ht cton cffrw bttss ninetyfourth year no 25 acton ontario wednesday december 18 148 sixteen pages ten cents santa claus can come long short or tajl but this one at the tyler christmas party sat urday evening was cormeliest of the lot zen ith armstrong miss acton fair 1968 distrib uted gifts and was introduced by ted tyler jr to the large crowd at the music centre guosts danced and enjoyed acts by profes sional entertainers staff photo 200 christmas gift for shoppers saturday merchants have a whopping big christmas present for intown shoppers this saturday the prize money in the final santakama draw has been increased from 10 to 200 and the number of lucky winners from five to nine the clown band will tour the town to announce the merriest christmas draw of them all at 3 oclock saturday afternoon on the ymca steps the 200 in vouchers will be divided into first prize of 50 followed by 40 30 25 20 sis 10 5 and 5 hath comfy board already 450 has been handed out to happy winners in the merchants shopattown promotion this christmas by offerini vouchers for all purchases theyre showing the local people how they are willing and able to compete with larger centres in goods and service there have been 25 winners already with no duplicates there has only been one outoftown winner a young toronto man who got his coupon with an ordei at hoods drivein restaurant lie teccivcd his cash voucher but h hasnt been cashed in yet although this saturdays draw is at three oclock the gathering of the thousands of coupons must begin a couple of hours earlier anyone with coupons fioni purchases made after i pm may diop them into the big container al the y just before the draw is made last saturdays lucky winners were s30 mrs o martindalc elmore dr acton s25 mrs g a dills frederick st acton 15 mary daigle mason blvd acton 10 j h gov acton sio mis e bird r r 2 director of education named the llalton county board of education has appointed james w singleton to be the directof of education for llalton county mr singleton a graduate of toronto normal school the university of toronto and the college of education luu experience as a public school teacher and a high school teacher he has been director of education in the town of burlington for almost 10 year mr singleton has held executive positions in many professional organizations such as the ontario secondary school teachers federation the association of directors of education and the association of senior education officials in addition he has been president of a number of community organizations his experience over 30 years has found him active on several special committees for the minister of education as dean of two of the summer schools for training secondary school james w singleton teachers and as an advisor to many educational groups board chairman fred armitage expressed the great confidence of the board members in the new appointment and the hope that the organizational plans of the new hoard will progress rapidly mr a rhi 1 1 age also dreu attention to the presentations of u l mcneil of milton and a e robinson of oakville we are extremely fortunate to have men of such abilm m llalton county said the chairman they will certainly be offered key positions in the new county structure the 50yearold mr singleton began his new job on monday his sjlary will be finalized later when trustees delve into their budget and manpower statistics but in the interim his salary will be 25000 a year the same as he was receiving as burlingtons director of education llalton county board of education replaces 10 education boards in llalton it will have jurisdiction over 1 1 high schools and 74 public schools over 2000 teachers and 46000 students survey suggests need of indoor swim pool ate recreational facilities and the yearround program in acton adequate results of a survey conducted ly grade xi students at acton district high school anil released to the parks and recreation committee at a meeting thursday suggested that adults think they are but students have reservations roger daggett bill field nigel spicer rae swackhamer dave broostad and jim reid conducted the survey under the direction of viceprincipal joe bray questionnaires were sent home with all elementary and high school students the question do you feel the present recreational program in acton is adequate received a yes vote from adults who answered the survey 33 said yes 24 no students at both public and high schools rejected the idea public school students said no 206 to jl 20 high school students said no 1 16 to 18 public school students in acton narrowly endorsed the adequacy of present recreational mail volume down the volume of christmas cards is down to far this year according to acton postmaster gord mekeown despite the fact that tale of stamps hat indicated no change ha concludes that people are jutt slower than usual getting cards in the mall by thit time last year we had gone over our paak load so far we havent reached a peak he said monday afternoon business it expected to be extremely heavy all thit week and extra worker have been hired to handle forward mall- seven trucks come in loaded every day and five go out right now were up to date said mr mekeown local mail is being put out the day it comet in we cant guarantee well be able to keep up though reports from various other partt of ontario indicated christmas mailing wat down 30 to 40 per cent although many post offices reported they were out of tix cent stamps in toronto the pott office reported mail volume had already exceeded last years and the postmaster expected record far beyond anything yet fears were expressed whan rates for christmas cards went up that many people would cut down on the number of card tent out pott office officials feel however that since the sale of sumps it high that people art tlowet tending cards this year 11th fatal accident in n halton north llaltons 1 1 th fatal accident of l claimed the life at a toronlu man saturday evening robert alex scott 27 of toronto was killed when a car driven by patricia ann cooper 22 of toronto went off a curve and hit a tree on the ninth line esquesing north of glen williams the driver suffered injuries to her hip the car received 1 600 damage giant card with christmas and new veart day falling oa wednesday the next two iteuee of the free pr will be publid on monday tottmd next monday december 23 this paper will be like a giant christ mas card filled with special greetings to ail th readers from friend and businessmen watch for it monday afternoon about 330 tun facilities in acton 1621 50 high school students said they werent adequate 12410 adults said yes they were adequate 3026 the information wajrbascd on information ohtainedn in the survey form circulated to students and parents and reflects only the views of those who answered the questions a list of activities published in the report praised by recreation committee members numbered 55 activities people in acton could participate in and was not complete the wide range of interests reflected a diversity of program which astonished members of the committee since it indicated only the involvement of those who completed the survey suggestions for additional recreational facilities and program met with a varied response from those who completed the survey most popular suggestion was for an indoor swimming pool and it was endorsed by all three classes public high school and adults although adults took a more conservative view also suggested were movies tennis dances outdoor skating horseback riding night school family billiards new track at high school football snowmohiling gym classes pied piper fairy tale following a recent story in a daily newspaper about an invasion or rats in glenlea the free press conducted its own survey to root out the rodents however all of the people contacted in the supposed danger zone reacted with astonishment several were indignant at the mere thought one man admitted his neighbours had problems with a ratliim no one had complaints about the fourlegged type the story originated when mayor lcs duby told the hydro commission last week of a complaint he had received from a man who had discovered two or three rats outside his home on mowbray place he felt they might have come up from an old dump site when digging started on new homes in the area obviously if there was a subterranean colony of rats who were forced out by the shovels they werent very many or they didnt feel welcome in glenlea woodworking club archery and gup club all supported in varying degrees studcuu conducting tlic survey noted that onie r c c o m in c n d a t i o n s for recreational activities were already organized and being rim and they felt this indicated the public should be made unite aware of the activities the survey also indicated that acton citizens can be separated into two groups 1 those who arc concerned about present conditions and arc willing to go out of their way to better recreational activities 2 those who are not interested in participating in any of the present activities or suggested future activities survey students felt the group in the second category was a small minority the survey included a list of buildings and organizations in acton and an inventory of equipment and facilities available for recreation programs it also included a list of activities and organizations presently functioning this information was obtained from personal interviews with people concerned with the organizations its obvious the people paying the bills adults are happy with recreation in acton committee member t tyler jr observed after the report had been scanned mr bray pointed out sonic things were missed- on ihc survey said member hugh pallerson and he pointed out there were 55 activities listed and it didnt include commercial recreation we could take another step now said chairman john goy who reminded the committee the report conducted at the committees request was the first step to determine the extent of recreation in acton arid have a guide for future activity another step would be to let continued on pagt 3 meeting mckeough mayors renvoi and deputyreeves of halton county will meet with minister of municipal affairs darcy mckeough friday in toronto to discuss regional government in light of the regional government policy recently announced by the government i am looking forward to hearing the views of member of the county council and mayor the ministers invitation indicates at its october meeting halton county council approved a resolution calling on the province to proceed with the trantition to regional government in the county the resolution did not mention boundaries or representation it it expected the meeting in the maedonald block at the parliament building will be doted ton of mr and mrs herb dodds wet among those recoivlng gift at the firefighters christmas party sunday at the fire hall more pictures inside staff photo detkmgtke hoik with stolen fights flic theft of a another string of outdoor lights was repotted to the police by mrs george haggett weslcott rd on friday the 1 3th apparently thieves had also made a previous attempt to steal a spotlight at the home a set of lakeview lights have also been reported stolen by lliicves who sadly lack the christmas spirit of giving so somebody somewhere is probably decking the halls with stolen gouds space race currie joins day ledwith in race for wardens seat the twoman race for the seat of warden of halton county for 1969 turned into a threeway race this week reeve george currie of esquesing the veteran county councillor who held the post in 1936 says hes back in the running until now pundits were predicting a twoway race between reeves austan ledwith of milton and alan day of oakville but reeve currie promises them a good fight protocol says a man should not be warden two years in a row and the post of honor is usually moved around from municipality to municipality on a turn basis but reeve currie says there is nothing in the rules to prevent a man staging a comeback for the job after 32 years away from the countys lop chair there have been a lot of changesin 32 yeats he added esqucsings last reeve was wilfrid bird who died threequarters of the way through his term of officclin 1962 the township has not had a warden since that year at i00h pm monday dec 16 the police got a phone call a space ship was reported red and green flashing lights with a circle of white underneath caller refused to give name cons kresslcr rushed out soon came back in again wrote in the police daily book where all occurrences and details are meticulously listed object not encountered case closed band concert sunday night the prcchristmas citizens band concert which has become more and more popular each year is coming up again this sunday night its to be in the high school auditorium acton legion choraliers will sing and joe pelric will play the accordion they were the guest artists at last years successful concert taauiau was wut of the cgit annual vesper service included are mary aughlin at mary sandra patterson at joseph thepherds bonnie jones linda perry carol matalet and martha long and wit men carol pickles barbara raid and mary ann de haan staff photo