islative Library, Pardias ant Bldgs., SOL Bel Victoria, B, Cc, V8SV Ix4 1 38 Vol, 41, No. 18 astléegar r News CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 1988 WEATHERCAST Low cloud and fog early Thursda; morning changing to sun wi cloudy Intervels later in the day Highs 8°-10° and lows esd freezing, Cloud continuing on Friday with some cleoring over the weekend 3 Sections (A, B & C) Race homecoming for Lee By BRENDAN NAGLE Staff Writer Rossland’s own Kerrin Lee will be returning home to compete against the world's fastest women skiers in the Husky World Downhill on Red Mountain 10 days from now. The skiers arrive in the area on Monday and begin training for the races next week. The races run March 12 and 13. Ten countries will be represented by a total of 73 skiers — if Yugoslavia sends two skiers instead of four there will be 71 — in two race events, the downhill and the super giant slalom. The downhill and super G events will be skied down Granite Mountain. The downhill course will drop 700 metres over a length of 2,610 metres and the super G course will cover 1,451 metres with a vertical drop of 498. Both events are fast-paced with the skiers reaching speeds of 120 kilo- metres an hour. The list of competitors is an impressive array of Olympic medal winners and World Cup points leaders. Downhill gold medal winner Marina Kiehl from West Germany and Olympic super G gold medallist Sigrid Wolf will be on hand to compete. As well, Canada’s Karen Percy, who won bronze medals in the downhill and super G Olympic events, will be competing in Rossland. Other Olympic medallists include Austria's Anita Wachter who won the gold in the combined event. Christa Kinshofer Guetle of West Germany will be in Rossland following her silver medal performance in giant slalom and bronze in slalom. Mateja Svet of Yugoslavia will be here coming off a silver-medal performance in the slalom event at the Olympics. The mighty Swiss women will ski at Red. Of the 10 Swiss skiers showing up for the races, four won a total of seven medals at the Calgary Games. Michela Figini won the silver medal in the super G and leads all women skiers in FIS World Cup point standings in both the downhill and super G events this season. Other Swiss medallists include Brigitte Oertle who won silver medals in the downhill and the combined events, Vreni Schneider, who won gold medals in both the slalom and giant slalom events and Maria Walliser who won bronze medals in the combined and giant slalom events. The Canadian team is sending 11 national team members and six younger skiers who are considered hopefuls for the| national team in the near future. Camilla Burks, Patricia Davidson, Nancy Gee, Laurie Graham, Julie Klotz, Kendra Kobelka, Lucie Laroche, Annie Laurendeau, Rossland's own Kerrin Lee, Michelle Mc Kendrey, Kate Pace and Karen Percy will all ski for Canada. The younger team members include Gabi Bulau, Virginia Jamieson, Kimberley McNight, Andrea Marchand and Rya Kirkwood. As well, more than 450 international media repre. sentatives will be in the West Kootenay for the race. The media will be staying in Castlegar, Trail, Rossland and Nelson. A GETTING READY . . . Volunteers set up safety nets along treacherous ‘section of World Cup downhill course on Granite Mountain in preparation for March 12 race Cashews Photo by Brendan Nogie Gas prices return to normal The price of gasoline returned to normal Tuesday, but not until Castle- gar customers spent the weekend laughing all the way to the gas pumps as prices plummeted to 9.9 cents a litre. Texaco raised its prices “first thing” Tuesday to 49.9 cents a litre and by mid-morning other gas stations were up to 49.9 cents a litre. Prices hit their lowest point in the six-week gas war Saturday when they plunged to 9.9 cents a litre and stayed there through to Monday evening. One enterprising customer towed in a yacht and bought 600 litres Sunday. Others paid as little as 1:9 cents a litre by using coupons, filling a 50-litre gas tank for 94 cents, said Barry Pere- hudoff, Mohawk station supervisor. “A lot of people ask: ‘When are you going to start giving it away?’ I tell them: We are already,” said Pere- hudoff. But Perehudoff said he wondered continued on poge A2 INSIDE Smokies beat Rebs page B2 USSC holds convention FLOWERS IN FEBRUARY . . . Move over Victoria, Castlegar can also claim to sprout flowers in February. Slim Thomas shows off crocus that bloomed over weekend at Ist Street home. Warm weather responsible for the early spring will continue through weekend, weathermen say. CasNews Photo by Bonne Morgan SOVIET SKI TEAM WON'T BE COMING By BRENDAN NAGLE Staff Writer Not even a last-minute phone call to the Soviet embassy in Ottawa from Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco could convince the Soviet women's alpine ski team to come to Castlegar for the upcoming Husky World Downhill event. Castlegar’s bid to host the Soviet team fell through last week when Brisco was told the émbassy has no control over the decisions of the Soviet alpine ski coaches. “They had no clout in the process,” Brisco said today of the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. “They referred me to the team manager in charge of all Soviet athletes.” Brisco said despite the secondary role the Soviet embassy claimed it plays in deciding where the athletes will compete, officials were not receptive to his advances and made it difficult for him to get to the right people. “I had to go through a couple of hoops to get to the Soviet embassy,” he said. “I sensed reluctance even though the matter was referred back to Calgary.” Brisco said the entire Soviet Olympic team was scheduled to return home on the 29th and the officials weren't prepared to change plans on such short notice. He also said the Soviet downhill skiers aren't as Fee not coming,” Westerday. competitive as the coaches would like them to be in an event such as the Husky World Downhill and added the Soviet reluctance to compete at Red Mountain may be due to their inexperience at the sport. Brisco’s call coincided with a letter — type-written in Russian script — ts the Soviet coach in Calgary The letter was prepared by John Voykin, Area I director for the Regional District of Central Kootenay, who faxed the letter directly to the Calgary race secretary's office, where it was immediately forwarded to the Soviet team. “Having heard nothing since Thursday we assume said event venue chairman Ron Ross Husky World Downhil organizers had hoped to lure the Soviet team — there were three women on the Soviet alpine ski team at the Calgary Winter Games — to the competition, which is scheduled for March 12 and 13. “We had tentatively booked them into the Fireside Inn for the duration of the event,” Ross said. “We kind of thought it would be nice to have them here.” The team was expected to show for the Rossland event as late as last Wednesday. Despite the Soviet team's decision not to attend, Castlegar's special event for World Cup skiers is still a Russian Heritage theme with a Russian dinner scheduled for next Wednesday. The Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ is sponsoring the dinner and the choir will perform. Local residents are encouraged to come out for the dinner. Tickets are $12. The skiers will be on hand for autographs at 5:30 p.m Lottery numbers Complex costs increase By BONNE MORGAN Staff Writer The Castlegar Community Com- plex, only 12 years old, is already showing its age and is costing more to maintain. “Each year there are more and more repairs and replacements re- quired and there is no reason to believe this trend will not continue,” the year-end report for the Castlegar and District Recreation Department states. Last year there were major mod- ifieations to the complex's de-humidi- fication system and the flat roof. A total of 67 per cent of the overall recreation budget is-spent on the complex. And the Community Complex is not yet paid off. More than one-quarter of the entire recreation budget — about 27 per cent — goes towards debt incurred by the original construction of the building. But the complex hall has shown a marked increase per cent increase in revenue over the previous year. That increased revenue is one reason why the department increased its budget by only one per cent in 1987 in the face of rising costs and declining usage of some facilities. “We generated more revenue,” recreation director Pat Metge, noting, use, producing a 25_ “No programs were cut” to maintain that budget The annual report shows revenue generated from recreation programs recovered 99.5 per cent of the operating costs for those programs. By contrast, the Pioneer Arena recovered only 24 per cent of its costs and Pass vCreek Regional Park recovered only 15 per cent of its costs. A graph of overall revenue shows a decrease of $10,294 or four per cent from 1986. While use of the complex hall was up, Pioneer Arena showed a decrease in use. “This trend began in 1985 with the continued on poge A2 Society in a scramble for funds By RON NORMAN Editor The Castlegar Festivals Society will have to scramble to raise funds to organize this year’s Sunfest, the society's publicity chairman said today “We have some major fundraising to do,” Marilyn Strong told the Castle gar News. Strong made the comment in the wake of Castlegar council's decision to approve only 70 per cent of the society's funding request. The society had asked for $5,000 to stage Sunfest, the annual three-day summer celebration slated this year for June 3-5. However, council recently ap- proved a $3,500 grant. The amount is the same as the city gave the Castlegar Chamber of Commerce last year to stage the annual Sunfest parade. Strong said she hasn't been offi cially notified of the grant and doesn't yet know if there will be any restric tions on the funding. But a council resolution notes that the society is to use the money to stage the parade However, the society is respon sible for coordinating all Sunfest activities, and not just the parade. Still, Strong is satisfied with the council's decision. “We're pleased that the city recognizes the Sunfest celebration as an important part of the city pro motions.” And she said residents should expect some major announcements next month about Sunfest events. “We're working very hard to make Sunfest a tremendous success,” Strong said Chamber and city agree to contract By CasNews Staff The Castlegar Chamber of Com. merce has reached a new contract agreement with the City of Castlegar which could see the chamber get as much as $3,500 more than it did last year. The contract calls for the chamber to receive a maximum city grant of $17,365, which is about the same as the chamber got in 1987. However, the chamber is no longer responsible for organizing and staging the annual Sunfest parade, which cost $3,500. The chamber's top priorities will be to promote tourism and operate a visitor information centre. If it is to receive the $3,500 additional funds it must provide more services, noted Ald. Len Embree, chairman of the administration and finance committee, adding that the $17,365 is a “ceiling.” “It may be that the tourism infor mation centre and the operation of that may only cost $12,000. If that’s the case that's all the chamber will be getting.” Embree said if the chamber pro vides additional services “they may get $3,500 more.” “They are not getting $3,500 more unless they provide a service for -$3,500." Embree stressed that the contract is a fee-for-service agreement where the chamber provides a service and the city pays for that service to a maximum of $17,365. Embree earlier said he is “feeling a little more positive” about the chamber after meeting with chamber represen. tatives Dale Nielsen, Jim Craig and Luella Andreashuk He said the meeting “cleaned up a lot of questions, a lot of old history.” Embree added that the new executive has a “lot of interest and a lot of energy.” In other council news, the city approved a $100 grant to help Stanley Humphries secondary school host the provincial A girls basketball champion ships later this month. Council rejected a request from Tereas Lamb for a grant to help offset the cost of her attending a Forum for Young Canadians conference Conroy court case delayed three weeks By CasNews Staff The court case of Castlegar school trustee Roy Edward Conroy has been held over for three weeks. Conroy, 41, appeared in Castlegar Provincial Court yesterday charged with three counts of assault in con nection with alleged picket line vio lence( near the Castlegar Post Office Oct 1987. Conroy asked the court for three weeks to consult with a lawyer. He will next appear in Castlegar court on Tuesday, March 29. Meanwhile, the Castlegar Crown counsel says charges against Conroy were delayed 4" months because of “ongoing investigation.” Jane Maclver said there were numerous witnesses to be interviewed and a tangle of evidence to sift through before the Crown could gather enough information for a “prima facie” case against Conroy “We had to talk t« Crown wit nesses to establish whether or not we had a case,” Maclver said in defence of the lengthy amount of time it took the Crown to lay charges.