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Towns share of taxes increase 1336 in Acton The town share of taxes is up 31 in George town 36 in Acton and in Esquesing on an average home But not the total tax hike an education boost of 23 on the same average home must be added plus the regional levy which has not yet been set The overage assessment used is 5 in George town in Acton and In Esquesing but individual homes with varying assessments will range up or down from thoee tax Increases The average total town tax will be 109 In Georgetown in Acton and in Hills council aimed or a maximum in crease of five per cent but instead came In at 8 in the towns and in Fsqueslng The town mill rates are 10 in Georgetown 16 in Esquesing The draft budget submitted by finance chairman Harry Levy came in at per cent increase and a total of 5 but after Juggling by council was increased to per cent increase and total budget to 5 The changes were precipitated by Councillor Mike Armstrongs argument that the Bard Lane Charles Street and Churchill Cres roadwork be In eluded since it will be subsidized per cent by the province The cost of the work is estimated at for the town share Mayor Pete said he would agree only if the money could be found from other cuts in the budget He said he was determined to keep the in crease to under per cent He suggested the re placement of an intermediate planner be cut thus saving He then suggested a 25 cut from the reserve fund for working capital Councillor Miller put forward a cut totalling or work on Voder Steel land used as a park He pointed out it is not town land Levy warned the original budget had been pared to the bone and warned of a large increase next year for necessities if the cuts were made and the road work added argued council has to take a positive at titude to development by encouraging housing and industry to offset the costs of some of the capital projects needed We can sit and wilt on the vine and hope to come in with a positive budget We can only it by some growth Tax score to date Acton house assessed at Town purposes up 36 Education up Total so far up Georgetown house assessed at Town purposes up 13 Education up Total so far up 31 And the bad news The Regional levy has yet to come Esquesing house assessed at 638 Town purposes up 51 Education up Total so far up 51 Levy pointed out the fault did not entirely lit ith council and reminded council of the sewage pro He stated the town is control of only per cent of the budget and the board of education and the region control the rest He warned these would also go up Council accepted the proposed cuts when Treasurer Ray King said there would be more revenue from the Bell Telephone than expected This brought the total amount of monej to Ms to offset the addition of the Churchill BirdCharles rood reconstruction Roads Roads to be reconstructed in Georgetown this year arc River Drive Mam Street South and the Bard Lane ChurchillCharlesarca n Acton the subdivision road and Ma Street are scheduled for reconstruction anil in the First Line will be resurfaced Water channelization at Lot Con will cost the town while Metcalfe erosion con trol will cost and Armstrong Avenue on control COO The total roads services budget is the highest up over last year I creation he next highest budget is recreation and parks at 1J0 up over last year A total of in cuts wis made in the recreation budget including a deputy recre dinctor a sprinkler system at Memorial and numerous proposed playground projects 000 project control ice and flooding at the paper dam has been cut from the budget as well as resource recovery and 000 for upgrading street lighting in Acton In the budget iniluci tire building plumbing animal control there has been a drop of 35 721 from last yeir down from to 000 is no for a raise in for mayor but is budgeted for legal fees In 1J The growth in assessment over the past year has been very v only t per cent the treasurer He pi out the to his the policy of as they go so Hie town lias very little debenture debt and resultant debt charges One Hundred and Year No 38 ACTON ONTARIO WEDNESDAY MARCH 21 I I ages Twenty Cents Five injured Ninth Line Quick thinking and action by an Erin town ship woman may have saved an accident victim from more serious in jury Randy Whitney 19 of Erin required 100 stitches to his face after the import cor lie was ing was In collision with a station wagon driven by R Acton Ontario Provin Police said The accident happened at about March 14 on Erin township Ninth Line about two miles south of the village Of the seven people in volved in the accident five had be taken to hospital According to an investigator Karen lies lop a registered nurse happened to be standing in her drive at the time of the accident and ren first aid to the vie dim I did what anybody would do in the same situation Mrs told this paper in a tele phone interview She said there are not many houses close by in that part of the township so everyone helps out when colled upon She called an am and received a first aid kit from a school bus operated by Denny Bus Line which happened to pass scene Modest Mrs said she think much of her actions at the time of the accident When you are there you do it at the time Also injured in the accident was Connie mer 17 of Erin who facial lacerations and bruising She was a passenger in the front seat with Whitney and they both were taken by ambulance to Continued on Page 3 Denny Andrews shakes hands with Governor General Edward after receiving the Star of Courage bravery decoration Mr Andrews Ransom Street received the award because he saved two cousins from drowning In freezing Newfoundland waters Inst year Mr Andrews was one of eight honored with the Star of Courage at Government House The Star of Courage is awarded for nets of conspicuous courage in circumstances of great peril The decoration consists of a silver four point star and maple leafs which la suspended from a ribbon of red with two blue stripes The Acton Free Press carried the full story of Mr bravery in Us January 3 edition Photo LAW Council wants town in one directory Acton and Georgetown should be in the same telephone directory That was the feeling of Hal ton Hills council Mon day evening when they passed a resolution to have Bell Canada further investigate ways of get ling the two communities In the same book In a letter to council C Barnes manager of the Oakvllle- Trafalgar office of Bell Canada pointed out a survey had been conducted in with per cent of the re sidence customers and per cent of the business customers wanting in the Halton book In our opinion the letter stated these re sults did not indicate a substantial majority the transfer Mr Barnes went on to say he had talked to the manager of the office who agreed with him that This is not a critical issue in Acton CouncUlor Miller wondered why the Acton listings could not also be included in the Brampton book He pointed out there are only a few pages Let s face it Acton is oriented to the west and will want to stay in the book Why not have them in both places George Maltby said ho had spoken to the manager in Guelph who explained It is not that simple a mat to put Georgetown in the Acton book or vice verse The Esquesing councillor said the pres ye tern of two books is creating a problem Tor him as half of his con are in the Georgetown pages and half in Acton Those in Georgetown cannot find his name and usually end up calling relatives of Mr Maltby Maltby pointed out he had difficulty in ob taining a Georgetown book when he put in a request for one He said Bell felt it was cheaper to hand out additional books than to spend thousands of dollars transferring the names Councillor Ross said he asked Bell for a Georgetown book and was sent one with Stratford listings Councillor Roy Booth pointed out if everyone in Georgetown asked for an Acton book and every one in Acton asked for a Georgetown book the thousands they are trying to save would be spent in supplying books He agreed with the listings being duplicated in both books Mayor Pete stated Like it or not we are one town and we should be in one book It is not fair to the business man who has to advertise in two books yellow pages to reach one mar Inside 3 3 7 136 Architect tells BIA Act quickly on downtown downtown has had cosmetic restoration but members of the ness Improvement Area will have lo do actual surgery now Lloyd Sankey told the annual meeting of the last Wednesday evening Sankey a Toronto architect who lives at Speysidc and has shown a special interest in Acton downtown told the they were fortunate to have another kick at the cat but they had belter get busy and do something about downtown development Aeton con still be saved from the problems George town and Milton hove encountered with strip pin Wis he told members Using drawings to illustrate his theme Sankey unravelled a plan for Acton downtown which suggested vitaliiatlon of the downtown core at both ends anchors behind the Dominion hotel and the IGA food store and or along the CN railway tracks and the former Force Electric plant where and Canadian Tire are located Redevelopment in the former would have pedestrian access to recreation areas in Prospect park and Fairy Lake he and make use of avail able parking space He personally thought it would be easier to start at the railway tracks He said the BIA Is at the turning point now A plaza In the east end has been stopped now a victory for the down town and the but Sankey felt they must move now before developer Jerry Spraekman appeals his case to the Ontario Municipal Board Planning Board turned down his proposal for a plaza In Acton east end by an vote and the developer vowed he would take the case to the OMB using the popular support he gathered for a plaza as ammunition Sankey said this could pull a lot of weight with the OMB Sankey suggested it would be wise to ha ve a plan of action ready and working before the case came before the OMB The plan should not create another study Sankey said and gather dust til there s another plaza score He said he was not against developers but felt they should be working within a frame work profitable to both themselves and the public In his opinion strip developments such as the plaza proposed for the east end destroyed the downtown core He said issues at the public meeting over the plaza showed people wanted a food variety and better parking facilities The developer could answer these needs outside the town We to answer them downtown ho said The BIA needs assistance from planners and people to achieve success with the downtown Public input Is critical he emphasized Re- vitallzation works best when the private sector shows the public section they are behind them he explained He said here are government pro grams available now for towns of less than 30 which make up to available for revitallzation of down town Although some people said it t be done he pointed to towns such as Colljngwood and Lindsay where it bad been done successfully His firm plotted a plan for Colling wood which saw a Lob laws store and Woolworths built downtown employing GO people The tax base happens whether they are downtown or in a plaza he noted and building downtown assists the existing fabric and avoids problems caused by strip plazas Mr told merchants the future of the downtown was in their hands Treat it well and it will serve us for many years he concluded The speaker was introduced by broadcaster Jack Carpenter and thanked by Larry Greaves J CD s Spring 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 24 26 27 29 30 31 Haton Police launch antivandalism project by George An experimental program designed to fight vandalism in Hills and Milton is to be launched by the police force Halton police chief Kenneth told the police commission Thursday tint we are experiencing a considerable amount of vandalism in North The vandalism is most serious around the schools and in various small areas in the two towns Chief Skerrett said In there were reported cases of damage in the Vandalism of course is a problem in ihc rest of the region but tackling the problem on an experimental basis would appear to have the better chance of succeeding if we irate our efforts in these areas of small communities he said The police commission gave its for the project plus two others to be operated in conjunction with the Ministry of the Soliei lor General of Canada The other projects ore water safety and Operation Identification in and Operation Provident in Burling ton John a social worker with the police is the project supervisor for all three programs He said in an interview that there Is still a fair bit of work lo do in designing the specifies of the program which is to begin The program is funded by the Solicitor General office which will pay the salaries of a project leader and six students while the police arc to provide office space telephones transportation and the necessary literature for the project Two of the students will work in George town twoinAclonand Rabeau said the program called bourhood has to be developed with the school board the owns recreation deport independent insurance agents and Itnbcau that a program developed last year by the police Operation Identific is being used by the federal solicitor general office is a model across and hope that the Neighbourhood Watch program would hive the same kind of success According to an outline of the project pre senled to the police commission there are three mam goals and objectives increase the awareness of the com munity on the whole as the t of vandal ism and their responsibility lo assist in its control To foeus on specific high risk areas by alerting the neighborhood residents Identify groups of young persons who are potential vandals in with other groups attempt to divert them to more appro priate behaviour Neighbourhood Witch will attack van dalism on five fronts The higher grades of school will be blitzed with a presentation of vandalism an eye to prevention residents in high risk areas will be with information pack and encouraged to participate by being eyes for the community small with the police number lo be attached to a tele phone will be provided to encourage duals to report vandalism or suspicious persons The program will also groups of young people to assist them in finding appro priate places to hang out and use local newspapers and community groups to give the message of the need for community in volvemcnt A large framed photograph or former Mayor Tom Hill the tint mayor of Halloa Hills Hill hang in the municipal building It was unveiled Monday night at a gathering to honor the former mayor Mayor Pete also Hill with a smaller framed color portrait The reception turned Into a roast with mayor and councillors Jibes at the former mayor and each other Hill scotched any rumors he would be returning to the political scene saying It took too much out of me but now my health Ik coming back and I going to keep It that way He said he was proud of being part of both the town hip of and Hilts