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Seniors want to send you Seniors in Acton and Georgetown are joining forces to raise money for seniors' centres in both towns. All this month the seniors are running an ambitious lottery -- first prize is a trip to Hawaii. As far as new facilities, Acton's prospects look better than Georgetown's. Now that the Fire Department has moved to its new headquarters, work can begin on turning the Bower Avenue facility into a seniors' centre. In Georgetown the new seniors' centre will likely be part of a major multi-million dollar addition at Alcott Arena. Arena answer for Aug. 24 The Town staff report on the proposed location of the new $4.1 million Acton arena will be ready for Council on Aug. 24. Staffs analysis will name the best site based on a long list of criteria. The Acton east site, north of Highway 7 and east of Churchill Road, is odds-on-favourite with Acton politicians. The other two sites that were studied are the Heller-Dawkins industrial site on Wallace Street, and the existing arena site in Prospect Park. Acton councillors are waiting with baited breath for the report, which has been eight long years coming. Have say about the future If you want to have a say about what the Acton of 2011 will look like, come to a public information meeting on the urban land-use study. The meeting is slated for Sept. 16 at the arena. Although the Province says Acton can only grow to 10,000 people from the current 6,700, Town staff admit that figure could be as high as 15,000 with most of the housing and a new plaza on the east side. Concession for Blue Springs Halton Hills staff say they have "no imminent need" for $70,000 dollars that Blue Springs developers are supposed to have had available for the Town a couple of days ago. Told that they are making a "favourable" nine per cent interest on the developer's security, Council agreed not to touch a cash-in-lieu-of-parkland fund for the Trillium and Turtle Lake Estates until the end of October. That long distance feeling Bell Canada says it has good news for customers like us in rural areas and smaller communities. It's called the Neighbourhood Calling Plan and for about $1 more per month you will be able to phone 40 miles in all directions without paying long distance fees. Bell says the extra monthly cost will be saved in long distance charges. Glenlea Drug move update Construction on the new 10,000 square foot Glenlea Drug Mart is expected to begin this month on Highway 7 at the Little Motors garage site. Owner Gary Barton says it looks like an environmental analysis on the land will result in a clean-up order from the Province to remove garage waste from the property. Barton hopes to open the new store this fall. "I want to open for my birthday, Nov. 30." The apprenticeship of Pete the Duck HEY! "What would you do if you were to win a million dollars?" "First I would buy a new house. Then I would buy a couple of new vehicles, and then I would get a new boat. I would also start my own publishing business." Martin Vander Eyken, Frederick Street "I would buy a new house and then I'd give my husband a long-deserved, wonderful European or Caribbean vacation. Then I would give my son anything and everything he could ever dream of." Deborah Schlieper, Mill Street "First I would buy a big new house. Then I would buy a brand new car. And then I would quit work." Brian Nelles, Mill Street "I would give some of it to everybody, then I would pay off my mother's mortgage. Then I would give it all away. I would also buy myself a new car and help pay for university, which is very expensive." Lorelei Kidd, McDonald Boulevard We lived with a duck for almost three months. She shared our house with five cats and two dogs who accepted the newcomer with amiable indifference. I named her Pete because she looked like a Peter, but time revealed I had my sex-identification wires crossed. Pete turned out to be a girl, but her name remained the same. Pete and a white sibling came from a flea market where they were purchased by a neighbour. Housed in a shed, they did not thrive too well as it was a chilly June. When the white duckling died, I took Pete in as a boarder, confining her at first in a wire cat-carrying cage, which she soon outgrew. The cats sniffed her intermittently, drawing outraged duck profanity, while the dogs, Mac and Muggins, sashayed around the cage before deciding this was just another member of a weird family. Unfamiliar with a duckling's eating habits, I settled at first on baby cereal mixed with water. After a few false starts, Pete tucked into the messy mixture, whi ch a f ter two weeks I a 1 terna ted with moist bread. Feeding our youngster was no problem until she grew too big for her cage. Then I had to guard her dish against forays by the other animals. Mac and Muggins developed a taste for pablum, acting like abused poor relatives when I declared Pete's dish out of bounds. Pete subsequently turned the tables on my four-legged brood. When I opened cans for the hungry felines and canines, the duckling took to following at my heels, squawking around the kitchen. Finally, light dawned. Pete obviously wanted a shareoftheirmenu, so she graduated to cat food that she downed with gusto. Her favourite, and naturally the most expensive, was a boxed mixture that comes in soft kernels. She preferred this to cut corn, which most normal ducklings relish when they acquire the taste. Next on Pete's training programme was swimming. I popped her into a dish full of lukewarm water in the sink, and her reaction was hysterical. Literally. She gave every indication of hating water. She splashed and quacked and struggled, until, weak with laughter, 1 removed her and blotted her feathers with a towel. Each dunk in the sink ended the same way. What to do next? The duck had to learn how to swim if I hoped to introduce her to Fairy Lake and others of her kind. She had to be ready before fall to adapt to a pond environment. Thereafter, when the dogs and I wentswimming, Pete accompanied us, carried in a plastic bag with her head protruding. To say she caused a sensation is putting it mildly. Park passers-by gaped or made rude remarks about cruelty to dumb animals. Not that Pete was dumb. She was a very vocal duck, and her lingo far from lady-like. After three jaunts to the drink, she began to get the message. Instead of running away from the water, with a little prompting she headed into the ripples just far enough to wet her middle. No farther, though. No way was Pete going to trust herself to that vast, sparkli ng expanse. So I had to carry her in and dump her gently. And at last, she started to swim, not expertly, out with comical determination in the wake of PETUNIA PATCH With Esther Taylor my two pooches. It was a triumph. From that day on, I junked the plastic bag and Pete walked over to the lake under her own power, trailing after Muggins and Mac, as if she knew exactly where she was headed--a laughable procession that evoked endless comment from strangers in the park. On a hot July night at about 10 o'clock, we all went swimming together -- duck, dogs and I, in the company of 40-odd other ducks and geese on the beach side of the lake. It was an unforgettable experience for the only human paddling about in the darkness. Only one problem. Would Pete emerge from the water with us? It was too dark to single her out from the other paddl i ng fowl. However, when the dogs made for the shore, a little shape detached itself, and Pete quacked at my heels, as if saying, "Here I am, you dumb human; you can's lose me!" I did try to lose Pete later on in August. The time had come, I thought, for my duck to take up residence in Fairy Lake. Plucking up my courage, and assuring myself it was the only course to follow, I walked Pete over to the lake and urged her into the water below the walkway behind the arena. Then I hiked with all possible speed up to Lakeview Villa to visit a friend. About half an hour later, feeling uneasy, I looked from my friend's balcony and almost toppled over. A familiar figure waddled purposefully past the tennis courts -- Pete, heading for home without a guide. I broke a speed record racing over the green to catch up with my duck at our garden fence. That disposed of my plan for Pete and Fairy Lake. A good fairy came to our rescue. Near the end of August, a charming animal-lover living in the country offered to give Pete a home. She had a small farm pond, ideal for water fowl like my domesticated duck. Away we went, Pete and I in a taxi, to her new home about four miles distant. The driver admi tted this was the first time he had ferried a duck in his cab. And Pete settled in beautifully. The next spring,she proved her name a misnomer by hatching a family of fine ducklings.