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THE HERALD Wednesday 2t 1N0 Page LETTERS- 30 Years Ago It was thirty years ago this June when North Halton OPP ad ded its eighth constable to the force Carl Sanderson was when he joined the force stood six feet and one inch weighing in at 210 lbs Mr Sanderson a blonde single man came from Richmond Hill and served four years with Metro Police before joining the Halton force He also held a pilot s licence which made two airmen on the force Georgetown High School added five new teachers bringing the number of staff to 27 Those who joined the staff were Gerald Dickenson Keith Donald Michael Peleschak Sally Powell and Oscar A staff supply teacher Mrs John Gunn also returned as a part tune teacher Georgetown High School also decided to drop a shared arrange ment with Acton for home economics 20 Years Ago I want to see the elimination of taxes for people in very low in come groups said Rud Whiting a Liberal MP twenty years ago Speaking to an audience of 14 at the Milton Credit Union Hall Mr Whiting said he was committed to see that death duties were eliminated in the event that capital gam were taxes He said he believes the abolition of death dutues would benefit the en trepreneur more than a reduction in the tax on capital gains Twenty years ago the opening of the County Museum at Kelso Conservation Area brought bountiful festivities Square dancing folk singing costume and sports events were featured at the museum s open The festival sponsored by of the Museum in co operation with the Region Conservation Authority ran an entire weekend 10 Years Ago Ten years ago Brampton Georgetown MP John McDermid Halt oris supported a federal government bill that would have lessened marijuana fines The planned legislation called for possession charges being dropped to a misdemeanor from a fine with a criminal record Although he admitted marijuana is a dangerous drug Mr McDer mid said young people t be saddled with a record for using it when they are caught drinking alcohol and don get one However drug trafficking must still be considered a serious of fence he said A 52 unit apartment building for seniors on Elizabeth Drive finally reached completion as many seniors anxiously awaited Paul Ducharme of Ducharmes Ltd turned the building over to the Ontario Housing Corporation who passed the building on to the Halton Housing Authority 5 Years Ago Georgetown councillors ed two petitions concerning the heavy traffic on Sideroad and Road five years ago Fearing for the children s safe ty the residents submitted peti tions and speakers addressed neighborhood safety problems Residents were opposed to the reconstruction of Sideroad to Trafalgar Road which was used by heavy gravel trucks Some residents concenred about Mountainview Road traffic told council that trucks often his residents cars and one truck even went on the front lawn of a neighbor Double speak part 2 Bens Banter By Ben Oummett double speak part What s the Greater Toronto Area GTA mean you The words imply a geographical area defined by the Regions in and around Toronto These might include Metropolitan Toronto Halton Peel York and Durham And to some this is exactly what it means But to others especially the politicians the term should be understood to mean the answer for the garbage problems faced by the five municipalities listed above Or does it In the short term at least the GTA really means the Region of fer to tafie Metro Toronto s gar for the next few years so it can escape what it calls a garbage crisis The only garbage problem the is helping to solve Is the one Toronto has created for itself Only when the long term aspect of the GTA is considered is there proof that it actually represents co operative action between all in volved municipalities During the next five years the GTA is sup posedly developing long term landfill type garbage disposal ideas that will be shared among its members Regional councils ing and public works committee is holding a special 7pm meeting tonight to consider if Halton should become a full fledged member of the GTA Local environmental group Protect Our Water En vironmental Resourcs POWER will appear at the meeting as a delegation opposing Halton s membership They argue Toronto is facing a garbage problem because it was too slow in develop ing a 3 reduce reuse and program And to will ingly take some of Toronto gar now would only give Toronto a false sense of security POWER says POWER s argument makes a lot of sense But some people argue Halton woulld be required to cept only a maximum of tonnes of Toronto garbage in ex change to a supposed slew of non landfill waste disposal ideas should it join I could support this idea if 1 was convinced the will work the way the Region tells us it will work Halton Regional chairman Peter said as late as May that Halton has to be a part of the if it wants to protect Halton in But he also said he s not convinced the GTA is the way to go Remember Mr Pomero has participated on the GTA as an observer member since its incep tion two years ago When asked about the discrepan cy Mr Pomeroy said he supports the GTA m principle but he s not convinced the other members can be trusted If Mr is still unconvinced of the trustworthiness of the other Regional chairmen how can Halton residents trust the real ideas of the GTA Politicians are letting taxes get out of hand Dear Sir More on taxes Alex Furness let ter was right on the subject In creases of 10 local taxes 12 25 regional and 16 educational are disgraceful A few days after this bombshell the federal government announced the increase in Old Age Penions about onto ones a month or 1 5 raise Some spread More and more people in in dustry are having their salaries frozen while they attempt to com pete with foreign competition Are the local regional politicians and school trustees completely unaware of what is happening in the real world Writing- these politicians and telling them might help but it is going to take something stronger to bring them to heel And as usual before many weeks have gone by we will be sidetracked by some other local issues and take our eye off the issue Let not do this Let get completely involved in one issue and one issue only No more tax in creases above the cost of living California has the right idea where they can install rules and their elected officials have to operate within them So how about a voter block in Halton Hills dedicated to electing officials who will not pass budgets greater than the current cost of ing Politicians and trustees would be required to commit to this con before getting the groups en dorsement The group would publicize those who commit to this policy and monitor their subse quent actions In the meantime a watching brief and continuing publicity on current officials and their bad spending habits would be another activity which might help For starters watch trustee Arlene Bruce latest in the Herald June She reacted quickly to proposals which could bring qualified social workers into elementary schools A hurrah for local politician Pat McCarthy and trustee Dick who voted against the ridiculous increases Only two out of dozens of spenders We have a long way to gol Enough is enough Lets devote ourselves to this issue and see spending cut and increases held to the cost of living DM Morrow Drugs cost more than environment Dear Sir Did you know that Ontario spent more money last year for prescrip tion for the elderly than the entire budget for the environment Drugs cost million dollars while the Ministry of the Environ was allocated 5 million dollars Maybe the government doesn realize that studies show that there is a problem with over medication of seniors while environmental degradation is escalating health related illness As an advocate for the disabled and an environmentalist 1 recognize the staying healthy depends on many factors including genetics exercise clean air water and food lack of stress etc At pre sent I am asking myself if it is by design or coincidence that en volunteers are inundated with issues at a time of year when others paid staff politicians etc are looking for ward to holidays Just consider the following con to be addressed Region of Halton is deciding whether to join the GTASW1SC 2 The GTA urban structure review document is being released along with the Greenlands Strategy and the recommenda ttons for the waterfront 3 Halton Region votes on POWER amendment 52 regar ding no garbage in the escarp ment The Minister of Natural Resources is reviewing all quarry licences beginning in July 5 The Niagara Escarpment Plan is being reviewed EAGLE s amendment to the Niagara Escarpment Commission comes before the Town of Halton Hills 7 Local developers have several plans before the municipality that will affect the community Plans are proposed to widen Guelph Street 9 The Fourth Line is being widened and trees are being chop ped by the way I have seen more trees cut down since moving to this country two years ago than I have seen in my entire life 10 The Green Plan is being culated for discussion 11 Ontario Hydro has been holding 12 KEEP Milton has hearings regarding their amendment before the Niagara Escarpment Commis sion Maybe stress will get us before environmental degradation does I m still wondering if all this is just coincidence PatWoode Chairman EAGLE Open Doors auction was a big success Dear Editor Some time has passed the dust has settled the Open Door Board of Directors has breathed a sigh of relief the Nite On The Town Bachelor Bid has taken place We had an overwhelming show of support from many directions A huge and warm thank you to John Fisher at Club 2000 He pro vided the Club the service the tickets the posters and a lot of motivational support for this fun and lively event Club was a perfect spot and everyone there especially the disc jockey gave us their energy Thank you Many restaurants graciously supplied romantic Dinners for Two As part of our special Webb s Flowers supplied a beautiful red rose for each of the highest bidders Vanderburgh Flowers supplied a white cnursage for each date and Florists supplied a for each bachelor Thank you for the glamour L Hotel a member of CP Hotels in downtown Toronto donated a special weekend for two as part of the lucky draw from ticket sales We hope the winner enjoyed the elegance of this prestigious hotel We have individually thanked the gentlemen who were wonderful with their time and their spirit Honorable mentions go to Joe Nail owneroperator of the Fox and Fiddle Pub Steve Levine celebn ty comedian from Yuk s and Steve Anthony celebrity star from Much Music Thank you guys you were great Nite On The Town was a lot of work made tremendously fun by the support of all the donors and donations Thank you very much from all of us at the Open Door Youth Centre If a Nite On The Town is held again it will certainly be an event not tomiss Sincerely Cindy Lawrence Open Door Board Chair More Letters on Page 9 Planning the midlife crisis It been a bit of a slow week work wise which means I ve had some spare time to devote to one of my most important long term pro jects I ve been laying preliminary plans for my upcoming mid life crisis As we all know from reading the newspapers the mid life crisis is shaping up as this decade major fad sort of the hula hoop of the Nineties This is because a huge of the Baby Boom generation is in the process of turning 40 And 40 the sociologists tell us is a pivotal age for the modern male It s the age at which men wake up and realize they re too old to rock n roll In extreme cases they may be jolted out of a sound sleep by the hideous realization that they re almost as old as Mick Jag This leads to a profound dissatisfaction with life since also seems to mark a turning point in terms of self awareness Apparently it s a sort of halfway house between the age at which you re still too young and idealistic to realize you re a failure and the age at which you grown too old and rotten to care And all of this of course leads to a desperate desire to quit the firm and abandon the marnage to find inner fulfillment and transcendence with a year old aerobatics instructor Interestingly enough the sociological literature would seem to indicate that mid life crises are peculiar to men Women don seem to have them which only makes sense when you think of it Women being much stronger emotionally don have crises at all They just pretend to in order to make mentael guilty In any case as a man in my thir ties it pretty much expected of me to have a midlife crisis in the next few years That s why I ve been laying plans for one After all it important to do these things properly But this has led to an alarming realization I m only 33 but I think I already having my mid life crisis In fact I think I ve been having it for years It began when I was and doing a stint as a university instructor One sunny afternoon I made a casual reference to Bob Dylan in a freshman English class and found myself staring at a sea of utterly blank faces As I was confronting the stagger notion that none of these 18- year olds had ever heard of Bob Dylan a bright spark in the front row put up her hand and said Hang on t he some kind of singer in the Old Days I swallowed hard and quickly changed the subject before anyone had the chance to ask whether tied been one of the original Mills Brothers After class in the faculty bar I Continued mi Pagte