TheFARSIDE By Gary Larson By GARY LARSON lez Every afternoon a sugar cube dealer would slowly cruise the corral looking for “customers.” Selkirk applauds B.C. Glen Freeman NEWS REPORTER Selkirk College students will soon be able to complete their degree locally. Advanced Education Minis- ter Tom Perry announced Monday that B.C. colleges can now grant associate degrees to students who complete two- year programs in arts and sci- ences. And that’s great news for Selkirk College president Leo Perra. “I think it’s something that’s been long overdue,” he said.“It has been fairly com- mon in American community colleges for years.” Perra added that the real winners in this provincial move will be the students. “What it does is it gives lo- cal students an opportunity to complete a program of study in the academic area,” he said. “In the past students would come and take academic courses without having any specific. completion goal in mind. “This way they will able to have a two-year associate de- gree in mind when they come to our institution.” Perra said that the an- nouncement. was a definite step in the right direction, but added that it would take some time to implement. “It'll probably. be another year before we have our crite- ria in place and the program defined so the students can register for the associate de- gree,” he said. “But in our long-term plans the board has indicated approval for the col- lege to move in that direction.” Perra said that the pro- gram will be “up and running locally by Sept. of 1993.” Crews bracing for blazes Glen Freeman NEWS REPORTER It’s been a bad year for for- est fires and it could be getting worse. According to Arrow Forest District duty officer Glen Ralloff, firefighters are resting up now for what could be a busy fall. “There’s really nothing hap- pening right now,” he said. “All the rain last week helped us out.” But when it comes to the forest, conditions change like wildfire. starting to dry out now, patho ole have a few more forest fires,” Ralloff said. To date there have been 108 forest fires in the Arrow dis- trict destroying 25 hectares of trees. During the same time peri- od last year only 36 fires had to be extinguished, burning a total of 10 hectares. “That’s quite a bit of an in- crease,” Ralloff said. “The. warm weather that we had in June made fire con- ditions bad. We have also had a lot more lightning this year.” The forecast calls for the warm, dry trend to continue with a slight chance of thun- dershowers. E | ITALIAN S || SAUSAGE Hot or mild 3.28 kg. A9 MADE Ib IN-STORE : California Grown RED RIPE TOMATOES No. 1 © 1.08 kg. Northern Country REGULAR LEMONADE Or pink ¢ frozen ¢ 351 mL 1.99 SPAGHETTI ~ SAUCE 1 litre 18 Lipton JUICE CRYSTALS Assoarted Flavors 225 g. Long English CUCUM- BERS B.C. Hothouse Paramount Light FLAKED TUNA 133 g. Limit 3 PRIMO PASTA Assorted varieties 900 g. COOKING ONIONS 3 LB. PKG. Castlegar Foods DINNER BUNS 42's. POTATO CHIPS Big 600 g. box W.0.T. 99¢ per 200 g. @ Wednesday, August 12, 1992 3a SecondFRONT : ‘CALL THE @General Inquiries 365-7266 OUR HOURS The News is located at 197 Columbia Ave. Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed on weekends and - Traffic changes has Celgar on edge Scott David Harrison EDITOR Celgar Pulp Co. isn’t thrilled with Castlegar’s latest bridge push. A plan that could see city council amend its traffic bylaw to restrict certain vehicles from its roads has Celgar wondering what it’s done. “The impacts of this bylaw proposal are obvious,” Celgar manager Jim Browne said Tuesday. “The changes would force us to shutdown.” Castlegar is exploring a plan that could see weight, load or height restrictions placed on vehicles using Columbia Avenue and Arrows Lakes Drive. The plan — which could legally banish chip trucks for the two routes — is designed to force the provincial government into construction of the Castlegar-Robson bridge. “The city could be very surgical in its approach,” Browne said. “If their intent is to be very selective with what traffic they want on the roads, they have every right to do so. There is nothing we can do because there is no basis for appeal.” Using the Municipal and Motor Vehicle Acts to its advantage, Castlegar can define usages on Columbia and Arrow Lakes because the routes fall under municipal jurisdiction. Only a special cabinet order could overturn the amendments should Castlegar place restrictions on the two roads. Browne said the city’s plan borders on desperation. He said the financial implications of any amendments would be devastating to both Celgar and Castlegar. “It doesn’t look rosy for employment in this area,” Browne said. “Not only would it stop us, but it could stop the construction work.” Browne said the state of West Kootenay roads and byways are at the route of the matter. He said that question has yet to be fully addressed. “We brag that we are the Crossroads of the Kootenays, but where are we crossing to,” he asked. “The entire infrastructure is the problem and no one is looking at that.” Browne intends to express those concerns when the city sits down with Celgar and Pope and Talbot at a later date to discuss any bylaw changes. Mayor Audrey Moore said Tuesday Castlegar is fully prepared to listen to Celgar’s fears. “They would be at the stakeholders’ table and quite at liberty to express their concerns.” FISHERBOYS News photo by Glen Freeman Brothers Adam (left) and Corey Kinakin of Castlegar did some male bonding Monday as they tried their hand at fishing on the Columbia River. Unfortunately, their luck turned out to be drier than their feet. Socreds await Bakken appeal @ Constituency president invites ousted woman to reapply for party membership ys. SUB RATES The News is published by Castle News Ltd. for Canwest Publishers Ltd. Mail subscription rate to The News is $37.50 per year. The price on newsstands is 75¢ for each edition. The price delivered by newspaper carrier for both editions is only 90¢ a week (collected monthly). GST extra. Second class mail registration number 0019. Scott David Harrison EDITOR If Iris Bakken has any plans on appealing her suspension from the Social Credit Party, the Richmond headquarters doesn’t know about it. “We haven’t heard a thing from her, nothing at all,” a spokesperson with the Richmond office said. Bakken said three weeks ago that she would appeal a ruling of the Rossland-Trail executive which revoked her Social Credit membership because she endorsed independent candidate Chris D’Arcy during the last provincial election. “If she wants to appeal the decision, that’s entirely up to her,” said the spokesperson, who asked not to be identified. “We heard that’s what she plans on doing, but I can’t tell you when or if it will happen.” The spokesperson added that even if Bakken launches the appeal, the Social Credit board of directors could refuse to hear Bakken’s case. Meanwhile, Rossland-Trail constituency president Elmer Pellerine said Bakken should reapply for her party status. “I can’t speak for the entire executive,” he said, “but as far as I’m concerned if she still wants to be a member of our party, she should make an application.” Pellerine would not say whether that application would be accepted, however. Instead, he said “that would be up to the executive. “I certainly have no animosity toward her and if she wants to reapply she should.” Bakken ran into trouble with her own party when she opted to endorse the one-time New Democrat MLA over the Social Credit’s Walter Siemens. Because of that, the Rossland-Trail executive voted 11-1 on June 17 to revoke Bakken’s membership. Bakken said Tuesday she has every intention of rejoining the party. And, she says she intends to approach the board of directors instead of the local constituency. “I have a lot of life-time members one my side and they have been working for me,” Bakken said. “They know how hard I worked for this party and they know that I will continue to work hard for this party to restore its Christian principles.” Rankin set to examine city report Neil Rachynski NEWS STAFF Castlegar may not have to wait too long to get its hands on the Price Waterhouse study. The lawyer preparing the secret document for public release says he could be finished within a week. Murray Rankin told The News that it all depends on his schedule. “It’s not as lengthy as I feared,” Rankin said from Victoria. “I will begin working on it immediately.” Rankin, hired by the city to re- view the 35-page report, says he’s aiming to have his work completed in time for Castlegar’s Aug. 18 council session. He added, howev- er, that aécuracy has no deadline. “No one’s putting any pressure on me,” Rankin said. “I'd rather not commit to a time frame. I don't want to let anybody down.” One of the government’s advi- sors to the recently passed Free- dom of Information and Privacy Act, Rankin will apply Bill 50 to the $24,000 report to determine hi can and cannot be made pub- c. Castlegar has agreed to be bound by Rankin’s recommenda- tions, which marks the first time Bill 50 will be applied to a munici- pality. The act was only intended to regulate the provincial govern- ment and its Crown corporations. Council was originally hesitant to turnover the 1990 study which examined the city’s entire opera- tions, saying it dealt with too many personalities. A series of stories in The News and a call for the report’s release from Councillor Kirk Duff prompt- ed the city to change its mind. Castlegar agreed at an Aug. 5 in-camera session to put the mat- ter in the hands of Rankin.