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THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1998 GRAPEVIN Doctor drought Oakville and he has also been an : . acting - principal at several _,._ Lhe search continues for a fam- achodl ihe aes of Halton in ily doctor to replace Dr. Stephen the past tew vear Pun who retires at the end of July pas Se, after 25 years with the Acton Festival fee waived Medical Group. Dr. Pun and his Organizers of the 7th annual wife Sandra have sold their Acton Leathertown Festival don't have home and will relocate in Toronto to pay the usual $75 building per- where the doctor intends to work mit fee to the Town for a tempo- part-iime. rary stage they set up for the event. Ifareplacement can't be found Town councillors waived the fee, before August the other doctors at as they have done in the past, but the Medical Group will take care also noted that as of September of Dr. Pun's patients. A classified things like fee waiver requests will ad in the Canadian Medical Jour- be dealt with through the new nal about the Acton opening has municipal assistance program. drawn few responses to this area This year's festival is slated for that has a shortage of family phy- Sunday, Aug. 9 and organizers are sicians. There are no family doc- busy planning new events, attrac- tors accepting new patients in tions and hopefully a community THE NEW TANNER 5 it DP | o ZACHARY LOEWEN and his mother, Tony, enjoy hot dogs prepared by members of the Trinity United Church which has a booth at the Trunk Sale on Mill Street each Saturday morning. The sale Guelph and just one in challenge of some kind. attracts hundreds of seller and buyers each Saturday. It goes from 8 a.m. -- 1 p.m. -- Ted Tyler photo Georgetown, -- United Way honourees : New principal at Four Acton residents are ~ Bee St. Joe's among those who will be honoured for their dedication and hard work for the United Way of Halton Hills at the organization's annual gen- eral meeting and appreciation night next Wednesday in Georgetown. Campaign west chairs Robin Elliott and Elly Tuitman, along with industrial campaign chair Harold Postma and residential chair Heather Ferguson will re- ceive campaign achievers awards. The United Way campaign in Halton Hill raised $225,000 last year to help 18 member agencies. Come September there will be a new principal at St. Joseph's Catholic school as Robert Maggio ends his five years in Acton with a transfer to the Catholic Educa- tion Centre in Burlington. Maggio will be on special assignment at the Board's main office, and not principal at St. Francis of Assisi as widely rumoured. Jim McGeragle will be the new principal at St. Joe's. His most re- cent posting was as vice-principal at a Halton separate school in Local merchants were asked this week if they think theTrunk Sale should change its location to downtown Acton, on Mill Street. Yes, I think so. Customers can see the down- town stores. A lot of people are from out of town. Vanessa Vidic, Godfathers Pizza It would be good for downtown businesses. There is a good traffic flow at the Trunk Sale and it would be good to have the people down- town. Debbie Feenstra, Acton Musicland No, there isn't enough room at this end of town. There is better access at that end where it is. Kristan Law, Power Entertainment No, it's too crowded downtown with the traf- fic. Sam Brewer, Kentucky Fried Chicken This week's New Tanner survey.by_ Angela Tyler Business In Acton Do you know what the acronym BIA stands for? Unfortunately, most people don't. The BIA is the "Business Improvement Area." Acton's BIA stretches approxi- mately from the railway tracks on the east to one block west of Main Street. In other words, all along the downtown commercial strip. It extends north of Mill Street one block and south around two blocks to include the olde Hide House. BIAs were created by the ial government to effect im- across the province. The intent of the BIA legislation was to stop or slow the deterioration of down- town areas as malls took more and more business away. The legisla- tion is pretty specific as to what the BIA can or cannot do. BIAs, for example, are not meant to com- pete with the Chamber of Com- merce or local tourism initiatives. In other words, the activities of the BIA are fairly focused. Our local BIA is run by a board of volunteer managers. Each man- ager has to own a business or com- mercial property within the BIA designated area. A manager can also be appointed by a business to represent them. After we closed our store downtown, I stayed on the BIA board as a representative of the old Acton Tanner. The man- agers are appointed by the town council for, normally, a three-year term. In addition to business peo- ple one town councillor sits on the board. One important fact you should know is how the BIA is funded. Each business pays a special BIA levy. This is over and above nor- mal property and business taxes set by the town. In reality, it's an extra tax on businesses in the BIA area to fund beautification projects. The net result to you is a more pleasant shopping environ- ment downtown without any sig- nificant drain on town finances. For instance: do you like the flower beds and hanging baskets ae recently appeared downtown? The Way I See It with Mike O'Leary Bet you though that Parks and Rec. ut them in. courtesy ratio! igns and lamp post hangars downtown. The BIA hires a summer student to keep downtown clean and to water the flowers. That nice little park at the corner of Main and Mill was paid and built by the downtown merchants. This was by far the biggest project the BIA has ever taken on. It took several years to come to fruition from nego- tiating the purchase of the property (again, paid for the BIA), through planning to completion. Former Councillor Gerald Rennie's dogged determination and vision kept the managers intent on succeeding with this project. The result, a beautiful little oasis downtown enjoyed by many and donated to the town by the merchants for future generations. The BIA does much more. The two parking lots on Willow between Mill and Church Streets were pur- chased by the BIA and donated to the town. BIAs, by law, are not al- lowed to own property. The Christmas lights make our town look cheery and festive. The BIA puts them up. The BIA pays a substantial amount of the snowplowing and sanding in BIA parking lots. They put out the new garbage cans this year. The list goes on and on. Not everything unfolds according to plan. Last year, the summer stu- dent was sweeping the streets when a woman accused him of being a con- vict. She thought he was on a court- ordered work program. Poor Brad, he had put in a full day working for me in the warehouse, then went to his BIA job. No wonder he looked a little rough. The woman, though, wouldn't believe he was anything but a criminal. Brad just smiled, and kept smiling until she went away. Lately, there was a tempest caused by a proposal to take some Mill Street parking away. The objections were swift and negative from the merchants affected. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the idea will have died a merciful death. hassock. Chairman!) During that time we had an urban planner do a report that included replacing some parking with trees and benches. In a town like ours busi- nesses need every advantage. Res- taurants, hardware and variety stores would lose big time if con- venient parking spaces were lost. Plus, if you think big trucks speed through town now, take away the cars from one side of the street and watch them really wind up. On the other hand, drag racing gravel trucks could be a tourist attraction -- I guess. Nope, I thought it was a bad idea back then and still do. But, as I said, this idea should be buried by now. Another item, which appeared in this paper last week, is the proposal to save the old Beardmore water tower. My informal survey didn't find any- one willing to cough up a looney for this project. One wag did say, however, that he'd pitch in 20 bucks for "dynamite to blow the damn thing down." Notwithstanding the occa- sional glitch, the BIA does won- derful things for our town. If you like the flowers, the lights, the park, then show your appreciation by shopping locally. Tell the mer- chant you like what the BIA is doing. A little thanks goes a long way. And that young person serving you is a neighbour, a friend or maybe even your own kid, shop locally. They give our children part-time work. It's worth shop- ping in Acton. Zs Got a Beef? Write a letter to the editor! (gare | Deadline is Tuesday at noon