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

The Free Press Wednesday February 17 Editorial Subdivisions need sidewalks Do subdivisions need sidewalks According to members of planning board they are not necessary Two subdivision residents on the board felt the lack of sidewalks in their particular subdivisions had not constituted a hazard for pedestrians To be fair to members of planning board however it should be pointed out they were eager to strike a compromise with developer Joe caught In the squeeze between the local hydro commissions insistence on underground wiring and Ontario Hydros bill of for moving a high tension lino Theyd like to see this new 150 home development get off the ground But we cant agree with anyone who think subdivisions dont need sidewalks It is true you can get away without them But they are desirable If there havent been any serious accidents along subdivision roads where sidewalks exist it has been more good luck than good management Any driver who has tried to thread through throngs children stretched along Elizabeth Drive or Longf leld Road as they go or return home from school knows exactly the kind of situation lack of sidewalks creates It is frightening for both drivers and pedestrians In winter the problem is further complicated by the presence of banks of snow which narrow the road allowance and make driving and walking more perilous For those who take a vehicle everywhere lack of sidewalks is no problem but for those who like to stretch their legs with exercise It creates problems drivers never face Mothers pushing baby carriages and others with small children never feel secure There is always the danger of children eluding their grasp and darting out in the way of a car Elderly people who like to walk are often deterred by the lack of sidewalks from getting much needed exercise especially In places where roads are rough Perhaps drivers exercise more caution when they realize pedestrians use roads as well as vehicles but there are always some who speed regardless of conditions It is this element which add danger to sub divisions as well as inconveniences If planning board feels something should be lopped off requirements for subdivisions we think they could pick on something more suitable than sidewalks Noise controls ore necessary Harvey dear did jnu know that ihii is lliotlicrlimd when far more love forgiveness understanding Suga Sometimes I feel nothing but pity for those timid wretches who scurry to southern warmer flt the first fall of a flake They have betrayed one of the greatest aspects of the Canadian character the stubborn tenacious stupidity that makes the rest of us endure through the winter This last week has been a grand one and let me hear no oldtimer snorting contemptuously that The winters aint what they used to be It started off enough colder than a tax collectors heart In midweek things warmed up figuratively Out of the west came a howling blizzard winds from to ph snow that cut like a razorblade and a windchill factor temperature of below zero Somehow it was all fun I got up looked out the window and saw nothing but white The house was creaking and groaning like an arthritic climbing a rope ladder Didnt even put on my long underwear Took a look at the cat whose green eyes threw back Just try and throw me out in that buddy Didnt Plunged out the back door in great spirits and sank to the navel in snow Made it to the garage because I knew there be no cabs on the road The dam car started Then the big decision With the eye rand Spice by bill smiley of a computer I judged the snowbank Decided to use the bombing attack my eyes and sent her backwards at full bore Wound up like a stranded whale four wheels in the air body sitting high and dry on the snowbank Did I quit Not on your life A savage gleeful mood took hold of me Shovelled wept called upon the Lord in no uncertain turns Nothing doing Commandeered two highschool boys coming by One had his nose frostbitten right back to his cheeks Put him in the car at the controls We rocked and shovelled and shoved and made it Crept to school through the white rage of the storm Felt triumphant What a peaceful place There were 140odd kids and they had to be odd to walk it on a day like that and 50odd teachers same comment Normal numbers kids teachers We enjoyed the best school spirit in years We felt tike a doughty band of the chosen The kids played games or received tuition The teachers joined them in the games or gave tuition Unfortunately the weather cleared a bit next day and routine resumed However all were cheered by the principals announcement that the lieutenantgovernor had been visiting the county and had declared a school holiday for the following day Friday Kapuskaslngs official brochure indignantly refutes any designation that suggests the Kap is a company town since most businesses and homes are privately owned but there is no doubt the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Co and Kimberly- Clark of Canada are the dominating Influence for residents of the town and area Spruce Falls Co employs BOO men in their woodlands operation and another 1750 in the paper mill which produces tons of newsprint each day To feed those machines requires cords of each year valued at approximately million The company leases square miles of crown land from the government and owns another square land which encompasses an area big as the state of Israel So when I got the opportunity to visit the woodlands operation of the company and est at a bush camp during the newspaper convention I jumped at the chance It meant taking a bus that cut back into the hinterlands about 30 miles crisscrossing the wide Kapuskasing River on the Ice dodging huge piles of wood along the river bank awaiting the spring breakup I admit to being a tnfle uneasy when the bus took out over the ice on the river the first time since a company expert present mentioned deep snow on the river kept ice from reaching the desired thickness for vehicle crossings After we were over he casually said that the company had a gadget which made ice for vehicle crossovers The ice Is quite safe with no real danger of breaking through Everyone seemed to settle down after that statement id Pepper by hartley coles I took off my frogmans suit The first operation we saw was loading of tree length pulpwood onto trailers for motor transportation to the mill The weather around the zero mark when we alighted from the bus left us shivering and shaking 1 no sooner touched ground than my eyes spied a crow lazily circling over the operations which proved to my satisfaction at least that crows go north in the winter not south That theory was strengthened when I saw several more before the day was done Then we had a spectacle of two men cutting down a tree right beside the bus There were fears the men in chesthigh snow would somehow manage to topple the spruce on the bus To be safe I hastily donned my fake fur hat But it turned out there was no reason to be alarmed The lumberjack with the chain saw felled the tree in the opposite direction through the trees a feat which I took my hat off to It was at this juncture in the trip that my better half asked where the cord was for the chain saw I could see she was concerned There wasnt a hydro pole in sight and that jack ripped through the tree as if he had been plugged into Niagara Falls Some wag in the bus suggested the cord was hidden by the deep snow and that it stretched back to the Kap miles or so The problem was never solved among the female members on the trip And Im not apt to give away the secret myself Most of the heavy manual labor at the bush camps has been eliminated with the Won a curling game Thursday night on the last shot This somewhat made up for losing my car keys in the swirling snow Just before I left for curling Things remained on the Long luxurious sleep Friday morning Theres nothing sweeter than sleeping in on a day on which youd normally be working Found the keys my only set by a minor miracle And its been going well ever since This morning it was 32 below but one of those perfect winter days bright sun smoke curling up like musical notes from all the chimneys snow crunching eyes watering lungs hacking Dont tell me Canada isnt a great place to be in winter It is Unless you have enough money to get out I have a friend in his seventies Captain Hudson retired Great Lakes captain Hes a salty raconteur a frightening opponent at bridge or poker and a deadly billiards player But he is living refutation of my last statement He could go to Florida And he docs In spring he pilots a yacht to Florida comes home and fishes here In summer returns to fetch the yacht In fall and says as he stomps off into a blizzard pipe clenched Holy old Hughle whod want to live in Florida in the winter when you can live here A real Canadian And to top off the week a pleasant and warming letter from Mrs Mary of Lake Lenore who claims I still think you ran into a door to get your black eye keep up the good work I didnt Mrs but Ill try introduction of power saws mechanical ardors loading and hauling equipment but the most recent development is the most startling Called a tree harvester the machine cuts tops strips the limbs and bunches tree length wood for skidding One man can operate it Next stop on the trip was one everyone was looking forward to a bush camp dining room Wed all heard legends about the prodigious amounts of grub loggers can put away in one sitting ana it proved to be true We ate at Camp which is best described as a modem equivalent of Stalag something or other in the Heroes TV show It is situated on the Fergus road which caused one wideeyed newspaperman to crack Well then Wheres Elora But the humor went over like a load of pulp Weweretheretoeatandcat wedid First came soup hot and tasty Then came hot roast beef potatoes hot vegetables baked beans gravy cold pork ham cold cuts homemade bread and rolls butter tarts lemon squares three kinds of pie chocolate cake cookies peaches honey and it was all washed down with piping hot cups of coffee All the talk about Acton being a quiet place to live has been discredited by evidence given by a sound engineer at last weeks Ontario Municipal Board hearing in Esquesing John Marlow an expert on noise control and related fields took readings in four communities including Acton on separate occasions and has come up with the information that Acton is noisier than Oakville or Hamilton However we lost out to downtown Toronto by quite a margin Gathering evidence regarding noise from the Golden Horseshoe Dragway was retained by the North Esquesing Ratepayers Association In order to find normal noise in urban communities he visited Oakville Cooksville Hamilton and Acton with sensitive sound equipment On each test the noise from Acton residential streets swung the needle the furthest The first test used Oakville and Acton as guinea pigs Readings showed Oakville with 35 Cooksville 38 and Acton in front with Using the same three towns on the next occasion readings showed Oakville with and Acton swinging the dial to 42 The final test using Oakville Hamilton and Acton as test spots saw the decibels recorded at Oakville 37 at Hamilton and Acton came up a magnificent Downtown Toronto recorded to 80 decibels On the decibel scale 80 Is loud 100 decibels are deafening and 120 decibels dangerously high It should be kept in mind that the decibel scale Is not arithmetic and that a 60 decibel scale is about twice as loud as a 50 decibel sound Every 10 decibels roughly doubles loudness Damage to hearing can be affected by noise A single loud blast will cause temporary deafness Permanent hearing loss comes from repeated or continuous exposure eight hours or more per day of 80 to decibels Mass tests have indicated that almost everybody suffers marked hearing losses at continuous exposure to over decibels at frequencies above 4000 cycles per second Longer the exposure and greater the age of the individual the more hearing loss was experienced Noise is suspected like many other stress mechanisms to affect the nervous endocrine and reproductive systems Normal street noise is set at about to 50 decibels so it follows that residents of Acton really dont have much to worry about insofar as noise pollution is concerned But according to evidence by Mr Marlow there was a reading of decibels at the home of David Craig Fourth Line on October 25 while cars were racing at the Golden Horseshoe Dragway a figure which should be a matter of concern not only to those residents who are irritated by the noise but also to authorities interested In doing something about noise abatement Mr Craigs home is approximately one mile away from the dragway There was a reading of decibels at a point a mile and a half away Continuous noise according to Mr is easier to adjust to than the sporadic type with its wide variations of frequency and intensity Buttressed which included a recording it is much easier to understand the concern of residents who live within earshot of the They have a legitimate and pressing need for some solution to the irritation they experience during the racing season It is also apparent that all who live in urban centres will go deaf without some form of noise pollution abatement since noise is swelling out at about 10 per cent a year It has been estimated over per cent of Canadian men and a large number of young people have some level of defective hearing attributable to noise Voluntary restraints apparently have no effect so the only recourse is for legal controls to ensure peoples rights to a minimum amount of noise are not transgressed years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press Thursday February 15 Announcing the official opening of Hassard Radio on the Main and Mill comer We have added a jewellery department to our store Grand opening of clothing store now located at 11 Mill St next to Carrolls Sudden fluctuations in the water pressure in the pipes servicing all Acton homes may be experienced for several weeks while the 60000 gallon overhead water tank on Main St is being repaired The tank which acts as a buffer will be completely drained and a completely new bottom will be rivctted on This will be the first major repair for the tank which has been in operation for years The work will cost about Damages amounting to were awarded to Mrs Rod Ryder and her three children in Milton court on Tuesday Mr Ryder was killed in an accident The Girls and Boys band enjoyed a delightful banquet arranged and served by the Legion Ladies Auxiliary Charles Mason was master of ceremonies and tendered his resignation as bandmaster We were ripe for plucking after this and the camp chief showed us by slide and figures how the camp operates Some of the newspapermen figured they might stow away and join the bush crews when it was mentioned that a good cutter could earn per day However they managed to tuck us all back in the bus and ship us out like contented Dont let anyone spin you tales about roughing it in the bush Employees of these camps have comfortable quarters and enjoy most of the amenities of modem day living Half of the loggers commute from homes In the Kap It was a trip Ill never forget and straightened out a few misconceptions I had about bush camps THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office Many paid tribute to his work Officers elected were Hon pres G A Dills Tyler St A Mason J Chalmers president Charlie Klngsmill vicepresident Shirley Ralston treasurer Tom Ware secretary Ted Tyler citizens committee Ray Rudolph Spielvogel J Price have been reported running In packs on farms between Acton and Rock- wood An organized wolf hunt may be held in the Crewsons Corners area soon At the first meeting of the Daughters of Knox Mrs Buchanan took mission study assisted by Diane Elizabeth Evelyn Barbara Anderson and Dorothy Dawkins 50 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press Thursday February The application of George Hall was accepted as janitor of the school at a salary of per annum Mr Will and Master Cameron were in the old home for a weekend visit OnSunday evening Miss Harriet Sykes of Georgetown became the bride of Joseph J Gibbons son of Mr and Mrs John Gibbons Rose Cottage Acton They will reside In Georgetown Mr Fred Cleave who Is leaving the A Murray farm at Crewsons Comers will Cleave has purchased from councillor Stephen Corduier his cement block residence on Mill St Mr and Mrs Cleave will be cordially welcomed to Acton In the spring Some months ago Mr Charles Oldham of Nassaganeya received a boy named Brady from the Gordon Home in Milton and gave him a good home The lad is About fifteen On Tuesday the trusted boy went wrong and went to William Evans the butcher saying he was collecting money for a pig owed to Mr Oldham The lad took French Leave with the 1750 and nothing has been heard of him since There were numerous Valentine parties The sleighs are running again now Quite a few logs were teamed in on sleighs this week Little Grade was painfully burned this week but the bum is healing nicely now She upset a pall containing boiling water 75 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press Half a dozen years ago such a thing as an Ice storm with any serious damage was unknown In this section The past three years however ice storms have been an annual occurrence with more or less disastrous results The storm which commenced last Wednesday night continued until Friday Rain and sleet coated everything to phenomenal thickness Many fruit and shade trees were denuded of limbs while extensive havoc was wrought upon the wires They were broken down In all directions especially the new lines of copper telephone wires Both telegraph and telephone systems were demoralized Hardly a subscriber in Acton exchange is in connection with the central office Mr Will Green who has been out In the Muskoka lumber woods is home at again He says work Is quite scarce out there Georgetown fire brigade had but one call last year A couple of our young men boarded a freight train and went as far as Stratford One of them failed to make connections on the return trip and walked from Stratford home Among the prisoners In the county jail now are a man and woman from Burlington Since their incarceration the man has proposed by letter to the woman and she has agreed to marry him He says she is all his fancy could have painted her only that she Is a cigarette fiend and he hopes that he will be able to wean her away from the tobacco habit Sisters of Charity were in town last week soliciting on behalf of St Josephs hospital Guelph hockey players desecrate the Sabbath with their games Off the cuff Still wishing for an oldfashioned winter A recent survey on the victims of current fatal snowmobile accidents by the Ontario Provincial Police reveals that not one of them had a mark against his motor vehicle driving record Yet all of these unfortunate people were operating their machines illegally in one way or another most certainly dangerously and most of them while their ability was Impaired by alcohol The best way to acquire self- confidence is to do exactly what youre afraid to do