Legtslative Library,
Parliament Bidgs., 50L
Victoria, B. C.
vev 1x4

Castlégar

Vol. 39, No. 33

Sai ical

inistry plans

.5m expansion

By RON NORMAN
Editor

ry of Transport Tuesday unveiled a proposed
$3.5 million expansion for the Castlegar Airport terminal.
The expansion, which will nearly triple the size of the
terminal building from 300 square metres to 800 square
metres, will include:
© a mew enclosed baggage claims device;
relocation of the holding room and administration

© installation of a customs office;

© expansion of the waiting area;

The airlines will remain in the existing portion of the
building

‘The 500 square metre addition ‘will be located on the
south side of the present building.

“Our only hurdles are our approvals in Ottawa,” Erica
Geddes, project development manager for Air Terminal
Expansion, told Castlegar council.

Ne

CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 1966

offices to a new area;

City rejects
lower speed

By CasNews Staff

Castlegar council rejected Tuesday a
recommendation to lower the speed
limit on Columbia Avenue from 60
kilometres per hour to 50 kmh.

“The traffic is bad enough and slow
moving on Columbia Avenue as it is,”
said Ald. Albert Calderbank-

“To put a change on Columbia
Avenue, you're going to have lots of
trouble. I think there should be some
investigation.”

The works and services committee
included the change in a recommen
ation that the city move to one
uniform speed limit of 50 kmh, except
in school and park areas

The committee also recommended
eliminating the green on white “We
Love Our Childres™ sigs and remov
ing the 30 kmh limit on the black on
yellow “We Love Our Children” signs.

Couneil for the most part appeared
to agree with all the changes but the
Columbia Avenue change.

Ald. Nick Ogiow, a member of the
works and services committee, said
the speed limit on Columbia Avenue
has been unenforceable, because
Columbia is part 60 kmh and part 50
kmh.

But Mayor Audrey Moore suggested
the city could simply post a sign at its
entrances that the speed limit in
Castlegar is 50 kmh except where
posted

Calderbank also noted that the 50
kmh is too fast on some side streets.

“There are areas in the side streets
where (there's) no way it should be 50
kmh,” he said. “You're going too fast

But Oglow countered that local
RCMP. say drivers going-30 kmh are

being passed by a multitude of cars
which creates a safety hazard.

The recommendation was sent back
to the works and services committee
for reconsideration.

School
budget
unchanged

By CasNews Staff

The provincial government has re
plied to the Castlegar school board's
budget request for 1986-87 by resub
mitting to the board a budget of
approximately $8.25 million — half a
million dollars less than the board re.
quested and about $175,000 lower than
the 1985-86 operating budget

Board chairman Kay Johnson said
the board has also received the Castle
gar district's share of $19 million set
aside in the Excellence in
fund for 1985-86 salary increases for
teachers.

The board received the budget — “an
enormous document, very compli
cated,” said Johnson — Tuesday morn
ing and must now ratify the budget by
May 1

Johnson said the board will again
seek public input by holding an “in
formal, come and get information”
meeting Friday at the board office from
9 am. - 2 p.m.

After a weekend to digest the infor
mation, the public is invited back to the
board office Monday from 9 a.m. - 2
p.m. to make suggestions.

‘The board met today in a closed ses
sion to discuss the budget.

jucation

continued on poge A2

BLOSSOM
TIME

Peach tree in full
bloom cathes the
eye of Castlegar's
Steve Thompson.
Spring moves into
full swing this
weekend with the
arrival of Daylight
Saving time.

IT'S TRADE
FAIR TIME
ONCE AGAIN

By RON NORMAN
Editor

The Castlegar-Selkirk Lions Club kicks off its 10th
annual West Kootenay Trade Fair Friday, and publicity
coordinator Frank Stasila says it should be “one of the
better fairs we've put on.”

The Lions have already lined up more than 100
commercial exhibitors who will occupy 23,000 square feet
inside the Community Complex and another 18,000
square feet outside

“Right now we have a waiting list,” Stasila said in an

interview.

“I think this fair will be good. Hopefully, it will be a
success.

When Stasila talks about success, he's talking about
attendance. And attendance has been a bit of a worry for
trade fair organizers.

Stasila didn't give exact figures, but he says
attendance has fallen off by about 20 per cent over the
last five years

“It's a significant amount,” Stasila says, pointing out
that the three-day trade show's attendance peaked at
14,000 a number of years ago.

While the drop in attendance is bothersome, Stasila
adds: “That's not high in terms of comparing it to the
PNE (Pacifie National Exhibition in Vancouver) you
have that lull once in a while.”

But Stasila hopes the “lull” has ended and would like
to see a 10 per cent increase in attendance for the fair'’s
10th anniversary

The trade fair began in 1977 as the brainchild of
Walter Tymofievich, whom Stasila dubs “the genius of
our club.”

Until 1977 the Lions Club had “floundered” from one
small project to another since its inception six years
before in 1971, Stasila said

In 1977 the club decided it was time to take on a
major community project and selected the development
of Kinnaird Park

But the club needed funds to support the park
development. That's where Tymofievich came in

“He came up with the idea of the trade fair.” Stasila
said. “We needed something in the community of some
significance (and) because we were going into a major
project .. . we needed something to generate the money
to offset the costs.”

Tymofievich was also the fair's first chairman

Until that time the only real trade show in Castlegar
had been a recreational vehicle show in the parking lot of
Castleaird Plaza

But Stasila said the Lions Club recognized that the
city had a recreational complex with a large dry floor area
not utilized much of the year.

Taking on a trade fair was a bit of a risk, though

“We had our fears, of course,” said Stasila
club focused on community involvement — from both
community service groups and local merchants.

“The whole idea was to make it as community
minded. The success of it was our local merchants gut
involved,” Stasila said.

And it’s still the reason the fair is a success

“We have to rely on the co-operation of service clubs
the merchants and the people in the community itself in
order to make the trade fair successful. Without that we
would never have had a trade fair for the last 10 years

Stasila also points out that the trade fair takes a
“tremendous” number of people to help put it on

Preliminary work begins in September with monthly
meetings. From January on it’s weekly meetings until the
fair finally comes together

“(It's) at least a six-toeight-month preparation
period,” Stasila says.

He admits that at times it's a bit frightening to Lake
on a fair of such huge proportions and there is fear that
the three-day show won't come off.

But when the Wednesday night before the trade fair
rolls around, everything seems to come together

Stasila credits much of the fair’s smooth operation to
the fair coordinator — who for the past eight years has

been his wife, Ann.

“The coordinator is very instrumental,” he says.
noting its her job to bring all the pieces together at the
last moment

Stasila says perhaps the hardest job is drumming up
new ideas each year to attract the public.

continued on poge A?

mmersion

program

approved

By SIMON BIRCH
Staff Writer
Castlegar school board voted 6-1
Monday in favor of ing the dis-

will cover the cost of the program and
will not be an added financial

triect's Russian immersion program to
Grade 2 for the 1986-87 school year and
to take complete financial responsibil-
ity for the program.

Board chairman Kay Johnson was
the only trustee to vote against
expanding the program.

“We should be looking at things we
cut before we start looking at new

ograms,” said Johnson, who noted
the’ district's need for a child care
worker, an elementary counsellor, new
textbooks and the reinstatement of lost
learning assistance and library time:

Johnson made it clear she does not
oppose Russian immersion in principle
and in fact considers it a worthwhile
program.

But her comments brought an angry
response from trustee Doreen Smecher
who said she “resents” the Russian
immersion program being equated

j with child care and special education
programs.

“When you're weighing one program
against another, keep language pro-
grams together,” Smecher said. “Don't
pit (Russian immersion) against heart
break programs.”

She added that when Russian
immersion at the Grade 2 level be
comes part of the district's programs
and is subject to the “same threats and
cutbacks, then it's in the same
ballpark” as the other programs.

Mickey Kinakin, secretary of Par
ents for Russian, the group promoting
Russian immersion in the Castlegar
school district, attended the board
meeting and said he is “very pleased”
the trustees voted to expand the
program.

This is a very worthwhile program,
as are all language programs,” Kinakin
said. “I'm quite happy the board made
the decision to assist the growth of this
program

—INSIDE

burden on the district.

“There isn't a dime of extra money
thrown at it,” he said. (The provincial
government __provides_a___grant of
approximately $3,600 per student to
the Castlegar school district.)
~ But Johnson, in an interview Tues
day, pointed out that students who
enrol in the expanded immersion pro-
gram will create the need for an
additional tester on “at least” a

That, she said, is not included in the
district's 1986-87 budget.

Without the immersion program the
students would be absorbed into other
classes but still generate the $3,600 per
student funding, she said_

Again, Johnson stressed she doesn't
want to scrap the Russian immersion
program but is simply trying to point
out that the program will create an
additional cost to the district

She added that an alternative to the
district taking full control of funding
for the program would be a continua
tion of grants from outside agencies to
pay for a teacher's salary and supplies.

This year, the Grade 1 Russian
immersion program received $20,000 in
grants from the USCC, Parents for
Russian, the secretary of state and the
B.C. Teachers’ Federation.

The half-day kindergarten program
was fully funded by the district

Since the cost of an additional
teacher for the expanded program has
not been budgeted, Johnson said the
board will have to get the money either
from the Excellence in Education fund.
raising local taxes or cutting other pro
grams.

Education Minister Jim Hewitt re
cently returned to school boards the
authority to increase local residential
taxes to meet local education needs.

continued on poge A2

DON'T FORGET

Savings Time

Castlegar on the weekend, the
last Sunday in April. Though
daylight savings actually starts
at 2 a.m. Sunday, it might be
sater for residents to set their
clocks ahead one hour betore
going to bed Saturday

a2
GETTING EVEN: NANAIMO
in the bed on his wedding night

ding gift
The vinyl cheque

restoring

1 guess Bob Finally got

ding to get into the bridal suite

ntlokes crumbs throught the bed

PROGRAM REINSTATED: Castlegar school board has decided to
reinstate French and Russian language programs in Grade 5 and 6

It took almost 1! years. but Bob An
derson finally got even for the Jell-O in the bathtub and corntlakes

He gave Wayne and Marina Whiting a $100 cheque os a wed

measuring |''2 metres by a metre — was
glued firmly to the hood of a 1966 Dodge Charger that Wayne, 36. is

Wayne just kept saying Oh. no. what's he done to my car
soid Marina, 32, who was in on the joke

even with me. Woyne said: “1

thought | was going to hove to turn in the entire hood of my cor to
the bank to get the cheque cashed. He really surprised me

Almost 11 years ago. Wayne, who was best man ot Ander
son's wedding, posed as the bridegroom the doy betore the wed

He filled the bathtub and toilet with Jell-O and spread cor