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Slopitch league offers $100K to Town for new ball diamond Continued from pg. 1 To date, only four unlit soccer fields have been completed. Last year Phase 3B was removed from the 2006 budget, after the Georgetown Soccer Club rescinded its previous contribution offer ($75,000 plus $60,000 over three years). The club instead invested in the Acton Agriculture Society's multi-purpose facility, which will include indoor soccer. As a consequence, the Town bumped up the construction of the Acton Sports Park beside the arena after receiving a $100,000 contribution from the Acton Soccer Club. This year Phase 3B was once again included in the Recreation and Parks 2007 capital budget with a proviso of a $100,000 contribution from either the soccer club or the slopitch league. Funding will also come from development charges reserve fund ($311,000) and Cash-inlieu Parkland reserve ($104,000) for a total $515,000. Abbott said roughly $288,000 of the total would go to the building the unlit major diamond and the remainder to site works (parking lot etc). "Baseball diamonds are expensive, and that's without lights and irrigation," Abbott said. "If you had lights and irrigation, it would be up to nearly half a million dollars just to build a baseball diamond." Ironically, he said, it is unlikely Georgetown Slopitch League members will ever use the Sports Park diamond on a regular basis, since the teams play mainly at night, and require lit fields. "We're really doing this just to get another ball diamond in town," Abbott said. "And hopefully that will release some of the pressure on the other facilities as well." Based on the high cost of sports facilities, Abbott is approaching other organizations in town, such as Georgetown Baseball Association, Halton Hills Hawks Softball, and Georgetown Soccer Club, for contributions as well, and preliminary discussions are proving positive. "I'm just delighted in my short time of watching and participating to see someone come here with a cheque in their hands," said new Ward 3 Councillor Dave Kentner. "This is great, go and get some more." (Cynthia Gamble can be reached at cgamble@independentfreepress.com) Halton Hills to province: Fix the doctor shortage Halton Hills council is calling for the Ontario government to take immediate action to resolve the doctor shortage in the province. At a recent meeting, council endorsed that resolution that originally came from the Township of Madawaska Valley council. That council decided to adopt the resolution saying the doctor shortage was created by the Province because cuts to medical admissions resulted from provincial funding cuts to medical schools. It said the shortage has resulted in greater competition by medical boards to secure the lower number of graduates, and those boards are asking municipalities to fund the "hideous" practice of "free agency buying of medical personnel." That council also said it's becoming more and more difficult to attract doctors to rural areas.