The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

EDITORIAL with Hartley Coles Messy streets Visitors to Acton over the weekend must have wondered why there was so much litter fouling the downtown. Warm weather which has brought smiles to many faces has also exposed garbage and all sorts of litter hidden under snow and ice. In fact, it looked like the streets had not been swept in months. Not only litter but several buildings have layers of pigeon poop along the sidewalks, gooey noxious stuff that can turn your stomach. It doesn't add much ambience of the downtown for | shoppers. Adding to the unsightly mess was the accumulation of sand along sidewalks and gutters. And some alleyways leaking to Mill Street were litter-and garbage- strewn as well. Worst of all it looked like some of the business was oblivious to it all. Not so, though. The BIA has been notified and they have hired someone to sweep and keep the streets clean starting next week. They' Il have their work cut out for them. The downtown core is, compara- tively speaking, the living room of the community. When it looks messy and dirty it reflects on the appearance of the whole town. Visitors, tourists, anyone passing through certainly aren't going to be impressed. Depressed maybe, by the sight of so much litter. At one time it was incumbent on every business place to keep the premises clean and tidy. That included sweeping and cleaning the sidewalk and gutter along the establishment. Those who did not cooper- ate felt the wrath of the majority, Most of the shopkeepers still keep their places clean and tidy but there are some who are negligent and it unfortunately reflects on everyone. In most cases a cleanup would simply be a matter of sweeping and shoveling the litter and pigeon poop into garbage bags. It is not an expensive proposition. All that's required is a broom and shovel and some good old-fashioned effort. Of course, you're right, it was the general public, which caused much of the litter in the first place. They threw their litter and garbage on the street instead of placing it in the boxes provided. It's an offence to litter but many of us apparently don't care a fig. If we're going to have a town we can & proud of it is incumbent for all of us to help keep the streets clean and free of litter. Not only for visitors but for our own satisfaction as well. Has spring sprung? The first robins were already frolicking in back yards, chirping their familiar cheery-cheery-chee-oh from stark maples and birches before February gave way to March. Except for some random piles of the white stuff most of the snow had melted. Crocuses and hyacinths stuck tenta- tive heads out of winter beds testing the air for warmth. Old timers, memories weathered by decades of weather watching, warned: Don't be fooled, if March comes in like a lamb it'll likely go out like a lion. Don't take your red flannels off yet. Who cares, said those who already were celebrating the rites of Spring. Wintry blasts may still funnel their way down from the north and send us back to the fire but even the calendar says Spring can not be far behind. Indeed it is only a scant two weeks before the vernal equinox, which heralds the official arrival of spring on the calendar. March 20 is the day, only 24 hours after the swallows return to Capistrano. In this neck of the woods the robins and red winged blackbirds are the harbingers. And they are here. Poets have eulogized for centuries of the arrival of spring. Perhaps no one has caught its essence more than Robert Browning. He declared: The year s at the spring And day's at morn; Morning' at seven; The hill-side 's a dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn: God's in his heaven-- All's right with the world! THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1998 GOOSE-STEPPIN': Balmy temperatures and slowly receding ice are heralding spring for these Canada geese who checked out the open water on Fairy Lake on the weekend. -- Frances Niblock Photo Bureaucracy strikes again By MAGGIE PETRUSHEVSKY The New Tanner Bureaucracy never ceases to amaze me. I thought my dear house had put me through all the hoops it could when its sale was scheduled to close last Friday. I was wrong. The day before the closing, when ~ I went to sign the final papers and » hand over the keys, I was informed I still needed a final house inspection by the town building department. Our eight-year-old building permit had never been closed. At the time we did it, I did know about moving in without an occu- pancy permit. Somehow when help to move became available it seemed more important to use it than to get that paper first since I was living in a 19-foot house trailer in January blizzards with a man recovering from major surgery. We did plan to get the permit, but we just never got around to it. In- deed, I forgot I didn't have it until my buyers' lawyer pointed it out. Since my buyers just had the place gone over by a home inspector I wasn't very worried. I knew it needed caulking around windows and doors but you don't do that in February anyway and we all knew it. Seems someone forgot to tell the building inspector. He also complained I need four more inches of headroom on my basement stairs. He suggested I cut the offending opening bigger by hacking four inches out of the head- ers. I suppose I could but with luck someone - probably him - wi then tell me I've threatened the in- tegrity of those joists and they need to be replaced. No hatchet job. I'm having new basement stairs built in- stead. Then there was a matter of insu- lating the back wall of the basement. Serves me right for not finishing what we started. I think the rules changed over those eight years be- cause I'm sure you didn't have to do that sort of insulating back then. Since it's a walkout basement the entire wall is above grade and the tules call for installing insulation to two feet below grade. My heart was in my throat while he assured me I didn't need to break up the floor and add -- ight down the side of the foundation. Just floor to ceiling will do nicely. Then there was a matter of extra permits for the rec room and sewing room in the basement as well as the storage loft in the garage. The need for permits for the two rooms was no surprise. We hadn't planned on these rooms originally because we didn't need the extra taxes. But when kids came home in desperation after being downsized ... well, you don't turn them out. But the storage loft? If I stuck hooks in the garage ceil- ing they wouldn't charge me. Be- cause we put up a steel beam on two posts and a joist at the back wall so we could put plywood on it, suddenly it's an addition to the house? I also got warned against storing anything heavy on it. It could hold up a barn dance - if you didn't hit pa head on the garage ceiling - but need to be cautious about the weight of aluminum lawn chairs. Then the plumbing inspector showed up. Seems there are two basement drains that need glued-on ABS caps. One already has a cap glued down but it's the wrong kind open I'm supposed to take that off and replace it. He forgot to mention how I'm to do that. Besides, if I glue them shut, the only way to ever use these drains in future will be to call a plumber and install new tops. Now do I have ane icious mind or is that the whole I Enroute to get my building per- mits I visited my buyers' lawyer to drop off the report. He apparently had some naive notion I was com- ing to beg or something. He started in telling me how terrible it was that we had no occupancy permit. We really had no right to be living in the house., blah, blah, blah. Us short people have short fuses too. Poseniiie Jackie Gleason's fa- vourite line about "to the moon, Alice"? That lawyer doesn't know how close: hecame. Even' the:build- ing inspector assured me there's nothing unsafe about the house.(The steam clouds coming from my ears were probably worrying him a lit- tle.). If this legal twit thought he could con me into eeppaty the price just because he's a lawyer he doesn't realize how many court cases I cov- ered or what I learned about lawyers in the process. Then I went to order my insula- tion and discovered another nasty note. If the new owners ever want to finish the rest of the basement, their first task will be to rip down the in- sulation I had to install . You can't strap over it without sowing the vapour barrier - another no-no, ac- cording to the rules. A friend and I spent a day blow- ing nails into the wall with a hand- operated hammer gun and whacking our skulls on the crawl space as we installed the darn stuff. but it's up there. Now it's Paul and Sherry's problem. My realtor had the right answer but most people would be afraid to use it. The lawyer works for his cli- ents. If they wanted to buy it the way it was he should butt out. Now he has forced them into extra expenses Fees lion ae undo iter. I'm just frustrated at the delay. No -matter the buyer the process and costs are the same for me. I just won- der if Paul and Sherry will realize who to blame when the time comes for the renovations they tell me they plan? Tanne 59 Willow Street North Acton, Ontario L7J 1Z8 (519) 853-0051 Fax: 853-0052 Publisher Ted Tyler Editorial Hartley Coles Frances Niblock Mike O'Leary . Maggie Petrushevsky Ellen Piehl Advertising Sales Lynne Burns Circulation Marie Shadbolt Composing Angela Tyler Karen Wetmore Distributed to every home in Acton and area as well as adjoining communities. ADVERTISING POLICY Every effort will be made to see advertising copy, neatly presented, is correctly printed. The publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or omissions in advertising, but will gladly reprint without charge that part of an advertisement in which an error may occur provided a claim is made within five days of publication.