Wednesday, September 9, 1992 FANTASTIC SAVI (astercard eae Regular, Fine or Extra Fine Grind. 300 g pkg. Limit 2. Over limit price *1.98 ea. 60% Whole Wheat. 450 sliced g loaf. CHEESE SLICES Best Buy. 1 kg pkg of, 48's or 64's 7-UP OR PEPSI Reg. or Diet, be Se : Hires Root fer 2 Litre. Plus Deposit TANDING at ROAST Cut from Canada Grade A Beef. With a Family purchase. LIMIT 1 6.57/ kg. Breakfast Delight. 500 g pkg FOR ALL YOUR HEALTH AND BEAUTY NEEDS Assorted Bonus Varieties and sizes. LAND YOURSELF IN PARADISE “Toke advantage ofthis offer by jut showing your Air Miles™ card ot Scheway, together with 0 ou will receive 50 bonus Air Miles™ In addition, you will also receive your regular Air Miles" it fakes to save up Air Miles™ for your trip to paradise that much shorter. ‘The more you use your € KODAK GOLD COLOUR FILM 135 mm. 200 ISO. 24 + 12 bonus exposures. 4” 2, 3 or 4 Pack. WINDSHIELD WASHER . Antifreeze. 1 litre size. Ltd PURQUSE between September 6 - 12, 1992, and purchase of $150.00 or more, made Sccheway is one of many fine Air Miles™ sponsors, making the length of times cord, the sooner you'll toke off This special offer excludes tobacco and pre- scriptions. Use your Bank of Montreal MasterCard, ond eam extra Air Miles” | SERVING THE CROSSROADS OF THE KOOTENAYS SINCE 1947 NewsFLASH a4, - * Sunny with increasing clouds and a chance of showers Sunday and Monday. @ OUR PEOPLE Being able to read is some- thing that we take for granted; yet illiteracy is a problem in the world today. But, thanks to peo- ple like Sue Port, that’s chang- ing. ial @ LOCAL SPORTS Castlegar golfer Denise Pot- tle came home from school in May a dejected golfer. Now, af- ter asummer of getting back to the basics, those days are long gone. page 13 @ WORK PLACE Marina operators at Syringa are tallying up the damage. Low water levels on the Arrow reservoir have wreaked havoc with an industry dependent on tourism. page 15 Farside Norman Letters Our People Local Sports Work Place Action Ads Wheels '92 CASTLEGAR x? ya? } e HIT AND RUN SN rere iturday mber 12, 1992 News photo by Neil Rachynski City employees mend a hole in the railing of the train bridge after a pick up truck plowed into it early last Saturday. Workers say the truck was abandoned at West's Department Store. One city staffer wondered how the truck could have been driven to West's in the first place because the vehicle couldn't even be towed away — it had to carried out on a flatbed. Hospitals face c Scott David Harrison EDITOR Area hospitals are about to go under the bureaucratic knife. Acute-care beds in Kaslo, New Den- ver and Nakusp are rumored to be on the way out as the provincial govern- ment tries to curb escalating medical costs. “We're looking at all of the acute-care system right now,” Health Minister Eliz- abeth Cull revealed Wednesday. “What we're trying to dois decide what is a rea- sonable level of acute-care services with- in a community, what do you need and what kinds of services do you expect based on your geographical location and population size.” Cull said areas like Kaslo, New Den- ver and Nakusp may be better serviced if the funds used for acute-care services were put elsewhere... namely Nelson. “The question we are asking about these very small hospitals is, is that ri where it makes the most sense to put your health-care dollars.” Cull said the Hospital Victorian of Kaslo uses its seven acute-care beds on- ly 50 per cent of the time. She said the funds needed to operate the seven-bed unit could be better used if they were di- rected to intermediate care in Kaslo, leaving acute-care services to larger hos- pitals like the Kootenay Lake and Dis- trict Hospital in Nelson. Cull said the hospital boards in each of the affected communities would be consulted “in the hopes of finding a way to provide the best health care services.” New Denver's Gary Wright says he’s aware the government is proposing changes to health services, he just doesn't know what they are. The director for the Regional District of Central Kootenay agreed that New Denver’s three-tiered medical services utbacks — intermediate, extended and acute — aren't the most cost-effective. “There are other ways that we can provide effective health care services,” he said Thursday, “and maybe that is through an expansion of intermediate and extended care facilities.” Wright said New Denver is currently reviewing its health care service to de- termine what can and can’t be shifted. He said if it was determined that acute- care services could be better provided in Nelson, he’d live with it. “Before, I think there was a need for three-tiered health service in communi- ties,” he said. “But now, with the roads the way they are, there isn't as strong a need for three-tiered services as there was.” While Wright said he is concerned about the fate of acute-care service in his village, he added that “it’s not to the point that I’m going to stand up and say, ‘Hey, don't take our acute-care services away.” AIRLINE MERGER PUTS CASTLEGAR JOBS AT RISK, PAGE 3