Th Baaiiiger Bish Wednesday, December 23, 1992 = Contest Sun staff 1 Joe Duke crafts toys from wood for boys and girls of all ages. Duke has lots of help from his family. His wife Clemmy, stains and markets the wooden won- “She also good ideas for the educational toys,” said Duke's son Robin, 10, gives his final seal of approval. “If he doesn’t like it, then it’s Duke believes that home made toys are once again becoming Popular, due to their durability and charm. “Robin's store-bought toys are all stored in his closet in a jum- “If I want color I use different types of wood. Pine and black walnut give a good contrast.” Duke has been crafting toys since 1981. 7 “TI made a truck for my son one Christmas. Someone saw it and brought it down to where they worked. I sold 30 of them.” “We did this as a living in Cre- ston. I was unemployed and the Wayward KAREN KERKHOFF Sun staff Take a wayward letter, add a heap of faith, a teaspoon of kind- ness, and a pinch of Christmas Spirit, and what you get is truly a Chri story worth re Tina Winterlik, a Castlegar resident, will have such a story to tell for many years, thanks to a Canada Post employee who went. out of his way to make sure a let- ter was delivered to her. Last summer, Winterlik worked as a home-support work- er for a couple, named Foisy, in Abb. Continued from 1A since. “Me and the kids would go out and decorate the house,” said Anne Titford. Besides lights, the Christmas display includes turtles which sing in a choir, and a snowman by dancing Christ- The Titfords would like to extend a welcome to anyone who would like to come and view the “Anyone is welcome to come and look.” Other winners throughout the Kootenays are: ‘Trail/Castlegar: First: Tom Titford, 2628 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar. Third: Jet Fumerton, 1031 North 7th Avenue, Creston. KCCCS now debt-free after go SHARLENE IMHOFF Sun Editor The Kootenay Columbia Child Care Society will be ing $67,871 to pay off its receiving eh lid vation of the Tender Care Vari- ety Centre was taking place. The announcement came from the office of the Mini of Women's Equality in Victo- ria. KCCCs. The mew Tender Care Variety Centre offers a number of new Programs for children under three, as well as a back-to- school program for young mothers.” Apos- at the Tender Care Variety Centre. This is the third time that the NDP government have provided money for this project—the KCCCS received $109,000 from the Lotteries C. ion; this was followed by $10,000 from the ministry of Social Ser- vices; and finally, the most Tecemt cheque for $67,871 from the Women's it inistry. Katrine parr whem the centre does any fundraising, it will be to raise money for the programs it is of “It's expensive to run these types of programs, but with this current debt-load paid off, it will be made easier.” Right: Rossiand-Trail NOP MLA Ed Conroy and KCCCS Chairpman Grant Apostoliuk, pose for a Photograph with children who are currently using the Tender Care Variety » fo Mark the latest amount of money which the centre has received, SUN STAFF PHOTO / Shastene Imhof When she returned to Castle- gar she decided to send the Foisys a card, but she neglected to put her return address, and last name on the letter. But that didn’t stop the Foisys from sending her a Christmas card. With a truckload of trust, the Foisys addressed a letter to the in Castlegar, and sent it by registered mail, it read: “Dear Sir, We have a young lady of 30 years of age, by name of Tina, last name unknown. She's five foot two inches in height, natural curly hair, blond and quite long. Therefore, we have received a lovely card from her, but no return address. However, she has a boyfriend who works for the of Highways. We are asking you for a little support by having this Christmas card given to her. Please try your best, we Ex Castlegar's own elf keeping busy for Christmas Castlegar resident Joe Duke shows one of the many toys he has crafted over the months to prepare for Christmas orders. toys kept us going.” Since those humble beginnings the Duke's ‘cottage industry’ has become well known in Castlegar. Duke prides himself on quali- ty. “T’ve never had to worry about quality. Word of mouth in a small town is very important.” The toy closest to Duke's heart is a replica 1915 Chevy. “I told my daughter Brandy Lee to pick out any toy out of the toy book, letter finds Castle both thank you. Wish you alla Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank-you again, Mrs. and Mrs. Foisy The card to Winterlik almost ended up in the dead letter pile at the Castlegar post office, but fate had another plan for the letter. When the Postmaster opened the letter, Harold Horsfall, a let- ter carriet/supervisor for the post office was sitting in the postmas- ter’s office. Horsfall said that after the Postmaster read Foisy's request he said “fat chance.” “I asked him what's up, and he told me about the letter. I told him my wife worked at the Department of Highways, and I would mention it to her.” Horsfall called his wife at work, and as it turned out, his wife's desk is only a couple of desks down from Drew Des- jardins, Tina's boyfriend. Des- jardins was contacted by Horsfall, and the letter was able to be delivered. Winterlik said that living in Castlegar does have it’s benefits. “There are some great benefits to living in a small town. I would like to wish Harold Horsfall a great big Merry Christmas. It's like a little miracle, the spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Castlegar.” By the way, there was an even bigger miracle in the story. “The letter wasn't delayed,” said Horsfall. even vernment grant pays off bills he a Re rr and I would make whatever she Picked out. She picked out the Chevy.” Among his myriad of fine toys Duke also has a tyrannosaurus rex which is arti¢ulate. The t- rex's legs move, and it's jaws Open and close. The Dukes are now hoping to tur their cottage industry into catalogue sales, but will also still be making toys to order. SUN STAFF PHOTO (aren Kerkhott “I get a lot of repeat cus- tomers, if someone sees some- thing they want made I will make it for them if they bring in a pic- ture to show me.” Duke loves what he’s doing, you can see it when he lovi holds a toy, and you can see it in his eyes when he speaks about crafting those toys. “My idea of retirement is doing nothing but toys,” he said. gar location Wednesday, December 23, 1992 The Castlegar Sun was westbound on Hi Tow truck workers prepare to ri =e, Precipitation: Rain Sunshine: Number of Hours 94 WEATHER OUTLOOK: The forecast for Wednesday; Mainly cloudy with light snow flurries and some wind. Highs of 0 and lows -2 to -4. Out. look until Boxing Day; Mainly cloudy light snow flurries, accumulations 4 - 8 cms. A LOOK BACK AT THE PAST WEEK: Temperature: Max/Date Min/Date 10/14 -15.2/19 Snow 0 23.4cm 19.7mm $e REMARKS: Above normal Snowfalls for the week brought smiles to the local skiers. With the latest snow we are about normal for the season. With well below normal tem- peratures the snow pack is remaining rather than melting off. Sunhine occured on two days only however thin 2 hours and 42 minutes more than normal. ————— Forecast provided by The South - East interior Weather Office Mean Normal re 6.9 Total Normal Number of Hours 6.7 Moore describes 1992 ‘full of high level activity’ SUN STAFF ‘SUN STAFF PHOTO / Karen Kerkhof Castlegar resident Tina Winterlik shows the letter which found its way to her doorste; P—and wasn't even late! By Leigh Rubin “Hey, Marv, turn around. You thing can swivel its jotta see how this ead!" Castlegar Mayor Audrey Moore called 1992 a year of high level activity for the city. “Whenver a small city such as Castlegar expwriences rapid it becomes a challenge for everyone to stay informed and then accept the changes,” she said. She highlighted several items as examples, such as the complet- eq new public works yard, the start of a downtown revitalization project, announcement of a bridge, the passing of an RCMP referendum, and the Official Community Plan. “The council and our staff have worked very diligently throughout the year.” AUDREY MOORE BCMA rejects latest offer KAREN KERKHOFF Sun staff An offer by the Ministry of Health has been rejected by the British Columbia Medical Asso- ciation (BCMA). The latest offer is a package which the government had hoped would put an end to a dispute which has been raging between the two since March 26, 1992. Health Minister, Elizabeth Cull stated in a Dec. 15 press release, “our offer has been made in good faith, and we view it as a solid basis that will enable all of us to finally resolve this issue. The offer is a fair and comprehensive package follow- ing three hard months of negoti- The offer included a multi- year master and working agree- ments, a two year financial package which will go towards ing physician's inflationary increases, an equally shared physician's RRSP, and a multi- million dollar benefits and insur- ance plan. The offer also included a pro- posal for a formation of a tri-par- tite Medical Services Commission, which would be a forum comprised of representa- tives from the government, Physicians and public. The pur- pose of the forum would be to Tesolve any further outstanding issues. Cull also stated in the release that she had confidence the peo- ple of B.C. will view the offer as fair. “The people of BC want this dispute settled. I believe the peo- ple of B.C. will support our lat- est offer because they will view it as a fair offer. I also believe the public will urge the BCMA to accept the basic elements of the offer so we can all start to focus on reforming and improv- ing our health care system.” BCMA President, Steve ee Hardwicke, said the statements made by Cull regarding the newest offer only serves to show that the Minister of Health is not in touch with issues that still need to be addressed in order for an agreement to be reached. “The health minister's state- ment that a settlement was immi- nent shows that she is still unaware of the issues that stand in the way of a settlement. I reit- erate, this is not a money issue, it is about process and the require- ment of a health care system to have a positive working relation- ship between the doctors of BC and the provincial government. I fear that Mrs. Cull’s disappoint- ing action today may lead to more doctors opting out of medi- care.”” It is expected that by January 1993, there will be 100 more British Columbian doctors who will opt out the medicare plan, and will begin direct billing to Patients. The patients would then have to bill medicare in order to be reimbursed for money paid to their doctors who have chosen to opt out. In November 1992, Hard- wicke commissioned MarkTrend Research to conduct a Province- wide health care assessment poll. The MarkTrend poll revealed that 91 per cent of British Columbians judged binding arbi- tration as the preferred way to settle the dispute between the BCMA. Respondents were asked questions regarding the current dispute, and some of the figures gleaned from the poll cast a shadow of non-confidence toward the current government and Cull. The poll gave individual doc- tors a 92 per cent trust rating, the BCMA 73 Per cent, the provin- cial government 48 per cent, Minister of Health Elizabeth Cull 49 Per cent and Premiere Harcourt 41 per cent, TRAIL TIMES The first major snowstorm to cover most of British Columbia caused very few accidents here in the West Kootenay, where peo- ple were already in the winter driving mode. Despite nearly 20 cm. of snow falling Friday and Saturday, Trail RCMP yesterday reported there were no major accidents causing death or injury and not much in the way of minor fender-benders. The relative calm was not Local Lions KAREN KERKHOFF Sun staff day storm was now tracking M and in its wake town streets S. as shopp tushed to take care of many last- minute details leading up to Christmas. The downtown traffic led to packed snow, and by yesterday afternoon the streets were a mess of melting slush and ruts. Snow plow operators worked long hours in all West Kootenay communities overnight, dealing with 15 to 25 cm of new, wet snow. Ron Lakeman from the Castle- gar weather office said the Satur- this area can expect more light snow -— but not like the deluge on Saturday. Vancouver, which always suf- fers under a heavy snowfall, experienced delays and cancella- tions at Vancouver Ai |, Which had to be plowed continuously through the day. On Hwy. 97 near Quesnel, a family of four was killed Friday when their car crossed She, centre . line ddring 4"whitéout and hit an oncoming ‘ragsport truck: head on. “The car lost control in the ‘ truck head-on,” said Cpl. Merv Osler of Quesnel RCMP. “All four people in the car were killed instantly. The driver of the track ; suffered minor injuries.” There is still an 80 per cent : chance of snow in the West Kootenay today, with lows of -7 and highs of -3. ' advises land Trail jor hish club considering Pass Creek upgrade RDCK is agreeable to, then it needs to go to membership for A committee appointed by the Castlegar Selkirk Lions Club has approached Castlegar and Dis- trict Community Recreation Commission to request that the club be allowed to consider de P and joint mai ment of Pass Creek Park. The three person committee, which consists of John Moorlag, Mark Zurek and Leo Plamondon, were on hand to present possible Projects, which could include a Permanent concession, a perma- nent band stand, trail develop- ment, a bridge over Norns Creek, and upgrading existing campsites and ball diamonds. John Moorlag, Director of Castlegar Selkirk Lions, said the RDCK has agreed in principal to the project(s), however specific details of any plans still need to agreed upon by the Lions Club and RDCK. “Once we come up with something the club and the Successful bridge bidder released soon SUN STAFF Ministry of Transportation and Highways Project Manager, Rocky Vanlerberg, is hoping a decision will be made this week on who the successful bidder for the Castlegar-Robson Bridge will be. “The earlier the contract is awarded, the sooner the contrac- tor will be on the site. We hope the contract will be awarded this week.” The lowest bid of $14,000,784 was tendered by SCI Engineering and Construc- tion Inc., a union company from Calgary. The 478 metre bridge is scheduled for completion by July 1994, with construction begin- ning as carly as January 1993. app |. It has been accepted in Principal, but it still needs to be approved by the executive and the club. The legal agreement is still to come. We will, in all Probability, make some kind of agreement with the Recreation development that is to be done to the park would only be done after careful consideration: of public input. “It's the publics’ park. We'd welcome any input. The whole idea is that it is a community park.” Other service clubs have come ‘We are hoping to come to some agreement immediately, so we can begin fundraising and earmarking money for that park &8 soon as possible.’ — JOHN MOORLAG Lions Club Commission and the RDCK to jointly manage and develop the park.” The Lions Club has also care- fully considered any environ- mental impact that development of the park may have on spawn- ing Kokanee. “We realize this is a delicate area for spawning, and we want to work with the Ministry of Environment and Fisheries. We would like to develop viewing areas where students can come on tours and view the spawning.” Moorlag has stressed that any forward and offered their help and support in developing Pass Creek Park, and Moorlag is appreciative of the offers. “Robson Volunteer Fire Department and the Slow Pitch League would like to become involved in this too. We would love to have their involvements, and would appreciate their work- ing with us. We will be able to work together in reciprocal ways.” It is planned that each year one or two projects, or upgrades would be undertaken, depending on the size of the development being considered. Moorlag said that eventually Pass Creek Park will be a park which residents of Castlegar and area can be proud of. “Over a period of five to ten . years, we will have a first class Park on our hands.” Money for the projects will . come directly from fund , and Moorlag hopes that fundraising can begin as early as January of 1993. * “We are hoping to come to some agreement. immediately, so we can begin fundraising and , carmarking money for the park as soon as possible. We want public input as to what they want to see for development, and we would like to have them see tral Kootenay, (RDCK), which oversees the budget for District Recreation Commission, has to be consulted before any changes are made to the park. : It is undetermined what the total cost of development of the park will be, as each project will be looked at on an individual basis, and development will be ongoing over a period of approx- ~* imately ten years. % Weavers' show draws steady | crowd through The Selkirk Weavers’ and Spin- ners Guild should be a proud bunch—their talents and hard work were displayed in abundance at the Castlegar Train Station tree, the fine work of the local club new members. "We've had a few People come in and want to learn how to do this as well,” she said. Elaine Ross of the Selkirk Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guild *. out weekend Stands in front of a quilt she made for the show that was held at the Train Station Museum. LEAT NE