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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1998 GRAPEVINE Timber sports Axe throwing, water boiling and wood splitting are some of the lum- berjack skills featured on Sunday dur- ing three woodsmen's shows at the fall fair. Timber sport team member Michelle Parks of Acton, a member of the 1994-95 Eastern Canadian Women's Timber Sports champion- ship team, said they will compete against the clock as they chop blocks of wood and climb poles. "People will see how an 1800's lumberjack would have worked with bow and crosscut saws and how a modern lumberjack would use a chainsaw," Parks said. Fair organizers said the show is a real crowd pleaser and will replace the motorcycle stunt rider who has per- formed in past years. Mill Street muscle Now there's no good excuse for that couch potato look. Acton's first fitness and nutrition centre held its grand opening at 7 Mill Street East on Sat- -- urday and drew a steady stream of curious people all day. Tomas Apulinario of Personal Fit- ness with Tomas has signed a five-year lease for the building and can't wait to whip Acton into shape. "I guarantee results," Apulinario said last week, muscles rippling as he set up the exercise equipment and dis- plays of nutritional products and workout wear sold at the centre. "T'ma certified physical trainer and have nutritional training and after operating in Georgetown for over two years I think that this is what Acton needs." Weekdays the fitness centre opens at 5 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m. Park transformation The conversion of Prospect Park into a fairground for the 85th edi- tion of the Acton fall fair is almost complete. Crews of dedicated vol- unteers began putting up miles of snow fencing, bleachers and display cases early Saturday morning. Some will take the week off work to be ready for the biggest event on Acton's social calendar. School kids from all over Halton will descend on the fairgrounds to- morrow (Friday) for Education Day. Once again the Acton Agricultural Societywill provide milk or juice for the students along with special pro- grams. > Spring construction Construction is "imminent" at the Forest Creek rural estate subdi- vision east of Acton on the Fourth Line north of Highway 7. Charleston Homes reports 12 of the 18 house sites have been sold and with closing dates from the end of December through till May. Con- struction of a road into the devel- opment is almost complete. Dedicated donors Once again Acton blood donors rose to the need to make last Thurs- day's Red Cross donor clinic at the Legion a success. Eighty-five units of blood were collected from the 97 people who showed up at the last clinic before Canada's blood sup- ply system is turned over to Cana- dian Blood Services. Acton blood donor clinic volunteers and donors will be honoured at a Halton Hills Red Cross appreciation night Sep- tember 17 in Georgetown. Se Georgetown gets the progress To the Editor: As a new resident of Acton (two years), I find it perturbing to note the bias that the Town of Halton Hills shows Georgetown. Georgetown grows and prospers - a wide range of development underway, which the mayor actively promotes. Meanwhile, Acton has grown at a slow pace with nominal new business development. In fact, the government of the Town of Halton Hills has gone to great extents to IMPEDE the development of new businesses within Acton. The most notable being : 1. After Canadian Tire left Acton and opened a new store in Georgetown, the only service was the local Home Hardware. As the local retailer prospered, they made plans to demolish the abandoned gas station on highway 7. The planning depart- ment has done everything to stop this development; from obscure bylaw re- quirements to suggesting that the sew- ers be run down the middle of High- way 7 at three times the expense of alternates. They endanger $600,000 + in potential development. 2. A local developer is attempt- ing to remove a second eye-sore - an abandoned warehouse on main street (Highway 7) but requires a bylaw change to facilitate an anchor store. The zone change makes the plaza a viable development with a greater chance of success. Once again, bylaw officers step in to prevent business - requiring a $7,000 impact study. Both developments would remove dangerous - ugly buildings which sit on the main street. Both devel- opments would create local jobs and provide residents with more choices. Both developments would funnel dollars into the local area through $1 million + in develop- ment dollars and additional busi- ness tax revenue. Both develop- ments would benefit Acton. I would like to make two sug- gestions: 1. Itis time that the mayor shed the Georgetown centric view. The mayor needs to support develop- ment in all areas of Halton Hills to the benefit of ALL residents - not Just Georgetown. 2. The Town of Halton Hills staff should focus on the basics be- fore moving to business prevention. The burned out house that stands across from my own - on main street - has had a notice to condemn on its since April. The due date was 90 days, which is over three months ago. To my chagrin, the elimination of the Georgetown centric views of our town government may not be possible. Go to the internet to view the evidence - start at www.haltonhills.com, click on About Halton, then Halton At A Glance. Under Halton Hills sites : Town of Halton Hills - Home Page (Georgetown) - need I say more? Michael Weening More letters on Page 6 r THE NEW TANNER i FUN FALL DAYS: 3 year old Nigel Buttivant had fun at the Trunk Sale with his new wind catcher whirly-gig. - Angela Tyler photo This may sound odd, coming from a columnist but this Cana- dian is sick and tired of the press creating the news. Specifically, the treatment of the one year anniver- sary of Princess Diana's tragic death was nauseating. It was ob- vious that the common people were not interested in a repeat of last year's group hysterics. And yet the press persevered, trying to make a story where there was none. Diana is gone. Let's let the lady rest in peace. At the same time, the one year anniversary of Mother Teresa's death passed almost without no- tice by the world press. There were a few small stories buried on page 10 or at the end of the 11 o'clock news. But no real coverage. No pithy stories about how her nuns are carrying on her good works. There was lots of attention paid to how much money had been raised by Elton John's recording but not a word about how many starving souls had been saved in Calcutta and around the world. I suppose Mother Teresa and her work is just not sexy enough to sell papers. If only one of these women could be picked for saint- hood however, few of us would have a hard time choosing. But would we buy a paper or maga- zine which chronicled her life. Seems not. Regular readers will know that I'm a sports fan. I even risk eter- nal damnation by arguing with both my priest and ex pastor that the Argos are better than the Ti- ger Cats. The overblown coverage of Mark McGwire's breaking the single season home run record ru- ined the whole event for me. It was bad enough the McGwire assumed the credit for reinvigorating the game after the disastrous strike of a few years ago. The TV and ra- dio announcers were just nuts. On the night McGuire hit his 60" homer one broadcaster said that this would go down as one of the great moments in the history of mankind. Whoa! Back the bus up! Let's see now. The discovery of Enough already! The Way I See It with Mike O'Leary language, the arch, worldwide explo- ration, giant strides in medicine, flight, man on the moon. How twisted must you be to think a man hitting a ball with a stick has a place in this list? Another announcer said," Years from now you'll remember where you were when McGwire broke the record." Now my co-worker Steve is an even bigger fan than I am. When he heard about this outrageous claim he said, "Sure I will - I was watch- ing a re-run of Frasier on another channel." Why does the press try to make these things bigger than they really are? It just ruins the enjoyment of the event by those of us who love the game. The hyperbole turns you off. Perhaps the biggest made for TV scandal is the one currently rocking U.S. President Clinton. Polls still show that most Americans think Clinton should stay in office and fin- ish his term. Infidelity, it would ap- pear is not an impeachable offence. I think that, because of the way the press has spun this story, most Americans are missing the point. The question isn't whether Clinton was having sex with Lewinsky, or anyone else for that matter. It doesn't matter if he-is a cad or a bounder, which he is, by the way. The real question is: did he lie under oath? This is largely ignored by the press in order for them to concentrate on more salacious details of this taw- dry affair. President Nixon was not forced from office because of the Watergate burglary. Nor were the infamous tape recordings the cause. Nixon lied, under oath, to a special counsel in- vestigating the Watergate mess. When he erased portions of the tapes that proved him a liar, he was ob- structing justice. Those are indict- able offences which led to the call for his impeachment and his ulti- mate downfall. don't think he will be forced from office. The spotlight is so firmly on the sex part that every- thing else is lost in the shuffle. _ History will not dirty little scandal nor to the way Congress and the Senate have handled it. Nor to Starr for that matter. I don't understand why prosecutor Starr included all the lurid details in his report to the House. Surely he must have known that this amount of titilation would deflect the pub- lic's attention the crimes of any consequence. I can see only one possibility. Starr began this inquiry over four years ago investigating the Presi- dent and Mrs. Clinton's involve- ment in the Whitewater real es- tate scandal back in Arkansas. It seemed like every time Starr had Clinton in his sights, Bubba would invoke executive privilege or turn loose the White House lawyers who would frustrate Starr's initiative. A guy can only take so much and maybe Starr took it all personally. Maybe he thought Clinton would weasel out of this mess like he has done so often in the past. So Starr decided to at least take his revenge on Clinton's reputation. Why else would he publish descriptions of the coming and going in the oval office? I'll admit it- I read all the juicy details strictly as a research as- signment, of course. This is when I began to question the motives for the report sent to Congress. I mean, will anyone ever smoke a cigar again? There must be easier ways to quit. I finally had enough and turned the page. "Does size mat- ter" screamed the headline there. "Oh, my God," I thought, "surely they aren't printing a compari- son?" The article was about class sizes in Ontario. It's nice to be a Canadian. September 18, 19 & 20 - Come join the fun all weekend!! aN