Parliazent Victoria, Bldgs... B. Cc. of Rebels Earl Salekin was elected president of the Castlegar Junior Rebels hoger club this week . Youth festival The annual USCC Union otf Youth Festival Sotur- doy seen through the eyes of CasNews Photographers Rob opott and Doug Harvey pot pool of $2,171 636.70. The sidiary prizes. The six winning numbers in Saturday's Lotto 6/49 draw were 1, 25, 34, 41, 44 and 49. The bonus number was 37. There was no winner of the jack- $500,000 winning number in Friday's Provin- cial lottery draw is 5914561. There are also sub- Rate hearing West Kootenay Power and Light president Joe Drennan disclosed o to buy Kootenay Canai B.C. CANDLELIGHT VIGIL . . . Brita Haley wos one of about a dozen right-to-life supporters who gathered outside the Castlegar and District Hospital Wednesday 40 per cont 50 Cents 2 Sections (A & B) evening for a candlelight vigil marking the 17th on niversary of changes to the Criminal Code that liberalized Canadian abortion law EXPLORER LIVED IN a KOOTENAYS By SIMON BIRCH Staff Writer The smokestacks and furnace rooms of Cominco are about as environmentally different from a balsa wood raft sailing the calm blue waters of the South Pacific as one can imagine Trail’s massive smelter, a monument to industrial ized society, is an unlikely place for a budding anthropologist. and explorer on the threshhold of developing what has become a famous theory of migration patterns of native North and South American peoples But for just over nine months in the early 1940s, Norwegian exploror Thor Heyerdahl labored at the Trail smelter to help finance his famous 1947 Kbn-Tiki expedition that helped back his theory that the Pacific populated from the Americas, not Asia Comineo's employee records show Heyerdahl arrived at the smelter oo Oct. 2, 1940, three days before his 26th birthday, when he went to work on the Tadanac labor gang He was one of the pick and shovel boys,” Cominco spokesman Barrett Lawrie said. About a month later, Heyerdahi, employee No. 8101, went to work forthe Warfield Pp in Three months later, on July 15, 1941 records show Heyerdahl quit, Lawrie said According to Cominco’s records. Heyerdah! |i, ed Rossland at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Butte Stree! while he worked at the smelter. But no house number is listed on the record. stored on a microfiche marked “do not destroy Olga Osing. Rossland’s former librarian. remembers seeing Heyerdahl around town, although she him personally Osing, herself of Scandinavian descent dahl used to shop along Rossland’s main it was his name, which she recognized as Scandina on a shopping bag that caught her eye “I looked at him. He as a good-looking man,” she said. Jack Fisher has a less direct but continuing contact with Heyerdahl's legacy in the area Fisher, public relations administrator for Kootenay Power and Light Co. in Trail, lives that Heyerdahl helped build “He worked at Cominco and also worked par helping build houses,” Fisher said Heyerdahl’s attempts to raise money Kon-Tiki expedition. Prior to working at Cominco, Heyerdah! spent of 1939 and 1940 working for the Provincial Museum in Victoria and living among the native Indians at Bella Coola. In an interview with the Vancouver Province Heyerdahl, now 72, said B.C. played 4h important part in solving the mystery of how humanity spread throughot the Pacific islands. By exploiting the prevailing currents, Asians sailed across the north Pacific, visiting and settling in BC before sailing southwest and eventually Polynesia and Hawaii, said Heyerdahi, wh keynote speaker at the 1986 World Exhibition employee Lawrie sard didn't know said Heye handsome West a house tume referring ¢ © finance the most populating January 1941 to Tadanac, still as a carpenter, Lawrie said After ancther short stint on the Tadanac labor gang in March, Heyerdahi went to work as a helper on one of the furnaces. That was on April 8, 1941. Series on transportation and communica(ior May 8 and 9 at Expo 86. Heyerdahl flew into Vancouver from Easter Island the tiny south Pacific island marked by xian! sione statues, where he has been studying how the island could have supported an advanced culture barren RET PRE YEASTS JSIX-LANE POOL $2.4 m aquatic RON NORMAN Editer The Castlegar and District Project Society unveiled plans this week for a $2.4 million aquatic and fitness centre. The centre will include a 25-metre, six-lane pool connected to a smaller shallow pool, a sauna, whirlpool, ~ Full details, A2_ weight training room, fitness room, lounge, concession area, viewing area and sundeck. The 24,000 square foot facility-will be located next to the existing Community Complex with a common main entrance to both facilities. Funding for the proposed centre is still up in the air. “The next step is to determine how we're going to pay for it,” Ron Ross, chairman of the project society's fitness centre committee, told a press conference Thursday afternoon. Ross said the project society will approach local organizations and levels of government for contributions to the centre's $2.4 million capital cost. Once those contributions have been deiersained,.the society wilt'go to the regional recreation commission’ for final approval before asking the Regional District of Central Kootenay to go to the voters in Castlegar, Area 1 and Area J with a referendum in November. Ross said the society has already met with the regional recreation commis sion and Castlegar council's parks and recreation committee. The society plans to meet with Selkirk College, Castlegar school board, local service clubs and other interested groups. POOL PLAN . fitness centre Asked if the society has an estimate of what the centre will cost the average homeowner, Ross said some prelimi- nary figures have-been prepared, but he'd “rather not” release them at this time. The figures “are still fuzzy”, he said. However, he said full details on the centre's funding will be disclosed at a public meeting in September. Ross also said the annual operating costs are still unclear, but would be outlined at the public meeting in the fall “The operating costs are just as important, if not more important, as the initial capital costs,” he said But Ross said constructing the _ Architect's sketch shows details of proposed aquatic and centre next to the community complex will cut down on operating costs. “It's definitely‘ more economical to attach .., the pool. .« to an existing facility.” Most existing pools that are separate from recreation complexes cost “a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year” in operating costs, Ross said. At the same time, he cited a case where a pool built onto a community complex made a profit of $30,000 in its first year Don MeDowell, a Rotary Club member who toured several aquatic centres in Alberta in February, added continued on poge A2 Westar cries ‘unfair’ By SIMON BIRCH Staff Writer An “official at Westar Timber's Southern Wood Products sawmill says the Ministry of Forests, which is considering a 12 per cent reduction to Westar’s annual allowable timber harvest on Tree Farm license No unfairly singling out the company for undercutting on the tree farm during the years 1980-84 “There was a physical volume undercut in 1981 and 1982, we don't dispute that,” Bob Korda, woodlands manager at Southern Wood Products said Thursday. “(But) we believe that if we get treated like everybody else, the undereut becomes so small it's insigni fieant.” Korda made the comments in 4 telephone interview about two hours after he and production superintendent Rick Forgaard met with a Castlegar News reporter to discuss an article that appeared in last CasNews. During that meeting, Korda explained that Westar's tree farm licence calls for an annual allowable cut (AAC) of about one million cubic metres. Sunday's But in any one year, the company is allowed to undercut or exceed that figure by 50 per cent. he said However, over the 1980-84 five-year period of Westar’s wood management plan — when approximately five million cubic metres of wood should have been cut — the harvest can vary by only 10 per cent Using what he called round figures that are only an approximation of the actual cut, Korda said Westar exceeded its AAC in 1980. But during the worst recession years of 1981 and 1982, Westar harvested just over half its AAC — about 450,000 cubic metres in 1961 and about 700,000 cubic metres in 1982, he said The company cut about 850,000 cubic metres in each of 1983 and 1984, he said It is the years 1981 and 1982 that have led to the current dispute about undercutting, Korda said. After those bad years, the provincial government came up with a policy that would allow tree farm licensees to claim 90 per cent of their AAC during those years regardless of the actual amount harvested, Korda said In Westar's case that would total 900,000 cubic metres for each of 1981 and 1982. Korda said if Westar is allowed to use those adjusted figures for the two years, the undercut becomes small and within the 10 per cent allowed the company But Korda said the government is allowing other licensees the 90 per cent claim while denying it to Westar variation That's why Westar claims it is being treated differently and unfairly We have got to get the government to decide how jt's going to treat us for those two periods (1981 and 1982) Korda said. The 12 per reduction in Westar’s annual allowable cut on TFL No. 23 would remove about 143,000 cubic metres of wood from the annual harvest That means Westar's AAC would be lowered to 924.000 cubic metres from the current 1,067,000 cubic metres, according to Julius Juhasz, director of the Forests Ministry's timber manage. ment branch which is recommending the 12 per cent reduction cent Juhasz was quoted as saying Westar is undercutting its tree farm licence by about 140,000 cubic metres a year continued on pege A2 Police continue to search for Powers By CasNews Staff The whereabouts of Laura Grace Gibbons, also known as Dixie Dee Powers. failed to appear in Castlegar provincial court May 6 on charges of fraud and pyramid scheme, remain unknown, but Nelson RCMP said Friday continuing their search for the missing who operating a they are woman Staff Sgt. Alan Tomlins bench warrant for Powers issued after she failed to remains outstanding. “We're very much interested in her whereabouts,” Tomlins said Asked if the RCMP would pursue extradition of Powers, a 35-year-old American, if she had fled to the United the arrest appear said States. Tomlins said he would have to do “a little research sure if the extraditable because he isn't alleged offenses are That's something I can't comment said Four others charged with Powers on right now,” he will appear in Castlegar court June 9 Daniel Anthony erick Chursinoff kimoff, 28 were ail provincial Voykin, 29. Fred 49 Evdo and Sam Stoopnikoff, 28. remanded without plea in order_te heave time to consult_with Steven lawyers A fraud offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison while the for a pyramid scheme offence is two years. maximum sentence