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the HERALD Liberals not setting priorities Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established 1844 A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario DON BRANDER Publisher and General Manager Advertising Manager Phone Paget SECTION A THE HERALD Wednesday April IKS Late decision A bill is a small price to pay for some assurance about our water quality Yet the Town of Hills made a Johnny Come Lately decision which contradicts the advice of its consultants The Town earlier in the year decided to sell some excess land to help defray the costs of building a new civic centre The intentions were noble enough But increasing pressure has been put on councillors to take a further look at building on the 15 lots on Princess Anne Drive Council found that the heat was getting too much and decided to placate a determined pressure group of residents Last week councillors voted almost unanimously to approve a hydrology study that will cost taxpayers That doesnt sound like very much Especially when con cerns have been expressed about the possible tion of the water table in the area But councillors have taken a back door approach to con cerns residents in the area have expressed for months Instead of suggesting that a hydrology study be in months ago when citizens complained about the new buildings council did nothing In fact those who phoned and wanted to have the lots va cant were told experts had studied the land and found that there was no need to worry At a public meeting a few weeks ago experts again were called in to reassure the public that no contamination of the water table would occur Council t act irresponsibly as dissenting councillor Joe Hewitt suggested last week The money spent is a small amount to pay for double checking the experts best recommendations But it is sad that council had to make a late decision and bend to public pressure after staff had gone on record say ing the site was safe Hands tied The consequences of not Kiting priorities are catching up to the Liberal government And It Is going to coat all in hi taxes The Grits been riding a wave of revenue generated by southern Ontario a economic boom have adopted a simple approach to most controversial matters Throw money at them This is a government that believes In being close to people so close It is willing to do everything for them Every cent above and beyond what the government expected to raise in tax revenues this fiscal year has been poured out to whichever in teres group was protesting the loudest at the time That wasnt even enough as the deficit had to be rais ed as well The Liberals have spent almost million more than they budgeted for This matches Grit overspending of more than SI billion in their prior two budgets But what the Liberals are finding Is that can buy peace All they do is stimulate the appetite out there for more money Look at some of the current and Queens Park It was a budget where town councillors had one hand tied behind their backs Called a tough financial year by Budget Chairman John McDonald the municipal budget left little room to manoeuvre But there were some significant additions and changes enabling homeowners a chance for a better quality of life Pushed through despite the austerity measures was a blue box recycling program This allows the town to con tribute to the Regions waste management fight With the soaring costs of landfill sites and environmental concerns recycling is undoubtedly the best method to combat gar Money has been put aside to work with the Credit Valley Conservation Authority to purchase the trailer park and turn the site into a park Although the residents of the trailer park will be displaced the lands will be a welcome addition to the towns recreational space needs The taxpayers contribution this year to the construction of a new civic centre Is That may not sound like much but it works out to about for every man woman and child in Halton Hills However the long term benefits of a modern consolidated base for municipal staff should be worth the added tax burden when all the pros and cons are weighed against each other All in all the budget committee didnt have a lot of choices to make in paring down the long list of requests for money There just isnt a lot of funds to spread around Homeowner assessment growth amounts to a one per cent increase and provincial grants are up two per cent That compares to an annual inflation rate just about five per cent While a 7 per cent increase over last years budget may be hard for some people to swallow councillors were given few opportunities to cut costs Services and programs are more expensive each year and without the added tax base to pay for them budget costs above the inflation should be expected Fight for a field overuse For example the soccer field at cedarvale Is already stretched to its limit Mtid lime allowed to teams To increase the use would further damage the field That a ridiculous option after hundreds of dollars have been spent to keep the soccer pitch In decent condition Soccer teams are already complaining about the lack of fields for their practices and games To give the rugby teams the field at this stage would Infuriate Ihe soccer people But moreover the rugby players are bound to cause more damage to the field than soccer players Scrums dictate that players dig Ihelr extra long spikes Into the ground un til earth moves or a player Is pushed The request by the rugby club does underline the need for the town to spend more money on purchasing land for field use There is an ob vious shortage of space for com petlng sports groups and there Just isn enough to goaround An argument about not being able to use the Georgetown District High School field because of broad lump pit seems unreasonable Sure ly It would be cheaper to find a way of padding the pit than moving the whole rugby operation from Acton High School to Cedarvale posts and You sometimes see rugby players with bumper stickers on their cars which say support your local hooker The hooker of course Is usually a 200pound hunk of a guy skilled at lapping the ball back In a scrum Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which sport you play rugby players getting much support of any kind But In the case of a needed field In Georgetown for rugby players and a touring team from England Its hard to feel too much sympathy for the young men Council debated the Issue of play Ing time on the Cedarvale field at length two weeks ago The ended by you guessed It having the recreation director Tom Shepard submit a report The talk continued last week and ended in a bit of a compromise although the rugger lads took the brunt of the decision on the chin A request for regular home games was denied but Mr Shepard will have to report back on the feasibility of a Aug Led by club president Sandy McKerale the North Rugby Club to use the soccer field at Park for its eight home games and a doubleheader against a team from England Tom Shepard tried to explain the damage rugby could do to tbe and the effort the town has made to protect the fields from I Rugby players have some rights and they do deserve equal time with soccer and flag football players and Others Its a good sport lor teens and older adults To play But the rugby players expect to gain a field at the expense of ruining It or pushing aside the minor Georgetown soccer program future demands on Ihe treasury MORF SCHOOLS The Association of Large School Boards of Ontario ALSBO is seek ing billion in capital funding to build new schools to meet Increased enrolment In addition there Is the demand by Roman Catholic school boards for new high schools with faculties equivalent to public secondary schools This was implicitly promis ed them when full funding was ex tended In 1BB5 they said That bill Ions more Then there are the smaller amounts being sought At the recent Ontario Good Roads Association conference various figures In the several hundred million dollar range were talked about as being required Just to bring Ontario existing roads up to scratch never mind the money needed to build the new ones also re quired Affordable housing is a major cause especially In the Toronto area More hundreds of millions are said to be required just to get 20 COD homeless off the street never mind tackle anything else Then there are the relatively small amounts sought by special In terest groups About per cent of Ontario hospitals are running deficits for In stance and according to the On tario Hospital Association the total operating funding shortfall is S5 million Meanwhile continual fudging about whether the province will pro vide a long promised of land and fro million in cash an opera houseballet complex has cost Ontario the talents of this country premier opera director LotfiMansouri CRISIS And then there are the various organizations connected with university education who have said Citizens forum Support for separate centre EDITOR NOTE The following let ter was sent to The Herald for publication bear Councillor John McDonald Please refer to these three local newspaper clippings in understan ding and accepting our support of the gentlemen named in these clipp ings Lew Ward Al Rye of Moore Park Crescent and Mr Taylor who works In conjunction with Mr Ward In supporting this issue Please I beg you Mr Councillor to read very carefully the underlined statements so that you fully com prebend and accept my wishes along with my fellow seniors whose signatures I m including with my letter We are seniors we ve paid our dues to society have we not the cards or whatever or across from another senior and en Joy a sandwich a cookie a cup of tea or coffee and see a smile on his or her face I Do you get the picture Mr Coun You will be there in the future in the seniors class Then and only then will you know our This I repeat is what 1 and my Golden Cir cle Seniors ask of you Again I beg you handle this letter gently the seniors are speaking read my letter carefully do not roll It up into ball and fling it into the first waste paper basket you sec Mr Councillor This Is my last wish I ask of you I m probably on the way out as well as my fellow seniors will be after me when I phase out I m all of years old but I must say It seems like 1671 Mayo Clinic New York Kettering Memorial Cancer Research Hospital you name it Ive been there I My health you ask me There is no health left In this body of mine I m portable only with the use or two canes which gives me four legs like a horse or dog or cow or any four legged animal But by golly Im per table moving Just like you Mr Councillor So my last wish Is to see me on these four legs to walk at least once Into our own Seniors Community Centre Mr Councillor will you please helpmc get my wish I thank you graciously for your time In reading my humble letter Thank you Mary Burak Secretary for the Golden Circle Club Water supply is precious Dear Sir Pure Water may mean increased taxes We appreciate the careful con si deration Mayor Miller Pam Sheldon Chairman of the Municipal ly Owned- Property Committee and most Councillors are giving to the problem of the Princess Anne lots A future pure water supply is precious to every resident of Georgetown In later years we do not want tbe expense of millions of dollars to bring contaminated water from Lake Ontario or to pipe water from It Is heartening to read that most council members arc thinking of Georgetown s welfare In the years ahead The hydrology survey is a practical decision to ensure that there is not the slightest possibility the Princess Anne well can be con laminated by runoff or leaking sewers We arc going to need all our available water resources for development of our community This report may have unexpected bonuses With the discussion of a nearby waste dump taking place hopefully there will be information in the report about underground feeder streams which source or pass by the dump area When new sub divisions are being planned this in formation can also be used The councillors will then have facts to make right decisions This will not be a shelved report but a useful document for future planning Our elected representatives are to be commended for endeavoring to build a much needed debt free Civic Centre We cannot find fault with council if they subsequently become aware of new facts that require them to alter their original position Problems will arise for council if the funds from the sale of the Princess Anne lots are not available One alternative would be debenture We are willing to accept increased taxes to cover this shortfall It Is small price to pay to ensure that our most important natural resource our water supply Is protected Council must have conclusive pro of from a hydrologies i specialist that there Is no possibility of the slightest contamination in the foreseeable future to Georgetown Princess Anne well Otherwise a debenture appears to be the only alternative and we will give council our full support Yours truly Margaret Swain Reg Swain Harold Street Georgetown Carnation campaign Carnation Campaign during the month of May 1988 in order to raise vital research funds Multiple Sclerosis Is the most com mon neurological disease affecting young adults in Canada It is estimated SO Canadian men and women have the disease Multiple Sclerosis attacks the central ncr vous system 1 the brain and spinal cord Scientists do not know what causes this breakdown In central nervous system but they do know the symptoms problems with vision and speech weakness and fatigue tremors loss of ordination and paralysis The symptoms are devastating and usually strike men and women bcl eon ages of and Your assistance would significant ly help to make our 19BB Carnation Campaign a success Sincerely liiurie St house Ontario Division under funding has reached crisis proportions Frankly if there ore any limits to the demands upon tbe public purse it Is hard to see where Worse the dollar figures continue to escalate The result Is that the Liberals opendoor policy on the treasury Just t sustainable In long run Mind you if the province has an Ideological commitment to something it goes ahead and damn thecost All one has to do Is look at the millions being poured Into making an essentially unilingual province look and act bilingual Or the million AIDS education program directed at everybody ex those most at risk But that just complicates the over all problem of trying to match riling expectations to public revenues The Liberals basic problem is that they can say no They lack any sense of priorities except for their pet Ideological programs And thats the real reason why taxes are going up In the budget later this spring In your opinion 30 years ago Halton Sandy Best scored his own personal triumph In Mr Best elected for the first time In 1957 had a whopping 7 500 majority over his combined opposition during a federal bid for office The Raiders did some whitewashing In Windsor Riverside when they laid It on thick trouncing the Riversides 12 1 in their first en counter and 11 1 in their second Mrs James Roe entertained for her aunt when Mrs J Bennett celebrated her birthday Mrs Bennett who was born In England moved to Canada when she was She was active in Salvation my for 75 years Gall Livingstone starred in the fantasy Snow White while Peter Gib bons of Acton was her fairy prince during the Georgetown Figure Skating Clubs rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 15 years ago David B Cole of Georgetown was named the Cancer Campaign chair man for 1973 Mr Cole said tbe ob jective for the year was towards the Ontario objective of 000 Three goals in three minutes and seconds produced two Ontario championships in two seasons for Georgetown s North Haiders The fantastic feat also produced disbelief in the I spectators who had resigned themselves to a Port Sailors victory and at least a sixth game in the Niagara District and Ontario Intermediate A finals Over people jammed the hospital cafeteria and spilled out in to the halls to witness the election of four members to the Hospital Board of Directors One new face James A Montgomery of Georgetown was ad ded to the board while the other three Ted Brown Thomas Beer and Ed Hall wereslttlngmembers The newest club spawned by the Georgetown was a men volleyball club which got underway the Georgetown High School 10 years ago The Halton Adult Badminton team ventured to Erin where it took of matches from the host team The team has dominated all Its mat ches so far this season Spring madness swept through Terra and Glen Williams when the annual Georgetown Jaycees Crazy Boat Race was held on the cold fast running waters the Credit More than 5000 people jammed both villages to take a look at the more than 300 people crazy enough to take to the waters SB McLaughlin Associates filed suit against Town of Halton Hills and Region for million in damages Tor breach of contract and improper obstruction of develop ment of the company land Fiveyearold Jason Turner of Georgetown was the March winner In the McDonald coloring contest held each week in the Herald Jason lends kindergarten at George Ken nedy and feels he can lcam to tell time now that he won his very own watch to How do you celebrate Easter ESTHER COPLAND To celebrate Easter we go to church and we eat chocolate from the Easter bunny We make Easter cream eggs Easter means that died on the cross to save our tins celebrate for Jesus COPLAND You get candies and CAUGHT it means you Easier means to mo celebrate when Jesus diedforyou lhe Acton regional councillor Dave Whiting was appointed to the Niagara Escarpment Commission Coun Whiting replaced former Georgetown Ward 3 regional coun Roy Booth as Hal tons the commission Former Georgetown resident Gor don Ted his Niagara Falls high school bands to three Individual category championships In the Canadian Stage Band festival Three Georgetown District High School math students were nominated to participate In the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad They Included Richard Sandra Lovcgrovo and Gregg Sim who were chosen on the basis of their high school math contest results over the past few years Adrian Smith entertained a small gathering at Georgetown Public Library talking about old photographs Mo brought with him a wide variety of cameras used throughout the ages