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2 - Orono Weekly Times Subscriptions $38.09 + $1.91 GST = $40.00 per year. No Refunds. Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Aid to Publishers - Canada Periodical Fund toward our mailing costs." Wednesday, July 21, 2010 ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON L0B 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Production and Display Advertising - Roxanne Johnston Classified Advertising - Sue Weigand The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. A good place to stay (unless you gotta `go') While people are still talking about the Stanley Cup Parade held in Orono on July 8th, we have had more than a few comments made about the article in last week's paper by Tracy Tonkinson, "The House at the Centre of the Universe." Tracy, a newcomer to the village, has so nicely put on paper sentiments we regularly hear from new residents to the village. While Orono may look like a quiet little town, people who move here are often surprised by how much good stuff goes on. Last week, I attended a meeting hosted by the group called Clarington Marketing Minds where they reported findings of the First Impressions Community Exchange program. Clarington was twinned with Oxford County (Woodstock, Ingersoll, and Tillsonburg), and in early June incognito visitors went to Courtice, Bowmanville, Newcastle and Orono to see what kind of first impression these communities would convey to outsiders -- tourists, potential investors and retirees. The team that visited Orono gave a very positive report of our village. Their impression of Orono was that it is an "active festival" community and that Orono Park is a "true jewel." They thought we had ample parking in the village (they came on a Tuesday), and they felt that most of their personal shopping needs could be met in Orono. They said the people they spoke to were very friendly and they felt right at home here. In each of the Clarington communities visited by the Oxford teams, visitors asked for recommendations for places to eat and shop. They received several recommendations for the bake shop and chocolate shop in Orono by people in other communities. While the visitors found a good mix of products and selection in Clarington, when they asked for good places to shop, the visitors were told to go to Oshawa. One of the Oxford visitors was the tourism specialist for Oxford County. She said that it is a well established fact in the tourism industry, that people will stay longer and spend more money if there is a public washroom available. The visitors to Orono reported they assumed there were public washrooms in the Town Hall and at the Orono Park. Living here, we know those facilities are rarely open, and most of our restaraunts display signs informing visitors that their washrooms are for customers only. This is something the BIA will have to address, to come up with a way to make more washrooms available to the visiting public. Coincidently, the CBC Radio's national phone-in show on Sunday afternoon was asking the question "Why do you live where you do, and will you stay there?" Apparently Canada is a mobile nation, young people move across the country looking for adventure and work, and older people move looking for more relaxed activities and the ideal spot to retire in. Locally, apparently, almost half the population of Kendal has moved away since the 1990s. As it is unlikely people not happy living where they do would call such a phone-in show, the calls were mainly from people who just loved their communities. A couple of the calls were from people who moved from larger urban setting to smaller communities. These people said they loved getting involved and getting to know the people in their communities taking the dog for a walk in the evening and stopping to talk to at least three people. These callers could just as easily be describing life in Orono, they were all Tracy Tonkinsons, living in houses at the centre of their universe. For the next two weeks, the Times will be closed for our annual summer shut-down. We will take some time on the road, travelling through south-western Ontario. No doubt, we will stop and visit many small communities along the way, getting an impression and a feel for each place, looking for their attractions, finding their local paper, and ultimately comparing them to Orono. After the two week shut down, we will be back, refreshed and ready for the looming municipal election. Hopefully we will have some lasting good impressions of the places we visited, and have made some good new personal connections. And when it is all over, we will have reinforced what we knew long before leaving, that there is no place like home. Let the stray cats starve To The Editor: Someone dropped a black cat about 8 months old around my house. I called animal control to take it. I was told that there was no room and not to feed it, and they put me on a waiting list. I was very frustrated. My next call was to Deputy Clerk Ann Greentree. I told her of my problem, but she said that animal control only have so many cages, and that they have to stick to that number and no more. Well, I told her in-town cats are to be on a leash, so where is animal control to pick up these poor stray cats that people are dumping out. They are ignored. There should be more cages or something done with these starving cats. It is really sad to see people doing this. But everyone had an answer, in other words, we care by OH WELL. So thank you to animal control and Ann, etc. for your help. P.S. Oh, by the way, there are three neighbours feeding the cat. We are hoping for someone to take it. Thank you all, D. Alldread, Orono McGuinty government. After applying to the province's Ontario Power Authority for solar power projects yielding a price of 80.2 cents per kilowatt hour, farmers across Ontario are now being told that this price will apply only to electricity generated from rooftop solar panels. Clearly, these price changes indicate the McGuinty government's electricity plan is not working. For ground-mounted solar panels, the OPA is proposing a reduced O'TOOLE see page 10 Staying in Touch MPP John O'Toole Solar Power Change Leaves Farmers in the Dark A change proposed under the Ontario Power Authority's microFIT program has many farmers and agricultural businesses confused and upset at the latest flip-flop by the