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Page 8 THE HERALD Wednesday December 1990 Vandalism a bane on communities It is about time the collective powers that be in the Town of Hills and indeed Halton Region stop procrastinating and passing the buck on the bane of our community namely vandalism The most recent incidence of senseless vandalism oc curred at the Love and Christ food bank located in the basement of Mountamview Baptist Church in Georgetown Food items meant for the needy were stolen But the who had broken into the church didnt stop there Oh no they had to further cheapen their cowardly act by destroymg food they obviously couldnt cart away and vandalizing the church property itself The incident and its nundlessness shocked the com of Halton Hills and rightly so The food bank incident was just another step up the ladder of vandalism that is plaguing Halton Hills and in a nutshell nothing is being done to counteract the pro blem At an Oct 1st meeting of town council Mayor Miller expressed shock at learning that vandalism to public property was costing the community so much money which he estimated to be close to 100000 for In his own words Im amazed to learn the amount of money vandalism is costing the town A closed door meeting with District Division Georgetown Halton Region Police Staff Inspector Richard Kivell was convened supposedly to discuss van dalism but according to sources who attended the meeting the issue received little priority Then came the Oct Devils Night incident Ac ton which was vandalism at its worst where the core of Acton was taken over by hooligans The upshot of this incident was reports from police and town council that it wouldnt be allowed to happen again Close the barn door after the horse has bolted theory youve still lost the horse There is a town bylaw in place offering rewards to people who turn in vandals who are subsequently con victed and there was supposed to be a campaign in by town council to inform residents of this fact What happened to the campaign In a story appearing in this edition of the Hills Herald Insp Kivell once again appears to put van dalism at the bottom of the totem pole in terms of police priority Similarly Director of Parks and Recreation for the Town of Halton Hills Tom Shepard appears to lay blame on residents for not taking a more active role in the fight against vandalism If this is leadership were all in trouble We offer these suggestions in the fight against com munity vandalism It doesnt take a statistical genius to figure out what times and areas vandalism occurs in our community Police should beef up patrols during those times and in those areas Even if it means patrolling with red lights flashing The town should indeed launch a publicity campaign to stamp out vandalism but take things a step further Any person regardless of age convicted of an act of vandalism to town property should be barred for a year from town facilities This would include arenas ing pools tennis courts and park facilities including baseball diamonds The ban could be lifted if and when the convicted vandal performed a certain number of hours in com munity service Think of all the youngsters who would think twice about committing an act of vandalism if they knew they wouldnt be able to play hockey for a year or swim dur the summer or play baseball or softball Think of all the adults who would think twice about committing an act of vandalism if they realized they couldnt play recreational hockey or slopitch or who had to explain to their youngsters that they couldnt take them to an event because they the adults were barred from the facility Similarly a list of convicted vandals barred from town facilities should be posted in a prominent place in the facilities explaining why the person had lost the right to avail himself herself of community facilities These suggestions would not cost the community very much in terms of extra funding but it would get the message across that vandalism wont be tolerated in Halton Hills It is tune to do something about this blight on our com The talking stage is over What is needed is ac- Editorial The Halton Hills HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills Established A Division of Canadian Newspaper Company Limited Street Georgetown Ontario EDITORIAL COLIN GIBSON ROD RISK Spoil Stall Will all Llta Hull Jgg ISING N TAYLOR MANAGER Toets CLASSIFIED Joan CIRCULATION Shadbolt ACCOUNTING JannlaMap SUBSCRIPTION RATES year throe month K ROBERT Publisher and General Manager 8772201 Trie Herald la I ma copy rig tit on all news and Created by Ita employees and In National Oman St Toronto Ontario 1MB Hon Ira I Quabac by that portion of Iha which anor occurred whether error la to negligence of It am ahall ba no liability for non of am advertisement beyond paid lor Peoples Forum- Letter of the Week Shackles bind politicians Editors note A of the following letter was released to the Hills Herald for publication Dear Mr Turner Your booklet entitled What If recently received in the mail I found to be most interesting At your request I am responding to your suggestion not so much because for the mobt part I am in agreement but rather to give vent to views which up until now have been contained and thus allowed to smolder and ferment with ever increasing dissatisfac tion On page sixteen of your booklet you touched on one of the hingepins of demoeracy as we have come to know it in the Western World and which is on the fallacy that politicians act on behalf of the people they claim to represent You yourself are a prime example of this the ideas you have expressed make sense they are fair and reasonable and if adopted would certainly contnute re establishment of a more viable economy But here is the rub How many of these proposals would ever see the light of day in Ottawa By your own admission MPs have to vote along party lines too often and for this reason I have little or no use for government based on party politics which by its very nature is fraught with corrup tion exposed the machinations of power politics and highly vulnerable to the inescapable pressures of lobby groups I am not a political scientist but would venture to suggest that at some point in time party politics was completely unknown and thus any man who was chosen to represent his fellow man did so knowing he was free as well as duty bound to vote as his cons dictated In recent months the media has repeatedly reported that govern at all levels do not listen to the public that Ottawa or Queen Park is the sole judge of what is good for the electorate and that they have been given a mandate to rule this could well be true but only if the elected representatives are free to speak their minds and this they cannot do as long as they retain party allegiance You ask for help and tions towards solving the pro blems of government I will give you one idea if you dare to follow it fight for the independence of Members of Parliament aim for the total destruction of the party machine and in so doing remove the shackles that bind those who seek to represent us Only in this way will we move a big step closer to the ideal and thereby banish so many of the inequities and injustices rampant in government today Finally it is interesting to note that in Plato s Republic government by the philosophical elite was considered the ideal By this method it was judged that the good of the people was best by those who were more to govern without bias Yours truly James J DeSylva Georgetown establishment of a more viable mandate to rule this could well Georgetown POWER says thanks To the Editor the Georgetown water supply by tin Dairy Queen To the Editor On behalf of POWER Protect Our Water and Environment Resources I would like to thank the community for their support of our Halloween costumes dance October The dance was held to raise funds in the fight to protect the Georgetown water supply by stopping a dump for garbage from outside of from be ing located in the quarry The event was a great party A special thanks to the local reUilcrs who costume pmes Dairy Queen House of ituddhi J V Clothing Living liililuiL Line Pood all Hut and It Sincerely Donna Robin Georgetown