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$0 down, $0 first payment 1.5% interest rate Auto, Air, XM Radio, Pwr Windows & Locks Lease $107 biweekly 905877-6944 33 Mountainview Rd. North, Georgetown 2014 Cruze 2LS 0 first payment est rate biweekly Quality & Service You Can Count On! www.bathstudio .ca 905-702-0885 332 Guelph Street, Georgetown (Across from Canadian Tire) Thursday, January 23, 2014 Halton Hills' award-winning newspaper serving Acton & Georgetown 48 Pages 50 Cents (+HST) Visit us at www.theifp.ca INSIDE Robotics is the rage at GDHS Pg. 24 Ted's announcement Pg. 8 Sports: A future Olympian Pg. 26 Raiders blank Cougars Online at www.theifp.ca See page 12 for details Taking the chill out of winter with a chili contest Do you want to get rid of the winter blues? Are you ready for some out- door fun and excitement? The Acton BIA is busy planning its third annual Acton Winter Carnival this Saturday and Sunday. It kicks off Saturday night with a community dance at the Acton Town Hall Centre. Doors will open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 at Dollar Stretch- er Daze and Acton Home Hardware or $7 at the door. On Sunday, Prospect Park will be buzzing with lots of out- door activities for the entire family and all events are free. For details and a schedule check out www.down- townacton.ca or email actonbia@ cogeco.net. Left, Halton Police and Halton Hills Firefighters have chal- lenged each other in the Chili Cook- off. Preparing their secret recipes are from left, Jeanne Walton and Laurel Barnett from Halton Police with last year's winner Andrea Clark of Tanner's and the Halton Hills Firefighters team Robert Guerin and Ed deRoon. Photo by Ted Brown No specific funding was added into the 2014-operating budget to deal with the December 2013 ice storm. "The full recovery will take years, rather than months due to the damage that was done," said Mayor Rick Bonnette at Halton Hills budget committee Monday night. "In 2014 the focus will be on the clean up. Our proposed 2014 budget does not include any adjustments for the costs related to the ice storm. When the staff are able to do an assessment on the damage and see what trees survived and able to develop a plan, costs will be addressed through funding from other lev- els of government, reserves or the 2015 budget process." "I know some people don't think the clean up is being done quick enough, but people, we had a major, major event, an ice storm, followed by 20 cm of snow, followed by a polar vortex which froze everything. It's been a very difficult time for our Public Works and Hydro. Again patience will be a virtue," he said. He reminded there are 900 kms of roads plus parks-- that's a lot of trees and a lot of work to be done. Bonnette said Halton Hills is joining other GTA municipalities in appealing to the federal and provincial government to provide recovery funding. Town staff will be meeting with the Province tomorrow (Fri- day) to advance the Town's appli- cation. See GTA, pg. 3 Town joins GTA appeal for fed/provincial funding By LISA TALLYN & CYNTHIA GAMBLE Staff Writers No storm funding added to 2014 town budget See Town taxes to go up 4.9% on pg. 3 www.georgetownrealty.ca edimou@georgetownrealty.ca EFFIE DIMOU Sales Representative Thinking of buying or selling? Call Effie Dimou for all your real estate needs. 905-877-5211 Dir: 416-991-4247 Real Estate Centre Inc., Brokerage