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

THE OUTLOOK Saturday October 1990 Page Letters to the Editor- Town cant stand still if its to survive Dear Sir Reading the Herald the past pie of weeks has been encouraging to those of us interested in keeping local taxes down to the cost of liv increases Regional chairman and his budget restraint program Mayor Miller and Councillors Ann and Cook stating they wont accept in creases greater than the inflation is excellent news Councillor Norm did not subscribe lo this pre setting of the rate of acceptable tax increases and waffled about committing himself to this objective The only way to achieve a goal is to set it and then work to meet it Encouraging as it might be to see regional local and even the hydro staff freezes there is a lot of other areas that can be worked on to lower the tax burden Local interest groups have got to be faced up to and their desires weighed against he needs of the whole town So it was another welcome piece of news to see the Development ap proved by a close vote of to 6 In this instance the desires of an ex chairman of a major Canadian bank and his horses and a small number of local residents and their peace and quiet was voted down The gain for the people of the town is approximately in up front money to the town and ongo ing taxes of per year New projects are a very effec tive way of bringing down taxes by increasing income and one has to do a heck of a lot of staff cutting to equal the impact of new projects And we sure have missed a lot in the past months as we listened to local interest groups Should we really have canned thai small asphalt plant or a highnse in town or a plaza in Norval Some of the town employees have got to remember that it is this sort of Legion Poppy Fund helps many thing that will come along and save their jobs A town can t stand still and survive Now what about the huge project south of Georgetown on the ninth line Its already there and is a ghost town with hundreds of houses not bringing taxes Who is going to pursue that baby and get those houses occupied and paying taxes Finally not doing things is another way to decrease taxes and I am delighted to see the collection of rural garbage has been dropped Speaking for the rural people around me we dont want or need this service Some fancy dollars have been bandied around on this Do I the Town Treasurer right The Herald reports the rural tax payer would see this tax bill increase 23 and with gar bage collection 7 This is a 3 increase for garbage tion and represents on a rural property paying per year I can t believe this I have to be making a mistake or misreading the information Regardless even if it is only about 300 per year matching private col lection costs we still dont want it The council asked the Treasurer to provide preliminary budgets based on tax hikes of The cost of living is going to come out at about A this year Morrow Dear Editor As October comes around we begin to think about Day and what it means and how we must never forget I would like to tell our townspeo ple merchants manufacturers and citizens in general what we have been doing with their dona in keeping with the rules laid down with regard to the Trust Fund We have set in motion he annual contests for pasters essays and poems on the school age of our community and are looking forward to receiving a fine crop of entries We had some excellent achievements last and our area produced the top winner in all with her essay During the past vcar we assisted those veterans or dependents who approached us to the extent of approximately 00 and we donated 5 to Research on Disease a curse we all hope to dodge in our declining years and to the Legions District Hospital Charitable Foundation Also every year our Ladies Aux invites a busload of Sunnybrook Hospital veterans to spend an afternoon at our Branch The bus is adapted to ac commodate wheelchairs and the veterans are accompanied by a nursing supervisor hey are entertained and given a roast beef dinner and are generally pampered for the whole of their visit Ihev is very dent and it is a privilege to be per milled to assist in this event Our Annual Poppy Report will appear verv shortly in the local newspapers We are strictly limited as to how we disperse the Poppy I rust Fund and anyone interested may tain a copy of the rule I back on our lommum tys generosity last and many previous years we hope everyone will again come forward to assist The poppies cost each this year There was one rather disturb ing happening last year Another community organization trespassed on Poppy Week for their campaign a very unthink ing action and one which angered many of our veterans Did they not realize that the very fact they were free to do this without punishment was brought about bv the supreme of thousands of soldiers sailors and airmen Enough said A telephone call to or will give your readers the answer to any questions they mav Jean Narey Poppv Chairman Branch 120 Royal Canadian Legion Georgetown Acton Terry Fox run a tremendous success Courteous driver is lauded Dear Sir On behalf of the Acton I Fox Run Committee I would like to ex tend our sincere thanks to all those who made the Anniversary Terry Fox Run on September such a tremendous success Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved the total pledges and donations for the day amounted to well over Our thanks and appreciation go to Acton High School for he use of the facilities to Acton A and B and Frenzy for their kind donation of supplies for the food booth to Jack Ian ner s Table Garden Centre Vito Fruit Market and the Toronto Blue Jay organization for donating prizes to McMillan and Vegetables Tvler Travel Leathertown Feed Supply Speyside Welding Eagle Dominion employees and to all the businesses who kept pledge forms and all the people who showed their support with lawn signs to the many volunteers who helped throughout the day and who Rave so freely of their time and to all the people who sponsored in dividual participants or who donated directlv to the run and to all the participants from Acton and surrounding area who collected pledges and took part in the run Terry once said that dreams are made if people only try Thank you all for sharing the dream The Acton Terry Fox Run mittee Jon Hurst Nan Hurst Jan George Jenni Murr To the I ditor This is a thank to the driver of the white Ford truck who had the and decency to stop on Oct at the John Street and school crossing during the noon rush hour It seem peculiar to some Georgetown residents that I feel compelled to openly express my gratitude towards someone who was merely to a posted traffic rule It may surprise them further to learn that in the past weeks this is the first vehicle to actually observe assimilate and obey the crossing signs in area at noon I t noticed a time posted on the signs I am a new resident Should I assume that the half Kindergarten is a new concept to this area It is unfortunate thai there is no official need for a crossing guard at this particular inlersec during this time period Our child is the only one using this crossing to catch the afternoon bus so mv husband and I are the school board unofficial guards I would like to remind drivers that the blue and white signs with children on them are neither decorative lawn fixtures nor direct challenges to them It is not only a speeding violation to accelerate vour descent or ascent on to at least 70 but it is also very dangerous I know thai it is 1 real bonus to skim a bit of extra time for ourselves from our busv schedules I tin not though that the one minute 1 dav you might salvage b ignoring school crossing signs is the place to find thai flex time Would it not be a more reasonable expectation to just adjust vour travel time a minute or two 1 hope that the examples set bv the driver Im thanking Will have a positive influence on others I have one more question for Georgetown drivers Have you taken some time latelv to look at the autumn transformations in our tv It is incredible to think how much and what we can absorb from our surroundings when we pause for onK seconds A concerned citizen Kinsman Georgetown Cookbook correction Dear Editor Last year at this time was upset after reading the rules for the Cookbook contest I meant write and I never did But I ignore this another year Why is the rule Use all im penal measures included Since all ingredients are now sold b metric measure it makes cooking unnecessarily difficult when those ingredients are given in imperial measure Our count r converted the inline svstem ago and our are I aught the metric throughout their school It is a shame that 1 newspaper which prides itself on educating its readers would such a basic tenet of our educational system Perhaps in the future your Cookbook will use the metric measurement Until then could at least provide the metric measurement alongside the im penal Yours Valerie Georgetown Note The above has been noted and corrected Reform Party rapidly gaining credibility Whin Man rung made of his infntiient visits Ottawa a ftw ago In toiild hi Id Ins ton rentes i booth If he led 1 Inlf reporters it would have been considered Hail lie been guest speaker at a luncheon lukcts would doubledh go begging unless the food was fibulous As leader of he Reform of he was just another tern fringe on the political landscape Why the West was alwavs producing some new parlv concept movement or whalever temporarily nibble at the heels of real politicians No one much cared Hut when Mr Manning came to Ottawa recent things were decidedly different In fact for the full hat he circulated around Parliament Hill lie was I he most exciting show in town And w hen he delivered a speech the more than people trimmed the hall to hear the year old business loiisul that thoered and applauded Then he held news conference in the National Press Theatre and more icporlirs than most federal leaders could pet qui si ions were fertnt now is though Hit were it ilk important and ivtrv spoke Mi Manning stenitd worth weighing Ihere ire 1 number of reasons Ott is beginning In take a serious view of the mil the least of which are ill those of partv making a breakthrough in the next flection TOK The predictions are not coming from the partv itself In fact Mr Manning is among the more modest in this respect He t talk about numbers We re do verv well in Alberta British Columbia and Saskatchewan but I would like to see more progress in Manitoba Its like a matter of fact report to shareholders But it s we hear from western T orv MPs that has rneled so much attention on the mild mannered Reform leader When vou hear Alberta lories sa as hew frequent 1 do that could be wiped out reformers the Stewart MacLeod next election tend to at Tones now hold of Alberta s 26 seats Saskatchewan and British Col umhia are also worried about Reform partv in roads hat a now realizes is that the led the son of former Alberta Social redit premier Manning is for real Furthermore its likelv to rema a fore lo be rec koned ith in the forseeable future What also sinking in is that the leader is not some wild French regional radical just another I nuisance When 1 times to constitutional reformers hue pro dined more nit live m the inapt 111m Mid the I fiasco who could possiblv argue with Mr Mannings ideas about irling tin constitutional pro from the group up with regional and lot in put traditional approach stalling ami remaining at top t been a rousing success NOW 1 IVtFN When get down to it just about everything in the par platform seems fairlv reasonable But that can be said of a majontv of parties and this is not the onh reason Mr Mann ing has attracted so much attention in Ottawa The timing of his most recent visit could not have been more opportune He swooped in on he capital just as opinion polls were showing still further declines in the popularity of our federal par tv leaders Parliament was reconvening in its same old mood everyone was depress about the Oka crisis Gulf crisis the GST and the crisis to name just a few With tins backdrop an fresh politic face would have been a of sunshine But when that strikes terror the heart of one of the most unpopular governments in recent lustorv it takes on halo like proportions hen to even more goodwill the two Reform Party me mbers in Parliament MP Dehor ill and Senator Stan W iters innount voluntary cuts as a contribution to lowering the national debt And if the government t guarantee the money would be used for this purpose it would be en to help the poor And talk about timing The two announced this just as other MPs were giving themselves a new annual housing allowance In live theatre that would be masterful choreography Now we have no particular in sight or intelligence to offer in terms of predicting the Reform Parly s future success But we can say that when Preston Mann comes to Ottawa now hes treated with a respect that would have floored him two years ago