~"n4 °*~Saturday, January 25, 1992 m @ Saturday, January 25, 1992 News Staff A memorandum of agree- ment for a new contract be- tween non-teaching staff and school boards in four West Kootenay districts has been ratified by six of the eight parties involved. The West Kootenay Labor Relations Council, represent- ing school boards in the Castlegar, Nelson, Grand Forks and Arrow Lakes school districts, reached an agreement last month with representatives of the respec- tive CUPE locals. Since then, all but the Ar- SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 9 BRIEFS row Lakes board and local have ratified the agreement. Members of the Arrow Lakes local were scheduled to meet today and the board is ex- pected to meet on Tuesday. The previous contract ex- pired Dec. 31, 1991. Details of the new contract won't be released until all parties have ratified the agreement. The Castlegar school board agreed Monday to help the Downtown Revitalization Committee lobby the provin- cial government, but dis- agreed with the committee’s message. committee is lobbying portation and High- ways Minister Art Charbon- neau and Rossland-Trail MLA Ed Conroy in support of the proposed Robson-Castle- gar bridge. However, trustees argued that the message was limited and passed a motion that its letters would request the tra- ditional transportation link ‘ be re-established whether it be in the form of a bridge or a ferry or both. eee The Ministry of Educa- tion’s facilities committee has approved the board’s desig- nation of high-priority pro- jects in its five-year capital plan, but funds are still pend- Board’s five-year capital plan approved pean as high priorities in the first year are: replacing the district office roof; facility studies for Valley Vista, Blue- berry Creek and Ootischenia elementary schools and Kin- naird Junior Secondary School; replacing two school buses; installing two-way ra-~ dios in all buses; and renova- tions to Twin Rivers Elemen- tary School.. The items have been on the high priority list for the past three to four years but funding has never come through. NewsFOCUS Missing trucker has RCMP ‘baffled’ NEWS STAFF ’s been one week since Dennis Perepelkin went miss- ing and Castlegar RCMP are stumped. “We're as baffled as the family is,” Cpl. Al Hudema said Thursday. The 42-year-old Nelson man disappeared on Jan. 16 while driving his Esso truck to Castlegar. The truck was later © found in working condition on the east side of the Kinnaird bridge with the keys still in the ignition. A 200-person search party covered the area along the Columbia River near the bridge last weekend, but failed to turn up any clues. Hudema said the elements have hampered in the search. “We had hoped to have divers in the water, but the weather hasn’t co-operated with us,” he said. Hudema said that police have no new leads to work with, so they are now re-ex- amining an old one involving a witness and a shiny black car. “We've been told that a black Cadillac was seen in the area where Mr. Perepelkin. went missing,” he said. Hudema said that, for now, the physical search is over. Police are asking for anyone with information about Pere- pelkin’s disappearance to con- tact the ree detachment Many B.C. producers will o: ISA NET INCOME STABILIZATION ACCOUNT Attention B.C. Producers assistance if they belong to In British Columbia, producers must be enrolled in NISA by ~ Feb. 12, 1992, in order to receive part of the Agriculture Canada $800 million Farm Support and Adjustment Measures (FSAM assistance. In B.C., $5 million is allocated to the gas and special oilseeds sector and $16 million to the horticultural sector. | When you apply for NISA, you're taking the first step in setting up your own personal farm income stabilization account. If you produce grains, oilseeds, special you may be eligible for benefits now under NISA. receive special ty, or edible horticulture crops, Hog, sheep and beef producers will also be able to claim a percentage of grain fed on their farms through NISA. Opening your account is straight-forward. The NISA guide gives you step-by-step assistance in completing the forms. If you-need a form, or more details call the NISA toll-free line: 1-800-665-NISA Operators can tell you how to apply for NISA or special assistance through FSAM Il. Or write: The Net Income Stabilization Account Administration P.O. Box 6100 Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3A4 DEADLINE: February 12, 1992 New look means new life for Castlegar? Scott David Harrison EDITOR astlegar. It conjures up a lot of images. Some good, some bad. There’s those endless summer nights when families and friends gather for outdoor barbecues, sharing in the warmth of another Castlegar experience. There’s those winter strolls through Zuckerberg Island, putting footsteps in the untouched snow. To an outsider, Castlegar is just another city. But to those who reside here, Castlegar is home. A home that includes the sometimes uncomfortable scent of a pulp mill that is Castlegar’s bread and butter. Celgar — whose modernization project will make the air cleaner to breathe — is one of the trade offs Castlegar makes as it prepares for the future. An industry town can hardly refuse the hand that feeds it. And while Celgar is a focal point to Castlegar, it. is not the only one. Minutes away from the grocery stores and motels is another focal point, one that has lost its luster. Downtown. What was once a thriving centre for local residents has become a mere shadow of itself. Against the will of no one, shops move in and _ out, slowly transforming downtown Castlegar into the other part of the city. Downtown Castlegar is about to change, though, from the ground up. Throwing caution to the-wind and millions on the floor, Castlegar is about to, undertake a massive project — revitalization. Within five years, the Castlegar one sees today will be a paltry image of the one it will become. uesday, the provincial government gave Castlegar’s venture into whole-house changes some much-needed legitimacy. Rossland-Trail MLA Ed Conroy proudly handed the city the building blocks it needed — a $3.3 million loan to get the work started. A Castlegar native, Conroy was more than happy to be the messenger. “This is just the shot in the arm I think the city needed,” Conroy said News file photo Downtown Castlegar is about to get a new look. Within three years the depressed city core will rebound, thanks to a bold $4.95 million project being undertaken by local merchants and Castlegar. Tuesday. The loan, via the Municipal Financing Authority, will be awarded in three stages, starting with some $1.27 million for 1992-93. The loan will be financed over 15 years at an interest rate of six per cent. “The project is important because downtown hasn’t had a new lease on life for some time,” Ald. Marilyn Mathieson said. “We’ve expensive, Dut they are important,” Mathieson said. “They’re important for every community.” n addition to giving the [ferniown: core a much needed overhaul, it’s hopeful the project will make Castlegar worth the visit for passing tourists and their almighty dollars. “Tourism is part of it, for sure,” Mathieson said. “People are not going tried several times to get a revitalization project going and they proved to be very expensive, so the decision was made not to proceed.” athieson credits the downtown merchant for pursuing this, the third Sac interchange if they don’t think we have anything to offer. “The establishment of an identity is very Sf important to Castlegar as a whole and the merchants (downtown),” Mathieson said. attempt at revitalization. “Changes in ownership and changes in the economy have reassured our merchants that this is the time to go ahead,” said Mathieson, city council’s liaison to the Downtown Revitalization project. “It’s really their project.” Well, not entirely. According to the revitalization plan, Castlegar’s downtown merchants will pay for half of the $3.3 million loan. The city will pick up the remaining costs. The estimated price tag for the entire project is $4.95 million. Hardly the project a piggy bank could cover. “These types of projects are Heather Bonnett agrees. The owner of Bonnett’s Men’s Wear says similar projects have proven successful in places like Nelson, Revelstoke and Chemainus, so why not Castlegar? “There’s nothing like the pride you feel in fixing up'your place,” she said, pointing to her own revitalization of Bonnett’s. “I’m happy to come down to my store everyday because of the things I have done.” A member of the Downtown Revitalization Committee, Bonnett says other merchants will feel the same way when the project is complete in three years. “We hope it gets people downtown, walking around and staying awhile,” to. get off -at the. she said. The revitalization project covers Castlegar’s downtown _ core, stretching from the CN Rail bridge to Crescent Street at the south end. Along with the installation of trees, plants, benches and improved street lighting, the project calls for the underground routing of telephone, electricity and television cables. The removal of cables will be an improvement unto itself_according to Mathieson. “Our main problem is those power lines,” Mathieson said. “We happen to have a very attractive background to Castlegar but you wouldn’t know it because of all of the power lines running everywhere.” In addition to those tasks, curbs, gutters, sidewalks and roads will be ~—giving the once over. ctual improvements to the facades of each and every tore will not be covered under the program, though. Instead, local merchants are being encouraged to apply for special government grants. “I don’t want to see revitalization end (in the downtown core),” Bonnett said. “I want to see it start here and continue the entire way up Columbia as far as Castlegar goes. “It’s just like the slogan goes, Clean and Green,” she said. “That’s what I want to see, a Castlegar that is Clean and Green.”