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Construction costs for Big Pipe continue to escalate The price tag on the building of the Big Pipe from Fifth Line South to Trafalgar Rd. has gone up-- yet again. The Big Pipe brings water and wastewater servicing from Lake Ontario to service the Town of Halton Hills industrial area, the 401-407 Gateway Business Park (401 Corridor). After tenders were opened last fall, low bids put the construction at another $200,000 over-budget. Originally construction dollars were set at $7.2 million, and that climbed two years later to $9.46 million, and now to $9.65 million. The costs are due to increased tunneling, greater sewer depths, and escalations in costs related to property acquisition and materials. The five developers benefiting from the Pipe, will be pick up the extra cost. They are TransCanada Energy Ltd., the Lawrence Avenue Group 2000 Inc., Mold-Masters, John and Anne Zdunic and P.A.Z. Properties Corp. Due to the delays in awarding the tenders and getting extra cash from the developers, the area won't be fully serviced now until mid2008. Heart-felt donation Students in Barb Bangay's Grade 3 class at Pineview Public School collected 20 boxes of non-perishable food items for their "Food From the Heart" campaign to help mark Valentine's Day. Food donations were also made by schoolmates, family and friends, with the carloads of items later dropped off at the Georgetown Bread Basket. Photo by Eamonn Maher School board launches anonymous chat room Halton District School Board is launching a chat site for students and staff to talk anonymously about issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity. Today (Wednesday) the board's Spectrum committee will unveil a new support program for students and staff who wish to learn more about diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Spectrum is comprised of a group of board staff and students. Its first initiatives are Spectrum Talk and Student Spectrum Talk. The anonymous online conferences are meant to provide staff and students with a safe environment to discuss issues of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. The board website has a Spectrum page. It notes there is one Internet chat room for students and another for staff. It can be used to talk anonymously to other people within the school board. Spectrum also provides workshops, booklists and materials, as well as community resources. For more information, or to access the chat rooms, go to http://diversity.hdsb.ca.