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Council holds line on mill rate Increased assessment sale of land helps Good news for Acton came from the council chambers last night Tuesday when council passed a by law fixing the 1873 residential mill rate at 5 and the commercial and industrial rate at 101 2 The figures represent a 2 mill decrease over 1972 for residential ratepayers and a mill decrease for commercial and Industrial ratepayers Reeve Pat McKenzle who chaired a three man budget committee which also included Mayor and Councillor Earl Masales explained his committee recognized Ninety Eighth Year No ACTON ONTARIO WEDNESDAY APRIL 1973 Thirty Six Cents Plan principals recognition day Principals Recognition Day Saturday May Secret meetings have been held for weeks and at another of them last night Tuesday was agreed the news could now be made public Special events are being planned to honor the town a two retiring principals G W Pat McKenzle and Elmer Smith A committee was of Interested people in the schools and community and they have come up with a dazzling of plans In the afternoon a reception will be held at the high school followed by a dinner in the curling club and then a dance In the community centre All the places were chosen because of the targe attendance expected More details will be given later Sanford is in charge of Invitations Its hoped as many students as possible WIS be contacted In each and every school year from the two public schools Mrs Sanford would appreciate receiving any out-of- town addresses of former pupils Her address Is Box 90S Acton Mayor gets increase salary for council Acton councillors will receive a salary for members of council finance chairman Reeve Pat Mayor Duby will be paid McKenzle said plus Jot expenses At tint we felt we should A total of was set aside stand pat our last In the budget approved by council last night Tuesday to even cover the rate With number of meetings we ve had so far this The total figure is higher year I ve taken a cut than last year when councillors Councillors will be permitted to were paid a per diem rate of miss up to six meetings with good per meeting and the mayor reason After that they wilt have received a salary of deducted from their salary Explaining the change to a flat for each meeting they miss PONCHOS AND sombreros in place Mexicans are ready to Connie McCristall and Karen McKnlght Crowd the spotlight at the Ice Review Saturday Sally young skaters In the sparkling show are Susan Milne is club pro Coles Set aside halfmill for Centennial Committee for Main St Although the Acton Centennial Commission formally submitted no budget request for to council council set aside half mill for the new committee use this year Mayor explained that members of council have met with the commission to discuss their needs The 4600 figure the same as was allocated for commission work In Councillor BUI Coats who represents council on the commission reported that the commission did not claim the set aside for it last year Centennial commissioner Jack Carpenter was to have been allowed of the 4500 for expenses but Councillor Coats reported Mr Carpenter did not charge a cent against the allowance Nothing was included in the budget for the Centennial project Itself Reeve Pat said council preferred to await the results of a town canvass before deciding upon a figure Residents of Maui St South can be assured they will have a brand new cement sidewalk in front of their homes after Bell Canada has finished installation of an underground cable along the street Following a query by Reeve Pat McKenzle at last nights council meeting clerk administrator Grant Usher said that according to specifications Bell will replace the old sidewalk which they tore up with a new cement walk Haltons educators accept reforms Bold and vast reforms were approved by the County Board of Education at a meeting Thursday Basically the moves will see a drastic change In the headship system under which work nKtut 128 department heads minor heads and assistant head positions will be removed About chairmen for each school will be appointed to accept responsibility previously handled by heads and their associates Rather than have a head for every subject chairmen will be appointed for subject areas that would take in three or four subjects Phase out Director Jim Singleton suggested the heads would be phased out over a period of two to four years and this would be done partly through attrition As people leave their positions for one reason or another those positions would not be fated Singleton said the changeover from one system to another would be started by local Initiative or by the school staffs themselves He said he suspected that once the first school started there would be others eager to switch over before they were robbed of some of their top department heads who wanted chairmanships In other schools The board also endorsed the Idea of differentiated staffing and agreed the executive committee In consultation with principals would establish role descriptions and salaries for paraprofes- Both Halton County Ele mentary Teachers Association BETA and OSSTF Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation have offered strong opposition to recommendations In both reports The recommendations passed Thursday came after dozens of meetings with principals teacher organizations and staff Continued on Page 11 Commend three Three people from this area have received letters of appreciation from Bruce Hewlett Incorporated environmental planning consultants to the Solandt Commission for their assistance In the study to determine corridors for Ontario Hydros KV transmission Named for their work in collecting information on significant areas within the community were Mrs Betty Lou Clark of Rockwood Mrs June Barnes of R R 1 and M Jack of Acton The Information the trio collected will be mapped as a axe silhouetted flames the entire night in an effort to save the homo but the separate map and also be used as against roof flames which completely gutted the stone farm intense heat completely destroyed the contents and left only of study maps m sssSff home of Mr and Mrs Duncan and family at Rockwood last Wednesday night The brigade ought k- i J this area The Wf will be returned so it can be used for community purposes A series of four evening meetings was held to display the series of 10 maps snowing the wide range of environmental factors which must be considered for the transmission corridor The volunteers In all helped by collecting information from local citizens on significant sites or areas in the communities much of It extremely detailed Among things listed were historic homes and sites residents history of property Identification of local wildlife areas and rare bird nesting areas century farms cemeteries etc Next stage of the Hewlett program is to determine a series of alternate corridors which may be considered In detail to find a corridor with the least environmental Impact early that this was an unusual year since there had been a slight assessment increase of council had obtained in revenue from land sales and there was a budget surplus of Mill rate figures were based on an assessment of General expenses for 1973 were estimated at while estimated general receipts were 17 leaving to be raised by taxes County of Halton levy for residential ratepayers increased 3 mills but the County Board of Education levy decreased mills New system Unlike last year when a budget committee made up of a majority five members of council did all the preliminary work then presented it to a full council for the first time on the night it was to be passed a system involving not only council as a whole but also representatives of local boards and committees was introduced this year The three manbudget committee first gathered in budgets submitted by the various local boards then met with repre sentatives todiscussthemfurther The budget committee then recommended all budgets to a full council and they were discussed further at two separate meetings which took in a total of six Town works staff was also allowed to submit estimates on work for councils consideration Last night Reeve McKenzle outlined the budget for council and the press touching on what he considered to be the high lights Copies of all estimated receipts and disbursements as well as detailed budgets were available for all to follow Arena improvements Acton community centre will benefit from a sizeable portion of money allotted for Its improvement Council granted parks board for the next phase of the arena reconstruction program which began three years ago This year the north and south walls will be reinforced with cement blocks Mayor pointed out however that this reconstruction program is not relative to anything the Centennial Commission is proposing for its arena improvement project Also included in the recreation budget was for the installation of servicing for heaters over seats around the Ice surface The figure Includes installation of four heaters this year A new tractor will be purchased for the arena at a price of and the old one traded An additional was allotted for hydrants for outdoor rinks Parks development fund received a budget Increase of close to Part of this money Is to be used for improving land at the foot of Elmore Drive Following a request from a board delegation council also allocated to cover a maintenance program for the building Mayor council to assist the board in maintaining their building In order that more of their funds might go into the recreational program Councillor Norm Elliott also pointed out that the building has suffered from community neglect Of the will be used to pay for waterproofing work done on the basement of the building last year The budget of the Acton Public library Board increased by over to allow for necessary Interior improvements to the building and the purchase of additional reference books mainly Centennial commission Although the Acton Centennial Commission had not submitted a budget council allocated half a mill 4500 to the commission for The same amount was set aside for the commission last year but not used The Acton Fall Fair board will benefit from a increase We felt the work they are doing warranted the increase said Reeve McKenzle The Acton Development Commission received 6400 most of which Mayor Duby said will be spent to improve the town in connection with Centennial year 1974 In the realm of public works council set aside for the construction of new sidewalks and also established a reserve working fund of which Reeve McKenzie said will be used at councils discretion throughout the year to improve situations around town which have been neglected If the money is not spent it will be used to reduce the budget next year Of the sidewalk figure will be used to extend the sidewalk on Mill St south from Park Avenue to Cameron Avenue Some of the remainder will be used to lay leadin sidewalks into Glenlea subdivision The town police department budget was increased by 10 000 mainly because of salary increases Police committee chairman Councillor Chapman said a survey taken showed that purchase of a new cruiser was not necessary The towns total debenture debt was estimated at 15766940 an increase of 9000 over last year Budget estimates of both planning board and committee of ad justment were decreased from last year because of exulting surpluses Salaries increase Council salaries represent a total figure of 20500 in this years budget an Increase of more than 7000 over last year Administration salaries jumped from to Reeve McKenzie explained that extra staff members have been hired Council estimated they will receive an additional in supplementary taxes when assessment revenue of buildings constructed this year Is finally calculated Mayor Duby congratulated Reeve McKenzle on the fine way the budget was handled this year He accomplished what he set out to do after last years recommendation the mayor remarked The mayor also paid tribute to newlyappointed clerkad ministrator Grant Usher for doing a fine job in presenting his first budget I believe It was a combination of his own abilities and the excellent coaching of our retiring Joe the mayor said Councillor Elliott added his appreciation for the way the budget was presented this year All members of council were present for the meeting except Deputyreeve Peter Marks who was detained on business in the US RECAP OF 1973 MUX RATE FOR THE TOWN OF ACTON General County Education 1972 Comm Oram Res 1019 78 420 378 1012 SOS