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Rotary exchange student settles into new life Jodie Jodie t know what she wants to do when she graduates from high school but she is sure this next year will play an important part in her decision Jodie from a suburb of Melbourne Victoria Australia is Actons thud Rotary ex change student in as many years the second from Australia Arriving a few weeks ago on her 17th birthday Jodie was plunged headlong into a Canadian winter complete with subzero temperatures and more snow than she s ever seen But it doesn t bother her She a skier and is looking forward to the challenge of Canadian slopes She s already been cross country skiing Jodie s first few weeks at school were quite a change from life in Last November she was a Heading a private allgirls school where uniforms were mandatory The system was a lot stricter at home Jodie says and the overall at of the school Is different There are also egular schools in Australia she says The first day of school in Acton was scary Jodie recalls It was difficult to find her way around the first few days but she got used to it In her short time in Acton Jodie says Canada is much like Australia except for a few very notice able points The school and the bitter cold are dif than at home but she also learned of the high unemployment here much more than down under In Australia teenagers must be IB to get their driver license as a result they are much more dependent on their parents or older friends While on her year long stay in Canada Jodie is not allowed to dm en car anyway Her trip to Canada did not come overnight She explains that she first heard about the exchange three years ago But she knew she wanted to go some place in the world and ailed her turn When she was 10yearsold Jodie spent nine ths touring Europe in a van with her family She doesn l remember too much about the trip but it was enough to introduce her to the world of el Admittedly Canada is not her first choice of tries Denmark was her first choice and Canada Finland was Jodie had hopedlogotoFrenchCanada in order to learn a language but learned Quebec does not accept exchange students When she returns to Jodie will be enter grade 12 She thinks she would like to become in Oil medical aspect of sports but is not de finite as to her future She thinks her year Canada may change any plans she has however Jodie first host family is John and Anna While only been gone from home a feu weeks Jodie has already receded several tele phone calls from anxious parents Having a father who works for the Australian telephone company helps the phone bill quite a bit The trip from Australia was long one for Jodie She had to fly from Melbourne to Sidney where she met 1G0 other exchange students on their way to North America On January she left Sidney for San Francisco arriving on January one hour before she left she crossed the international dale line small stop our in Honolulu them a chance lostrctch the let night in San Francisco preceded flight to Chicago where lb students went or separate a A several hour delay in Chicago kept many families a rport wnituij until am She jdmils her first she like log after two day of tnvellirj but the few were hard ones hiving to used to the time change anlimw bed Over e next year e hopes to set western She also hopes to see i led Stilts J- or Jodie her is just beginning She has plans for the next and i hoping to make them ma 1 trial One hundred and seventh year Issue ACTON ONTARIO WEDNESDAY 1382 16 Pages Thirty Cents Recession winter about 80 The recession and seasonal downturns in certain sectors of the economy have resulted in about BO workers being laid off and nearly more being on shortened work weeks in the past couple of months at Acton and area industries This newspaper contacted local Industrial firms surveying their labor situation last week While there Is some bleak news the local work sit as bad as might be expected and in fact a few firms have hired in the past few months The leather industry by far the areas largest em has been At Beard more ICO workers arc on four day work weeks and about 15 were laid off but four have re cently been called back Of those four workers some are on four day weeks and the rest on five days Heller i laid off workers just over a week ago In all areas of their operation Superior Glove has had between workers on four day work weeks since December according to Frank Geng In addition in the past month about IS workers have either quit or been laid off He noted things are tight In the auto industry a ma customer of Superior s work gloves and although orders have been coming in more briskly the last two weeks Geng still isn convinced the economy is starting to turn around He said he 11 be waiting another week or two before deciding if the shorter work weeks should affect more of the person work force or if more layoffs are necessary The poor economy and weak auto sales have also resulted In three people being laid off at Blow Press After busy summer season Building Products cut back production in the winter and in November laid off about workers Beginning last month the firm started calling workers back as business began to pick up again Usually the plant has about workers and there arc now Most of the laid off employees are back now and the rest will return when the plant is up to full capacity It isn known how soon all the workers will be recalled It a different story at Ma no Glove where they haven had any layoffs With IS employees Man Glove actually expanded in 1981 and four new Jobs were created last year Canada Battery Is another firm which hasn t been hit by the recession George Tichboume said they have been growing eight new workers have been hired In the past six months and there are about employees in the plant now There haven t been any layoffs at Toronto Wood Treating but until just recently they haven been hiring either This firm has 15 employees and has just hired two more as they gear up for the spring boost in sales Workers haven been on overtime since the summer but from now until May will be working a little overtime As Is normal for this season Acton Precast Con has some layoffs During peak limes the firm has five employees in the shop It down to two now There won t beany hiring until March There haven t been any layoffs at Acton Steel but it is a small family business Last year the firm did hire some temporary help for a while Holly Industries is always on a four day week but Us hours There Box and Pallet has been fairly busy lalely and so has called back two of the four workers laid off about a month ago Those two workers were only off a week or two Hornby Box employs between and workers depending on how busy the firm Is Leathertown Plastics a young local firm has on ly four workers including the owners and one part time employee They had no layofis and In fact expect to hire two workers later this year Indium la always has layoffs this time of year Thereare40workcrsonthcjobnow in the summer there usually GO About 10 workers who were laid off were called back recently and seven arc still off Keites Organ layoffs in fact that busy firm has taken on a couple of new workers In the last little while There are about people work La vole Knitting was busier before Christmas then slowed down but business is back to normal now With about 11 workers doesn antici pate there will be any cutback coming for at least another couple of months if at all Commercial Shea ring has had no layoffs and none are anticipated for the 20 workers there There have been no layoffs at A P Green and none are anticipated for the employees Plastics Eighty a small firm which recently to Wallace St from Commerce Cres has five full time and nine part time workers on a season able basis There have been no layoffs and no cut back of hours Davles Truck has five employees right now and two were laid off in December The recession has been felt at Ajax Engineers which recently laid off nine workers after going to a fourday work week earlier Struck by disease Pat now wants to help others hie has changed drastically Gone are the days when he took long walks for granted and when he was free to do as he pleased Former school principal and town councillor he has been struck with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis I a disease that affects the nerve cells that con trol muscles in the brain and spinal cord The result weakened muscles of Increasing seventy muscle wasting and an abnormal amount of tenseness in he muscles The disease was diagnosed last year after he went to the doctor complaining about always walking as if I was drunk McKenxie said It has been an uphill battle ever since The rare disease has been known for over years but still there is no known cause or cure It strikes those between the ages of and TO twice as many men as women Doctors claim there is no relationship between lateral and pie sclerosis a more common muscular illness is also known as Lou Gehrig disease a Hall of Faroe baseball player who was afflicted Also a former for the Montreal Dave was tut with the disease says it seems to affect the more active people such as athletes etc Because be Continued on page Scottish dancers from a club Including Bob and Norma Met of lerlun Story Acton entertained at Saturday third annual Burns Supper at Knox Presby Citizens can expect more cuts in winter maintenance service Residents hive noticed reductions in the level service For winter maintenance snow plowing removal sanding and salting and can expect more reductions in the future as costs escalate Hal ton Hills engineer Robert Austin says Attending Fridays councillors dropin Austin answered questions from two residents as well as councillor Terry Dave Whiting and Ross Knechtcl Anita Ockendcn who has written two tellers lo this newspaper in recent weeks regarding snow plowing said it was nice to see downtown streets somewhat countered she knew of at least one family downtown which happy with snow removal operations annoyed by the town equipment cleaning snow away from curbs called her every hour on the half hour from 1 to a complaining Austin said only one week this winter has snow not been removed downtown and then is was delayed because the weather forecast called for another big storm Snow removal was delayed to save money Winter maintenance costs have been climbing at a rate of 11 to 13 per cent each of the past six years for labor and fuel etc but provincial subsidies have only gone up about five per cent annually Council matches the provincial subsidy so Austin has been forced to cut There have been cuts in levels of service in other areas of works operations but they been noticed by residents The engineer warned residents will notice more cut backs in the future loo Mrs the town has never look this bad in winter before and taxes just keep climbing up so why is service being cut Out of each a person pays in taxes only cents goes to works Austin explained and he must stretch that cents out to cover many things besides winter maintenance including road work grass cutting garbage collection etc He explained the town has plow routes and sets of equipment and if the storm is of equal intensity all over Hills then within minutes of trucks leaving the Trafalgar ltd works yard plow has begun in Ac Ion Standards such as bow much snow must fall before plowing begins arc contained in a thick manual from the provincial Ministry of Trans porta Lion and Communications Criteria includes the type of snow temperature Two inches of fallen snow is the standard for arterial road plow three Inches for residential streets Austin noted adding if there is only a little snow fallen and the temperature is ruing then roads are salted Last year Hills spent on winter maintenance for miles of road almost SI a mile Winters when the town on plowing the money can t be spent the next year because works crews are performing other chores and still must be paid and if the town plowing there is usually a lot of sanding and sailing taking place For In stance last winter there t a lot of snow plow ing so the money had to be on rural road grading and culvert thawing Last year the town for gravel road grading and spent noted students are walking school on the roads and countered even where sidewalks are cleared kids are still walking on the roads Down town sidewalks which ire interlocking stones but concrete walks can t be salted by the town the ill destroys the walk For seven Austin Hilton Hills has been talking atom hiving bylaw requiring residents to shovel the sidewalks Free Press places third in provincial competition The Acton free Press has placed third for general excellence in the Ontario Community Newspaper Association annual Better Newspapers Competition Judges picked the Free Press third behind the Chronicle and Bradford Witness in the field of entries in circulation class three to 5000 Class three was the biggest of six classes of On community newspapers judged for front page composition and layout editorial page news and features sports local advert ng classified advertising and photography The mandatory entries were the and July issues and the dates until the ting in new iptrs I w aw irds Others in e eroup eking up prizes were the Georgetown Independent Brampton Guardian News and Burl ton Pint Publisher Don tor Cord Mur ray will be presented with the award early next month al the annual com in