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THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1998 GRAPEVIN Good night, Sweet Dreams Pat Lee, owner of Sweet Dreams Bakery and Café has unfortunately closed the doors at their Acton loca- tion. Lee contacted The New Tanner Monday with the sad news. Al- though their clientele were incred- ibly supportive, Sweet Dreams found mornings and evenings a little slow. Sweet Dreams tried different ideas from brunches to musical evenings and amalgamating the café and bak- ery to keep their dream alive. Lee would like to thank everyone for the patronage and will be continuing their ventures at the Civic Centre in Georgetown and the catering part of the business. Playing around Ever wonder just what goes into the designing of a play? Your curiousity can be satisfied by attend- ing the official design studio for the Eramosa-Guelph Community Play, "All Over the Map." The designery launch will take place at the Guelph Recreational Park in Marden on Thursday, July 30 at 7 p.m. with pro- fessional theatre designer Ruth Howard. Ruth hails from Toronto where she has worked on a number of community theatre and artistic projects. She and her crew will be working through the summer to pre- pare for the play, which takes place on Sept. 19 and 20. Ruth was the designer for the highly acclaimed community play, The Spirit of Shivaree, which took place in the Rockwood Conservation Area in 1989. Just stopping for a visit Guess who's coming through Acton and Georgetown on Monday, August 1 -- John Davidson -- on his way across Canada in honour of his son, Jesse, who suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. In 1995 John pushed Jesse in his wheel- chair 3,300 km across Ontario, rais- ing over $1 million to fund research into genetically inherited disease. Since Jesse's health has deterio- rated and he is unable to undertake another journey, John began a cross- Canada journey April 10th, Jesse's 18th birthday, to raise more funds. The journey will end in Victoria, B.C., in January 1999. The goal of ' e { A "Jesse's Journey -- A Father's Trib- ute" is 10 million steps for $10 mil- lion. John Davidson, a. London resi- dent, worked as a broadcaster at the London TV station. Summer Carnival! Magician Brent Mackie and his crew of balloon artists will be a fea- ture of the annual Recreation and Parks Summer Carnival at the Acton Arena on July 28 from 7 to 9 p.m. The booths will include a dunk tank where kids can dunk their camp leaders, live entertainment, a jump- ing castle and a baseball pitching station for measuring throwing speed. Admission is free and tickets for booth activities and refreshments range from 25 to 75 cents. Families are invited to come out and enjoy the event with their kids. For informa- tion call the Civic Centre at 873- 2601, ext. 267. a NICK AND CHRIS JORDAN Flies beware! Have you gota problem with flies in your home or business? Young entrepreneurs Nick and Chris Jordan are a fly swatting team with not only experience but lots. of enthusiasm. "We were swatting tons of flies in our house," said Chris, 7. Big brother Nick, 9, came up with the idea to turn their expertise into profits and as of yesterday, The Bug Busters opened for business. The Jordans have their own equipment, including swatters and a flashlight, and have very reasonable rates: just $1 per hour. They can be reached at 853-4739. "We will solve all your fly prob- lems," Nick said, adding he thinks the business will be a success. "We hope we get some luck," he ealdepreneurs Nick and Chris Jordan "Our Survey Says...' If you were asked, would you contribute financially to the restoration of the old Acton Arena? For sure. It would be a place for my son to play and keep off the streets. Leslie Schipper It depends on who is running it. If it was re- stored and operated privately then yes. If the Region is still involved, it would remain a white elephant. I don't think it will cost $600,000 to restore it as suggested. It needs to be marketed and restored esthetically. Phil Marzo Yes, I think it's good for the community and a good place for the fair to be held. It has a lot of uses for the young people. Karen McGill This week's New Tanner survey by Angela Tyler THE NEW TANNER ia Prd Y as JUNIOR FIELD TRIP: Totty Tots Daycare children visited Lakeview Flooring and Kitchens on 5 E Ps PY iy _-- Se Mill Street East and made themselves right at home among the paint cans, picking out their favour- ite colours. The children ranged in age from 12 months to five years. -- Submitted photo The hot topic around town these days is -- what's going to happen to the old arena? The is- sue has risen to the top because the Agricultural Society needs to know if the building will be avail- able for this year's fair, which is only eight weeks away. Before looking at the issue of the old arena proper, let's consider Miss Acton Fall Fair competition (love that title) and the other events usually held in the fair- grounds to the new arena. This is a dumb idea and a logistical night- mare. Entry to these events is in- cluded in your fair admission. Is anyone seriously convinced that a family will come to the fair, park, that at some later time leave the fairgrounds to visit the new arena? The Miss Acton contest may draw on its own but people visit the homecrafts as part of the fair ex- perience. Rather than split the venues, I would suggest the Fair Board sus- pend the events held in the arena. The split venues will only lead to complaints from the customers. It should be remembered that the fair-goers are customers whose expectations must be met if they are expected to return year after year. Last week's New Tanner con- tained a discouraging report on a meeting between town council and staff with some concerned citizens. According to sources, it did not go well. I'm not surprised. It's pretty obvious that the town has made the decision that the old arena is com- ing down. That should come as a surprise to no one since the demo- lition charges have been in the budget for the last two years. I think that, sometimes, we in Acton don't feel we are getting a fair shake from the town. For the most part, the facts would not sup- port such a conclusion. We do have a new arena of which we should G justifiably proud. Where the fe PRP REL lem acl ie 'Oh no! You can't do that! | The Way I See It} with Mike O'Leary Riccnion breaks' down between ths Se00 nication | [ town and interested citizens. One other factor can also influence such situations. Most of us identify very strongly with the town of Acton. Few of us, when asked where we live, would reply Halton Hills. Council and staff, however, have to keep the needs of the entire town in mind. It's obvious that Georgetown, with a much larger population and indus- trial base, will have more town fa- cilities. This doesn't mean, however, that we in Acton don't get our per capita share. In most cases I think we do. That said, I have been concerned for years that there is not a "can do" attitude at town hall. In fact, I have observed on many occasions a "can't do" attitude which seems to pervade the place. Local contractors and en- trepreneurs have told me it's easier and faster to get development done in other jurisdictions. Since munici- palities all use the same codes, why is that? I realize that we live in a litigious society. Many of our own council- lors were recently dragged through a lawsuit. So I guess it's to be ex- pected that town staff would be sure to dot all the "i's" and cross all the "t's." Still, we seem to be mired in red tape every time we try to do any- thing. It's a subject I think council should be concerned with. We're competing with all the surrounding jurisdictions for growth and devel- opment. We should have a "can do" attitude. The old arena would be a good place to re-enforce that. The cost of repairing the old arena is a real stumbling block. The engi- neering estimate seems high but you | blast. What would if the have to remember that is for a town owned facility. Usually, those buildings are engineered so as to withstand a direct nuclear -- building could be transferred to a local committee? This would al- low volunteer labour to be used which would really reduce the cost. If the town has to tender the i st over arena need not be a Cadillac build- ing. We could get by with a Chevy. There has been some sugges- tion of putting ice back in the old arena. This will probably not fly. Firstly, putting the ice back in would probably be cost prohibi- tive. Not that you couldn't make it pay, though. Already, prime ice time in the new arena is oversub- scribed. With a good marketing program, another rink could pay. But I was at the meeting several years ago when a former staffer announced that Acton would "never" have a second ice surface. I found it astounding that the councillors present didn't interject at the time. For anyone in gov- ernment to say a future facility would "never" be build is com- pletely unacceptable. It suggests there is a secret agenda which may not be acceptable to the people. | trust that this attitude has not held over to this day and resulted in the seemingly intransigence on the part of officials to save the old arena. The different groups who want to save the old arena need to get some concrete proposals and a business plan on the table. Staff and council could then offer posi- tive suggestions on how the arena can be saved. Having one side say- ing you won't do anything and the tier saying you can't do that won't solve anything. The bottom line is we need a large general purpose building at Prospect Park. Now -- how do we make that happen? " WHAT'S YOUR BEEF? Put it in a letter to the Editor! Deadline is Tuesday at noon.