teheHERA Home Newspaper of Hills Paget It IK A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Main St South Georgetown Ontario Publisher Editor Second Clan Mill Reglttircd Number Transit for handicapped is a good idea Glen Taxi cob owner Dennis proposal for the of a special van service for the handicapped is one worthy of consideration by council Mr has said he will operate a van to transport physic ally handicapped residents in town from am until 2 weekdays provided he has backing from council to qualify for provincial grants The province is currently offer ing a subsidy of per cent to cover capital and operating costs of such a service providing the municipal ity can find the other 50 per cent necessary Details for raising the additio nal 50 per cent have yet to be clarified but representatives of the local Helping Hands organization and Mr Devine are confident that they can be worked out Handicapped people using the service will be required to pay a minimal fee for the service that will go a little way towards cover ing the costs Supporters of the plan also hope that local service clubs will come in behind the project and provide some much needed fund One detail that must be clanfi before Mr Devine can begin the service is amending the town s taxi fee by law to permit Glen to charge the 50 cent rate set by the provincial government for a one way trip Currently the town will only permit a per cent discount of taxi services for handicapped residents Since a handicapped body does not mean a handicapped mind it is important for services like the one proposed by Mr Devine Social contact and a feeling of some degree of self sufficiency help make everyone s life pleasanter including the handicapped A service like the transportat ion proposal will help George town s and perhaps later Acton s handicapped residents have more active and satisfying lives We hope that council will give Mr Devine s proposal a serious hearing when he presents it in the near future Perhaps they could give him a few pointers and steer him in the direction of people and groups that will help make his proposal a reality Police commission learns from mistakes We re glad to see that at least the Halton Police Commission are capable of learning from their mistakes Last week the police commiss ion announced plans to replace the controversial patrol van that was at the centre of the recent sweat box trial At the trial two Halton police officers were accused of trying to bake prisoners in their care who were being transported from the region to a Toronto Jail in a police van The officers were acquitted but not without a slap on the wrists from the judge who also took a few swipes at the van used by the local police The judge maintained that the van was simp ly not suitable for the transfer of He criticised the vehic s heating and syst ems among other things Last week commission mem voted to take the judges advice and abandon the van In fact they have commissio ned Professor Alexander Allan a witness at the sweatbox trial to prepare a report recommending the best possible type of van for the police force It is a good idea and is an encouraging sign that perhaps the commission can learn from their mistakes The choice of Professor Allan was also well made since it was primarily his testimony that lead to the trial judge ion of the force prisoner transport van Let s hope that by following Professor Allan recommendat ion the Halton police force will never again by shamed by the spectre of prisoners collapsing overheated vans Regional tax hike hits hard The selling of regional to the people of Acton took another beating last week with the announcement of the new budget as the towns residents got socked with a whopping per cent tax increase While Georgetown residents MICHAEL Ed lor LARRY MARTIN Phone Ill regional tax bill will be going up approximately Acton residents will be hit with a increase on their tax bill It all sounds pretty unfair considering the fact that regional government was supposed to help erase huge tax discrepancies bet ween communities in a region It is unfair and that why a few months ago regional council voted for a region wide equalized assessment Under the new system a major project like Acton sewage plant expansion will be paid for equally by taxpayers across Halton And that of regional govern is all about the industrial zed areas with larger tax bases helping the smaller communities The equalized assess ment has helped give Acton an unnaturally low water rate this year Unfortunately for Acton the equalized assessment did not come into effect in time to avoid this years hefty tax hike The planning and work on Acton s sewage system overhaul began well before the equalized assess came into effect So while Actons huge regional tax hike must be a hard pill for the community s residents to swallow it won happen again at least if taxes do make a huge jump they will be going up equally throughout the region Libertarians Heritage Party swell Ontarios party ranks TORONTO Ontario fourth politic parly based on voles cast is a ginger of free think ng free enterprise radicals known as While Big Three old line parties ihe Progressive Conservatives Liberals New Democrats all polled around a million voles each in 1977 Ihe 1 ibcrianans votes Of course only contested ridings compared to the 125 scats the Big Three wen after Still the Libertarians the Communal who ran in scats and won J j voles And in one Toronto riding Toronto Don Mills the Libertarian candidate took 5 per cent of vote enough to make a Dig Three manager worry in a The Big Three ihe Libertarians the Communists and a separatist group called the Northern Ontario Heritage Parly are Onlario six official political PHr It requires petition signed by names lo a purly and if stand diti lakes 15 per cent of the in any one election he or she provincial funds to That s why jokingly cried recount in the legislature when Ihey heard the results of the recent Ste Marie Recounts are usually sought when winning pirty and the runner up are only a few votes Hut I iberals had run a dismal third in Ihe taking only 14 per cent of the vole That wasn enough to gel subsidy Maybe a rccouni would have helped HOW Thc organization that keeps labs on these political and financial goingson is Commission on Election Contributions and Expenses How good a job they ore doing Is a matter of some dispute been said are loo easy on who are late In filing their expense forms and harder on some political parlies wanting register others The white power Nationalist Party had their application rejected because of questions about the validity of some signatures As a result there are new rules lightening up the eligibility requirements St VEN MORE Seven other parlies have submit ted ihe r names to the commission but haven tried produce ihe signatures needed for registration They arc the Moral Political Party Ontario Republican Party Social Credit Progressive Environment Parly Unity Canada Detente Party and Women s Pirt Except for Social Credit it a moot question how many could even be as a political parly The last lime an represented any other the old line Big Three In the legislature was a Communist elected in Toronto in 1951 One veteran observer of those days says he was a highly useful gadfly in The current legislature could use someone tike thai a free enterprise Libertarian or a Northern Ontario list or even another Bolshevik The Herald welcomes letters to the editor Campaign reminds writer of previous election gaffs Herald If we can continue talking about those on the campaign traila subject thai was spired by Prime Minister to grumbling farm we I overtook tour SI John by Lester Pearson It as and dogs and Jasiph was travel lint ugh Ihe city the Nobel Prize winning I ibtral in an open con virliblt were Keep waving Mike was reply They II be watching from behind he And al one point Pearson was waving relent ess 1 in the direction of a grave yard Tilings like this happen on election campaigns Even best laid plans go In Social Credit organizers were confident they could fill an auditorium in Hamilton Onl for leader Robert Thompson And as everyone knows you jus don allow a leader lo speak a less house But only 100 people out and to make matters worse Thompson was quoted as saying These are the friends my facts It was a diffcrcnl problem that Pearson in that same campaign when organizers decided they should try and Fill Toronto Yorkdale shipping plaza for a d ij time rally An up while the turned down andthcimpal lent mob nearly swallowed up prime gel out of lrt Mike said Mrs and Iheiwomadea hurried escape from i rally probably dldn I Do you remember Red Kelly the ni lime hockey player who was an MP York West back in 1963 Will managed lo get Pearson into his riding Tor an afternoon and hundreds of kids lurned for the occasion all looking for Kelly autograph Don you want Mr Pearson asked an pleading Kelly Who docs he ploy for asked some kid Incidentally one of the most unique good luck Iclegrams I have ever seen came Robert Thompson in thai cam was from the Emperor palace in Ethiopia HEAVEN FALLS When things do go wrong on a campaign takes a master politician to turn them right John Diefenbaker was in full flight in North when the overhead plaster in the Legion Hall A huge chuck fell beside him Can i you two million voters you air transport was message Appreciate your offer Thompsi Then Ihcre was his nomination speech in Pr nee Albert in 1963 when he faced a forest of along with a wide sold CarryOn John a crucial moment In his speech newsman Tom Earle crept forward to adjust a microphone His fool became tangled In cables and the entire electronic machinery along the Carry On John sign came crashing down The Chief that an eye He glared at Ihe press table as only he could with his hands resting on his hips There they sit he judged The cheering allegiance of the audience Hecklers invariably bring out best in polished politicians and my favorite story comes from Crystal Lake Sask while Tommy Douglas was delivering one of his iwoold line party speeches A heckler declared that Douglas was Incapable of being a leader J could 1 1 w hi m he shouted If he did swallow me replied Douglas he would have far more brains in his stomach than he has in his head Haltons History From our files KippinKerr opens THtim AGO The past week had variety and eclipse of the moon first thunderstorm of the season hail storm some rain and snow and some lovely das One I overheard was Gosh Good Friday with a day like this whit good is it William I Dick dean of Crown Attorneys in Onto no announced his re tirement from office effective March alter serving county In this position for years Mr not retire from practice but will continue as senior Kenneth firm of and Dick A new with its headquarters in Limited The new company is engaged in boats as a primary product and a wide variety of other lines fabneat mg is new in Canada and the firm Is Ihe one in business at present A pioneer resident of Township John I von Leslie died in Hospital on Wednesdn from resulting from a fill in which he had suffered a broken hip He was the son of the hie Leslie and was born ago Lot 16 Concession ng He farmed there continuously until n Georgetown in 1918 Sharp tax rise George lown homeowners face a sharp rise in tax this The 1959 budget approved by council at Monday meeting calls for a mill rate for houses and a rate for industrial and commercial properties a mill rise over last year In dollars the owner of an average town house will pay about more in taxes Safecrackers entered the sup ply mill on Guelph Street some lime over the weekend and made off with The break in occurred some lime between Intc Saturday evening and Monday mom when manager Charlie Harris diseov it An OPp fingerprint and safe cracking expert called in for the gallon said the burglary was the work of professionals A Georgetown man will head the Ontario Hockey Association executive this Ken McMillan Emery St vice- president for two years has been elected president succeeding Lome Cook of Kingston He is ihe president since More than 1 children in George town schools have been shown graphically dangers of playing on railway proper Special agent J A Campbell of the Canadian National Railways together with constable Edward Scott traffic officer Georgetown Police department have just completed visits o all area Trains Trackaand Safely Pacts The film explains the operations of trains and illustrates the of playing on railway property and around railway equipment The familiar steam locomotive on the Canadian National Railways line through town are no more The CNR executive sounded the death knell of the fire breathing monsters last week with the final shift in a series of moves which gradually infiltrated dies els into the traf fie on this line including passenger trains A rash of six fires in five days had firemen Inhaling more smoke than fresh air last week However the brigades promptness In answering the calls held the damage in each case to nil Council fights back TEN YEARS AGO Halton senior provincial magistrate Kenneth M Lang don of Georgetown recently celebrated the anniversary of his appointment to the bench Judge has served all years In He was originally a county magistrate but last year became a provincial judge council has decided to fight back in an atiempt to do something about the huge increase in the cost of education this year At Monday township council meeting the clerk was authorized to wire Opposition leader Robert Nixon his stand on the subject Using various examples Clerk Lindsay showed staggering increase in taxes with one arm jumping 18 per cent For the first time Georgetown school students will go outside the town limits to attend school in own With the new County board of education set up and the eradication of individual school boards board has decided to shift the boundaries Acton fire fighters ONE AGO The Brampton Labor Council Monday deferred asking the Federation of Labor to seek government approval to employ same of Canada unemployed at paid jobs In federal election The suggestion which was aired last week by freelance broad coster Jack Carpenter of Acton would be to give jobs such as enumerators and deputy returning officers injur ance benefits and allow the government to send election fees to Manpower to reimburse the insurance fund A special citation from Prime Mlnist Pierre Trudeau was among the gifts and best wishes bestowed upon town Fire Chief Mick Holmes and Ac Ion District 1 firefighters when they were applauded as Acton citizens of the year for im this weekend An Inquest Investigating no death of on IByearold youth in a truck accident was told the youth ex pressed fear and dislike of the machine half an hour before he was pinned between a steel beam and the steering wheel Ibe truck