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Mayor Rick Bonnette and Councillor Clark Somerville thrilled the Acton Sports Action Park committee with news about a potential home for the anticipated Acton skateboard park at a meeting Tuesday night. They announced that, subject to conditions, the lands within the current Acton fire hall site, on the southeast corner of Queen Street and Churchill Road, could be considered as a suitable location for the long awaited park site. ILLAGE} Rent-A-Car The group will now review the site based on its pre-determined suitability criteria and re- port back to council in the New Year with their findings. Founded by interested community members in 2001, the ASAP group has been working in partnership with the Town to develop a skate- board park in Acton. The group is committed to fundraising to see the success of this project and, to date, has received many donations from citizens, local business and community groups, such as the annual "Three Musketeers Golf Tourney." The announcement by Mayor Bonnette about a potential site is welcome news for all involved in'the project. Anyone interested in becoming involved in the Acton Sports Action Park group or would like to make a donation please contact Deb Fendley, Chair at 519-853- 2880. From What's Inside I ifalton Hills honoured its top athletes ina oa at the civic centre Mon- Four "Community Champions" were hon- oured at the Rotary Club's Wine & Cheese Part Saturday. See a 6 and 10. 4 turday's Santa Clans| arade was another big it especially with the is. See Pages 16 and 17 for phen _ Weather SNOW! 357 Queen St., Acton info@achillesmazda.ca Our Dealership is not the Biggest. Our goal is to be the Best!! Per Hour 856-0000 387 Queen St. East, Acton 286 Alma Street, Rockwood . Council. (ACHILLES 1S 336 erry St. Georgetown bs Me eee Pe Oa tay Disappointing school test results Forge link with Dutch Town of Holten The Dutch town of Holten is interested in twinning with Halton Hills as suggested ear- lier by the local Town Mayor Rick Bonnette said he received an e-mail from the bergmeister of Holten on Remembrance Day, indicat- ing Holten wants to help keep alive the memories of Cana- da's role in liberating Holland during WW11. "The town of Holten has 1,900 Canadian (soldiers') graves, and one of the graves is from a Halton Hills resi- dent from Glen Williams and another one from Acton," Bonnette told Council on Monday, adding negotiations to forge a link will continue. DECK THE HALLS: The Acton Citizens' Band helped Acton shoppers get into the festive mood with a Christmas carol concert at the four corners on Friday night as part of the downtown merchants' Moonlight Madness sale. -- Frances Niblock photo Town will have to enforce pit bull ban As the province prepares to ban pit bull dogs, Town staff is investigating one "minor" pit bull bite that occurred in the rural area within the past two months. Bob Ustrzycki, the Town's manager of bylaw enforcement services, would not release any details of the incident, except to say it was a "bite" incident, not an attack. : He said they have only investigated a "few" incidents of pit bull bites or at- tacks. There have been 35 dog bite investigations in Halton Hills in the past two years. "Tt is very insignificant -- I can count the number of cases involving pit bulls on one hand," Ustrzycki said, adding maost cases were resolved with the owner paying a fine and the dog being deemed dangerous. The proposed provincial leg- islation bans pit bulls but owners of existing pit bulls can keep them after the bill is passed, as long as they are muz- zled, leashed and spayed or neutered. Ustrzycki doesn't anticipate any prob- lems with the provincial legislation, but hasn't heard yet who will be responsi- ble for fulfilling the pit bull ban mandate. Pit bulls are defined as Staffordshire bull terriers, American pit pull terrier or dogs having the physical characteristics similar to those breeds. There are eight such dogs licenced in Halton Hills "In most cases of a dog bite, whether it's a pit bull or not, that the dog owner is usually compliant. Or at least diligent in remedying the issue, by either obedi- ence training, muzzling, proper kennelling or is some cases, destroying the dog," he said. ' continued on page 2 Students below Ontario, Board average By FRANCES NIBLOCK The New Tanner Acton's Grade three and six students continue to per- form. below both the provincial and board-wide average in reading, writing and mathematics. While there has been im- provement for some students ~at McKenzie-Smith Bennett School, results at Robert Lit- tle School show a continued three-year decline. Results of the Ontario Edu- cation Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests results are from an assessment done last May, and while the EQAO warns against ranking boards and schools because it leads to sweeping conclusions and simplistic comparisons, many Acton parents are very interested in how their school, and their children, measure up. The standardized tests are designed to assess students' knowledge and ability to show what they know and achievement in each subject area is broken down into four levels. Students at level one are not meeting Ministry of Edu- cation standards, level two is satisfactory or approaching the accepted learning level, level three is good or at the accepted level, and level four is excellent or exceeding ex- pectations. continued on page 3 OOM 2001 ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM RG /NOW TIRE PACKAGE ON ALL 2004'S We have quantities of 2004s remaining in the olawiis models. is Badbo Snow Tire Package includes: °4 Premium Snow Tires °4 New Steel Rims Installation *Balancing Offer is valid on all remaining in-stock 2004 Mazdas sold through . November 30, 2004, Don't Delay!