...better service, that is.

In keeping with the changing needs of a growing community,
“The Commerce” has expanded its service to provide longer
hours of service, 6 days y week, in Castlegar. Now . . . maintain
your account at either of our Castlegar branches, but enjoy the
convenience of full Personal banking service at either location.

<p

CANADIAN IMPERIAL
BANK OF COMMERCE

295 COLUMBIA AVE.
Monday - Thursday
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Friday 9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday Closed
365-7244

CASTLEAIRD PLAZA
Monday Closed
Tues.-Thurs. 10:00 a.m.-4 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m
Saturday 9:00 a.m.

365-3325

Inland Natural Gas

Carving a way of life
for Castlegar

Natural Gas, the Energy
for B.C. to grow on.

NEW PARK . 1983 saw the opening of the new
Zuckerberg Island Park with Gil Zuckerberg cuttin:
the ribbon (t@p photo), accompanied by wife Peart ond

Megan Kennedy. Bottom photo shows the chapel
house, which is to be restored.

Dream realized with

island park opening

~ By J. A. CHARTERS

On Sunday afternoon Sept. 4, 1983 the Zuckerberg
Island Park was officially opened. The dream of a number of
Castlegar citizens was finally realized and the City of
Castlegar made a significant step in its development.

Had you inquired a few brief months before about
Zuckerberg Island you might have found a fair number of
people who had come to know it through the Castlegar News
or the book “Dragon Tree”. But only about one in 100 would
have ever visited it or knew where it was to be found. By the
end of that sunny and showery afternoon — after Mayor
Audrey Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Gil Zuckerberg, Rotary
District 508 Governor Rex McMeekin, Castlegar Rotary
John Kennedy, Rotary Anns president Megan Kennedy and
project chairman Wilf Sweeney had cut the ribbons and
thrown open the gates — more than 350 citizens had visited
the new island park. There has been a steady stream ever
‘since.

It had been Alexander Fedorovitch Zuckerberg,
teacher, artist, Tolstoyan, romantic and the owner of the
island since 1931, who had originally proposed the island as a

rk.
” People had been coming to the island to picnic, swim,
relax and skate, and when Alexander Fedorovitch arrived,
they came to visit him in his unique Russian chapel house for
many years. So it was natural that in the 1950s when he was
in his late 70s Zuckerberg should offer the island with
certain conditions to the new town of Castlegar.

The offer was refused bluntly and the old man was both
hurt and humiliated and those who knew and loved the
island were bitterly disappointed. Not surprisingly,
therefore, when he died in 1961 he left the island in trust to
his grandchildren, the Hoopers.

For 20 years the chapel house became the target of
looters and vandals. In spite of the efforts of Gil Zuckerberg
and neighbors, the island deteriorated into an impenetrable
jungle and fire-trap.

Then, in 1981, when the island was put up for sale, the

to its eternal credit, stepped in and bought it and the
adjoining foreshore as a future park.

Unfortunately; it also posted the island with “private-no
trespassing” signs which served only to keep away the

‘ing and permit freer scope for the vandals who
among other things destroyed the very unusual frent porch.

Early in 1983, however, the Castlegar Rotary Club
which was looking about for a suitable major project, fixed
on the development of the island into a par

A consisting of Wilf Sweeney, the Celgar
pulp mill superintendent, Frank McLeod, a contractor, and
John Charters, a retired teacher, was’ formed and
negotiations entered into with the federal government for
operating funds.

By April, the club had been notified that it would
receive a grant of $14,100 for wages and supplies under the
federal Summer Student Employment program.

The club put up $7,000 for equipment and “extras”, and
appointed Charters as project supervisor. Four local college
students — Ron Lauriente, Shirley Richards, Clarence
Verigin and Teresa Perepelkin were hired for 17 weeks,
tools and equipment were purchased and on May 9 the
students began work on the island.

Working in two teams — one male and one female — and
proceeding in opposite directions along the trai] which the
supervisor had earlier marked and slashed with a eye on

high water and scenic attractiveness, they made good
progress.

When the city, represented by works superintendent
Igor Zahynacz, negotiated a provincial Heritage grant it was
able to hire two senior students to study and prepare a
report on the history anthropology, biology and future
development of the island.

This report, entitled Zuckerberg Island Historical
Restoration Project, by George Apel and Elizabeth
Duckworth, was brought out in September and is presently
undergoing revision, to a more permanent form. It may be
purchased from city hall for $4.

By July the Rotary crew, assisted by community
service workers, had cleared about 2,000 metres of trail,
built a temporary walk to reach the island over the rising
river and erected an 11-foot entrance sign handcrafted by
Gordie Hill, retired salesman and woodworker.

By the end of August, again with the assistance of Hill
and with the co-operation of the city workers and Andy
Miscavitch — an old friend of Alexander Zuckerberg — and
in spite of poison ivy, flood waters and bad weather, they
had cleared about a hectare and a half of land to disclose
hitherto unexplored Indian pit-houses and a forgotten
orchard.

‘They had also built and installed at strategically located
positions seven viewing benches and three picnic tables and
a chain link fence across the entrance.

At a dinner marking the end of phase 1, the Castlegar
Rotary Club, in recognition of the work done, presented each
of the four workers with a $100 educational bonus and made
Gordie Hill an honorary Castlegar Rotarian.

The creation of the Zuckerberg Island Park is a tribute
to the co-operative efforts of local and senior governments,
the service club and to private citizens, but much still
remains to be done.

To this end city council passed bylaw 387 to establish a
committee to be known as the City of Castlegar Heritage
Advisory Committee to advise and make recommendations
to council on the island and related matters. John Charters
was appointed chairman and liaison officer.

The Katimavik workers have as one of their projects
been assigned and have begun work on the park under the
direction of Alex Lutz. The committee has applied for and
received a restoration grant of $23,000 from the provincial
Heritage Board for the restoration of the Zuckerberg
“chapel house” and has granted a contract for the
restoration of the roof as soon as weather permits. Mean-
while, other restoration studies are in progress and
archaelogical studies of the Indian pit-house sites are
pending.

Of immediate concern to the committee is the

ger of fire. This project, too, is under
study and negotiation.

As chairman Charters noted to council, this island park
with location, unusual buildings and Indian sites is
unique in B.C., if not in Canada.

It is more than just a piece of real estate; it is an oasis
quiet, a place for friends to talk and stroll, a haven for
children to play and a classroom for biological and historical
studies.

Castlegar has no choice but to guard and nurture it for
residents, children and for all the many visitiors who will
want to see it over the years.

with a small butcher shop at
the turn of the century, are
intent on following that
philosophy.

The family business began
in Trail in 1918 when Bruno
LeRose opened a small meat
market on Rossland Avenue.
From there, the business has
diversified and advanced to
become one of the largest
furniture outlets in B.C., ac-
cording to Ernest LeRose,
Bruno's son.

“My father died when I
was 16, and I like to think of
our business,” said Ernest.
“He came to Canada as an
immigrant from Italy to work
with the CPR in 1907, and at
that time, North America
was considered the ‘promised
land’ by most Europeans.

“My father was elected
mayor of Trail in 1982, and I
am told he was the first
Italian-born mayor in Can-
ada,” LeRose adds proudly.

The business originally
started by his father pro-
vided the base for several
different ventures, which for
the most part were situated
on Trail's Rossland Avenue
spanning a period of over 50
years.

Ernest and brother Geno
became involved to some ex-
tent with furniture when
they purchased Webster's
Hardware in Trail. In addi-
tion to dealing with hard-
ware, the LeRoses also sold
appliances.

That interest led to the es-
tablishment of the first home-
goods furniture store in 1963
in a building now housing of-
fices of the Ministry of
Human Resources.

Originally the store had
only 1,000 square feet. By
1962 there were 2,000 square
feet, and by 1964 10,000
square feet. A warehouse
addition in 1974 brought the
floor space up to 17,000
square feet which now has
reached 35,000 square feet
with the opening in the fall of
1979 of the furniture outlet at
China Creek.

After over 20 years of
serving people from the
Homegoods location on Ross-
land Avenue, LeRose said he
felt it was time for a change.

“We sold the property on
Rossland Ave. because we
needed larger facilities and

ily business

nin Trail in 1913 _

our three warehouses located
in different sections of Trail
made the operation ‘awk.
ward.”

As a result, the LeRoses
leased property on the form
er site of the Carefree travel
trailer factory at China
Creek, because as Ernest put
it, “the building was large
and immediately available.”

The structure provides
95,000 square feet, all of
which is filled with a variety
of furniture, appliances and

/ carpets.

“The size here gives us the
opportunity to reduce our
warehouse concerns, and in.
crease our display space,
which we are still develop-

Although born and raised
in Trail, LeRose said he had
no qualms about moving his
business to its new location.

He says his family has al
ways felt very close to com
munities such as Kaslo,
Grand Forks/Greenwood,
Nelson, the Beaver Valley
and greater Castlegar.

He said his parents always
took their children on fre-
quent outings to those com-
munities “and so I related to
the areas as an individual,
‘and as a businessman. I have
always thought in the wider
concept of service to the
whole area.”

He adds that he has per
sonal friends in all these
communities, “and thinking
in these terms has helped me
as a businessman in com-
municating with these areas
through the media.’

LeRose says he is “proud
of the way we do business.
Customer satisfaction is No.
1... and that’s not just a
slogan. We honestly try our
best to please all our cus-
tomers.”

The record of nearly 75
years of business activity
“shows we're here to stay.
Our families are involved,
and involved deeply.”

Homegoods is also part of
Gest-Accor, Canada’s largest
independent home furnish-
ings buying group comprised
of more than 650 independent
home furnishings stores.

Robert LeRose, assistant
manager of Homegoods, says
this association “makes us
more than competitive . . .
and we pass those savings on
to our customers.”

Two new departments are
being added soon. A full line

Inland Gas
celebrates 28
years in area

Inland Natural Gas Co.
Ltd., Castlegar Branch, cele-
brates 28 years of service to
the Castlegar area this year,

It was in the fall of 1956
when Inland Natural Gas
started service in the area
with less than 120 customers.

‘his has grown to some 2,500
in Castlegar and area.

Inland Natural Gas, Castle-
gar Branch, located at 614
18th St. in the Castleaird
Plaza, has been under the
management of Jim Pilla for
five years. Nadine Holoboff is
the clerk typist while Alan
Gorcak is the customer ser-
viceman.

The operations crews work
out of the central West Koot-
enay office located in Trail.

The Canadian Oil Subst-
itution Program grant of-
fered to residents who con-
vert their heating from oil to
some other heating source,
has resulted in many conver-
sions to natural gas heating
in the area, Pilla notes.

Natural gas, as a source of
energy, is the most compe-
titive field in B.C., says Pilla.

It is primarily utilized for
heating and hot water res-
identially, commercially, and
for industrial processing.

“It will always be a most
competitive fuel because it is
a B.€-owned commodity,
says Pilla.

JM PILLA

Inland Natural Gas contin-
ues to grow along with the
rest of Castlegar.

As new subdivisions are
developed within the city,
Inland Natural Gas continues
to expand.

Inland also continues to
expand its services to out-
lying areas.

Conversions to natural gas
under the federal DSEP pro-
gram have created many jobs
for natural gas employees
“when things have been rela-
tively quite,” Pilla says.

As another year passes,
Inland Natural Gas works to-
wards its primary goal: “To
maintain a reliable, compe-
titive, safe and efficient nat-
ural gas service to our grow-
ing and_existing customer

of waterbeds will be carried
by Homegoods, while juven-
ile and baby furniture will
also be part of the product
line.

Ernest LeRose says that *PPreciate this added ser-
inte moving ‘6 ihe China Viee- Particularly retired cus-
Creek location in 1979, the ‘mers and senior citizens.
company has delivered goods

to people in Revelstoke, Kel- press
owna, Penticton, Fernie, “it three and ed

Kimberley “and all points in °™Ploys nine people. It con- .
between poin's in tinues to expand and grow FATHER AND SON TEAM. . . Ernest and Robert LeRose
and, according to Ernest, gt Homegoods Furniture Warehouse at China Creek
“All of these deliveries “sales are increasing satisfac. continue a tradition of family involvement. Pictured
were provided at no extra torily every year.” here, the two men stand before a photograph of Er-

CHART YOUR COURSE FOR
JONES HOV S MARINE

Growing with the West Kootenay
Since 1954.

Homegoods started with a

nest's father, Bruno, who came to Canada from Italy in
1907 and opened a small meat market in Trail six
years lat

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