CCNA BETTER NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION 2000 www.oakvillebeaver.com O A K V IL L E BASIC Lawnmower Service ( c p ir h S C Q fro m OZ/-parts CURRENT POW ER M ACHINERY IN C. 1661 Lakeshore Rd. W . Mississauga (5 Stop lights East of Southdown Road) The evolution of the Moped B est w h eels Vol. 39 No. 70 Little Leaguer is Mister Perfect Sp o r t s Mercedes-Benz 75 Cents *QOO AOii | 11 A Metroland Publication WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13 2001 P h o n e c h a o s About 5,000 customers affected and Bell says service won't be fully restored until tomorrow By Howard Mozel OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Thousands of Oakville Bell Canada customers could be without service until tomorrow night thanks to a damaged feeder cable on Maple Avenue at Allan Street. According to Bell spokesperson Catherine Hudon, it was around 2:30 p.m. Monday when a construction crew work ing in the area severed the underground copper line which supplies 5,000 customers in northeast Oakville with tele phone service. The accident affected homes and business and even the Halton Regional Police 20 Division station on White Oaks Boulevard. At press time Tuesday, Hudon explained that Bell crews were on site to first excavate the cable enough to assess damage then splice together the 5,700 pairs of wire neces sary to restore service. "It's a big, complicated job," she said. Given the nature of the repair effort, Hudon explained that some customers will be up and talking by Wednesday (See `Problem' page A5) Photo by Brent Foster Sean and Emma Coates seem to have no worries but their parents Nancy and Bill are quite concerned that the vacant lot across the road from their house will become a teen hangout when turned into a strip mall. N orth residents fighting strip mall Opponents say proximity to high school, homes means problems By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF A high school, busy road, and strip mall are a recipe for aggravation, if not disaster, say some North Iroquois Ridge residents. "We're afraid it will be a hangout," said Grosvenor Street resident Nancy Coates. A strip mall and convenience store are being contemplated for Grosvenor Street at Glenashton Drive -- right across the street from the 1,100-student Iroquois Ridge Secondary School. It's the last thing the mother of children, aged 7 and 4, wants to see move into a vacant lot three doors down. A public meeting was held in May and another is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) at 7:30 p.m. in the Oakville Room of town hall on Trafalgar Road. Strip mall developer Sam Bruno is inter ested in the Metrontario land as a potential site for nearly a dozen shops, ranging from a con venience store and a dry cleaner, to a dental office and a day care centre. It's likely the mall would front onto Grosvenor and back onto Avondale Road homes. Coates moved to Grosvenor Street several years ago. but said this is deja vu for longer term residents like Peter Olsen and Ralston Dickson. They've fought this battle before. "They did make an attempt in 1991 to build a small plaza on the property," said Olsen. At that time, the school site was for an ele mentary school and the neighbourhood fought the plan. Olsen said people who bought area homes in the mid-1980s were also told the site would be for townhouses, but it's been zoned com mercial since 1984. · "There's not an awful lot we can do about it," said the Iroquois Ridge Ratepayers' Association (IRRA) member. Indeed, any development proposals must only go through site plan committee, not town council. Olsen said a convenience store or fast food outlet would be "asking for trouble. From a community point of view it would be bad news." "Our concern is that there's going to be garbage everywhere and that you'll be getting kids walking across to smoke," said Coates. "We have a catwalk adjacent to us and we're always getting tons of litter from the kids. We're worried it's just going to increase," she said. "This is a residential street. I've got young kids. It would just be a night mare." (See `Site' page A2) Viral meningitis outbreak in north being monitored By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF An outbreak of viral meningitis -- not to be confused with the deadly meningococcal meningitis -- in North Oakville has Halton health officials on the alert. Halton usually averages about 8 cases of this illness annu ally. However, the Halton Regional Health Department has received reports of 15 confirmed cases just in the past week. They're primarily among north Oakville high school stu dents, though three of the 15 infected youths are (See `Symptoms' page A5) Z o n i n g w o u ld c o u n te r r a d io a c tiv e w a s te s i t e p la n s By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The Town of Oakville is in danger of suf fering a nuclear meltdown as it crawls toward invoking a new employment lands zoning pol icy. The policy is one that accommodates poten tial sites for a nuclear waste transfer station. Such a transfer station, the former Canatom, located at 1182 South Service Rd. was used several years ago to collect, store and ship out low level radioactive waste, like x-rays. While Mayor Ann Mulvale said there is no known interest in setting up such an operation here now, she maintained the best defence to potential future court challenges is to provide suitable locations rather than having none, or invoking an outright ban. It's also hoped that the new zoning policy, which calls for ah 800-metre separation between such a site and residences, would pre vent anyone from re-opening the vacant Canatom site. . The new zoning by-law would, however, accommodate several suitable sites in the Burloak and Winston Park industrial parks. By contrast, Oakville's current zoning by law leaves the door open to many sites around town, the Town's long range planner Lynne Gough told Planning and Development council Monday. The new employment land zoning by-law aims to simplify employment zoning and move from an industrial, to an employment focus. It should also improve the standards gov erning employment land in Oakville, said Town solicitor Doug Gates. It calls for heavy industry near the railway; prestige/light industrial near the highway; and, commercial as a buffer between residential and industrial. Town staff has urged council to get the new rules in place quickly. (See `New' page A5) INSIDE to d a y ' s paper Edttoriate..... ..... en----oalo Entertainment.... R ikvvmk Ctasafipd....... . Automotive____ A6 ....... B1 fid Palerm o Village discussion delayed The Town of Oakville's Planning and Development council has put off the future of Palermo Village -- until next month. The new Palermo Area Land Use Study finally arrived before the council on Monday. However, a lengthy public meeting on another issue saw councillors vote to defer the Palermo Study discussion until July 9th. Ward 4 Councillor Jody Sanderson was disap pointed to see the deferral, calling the study "an exciting plan." Mayor Ann Mulvale admitted there's a lot of public interest and invited those in attendance at Monday's meeting, to return again in July. The main feature of the plan is to preserve the Village of Palermo, states a report from the Town's long range planner Lynne Gough. That will be done by diverting through traffic onto by-passes for Dundas Street and Bronte Road. That's the plan. Heritage buildings will be kept and the old parts of Dundas Street and Bronte Road will be re-devel oped as street-oriented retail/office, states Gough's report. Palermo's recommended future would then be incorporated into the Town of Oakville's Official Plan -- a blueprint for future planning. That translation into the Official Plan, however, will have to wait until after Halton Region settles the details about its widening of Bronte Road from two lanes to four lanes. The Bronte Road road-widening project is set to head into public consultation this month. Local planners believe Palermo could either be swallowed up by growth now knocking at its door -- or its historic centre could be retained as the core of a new urban hub. They favour the latter and it's been dubbed the Palermo "Node." It would include 1,900 acres stretching south of Dundas to north of Hwy. 407, and 1 km east and west of Bronte Rpad. fifi .......m ....... rtd ____ D8 Photo by Brent Foster Oakville Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Matt Correia, 13, pulls weeds at the Oakville Training Campus for Emergency Excellence on Saturday. It was part o f the Cadets Caring For Canada program that saw sea cadets from across the country take part in environmental activities on the weekend. 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