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one real estate team that KNOWS OAKVILLE Please join Mayor Rob Burton and Oakville Council for the presentation of the Mayor's fourth Annual Town Status Report. Monday, September 20 at 7 p.m. Town Hall, Council Chamber, 1225 Trafalgar Road Mayor's Annual Town Status Report Oakville Town Council invites and encourages you to apply to serve on a Town Committee to help Oakville achieve its goal of becoming the most livable town in Canada. There are currently vacancies on the following advisory committees: Accessibility Advisory Committee (10 positions available) Committee of Adjustment (5 positions available) Community Spirit Awards Selection Committee (4 positions available) Cultural Advisory Committee (7 positions available) nvironmental Strategic Plan Committee (10 positions available) arbours Advisory Committee (9 positions available) eritage Oakville Advisory Committee (9 positions available) Oakville Public ibrary Board (9 positions available) Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee (10 positions available) Property Standards Advisory Committee (3 positions and 2 alternates) Seniors Advisory Committee (10 positions available) Traffic Advisory Committee (6 positions available) Transit Advisory Committee (6 positions available) Further details, committee descriptions and application forms are available at www.oakville.ca advisory.asp or from the Clerk s department at Town all, Trafalgar Road. Applications will be accepted until Friday, October 8, 2010. For more information about the appointment procedure, please call Colleen Tino, Clerk s department at , e t. , or email ctino oakville.ca. Join a Town of Oakville Committee and Make a Difference Volunteer you can make a difference! Vision To be the most livable town in Canada 9 W ednesday , Septem ber 15, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Just one week into the school year and a group of students at the new Palermo Public School is no longer forced to use a nature trail to walk to and from school because the land was deemed a floodplain by the local conservation authority. The issue was brought before the Halton District School Board after the trail, which crosses with Valleyridge Drive, on which the school sits, was used to measure the shortest route to school for a group of students. Without the use of the trail, those students would have farther than 1.6 km to walk to school, which would warrant bus transportation. After complaints from parents that the trail was not fit for walking and would not be pass- able many times of the school year, the school board investigated. At the beginning of September, the school board spoke with the Halton Region Conservation Area, which described the walk- way as a low-lying floodplain. The floodplain would be used to collect wastewater and rain run-off in periods of wet weather, including when the surrounding lands are frozen. As far as the Halton Region Conservation Authority is concerned, flooding could begin to overtop the trail just before the pedestrian bridge and there is a four per cent chance in any year that it will happen, said the school boards superintendent of business, Steven Parfeniuk. You never know when it will happen. It could happen tomorrow for all we know, but for the most part, the variables are most dangerous during February, March and April. Youve got frozen ground and rain and the rain has no place to go but up. The school board has an amalgamated transportation agreement with the other school boards in the region. As a result of the new information from the conservation authority, the public and the Halton Catholic District School Board declared the trail as unacceptable for students to use. I think now the right thing has been done and children within the busing distance will now get there safely and their parents will never have to worry about them crossing through the floodplain, said area trustee Kathryn Bateman- Olmstead, who fought for the decision. What I anticipate and what I expect to hap- pen, we will review all of our walking trails and make sure that none of them go through a floodplain, she added. But we will certainly be looking at the transportation policy because there is a difference between a significant nature trail and one with higher risks than oth- ers and this one certainly had higher risks. Were concerned that the water could be as fast as 1.6 metres per second and it could cer- tainly spill over the banks and wipe out the pedestrian bridge, Parfeniuk said. Busing for the students began on Monday, one week into the school year. The exact busing cost is still unknown, but it can vary from $12,000 to $40,000 per year depending on the boards ability to amalgamate other bus runs. Palermo students saved from walking nature trail