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TIIE HERALD Wednesday March 8 Page Opinion Page LETTERS 30 years ago Complaints by a ratepayer of frozen ice and dirt blocking his driveway led to a plea by Coun Fred Harrison at Mondays council meeting for cooperation from residents to do their part in aiding road work during the difficult winter months Harold 74 of Princess Drive said the town grader piles the ice along the ditch when clearing the road Coun Har rison said this has been one of the worst winters on record and has taxed the road committee to capacity Mrs Spencer Wilson of was the first woman ever to speak at the Ontario Plowmens Associa tion convention and annual meeting held recently in the King Edward Hotel Toronto Speaking on a womans views of the Interna tional Plowing Match Mrs Wilson was one of four speakers asked to give an opinion on improvements and additions for the match Mrs Wilson suggested a fashion show and a Queen of the Furrows competition 15 years ago A frozen ice dam on the Credit River at Glen Williams caused a flood in many yards in the Glen Four houses were threatened by the flooding waters and threefootthick ice sheets We had suitcases packed and I parked my car on the hill awjy from the flooding said Glen resident Ed Green Glen residents have told us about the times the ice was left on the road but this is the worst in the last few years said homeowner Ivor Allen Halton Hills is seeking an municipal crest but so far has had no luck in an appeal to graphic students at Sheridan College In stead a special meeting will be held by local artist Dorothy Stone and with a local student Charles who has already submitted a logo proposal to Regional Chair- Haltons History from our files The last ladies club curling for the season was held on the weekend when the ladies com peted for the MacKenzie Trophy Trophy taker and winner in the se cond draw was Mary Biehn with Beth Anderson Ida Mae Woodbum and June Hagerman 10 years ago A proposal is currently being considered by downtown Acton merchants to unite two existing grocery stores in an apparent bid to meet the demands of shoppers who offered support last month for food chain outlet proposed for construction on Highway Having already invested town council voted to oppose On tario Hydros BrucetoMilton transmission corridor The town launched appeals before the On tario Municipal Board OMB and a divisional court Members of the towns general committee watched a slide presen tation last Wednesday that was prepared by the provincial ministry of the Environment following the success of Georgetowns Divide and Conquer garbage program The program cost the province during its initial ninemonth trial period town engineer Bob Austin said Some 310 tons of glass metal and newspapers were collected during specific rounds and response from the public has been almost unanimously positive he said The Georgetown United Rental Minor Peewees bounced back to take a victory here Sunday to tie their playoff series against Richmond Hill at one game apiece Richmond Hill had romped to an easy victory winning 70 in the first game 5 years ago An RRl Georgetown man hit gold when he stopped for his regular cup of coffee at the Moore Park Plaza Macs Convenience Store Friday morning Andy Malenfant 31 is richer thanks to a predraw win in the new Ontario lottery game Shoot to Score Mr Malenfant said he had stopped for a coffee like I normal lydo Stewarttown Senior Public School students came home with plenty of ribbons from the Klwanis Music Festival recently Music teacher Katie KirkupOrtalan said the schools Grade 7 class entry came in first in their class with a mark of 87 and second out of other schools The Georgetown District High School Rebel swimmers continued to build their dynasty Saturday at Brock University in St Catharines winning a fourth consecutive OF- SAA championship It was never a contest as the Rebel team pulveriz ed more than swimmers from other Ontario secondary schools The Rebels amassed a total team points to win the senior competition a record points ahead of the second place club Appeal is answered The Red Cross is extremely pleased with the tremendous response to its urgent appeal for blood Since the appeal began over people in Central On tario have given blood The Toronto Blood Centre of the Red Cross would like to thank all these donors for their unselfish support of the appeal The Centre also acknowledges the great contribution of the media in making people aware of the shortage and ensuring a good turnout at the clinics The hospital blood banks have been restocked and the Red Cross has been able to build up its own reserves of blood But the real beneficiaries of the appeal are all the hospital patients whose lives depend on a continuous supply of blood and blood products These recipients include bum victims leukemia patients transplant recipients premature babies and accident victims But while an appeal succeeds in restoring the blood supply it un fortunately gives people the mistaken impression that blood is only needed when there is a critical shortage This is not the case Eight hun dred people must give blood every weekday in Central On tario to meet patient needs in area hospitals Many of the hospitals in Metro Toronto have specialized units like organ transplant centres and trauma units in which patients undergo advanced treatment procedures These treatments often involve substantial transfusions of blood The Red Cross is struggling to keep up with this hospital de mand in the face of reduced col lections over the past several years In order to maintain ade quate reserves of blood it is im portant that people donate regularly Most healthy people between the ages of 17 and 66 can give blood four times a year If all those who responded to this and past appeals were to become regular blood donors the threat of critical shortages could be eliminated From THE CANADIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY Concerns raised over issue Dear Sir Nuclear Awareness Project our citizens group based in Oshawa joins with the people of Quebec who have successfully worked for the cancellation of Atomic Energy of Canada plan to install a Slowpoke nuclear reactor at the University of Sherbrooke teaching hospital Late in December the Hospitals Board of Directors decided to refuse this unpopular project The campaign against the reactor was led by Coalition CHUS Continue Hydro not Uranium for our Safety and supported by en vironmental and peace groups as well as a local hospital employees union The proposed 10megawatt Slowpoke was to come with a sevenmillion dollar price tag The environmental cost would have been the creation of one tonne of highlevel radioactive waste every six years I Why would AECL be allowed by our government in a hospital of all places to pro duce hazardous nuclear waste for which there is no satisfactory method of storage or disposal And why would be permitted by an atomic regulatory agency to expose pregnant women children and sick people to the inherent risjes of a nuclear reactor when forbids pregnant women and children from touring its nuclear research facility at Pinawa Manitoba In 1979 Physicians for Social Responsibility called for a moratorium on the construction of nuclear power plants in an an nouncement in the New England Journal of Medicine Part of their message reads This is not just another form of pollution but one which will cause cancer and birth defects for our children and our childrens children Although the nuclear reactor cancellation is good news for the people of Sherbrooke all is not well for those in Peterborough Ontario who are concerned about nuclear proliferation An official is reported to have said that the next community on their tryout list is Peterborough where it could be housed at the General Electric plant Why does the government sub sidize to the tune of million a year an industry which has not sold a nuclear reactor in the past years is pushing Slowpoke reactors and food irradiators for the good of their own health not ours It needs a fullsized operating prototype to show off to potential foreign buyers We would strongly encourage people who are opposed to the creation of more nuclear waste to join citizens groups such as ours or their own local ones These hazardous nuclear projects are everybodys business They are supported with tax dollars by a crown corporation that is sup posedly answerable to thepubllc Yours truly Irene Kock Anne Hansen Questioning a sense of fairness Dear Sir On March the current Ontario government closed its first session According to Bob and pro bably not far from the truth as the House sat for only 157 days in 16 months it was the most un productive session in Ontarios history It was most improper that just before the end of the day On tario Members of Parliament voted themselves another pay raise Whether Ontario MPPs should earn to a year and for the Premier is debatable Whether this particular government deserved a salary in crease is doubtful But the fact that their new increase is retroactive April 1 is simply disgusting Have our MPPs lost any sense of Giuseppe Gori Family Coalition Party of Ontario Riding of Halton North Clock ticking on national debt Your Business Diane Maley Sirvic Business leaders who think we dont worry enough about the na tional debt could learn from Seymour Durst Frustrated by the publics lackadaisical attitude toward debt Mr Durst decided to drive the message home to his fellow New Yorkers The frail 75yearold real estate developer mounted a giant- sized digital clock at one of the ci tys busiest intersections to measure the countrys debt trillion US and rising by a second Each and every family in the country owes roughly more than the average American households net worth Mr Durst says he is worried about the future of his family and his city because debt problems could end in economic collapse What were doing is totally irra tional he says If the federal in debtedness begins to bring down the whole nation the cities will be affected more than any other TIME BOMB The clock dominates the wall of an abandoned apartment building at Street and Avenue of the Americas The last time the na tions debt got out of hand was in the late 1920s and early 1930s the period that led up to the Great Depression As time goes by the clock will keep on ticking its capacity will run out at trillion I think theres a longer time for the clock than there is for the country Mr Durst In Canada we prefer to think that debt is not so big a problem To rationalize our indebtedness we measure it as a percentage of national Income measured by gross domestic product The coun trys billion in total debt comes to about per cent of GDP not all that high by historical stan dards in the opinion of William Forward and Frank two debt defenders from Toronto Mr Forward is a political scien tist and Mr Longo Is an economist In 1947 after the Second World War we owed per cent of our national income the two men argue in a recent article in The Globe and Mail The current mism over the debt is really a stalking horse for the goal of cut ting back Canadas social pro grams they say Perhaps But this line of thinking seems to depend on there being no growth in Canadas annual budget deficit currently adding about 29 billion a year to the national debt Messrs Forward and note that the deficit may come in higher than that because of rising interest rates on the national debt FLAWED THINKING If this is so they argue John Crow governor of the Bank of Canada ought to lower interest rates rather than force the govern ment to cut the deficit But to think Ottawa can act independently on interest rates is a faulty premise Interest rates are surging worldwide and Canada has no choice but to Our finan cial markers ai global ly if they w not we would starve financially The two follow their line of reasoning saying that even if da were to fall into recessit this would not add ap preciably to the annual deficit I wouldnt be so sure In the end Messrs Forward and con clude that moderate deficit reduc tion is all that is needed I hope theyre right because thats all were going to get Police hunting daring robbers of elderly couple Halton police in the Georgetown area are still active ly seeking two suspects in the daylight armed robbery of senior citizens which took place in their home on Carole Street Georgetown On Tuesday Nov at 730 am a man knocked on the door of the victims house and gained entry by stating that he was an employee with the Town of Hills The suspect was allowed into the home on the pretence that he wanted to use the phone Once inside he pro duced a large bronzecolored revolver and threatened to Blow your head off if he did not do as he was told A second suspect who was masked then entered the residence and removed the vie- tints wife from her bedroom She was taken downstairs handcuff ed gagged and blindfolded Her feet were tied with yellow nylon rope and heavy green duct tape was used to cover her eyes The victim was then forced to open a safe located in the base- CRIME STOPPERS HALTON ment of the home He was then bound in the same manner as his wife The suspects then fled with a large amount of cash stocks and bonds The suspects are described as follows One is male white in his 30s to 5ft stocky build dark brown or black hair medium length neatlytrimmed beard and moustache and he spoke with an accent He was wearing a dark jacket and possibly jeans The other is a male who was wearing a black balaclava mask to hide his identity Crime Stoppers will pay up to for information that leads to an arrest in this cafe of any other case Callers are not re quired to reveal their Identities or testify In court The Crime Stop pers toll free number it 18004685151