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Your Hometown Newspaper Volume 10 No. 7 Thursday, February 15, 2007 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 Cheer Up: John Hribljan re- ports he saw a very large female Robin in a bush outside his dining room window at 9:25am Wednesday morning. Spring is on its way. First Robin No questions will be asked if a thief returns three rings, valued between $300 and $350 that were stolen from the Salvation Armys Thrift Store on Mill Street last Thursday. Salvation Army officials did not call police after the theft was dis- covered the gold rings, one with a diamond, were part of a silent auction of valuable items at the store. Major Margaret Locke said on the advice of their headquarters they did not call police because they wanted to appeal to the better side of people, and hope the rings will be returned by someone with a guilty conscience. Halton Detective Sargent Peter Hodgson said they always recom- mend that victims call police. For one thing, pawn shops and second-hand stores are checked regu- larly. If an item is found and it hasnt been reported stolen we have no way, even though we may suspect its been stolen, we have no way of tracing it back unless someone comes forward and tells us, Hodgson said on Mon- day, adding sometimes people do the right thing, but reporting a crime just covers your bases and lets us know if theres a problem developing in an area. Mean theft from Sally Ann Thrift Store Town taxes bargain insist Council, staff Some will pay more for cable TV, phone By Frances Niblock Many Acton hom- eowners will pay more for cable TV and tele- phone than they will pay in Town taxes this year, and they will get a lot for their money according to elected officials and staff. The recently approved Town operating budget has a 5.4 per cent increase for Town taxes $50 more for a bill of $980 on a property assessed at $300,000. By comparison, last year the average household spent $1,217 on electricity, $684 on cable TV, $649 for water and sewer services, $4,000 for gasoline and $421 for phone service. The total Town, Region and school board property tax increase is 2.7 per cent or $82 this year, for a total tax bill of $3,074 for a prop- erty assessed at $300,000. At the Town, the lions share of the tax bill is ear- marked for fire services, engineering and public works, general administra- tion, recreational/cultural facilities and programs, and capital expenditures. Debate over the long-term plan to hire full-time fire- fighters sparked debate, but the budget committee all members of council and the mayor rejected a move by rookie Georgetown Coun- cillor John Duncan to hire two, not four firefighters this year and save approxi- mately $250,000. Both Acton councillors Clark Somerville and Mike OLeary supported the cut, but the motion lost. Council lor OLeary, whose a t tempt to cut $150,000 from an under- spent snow clearing budget was not supported by bud- get committee members, said the municipal budget process is a damned if you do, damned if you dont, situation because they cant please everyone. The Town has to have money to operate and constituents, one of the things they are always ask- ing for is more services, and people should stop and think who is going to pay for it, and thats you and me, OLeary said. Councillor Somerville said he would have loved to have less of a tax increase, but his suggestions to cut items werent supported. You dont always agree with all of the decisions, but thats fine I can un- derstand, and now, lets Continued on page 2 2006 Property Tax Comparison SILVER SKATE: Acton resident Maja Vermeulen and her ice dance partner Andrew Doleman won a Silver medal in the Novice division at the Canadian Junior nationals held in Brampton on the weekend. Story on Page 4. Submitted photo Strike gold at Nationals