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Classified Advenisi ng: 845-2809 Circulation: 845-9742 or 845-9743 In Oliver Publisher Robert Glubey Advertisulg Director Norman Alexander Editor Goofl' Hm Circulation Director Teri Can- Ojfice Manager Tlln Colon Production Manager BOW.OIIIT mmmu‘m An] h, dear friends the wonder of it all. It seems that Ontario Education Minister Dave Cooke is taking a really forward-thinking view of education now. He's actually going to give parents a voice in how the province's education programs are reformed. Incredibly, never before has the ministry asked parents what they thought about changes to the education system before they were imple- mented by the province. This véhole idea has been a long time coming and the ministry is only doing so after a continuing barrage of complaints by parents over the quality of education. - Even more disturbing is the fact that there are already 48 advisory groups that give input into Ontario's education programs but none have involved a group of parents. Little wonder why parents and taxpayers are dissatisfied. The ministry is apparently looking for 18 members to join this 'parents council' and we've no doubt they won't have to wait very long before being inundated by applications. And while we applaud this move, we also caution the ministry to use some pretty strict guidelines in choosing these council members. The first thing is to eliminate anyone with any ties to education past or present. That means no former teachers, principals, superintendents, education ministry personnel, OISE staff or those whose spouses have had or have any ties to the educational system. 'With that as a start some massive bias will already have been eliminat- ed and something positive might actually be accomplished. We can only Action needed n a group of citizens in the Maple Grove area left town hall on March s)" 22nd, they believed the many problems surrounding the operations of Garfield Container Inc. were about to be resolved. At that time, the residents complained of noise, traffic and dust emanating from the container operation. A list of recommendations were passed by town council andthatwasthat. Well, the trouble is that many of the concerns residents brought to council in March are still conoems and it's now up to town officials to see these residents get some satisfaction. The company has complied with some of the 12 recommendations but others have apparently been ignored and company oflicials say they won‘t meet with any town oflicials if members of the public are also in attendance. The town has erected a series of' no stopping‘ signs along Maple Grove to try and ease congestion but enforcement of these measures concerning the movement of the large trucks transporting the containers, cannot be dealt with until the town's present traflic bylaw has been amended This, according to Deputy Town Manager Ron Foy, wouldn't take place until September. Clearly, this isn't good enough and we applaud Ward 3 councillor Sean Weit’s move to have passage of these bylaw changes accelerated to the council's July 12th meeting. Town bylaw enforcement officers say company has ignored a request for a tire Wash rack to reduce dust and mud from tracking onto streets and has also refused to change the stacking arrangement of the containers to see which configuration is best for noise reduction. Town officials also report the firm has also done nothing to control noise from its operation. ’ OPINION Area residents had to Endure a summer full of noise, dust and traflic last year and they shouldn't have to go through the same thing this year. It‘s about time the town started playing hardball with the company. EDITORIAL ”WWWW v Some Ehope CALL845-5585 467 Speets Road, Oakville, Ont. L6K 384 845-3824 Fax: 845-3085 EKVILLE BEAVER I Inuesnou or THE WEEKI How do you think the town can best accomplish a reduction in its expendi- lures? Give us your opinion on this topic by callng 845-5585, b_<_>x 50]2._ Alf callers are allowed 45 seconds to reigond and must provide their name, ad ess and phone number for verifica- tion. A sampling of the best answers will be published in the next Weekend edi- tion of the Oakville Beaver. Increasing number of Channels just expands television wasteland magine what it would be like if TV were actually good. It would be the end of everything we know. Marvin Minsky An American media execu- tive with the unfortunate han- dle of Newton Minow Esquire once defined North American television as “a vast waste- land”. Mister Minow may have been moniker-challenged, but philosophically he was bang on the money. If you doubt it, go to the only one-eyed piece of furniture in the corner of your living room on any weekday afternoon and turn it on. You will be rewarded with badly acted soap operas - huff- ing and puffing airheads in Spandex workout suits and a plethora of talk shows hosted by mic-toting hosts examining the problems of Transvestite Bank Tellers from Broken Homes and Their Pets. Or, you could flip up the dial until you hit The Weather Channel. The Weather Channel. Think about it for a moment. Do you think Newton Minow would ever have believed that some day television would feature a channel devoted to nothing but weather reports 24 hours a day? What’s really scary is that the Weather Channel is often the best thing on the box. Not counting the Shopping Channel, of course. Now there’s a magnificent milestone in broadcasting history â€" a channel that features still phoâ€" tographs of Elvis paintings, chia plants, and phoney-lookâ€" ing necklaces made of cubic zirconium. And they’re all for sale. That’s not all. The National Cable Association down in' the US. is offering a whole raft of new video services next year â€"â€" including a channel called ATV. That stands for Advertising Television. It fea- tures an endless reel of five to ten-minute commercials, one after another. Twenty-four hours a day. Who watches this crap? Well. It’s hard to say exactly just who the hard core TV addicts are out there being mesmerized by the tube, but we know a few things about that gaping maw called The Television Audience. We know for instance that you don’t want to get them riled. Last summer, a cable- T.V. company in Columbia, South Carolina stationed a TV camera on _a tropical fish tank and broadcast the resulting ‘drama’ on an otherwise empty channel. When they finally replaced the static aquarium shot with some actual network programming, outraged viewers lit up the cable TV telephone switchboard, angrily demandâ€" ing the return of the fish tank. They won. The company now broadcasts the aquarium on another channel non-stop, from nine in the morning to midnight. And it looks like television is poised to take an even bigger bite out of our time. What’s the title of that old Springsteen song â€" “Fifty-Seven Channels and Nothing’s On”? Make it 160 channels. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Deathstar. It’s the slang name for a Los Angeles-based news service and entertainment packâ€" age that will soon be targeting all North American televisions with 160 channels. You know that humongous satellite dish your uncle shelled out a couple of grand for last year? Tell him he now owns one of the world’s biggest birdâ€" baths. Deathstar offers its clients a rooftop dish no bigger than a large pizza. Ann Landers said it best: “Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other.”