By FRANCES NIBLOCK The New Tanner While the proposed $1 million resurfacing of Highway 7 from the Trafalgar Road north intersection to Acton will be done next year, it looks like the of Highway 7 to four lanes from Silvercreek to the Tra- falgar Road south intersection may be delayed until 2000. "The design work for the project is happening but the property ac- quisition and environmental clear- ance is not progressing as quickly as we might like," explained Min- istry of Transportation project man- ager Doug Coulter on Monday. "A worse case scenario may be that only the Acton to Trafalgar Road north section will be done in 1999. The delay is mainly due to the processes that must be fol- lowed," Coulter said, adding they hope to have the final design ready by the end of this year. The total $5 million dollar project from Acton to Georgetown is in the MTO's five- year capital plan. ile Coulter didn't how much property needs to be purchased by MTO to allow the highway work, most of the required frontage is small slivers in the area to be wid- ened from Regional Road 43 to the Trafalgar Road south intersection. "Most of the property (needed for highway improvements) has been eliminated in the Silvercreek area because the original realignment plan of that intersection has been abandoned and now a minimum number of properties are affected," Coulter said. The work in Acton includes "shave and pave" resurfacing, any necessary ditch and shoulder im- provements and guardrail upgrades. Improvements are also planned for a 6.5-kilometre stretch of High- way 7 from Main Street North to the Rockwood curve, but that | Newstand price: 40¢ +6sT| project could be years away ex- a MTO project manager Ray "Td hate to say it was going to be next year and then the funding or whatever doesn't work out but we're hoping it will be done in the next couple of years," Ng said in an interview on Tuesday. Ng said they wouldn't know the scope of the improvements needed west of Acton until geotechnical reports are complete this fall. ACHILLES 1984 Porsche 944 286 Alma St. ° 856-2222 What's Inside "This classic Caddy was all part of the last Cruise Night in Rockwood recently. For more photos look to our new Rockwood Miller feature we hope will ex- pand into a Rockwood section. See Page 12. It's worth the drive... our four page feature this week features on north Halton and south Wel- lington as the place to be. See Pages 7-10. HOLIDAY MONDAY Monday's Labour Day and is a holiday for The New Tanner's staff as well. To ensure your news and advertisements are in next week's issue please bring them in as soon as possible. We'll be open again on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Your Hometown Newspaper in Acton PAUL SIMMONS, SERVICE MANAGER "CaP °29" 357 Queen Street (1°)853-0200 Halton Hills (Acton) 5) 453-8965 High school strike looms here Crisis situation in public, ' READY TO ASSESS: Engineers and consultants met at the old Acton Arena on Aug. 25 to gather information for a report to Heritage Acton's arena restoration sub-committee. Left to right are Daryl Briscoe, Marc Bailey, Mike Batvich and Patrick McMonagle. The committee was scheduled to receive the report yester- day. An update will follow in next week's The New Tanner. -- Ted Tyler photo Stolen van found, two arrests The Acton owner of a sto- len 1993 Ford Areostar van called police after spotting his vehicle parked behind a Main Street North business early Friday morning. Police Teport that the victim made a brief search for his van af- ter he noticed it was gone from his Cook Street resi- Blood donor clinic Acton holds its quarterly Red Cross Blood Donor Clinic on Thursday, Sept. 10, 1998 at the Acton Legion Hall from 3:30 to 3:30p.m. For more information, call Julia at 853-4896. dence. Police found two sus- pects in the van. One, a 21- year-old Queen Street East man, was arrested at the scene and charged with pos- session of stolen property and breach of probation. The sec- ond, a 19-year-old Hwy. 7 resident, ran from the scene but was arrested several hours later on Mill Street. Police report the ignition of the van, valued at $7,000, had been damaged. Catholic schools With just five days before the scheduled start of classes in Halton negotiations have reached a critical stage with both public and separate secondary school teachers. While public high schools will be open Tuesday, there's no promise that they'll stay open and Halton Catholic school teachers, who are also in a legal strike position, were waiting to learn yester- day if their would im- pose contract conditions on them, a move that could trig- ger a strike. The crucial issue in talks across the province is prepa- ration time and school staff- ing. New provincial legisla- tion requires teachers to spend 1,250 minutes a week teaching. Teachers claim ex- tra curricular activities will suffer if they must teach seven, not six, of eight peri- ods a day. Both Halton boards are in a legal position to im- pose changes as their con- tracts expired August 31. Halton District School Board trustees have sched- uled a private briefing ses- sion with staff today (Thurs- day) after mediated talks broke off last Friday. Al Tan- ner, president of the Halton branch of the Ontario Sec- ondary School Teachers Fed- eration (OSSTF) said while significant progress was made there are still "many, many major issues outstand- ing" and both sides want to set dates for more talks after the board votes to impose contract conditions. "That's our worst fear and |This is it! Stop by Georgetown Toyota for a test drive today! Model # WN72NM '98 Tacoma V6 4x4 (Demo) GEORGETOWN TOYOTA SALES LEASE FOR . * per month +tax for 48 months FREIGHT & PDE INCLUDED Onty $1000 Down 15 MOUNTAINVIEW RD. N., GEORGETOWN 877-2296 Tor. 874-4276 WEBSITE at www.haltonhills.com/toyota or E-MAIL at toyota@aztec-net.com *Based on a 48-month walkaway lease. First payment and security deposit due on delivery, based on 96,000 kms. Additional km charge of 10¢ if applicable on the Tacoma V6 4x4. the problem is that we're not exactly sure what they are going to change," Tanner said on Tuesday. Tanner said the union ex- ts to meet with its mem- next week to decide what action to take, and Halton teachers are "very anxious" to get an agreement. "We're eager to be in the class doing the job we're sup- posed to be doing, but under conditions that allow us to do it," Tanner said, adding the high school teachers' work- loads would jump 17 per cent if preparation time changes. Catholic school board trustees met with staff in a closed session Tuesday night to discuss imposing changes to collective agreements. Negotiators with both sides were to sit down with a me- diator again yesterday. Halton Catholic District School board director Fred Sweeney would not charac- terize the separate talks. "T guess if we're meeting again Wednesday we still think there's room for some negotiations," Sweeney said. Negotiations with both boards' elementary teachers are continuing. Sweeney said he expects to reach a contract with the teachers without a conciliator. Elementary teachers spend a minimum of 1,300 minutes a week in- structing, so preparation time is not as big an issue. Or Get 4.8% no limit financing iCall Rie) CT Ee Prats Cty [i te * Privacy Glass ° CD player * Air Conditioning ¢ Aluminum wheels ¢ Low kms ¢ Much more!