven by Robert Johnson of Georgetown had about damage to his car and he sin minima Injuries the beauty of this season bring you peace and and throughout the coming Even though it Is quite late in the year at the reque of the owner Hills general committee last week agreed to Issue a wrecking yard licence for for Lees Auto Wreckers Acton Bylaw Enforcement Officer Jack Lusty reported last week that Lees bad a valid licence for a number of years but in 1982 It ceased operations on a day to day basis At first the Town couldnt get a hold of the owner to have remedial work done and later after locating the owner found the required work was being done on Weekends Just recently the yard conformed to the exist bylaw However Lees will have to do more work Lusty reported before It will conform to the new regulations which take effect January 1 1984 No licences will be issued to any wrecking yards next year until they conform to the new regulations Lusty reported the owners of Lees wants a licence any way so its licence wont lapse and has paid the fee He added it appears no salvage operations are currently taking place at the yard Rockwood Men help fight rural Milton fire 69 MAIN ST S by Barbara Funk Fire Department answered one call this week They were called out to a borne In on the comer of 25 and the Fourth line The fire had started In the chimney but progressed to the house by the time the Rockwood department arrived The fire in Milton territory so Rockwood returned home when the Milton department arrived Christmas Eva service at the Presbyterian Church begins at 30 m Everyone Is welcome to come and join In the singing during the service of lessons and carols PRESENTS 1111 MAGNAV0X MANIA BY PHILIPS Compare at 59900 HAVE YOUR OUT WRAPPED FRET VHS SPECIAL FEATURES 14day programmer Record off TV Remote control 8 hours recording Touch control Front loading Search frame advance slow Free membership movies GEORGETOWN ACTON ORANGEVILLE CAMBRIDGE 8779668 8531590 9419251 6536233 HALTON HILLS MOST COMPLETE VIDEO CENTRE Qseriasz Local gals earn 4H honors by Doris Fines A pleasant evening of entertainment followed a pot luck supper In Knox Pre Church recently The Sunday School children performed well in their various skits recitations songs and music It ended with the nativity scene and all the children were on stage In the background to sing carols It wouldnt be a Christmas concert with out Santa and that Jolly fellow arrived David Grundy with his bag of goodies and treatstohandouttothechlldren He said he would have a hard time filling some of their orders as one wanted a snowmobile and some didnt know what they wanted Recently the school choir from Ross MacKay HlUsburgh accompanied by Mrs Bonnie Schotsch their choir director sing at Knox Church Robert and Agnes Keating George and Suzanna visited recently with Bobs lister and Ruth and Ernie Ford it Oshawa Michael Jeremy and Andrea Bruce of Carp spent a couple of daye with their grandparents Ward and Flora Bruce while their parents Barry and Carol Bruce attended a medical convention in Toronto They were all at Wards for an early Christ mas family dinner Including also Garnet and Catherine Bruce Jordan Jesse and Adam of Toronto and Gordon and Jean Johnston of Acton Achievement night for the making project Ontario Heritage was held at John Black Public School Fergus on December The Mimosa Apple Dumpling Gang did skit on celebrating the multicultural way which took the form of a little party around a Christmas tree Lisa was the English host and the others were guests bringing foods of different countries and telling the traditions of Christmas in that country Vicky Carglll represented Ireland Shirley Fletcher Scotland Claudia Rab- stein Germany Tammy Swackharaer Poland and Christina Goring France Vicky Carglll and Lisa received their county honor certificate and pin Shirley Fletcher gave the highlights of her trip to the C NE which was sponsored by the Department of Agriculture There were 13 clubs taking part in the Achieve at Fergus UN JOYEUX NOEL MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL RUDY CADDIEUX 8778244 or fee tHe Permanent