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clerkadmin istrator outlines community growth operation clerk administrator jack mcgeachle reports on the op eration ot the town of acton as seen from his point of view i am pleased to have this op portunity of reporting to the citizens of acton and to try and explain the operation of your town operation of anv municipality is a complex job to which i can attest after serving the town of acton for a period ol 19 years during which time it has grown in every aspect and in my opinion has become more and more a town to be proud of and one that no resident should feel ashamed to call home it is my intention to try and outline the actual operations of our town to vou so that you will have a better understanding of your local government and how your tax dollar is spent the town work force compris es eight men and a superintend ent and this force is charged with the responsibility of col lecting garbage installing water and sewer services maintenance of both water and sewer sys tems including the plants and pumping stations maintenance of all roads and sidewalks up keep of the cemetery trimming and cutting trees snow plowing sanding and snow removal in the winter months weed cut ting storm sewer and catch ba sins street sweeping and many other numerous items which are demanded and required for the proper operation of the town particularly during the win ter months the work force is ore call night and day to serve you so that you sufler as little inconvenience as possible in your daily lives you have no doubt read that consideration is being given to an enlargement of he water pol lution control plant better known as the sewage disposal plant and a briet history of the plant possibly is in order back in 194 council started the engineering on the plant and a complete sewerage system for the town but work was not act ually commenced till 1950 the present plant a as built in that veai to serve a population of 3000 people with a capacity ot 250000 gallons per daw the population ol acton was approximately 2000 people and it was in 1950 thai acton was raised trom a village to town hiatus toda the population is in the neighborhood ol f300 people with the average water pump- age reaching in the neighbor hood ol 350000 gallons daih so it can be seen that there is a de finite need or expansion of the plant lacilities pai ticularlv it our town continues to grow i am often asked what the term i tic a i improvement means and what does the am ount ol the tav bill represent councils over the veurs have installed witcrmttn under the local improvement act and the original water debentures issu ed in the l weie paid for in lull in the vear h50 when it is decided to extend the watennains into a new area such as the glenlea or lakevievv areas the total cost of the in stallation is arrived at and this is then divided as onethird chargeable to the town and two- thirds to the people in the area to be served the total footage is then computed and dividedi into the cost of the works and each ratepayer in the area is charged according to the front age of his lot the footage cost of course varies as the cost of the work varies and it is charg ed for the period of time that the debentures are issued nor mally 15 years presently the water supply seems adequate for our needs and for some expansion partic ularly since the erection of the two reservoirs we now have storage capacity of one- million gallons and with a daily output of approximately 350000 gallons it means we could supply he town for about three days without the pumps operating the reservoirs have also made a big difference in water pressures throughout the town which has many advan tages particularly to industry and their sprinkler systems on the construction of new homes the town work force in stall the water and sewer ser vices from the main to the pro perty line at a regular charge which is actually cost price it is the responsibility of the owner to then take the service from the lot line to his new home and this installation is subject to inspection by the hal- ton county health unit who al so inspect all plumbing thereby providing protection to the home owner that he is obtain ing a first class job according to the regulations which are set by the province of ontario it is worthy of note that the water department is complete ly self sustaining with water rates being set so that all deb enture costs for watermain ex tension building of reservoirs and general maintenance and repairs are met from the water rates so that it is not necessan to taise monev from taxation for this purpose the cost of sewer extensions operation ect is met on a 5050 basis between the sewer rent charge and the tax rale your bimonthly bill includes a sewer rent charge which is in corporated in the water rate and besides paving for the oper ation this also pavs 50 per cent ol the capital debenture charg es total cost of installing the sewer mains sewer plant and pumping station were close to onehalt million dollars and these debentures will be retir ing in the vears 1970 and 1971 it might be worthv of note here to reler back to the old public utilities commission which operated the water and sewei departments in conjunc tion with the hvdro till the vear 1960 this again was a local board operating a town service and in councils wisdom thev decided the water and sewer depart ments should be operated bv council who would then have full control of the utilitv and the necessarv work could be superior glove works limited manufacturers i o f superior br and work gloves and mitts viaay st acton ont boa 517 jack mcgeachie clerkadministrator handled by the town work force it was necessary to have a vote of the people and they ag reed with council arid voted to abolish the public utilities com mission and in its stead form a hydro commission to look af ter hydro operations only this was done and the acton hydro commission is comp letely responsible for all hydro operations in the municipalitv public welfare has become an important item in the town op eration and includes general as sistance disabled pension old age pension widows pension and numerous other items ol as sistance including applications to the halton centennial man or regulations governing gener al welfare are set by the prov ince of ontario who pay 80 per cent of all eligible costs and these iegulations are rigidly en forced bv the vyelfare auditor who visits the town office regu larly everv three months to aud it our books and applications thereby ensuring that the appli cants are qualilied for assist ance work performed oriour roads and streets including bridges storm drains cutting weeds etc is eligible for subsidy to the ex tent of 50 per cent in some in stances and 80 per cent in oth ers irom the department of highways again all of the work and expenditures are closelv scrutinized bv the department representatives and also by their auditor who visits the office re- gularly to audit our accounts and make sure the monev is spent properly and in accord ance with department regulat ions all work or a major nature such as paving road surfacing new bridges etc must be ap proved bv the department be fore calling for tenders and the tenders have to be approved al so before the contract is award ed operation of the cemetery is councils welfare committee with the town work force charg ed with the work required to maintain it in a proper man ner we have recently completed the necessary detail to open up a new sectionof approximately seven acres which will provide 2500 burial plots so that the community needs in this res pect should be well looked after for a number of years plots are sold at so much per grave and from this amount 40 per cent is designated as perpe tual care perpetual care funds cannot be used for cemetery op eration but must be forwarded to the public trustee of ontario who invests this money at his discretion and the interest from these investments is returned to the municipality to be used for general maintenance and up keep it has been the police of council to keep the costs of plots at a minimum with the thought being that the cemetgpy should be self sustaining and over the years this has been ac complished a large number of trees have been planted in the new section and it is hoped that each year shrubs flowers and trees can be added to make this new area a place that the citizens can b proud of preparation of the voters list each year forms a formidable piece of work and i would like to trv and explain something of how this list is prepared names for the voters list ana taken each year from the assess ment roll as required by statute and this seems to be where th most trouole arises the assesssor each year has to prepare a census of the popula tion and for this purpose he vis its all properties in the munici pality which of course takes some time he generally starts in april or mav and completes his work by september when he prepares his roll and sends out assessment notices quite often properties that have been visited in mav will have changed hands or tenants have moved to another location by the time the roll is complet ed or some new family will have moved in in the meantime so that when i receive the roll and start to prepare my voters lists there can be numerous changes ol residence which of course are not recorded so that this person does not appear on the voters list to be eligible to vote a per son must be a british subject and this also causes some confu- sion as people who obtain their citizenship papers after the as sessor has called do not advise the town oflicc of the fact and thev also are left off the voters continued on next page jack ridley cartage limited tufkmw s531920 i livestock and farm service fertilizer bulk spreading service concrete blocks cinder blocks clay brick concrete brick i pcv class fs ft f sand stone dump trucks for hire folly insured telephone acton 8530730