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THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2009 6 Distributed to every home in Acton and area, as well as adjoining communities. 373 Queen Street East, Unit 1 Acton, Ontario L7J 2N2 email: thenewtanner@on.aibn.com Mike OLeary Frances Niblock Angela Tyler Rebecca Ring Publisher Editor Ted Tyler Hartley Coles Editorial Contributors Advertising and Circulation Composing Marie Shadbolt Ken Baker Tracey Gardner By Angela Tyler Editorial with Hartley Coles (519) 853-0051 Fax: (519) 853-0052 Every effort will be made to see advertising copy, neatly presented, is correctly printed. The publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or omissions in advertising, but will gladly reprint without charge that part of an advertisement in which an error may occur provided a claim is made within five days of publication. All articles, advertisements and graphic artwork appearing in The New Tanner is copyrighted. Any usage, reproduction or publication of these items, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher of The New Tanner is a copyright infringement and subject to legal action. A few months ago we suggested that the grounds behind the McKenzie Smith Bennett Public School be named in honour of the late local School Board Trustee Ethel Gardiner. She was the voice on the Board of Education who vigorously defended the role the grounds played in the day-to-day life of the people of Acton, especially in the realm of sports. We can still remember her plaintive plea to the board a few years ago. She told them the people of Acton didnt ask much from the Board. Saving the grounds from development would do much to show that the Board had an interest in their wel- fare as well as being just an administrative entity primarily concerned with dollars and cents. Gardiner was successful in convincing Board members how important the MSB grounds were to the community and sug- gested it would be a desecration and a shrug of unconcern to allow the grounds to be taken over and developed. This was a time when almost unrestrained development was taking place in nearby towns and cities. In any event Ethel Gardiners pleas was successful and perhaps the community thought the deal was sealed forever. Times change, members of the Board change, policies of a few years ago are reviewed through different eyes. So the Board decides they should get rid of all their surplus land. MSB land is included. Of course theres been a fuss. It was like a bombshell had dropped on the community. The degree of opposition to the sale is community wide. However, it does look like the Board is listening. A mutual meeting between the Town and the Board took place last Friday. Perhaps the Mayor and school board reps in attendance have come to some resolution protecting the MSB land perma- nently from development and save this oasis in the heart of the east end of Acton. The Dude is always looking on Internet sites like E-bay, Kijiji and auction sites. He can spend hours looking at what people have for sale. I dont know how he does it but he never seems to tire. The other night while surfing, he asked, What should I look up? Out of the blue it came to me. Maybe it was a result of cleaning up our basement and amongst the unpacked boxes that have sat there for almost two years was one of my prized collections. Look up Little People or Weebles I informed him almost bounding out of my seat. Some- how looking up Weebles from 1973 werent as interesting as checking out the prices of snow- mobiles or classic Chevelles. My father has a lot of stuff. Some of it he claims is worth more money than I think. I tell him its only worth that if you have some- one to pay that amount. It is easy enough for me to voice my words of wisdom, however, I wasnt ready to accept it when it was my stuff. A few days later, while checking my emails, I decided I would look up how much of a small fortune my stuff was worth. Who knew. I Maybe the local utility has already looked into it, but the Town of Penetaguishene has already LED the way with its LED (Light emitting diode) street lights. The town expects to achieve roughly 60 percent in reduced energy consump- tion and expects the longer life span of the light units will translate into substantial decreases in maintenance costs and complaints. To date, Penetag has installed 242 units of 80 LED units to replace 250W mercury vapour lamps. The power savings are calculated at 63% (182W/fixture) and consume 104W total system watts of the old style Cobra Head street light. Each LED light can provide up to 100,000 hours of lamp life and since they contain no mercury disposal is no hazard to the environment. Most of us are familiar with LED lights for Christmas decor- ations and other domestic uses but their use a street lights I surely a progressive new technology. There certainly seems to be a savings for the local utility in Penetang and anywhere else they may be installed and one any utility would be inter- ested in at a cost-saving time. Nothings sacred Penetang the LEDer could be sitting on boxes of gold. There they wereFisher Price Little People. There was the air- plane, the Tudor house, the castle and the farm which I was never lucky enough to have, but which my neighbours had. And, there were people actually bidding on the items. Dollar signs rolled over in my head although I dont think I could ever part with my child- hood memories. But it was nice to know they were valuable not only to me. Then I looked at the bids. The castle, in mint condition, was go- ing for a whole seven dollars and change. I was completely dis- heartened. Then I remembered my other collection of Barbie that still resided at my parents house, tucked away in the attic. What are you looking up? the Dude asked. The Barbie Dream House I informed him as he gave me that look of, well apathy. I found my Barbie yellow camp- er and the Barbie travel cases I inherited from my sister. I even found a Midge doll, which I had completely forgotten about. As I continued to browse, I realized that my prized collections were only valuable to me because they all had measly bids as did the Lit- tle People and Weebles. As I was coming to grips with the truth, I saw her. It was a 1962 Barbie which looked like a postwar Pin-Up gal. I have one of those I told the Dude. Suddenly I got his attention and he was excit- ed about Barbie because the going bid was over $500. Well, actually its my sisters and mine, er, ours, doesnt look like that anymore I informed him. What do you mean? he asked. I explained that when I reached that age when I no longer played with Barbie anymore, before I packed them away, I hacked all their hair off, dyed it with food colouring and made them into punk rock Barbies. They say one mans trash is an- other mans treasure, perhaps, but, I think I may have to search quite a bit to find someone who thinks the 1962 Barbie with a punk rock hair-do is treasure. Browsing the Internet for Barbie SAVE OUR SPACE: Mayor Rick Bonnette addresses the large crowd that gathered on the MSB grounds to rally against the Halton District School Boards decision to determine the MSB land surplus. Bonnette convinced the crowd that as long as he is mayor and the current council is in office, it wont be a priority to service any severed MSB land. Traci Gardner Photo