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THURSDAY, JANUARY 5 2012 THE NEW TANNER Rognvaldson heralds 2012 Acton Citizen of the Year, Dorothy Rognvaldson did her best to ring in 2012 at the Town Hall Centre at midnight on Saturday, but an unlubricated bell shaft silenced Acton's traditional salute to the New Year. Although the bell had rung clear in a test run earlier in the day, when Rognvaldson gave a test pull a few minutes before midnight, there was no audible sound. As the clock ticked to midnight, Heritage Acton Chair Ron Birrell, and others, tried unsuccessfully to unstick the bell. Just before the New Year dawned, Birrell told Rognvaldson "were going to have to fake it," and when a timer cheeped at midnight, someone in the small crowd asked "Is that it?" and Rognvaldson called out "Happy New Year everybody...dingledangle." Several others called out "ring, ring" and "ding, ding" and that led to warm rendition of Auld Lang Syne before everyone went their way. Earlier, Rognvaldson said her New Year's resolution this year is to walk every day because she'd become "lazy." She said she walks the halls where she lives for 30 minutes daily, and began walking three days a week at the Dufferin Rural Heritage Centre. Asked about the bell malfunction, Birrell said without regular lubrication, and with the recent rain and freezing temperatures the bell shaft froze. He expected to have it repaired earlier 3 SILENT FROZEN BELL: Acton's Citizen of the Year, Dorothy Rognvaldson waited in vain to ring in the New Year at the Acton Town Hall Centre at midnight on Saturday. Despite the efforts of Heritage Acton Chair Ron Birrell, the frozen bell would not ring in 2012. ­ Frances Niblock photo Town Digest Fee waiver appeal Heritage Acton officials will ask Halton Region to waive or excuse $26,000 in Development Charges (DCs) which are required to expand the Town Hall Centre to include an elevator, Citizens' Hall and storage. Halton Hills Council waived its $12,220 in DCs before Christmas, and wrote Halton in support of giving Heritage Acton a grant in the same amount of Regional DCs. Heritage Acton Chair Ron Birrell will appeal to members of Halton's Administration and Finance Committee meeting on July 11, arguing that as a not-for-profit group, Heritage Acton should be exempt ­ like a church ­ from DCs. On Sunday, Birrell said if they'd paid the approximately $40,000 in DCs they would already be in the ground. "In all consciousness, I couldn't come back to our committee, and our community and say, `all the money that has been given in good faith to build the building has gone into a developer charge where there would be no gain for us,'" he said, adding there appears to be the political "will" to do something, as Halton has offered a 10year payment plan. Green report card It seems it is easy for the Town and the community to be green. The latest Green Plan progress report card showed of the 70 green recommendations made two years ago, 14 per cent have been fully implemented, and 67 per cent under are implementation, six are in background research and 15 per cent, or nine recommendations, are outstanding. Through initiatives like a green development checklist, development of a community sustainability plan and support of local food procurement, the Town has made significant progress toward implementation of the Green Plan. In his report to Council, Damian Szybalski, the sustainability coordinator, said while there is still work to do, progress to date has laid a solid foundation and momentum to take further actions. In praising the staff for a brochure outlining the Green Plan achievements, Mayor Rick Bonnette said they have acted on 64, or 91 per cent of the Green Plan recommendations. The Report Card is available on the Town's website, and at municipal offices in Halton. Pole fire leaves 2,700 Hydro customers unplugged Smelsky, who said on Tuesday that the power went out around the noon hour on New Year's Eve day. He said the power fluctuated once before the extended outage, just as it should have. "The way the system works is when there's a trip or an outage, the system attempts to restart or re-engage, but if it trips a second time, then you have a full outage." He said usually when there is a pole fire, the insulator between the pole and where it attaches to the actual wire has become cracked or corroded by wet weather and allows electricity to reach the wooden pole and a fire begins. "It is an odd scene to see the flash and flames at the top of a hydro pole," Smelsky said, adding while the incident was an inconvenience for customers on Acton's west side, crews made a "timely" repair. this week. This was the third consecutive year that Heritage Acton rang the bell at midnight to usher in the New Year, and it's a sporadic tradition that dates back to the mid 1980s, after the building was saved from the wrecker's ball to provide parking for firefighters in the adjacent attached building. Celebrant Marlene Graham and a group of nine friends left a house party to walk to the Town Hall Centre for the ceremony. "We've read about it, but just never come. The invitation was to come over and have some refreshments and some nibbles and walk down here to ring in the New Year," Graham said, adding she'll do it again. Approximately 2,700 Halton Hills Hydro (HHH) customers were without power for up to 50 minutes mid-day Saturday after a hydro pole caught fire in the Crewsons Corners area, west of Acton on Highway 7. An on-call emergency crew had to isolate the pole from the electricity feed from Fergus so a damaged insulator could be replaced, according to HHH spokesman Dave 519-853-2650 www.stayingalivefitness.com 8 Week Winter Yoga Programs: Mondays - Jan 16 - at 7:15pm: Gentle/Intermediate Yoga Tuesdays - Jan 17 - at 9:30am: Gentle Yoga Thursdays -Jan 19 - at 7:15pm: Core Fusion Yoga Saturdays - Jan 21 - at 9:30am: Energizing Yoga 2 Hour Detox Yoga class Sunday, January 22nd, 9:30am.