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

OPINION As problems go, the donation of an $800,000 art collection is a nice 'problem' to have. But make no mistake, Fred Helson's re- cent generous donation of exquisite artwork has created a bit of a pickle for the Town and various local artists and arts groups. In a nutshell, Helson's donation was gladly accepted by the Town, which quickly decid- ed the best place for the collection was the Gallery at the Halton Hills Cultural Centre. The Gallery was renamed the Helson Gal- lery in honour of its benefactor and perhaps rightfully so. But, by doing so, the local arts communi- ty, which often used the Gallery to showcase its works, was told the Gallery was no longer an option for their displays. Alternative-- and much smaller-- locales had been suggested as had movable dis- plays-- art on wheels if you will. No wonder the artists feel "insulted" and as if they've been shunted aside. Mayor Rick Bonnette says restricting art- ists from the Gallery is "not going to hap- pen." But, at this point that appears to be ex- actly what has happened and the Town has botched the way it communicated its mes- sage to the arts community. Even Bonnette acknowledged there was "some miscommunication". Surely there is a solution for this problem either through artist Laura Kingsbury's sug- gestion of allowing artists use of the Gallery for the roughly 12 weeks a year it's needed or perhaps there is a suitable facility currently in town that could play host to the shows. Town offi cials and local artists need some face-to-face time to work out a solution-- which shouldn't be diffi cult considering there are several creative thinkers on both sides of the table. The Independent & Free Press is published Tuesday and Thursday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Edi- torial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Independent & Free Press Artistic expression Steve Nease Letters to the editor Dear editor, On October 27 our granddaughter woke up with serious medical symp- toms and a great deal of pain. Her mother phoned Telehealth Ontario and got a sympathetic hear- ing, excellent questions and credible advice. The nurse suggested that our granddaughter be taken to the George- town Hospital emergency department within the hour. After a brief 15-minute wait, she had been admitted by an effective and friendly triage nurse and was in the capable hands of Dr. Kelly Williams. The information provided to the Tele- health nurse had been forwarded to the hospital's emergency department. Blood work processed in less than an hour confi rmed that our grand- daughter had mononucleosis. She was immediately given an intravenous with medication, pain killers and fl uids to deal with dehydration. The patient was back home within three hours-- happy as a lark! This is an accurate description-- but the fact that she wanted to hug a nurse who was sticking needles into her makes us suspect there was some- thing really great in the I.V. fl uid. As this happened around Hallow- een, her kid brother had a costume suggestion-- Mono Lisa. Nicole has recovered fully. Thanks to everyone involved-- great job! Pav Penna, Georgetown Letters policy 905-873-0301 Publisher: Dana Robbins General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@theifp.ca) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@theifp.ca) Managing editor: John McGhie (jmcghie@theifp.ca) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@theifp.ca) Classifi eds Kristie Pells (classifi ed@theifp.ca) Accounting Rose Marie Gauthier Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@theifp.ca) Ted Brown: Photography (tbrown@theifp.ca) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@theifp.ca) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@theifp.ca) With contracts now imposed on Ontario public school teachers, should they return to providing extra-curricular activities? • Yes. The fi ght is over... for now (65%) • No. They have the righ t to withhold that service (35%) WEB POLL RESULTS (Go to www.theifp.ca) Belated thanks to hospital staff Loss of Gallery is 'devastating' Transparency needed Letters must include an address and daytime phone number. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters should not exceed 150 words and may be edited for content and/or length. Publication is not guaranteed. Email: jmcghie@theifp.ca Mail or drop off: Independent & Free Press, 280 Guelph St., Unit 29, Georgetown, ON., L7G 4B1. by local taxpayers and donations, be more inclusive to all local art forms? Laura Kingsbury, Georgetown Dear editor, Regarding the newly dedicated "Helson Gallery" at the Georgetown Cultural Centre. While I appreciate the tremendous gift that Mr. Helson has donated to the town, I don't think the Town council and the general public realize how devastating the loss of the Gallery is to local artists and groups. I was invited to a meeting and tour of the new facilities to try to fi nd alter- nate space for "community" art. There was precious little. I felt demeaned and marginalized. It was akin to telling the local theatre groups that the theatre was being given to a more culturally signifi cant group from Toronto and that they should be happy just putting on skits in the lobby. Could not a solution be found to at least share the "Gallery" facilities? Should not our Cultural Centre, funded (This letter was originall sent to Town council. A copy was made avail- able for publication.) Dear Mayor Bonnette, Town Coun- cillors, Given there is enough space avail- able at the new library gallery to ac- commodate the various parties, we do not understand why the local artists are denied the space that had been allotted them for decades in the old library and promised would be avail- able to them in the new library. The local artists need this space as there is nothing that even comes close any- where else in town. We have nowhere else to go. Many of us have been asking why the decision to accept the Helson donation has been made without fi rst consulting the local art community and why there was and still is such a lack of transparency surrounding this situation. Surely we should have been consulted before being cancelled out of our space at the new library. Please let us share in the new space at the new library. Inge Kremer, Georgetown •T he I FP • H al to n H ill s •T hu rs da y, J an ua ry 3 1, 2 01 3 6 << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /None /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Error /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.1000 /ColorConversionStrategy /LeaveColorUnchanged /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 100 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness true /PreserveHalftoneInfo false /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts true /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages true /ColorImageMinResolution 150 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 150 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 1200 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName (http://www.color.org) /PDFXTrapped /Unknown /CreateJDFFile false /SyntheticBoldness 1.000000 /Description << /JPN <FEFF3053306e8a2d5b9a306f30019ad889e350cf5ea6753b50cf3092542b308030d730ea30d730ec30b9537052377528306e00200050004400460020658766f830924f5c62103059308b3068304d306b4f7f75283057307e305930023053306e8a2d5b9a30674f5c62103057305f00200050004400460020658766f8306f0020004100630072006f0062006100740020304a30883073002000520065006100640065007200200035002e003000204ee5964d30678868793a3067304d307e305930023053306e8a2d5b9a306b306f30d530a930f330c8306e57cb30818fbc307f304c5fc59808306730593002> /FRA <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> /DEU <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> /PTB <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> /DAN <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> /NLD <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> /ESP <FEFF0055007300650020006500730074006100730020006f007000630069006f006e006500730020007000610072006100200063007200650061007200200064006f00630075006d0065006e0074006f0073002000500044004600200063006f006e0020006d00610079006f00720020007200650073006f006c00750063006900f3006e00200064006500200069006d006100670065006e00200071007500650020007000650072006d006900740061006e0020006f006200740065006e0065007200200063006f007000690061007300200064006500200070007200650069006d0070007200650073006900f3006e0020006400650020006d00610079006f0072002000630061006c0069006400610064002e0020004c006f007300200064006f00630075006d0065006e0074006f00730020005000440046002000730065002000700075006500640065006e00200061006200720069007200200063006f006e0020004100630072006f00620061007400200079002000520065006100640065007200200035002e003000200079002000760065007200730069006f006e0065007300200070006f00730074006500720069006f007200650073002e0020004500730074006100200063006f006e0066006900670075007200610063006900f3006e0020007200650071007500690065007200650020006c006100200069006e0063007200750073007400610063006900f3006e0020006400650020006600750065006e007400650073002e> /SUO <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> /ITA <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> /NOR <FEFF004200720075006b00200064006900730073006500200069006e006e007300740069006c006c0069006e00670065006e0065002000740069006c002000e50020006f00700070007200650074007400650020005000440046002d0064006f006b0075006d0065006e0074006500720020006d006500640020006800f80079006500720065002000620069006c00640065006f00700070006c00f80073006e0069006e006700200066006f00720020006800f800790020007500740073006b00720069006600740073006b00760061006c00690074006500740020006600f800720020007400720079006b006b002e0020005000440046002d0064006f006b0075006d0065006e0074006500720020006b0061006e002000e50070006e006500730020006d006500640020004100630072006f0062006100740020006f0067002000520065006100640065007200200035002e00300020006f0067002000730065006e006500720065002e00200044006900730073006500200069006e006e007300740069006c006c0069006e00670065006e00650020006b0072006500760065007200200073006b00720069006600740069006e006e00620079006700670069006e0067002e> /SVE <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> /ENU <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> >> >> setdistillerparams << /HWResolution [2400 2400] /PageSize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice