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

www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday December 5, 2007 - 35 Artscene Oakville Beaver · WEDNESDAY, December 5, 2007 A town with history By Karen Alton SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER t 86, Joyce Burnell is still feisty, following one triumph with yet another. Earlier this year, she led the crusade to save from the lumber yard the now famous, ancient white oak tree beside Halton Regional Centre on Bronte Road. Now the Oakville resident of some 50 years is the lead author of an Oakville history book ­ four years in the making ­ Oakville Street Names & Landmarks. Burnell herself, along with friend and colleague, photographer and author, Sheila Creighton, published the book, the first title under the Burnell*Creighton Publishing imprint. Creighton admitted to "more than a few sleepless nights recently," but Burnell claimed she "always had faith." The two women were feeling a mixture of relief and elation just days before the book's official launch party at Town Hall. The books had literally just arrived on a truck from Manitoba. The timing could hardly be better, especially in light of the approaching Christmas trade. A Oakville Street Names & Landmarks is a handsome edition, neither a piece of fluff nor an academic text. It is a well-constructed, illustrated tome, printed in Canada on serious stock. The book feels solid in the hand and features on the front cover, predictably, a full, colour photograph of Oakville's most famous oak ­ rescued from the road builders by concerned citizens at a cost of nearly $350,000. It will look good on any table and be a great conversation starter. Creighton explained, "We had another publisher interested in the book, but it was going to take much longer to get into print, another year or two, plus he didn't want the tree pictured on the cover, and you have to know," giving a nod to Burnell, "that was a deal breaker." But while the tree is important, it is only one of many famous landmarks in town, present and past. According to Burnell, "The book is largely a distillation of meticulous notes accumulated over 30 years by a certain Town of Oakville draftsman, David Ashe, now retired. His job involved keeping track of street names and development surveys." MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER NAMES AND LANDMARKS: Joyce Burnell, one of the authors of Oakville Street Names & Landmarks, signs a book at its launch at Oakville Town Hall. See New page 36