° Gatufday May 2) 1992

Dave McCullough

Circulation Manager

Burt Campbell
Publisher Emeritus

L.V. Campbell
Aug. 7, 1947-
Feb. 15, 1973

OurwiEWS

AdrianRAESIDE

Grassroots
revival

he. wonderful world of
| grassroots politics made an
appearance at the Robson

hall Wednesday night.

It was a refreshing sight to see.

You remember what grassroots
politics are, don’t you?

The kind of politics that entitles
every individual to an independent
voice and independent thoughts.

Well, thankfully, grassroots politics
seems to be alive and well in Robson.

Wednesday’s annual general
meeting of the Robson-Raspberry
Improvement District was without
question one of the purest forms of
democracy to be staged in the West
Kootenay for some time.

Between pre-established city
council votes and standard provincial
points of view, the Robson-Raspberry
meeting was something of an
exception to modern-day political
rule.

For those who bothered to attend
the meeting, the improvement
district conducted itself with the
utmost of respect.

It allowed dissention, discussion
and disagreement. But most
importantly, it allowed the people to
decide.

What a concept.

Other elected officials could stand
to learn a lot from the Robson-
Raspberry Improvement District and
those citizens that took advantage of
this rare opportunity to freely speak
their minds.

It’s almost enough to make
someone move... bad water and all.

an

‘ws

WKP plugs into conservation theme |

GALLOPING
WARTS?

West Kootenay Power
seems to be taking energy
conservation seriously.

The utility wants to
change its rate design to
benefit customers who
conserve electricity, rather
than customers who use
more electricity.

And all I can say is that
it’s about time.

Not. that WKP hasn’t
tried to change its rate
design in the past. It has. In
fact, this is the third go-
round.

. WKP first applied to the
B.C. Utilities Commission for a rate design
change almost a decade ago, then again in
1989 and one more time last summer.

So it hasn’t been the utility’s fault.

Just what does WKP propose with its
new rate design? To “flatten” residential
rates. ;

Presently, WKP’s rate structure is like
this (using 1991 rates): the first 40 kilowatt
hours cost $13.10; the next 360 kilowatt

Ron NORMAN

Comments
from the
Crossroads

hour; everything over that |
costs 3.243 cents per
kilowatt hour. It is all}
based on a bi-monthly bill.
That kind of rate design
is called a “declining block 3
rate”. The more you use, |
the cheaper the electricity |

gets. ?

The effect was to
discourage — or at least’
not encourage —%

conservation. :
} -~Some have suggested:
the rate structure should
be turned upside down, or
“inverted” to encourage users to conserve
electricity. That would mean that the more
energy a customer used, the more costly |
that energy would become. :
But WKP isn’t going that far.

|
|
|

Instead, WEP plans to ask the Utilities 5

Commission at a public hearing in the fall if]
it can go to a single rate for all residential |
customers.

please see NORMAN page 7

Streef TALK

Tarra Carison
Blueberry

“No.”

‘Question: Should the government put a limit on the amount

Shane Closson
Genelle

“No.”

of money B.C. doctors can earn?

Te4 &.
J

Dave Zubeck
Montrose

“Yes, they make too
much for the amount
of work they do.”

Kerri Redekop
Castlegar

“No, they should be
allowed to earn as
much as they want.”

a
Daryl Kimmins
Montrose

“No, they go to
university a long tim
to make that money.

hours cost 5.688 cents per @

| Saturday; May'2, 1992

‘ATheNews

Other VIEWS

Please address
all letters to:

Letters to the
Editor
Castlegar News
P.O. Box 3007
Castlegar, B.C.
V1N 3H4

or deliver them to
197 Columbia
Ave.

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writer's first and
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address and a
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reached between
9am. andS
p.m. The writer's
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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
and taste.

Letters cohHE

EDITOR

Police roadblocks to examine private cars
for defects are proliferating throughout the
province.

In fact, the police have been given
unprecedented power to arrest, investigate,
and detain ordinary citizens for the crime of
owning an older car.

Predictably, they are expanding the
/ concept to, on occasion, include any
government department that has an
enforcement concern that can be applied to
the motoring public.

People that have been subjected to the
massive multi-agency roadblocks
periodically conducted around the clock for
three and four days at a time in the Roger’s
Pass and employing well over 100 personnel
compare the experience to entering an Iron
Curtain country.

This attack on drivers of older cars is
unwarranted, unnecessary, and unethical.
Statistical evidence proves that older
vehicles are involved in less accidents
proportionately than newer vehicles.

Moreover, B.C., Motor Vehicle Branch
statistics clearly indicate that defects in
private vehicles are factors in
approximately one per cent of accidents.

The real causes of carnage on our
highways and spiralling insurance rates go
unaddressed as the police waste manhours

To Council members and Mayor
Moore:

Since attending a discussion meeting
with council and other interested parties
March 17, as yet. there has been no
response regarding this re-zoning
application.

We, the owners involved, are left in
limbo — three properties at the end of
already zoned commercial area.

In response to those who see it as a
lovely residential area, this time has
passed. Now there is very heavy traffic to
the arena, especially bingo nights. There

Car owners picked on

and our tax dollars checking vehicles for
defects under the Private Vehicle Inspection
Program.

Cars don’t cause accidents, people do.
Poor drivers and reckless drivers cause
accidents. :

An effective program to make our roads
safer would involve greatly increased driver
education and yanking the licenses of
proven reckless drivers, not harassing
ordinary citizens that can’t afford new cars.

It is a grave mistake to underestimate
the extent to which this program violates
the rights of people and our traditional
democratic freedoms involving basic and
long accepted principles regarding search
and seizure, detention, reasonable and
probable grounds, and so on.

It erodes the very fabric and basis of our
social and justice system.

It is a massive powerplay targeted at the
poorer sectors of our society and defining
ordinary citizens as probable criminals for
driving older cars..

This program is a travesty of justice and
must be rescinded without delay or we are
on our way toward a totalitarian state
where those that are seen as powerless and
expendable are subject to harsh, punitive
and unreasonable laws.

Peter Chatterton
Vernon

are sounds of people leaving the Sandman
and also the Complex, calling to one
another, gunning motors and so on.

I have been a long time tax payer in this
community, since before it became
incorporated as a village, then a town, and
a city. All the city roads — 5th, 6th, 9th,
10th, etc., were developed (my taxes), but
nothing was ever done to develop a future
for 8th Avenue. This remained “locked in”
property. Those residents present at the
meeting of March 17 all benefitted by 21st
Street, now more than six dwellings spring
up — more taxes for the city.

Beetle invasion
must be halted

I went to Osoyoos last week in the
Okanagan and I noticed that the
mountains — especially between
Rock Creek and Osoyoos — seem to
be turning red.

The trees are being infected by the
beetle bugs.

Now, here in the Kootenays, the
beetles are just starting to arrive. By
fall, there is going to be 10 times as
many beetles in our area. The next
year, we'll surely see 10 times more
and so on.

To save our mountains and forests
from turning red, we must build a lot
of roads into the beetle areas
immediately and cut the infected
trees down, remove them from the
area and burn the branches. ___.

Take a look at your mountains.
Take a trip to Osoyoos.

We have to stop this from
happening and save our mountains
from turning red.

Joe Rigby
Crescent |

Mall proposal leaves anxious homeowners in limbo

Council has delayed the rezoning issue
so long, the option to purchase has expired.

This was to be a large developoment with
secure capital. Castlegar could have been
the shopping and tourist Mecca of the West
Kootenay.

This issue has been so delayed, the other
mall propsect is going ahead. Also, I feel
that leaving such a decision to the CURB
group is seriously at fault. They are not an
elected group and should not be. given the
controlling voice in this rezoning issue.

Jean Fitzpatrick
Castlegar

Norman

continued from page 6

Here’s how it would work:
WEP would charge a $16.34 basic
fee for every customer, regardless
of whether they used any electric-
ity or not during the two-month
billing period.

Then, all energy would be
charged at 3.398 cents per kilo-
watt hour. Period.

George Isherwood, WKP’s rates
and regulations manger, says the
rate change would likely result in
a small decrease for the majority
of residential customers and in a
small increase for heavy users.

However, the overall amount
WEP collects from residential cus-
tomers would remain unchanged
— if present consumption pat-
terns remain the same.

Of course, if customers don’t
conserve electricity but instead in-
crease consumpiton, then WKP
could find itself with a windfall.

Still, the effect of the new rate
design will be that turning off a
light will save the customer more
than it would have under the old
rate structure.

And that’s a move in the right
direction.

By the way, WKP isn’t alone in
its move to a “flattened” rate
structure. B.C. Hydro went to the
Utilities Commission earlier this
year with a similar proposal.

eee

I’ve been told more times than I
can count that I should write an-
other column about Columbia Av-
enue’s traffic problems.

Well, this is kind of a mini-up-
date. x

If anything, since I wrote that
first column last fall, the situation
has deteriorated. Castlegar now
has an honest-to-goodness “rush
hour”.

Next thing you know, the local
radio stations will be giving us
traffic reports from their heli-
copters. Try driving southbound
on Columbia around 4:15 or 4:30
any weekday afternoon and you'll
know what I mean.

Traffic is at a literal standstill
from the highway interchange to
downtown. Throw an accident in-
to that — like there was last week
— and you have a real mess on
your hands.

Maybe the city can open up

that centre lane to southbound
traffic for a short period — like
they do in Vancouver with the
Massey tunnel. Or maybe they
can get working on a second ac-
cess road.

It’s reached the point where
cars coming from Nelson and try-
ing to turn onto Columbia to head
south toward Trail are backed up
to the highway.

I’ve seen more than half a
dozen drivers avoid that lineup by
continuing over the overpass and
then making a U-turn in the mid-
dle of the highway to get onto the
ramp that leads to Trail.

It won't be long before there’s
major accident there.

Some' thing needs to be done —
and quickly.

¢