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THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1998 THE NEW TANNER 5 GRAPEVINE For the first time a $20 fee will alco ---- be charged for live birth registra- tions, $25 for a letter to confirm a birth registration and $20 for a burial permit. With an average of 350 births registered each year, 265 burial per- mits issued and 200 marriage li- rea cences processed by Town staffeach [oo year the Town predicts it could raise $45,300 this year with the new fees. Generous draw winner Maymie Dick, the Acton woman who won the 50-50 draw held in con- junction with last week's baseball game between Halton Hills and Mil- ton councils will give most of her windfall to the families of her three children. Mrs. Dick picked up her cheque for $620.25 at the Civic Cen- tre on Monday as Milton Mayor Gord Krantz delivered his Town's flag which will fly on the Halton Hills flag pole for a week because ee 2 Milton won the game 11-8. Krantz, - : ' : good sport that he is, offered to fly MUSICAL THEATRE CAMP will be performing "Operation Tower" on Aug. 13 at Acton High °* the Halton Hills flag at Milton Town ' School at 7 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door for $2.50 each. The camp participants are: Mason Hor oe ka three i oe McCluskey, Lindsay McIntyre, Jennifer Hughes, Brenda Brophy, Lauren McIntyre, Sarah Brophy, : eee - and a bate ace Shannon Buck, Stephanie Perscello, Sara MacNeill, Nicole Dawkins, Megan McCluskey, Erin g Dingwall, Jazmin Salt, Chloe Salt, Matt Perscello, Elizabeth Hughes, Marissa Kidd, Rebecca Buck, 7-7 at the end of lar play. Th sae sence = Halton Hills Danielle DeCourey, Lindsay Finnie, Nichole Finnie, Cheri Anne Paisley and Neal Dawkins. - Ellen Piehl photo and Milton will also benefit from Recent sightings of Charlie, a 20- year-old deaf cat missing for more than two weeks, are giving hope to the Rennie family who have offered a $200 reward for the return of their beloved pet. Charlie, a ginger-col- oured, longhaired part-Persian with white hair on his chest and legs has been spotted several times in the past two weeks within blocks of his Churchill Road North home. His owners are grateful that a half a dozen families are watching for him and are asking people in the area to continue checking their garages, storage sheds and under decks and swimming pools. One person who has spotted him in their backyard several times said that he is looking better than he did when first seen two weeks ago. So far, everyone who has tried to catch him has frightened off Charlie. Two Humane Society traps set near where he's been seen have so far turned up a raccoon and two skunks. If you have any information about Charlie, please call 853-0646. - Wed or dead prices up In an effort to find new revenue sources the Town has okayed new fees and fee increases for handling Vital statistics like registering births, deaths and marriages. While the Town currently charges $10 for a burial permit for an out-of town death and $75 for a marriage licence, as of October it will cost $100 (cash only) for a marriage licence, $20 for an out-of-town death registration. 4a It's great. I've lived here 12 years and this is the first time I've attended. The entertain- ment was really good. Pat LeBlanc bigger. It looks good. There are a lot of things going on. Patrick Malone proceeds of the 50-50 draw -- each will get $370.17. Welcome water Acton Agricultural Society presi- dent Ron White was more than pleased to volunteer at the Society's dunk tank during Sunday's fabu- lously successful Leathertown Fes- tival. White was dunked about 15 times during the hour he sat on the hot seat and was glad for the cool dips on a sweltering day. Other So- ciety members also took their turns getting dunked ~along with last year's Fair Queen Jennifer Aitken. Money raised at the booth will help pay for this year's fair. ur Survey Says.." What did you think of the Leathertown Festival? It was good. I liked seeing my friends and all the stuff they have. Evan Colvin It was great today. There was a lot of crafts and the weather was great. It was a lot Kathy Kropf It's a great way to bring the community to- gether. Acton needs more of this type of thing. Derek Lajeunesse This week's New Tanner survey by Angela Tyler These are tough days to be a cop. Hot on the heels of the Jane Doe decision (with all the attend- ant hoopla regarding an appeal) the Province's Special Investiga- tions Unit has charged two To- ronto officers with dangerous driv- ing. The charges arose after a pur- suit the officers were involved in ended when the thieves ran down and killed an elderly man. Metro Police are, understand- ably, upset. A few of the Halton cops I spoke to are concerned that the S.I.U. is "moving the bar" as to what is acceptable police con- duct and what is not. Why, one officer asked, is an officer in Dur- ham applauded for capturing an accused killer after a pursuit (a pursuit which ended at gunpoint after the officer slammed her cruiser into the suspect's fleeing vehicle), while the two Toronto officers are charged? How are po- lice supposed to decide when to chase and when not to? There seem to be many people who want police to stop chasing a fleeing felon. "Stop them by some other means," they say. Good idea. How? Some suggest the police use their radios to track the villains and arrest them when the public is out of danger. Good idea. Of course, it assumes that there are sufficient police cruisers available to track the suspect vehicle. Here is Acton we usually have two cruisers on the road. Say one of them tries to stop a car in front of the beer store. The car takes off east, runs the light at Churchill and speeds off towards Georget- own. The officer decides the chase is too risky so he radios for help. The other Acton cruiser is on Kingham Road at a call. No help there. The closest cruiser in Geor- getown is on Trafalgar Road by the works yard. Think the suspect car would escape? Now, since this is a hypotheti- cal situation, suppose the bad guys head up Trafalgar to Erin. There, \ they stick up a gas station and kill The Way | I See It with Mike O'Leary three people during the hold-up. Would not these same folks who con- demn the police for pursuits now condemn them for not arresting the crooks at the beer store? Others suggest using a nail belt to disable the car. Okay -- using the same scenario the cops put a nail belt across Hwy. 7 in front of the Grant Baker's Silver Creek Service Centre and Emporium. The car careens out of control and smashes into a school bus. Who takes the heat? Now obviously I scripted a disas- trous end to these scenarios to make my point. Just as obviously they could have ended peacefully. My ar- gument is that if someone is running from the law they' ve done something wrong. Tracking them down in the hope they'll run out of gas works only on TV. Trying to disable the car may work from time to time but not in the majority of cases. The people suggesting these "non-violent" takedowns are, in many cases, the same types who wonder why police don't shoot the guns out of robbers! hands instead of aiming for the body mass. They're living in a dream world. Regular readers will know I'm generally supportive of our cops -- as are the majority of the population. Does any sane person believe a po- lice officer starts a chase thinking, "I hope we don't kill anyone." The overwhelming majority of officers would be thinking, "I'd better stop this guy before he kills someone." And for that they get charged. I find it fascinating that judges refuse to take any responsibility for the acts of people they release. Judges get downright testy should anyone suggest they have a responsibility for the mischief committed by crooks they parole. ' Justice for all -- except for police! | If a psychiatrist recommends release of a prisoner who subse- quently molests little boys or girls do we ever get an apology? Are they ever charged? Do they stand a chance of losing their jobs? Not bloody likely! And we don't even discuss liticians who pass dumb laws which cost money or cause mayhem in society. That topic is good for a book, let alone a col- umn. I would venture to say that, with the obvious exception of fam- ily and friends, no one feels worse about the death of Clyde Barnaby than the officers involved in that chase. I would dare to say they are having nightmares about it. Those officers didn't cause Mr. Barnaby's death. The young of- fenders driving the stolen vehicle who ran him down are and they should be on trial, in adult court, for murder. The cops never ex- ceeded 50 km/h. The killers crashed into two parked cars, a school bus and still had enough momentum to cross the sidewalk and kill Mr. Barnaby. How fast were they going? From all accounts Mr. Barnaby was a decent, well-loved man. It boggles my mind that anyone could think the two Toronto of- ficers had anything to do with his death. The problem is that, in today's society, no one is responsible for their actions. You can't blame the car thieves so obviously the po- lice have to be the scapegoats. The mother of one of the thieves knows who's to blame. "If the kids weren't out there joyriding [the police] wouldn't have been out there chasing them." Exactly! The killer's mother can't be identified in case the young of- fenders' identity becomes known. The cops' names, ages, years of service, pictures and station as- signments are all over the papers. Welcome to justice in the 90's. Stinks -- doesn't it? af a WHA T'S VOUR REEF? Put it in a letter to the Editor! Deadline is Tuesday at noon.