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The Oakville BeaverGuest Column467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on thecondition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be chargedTurning off with the worldfor, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of theOakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.By Suzanne Austin, Research Policy AnalystNEIL OLIVERVice-President and Group Publisher,MARK DILLSDirector of ProductionEnvironmental Policy, Town of OakvilleMetroland WestMANUEL GARCIAProduction ManagerDAVID HARVEY Regional General Managehis Saturday March 26, 2011 between 8:30 and 9:30rCHARLENE HALLDirector of DistributionJILL DAVISEditor in ChiefSARAH MCSWEENEYCirc. Managerp.m. join the town and hundreds of communitiesROD JERREDManaging EditorWEBSITE oakvillebeaver.comTaround the world by turning off your lights for oneDANIEL BAIRDAdvertising DirectorThe Oakville Beaver is a division ofhour Earth Hour and send a powerful message that itsRIZIERO VERTOLLIPhotography Directorpossible to take action on global warming and climateSANDY PAREBusiness Managerchange.RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BYCities and towns around the world have prepared for:Ontario Community Canadian Community Suburban NewspapersEarth Hour in their own way and the Town of Oakville isNewspapers AssociationNewspapers Associationof Americano exception.THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR:To support this event, the town will: Turn off all non-essential lighting at all town facilities, taking health andsafety in considerationUnited Wayof Oakville Dim and reduce lighting at the front counters of facilities that will remainATHENAopenAward Turn off all marquee signage, where possible Implement an Earth Hour schedule to optimize energy consumption in allfacilities with a Building Automation SystemGet involved and sign up at www.earthhour.org for more information on EarthHour.The Town of Oakville continues to be a leader in environmental stewardship.The town has implemented many initiatives that save energy today and in thefuture including: Development and implementation of a Corporate Energy ManagementPlan Host an annual spring Energy Conservation Fair. Keep your eye out fordetails. Mandated that all new municipal facilities will be designed to a minimum of Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) Silver certification In 2010, town staff developed the Sustainable Green Building Procedure anda Sustainable Design Guidelines handbook to guide sustainable construction fornew buildings as well as maintenance of town-owned facilities Convert existing lighting to energy efficient and motion sensor lighting attown facilitiesThese are just some of the ways the Town is working to reduce its ecologicalfootprint. Its your turn.GRAHAM PAINE / OAKVILLE BEAVERWhat are you going to do to go Beyond the Hour? (www.beyondthehour.org)ENGINEERED FOR FUN:The Oakville chapter of the Professional Engineers of Ontario marked NationalThere are many actions that you can implement at home, work, school and onEngineering Week with Biomedical Engineering & You held at Oakville Trafalgar High School. The day included athe road to reduce your impact on the environment and take action on climatedemonstration by the high school's FIRST Robotics Red Devils team. Here, student Chris Hall works the controls aschange.teammates, from left, Jessy Yegavian, Caityn Landry and Natalie Clemence make adjustments on robot 'Fred.'See Go page 9When facing options that range from terrible to even worsets no secret, the degree to which humans grow attached to their Last Sunday, a few family members close quarters of his stall to allow healing to occur, and limitpets to the point where Whiskers and Rover not only become went over to the ranch where we house his chances of moving around and further injuring himself). Or,Ipart of the family, but actually rule the roost, taking over the the horses during the winter. Planning we can have him put down.sweet spot in both our homes and hearts.on grooming and riding, they fetched While the latter option seems unthinkable, the former seemsIts always been that way with our dogs and me. I was devas-Apollo from the slick, muddy paddock, cruel. We have trouble envisioning him not going crazy stuck intated when I had to take Franny, our French hound, on the long and my wife immediately noticed he was that stall, with no assurances that at years-end he will be healeddrive to the vet a few years back to, well, you know. However, it lame. Lame is an encompassing term and healthy; the vets educated guess is that his days of beingwas not always that way for me with our horses. My wife, you see, to describe a horse that is limping for ridden are over, but he might heal up enough to be safe on hisis the true horse person. As a young girl, she was horse-obsessed. reasons ranging from insignificant to own in the paddock (living out his life as a pasture horse).Andy JuniperAbout 13 years ago, she bought a Palomino named Bambi. A few serious. My wife wasnt sure how severe Of course the decision would be more straightforward if heyears later, she bought another horse, a big boy named Apollo. the injury was, but it was sure odd. He were in obvious pain. Strange thing is, he seems fine. The nightAnd further down the road we moved to a property where we was suddenly having trouble moving at all, and a large leg muscle we received the news we went to see him, thinking we may wellcould keep the two blondes.was visibly, strangely in spasm.be going to saying our final goodbyes. There was Apollo, cute andIn the beginning, I honestly didnt have much to do with the The next morning, the vet visited. His examination, diagnoses curious, appearing happy and healthy, playfully greeting us at hishorses. But in time, as my wife became increasingly busy with and call to my wife set off huge reaction in our house. It became stall door, mischievously head-butting me for the carrots hework, I started taking over day-to-day horse duties. Eventually, I the day we were forced to learn the unfortunate equation: one knew I had stashed in my coat. got to know these nickering, bickering fools I swear, they act fracture equals untold heartbreak. Somehow this lovable lug had Alas, we have a decision to make. Question is, do we make itlike an old married couple (akin to the Costanzas on Seinfeld) managed to fracture his pelvis. And the bottom line is as unpleas-with our heads or our hearts? and all traits that make them adorable; in time, doing the ant as our options are awful: we can sentence this social creature, Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found chores became something I actually looked forward to, an ener-who loves nothing more than hanging out at the hay feeder with on Facebook http://www.facebook.com, or followed at www.twitter.gizing and entertaining break from reality. the herd, to a year of stall rest (that is, confine him 24/7 to the com/thesportjesters.www.insideHALTON.com OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, March 24, 2011 6