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Your Hometown Newspaper Volume 9 No. 5 Thursday, February 2, 2006 THE NEW Newstand Price 40 + GST Rent-A-Car Daily Weekly Monthly 856-0000 286 Alma Street, Rockwood ILLAGE 387 Queen St. East, Acton 336 Guelph St. Georgetown 905-877-0149 Georgetown Chrysler Dodge Jeep georgetownchrylser.com Groundhogs out and about? Its Candlemas Day Today, (Feb. 2) is Candle- mas Day and, of course, among weather prophets its also called Groundhog Day, a mixture of the sacred and the profane. Candlemas commemo- rates the ritual purification of the Virgin Mary, 40 days after the birth of Jesus. Its an ancient feast in the Chris- tian Church. So how did the groundhog get involved in Candlemas Day? Candlemas is one of the four cross-quarters of the year, according to ancient tradition, occurring half way between the first day of winter and the first day of spring. Medieval Christians believed that if Candlemas was sunny the remaining six weeks of winter would be cold and stormy. But Address Local Toll Free Parts Hotline Email 357 Queen St. E. Acton 519-853-0200 1-866-620-3248 519-853-5613 info@achillesmazda.caServing Halton Hills with Pride since 1973 Acton wins big in Chamber business awards Limehouse picks up civic pride award By FRANCES NIBLOCK The New Tanner You can add modest to the attributes that earned two Acton women top honours from the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce in its annual business achievement awards. Kristine Cieslok, owner of Blue Springs Salon and Spa was voted Entrepreneur of the Year by a Chamber sub-committee on Friday, and veteran library staffer, Marie Vickery, was selected Employee of the Year. The Civic Pride Award was garnered by the Lime- house community for its multi-works in the village, including restoration of the lime kilns, development of a community garden and restoration of the Memorial Hall. In a new Oscar-style format, the winner of the Business of the Year award will be announced at a Chamber gala later this month. Three finalists were select- ed from seven nominations and the winner was chosen by secret ballot the final- ists are Actons MacMillans Frozen Foods, Halton Hills Speech Centre and Vision 2000 Travel Group. Actons Marie Vickery re- acted with disbelief when informed of her selection as Employee of the Year, an award designed to honour the employee who has made a significant impact and con- tributed to excellence in the community through excep- tional customer service. I was speechless, Vick- ery said on Friday from the childrens library on River Street, where she has opened the world to many children through her love of books. I have kids of kids that came to Story Time coming now, she laughed when asked about her career, which began 23 years ago. Vickery said the best part of her supervisors job is a sense of community of working where she lives, and seeing children she taught in library programs growing into readers. Girls stop in on the first day of school and show off their new dress and then theyre back doing uni- versity projects, Vickery said, adding the worst part of the job is unproductive meetings and never having time to finish a book before its due. Vickerys job includes supervising student pages, Continued on page 2 ACE EMPLOYEE: Dedication, hard work and supe- rior customer service earned Acton library supervisor Marie Vickery the 2005 Employee of the Year award from the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce. Frances Niblock photo ENTREPRENEUR HONOURED: Kristine Cieslok, owner of Acton Blue Springs Spa and Salon, was selected as the Entrepreneur of the Year by the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce. The award honours new business with fewer than 10 employees that demonstrate business innovation and creativity. Frances Niblock photo 5.1% tax increase proposed by Town The Towns proposed 2006 oper- ating budget requires a tax levy of $20.5-million a 5.1 per cent per cent tax increase over last year, or $51 more for a Town tax bill of $1,053 for a house assessed at $300,000. Two per cent of the 5.1 per cent increase is dedicated to the Towns multi-year road improvement pro- gram, leaving the Towns budget committee little room to afford ex- panded programs or additional staff. With a Regional tax increase of 3.2 per cent, or an additional $44, the Town increase of 5.1 per cent, or $55 more than last year, and no change in the education tax levy, the total tax bill is $3,362, or an overall 2.9 per cent increase on a property assessed at $300,000. During nine hours of debate on Monday and Tuesday, the budget committee all councillors and the mayor made a long list of additions and deletions to the budget to try to reduce the potential increase, yet not cut services or programs. Councillors started Mondays meet- ing facing a five per cent increase, but added $201,600 to the budget and pushed the potential increase to 6.1 per cent. Those projects came in the form of requests to increase the base budget, which represents the costs necessary Continued on page 3 Continued on page 2 NEW ZEALAND BOUND: Acton area resident Pamela Gilverson has been practising on the Grand River at Cambridge for the Outrigger World Sprint Championships in New Zealand. See the full story on Page 13. - Photo supplied