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I S N O W B L O W E R R E P A IR S Single stage > 6 9 ,D ual stage > 9 9 Pick up S D r l u n r A » iU b l« New plant boss comes home B usiness Great steaks for good causes C U R R E N TP O W E RM A C H IN E R YIN C . 1 6 6 1U*nhon>RdW. < 22· 421 1 Focus M e rc e d e s -B e n z Q.E.W. K Dorval Dr. w w w .o a k v ille b e a v e r.c o m N O R T H THE OAKVILLE BEAVER A M E R I C A 'S M O S T A W A R D E D C O M M U N I T Y 4H N E W S P A P E R A Nlctrolnnd l\ih lk ciiion Vol. 40 No. < ) W K l )N t£SI ),\Y. JA N U A R Y 2 2 . 2 < X B P ilo t 's S l . ( K ) ( p lu s G S T ) OPA 1 9 8 O M B d a te s e t fo r M ay 2 6 H e a r in g c o u ld la s t th r e e m o n th s By Kim Arnott SI 1K I.U .K ) n IE Bil.W T.K Have a spare month or three? T hen you might be interested in knowing that a date has been set for an Ontario M unicipal Board hearing o f objections to O akville's proposed growth plan for its northern lands. The hearing of the plan, officially known as Official Plan Amendment (O PA) 198. is scheduled to begin on May 26. with time booked for it to potentially run until the end of August. The date was set on Monday, when about 250 people showed up at Town Hall for a scheduled prehearing conference. Several other pre-hearing dates have been set through out the spring, to allow those appealing the Town's plan to discuss procedural issues. OPA 198 outlines the While the majority of the hearing will take place dur ing daytime hours, the board has agreed to reserve some evening lime to hear from people who wish to make a presentation, but can't attend during the day. Monday's meeting saw people fill both the main hearing room and a second ary room with an audio and video hookup at Town Hall. Town staff had been directed to park off site and take a shuttle bus to work to help accommodate crowds attend ing the pre-hearing. Kelly Norgate, the Town's manager of corporate communications, said il was difficult for Town staff to plan for the logistics of the day because they really did n't know how many people would show up. But despite some minor glitches, including a short (See Pre-hearing page A3) Tyler Anderson · Special to the Oakville Heaver FEAST OF THEOPHANY: Mark Loza and Roman Dlugosh look on as Bishop Cornelius Pasichny of Toronto reads scripture at the Blessing of the Holy Water during the Feast o f Theophany (Jesus' baptism) celebration at St. Joseph's Ukrainian Catholic Church on Saturday evening. The blessing of the water is a Byzantine tradition dating back 1.5(H) years. It was the bishop's first visit to Oakville. Chrysler OMB decision upsets Oak Park residents By Kim Amott s p t .c ia l Town's plan for managing growth on about 7.6(H) acres of land north of Dundas Street, south of Hwy. 407. east of Tremaine Road and west of Ninth Line. Appeals of the plan have been filed to the O M B on behalf of 13 developers, environmental groups and resident organizations. ro t h e ; b i a v i .k Car dealer sews heat ing was unnecessary? existed to hear his case, although the necessity for the appeal to the board cost a lot of "unnecessary" money. " W e're very delighted with Bob Salvian the decision." said Oakville Dodge Salvian. "W e 're Chrysler owner looking forward to it and so arc many of our cus tomers. who live in Oak Park and can't wail until we get up there.'* Oakville Dodge Chrysler, long located on Fourth Line at Speers Road, will move to the southwest comer of Trafalgar Road and Oak Park Boulevard, fol Jeff Knoll lowing the con Ward 5 struction of its Councillor new building. "W e're obviously disappointed in the decision itself, but also in the whole process," said Jason Police arrest three following home invasion Three men are in custody in connection with an armed home invasion in a north Oakville highrise late Sunday night. According to Halton Regional Police, the incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. when three men wearing masks and brandishing a shotgun and knives broke into a fourteenth floor apart ment at 1229 Marlborough Court. Six men were home at the time, two residents and four guests. As they were ordered into the bathroom by the intruders, a 2 1-year old resi dent of the apartment was struck in the head with the butt of a shotgun and. stabbed several times by another sus pect. During this altercation, some of the guests managed to escape and call police, who responded quickly and surrounded the highrise. Police arrested one man as he tied the building while a canine officer tracked two more suspects to a garbage dumpster in which they were hiding. Police also recovered a shotgun in the vicinity. The stabbing victim was trans(See Three' page A3) Oak Park residents are angry and frustrated with an Ontario Municipal Board (O M B i decision to allow a car dealership to set up shop on a key corner of the devel oping Uptown Core. Despite convincing Oakville Town Council that the Daimler Chrysler dealership didn't belong in their neighbourhood, residents have now seen the O M B grant its approval for the car lot. However. Bob Salvian. co owner of Oakville Dodge Chrysler, said he is glad the O M B Speers, president of the Oak Park Residents' Association, which headed the opposition to the pro posal. Residents had argued before Town Council that the comer was pivotal to the Uptown Core con cept. The idea is to develop a highdensity uptown version of Oakville's successful downtown area, complete with a main street of shops, restaurants, businesses aid homes. "(A car lot) is not going to help develop our main street." said Speers. (See 'Car' page A2) Town pledges to save dying woodlot from development By Kim Amott si>K( i.M . ro ri n: b e a v e r Town council says it is com mitted to preserving Iroquois Shoreline Woods, despite the impact of a devastating root rot that has killed more than 1.4(H) trees in the 35-hectare woodlot. Councillors voted unanimously Monday night to reaffirm the Town's commitment to maintain ing the woodlot anil preserving it from development. Council also agreed to reserve any money raised from the sale of the dead and dying forest trees for use in restoring and rehabilitating the park. The motion was introduced by Ward 6 councillors Kurt Franklin and Janice Wright after some local residents expressed concern about the future of the woodlot. The woodlot park, which has about 3.5 kilometres of trails, was officially closed by the Town in December. Town forestry staff had expressed concerns for public safety, after discovering the high number of dead and dying oak trees in the forest. The trees are being killed by a soil-borne fungus that rots out their roots and causes them to fall. Because the trunks of the fallen trees are generally not damaged by the rot. town staff believe some can be salvaged and sold for their wood. Although the fungus that caus es the root rot is common in Southern Ontario forest ecosys tems. it can kill trees that are already weakened by other stress es such as the drought conditions of recent years. The phenomenon, known as oak decline, is particularly damag ing to mature stands of oak trees (See Town' page A4) High winds and cold weather hamper firefighting efforts High winds and bitter cold hampered efforts by the Oakville Fire Department to extinguish a fire that destroyed a single-fam ily bungalow on Dundas Street, Sunday. Deputy Fire Chief John de Hooge said battling such a stubborn blaze in a rural set ting came with other technical hurdles as well, namely trucking in water due to (he absence of fire hydrants in the area. According to de Hooge. the call came in around 1:30 p.m. and after crews responded to 2483 Dundas St. W. they quickly had their hands full. "Because of the extreme cold and high wind and the construction of the house, it was difficult to contain and control the fire." he said. " High wind fanned the flames and drove them from one end of the house to the other." To make matters worse, de Hooge con tinued. any water that didn't end up on the fire froze to everything it touched. Police blocked off the street as firefight ers eventually quelled the blaze, but not before the house was destroyed. No one was home at the time and no one was injured. Most of the firefighters left the scene around midnight, although a fire watch was held to ensure the lire didn't spring up again. At press time no cause had be determined and the preliminary damages were estimated at around $100.(XX). Editorials................. A6 Best Wheels............ Bl Focus......................Cl Community Update C6 Classifieds................. C4 ArtScene.................. 08 Business.................. D4 Sports.......................01 Partial Delivery: Him Depot, Caruso Homeopathic Clinic. Staples Business Depot, MississaugaBooster. F . M. Industries. Cogeeo P r c C u c IA g r w tm w v !M JS7 0 I* Canadian PuMKanon* M ,i.< Alex Kalnins · Special to the Oakville Beaver Oakville firefighters try to contain the blaze at this Dundas Street house on Sunday. LOCKW OOD C H R Y 17 yeots in S L E R s.ifiv location FIV/E S TA R O O O O O CERTIFIED 175 W yecroft Road. Oakville 905.845.6653 wvwv. loekwoodeh rysler.com CHRYSLER · JEEP* DODGE I N V E S T M H N T S R E T IR E M E N T P L A N N IN G SPECIALISTS Free Consultation 842-2100 Peter C W atson M .B .V , C.F.P., R.F.P..