Ald. Nick Oglow has backed off Libeary “Stitge., 501 Belleville St. ‘on a request for a park, the C News has learned. Instead, Oglow has asked city auditor Mike Berg to provide sd to 17 questions about the industrial park w industrial park. the list glo" Berg on March 10 following a two-hour council meeting held behind closed doors, + Council first agreed to the special audit last month by # split 5-2 vote. But council rescinded the motion last week and of questions to interview. “The financial statement questions in my list, ‘but not all of them,” Oglow said in an . a account of the He pointed out that the financial statement. itself fulfills one of his requests, which was to have a separate financial Trail car maker gets BOB BRISCO . important step By CasNews Staff A fledgling Trail specialty auto motive company has been awarded a $178,520 federal interest-free loan to help it complete certification require- ments for manufacturing classi¢ vin- tage automobiles. First Canadian Specialty Automo- tive Ltd. plans to establish Canada’s first specialty automotive manufactur- ing facility in Trail. ‘The proposed $1.5 million facility is expected to create 40 new jobs and will be the first and only Canadian plant capable of supplying both domestic and foreign markets with certified “turn key” units or component kit packages. The federal loan will help the company complete the required testing which leads to certification under the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Stan- dards Act. In making the announcement today at a press conference in Trail, Koot- enay West MP Bob Brisco said First Canadian Specialty has undertaken its own research and development and has incorporated all of the required safety measures into its prototype production models. Brisco said First Canadian was just getting going with its project when it ran into a roadblock. It had started building high quality vintage repro duction automobiles, but before going any further it wanted to make sure the cars met all the safety specifications of the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Stan dards Act. The federal loan will go towards the cost of physically crash testing the front, rear and sides to fully demon strate and document road worthiness and safety of the finished product. Total cost of the crash testing which was completed Monday at Transport Canada’s motor vehicle test centre in Blainville, Que. $446,000. “First Canadian has undertaken ex tensive research to develop a car that incorporates all the safety measures,” Brisco said “This project represents im portant step in improving the present standards of the reproduction automo bile industry and in making these vehicles safe for public use.” ‘The loan is being provided under the Industrial and Regional Development Program (IDRP) which is administered by the Department of Regional Indus. trial Kxpansion (DRI) — was about an ea perp " ALL SMILES . . . BCTV sportscaster John McKeachie by Cast! b gets a chuckle out of a c: u of the a ‘ Meanwhile, Ogiow said that although the city’s request to defer the interest on its $1.5 millionloan with the province was submitted to Victoria more than a month ago, “we have not had a response.” ~ ‘The loan is due to be repaid in full in 1991. However, Mayor Audrey Moore and Ald. Albert Calderbank, chairman addresses some of the 17 ‘of the finance and administration committee, are hoping the government will write off the debt. ‘A decision on the loan is expected soon. Moore said the provincial cabinet is considering the issue. ‘A spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Develop- anit year. “CH LMA RIT ( Tuesday to comment on the lon or whether & / had gone to cabinet. Elsewhere, Olgow is upset with the city’s $782,000 industrial park Joan with the Bank of Montreal. The loan is now down to $580,000 after the city paid $50,000 on the principal each of the last two years. : The city also paid off $63,000 in interest on the loan last Council has set aside another $50,000 to pay off the principal and $65,000 for interest in its 1987 budget, But Oglow claims the loan amounts to seven his city tax bill — and has for the last four or cent of ive years. Peay 3 Sections (A, B & C) y Rockey player Stan Makortoff Tuesday night at a banquet for the B.C: AAA Bantam Provincial Cham- pionships in the Community Comptex hall. About 100 people turned out for the dinner and to hear guest speaker McKeachie. CosNewsPhoto by Doug Horvey Johnson supports teachers By MIKE KALESNIKO Staff W riter Castlegar school board will likely. support the Castlegar and District Teachers’ Association's bid for full collective bargaining rights, according to board chairman Kay Johnson. “My contention is, teachers should have full collective bargaining rights,” Johnson told the Castlegar News today. “If this kind of action is what it takes, it’s necessary.” Johnson said the proposal at the B.C. Teachers’ Federation annual meeting ——_—_——_—————_———_ Teachers’ meeting, A2 this week he is giving “very serious consideration” to allowing B.C.’s 25,000 teachers the right to strike. Johnson said the move is an indic- ation that the government is “willing to listen and make changes, and that’s great.” On the other hand, Education Min- ister Tony Brummet has accused the teachers’ federation of not wanting to listen to the government's proposals to try and tox fafid trustéed about bargaining. ae At this week's annual general meet- ing, the BCTF escalating to remove the compensation stabili- zation _program and pledge strike action, possibly as soon as June, was inevitable. “We (the board) bargain with CUPE and we bargain with the teachers, but it's two different sets of rules,” she said. “When we bargain with the teachers, it’s an exercise in futility.” Johnson explained that once bargain- JOHNSON TO GIVE UP SCHOOL BOARD SEAT By MIKE KALESNIKO Staff Writer Castlegar school board chairman Kay Johnson will surrender her position as both chairman and school trustee as early as June. Johnson told the Castlegar News Tuesday that she will be moving to Surrey either in June or July when her husband, John, transfers there. “It's difficult to leave in the middle of everything.” said John son. “There's lots I'd still like to do, to be involved with. There's lots of improvements. “I see the last three years as just the beginning of significant changes in School District No. 9,” she said. Though the board will inevitably choose another chairman, Johnson said a date for an election to fill her trustee seat will probably be de- cided at Monday's regular board meeting. Johnson doubts her departure will spur a byelection to replace her as trustee but rather she believes the board will wait until next November to offer the position as a one-year seat along with the four other two-year seats that will also be open then. However, Johnson maintains she is pleased with the overall im provements the board has made re cently, especially in such areas as the open communication between the board and the community, par ents, CUPE members and com munity groups. “A long range plan is just be ginning to develop and it’s sad that I won't be a part of that,” she said continued on page A2 KAY JOHNSON . . off to Surrey Reaction to firing mixed By SURJ RATTAN Staff Writer The provincial government's de cision to fire all existing college board members in B.C. and replace them with people appointed for a maximum of six years, has been met with mixed rea ction from two Selkirk College board members. Board chairman Jack Colbert said the provincial government has decided to make the new changes to college boards in an attempt to bring renewal to the boards. “There is a concern that they (pro- vincial government) are taking away expertise from the boards by removing certain members,” Colbert told the Jastlegar News Tuesday. He added that he feels the move will hurt college boards. “I personally feel there ould be a better way to go about'it, but it’s a government decision and/I'm not gov ernment.” Board member Elizabeth Fleet, who has sat on the board for four years, said she feels she is only now beginning to get a grasp of college issues and that it takes three to four years for a board member to understand all the issues. She added that it would be a mistake to take experienced members off the boards and bring in new people. “I feel that I have now reached a point where I am being useful, but at the same time I do understand why the provincial government is doing this,” said Fleet. She added that some members of all college boards are useful, while others are not. Darlene Marzari, the college critic for the New Democratic Party, said college board members should be ele cted rather than being picked by the provincial government “Under the new system, any board member who speaks out against gov ernment funding cuts could be fired. That was also the case under the old system where board members were appointed at pleasure,” Marzari said in a news release. She added that college boards should ing is Juded between the board and local teachers, the agreement, ac- cording to the present system, can still be rejected by the provincial govern- ment: But Johnson maintains that teachers would not abuse full collective bar- gaining rights. “Nobody — not the teachers or the board — wants a disruption of ser- vices,” she said. “The board recognizes that the teachers are responsible people, that they will sit down and talk, and the teachers feel the same about the board.” Premier Bill Vander Zalm d proposed strike action in order to scrap the com- i i and P progr bring about a bargaining strategy for wage increases of at least seven or eight per cent as well as the full collective bargaining rights. Over the past 10 years, B.C. teachers claim to have experienced a 15-per-cent wage loss. The Castlegar and District Teachers’ Association, at a meeting prior to the BCTF general meeting, backed in principle all of the BCTF's proposals. Some of the CDTA's recommenda- tions, outlined in a one-page brief, state that local associations should “continue lobbying their MLAs, and continue seeking support from trustees, parent groups and others, for the withdrawal of the CSP and the expansion of teacher bargaining rights.” Also, the brief recommends prov- ince-wide instruction only to begin Sept. 1, one day provincial withdrawal of services and rotating and/or escala- ting actions. Mike Rogers, CDTA president, was lable f inside BANTAM PLAYOFFS: CasNews sports writer Surj Rattan has all the action from the B.C. Bantam AAA Championships at the Community Complex, along with details of last night's banquet with guest speaker John McKeachie of BCTV... BY WHEN IS SPRING?: CosNews wi lor er Mike Kalesniko takes g look at why spring and Easter fall on the dates they do. . . A2 NATURAL ART: If you wandered down to Zuckerberg Island Satur- day you would have seen some strange objects among the trees and along the riverbank .. . A7 BIG BILL: OAKLAND, Calif. — The telephone company has cancelled 0 $5,312.44 US bill a teenager ran up calling pornography and talk line numbers on his father's phone. But before the matter was cleared up, the youth's father took on three jobs to pay the tab and his phone was disconnected “1 know | won't do that again, said 15-year-old Kevin Jones. ‘value my life,” he added, looking at his father, Clester. In December Kevin called about 20 different toll numbers have the i dence to rep their community “even when they may not agree with the provincial govern ment.” peatedly for up to 10 hours at a time number from the radio but didn't He said he got the first ber hearing the er say the calls cost $2 US apiece, plus toll charges