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The Rockwood MILLER THE ROCK WOOD MILLER THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1998 Fire protection priority for new councillor By FRANCES NIBLOCK The Rockwood Miller Fire protection is the first issue councillor-elect Alan - McDonald wants to tackle when the newly restructured Eramosa Guelph Township municipal council takes of- fice in January. "We have to decide how to administer and apply our fire protection services in the McDonald said, days atter 'winning the Ward 4 seat in an interim election for the amalgamated township. Currently, the City of Guelph provides fire services to the Township of Guelph _ that will become part of the new Eramosa Guelph Town- ~ ship. Eramosa Township has its own volunteer fire departmAent. former two townships," -- McDonald, Eramosa Township's acting deputy fire chief, thinks Eramosa's _ fire fighters should become the Eramosa Guelph fire de- " partment and handle fire pre- 'vention, safety, education, , administration, communica- _ tions and training. "We Ashould have an au- _tomatic aid agreement with "the City of Guelph for first response fire protection in the areas we can't provide that response to from the Eramosa station in Don't believe those government ads To the Editor: 'T recently read an edito- rial written by an OAC stu- dent at Centre Wellington District High School I found it interesting to read about the conditions experienced in a secondary school from a student's perspective. I can - identify with her frustration expressed about books that are outdated, few in numbers and others beyond repair. I am a teacher-librarian who is employed by the Halton Dis- trict Board of Education. The Harris government has spent considerable amounts of money lately pro- moting their changes in edu- cation. In one program Mr. Harris is seen in a classroom outlining what his govern- ment is doing to improve education across the prov- ince. He refers to a list on the blackboard which highlights areas of education where "money will be spent from the proposed improvements. One item he refers to is the library. This ad has become little more than a smokescreen that hides what is happening in reality. Board of education contracts are gradually being settled across the province. The issues discussed by the boards are controlled, for the most part, by conditions set out by the ministry of educa- tion. The contract for my board has recently been rati- fied. What has it done for the learning hub of our schools - the library? The teacher-li- brarian's time in the library has been cut in half. This means for half of the school © day libraries could be closed and access for many of our students will be denied. If they can be staffed to stay open it likely will be done with teachers who have no- qualifications in this area and, therefore, will not be able to offer the same level of service to which our stu- dents previously had access. Large schools will be able to keep a full time teacher- librarian while smaller schools (such as mine) will bereduced to half. Harris has also set up the library budget in such a way that the boards of education can drain off the money he designates to this account (and I understand my board is seriously consid- ering this option). So, how does this impact students? The money will not be there to replace outdated books, the students will not have equal access to learning resources and they will not have an unrestricted oppor- tunity to fully develop their DRY CLEANERS-- "TOP QUALITY AND FAST SERVICE" SWEATSHIRTS ¢ T-SHIRTS ° JEANS GOOD PRICES & QUALITY MAKE GREAT GIFTS! research skills. With the re- ality that some schools will have full time libraries staffed with qualified people while other schools will not means that there will be in- equality in the educational opportunities of our students across the province. How is this seen as fair for students that will be required to write province- wide tests? Will such tests truly dem- onstrate that our students are properly prepared for the workplace or higher levels of education? Don't take for granted that what you see and hear in the Harris govern- ment ad campaigns is all it seems to be. Practise the criti- - cal thinking skills which we, . as teachers and teacher-li- brarians, work to instill in our students within the class- rooms and libraries across the province. Talk to teach- SPECIAL PRICES 5 eg. Price 2 piece Suit or Dress _ FREE Pick-up & Delivery 39 MILL ST. ACTON _..853-5355 MON-FRI SATURDAY 8:00am-6:00pm SUNDAY HOURS 7:00am-7:00pm CLOSED Rockwood," McDonald said. Such an agreement ig- nores municipal boundaries and requires the closest or best able fire department to respond to an emergency. Presently the average re- sponse time by Rockwood firefighters to calls in the Township is 6.1 minutes and the City of Guelph's average is 6.9 minutes for calls in the Township of Guelph. Be- cause of distances in the new township, crews from Rockwood can't meet those response times to some places in Guelph Township, making the City of Guelph's first response service neces- sary. The township amalgama- tion board asked the Ontario Fire Marshall to create a terms of reference for a fire protection service study. ROCKWOO D DIGEST Oliver! Rockwood residents Christian Landy, Emma Tilson and Jordan Smith --all students of Rockwood music teacher Debbie Tilson -- are cast in this weekend's five performances of the Royal City Musical Production of Oliver! Nassagaweya resident Christopher Willes, coached by Tilson, plays the lead role, is the lavish production at Guelph's River Run Centre. Injury accident A 34-year old Orangeville ers and find out the truth and visit the schools - as this OAC student suggested. Our students are counting on parents and the public in general to ensure that their _éducation is the best it can be. And while your are at it, ask what is happening to your students' support sys- tem in guidance and special ed. These areas have been decimated too, but to address that would take another let- ter. Sincerely yours, H. Wayne Bridle. | Centrat Ontario Auctioneers Professional Auction Services . Estate & Industrial ° Certified Appraiser Consignment Welcome NORM WEBSTER (416) (905) man was charged with diso- beying a stop sign following a two-vehicle accident in Eramosa Township last Tuesday. Police report that Frances Smyj, 36, of Hillsburgh, suf- fered minor injuries when her 1996 Chevy Lumina was broadsided at the intersection of Highway 24 and Country Road 26 in Eramosa Town- ship. Rockwood Ridge ready The three-month con- struction shut down at the Rockwood Ridge housing development south of Rockwood is over. On Mon- day, Seaton Group officials said several "complications" which stalled construction have been resolved and de- pending on the weather, crews could begin building houses before Christmas. Seaton spokesman Jeremy Grant said part of the delay was due to the deaths of the Jolliffes, the elderly former Rockwood couple who owned the land. The other delay involved working out engineering details in the subdivision agreement with Eramosa Township. 523-6645 (pager) 873-7633 (home) Appliance Service Limited. RR# 2 GUELPH RALPH MacDONALD 519-856-9958 over $40.00 _