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the HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 1 A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited 45 Street Georgetown Ontario L7G PAUL J TAYLOR Publisher and General Manager DAVE BOB Advertising Manager PHONE ceo ml Mi I Beg Numbti Sleds slides toboggans Such an ordered society we have where even parks are fenced in Susanne would loe it Reminding her of those English gardens back home Cedarvale Park now has wooden fencing around its parking lot and up the hill leading to the Eighth Line en trance The fencing was harmless until unsuspecting children returned one day to find that their favorite toboggan hill had been rendered unsafe and unusable That doesn t mean it wasn t safe before In fact the reason the parks and recreation department fenced the hill was in response to some complaints about near misses from straying tobogganers The hilt is also unusable for extra parking but the recreation department solved that problem by adding a back parking lot further down the Eighth Line road But it still leaves a dilemma for the kids They ve been provided with an alternative toboggan hill but it just isn tup to standards If the parks and recreation department want kids to use the new run they re going to have to make it as lunng as the old one That might entail a little hill grooming building a ramp start or flooding some of the slower sections After all its part of the responsibility of the recreation department to encourage physical par not limit the opportunities for children to play UN Youth Year 1985 has been designated as International Youth Year by the United Nations It s a promising sign Perhaps more of the concerns of youth wilfl be highlighted in the coming year so much of our future depends on theirs International Youth Year also gives us an to see and appreciate the good things that teens do for the community Generation gara may exist but that shouldn t blind us to the positive things our youths con tribute In Halton Hills our youth haven been ignored but there is more that can be done by residents One of the problems in a small community is finding enough excitement for a growing adult The community can work together to provide more opportunities for teens by establishing weekend night dropins youth groups sports leagues dances and concer Businesses can help by recognizing the potential of an untrained youth in consideration for a job You find enthusiasm in a young worker and at the same tune give a teen the break he or she needs to be a contributing member of our society It s not an easy time to grow up Ronald Reagan or his surrogates seem bent on talking tough at the expense of a calm and peaceful atmosphere in world affairs Job opportunities for youth have never been more scarce It s a gamble in choosing a career without fully knowing if thai particular job market will bottom out by graduation time The obstacles are not insurmountable but it takes understanding and a genuine willingness to help by the community to assist our youth Faith not fear CLERGY COMMENT JOHNM Lutheran Church The new year has Just begun and all of us face it with various fears We do not know what the coming weeks and months will bring But those who believe in Jesus need not fear this or any other new year They can face the future more In faith than in fear For Gods Word and promises never Hisgraceandhelparecertaln I Was recently involved in a panel discussion about nuclear war One panelist spoke in desperation His message was doom and gloom He was only hopeful that he would die in the first nuclear exchange When it was opened for questions a woman asked me what would I a pastor say to people who were fearful about nuclear war The answer is simple People should trust God God Is still in control f the affairs of this world God will direct all things for the benefit of those who believe in Christ I also suggested that people pray for world peace The most powerful thing any of us can do for world peace is to pray for It In Jesus name We should also pray for continued free dom especially the freedom of religi on We would not have that under Communism God Is in control That Is true on the large scale and on the small scale It is true for nations and for lndlvidu als It is true for peace and war life and death health and sickness employment and unemployment prosper and poverty In all these things we should trust God and commit everything to Kim In prayer It la not that we should do nothing We should do our best In whatever lies before us But success or failure depends on God Is that good news or bad news If God Is angry with us it is bad news If God Is pleased with us it is good news Which is If It Is different for Christians than for nonChristians What is there In human history or current events to give an unbeliever hope Nothing If he Is aware of Gods he can only be afraid that God will punish him To be realistic the unbeliever can only face he future in fear But Christians believe that God has forgiven their sins because of Jesus death on the cross They eve that God is pleased with them for the soke of His Son They need not fear the future Peace or war feast or famine health or sickness lire or death believers know that God will turn everything to their benefit especially to their spiritual and eternal benefit Ramans In life or death we belong to the Lord Romans 14 His mercies are new every day and every year Lamentations May the new year be blessed In this way for all readers POETS CORNER MY SOURCE You re what keeps me going bring me back for more always so dependable I know Just whit In store by MARLOWE DICKSON HOCKEY HOSPITALITY Fyfe and The first town meeting By RICHARD E 1B20 a half of settlement had a there were males over 16 and under that age and 102 females over with under IB Those were recorded at the first town meeting held in Esquesing on New Year day at the home of Joseph Stan dish The legislature had provided for town meetings to be held as they were in New England whence most of the population or the infant province had come These town that is township meetings were usually held early In January and hero the ratepayers elected various officials for the coming year The meetings were a step towards loil democracy though the officials elected In the Upper Canadian town ships held less power than their counterparts in New England or than the appointed Justices of the Peace at home It has been asked how anxious people were for hat democracy since it was often difficult to persons willing to stand for office and those who declined to serve after they had been elected were subject to a fine of forty shillings The meeting was able to recruit officials at its first meeting whether willing or not James was elected Town Clerk The assessors were Joseph at whose home the meet was held and Thomas Barbour Thomas was given the Job of collecting rates farm at lot concessions must have the more prosperous ones of the district When the census of 1B42 was taken six households had house servants and Fyfe was the only one to boast of both The first Esqueslng post of ice was opened at his home in 1B32 with Henry the first postmaster When Mackenzie came out to the Stewart farm on the Scotch Block In to press for the Reform cause the Tor managed to get Thomas elected chairman of the stormy five- hour meeting The following year after Mackenzie had led his abortive the government seemed to think that Esquesing needed Justice closer at hand than the lakefront and was appointed one of the two f rst magistrates In the township Local government was based part on the model of an English parish where the church officials were respons ble for things like poor relief and public wprks as well as for the care of the parish church in a parish so in the township two wardens were chosen Charles Kennedy and John Stewart When the system of local government was changed at midcentury the title of warden was retained for the reeve elected to chair the county council meetings for the year A major responsibility was the oversight of roads and to that end six paymasters were elected But of that more in the next article Gloomy thoughts for 1985 THIRTY YEARS AGOA major water program continued Improvement of town roads and the possible Joining or the two Maple Avenues are improve ments forecast by mayor Jack Arm strong in inaugural speech to Miss Charlotte invited S one School Farm Forum to her home for Its meeting One of Georgetown senior residents Mrs WD Johnston will mark her birthday next Tuesday at her home on Charles Street Members of Georgetown Fire Department will conduct a fund campaign for muscular dystrophy research in Georgetown this month Corporal Albert Carter a member of the Canadian army who has been oned in Antwerp Belgium has been transferred to Germany Mattocks of Acton has been named registrar of the county of Some of the 10 employees at the A Roe plant will be laid off at the end of this month because of a cutback in production of the CF tw n jet fighter FIFTEEN YEARS AGO Council approved an application from Mrs he Johnston Caroline St allowing her to Id on an empty lot there which had been zoned industrial Council expressed appreciation for the years of service on the Cemetery board given by Sam Mackenzie who tendered his resignation Reeve Hunter was appointed to the Cred Valley Conservation Authority Clerk French reported only three cans of DDT mostly half full were picked up In the p round up Caruso Street has been reelected president of the Onta Lacrosse Association TEN YEARS AGO Julie and Larry Hughes 33 Edward Street are the proud parents of Georgetown 9 first new born of 197S with the arrival of their baby at 10 a m January Frederick Arthur a local lawyer and former Herald photo grapher was honored on the new year by appointed one of Her Majesty Counsel by the provincial government Officers elected at the annual meeting of the Halton Hills Volunteer Fire Department were as District Deputy Chief Bob Hyde Company One Captain Bill Cunningham Company Two Captain Ace Bailey Company One Lieutenant Brian Fife Company Two lieutenant Jimmy Valantlne and Fire Prevention Officer Craig FIVE YEARS AGOOtto announced that Prime Minister Joe Clark will be making a special appear In Halton riding at a public meeting at the Holiday Inn Oakvllle in Georgetown collected 937 from schools churches and organizations involved in the Year of the Child campaign The Georgetown is short of Its fund raising goal for Georgetown resident Larocque has become the first person in Ontario to request a trial in French In accordance with new legislation which became effective Jan 1 A trip for two to the Quebec City Winter Carnival awaits the grand prize winner In the Halton Hills Wlnterfcst January Is a gloomy month so let think some gloomy thoughts about the future of our society And let start with some session comments from Liberal leader David Peterson whose Job as Opposl leader forces him to look at the negative side of everything Peterson spoke of the social and cultural infrastructure of this province being under assault of hundreds of under privileged citizens lining up for food or strained systems such as overcrowded hospitals post secondary Institutions in disrepair and thousands of unemployed young people Ho spoke too of the neglect of services which could be seen In the statistics showing per cent of all roads arc inadequate or the c distress of children aid es or the stalled hospital expansion programs and the strikes by various public sector employees It was a dark view of life here In Ontario And yet be the first to acknowledge it is only a partial view for by any objective standard we live in a land blessed with prosperity health civility and comfort This province provides not Just the good life but the civilized life as close to a secular Garden of Eden as humankind has ever seen The question then becomes wheth er we can keep It Peterson pointed comments about governmental perhaps shortcomings is one answer The fact is even as we as a people plunge deeper and deeper into the embrace of the nanny state more and more problems arc discovered All require more government action All cost more money Yet politicians already know that our economy Is growing too slowly to produce the revenues to pay for the solutions to earlier problems discovered by politicians of bygone days This blindness to a financially strapped future that we have already contracted for Is matched only by our lack of historical memory and our to see the world beyond our boundaries In the damning light of reality The Globe and Mail inconoclaslc writer Richard put It this woy High school and university students live for the most part in a dream world a Cloud Cuckooland where there Is no poverty no war no competition no risk no challenge where there Is and always will be lots of entertainment lots of money lots of leisure lots of booze dope cigarettes and hamburgers For this 1 can hardly fault them or their teachers most Canadians live are trying to live In such a dream world WHERE NEXT What few seem to grasp is that in human existence the material paradise ordinary people here enjoy is time built in the main by Individual effort within and behind military security without Today wo reversed that approach passing our lives within to the Holy Mother State to solve our problems while wo pretend the world without would be safe if we only be reasonable and negotiate a peace with foes whose philosophic existence is predicated upon our socioeconomic extinction being an historical necessity and for how long The outlook is not good Even though Prime Minister Brian Mulroney revealed the source of hs information there Is little reason to doubt his claim that the New Demo crats now are more popular than the oncemighty Liberals In the course of one of many yearend interviews the prime minister tossed out the information that for the first time the is running ahead of the Liberals and NDP Leader Ed Is running ahead of Liberal Leader John Turner Tho comment soy Tory insiders was based on internal party polls which they claim show a dramatic plunge In Liberal fortunes even from the party dismal showing in the Sept general election One gleeful Conservative strategist said the polls showed the to bo a disaster area Even allowing for a somewhat subjective viewpoint that would appear to be a predictable assessment given the fact that the Grits here reduced humiliating seats in the September election and have done little since then to signal a resurgence In fact they have done very little And while we don have access to those Internal Tory polls we do have that November Gallup poll which showed that while the Tories enjoyed GO per cent popular support the Liberals had dropped to a dreary per cent only four percentage points ahead of the That is not much of a gap considering the tact that Just a year or so ago here was a 25polnt rriargln between the two parties In the election It e Liberals held 28 per cent of Int voters while the New Democrats had 19 per cent To further bolster the accuracy of the prime minister yearend assess he also have that opinion poll which showed that in terms of a prime ministerial choice Turner trailed by nine percentage points llloZO while Mulroney coasted along at per cent That was a devastating bit of news for the struggling Turner who already faced an enormous rebuild job There can be little doubt that the prime minister has a vested interest In the sinking fortunes of the Liberals and he can be expected to exploit every discernible decline in their popularity He knows full well that regardless of the current condition of the Grits they still pose a far greater electoral threat to him than the New Democrats It was only four years ago that the Liberals swept of Quebec seals and despite the astonishing Tory turnaround in September there Is obviously a great deal of residual L left to be built upon in that province The New Democrats on the other hand have never come close to elect ng an MP In Quebec BLEAK OUTLOOK A principle reason for the prime minister s unconcealed glee over Liberal misfortunes Is the fact that unlike the Now Democrats the Grits are capable of fighting back from vlrtuaUy any Ideological position Norman has had cerebral palsy since birth He is the author of Ready Willing and Disabled and was the keynote speaker at the Independent Living Conference last fal Norman very effectively brought home to his audience that ones attitude to their disability can make the difference between acceptance and acceptance In several humorous personal stories he demonstrated that many people meeting the handicapped rarely see beyond a disability to the especially if it Is a lmpedi you can say what you want and It won matter as the able person likely to understand anyway He shared with us how he learned to cook an egg Most Important be stressed was that you eat a good breakfast before you start This way the emphasis Is on learning and there is no personal investment in the outcome After 30 minutes and four attempts the task was a compl Theeggswerenoteatablebutne hod learned Tor future use how to cook and shell an egg his way This story pointed out that all Individuals including the disabled have the right to fail then try again In a workshop conducted by Norman self esteem its origin and maintenance was the topic of on He felt hl3 disability CP and his dcntily as a child were merged With the concentrated efforts of speech and physiotherapists to make him normal he was taught that it wrong to be handicapped He learned that you should be the same as others and that acceptance comes with achieving this goal Appearance is also more Important than who or what you are Through rote play we learned It is OK to be who you are handicapped or non handicapped The givers speech therapists physiotherapists and social workers all experienced the feelings encountered by the receivers the disabled handicapped opportunity to experience some of the frustrations felt by the professionals All In all each group derived a deeper understanding of the other