ative L nt Bl 8. library, dese, 501 Cc. Bellevil: Feb: 28 Vol, 41, No, 44 60 Cents RSS) Py is Castlégar News CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1} 5 Sections (A, B, C,D & BE) aidimaaioae Premier promises to look into ferry By RON NORMAN Editor Premier Bill Vander Zalm has promised to personally look into the Castlegar-Robson ferry situation, the Castlegar News has learned. Vander Zalm made the promise after a group of Robson residents confronted him over the weekend in Osoyoos, where he was campaigning for the Social Credit candidate in the June 8 Boundary-Similkameen by election. Siemens and D’Arcy differ on riding By BONNE MORGAN Staff Writer The number of voters in the Rossland-Trail riding could increase by 8,679 people, according to a pre liminary report prepared by the Royal Commission on electoral boun- daries in this province. Commissioner Thomas Fisher proposes reorganizing the electoral map to even out constituency pop- ulation among 75 legislative districts in B.C, The Fisher report recommends taking Greenwood and Grand Forks from the present Boundary-Similka- meen riding, adding them to the Rossland-Trail riding, creating a new riding called Grand Forks-Trail. But the Social Credit and New Democratic parties have differing views on whether the changes are & positive move for the Rossland-Trail riding. Walter Siemens, president of the Social Credit Party for Rossland Trail, feels the boundary extension The five Robson residents carried placards reading: “Robson Socreds can't walk on water”, “Don't marroon our kids” and “2,600 people a day can't be wrong” — referring to the number of people who use thé ferry daily. Fern Allam, a member of the Robson-Raspberry Ferry Users Ad Hoc Committee who made the trip to the Okanagan Saturday, said the group met Vander Zalm outside a luncheon in Osoyoos. “We could not get him to say he would get the ferry started, but he would look into it,” Allam told the Castlegar News. “We told him that we wanted our ferry running; that we needed it.” She d4aid he suggested the local government by the ferry for.$1 and operate it, but Allam said the Robson group told Vander Zalm they don't want that. Vander Zalm then went into the continued on page A2 BILL VANDER ZALM . confronted in Osoyoos the old newspaper TOP DISPLAY . . . The Bank of Montreal cap- tured first place in the annual Sunfest business display contest, sponsored jointly by the Chamber of Commerce and the repr of the area. But Rossland-Trail NDP MLA Chris D'Arcy welcomes Fisher's at tempt to remedy what he calls “glar. ing inequities” in voting represen- tation acrbss-B.C., although it will mean increased time and energy for him to cover an expanded consti tuency. “A person who lives in one part of the province shouldn't have any more electoral clout than a person who lives in another part of the province,” D'Arcy said. He pointed to the differences in the current ridings of Atlin, which has about 5,511 people, and Richmond (a two-member riding) which has about 108,490 people. “That simply isn’t fair,” he said. D’Arey said provincial and federal redistribution of voting power as population changes also combats the continued on page A2 Still no nurses’ strike By CasNews Staff Six nurses at Raspberry Lodge long-term care facility are in a position to strike, but so far have remained on the job. The four full-time and two part time nurses served 72-hour strike notice to take effect last Saturday However, Raspberry Lodge admin. istrator Diane Strader says the nurses are still working. “We're running along the same as usual,” Strader told the Castlegar News Tuesday afternoon. Raspberry Lodge is a privately owned facility with 36 residents. The six nurses are among 200 nurses at 14 long-term care facilities around the province who have served strike notice on their employers. The local nurses are seeking their first collective agreement. They have three months from the time of the strike notice to call a walkout. The nurses are represented by the B.C. Nurses Union, which is asking for parity of wages and benefits with the 16,000 nurses working in acute rare facilities. Contlener Festivals Society. Chamber vice- president Luella Andreaschuk (left) presents winning trophy to: (from left) Jan Bouthillier, Gwen Brown, Micki McLane, Lucille McGregor Sunfest set to go! By BRENDAN NAGLE Staff Writer This year’s Sunfest celebrations are going to be the best ever, says Sunfest public relations chairman Marilyn Strong. The 19th annual celebration kicks off Friday evening with the start of the slo pitch tournament at Kinnaird Park, the Miss Castlegar pageant at the Stanley Humphries secondary school activity room and the Selkirk vintners wine tasting. “We are all very excited about Sunfest,” Strong told the Castlegar News. “We have two new events, the drag boats and chili cookoff, which are attracting visitors and entrants from outside the area.” The vintners’ wine tasting will be held in the Fireside Inn banquet room Friday evening featuring wines from the Gehringer Brothers estate winery of Oliver. Local winemakers are encouraged to bring their homemade wine which will be assessed by Nelson wine expert Bruce Lacroix The crowning of Miss Castlegar will take place Friday night at the high school. The sio pitch tourney will be played at Kinnaird, Inland, Pass Creek and several other parks in Castlegar with the final game going Sunday evening at Kinnaird Park. Following the tournament there will be a men's and women's hitting contest with a $50 first prize in each category. Saturday's festivities begin with a Rotary pancake breakfast in the parking lot of the downtown Super Valu store. The breakfast goes from 7-11 a.m. and the Sunfest parade can .be watched from the parking lot of the store while enjoying the $3 breakfast The parade begins at 10 a.m. at the top of Sherbiko Hill and winds its way down Columbia and Gerry Collins. Second place went to last year's champion, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, while third and fourth went to West's Department Store and Zazoo's hair- styling, respectively. The Grade 4 class at Kin naird elementary school helped with the win- ning display by drawing the posters CosNews Phot Avenue before ending at Kinsmen Park. Close to 70 entries with mor¢ than 800 participants are expected to take part in this year’s parade. Australian Consul General David Combe will be at the head of the parade, acting as parade Grand Marshal. Also in the parade will be Ernie Dingo, the Australian aboriginal co-star of the movie Crocodile Dundee II The street entertainment begins immediately following the parade behind Ely's Boutique on 3rd Street. Performers include the Debra Tompkins School of Dance, the Audrey Maxwell Dancers, Joe Irving, Skip Fraser and Steve Baal. These acts and others will be on the stage until 5 p.m. Saturday. The old-time fiddlers take the stage starting at 6 p.m Saturday and will perform until 8 p.m The drag boats — the first time these boats have been to the West Kootenay — will start racing at 1:30 p.m. on the Columbia River. The best viewing site will be at the Robson townsite near the government wharf. Strong recommends spectators for this admis sion-free event park their cars away from the race site because of security for the pit area. There will be a beer garden at the Robson Hall for the duration of the drag boat races. The slo pitch tournament continues Saturday at parks throughout Castlegar. The Bavarian gardens open Saturday at Kinnaird Park at 11 a.m. and will be open both Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m The first annual Kootenay Country Chili Cookoff gets underway at Kinnaird Park Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. All the cooks will prepare and cook their special-recipe chilis at the park. Official taste continued on page A2 cumstances found submerged in 4.6 metres of water at the bottom of the Lower Arrow Lake Sunday night. ently plunged 46 metres down a cliff Truck found in lake By CasNew: Police are tavesligatieg ing the cir. surrounding a truck The 1988 GMC pickup had appar- “Some people had stopped because of some sheep on the road,” Castlegar RCMP Staff Sgt Keddy, adding they looked down and saw the oil slicks from the truck and then noticed the truck under water. Search crews looking for victims spent about four hours before deter divjsion didn't locate any bodies in the truck and a shoreline search by the Robson Volunteer Fire Depart ment and members of the Provincial Emergency Program turned up nothing. { Divers found the keys in the igni said Jack were no plates on the truck. tion in the “on” position and there near the Syringa Creek bridge on Broadwater Road. Passersby spotted the truck. mining no one had been in the truck Castlegar RCMP report that divers from the Nelson RCMP Sub- “The owner, a Castlegar man, may have had a temporary operator's permit on the vehicle,” said Keddy design. The redesign is ali part of our effort to make your newspaper more vibrant and easier to read. argaining By CasNews Staff The president of the national union that includes 280 employees at Celgar Pulp Co. has refused to comment on reports that pulp workers in B.C. were offered a three-year contract with a $1,000 signing bonus. A Kamloops radio station, citing un-named sources, said the offer also calls for a 30-cent-an-hour wage in crease on a base rate of $14.85 in the second year and another two-per. cent increase in the final year. But Stan Shewaga, president of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, declined to confirm the offer, noting there is a news “blackout” on contract negotiations. The PPWC and the Canadian Paperworkers Union, which repre. sent 13,000 pulp workers in B.C., are presently negotiating in Vancouver College proposal approved A reforestation proposal submit ted by Selkirk College for funding under the Canada-British Columbia Forest Resource Development Agreement (FRDA) has been ap proved The grant of $31,700 for intensive forest management on college-owned lands, was announced by Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco on behalf of the Gerald Merrithew, Minister of State for Forestry and Mines. The funding will enable the college to undertake site preparation and to purchase, plant and fertilize approx imately 58,000 trees during the next two years. Under the agreement, the college will pay 20 per cent of the cost of the $40,000 project “This represents a significant in crease in forested land area on the college campus,” said Peter Om mundsen, Forestry instructor, and a majér contributor to the college's funding proposal. “Students in the Forestry Tech nology program will have an excell ent opportunity to study the de velopment and management of trge plantations close at hand The college's Department of Envir onmenta! Sciences and Technologies currently manages about 50 hectares of land surrounding the college, in addition to a 372-hectare woodlot licence located 10 kilometres west of the Castlegar Campus. The FRDA grant will be used for work on approximately 35 hectares surround ing the Castlegar Campus Proposed tree plantations will in clude a wide range of species such as cedar, grand fir, Douglas fir, larch, lodgepole pine, western white pine and yellow pine. According to Ommundsen, the site preparation and planting may be contracted, though students are likely to participate in screefing, planting and fertilizing the seedlings on college grounds as part of their course work. with the province's pulp companies. Pulp union contracts expire at the end of June. Shewaga said the leak of the offer to the media has upset Some mem- bers of the PPWC bargaining team. “That member has certainly caused some concern amongst the negotiating caucus in Vancouver,” Shewaga told the Castlegar News today Shewaga would also not confirm or deny the PPWC and the CPU are seeking a two-year deal with in- creases of $1.75 an hour in the first year and a 10-per-cent wage increase in the second year, as was reported earlier this week. It was also re- ported the offer given the unions was unsatisfactory and was turned down. The unions are also asking for improved pension and health benefit plans, the report said. INSIDE TV listings Today's. 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