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GeorgotownActon Aug 3 Founded in every Wednesday by MnaOn printing Ltd at Street Acton L7J Telephone Subscription copa ucri 17 00 per rearm Caned in country other man Canada Second Number Ken Bellamy Don Ryder Hartley Coles Director of Advertising Managing Editor The Acton Free Press a one of the Metro and Ltd group of The Whitby Pickering New Aurora Banner The Enterprise Brampton Guardian The Post The Burlington Weekend Poet The Etobcote The Georgetown Independent The Marirom ThomhB Economst and Sun The Mil on Champion The Masoiauga New The Newmarket Era The North York Mirror Beaver Beaver Tho Woo Oiluwa I The Richmond Thornhiil Liberal The Scarborough The StoutfvitlB EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor Gord Murray News Editor Murray Sports Darkroom Nancy ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Rata Advertising Manager Cook Sales Davy Susan Sandra Wbon AdvwrtiaJnfl Carotin MacDougal BUSINESSACCOUNTING OFFICE Office Manage- Jean Cfculation Dan McGiBoivay Local business first Oops the Town has done it again purchased equip ment without giving local suppliers an opportunity to bid on it This time it is the recreation departments purchase of six for Fairy Lake in Acton They were bought from the manufacturer in Peter borough Two firms in Halton Hills one in Acton and the other inNorval sell the same pro duct and hold franchises in this area Needless to say they are incensed that they were not given the tunity to bid on supplying the especially in view of the buy in town policy enunciated on two other occasions when equip- was purchased without giving Halton Hills suppliers an opportunity to bid As a result of the trans action Halton Hills council is examining the recreation department purchasing policies and procedures But like the other two in stances where equipment was purchased out of town it is doing nothing for the local businesses involved It too late to lock the bam door after the horse has bolted But what this does point out is that any department of the Town should not presume equipment is not available from local businesses They should tender locally on alt things before they check prices out of town Local merchants who pay the taxes should have preference over out side competitors unless their prices are unreasonable In this case the recreation department saved 70 per paddle boat by buying directly from the We commend them for their attempt to save the Town dollars but local mer chants should have the first opportunity to bid on them Must be quite fit to ride a motocross bike Dear Sir I must lake issue with the lengthy the adverse affects of motocross that appeared in last week edition Like Mr Bray I will stale at the outset my bias and qualifications I presently an executive member of both the Off toad Riders and the Ontario Region or the Canadian Motorcycle I have been actively involved in the various forms of motorcycle sport and competition for over 15 years both as pant and organ lier I will attempt to answer Mr Bray objections In the order in which he raised them Item Motocrossdoesnol Involve fitness and is socially expensive in terms of injury Mr Dray obviously knows not whereof he speaks It is a well recognized fact that motocross riders rank second only to world class soccer players in the amount of energy they expend in the pur suit of their sport This conclusion is the result of exhaustive testing by a prestigious Swedish Institute Mr Bray should check the social Costs of various other forms of optional activities and the Injury rates of other forms of sport in eluding skiing and Jogging before he condemns motocross or other forms of motor assisted sport Personally 1 prefer to worry about the possibility of Injury for perhaps 3 hours each week rather than all week long Because my son is a motorcycle racer I know he is not out drinking driving or smoking dope because he literally cannot afford these vices and because he spends every spare hour he has working on his equipment or his body to keep fit for his sport It would be fair to say that this scenario holds or the vast majority of riders Having I hope disposed of Mr Bray s Innuendo concerning the social and physical irresponsibility of motorcyclists I will deal with his major concern Item Environmental damage on the property In question I have no dispute with the description of the property nor as a layperson can 1 refute certain of the claims made with regard to biochemical damage However I do wish to raise certain points Unfortunately for Mr Bray a whole argument the property in question Is privately owned and can only by accident be considered a wildlife habitat A few years ago the property would more com have been considered wasteland as it la clearly un productive for agricultural purp oses contains no commercial stand of wood or other resources As a society we nave not yet completely abrogated the right of the private landowner to do with bis property at he sees fit nor have we totally denied him the right to benefit Iron that property Any economic exploitation of lata property will affect probably ad theecosystem and wildlife habitat As a society we cannot deny the owner to use his property without compensating him If this habitat is as important as Mr Bray suggests our only recourse is to collect enough and or financial clout to chase it as a public trust A few further points Mr Bray assumes that anywhere else will do as a site for racing I have ridden in abandoned quarries that were splendid wildlife habitats for snakes But perhaps Mr Bray does not consider snakes worthy of preservation Mr Bray whole argument smacks unpleasantly of that ism which has so damaged the legitimate concerns of the vation movement We live in pluralist society which encourages a wide variety of lifestyles Not everyone can be forced Into the mold of Mr Bray s socially ceptable activities A Tact he should be thankful for if he would pause to consider the resultant congestion I will deny myself the luxury of attacking the adverse environmental impacts of hiking and other quiet outdoor activities and confine myself to the biblical injunction let he who is without sin As a layperson can only question the validity of Mr Bray argument about the local con centrations of chemical pollutants emitted for perhaps five hours six times per year In relation to the continual rain chemical pollutants that contaminates the entire atmosphere of North America Like Mr Bray It bothers me but unless Mr Bray is willing lo forego all the amenities of century life he should consider how best to use our knowledge and expand our echo oology to produce less harmful substitutes One final consideration Apparently some concern has been expressed about the impact of undesirables on surrounding property values and personal sarety If local inhabitants are expecting to be invaded by beer swilling black Jacketed outlaws they will be sadly disappointed A casual examination Of participants and spectators will reveal a thoroughly solid prosperous middle class lot boring dull and earnest and generally in quite legal family groups Sorry very litUe scope for scandalous behaviour in this PJUMr Bray does believe thai you have to be fit to race- a bike Im sure that any of the young men pictured in the Free Press article will be happy to lend Bray a bike and spend five minutes with him on the course quite confident that five minutes will suffice for Bray whereas these young people race for to minutes at a stretch tune during their c HEWS ITEAA STILL HAS WDR5T ONTARIO Letters Give Mansell Nelles a bouquet Dear Sir With regard lo the recent letter from Mr Bray concerning the occasional races scheduled to take place on the property locally known as The The Halton Off Riders Association wishes to make certain points For many years Mr owner of the property in question has been performing what is virtually a public service by permitting his property to be used by a wide variety of people for a wide variety of recreational purposes He has In consequence suffered considerable damage and aggravation from people who have abused his tolerance Some years ago our club received permission from this gentleman to use the trails on his property for motorcycle riding and we undertook as a group to behave responsibly We have over the Intervening years cleaned up garbage dumped there by sub human litter bugs and attempted ameliorate some of the worst abuses by blocking access to lain areas and types of vehicles at Mr request Now that Mr has an opportunity of recouping some of his losses by providing an organized regulated and con trolled iiding facility for a very popular sport his right to do so Is under attack It Is ironic that the public could callously abuse his hospitality for and now complain about this development In point of fact Mr is still providing a public service by making available a facility for a legitimate and valuable sporting activity that is particularly live to the youthful mole lion a group notoriously hard to channel into socially acceptable behavior For many years the club has had a standing offer open to the municipality to assist them in the control of the minibike and trail bike menace by operating a con trolled riding facility All we needed was access to suitable property This offer has been ignored We believe that Mr should be given a bouquet and brickbats extended to all the people who find it so easy to deny to others the privileges they don happen to wont I hem selves Yours truly John Blersteker Secreotry Off Road Riders Neighbor supports new track Dear Sir We agree with Mr that the opponents to the motocross track have been very unfair in their apposition to this new sport in our community these people In arguing against this project Those arguing on ecological grounds neglect to men the system that is pre not only being disturbed but entirely destroyed in the land fill operation at the edge of town on Highway 7 Those who attempted support for their cause by way of a petition which we never even saw although we live in the area seemed lo use different arguments lo different people If traffic and danger of fire was their concern the petition should have been directed only lo those people living on the Sixth Line between Highway 7 and the and should have in eluded the Boy Scout Camp and picnic grounds also on that stretch of road which also attract large numbers of from time to time We often hear about how all businessmen are greedy selfish sorts who are only too happy to rip off society Here we have a small group of businessmen who arc giving their own time their own money and heir own land to create a safe environment for this increasingly popular sport Just because we personally don t enjoy this activity is no reason to take away the right of others to do so Al and Joyce Munkscsi R 1 Acton P S We have consistently refused to allow our son to have an offroad bike on the arguments of safety and trespassing on private property With the formation of this we have given him our wholehearted support he will learn how to operate and maintain his machine safely and will limit his riding to the rack We acknowledge that he may suffer an injury that possibility Is present In all sports We know a lovely young lady who was recently Injured on the soccer field and had to undergo major surgery she will never be able to take part in competitive sport again Should we then ban all organized sports because of in creased hospitalisation costs Our own children have never paled in other organized sports but we have certainly never begrudged our tax dollars going lo support these activities Track threatens living environment Dear Sir There has been a lot of publicity regarding the latest threat to planet the Cruise missile perhaps we should define what it is we wish to preserve Do we really wish to preserve dirt tracks for motor bikes Or do we wish for something more valuable Thanks to Mr Bray timely let the citizens of Acton have been alerted to something that threatens the living environment of everyone in this community Here in Acton we are surrounded by an abundant natural haven of nil that Is best in life in general and in Canada in particular the lime to act to preserve this rich heritage is now it should start with the banning of motorized vehicles on areas of unique wildlife value such as described by Mr Bray Commercial dollars have only one ambition and preservation of natural heritage Is seldom a consideration Ontario hydro costs among lowest Back issues Dear Sir In your editorial Why hydro bills high July Ontario Hydro comes under fire for misreading in the 70s the provinces energy needs in the 80s I d like to add a few points Its true that Hydro failed to forecast 1983 power demands accurately in And it true that we now have a surplus of power and heavy water which may lead to the closing of a heavy water plant But as your editorial notes virtually every other utility in North America is in the same boat Nova Scotia now has a surplus of per cent Michigan a surplus capacity amounts to about 13 per cent and rising And New York utilities nave bout per cent Ontario Hydro is now working very successfully to bring our 10 years ago August I Malt McDonough his wife and their three children found them selves homeless when fire gutted their home on McDonald Blvd The fire started in the area of the kit firefighters believe No one was in the house when the fire started Tom Watson Is the first to annouce lhat he will run for one of two North seats on the Board of Education Nancy Snow and Carol Mosaics both graduated from Credit Valley School of Nursing this week Both arc graduates of Acton High School Susan Clarke daughter of Mrs Clarke of Elizabeth Drive is working for Project Jonah a society dedicated to saving whales Sharon Campbell Diane Baglnski and Cindy cool this summer by attending Lakeshore Figure Skating School All three passed tests this August 20 years ago August 1 IS63 Harold Morris Is the new owner of Cooper s Drug Store The Morris family arc moving here from Hamilton to lake over the business Earl Cooper builder of the store died four years ago Five participants in Acton Recreation Department swim school Junior class recently took Red Cross swimming exams In Georgetown They were Gay White Sharon White Gary Zbeetnoff Mike Marco and Nell Anderson Swim instructor Is Pat Rev Donald West of St Alton s Anglican Church and Mrs George Margrave arc an staff this week at Camp Canterbury Hills near An caster Rev West is Camp Chaplain Mrs Hargrave Is camp nurse With her are her two children Sandra and Peter 50 years ago July Mr Farmer has purchased the building lot on Mill St between Hardware south west comer of Mill and Willow and Wiles confectionery and will erect a modern office building It will be of stone and stucco construe I ion Mr Herbert the new principal of the Continuation School was in town He says all Lower and Middle school subjects will be taught and four Upper school subjects Trigonometry Geometry Modern History and Latin Both Mr Herbert and Miss Mortimer are fully qualified to teach Ihe Upper School subjects One of the best ball games of the year saw Milton eke out a win from our local boys Players were Walters Hollo way Morton Terry Tyler Chalmers Anderson On Sunday the dumping ground at Ihe west side of the park In some manner got on fire It was finally decided by Chief McPherson and Fire Chief McDonald to set fire Ihe whole dump 75 years ago July 1MB Mr and Rev J C Wilson were elected to fill the vacancies on the Board of Educa churches visited Acton League the visitors numbering about 30 Taking pari in the program were Basil Johnston Misses Wansborough Dennis Cleave and Johnston and Messrs Day and Near with speeches by Revs D and G Barker and president A Brown Acton contingent of arrived home from the centenary celebration in Quebec They described the great review of Ihe troops by the Prince of Wales as a magnificent demonstration price stability not shared by oil or QQQ Between 1975 and 1902 Hydro cancelled more than million kilowatts of generation planned or underwaythe equivalent of three Darlington generating stations As a result our level of construction activity will be cut half by 1990 and our design and construction staff will be reduced by per cent Again you re tight to say the costs of decisions made years ago must be paid But it also true that the benefits of decisions made decades agota particular the decision to go ahead with a nuclear generating program as supported by the Ontario government art still with us Hydros nuclear stations have been instrumental hi electricity costs among the lowest in North America while ensuring a Sincerely Milan Chairman Invitation Dear Sirs From July to August i 1963 the Town of Nanton Alberta will be celebrating Its birthday With great anticipation we would like to extend a cordial Invitation to all one Urn residents family or f rteoos of the area to attend our homecoming Yours Augusts law What Acton needs a gold mine to supply our authorities with funds to construct waterworks suitable for fire protection a new cemetery replacing some of our sidewalks with cedar block pavements a first class roller flour mill Then we would have one of the finest towns In Ontario The Milton Beavers failed to put In on appearance Thursday to play the return base ball match with Acton Stars The Stars were considerably disappointed and do not relish that kind of treatment especially as had ordered supper The overhead bridge crossing the GTJt tracks at Georgetown Alberta Messrs Cameron and Masslas are all performing Uw