OurViEWS Adrian Moth ball city hall he spending habits of city [econ are about to be challenged. Only this time, the challenge is coming from within. Taking the lead from the Coalition Unaccepting Rash Bureaucracy, Councillor Jim Chapman has jumped on the ‘Dump City Hall’ bandwagon. The outspoken councillor says that the $903,000 Castlegar is prepared to spend fixing up its glorified shoe box is a waste of taxpayers money. Chapman has hit the nail on the financial head — four months after CURB originally attacked Castlegar’s the renovations plans. The $903,000 the city plans to invest in its current building can be better spent elsewhere. All the renovation in the world couldn’t make city hall anything but functional. With that in mind, Castlegar must get its head out of the clouds and stop pretending that renovations are the the be all and end all solution to its city hall woes. Instead, our protectors of the “SSSR ... THE FIRST DAY BACK AT SCHOOL | CAN ENDURE, BUT HER WHISTLING “HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE »- ” a7 ie a (Pd Local socce There’s something about ‘takes it on the chin impressed. And as much the game of soccer that baffles me. Is there any other game in the world that can make grown adults act like complete idiots? Sure, hockey has its moments and baseball breeds whiners, but soccer is in a league of its own when it comes to stupidity. as I want to be a ‘rah rah’ team player, I’m saddened to know my team was involved in these unnecessary donnybrooks. Round 1 took place in the second half of a lop- sided 6-3 contest when one of our forwards was intentionally kicked as he lay flat on the ground by a #r2e! Rr redmetoee ApheanneW @ Wednesday, September 9, 1992 z ; Other VIEWS Please address all letters to: Letters toWHE EDITOR It is extremely shocking how far some senior employees of the Ministry of Forests will go to justify violations of the law. In your September 5 issue, Ian Hamann, operations manager for the Arrow Forest District was quoted as saying “We had approved (SFP's) cutting permit under the old guidelines, then the rules changed (in 1987).” But these rules changed five years ago. Half a decade after the rules were changed to require by law pre-harvest silviculture prescriptions (PHSPs) for logging operations, an internal audit revealed that PHSPs were missing for two areas in the Slocan Valley which had been logged by Slocan Forest Products. Since then we've discovered that a cutblock in Wensle7z Creek, a domestic watershed, also does not have a PHSP. Since the audit only sampled a few representative cutblocks it is very likely that there are many others. The public needed an audit to reveal this information but the people who issued the logging permits didn’t need an audit to tell them what they were doing. It is their business to keep track of the specific requirements of the Forest Act. They certainly knew about it after the audit was done, but done and carried out in a satisfactory manner. It’s just that the paperwork got caught up after the fact, and it’s unfortunate.” What this really means is that the legal requirements of the Forest Act are not important to the person second in command at the Arrow ‘What’s urgently needed is nothing less than a complete overhaul of the Ministry of Forests to look after the public interests instead of the much more narrow interests of large logging corporations.’ —valhalla Society’s Grant Copeland they did not shut down the illegal logging operations until the Valhalla Society discovered that the PHSP’s were missing. Hamann also was quoted saying “The key to this whole thing is the way we view it. As far as the Arrow Forest District is concerned, Slocan Forest Products’ operations were well Forest District Office in Castlegar. It’s only paperwork he says, but PHSPs are more than paperwork, they’re a contract stipulating what reponsibilities the company must meet to reforest their cutblocks, and they must be signed before the company gets the wood. Little comfort found with ministry This latest news again confirms to us that the fox is still guarding the chicken coop. We wonder how long a small contractor would get away with logging without the required permits. We question how long the present government will continue to allow these flagrant violations of the law. What’s urgently needed is nothing less than a complete overhaul of the Ministry of Forests to look after the public interests instead of the much more narrow interests of large logging corporations. We need specific regulations that can be enforced and diligent. public servants willing to enforce them. We need an immediate and comprehensive audit of all operations within the Arrow Forest District. And we need severe penalties imposed when logging is done illegally. Grant Copeland Director Valhalla Society Why is national referendum so important? public purse must recognize that I’m almost embarrassed Harrison Penticton Sporting Club Letters to the Publisher Scott David Harrison Editor Mickey Read Composing Room Foreman Warren Chernoff Accountant Mary Ann Fullerton Circulation Manager Burt Campbell Publisher Emeritus L.V. Campbell Aug. 7, 1947- Feb. 15, 1973 these renovations are nothing more than a band-aid solution... and an expensive one at that. Castlegar has to bite the financial bullet and come up with the cash needed to build a new city hall. Anything else would only reinforce what the Price Waterhouse report had to say about Castlegar’s incredible lack of planning. A new city hall may cost more, but it’s an investment worth making. s.D.HARRISON to say I play the game. Let me rephrase that: I am embarrassed to say I play E Comparison defender. Being the slightest person on the team, a few of our boys the game. It all has to do with an ugly incident Monday in Penticton when my team — the Hi Arrow Devils — decided to trade punches with another crew on two separate occasions. Wonderful. Boy, did Castlegar ever show ’em. With apologies to my teammates, who will probably kick me off the team after reading this troublesome report, I am not decided to step in. And step in they did, with fists flying. It was a sick sight to-witness, one which does little to help the wonderful game of soccer earn any ounce of credibility. After cooler heads prevailed and the Penticton defender was tossed from the game for his unforgivable crime, play resumed. It’s was halted some 15 minutes later when Round 2 broke out. please see HARRISON page 7 aoc Stree TALK = Valerie Kosowan Castlegar “Drama, because I like to act.” Question: What is your favorite subject at school? Kyle Grant Robson “Woodwork, because it’s the easiest.” Susan Carter Pass Creek “Math, because I do and English because I like to read.” Elizabeth Duarte Castlegar “Communications, because I want to go into that field.” Justin Batting Deer Park “Social Studies, because it’s not very hard.” oOo Editor Castlegar News P.O. Box 3007 Castlegar, B.C. ViN 3H4 or deliver them to 197 Columbia Ave. Letters should be typewritten, double-spaced and not longer than 300 words. Letters MUST be signed and include the writer's first and last names, address and a telephone number at which the writer can be reached between 9a.m. and 5 p.m. The writer’s name and city or town of residence only will be published. Only in exceptional cases will letters be published anonymously. Even in those cases, the name, address and phone number of the writer MUST be disclosed to the editor. The News reserves the right to edit letters for brevity, clarity, legality, grammar @ Hello, Dear Abby? Dear Abby, are you out there? I am in a quandry. Perhaps I should have addressed this letter properly to “Dear Abby”. My problems is this: Can anyone help me out? Question — Why is it so important that Canadians should vote on this proposed Referendum on Oct. 26? When there was massive opposition to the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement and when there was overwhelming objection to the unpopular GST tax both were legislated anyway. Now, this same Goverment wants to spend $4 billion dollars to protect us from — the Atlantic Cod or Arctic Char? ; Why must we be urged to vote on this issue? I am convinced that in the unlikely event that the majority should vote “No” this irresponsible government would insist on carrying out its own proposals. I would rather vote on this $4 billion expenditure to chase the “Red Of course, I would prefer that Canada should stay together and that indigenous peoples should be recognized as people in their own homeland. I can only hope that bread and butter, unemployment, housing, health care and environment issues should have primary concerns. Please, “Dear Abby”, advise me. I would hate to spoil my vote but what should I do? Iam tired of eating the promised “cake” but would settle for good old- fashioned “bread” if I had the choice. Worried, Herrings” out of the Arctic Ocean. Pat Romaine Castlegar and taste. Harrison continued from page 6 I got a front row seat for this one, as it occurred just outside the front of my net when a pair of players started a pushing and shoving match, before another came in with fists flexed. A brief hugging match ensued as the less impressed players on the field tried to restore calm. Me, I wanted no part of this ju- venile action, so after unsuccess- fully trying to be the voice of rea- son, I trotted back to my net where one of my midfielders took shots on me. After the second scrum sub- sided, the referee — an incompe- tent official at the best of times — made his best call of the game fol- lowing that scrap when he ended the contest. Now, I could be like the rest of the players and blame the whole thing 'on this referee. And 99 out of 100 people would likely agree with me. I won't do that though. Instead, I'll place the blame where it belongs — squarely on the shoulders of the Castlegar Devils and Penticton Sporting Club. Let’s face it, referees don’t cause fights, players do. This, I know from experience. I used to be a referee. In fact, I refereed for some 10 years before giving it up because of the con- stant crap teams subjected me to. I promised myself I'd never pick up a whistle again and to this day I haven't. I started refereeing when I was 10 years old, doing mini-soccer games between a bunch of ¢are- free five-year-olds. It. was a lot of fun to watch a cluster of 20 kids chase a size four soccer ball from one end of the field to the other. But, the older I got, the older the teams I refereed got. Even that wasn’t so bad, until I entered the ranks of senior men’s soccer. I gave it up at 24 when I red- carded one fellow for intentionally kicking another player. The guy — a teammate of mine during my college soccer days in Quebec — throw a punch at me, narrowly missing my beak. I promptly wrote up a report, demanding that this guy be kicked out of the league. He was given a one game suspension and I was given no reason to keep on refereeing. Which brings me back to Mon- day. I derive no pleasure from the brawls that took place during our contest. There’s nothing glorious about losing a 6-3 contest but com- ing out on the winning side of two separate scuffles. The sport deserves better from the Castlegar Devils and I hope- my teammates — the very few of them who had anything to do with Monday’s punch up — remember that the next time we take to the field.