The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

lMIOltY SHOE WHY PAY FULL PRICE FOR SHOES? Q.E.W. at Winiton (horchill Turnoff custom upholstery Iki For the finest in CUSTOM UPHOLSTERING call Baier's. Maker, o f fine upholstered furniture. 2333 W W t Rout, U i* l7 i m i r o i (between BnncAThm] Line) O L I miX jO i A Metroland Publication Vol. 37 No. 74 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23,1999 More money for teachers, less for books & guidance services By Dennis Smith SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER The Halton District School Board will spend more money on teachers in the next school year and less on textbooks and guidance services. The $268.7 million budget was approved by school trustees Monday night. The new budget includes $6 million more for teachers' salaries, but $2 million less for textbooks and $2 million less for guidance and library services. Staff say changes were made to accommodate a contract reached last fall with secondary teachers. Under the agreement, teachers instruct six classes over eight peri­ ods, but provincial funding is based on teaching of 6.6 classes. Education director Dusty Papke said budget reduction areas are being compensated in other ways. He noted the board is receiving $2 million worth of textbooks through provincial 'top up' funds. And the contract with sec­ ondary teachers requires them to perform 125 minutes per week of other duties. Much of this will go towards library and guidance work, said Papke. Community relations and health superintendent Beth Shelswell has prepared a guidance report and suggested the situation be monitored. (S e e 'R etired ' page 5) Photo by Peter C. McCusker Roy Gattenby with a few of the 500 tennis balls he hopes to collect to send to Kosovar chil­ dren in Canadian camps. Tennis balls for Kosovar refugees shou ld relieve tedium of cam p life Kosovar refugees playing volleyball and basket­ ball, but the children seemed to have nothing to do, so I thought it would be a good idea to give the children some tennis balls to play with." Gattenby is thrilled with the response to his idea, as many organizations have rallied in sup­ port of the cause. 'The OTA (Ontario Tennis Association) has promised to match us ball-for-ball, the Oakville Tennis Club has chipped in 250 balls. I've been promised 50 to 100 balls from both the Bronte and Wallace Tennis Clubs, and the Salvation By Scott MacArthur SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER As numerous Canadians around the country continue td extend a helping hand to suffering Kosovar refugees, one Oakville resident is get­ ting into the act. Roy Gattenby, a longtime tennis instructor in Oakville, has begun a campaign for tennis balls as a means of leisure for Kosovar children cur­ rently living in Canadian relief camps. "The idea came about a month ago when I was watching the news," said Gattenby, 73. "I saw (S ee 'Project' page 2) O a k v ille H ydro to b eco m e cash so u rce fo r Tow n Mayor backs plan By Howard Mozel OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Oakville Hydro is such a valuable asset that Town Council has voted unanimously to retain owner­ship of the utility as a for-profit corporation. That decision was endorsed Monday night as councillors considered the fourth and final report from the Oakville Hydro Steering Committee. In it were a host of recommen­ dations that set the stage for the municipality's assumption of the utility in the wake of expansive restructuring legisla- tl°I"n i. *ii u j . "We wish toOakville Hydro represents an incredibly valuable commu- e n s u r e t h a t t h e nity asset for the citizens of V a lu e Of this U tility Oakville," said Mayor Ann Mulvale, chair of the Steering Committee. "We wish to ensure that the value of this utility is maintained and enhanced in the new competitive Ontario elec­ tricity market." The changes were prompted by the Energy Competition Act 1998, which requires every Ontario municipality by Nov. 7, 2000 to assume responsi­ bility for work currently carried out by municipal hydro election commissions. The legislation ends Ontario Hydro's 90-yeai electricity-sector monopoly and ushers in a com­ petitive market by late 2000. is maintained and enhanced in the new competitive Ontario electricity market." -Mayor Arm Mulvale (S e e '1111111/ page 5 ) Latex allergy forced dentist to retire and enter second career K aren M itchell had to s ta r t again and took MBA to beg in new career By Sandra Omand SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Imagine studying for 11 years, developing a thriving dental practice over the next decade, and then becoming so severely allergic to the materials you work with that you have to retire and start again. And imagine the simple task of zipping up your children's jackets becoming a painful chore, or finding, after a day of working in your office, that your hands have stiffened up so much you can hardly hold on to the steering wheel to drive home. This is what happened to 40-year-old Karen McPherson Mitchell, an Oakville mother of two, who developed a crippling dermatitis on her hands from a severe allergy to latex, thirium (used to mold latex gloves) and polychromats (used in den­ tal stone and some dental cements). INSIDE today's paper Editorials......... ...................... A6 Business...... .......... ...................A10 Focus------------------ --- --------B1 Sports------------ ------------ B8 Waterfront Festival.....__ _____C 1 Furniture Week.____________ D1 Classified_________________04 Automotive________________D8 Spetial Supplements: For Hook Winery: Moore s The Suit People. Pxific linen Partial delivery: Emclirt Interiors, The Brick, Wile Host, Future Shop, little Caears Canadian Publications Mail Product Agreement #435-201 Karen Mitchell: allergy led to life change for dentist M c P h e r s o n Mitchell (she uses McPherson in her pro­ fessional life and Mitchell in her role as 'Mom') said the der­ matitis covered her hands in a red rash that became so cracked J) and painfully swollen that she lived in con­ stant agony. The aller­ gy eventually forced her to retire in March 1996 after 10 years with the Trafalgar Village Dental Group. For four years Mitchell hid the aller­ gy and her suffering from her colleagues and patients, confiding only in her dental assistant. Mitchell did not tell anyone was she was going through because she was afraid her whole career was "going up in smoke." She believed that by not talking about it, the problem would go away. Mitchell now admits to being in total denial. "I remember thinking it was those diapers," said Mitchell, since the allergy coincided with the birth of her first child. "It took a while to realize it was at work it was happening, not at home." During this time, she was able to keep the aller­ gy under control by using waterless soap, nutrige- na hand cream and avoiding latex gloves. Still her condition continued to worsen. Finally her husband, Brad Mitchell, who works for Livingston in Oakville, simply said she could not keep living like this. "I worked so hard, all I knew was I didn't want to think about leaving. But it was so stressful wak­ ing up each morning and looking down at my hands and seeing them get worse and worse." After making the decision to retire, however, it was as if a huge burden had been lifted. Slowly, to Mitchell's surprise, her hands improved. "I won't be doing any hand commercials, but they are better now," said Mitchell, holding up two hands that looked dry and chapped, but otherwise normal. She didn't have time to feel sad about her forced retirement, said Mitchell, since her mother-in-law was fighting for her life in Joseph Brant hospital (she has since recovered) and the needs of her two sons Jeffrey, 8, and Jason, 5, had to be addressed. It was not until nine months later, when she received a notice in the mail to renew her dentistry unavoidable fact that she would never be a dentist again. "That is when I just cried and cried," said Mitchell, adding that she had never felt so lost and adrift in her life. 'T he hard part was having to shift my mind and find another field," she said. Photo by Peter C. McCuskerPat Smith and friend: 'bird lady' well known in area Pat Smith, 93 'B ird Lady' rem em bered fo r dedication Pat Smith, who lovingly nursed thousands of sick and injured birds back to health for more than 40 years, has died. Oakville's 'Bird Lady' died on Saturday at age 93 at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. She had been in hospital since late November and suffered from cancer. The exact cause of death has not been determined. Her husband, George, pre-deceased her. Smith was born on March 19, 1906, in Essex, England. Little is known about her personal life - she kept those details private. It is known that she had no children. "When she was in the hospital, my wife Carol and I were her only visitors," said Glenn Cooper, a 25-year neighbour. "When people asked me where I live, I just told them I live near the Bird Lady." She began caring for sick and injured birds in Mississauga in 1953. Smith moved to Oakville in 1966 to a lakefront property on Brookfield Crescent. The cost of caring for and feeding up to 25 birds at a time at her in-home and backyard infirmary was paid out of her husband's pen­ sion. She cared for more than 700 birds each year. (S e e 'Sm ith' page 8) T h e '9 9 S a tu rn SL1 Automatic and air conditioning. $2,500 down payment 206/mth. + taxes Lease based on 36 m o n th te rm . $ 25 00 d o w n paym en t, 6 0 ,0 0 0 km s o v e r te rm , o p tio n a l end va lue p lu s taxes on a pp ro ved c re d it. A D i f f e r e n t K i n d o f C o m p a n y . A D i f f e r e n t K i n d o f C a r . W Budds' SATIRISE V S i w j 507 Speers Road, Oakville, Ontario (9 0 5 ) 8 4 5 -1 6 1 0 F i j i K WEBSITE: www.buddscars.com EMAIL: info@buddscars.com If Peter W oro RETIREMENT PLANNING SPECIALISTS F ree C o n s u l t a t i o n 8 4 2 -2 1 0 0 C.M i x c n t u p .? ! V http://www.buddscars.com mailto:info@buddscars.com