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www.independentfreepress.com Ex-Raider comes back to haunt former mates in weekend action 50 cents (+GST) Vol. 129 No. 30 ACTON FREE PRESS Chambers honours business of the month Page 16 Page 18 Wednesday, October 11 2006 48 Pages Circulation 21,220 Voted Ontario's best newspaper INSIDE Race For The Cure to benefit CAShh Page 8 Going to the birds at Willow Park Page 5 Editorial 6 Calendar 13 Sports 16, 17 Entertainment 19 Classifieds 21-23 Halton Hills Fire Chief Bob Meads will retire at the end of the year to take a new job in the private sector. Meads has been with the service for 28 years, and took over as fire chief in May 2001. Some of his achievements while he was chief include the move to Inspection Response Teams and making prevention and public education a priority. He was also instrumental in creating the Town's first Fire Master Plan. Photo by Ted Brown Fire chief to leave job at end of year LISA TALLYN Staff Writer After 28 years with Halton Hills Fire Protection and Prevention Services, Fire Chief Bob Meads is calling it a career. Meads, 57, announced Friday he will retire December 29 from the job he's held since 2001. The Georgetown resident feels sad about leaving the department he's been involved with since he began as a volunteer firefighter in 1978. "With 28 years invested in the fire service, I'm certainly going to miss it," says Meads. "It's going to be a huge culture shock for me in some respects. I'm not going to be walking around with a pager on my belt 24 hours a day, seven days a week." Meads says he had been thinking about retiring for some time and when "a really good job offer from the private sector came along" he decided now was the time. Meads wouldn't disclose details about the job, but called it a "once in a lifetime opportunity." It's the people that he's worked with within the department, and elsewhere in the town, that Meads says he will miss the most when he retires. "I've had a lot of great friendships established through the fire service. This decision didn't come easy." He says he's had a great five-and-a-half years as chief. "There have certainly been a lot of challenges. But it's been great." See MEADS, pg. 3 LIST WITH A PROVEN PERFOMER ·Same Great Community Website ·Brand New Technology FRIDAY... Physician Dr. Dhanya Jayalath has set up a practice in Acton, helping to ease the town's desperate need for doctors. For a profile of Dr. Jayalath see Friday's edition. For breaking news go to: www.independentfreepress.com GEORGETOWN Georgetown's Ultimate Chevrolet Dealership 314 Guelph St, Georgetown On OPENING VERY SOON! GEORGETOWN CHEVROLET 33 MOUNTAINVIEW, GEORGETOWN (JUST NORTH OF HWY. #7 ON MOUNTAINVIEW) 905-877-6944 1-866-364-0697 WE SERVICE ALL MAKES AND MODELS www.sandrabrianceau.com 905877-5165