VOIC Gaur August 23, 1989 Watching the river Th H ised ety part of small herd grazing on arocky outcrop along the Slocan River by ighway 6, was having a quiet day until a photographer showed up to wreck things. annoyed looked says it all. —casnews photo JUST KIDDING AROUND Champion Bings Upstairs In Troll’s Towne Square SUNMAYS teguier siockour Mondays Limit Specials... ccceeee es GUARANTEED PAYOUTS Tuesdays BIG K TOTAL Wednesday specicis nog. sieckour Thu rsdays Limit Specials Fridays Reguior Blackout . SQtUrdayS species. nog. siockovr ALSO 9:45 SESSION. CASTLEGAR SAVINGS INSURANCE AGENCIES LTD. “Your Community Insurance Centre" CASTLEGAR — ———SLOCAN PARK | 601-18th St. sy) 365-3368 226-7216 to stay Premier Bill Vaneor Zalm says he intends to stay with the party regardless of the out- come of the Cariboo byelection... A2 Heritage continued from front page because it may not be available later if construction is delayed. Also, the fun- ds are for the whole project so the road and bridge can not be completed at dif ferent times, he said Archeologist Wayne Choquette will be hired to be on the construction site and will have the power to halt digging if artifacts are unearthed, Eastman said Choquette completed an ar cheological impact study on the area for Victoria earlier this year and con- cluded the road will have an indirect impact on the burial site His report says pollution from cars, chemicals on and near the road, and noise and vandalism due to increased access to the burial grounds will adver- sely affect the site. Eastman said he has received nothing formal” from the band on a possible injunction to halt the road Band ambassador Bob Campbell was unavailable for comment last week but he released a statement on the band’s position on the area We, the Sinixt of the Arrow Lakes, are the descendants of the aboriginal people and occupants of this land,”’ the statement says The title to our land is the most an and absolute known to man. Its date is beyond the reach of human records; its validity is confir med by possession, occupation and en joyment long before any pretense of claim by any portion of the human Gace We will not be accountable to nor uerfered with by any other gover cient, pure nment. The one whe gave us these gifts that are in dispute in this case is the only one who can change that the Creator Regatta setto sail Iboat skippers from the East and West Kootenays are gearing up for the Gray Creek Regatta on the east shore of Kootenay Lake over the Labor Day weekend Kim Deane, the ace chairman, says he expects about 50 sailboats, in- sailboards and a news release says. The major matchup will be in the large cruiser class between previous winners Gary Fodor of Robson and. Colin Johnston of Calgary The main series of races take place during Saturday and Sunday, followed by a special handicap race on Monday morning A supper and dance open to all com. petitors and spectators will be held at the historic Gray Creek Hall on Satur day evening. The event is the largest of its kind in the Kootneays and welcomes both experienced and beginner sailors and spectators cluding cruisers, dinghies Hwy. No. 6 JEMEY — TORA< — PROBE 1989 TOPAZ L 1989 PROBE GT ESCORT Lx A.M. Ford’s Summer Sellout Starts From Scratch! *100°° FREE Scratch and Win or 6-49 tickets with every ’89 purchased from A.M. Ford until September 22, 1989 ESCORT Lx UMMER STOCK SELLOUT! Your choice of 100 new cars and trucks. Buy while selection is at its highest. Watch for next week’s ad with 26 more vehicles. SUPER SAVINGS! 6.9% 7.9% 8.9% OR $500 CASH BACK ON SELECTED MODELS! FINANCING SELECTION! The biggest one-stop choice in the Kootenays, RANGER TRUC >KS— sua MARQUIS Dealer #7336 2795 Highway Drive Toll Free ovtet-town 1-800-663-4966 csi 364-0202 Hrs. Mon.-Fri. 8:00-8:00; Sat. 8:00-5:00 Slo-pitch tourney 17 teams vying for the title as final match gets underway today. . .. BI LOTTERY NUMBERS The winning numbers in Saturday's Lotto 14, 32, 44 and 45, The 6/49 draw were 4, 12 bonus number is 33. The winning numbers drawn Friday in The B.C. Keno lottery were 2, 3, 4, 8, 15, 34, 38 and 43. The $1,000,000 winning Friday's Provincial lottery draw number in is 2527080. through the Trip through the pass John Charters recoun ts his recent travels Nest Pass and beyond B3 S: s As) - Crow's Sunda — Vol. 42, No. 69 y 0 Cents aN yo, " stlégar News ~ CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, SUNDAY, AUGUST 27, 1989 WEATHERCAST Today and Monday: cloudy with o few sunny periods, afternoor showers. Highs both days around 2 Sections (A&B) Castlegar firefighters put the shine on vehicles yesterday to raise money for muscular dystrophy. Despite the re’ lighters senor to raise more than th parts did the p Vacancy rate Sigos: report By GUY BERTRAND If you've been leafing through the newspaper in search of a place to rent the following October when it reached Staff Writer 12.2 per cent but has been dropping ever since, the report shows April 1988 survey showed a vacancy The biggest drop according to the survey has been in the last year. the rate of 7/5 per cent and’ through to April of this year the rate has dropped continued on poge A2 in Castlegar, the search is only going to get tougher, according to a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation rental market survey report. In April, the vacancy rate for apartments and row housing in the city has declined from a high of 12.2 per cent to 3.2 per cent, the report says. The rental vacancy survey excluded single detached homes, duplexes, basement suites, mobile homes, rooming houses, and residential motels. Tony Nighuis, a representative with the Castlegar branch of the B.C Housing Management Commission. said two years ago there were 17 vacan: Arrow cies **Now I have 14 families on a waiting list," he said, adding, ‘It’s getting really tight Dave Daniel of Castlegar Realty agrees “1 don’t think it’s ever been this bad,”’ he said. **We get calls every day and it’s going to get worse.”” tractor, is to span. The CMHC survey compares vacan cy rates back to October 1985 when the rate stood at 10.8 per cent. It peaked By CasNews Staff The Ministry of Transportation past an archaeological site con. and Highways was granted a par tial injunction Thursday giving a construction crew legal access to the site of a planned bridge near to. stop the contractor from members of the Lakes Indian Band have been blockading, ministry regional manager for the Kootenays Barry Eastman said Friday have been co-operative with The injunction states the con William Berg Construc tion Ltd. of Brilliant, must be given The native people set: up the access to the north side of Little Slocan River, which the new bridge Vallican that Ministry of Highways granted injunction a controversial road is to be built taining Indian remains over 3,000 years old, Eastman said The Indians are now not trying reaching the north side of the river Nelson subdivision RCMP Staff Sgt. Alan Tomlins said Friday Eastman said the native people ministry officials and easy to deal with all along blockade Monday, forcing the construction crew to work on the undisputed south side of the river The ministry will be returning to while the Ministry of Highways court to argue for complete access to the area north of the river where sought the injunction A native woman and a construc tion worker both claimed to have been injured Tuesday when the construction crew attempted to get around a human chain of Tndians and their supporters The native people are c 2 aboriginal title to the area and say their lawyer, Norman Evans, is seeking an injunction to halt con struction of the road they say will harm the burial grounds and possibly dis{urb other remains or artifacts when the digging for the road begins. The construction crew will work over the weekend, Eastman said, and he and ministry project manager Rocky Valerberg will be fesent at the site from time to Tower closure sai —_possible By CLAUDETTESANDECKI Staff Writer Transport Canada is covsidering the closure of the control tower at the Castlegar airport because the city doesn’t receive enough flights to meet government criteria for the facility, the pacific regional director of the Canadian Air Traffic Control Association says. In a letter to the Castlegar News, Dean McDonald said area residents must voice opposition to such a move ‘While Transport Canada will suggest that consultation with the community and users will occur before such a decision is made, it becomes ob- vious that their hearing improves based on the strength of the chorus,”” theletter says. “Your air carriers have already made their objections known to the authorities but the communities must demonstrate their resistence to the downgrading of service provided by the closure of the airport control tower which will have a negative impact on safety and efficiency,"’ the letter con: tinues: But Steven Rybak, Transport Canada spokesman in Vancouver, said the federal department is currently working on its annual national airport review and no recommendations of any kind have been made on the Castlegar tower The review looks at whether or not airports meet the criteria for the establishment for discontinuation of control facilities such as towers, he said If Transport Canada did decide to eliminate the tower, the community and the airlines would be consulted, he said. However, he also said that for the past 10 years his department has beer considering the elimiriation of one of Castlegar’s controlling facilities — either the tower station which F traffic information to uncontrolle airports in the Kootenays the number of flights into Castlegar doesn’t warrant both services Some airports with only a flight ser vice station have almost twice as much traffic as the Castlegar airport, he said Castlegar had fewer than 30,000 lan because dings and takeoffs last year, he added But Transport Canada isn’t taking into consideration the terrain around the airport or the difficult approach required by the mountains, McDonald said in an interview Friday Pilots need the tower to guide them safely up and down since all air traffic becomes ‘‘funnelled’’ through the valley corridor, he said. As well, a flight service station isn’t useful for informing pilots of unexpec ted elements such as vehicles on the runway, he said He cited the example of a Pacific Western 737 that crashed into a snowplow on a runway during a storm at the Cranbrook airport in the lates 1970s. Cranbrook has a flight service station rather than a tower, he said. However, that airport is considered safe, he said, and nothing serious has happened there since the accident Rybak said of the 240 landing strips and airports in B.C. only about 30 have a control tower or a flight service station Pilots are not put in danger when there is no control tower where they land, he said, because there is a set of procedures they must follow to ensure touching down is safe. The most important criteria is good visability, he said As well, service stations are infor med of ground traffic at each airport and can advise pilots of any vehicles or other obstacles on the runway, he ad ded Tower manager Bert Rourke said Friday he is waiting for more infor mation on whether or not the tower will continue to operate. McDonald said if the tower is closed the four controllers and Rourke will not be layed off The airport has been in the spotlight over an unrelated draft report trom the Kootenays Transportation Task For ce, which reports to Minister of State for the Kootenays Howard Dirks. There has been concern raised over a recommendation in the report that some say will lead to the abandon: of the Castlegar airport facility in an area bette: operations Castlegar airport is unsuitable for night landings due to the rugged terrain around the facility, the report says Independence top goal of centre By CLAUDETTE The sweet, spicy smell wafting from the kitchen of the Day Program Centre is more than the smell of muffins baking: it is the fragrance of a learning process A group of disabled clients at the centre, run by the Kootenay Society for the Handicapped, are baking muffins for their new delivery service, Muffin Mania, officially opened last week The profits from the muffin sales will go to the clients in the form of an allowance, but making a lot of money isn’t the point The clients are learning important living skills the steps to putting a simple recipe together — and becoming more a part of their city by being involved with the public, society administrator Dennis Hutchinson says And those aré the centre's over-all goals for its clients, he says: to learn skills that will lead to independence and in tegration in the community Selkirk nursing student Leslie Overholt, who is one of such as three students working with the society for the summer, is in charge of the muffin business and says the clients will be learning to bake the muffins and run the business on their own as much as possible. Muffin Mania is the latest ina series of work experien ces the centre has been setting up for its clients, Hutchinson said. Some of the clients, for instance, work in small groups doing ground maintenance at the Castlegar courthouse and some provide a laundry service, he said And a few clients are now going out on individual work placements, accompanied by a centre staff member acting asa job coach, he said Besides work placements, each client spends time each day on academics and’social and life skills, according to his or her individual program, centre co-ordinator Karen Laing said Some of the skills that are worked on in each area overlap, she said, and can range from reading and to com puter work to saying hello in “‘an appropriate manner Monthly meetings are also held with the clientiand his or her family to assess progress and set goals for the next three months, she added. Education Centre Today, the society also runs a respite care Such emphasis on individual progress is relatively new to the centre, said Laing, who began at the centre as a program assistant The centre originally called the Clay Castle didn’t set goals or create individual programs for the clients in the past, she said. Nor was there a lot of community in volvement for the clients, she added. Clients spent their days making party decorations at one time and later made ceramics, Hutchinson said The society itself was born out of a group of parents who were active in the 1950s, Hutchinson said. The society officially came into existence in 1976 and is still primarily made up of parents, he said, although other community members, such as business people, sit on the 12-member board of directors The society started the Silver Birches school in 1956 and it was taken over by the school district in the early 1970s, he said, adding the school is now called the Special which provides help to families with disabled childre they need a break from the care of the child — and two group homes and an apartment for two people, he said The homes provide 4 family-like setting, he said, and since many of the centre’s clients live in the homes t individual programsare carried on there as well The homes are “‘not mini-institutions,"” Hutchinson emphasized And there are more people wanting to live in the homes than there are placements for, he:said, bringing up one of the society's perpetual’problems: money The society’s annual budget of over $700,000 comes mostly from the Ministry of Social Services and Housing although some funding comes from other sources such as United Way and donations, he said The individual job placements can not increase unless there is more funding for more staff, he said, and it is dif continued on page A2