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Town to develop access to ravine In 2007, the Town will issue public notice that it intends to develop two access ways to Hungry Hollow Ravine in Georgetown from Noble Court and from Sargent Rd. The decision follows the councilapproved sale to homeowners abutting a strip of land between two Rexway Drive homes that currently provides access to the Hollow. Proceeds from the sale, $18,700, will go towards Hollow trail development. The land was appraised at $20,000. The topography and location of the Rexway Dr. strip has made access to the ravine impractical due to higher construction costs and the extent of natural area disruption to the sensitive ravine, a staff report stated. The Noble Court residents opposed access from their street when Trails and Cycling Master Plan was being developed in 1999. Staff suggests further consultation with the street residents before an actual trail connection is constructed. Residents' fencing currently blocks the Sargent Rd. connection. The Town had leased the area to three abutting residences in 1986, but did not renew the lease when it expired in 2001. The Town has the right to re-instate its entrance to the ravine through its Sargent Rd. land. --By Cynthia Gamble, staff writer Testing her endurance A determined Gabrielle Allison showed the stress of holding her position for eight minutes, holding out over her closest competitor during Power Zone's recent Survivor Challenge. Participants competed in various events of endurance, with all proceeds in aid of Breast Cancer Research. Allison and her teammate Shannon Mellace finished second overall in the competition. Photo by Ted Brown Region wants quarry owners to dig deeper The Region wants pit and quarry owners to start digging a little deeper-- into their pockets, that is. A new $100,000 fee that'll help cover regional staff costs associated with processing pit and quarry applications was approved by Halton council at its recent meeting . A staff report that went before the Region's planning and public works committee last week explains the current application fees paid for new or expanding pits or quarries only total about $12,000. This covers Official Plan and zoning bylaw amendments. "Data collected regarding the amount of time spent by regional employees processing these applications has shown that pits' and quarries' applications are far more complex and time consuming than reflected in the fee for typical planning applications," the report notes. It goes on to provide examples, such as the 814 hours spent in one year working on Nelson Aggregates' quarry application and 259 hours on Hanson Brick's expansion proposal. Staff also estimates that in the end, a total of 1,036 hours will be required to finish processing Hanson's application at a cost of $87,821, while Nelson's is expected to take 3,256 hours for $276,011. Currently, the Town of Milton is the only municipality in the GTA that has a separate fee of $59,529 for processing pit and quarry applications.