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7 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,D ecem ber 2,2021 insidehalton.com UPPERMIDDLE RD. KILMER DR. MAINWAY DR.G U EL PH LI N E W A LK ER S LI N E A PP LE BY LI N E QEW WEST EAST 4151 Kilmer Drive, Burlington L7M 5A9For Your Personal Tour, please call us at 905-315-2580 or Email - info@heritage-place.ca www.heritage-place.ca ENJOY The SUITE LIFE - Limited Time Special On Our Newly Renovated Studios - Ask About Our Move In Incentives - Studio, 1-bedroom And 2-bedroom Suites - Beautiful, Tranquil Setting - Maintenance-free Living - Three Daily Chef-prepared Gourmet Meals - 24-hour Emergency Response - Wellness Programs And Health Support On-site - Extensive Recreation And Travel Programs The Oakville Beaver values the opinions of its readers, and the communi- ty at large. With that said, we wel- come your letters to the ed- itor on all matters that im- pact area residents. We ask that letters be no more than 275 words, and include the full name and town of the writer. Your address and tele- phone number must also be included for verification purposes only. We do not publish anon- ymous letters. Letters will be edited or rejected for of- fensive content, factual er- rors, legal issues or space restrictions. Send your letters to insi- dehalton@metroland.com. SEND US YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I wanted to write a letter of appreciation to the Town of Oakville on its current work clearing bulk leaf pickup in my neighbour- hood. Not only are we lucky to have more than one pickup date, the town is proactive enough to understand that the majority of the leaves don't fall until at least late November, so there's not much point in scheduling an earlier date. This is in comparison to the City of Toronto, which does not have as many pickup dates and schedules them in October, before the bulk of the leaves have even fallen from the trees, forc- ing residents to bag their leaves and store them until the spring. I witnessed this myself in an older part of the west end of Toronto, where my mom lives. There's a defi- nite frustration for an el- derly citizen having to bag all her leaves and then bring them into her garage for winter storage. Oakville's system for picking up leaves this year was very impressive, with multiple units working in tandem to quickly remove the streets' massive leaf piles. They finished our entire street in one go, which in previous years would take much longer using the leaf sucker units, which would fill up and then have to go and empty the load before coming back. Kudos to this unit and the Town of Oakville. GEOFF THOMSON, OAKVILLE LET'S NOT CAST RACCOONS IN A NASTY LIGHT This is in response to Emil Andrew Sekerak's re- cent letter titled 'Don't por- tray raccoons as cute.' If the writer were to Google "Why are raccoons cute?", he'd come up with tons of articles testifying to their cuteness. Not only are they cute, but they score a very high mammal IQ -- above cats and just below monkeys. They can open bins by us- ing their paws to lift the lids. One study showed that raccoons can remember solutions to tasks for up to three years. Raccoons are naturally shy animals that prefer to retreat when they sense hu- mans nearby. Like most wild animals, people should never approach them, but learn to live among them. I don't know how the toddler mentioned in the letter happened to eat rac- coon feces, or as the writer says "nasty stuff," but there are many animal transmit- ted diseases such as E. coli, salmonella, etc. which can cause serious harm, even death to humans and ani- mals alike. A raccoon is neither considered vermin nor a rodent. Rodent is a scientif- ic classification (rodentia), and raccoons are mam- mals. I agree regarding edu- cating people on the pre- vention of something like what happened to this Hamilton toddler, but that's about it. ABBE OSICKA, OAKVILLE LEAF BLOWERS SHOULD BE BANNED I was delighted to here on the news that our pro- vincial government was considering banning leaf blowers. These machines have assaulted my ears and pol- luted the environment for too many years. The lowly rake is a far better tool and gives our young men needed exer- cise. JEAN GRIEVE, OAKVILLE LETTERS & COMMENTARY TOWN'S LEAF CLEARING EFFORTS VERY IMPRESSIVE SCAN FOR MORE local opinions. Goeff Thomson is quite pleased with the Town of Oakville's leaf clearing efforts. Metroland file photo SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM