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CASTLEGAR NEWS, Thursday, June 22, 1978 Victoria, Be Ce

VERSARY

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CASTLEGAR NEWS Ga

Distributed Bright and Early Every Thursday Morning at “The Crossroads of the Kootenays” .

Canada Week
June 25-July 1

VOL. 31, No. 26

TWO SECTIONS (A&B) aG@hSipo

CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1978 .

co

25 CENTS

Fireproof Filing Cabinets are Credited with Saving Many Records

Ry

the 12-room

Sawmill Office Destroyed

Sunday Fire of Mysterious Origin

By BURT CAMPBELL
Publisher
Castlegar News

An early-morning fire Sun-
day completely destroyed the
office building of Slocan Forest
Products at Slocan City.

Anestimate of the value of
the 12-room building was not
available. However, it was
covered by insurance.

A spokesperson at the
RCMP's Crescent Valley de-
tachment refused comment on
reports a vehicle left town
around the time the fire was
discovered at such a rate of
speed, that it woke people up,
but did say reports of broken
windows being discovered by
early arrivals at the fire were
not fact,

Telephone service in the
community’ was affected at
about the same time as the fire
and wasn't restored until later
that day.

Plant manager Harry Ar-
gatoff, a shoreholder in Slocan
Forest Products who took over
the sawmill and logging opera-
tion from Triangle Pacific only
10 days earlier, said the com-
pany doesn’t know how the fire
started.

Asked if arson is sus-
pected, Mr. Argatoff said he

es to water down charred remains of the office building of Slocan Forest Products only hours after

theearly

‘otos by Burt

wouldn't want to comment on
the possibility pending an in-
vestigation by the provincial
fire marshal's office.

Representatives of the fire
marshal arrived in Crescent
Valley to meet with the RCMP
on Tuesday afternoon and were
scheduled to go on to Slocan
City later that day.

‘The fire alarm was turned

in by the company's night
watchman.

Mayor Agda Winje said
the watchman is reported to
have checked the building only
15 minutes to half-an-hour
before discovering the fire, and
scon after that it “was a raging
inferno.”

Both Winje and Argatoff
were high in their praise of the

'

Slocan Volunteer Fire Depart-
ment and village residents who
pitched in to help the firemen.

Steve Cooley, president of
the local volunteer fire associa-
tion, said all of the village's
available firemen fought the
blaze, assisted by Slocan Forest
Products employees and other
residents

Damage at CanCel Sawmill
_ Reaches $6 Million Mark

Ins
to the CanCel sawmill fire
which has now been estimated
at a loss of $6 million, well over
the first reports of an estimated
$1 million loss,

Mill manager Chuck Din-

ning told the Castlegar News
yesterday morning damage hit
the most machinery-intense
portion of the mill and major
repairs are necessary to several
of the buildings.
* " At present, a week-and-a-
half after the blaze, 125 men out
of a normal work force of 300,
are working.

Dinning said the cleanup
operations will provide some
work for a time, but will make
only a minor dent in the avail-
able work force. A backlog of
rough wood is being planed to
keep some of the workers busy
but this will run out in six to
eight weeks.

To solve the problems of
those workers suddenly with-
out jobs, a major injtiative is
being taken by Canada Man-
power, the Unemployment In-
surance Commission, Interna-

~ tional Woodworkers of America

and the company.
Dinning said. the © just-

$2,000 SHSS
Educational
Study Planned

The School District No. 9
board of trustees voted at its
June meeting to allocate $2,000
for an external education study

small-log mill will be
back in operation the soonest,
in four or five months, The old
large-log mill, however, will
take up to a year to put back
together.

“There is extensive build-
ing damage and quite a bit of
equipment damage that we're
sure of now,” he said. “It was a
big fire. A lot of equipment will
have to be sent back to the

The investigator from the
fire _marshal's office was in
Wednesday of last week.
Though he has not yet seen a
report from the fire marshal's
office, Dinning said approval
has been given to goahead with
demolishing the burned area.
“The underwriters have also
been on the site,” he said.

He did state, however, he
felt the workers on the job
their duties in a

for
and that’s going to take a long
time.”

Until the investigation is
completed, Dinning said he did
not care to make any comment
on the cause of the fire.

New Event

For Castlegar
Sunflower Fest

A new event has been
added to the Castlegar Sun-
flower Fest activities — the
Southern Interior Loggers’
Sports Association competi-
tions” which will include log
burling, bucking and axe throw-
ing.

Sponsored by the Castle-
gar Kiwanis Club, these com-
petitions will take place at Pass
Creek Park where some novice
events will allow the general
public to take an active part.

Spokesman for the three-
man committee organizing the
competitions, Charlie Cohoe,
said more details will be made
available closer to the actual
event.

of Stanley F hries Second-
ary Schoo) this fall.

The board approved the
allocation, on the condition
funds are available, for a
review similar to the external
audit planned by Selkirk Col-
lege.

District superintendent
John Holden said the schoo! has
already und an internal

Controversy Ends With
Relocation of Crusher

«<The controversy over a
gravel-making operation which
has-been working at Ooti-
schenia has come to an abrupt
end with its relocation some 10

There appears to be no direct
answers.

Operations began working
at its new location mid-June
and according to the ministry of

review di d by SHSS

No Water Meeting:
Council Concerned

A relatively quiet and
short council meeting was held
Tuesday evening—which may
be the summer trend—though
all bers were present.

miles up the new Castl
Salino highway link,
Regional District of Cen-
tenay board, on several
has heard i

project supervisor, it

will not be relocated again at
Ootischenia for this project.

The highways department,

however, has made: application’

of:tioise and settling of rock
dist “from residents in Ooti-
schenid, These complaints re-
sulted in RDCK approaching
the “land commission asking
that the land not be used in this
manner.

“will Qotischenia again

the land com-
mission for an additional three
acres, extending the approxi-
mate two acres it had been
crushing on,

The Castlegar News has
been told this step was taken
for future use should there be a
demand for gravel to maintain
the hi

house a rock-crushing plant?

Long Weekend Brings
News Out on Friday

willbe on

News, of

The
Friday morning next week, Instead of on Thuraday.

Tho change in publishing date Is made necessary by the
fact that the July 1 legs! holiday falls on our employees’
normal day of rest and therefore they will recelve Mon., July

» Aswell, 25 percent of the Castlegar News staff will also

be on annual vacation at that time putting a strain on our

normal production capacity.

‘We hope this necessary change In publishing date won't
inconvenience cur advertisers too greatly and we ask our
carriers to make note of the change.

Mayor Audrey Moore
voiced concern over the water
situation stating that with the
closing of the House this week-
end, council must not let the
water issue sleep for the two

~ summer months.

It was noted June 23, the
deadline for a meeting between
the city, CanCel and the gov-
ernment, had passed with no
meeting yet in sight. Ald. C. S.
Fowler, in his report, said it
could only be assumed’ the
government was waiting for
the report on the Selkirk
College well.

The feeling was expressed
the report would be used by the
government to present a cost
analysis—Selkirk well water
vs. water above the Keenley-
side Dam.

In other council business,
approval was given a $1,000
grant to the auxiliary police
which will be used for clothing,
equipment and field training.

A report was given on the
progress of the water tank
being built near the Kinnaird
Elementary School. The floor is
now ready for a two-day con-
tinuous pour. Tentative date
for filling the tank is Aug. 15.

A jump of almost $1 million

:
was noted in building permits.
In 1977 the total was $1,468,236
compared to this year's $2,546,-
270 during the same time
period.

staff, and the external review
will be conducted by a six-
member team of administra-
tors, teachers and principals
from outside the district.

Education committee
chairman Anne Jones told the
board there had been no pre-
vious appraisal of the school.

“It’s about time we knew,
and the taxpayers knew, where
we stand,” she said.

DTU Operating Budget
‘Can be Lived With’

CasNews Staff

David Thompson Univers- -

ity Centre's $908,000 1978
operating budget is $258,785
less than the sum requested,
but it is enough, Selkirk College
council members were told on
Thursday of last week.
Discussing distribution of

‘the budget with the council ina

meeting at the college's Nelson
vocational campus, finance com-
mittee chairman Helmut Krue-
ger said the new budget repre-
sented a $4,660 decrease from
proportionate .calculations of
last. year's 10-month budget
over a 12-month period.

“But it's a balanced budget
and we can live with it,”
Krueger said. “We know we
can carry on with the academic
program and we do have
enough for maintenance.”

Selkirk College principal
Mitch Anderson said DTUC
would have some difficulty in
maintaining the same level of
service in gymnasium this year.

“Other areas somewhat
short of funds include the com-
munity extension programs
area,” he said. “We're going to
review all commitments and
see if we can continue some of
the programs.”

Krueger's report said the
budget would require no addi-
tional transfer of funds from
the instructional area, “al-
though some flexibility is
allowed in other areas." He
cited as an example plans to
save $7,000 to $8,000 for in-
creased gym operation by re-
stricting operations to certain
buildings,

The report said the nine-
member DTUC library staff,
equal to the staff at the Selkirk
College library, would remain
intact. Krueger agreed the
DTUC library “is not a cost-
efficient operation” and said
October has been set as the
target date for a common
library system with the Castle-
gar campus,

normal manner and that the
company stands behind the
ability of its employees to carry
out their work.

When asked about the
possibility of a spark from a
welder's torch causing the fire
he said "We do major repairs in
the sawmill every day. The
need for welding is a very
common problem in sawmills.
We have maximum fire pro-
tection and the underwriters
are very stringent in their
requirements.”

The Saturday fire was
doused by members of the
Castlegar Volunteer Fire De-
partment, workers for CanCel,
and a Trail city fire teuck.

At first it was thought
damage was not too serious,
with only structural damage to
buildings housing major saw-
mill equipment.

It has since been found
whole log processing chains
have been disabled and will
require overhauling.

Dinning said CanCel has
insurance coverage, but the
deductible is'$2. million, which
the company will immediately
have to pay itself to put the
mill back in operation.

he said. “We appreciated their
help."

Cooley also praised the
crowd of onlookers for exer-
cising control and keeping back
from the blaze so that fire
fighting operations weren't
hampered.

Asked about the possibility
of arson, Cooley said “I'm no
expert. I guess it’s a possibility
with any fire... I guess there's
also a possibility of an electrical
malfunction,”

Argatoff said records in
fireproof filing cabinets were
saved, while charred records
were also salvaged from the
basement.

The company has set up
temporary offices at the Slocan
Inn and a new office building
“will be considered very
shortly.”

THE
INSIDE

e YOUNG PROS: Close
competition among junior

golfers,
Page AB
© PARK: Students of SHSS
to make their own.
Page BL
e SCHOOL CAMPOUT:
An outdoor learning ex-
perience,
Page B8
Ann Landers ... Page'AS
BillSmiley .... Page B2
Classified Ads, Real
Estate, and Automotive. . .
Pages Al10-A11-A12-A13
Editorial

Pages A4-A5.
Sports . . Pages AG-A8-A9
Telenews . . . Pages B3-B4

Weekend )

Weathercast

SUNNY and warm today.
This type of weather is

expected to last the better
part of the long holiday
weekend, if not all of it.

For convenient home delivery:

of the Castlegar News, call
365-7266.

OFFICIAL OPENING of Castlegar and
Olstrict Chamber of Commerce tourist booth
takes place tomorrow In time to great

ida Day visitors. Openin;

pai
in Monday as president Searle Sheldon

finds the chamber's tourist booth staff with
brushes-In-hand sprucing up the new booth.’
Shown here with Sheldon are, left to right,.

lone Jodie Wigen, Marla Klinakin, and Lori

Nixon.—CasNewsFoto by Bill Jones