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COUNCIL CUTS TAXES MILLS Home owners will pay 4 mills less in taxes this year while the commercial and industrial levy has been reduced 3 mills Acton council decided at a special budget meeting Thursday night Council set the residential rate at 82 mills and the commercial and industrial levy at 3 after a two hour discussion of the proposed budget from an assessment figure 000 above last years Mill rates in 1969 were residential and 5 commercial and industrial A home owner with a S3 assessment who paid 297 50 for 1969 taxes will get a reduction of 8 this year with mills cut off the tax rate The average er in Acton paid in taxes last year according Commercial rate slashed 32 to provincial government figures Clerk administrator Joe Hurst pointed out assessment in Acton varied widely from the newer subdivision houses to smaller housing in older sections of town so it would be difficult to get an average assessment Big reduction in 1970 was a six mill drop in education costs much of it the result of a 000 over levy list year which finance chairman Reeve Frank reminded council still did not bring the educational levy to the point it was two years ago when the county board took over The levy from the county is up slight lyrising from 5 9 mills to Since the county has taken over the administration of welfare in 1970 Reeve felt this martin made up the difference Council went over the general rate the one area they still nave some control over item by item before deciding on a rate for residential and 38 for commercial and Ninety Fifth Year No ACTON ONTARIO WEDNESDAY APRIL 8 1970 Sixteen Pages Cents Will pursue possibility Acton dropin centre A dropin centre for Acton will be considered by a committee headed by grade student Hazel Eastwood following a spec meet in the high school Monday evening The meeting arranged by guidance teacher Brian Skenett as sixth of the Family Life had very appointing attendance as far as Mr Skenett was concerned Although 246 students polled had indicated they would like a drop in centre just 75 people attended the meet more than half of them adults In the same poll 253 students had said recreation facilities were Inadequate while thought they were adequate After an introductory session the meeting broke up into four groups held animated discussion of pros and cons and then returned to talk over the conclusions and place more questions Giving firsthand advice were 10 visitors One of them gave new direction to the meeting as it drew to a limp end with no conclusions with a challenge to the students present to grab the sympathetic adults and hang on for dear life Meet with them right away to set up a committee and set a date for another meeting she urged This new meeting fell together moments later as many headed for home but some shifted into a classroom for even more concrete plans Don t put yourselves down to much kids said a Guelph social worker Tell the adults what you want and expect to spend a lot of time getting organized Leading the discussions were Mrs Peg Palmer Oakville of the addiction research centre Mrs Gloria Tomlinson Oakville a volunteer worker with the dropin centre there and a member of the board directors of Trailer an organization to a drug users Judy Campbell a Guelph worker who is in charge of the dropin centre there Dan McLean an Oakville teacher associated with the drop DONALD A BROWN New lawyer opens office Donald Brown A LI will open a law practice in offices at the corner of Mill and Main Streets tomorrow Thursday Mr Brown was called to the bar in a ceremony March 19 at the O Keefe Centre after completing a six months bar admission course at Hall The new lawyer received his A at Waterloo Lutheran University and graduated from Queen University School of Law in 1968 He articled with the firm of Borderf Ell Kelley and Palmer in Toronto Mr Brown is centre there Jim Hoshko M parks and recreation and dropin associate Bert student Adelc Hurley Dave Simmons Oakville and Rod Watson Brampton Acton high school math teacher John Cnstello also joined the resource people for the evening Reporting back to the general meeting all four groups said the students agreed if there were a dropin centre they would go In all four groups the railroad station was mentioned as a good place if it could be obtained Also considered were the Y arena or above the police office the last bringing titters from the students Problems All groups agreed if there were a dropin centre there d be problems Perhaps per cent of those attending would be straight but the other five per cent would cause the trouble that could ruin the whole program How this could be resolved was a sticky problem that no one had a good answer to In the Mill in Oakville drugs or liquor are not allowed But young people who are high or stoned are allowed to stay Keeping their building is always considered the main factor explained Mrs Tomlinson The adults make no moral judgments she said but remind the young people their behaviour could lose them their bu Iding It nominally run by the Salvation Army Workers felt problems should be out in the open Drinkers should be in a dropincentre rather than out in cars it was suggested Surprise to some adults was the unanimous agreement of students that no special program is needed The representatives said there is no Continued on Pag 3 Serve injunction A stop work injunction will be served on the Golden Horseshoe Dragway today Wednesday the Free Press wss notified just before going to press Toronto solicitor Steven French working on behalf of residents in the northern part of secured the Injunction from Judge Haines claiming the It contravening the agricultural holding by low in the township Residents In the northern end of the township opposed construction of the and the injunction is another development in a long battle to halt building Waste disposa plant Esqucsing council will wait for advice from newly hired planning consultants before making any decisions on establishment of a proposed centralized waste disposal plant on the former Rognvaldson property on Highway just south of Acton At Monday nights regular council meeting clerk treasurer French made a report on a recent towns planning board meeting He the planning board chairman I ad told Bill Lombard of Trccm Associates council was process of engaging a planner and would like to have s first Mr French also reported Mr Lombard told planning board firm has altered plans for the proposed plant Plans now call for the installation of storage tanks instead of lagoons to hold waste liquids SEARCHING FOR a suspect following the robbery of a trust company Tuesday Cons Roy Wood rifle at the ready stopped cars in town The road block lasted from t il they were instructed to stop at by Kitchener detachment when the man was located A crowd gathered to watch later dispersed by Cons Bruce Staff Photo Robbery charge A Georgetown youth was charged with robbery following an at 30 a m April An Acton youth hitchhiking from Rockwood was picked up by a car containing six youths He said that under threat of assault he gave one of them s jacket valued at layoff rumor proves false Rumors about a substantial layoff at Beardmore and Company have been denied by company prcs dent Norman Bra da On the contrary Mr told the Free Press this week the company has started to take back some of workers laid off earl in the winter Big upswing in business Acton port Business at the Acton customs port has Increased a whopping 58 873 In the year customs officer Murray Harrison told the Free Press this week Revenue In the first six months of the year showed 214T4 opposed to 186 018 35 in the same period In 196869 The second six month period showed a rise from S3 to 007 reflecting the Increased business Numbers of entries Increased In line with fiscal returns rising from in 196869 to 3355 in the 196970 period Mr Harrison cites increased business from several Acton Industries and increased use of the Acton customs port by industries in Milton for the upswing In business which ha and Montgomery process industrial which is up over three mills from last year s 30 5 and 35 7 for residential and commercial respectively Over the objections of Councillor Peter Marks chairman of Parks and Recreation council slashed both the projected parks and recreation budget taking one mill away from general operations and another mill from proposed 21 in repairs to the community centre which engineers have declared would bring it up to safety standards The finance committee slashed off community centre operations budget 000 off parks operation and another 4 000 off the capital budget proposed for developing the parks Another wis pared off the library budget reducing it to 16 from In spite of the good work done by the budget committee of parks and recreation the finance committee of council felt the entire parks and recreation budget was high for our town chairman Frank Oakes declared a amount for our people Parks budget was up from last year and recreation requested more which the finance committee felt was too high in view of the requested arena repair bill of Taking a mill away from general operations and another from repairs the expressed the hope that the parks and creation program could still carry on A full report of the debate on this issue is carried elsewhere in tins issue Large increase the general rate this year was 000 additional for tne police budget over council has no control The increase assessment of half a million dollars was more than used up the reeve stated Councillor Orv Chapman was complimented for his handling of the firefighter budget for the liaison between the brigade and council If the firefighters weren t so cooperative then could have been a 30 to 40 per cent increase like some other municipihtics Mr Chapm in said Roads in town will receive 30 400 this year with another 150 for miscellaneous road treatment and 100 for equipment Sidewalks will receive 15 consisting of 8 to complete list year program and for new work Deputy Reeve Ted Tyler said the committee decided to carry on same priorities approved by council last year It was underlined by Councillor Masales that sidewalks to the proposed Senior Citizens development on Cobblehill Rd was one of the priorities which council would be obligated to honor Council passed the budget on i unanimous vote after further discussion and a reminder from the deputy reeve directed to Councillor Marks that he personally also objected strongly to one item on the budget but still intended to vote for it I hope you do too he stressed Councillor Marks assented it was always nice to lower the mill rate for the best interests of everyone in town expressing his reservations about parks and recreation cuts however He asked council to send a letter to parks and recreation committee explaining the cuts which he felt would also improve relations between the two bodies It is certainly in order replied finance chairman Oakes Summing up Mayor said council had no recourse but to hold the mill rate in conjunction with increased assessment and increases in costs We were duty bound to come up with a decrease Cut backs were not intended to oppose programs but in some areas proposed budgets were a little rich for our blood I like to thank Dr our finance and budget chairman He always does a fine job He gave special thanks to clerk administrator Joe Hurst who worked extremely well both with his staff and the various committees to have the figures ready A full breakdown of the budget appears inside TOP HATS AND canes recalled the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Drinkwaiter Becky Baxter Gerda Selz Cathy Dolores movies at the ice revue Saturday In the number were Debbie Jordan end Turkon Staff Photo MAUVE SATIN trimmed with fur created captivating costumes for the number Cosy skaters were Colleen DeBruyn Susan Schupp Petti Dunn Linda Perry Susan Anne Marie Sharon Barber and Diane Charatte Staff Photo