LES

. The Castlegar Sun

4d

a Wednesday;'December 12,1990;

usiness as never before expected

By BARBARA TANDORY
‘Sun staff writer

For once in the history of
Castlegar it will not be busi.

“When you compare | it even to

the regional district (of. Central :
x 2

this is

uswal but business as never before.
In this mood the executive directors
of the Castlegar and District
Development Board began last
week the work of a new business.

said Maddocks, noting the total:
$16.5 m, figure for the regional
district.

But while opportunity has come

to Castlegar like an avalanche, the .

ing strategy, g the
ited Celgar app ji
principle announcement,

Rickard Maddocks and Stan
Harry, the executive co-directors of
the board, both feel their job has
been made a lot easier by the
announcement.

“Castlegar is not going to a
the ( ing) aid

planp*s: are

keenly aware of its troubling
underside, mostly a severe housing
shortage and a worsening traffic

Maddocks notes that the existing
housing crisis — caused “primarily
by uncertainty” — can only get
worse with projects that will

Maddocks. Stan was "equally
confident.

“We'll be recession proof,” be
said,

Maddocks noted that 1990
started out as a good business year
and is ending even better, after

p or follow the Celgar
expansion, such as the new bridge
on the Columbia River, B.C.
Hydro’s generator installation on
the Columbia River near the pulp
mill and the completion in town of,
developments such as Castle View
Lodge, a $3.5 m, seniors’ home how.

some times in
And it all depended on Celgar.
“The strategy of our community
marketing changed a lot, depending
which way the Celgar proposal
went,” said Maddocks, “The first
three-four months. were very good.
We even had activity in the

Name: Anita

What you do theres

Castlegar likes: The men
Castlegar dislikes:Celgar

Pet: Cat

Where you work: Selkirk College / Dalry Queen

rk with special needs adult / cashler

Best kept Castlegar secret: So well kept! don't know It
Vehicle: Toyota
What would you rather be doing? Partying

& Celgar
Continued from 1A

Dec..6. “There’s nothing official. It
was scheduled to come out as a
joint release from the Federal and
Provincial governments on Friday
or Monday. They’re feverishly
trying to get it done now. It has to
go through about 20 approvals.
Now they bave to jump through all
the hoops a day or two quicker. It

was a bit premature of Mr. Dirks to -

say anything.”

Over at Celgar, Plant Manager
Jim Browne was at a total loss after
the Wednesday afternoon radio

report. :

“I don’t know whetber I should
be happy or not,’ be said. “Nobody
told us. We can’t confirm it.
Howard’s (Dirks) office docea't
know, the personal secretary of
Ministry of the

The Celgar Expansion Review
Panel release stating that an interim
report had been submitted to the
British Columbia. Minister of
Environment andthe federal
Ministers of the Environment, and
Fisheries and Oceans, was sent out
just before 6 p.m. that evening. The
Official govemment statement from
B.C. Environment was not released
until late the next day.

“I don’t know when we can
proceed,” said Sweeney. “We’: te

park and new business
start-

It ete only until Celgar Pulp
Co. announced that it would have
to undergo an extensive provincial-
federal review, noted Maddocks.

“There was a lot of activity, a lot
of interest,” he said, “but wien

under ¢ on Highway 3 in

Maddocks noted this project
alone, expected to employ some 25
people, will’ be felt in the
community since the new

yees, mature
will likely require family housing.

The crisis will lit everywhere,
according to Maddocks,

“The students at Selkirk College

‘are going to find it hard to rent a

place next fall because Celgar
workers won't all want to live in
camps,” he said.

He also speculated that the
ae ‘talization Pl

Celgar made the
April, it all went into nlmbst
suspended animation.”

Last week, Maddocks and Stan
breathed relief.

“Now all that pent-up
uncertainty is gone,” said
Maddocks. “That allows us to
market the community in a new
way.”

It was hard to bring in new
clients until business confidence
was restored, he noted.

But they said a new mood of
business confidence has been in
evidence all this year. Housing
starts alone have been “perkcing up”
despite the high interest rates and
the uncertainty, said Maddocks.

From: the end: of summer to the
end of October..16 new. single-
family homes were started,
compared to only 22 in 1989 for
the full year.

jan “is
going to probably require some sort
of a labor force” from out of town.

The hospital expansion, if it
opens on schedule in the New Year,
will employ 45 new employees.

Of immediate concern to the
development board is a growing
shortage of small office space,
coupled with arising demand,
especially in the service sector,

“There's a pent-up demand for
office space,” Stan conceded.

“A lot is going on,” said
Maddocks. “An awful lot. It
actually becomes mind-boggling.”

Both men agree that Castlegar
has never before experienced such
rapid development, not even when
the Hugh Keenleyside Dam was
being built in the early 1960s.......4.

Harry says the main question for
the city planners is “Where are they
all going to liver but adds, ' “It's an

Io general ion, the
Castlegar area has some $14.5 m.
worth of building projects this year.
The figure includes such major

“And Meddnas notes that city
council will have to make “some
unpopular decisions” to meet the

i ead on.

projects as the hospital
but

hoping to get g:
before Christmas. I don’ t think
that’s unrealistic. I'm confident and
quite optomistic that there won’t be
a problem and we'll carry on. But
I’m not the guy that signs the
cheques. I think it’s a damn good
project. We're going to have a
good mill. I don’t see any concems

doesn’t know. We need to be
contacted by one of the five
ministries involved. It would be my
{hope that it was such.”

from an point at all.

“But we can’t waste anymore
time or any more money just sitting
around, We have to get on with the
job or lose it.”

‘Bag of TToys last

And the winner is..

BUN OTAFE PHOTO May Ure

are Melanie. Werner of Castlega West's

‘pepartment.Store ‘Toy Department Manager: ‘Angie.

‘Ready: helpe:es ‘Santa make the draw for Santa's ee.
saturday aftemoon. a

d to Nelson and Trail
areas — around $6m. and $1.5m.,
respectively — it’s very

“We're “going to have an
overload on services,” be said. “It’s
going to be very difficult, and we

will have to support council when

“it makes those hard decisions."

Also, the traffic flow on

|Columbia Avenue must be dealt
“with, be said, ‘The traffic flow has

sure that Celgar would go abead, 0
the (building of) infrastructure was
delayed,”
Both he and his partner, Stan,
feol the key to handling the
ion of what will basically be

1 since just

two years ago, said Maddocks.
“Where did all the. cars come
from?” he asked, adding he's still

driving just one car. However,

Aanddock

notes an i in

two years of intense activity is
proper management by city
Planners and tolerance on behalf of
the residents,

, we don’t have to

population since 6,300 in a 1983
census by some 10 per cent. The
population of Castlegar is closer to
the 7,000 figure, he noted.

Even geography of the city will
change, said -Maddocks in
reference to the proposed bridge on
the Columbia River in place of the
Robson-Castlegar cable ferry,
which was put out of operation by
the provincial government in 1988.

blindly accept things but we have
to be tolerant,” said Maddocks
Looking into the future, he said

.the city will have to Ieam “not to

depend on those 1,200 (Celgar)
employees” because they will leave
with their paycheques once the
construction is completed.

“It's only two years,” noted
Maddocks.

But the message from the

The bridge — its was
tied by the government to the
Celgar expansion project going
ahead — will indirectly have
positive effect on retail business,
be claims.

“It'll be the biggest short in the
arm for our downtown businesses.

“It’ll change the traffic pattern

dramatically — and it'll open'up
land for housing,” he said.

“It would be nice if the
infrastructure came first,” he
observed. “But we were like
anybody else, We didn’t know for

board is touched by

the general ore felt by the
since the

approval last week.

“Hold on folks, we are going
for a ride,” joked Stan.

And Maddocks said: “Harry
(Stan) and I are now in the position
that we can go out and push
something certain.”

He added: “The confidence that
Celgar has shown in the
community is applaudable, and the
community has shown its support
in sticking it out.”

SUN STAFF PHOTO/ Frank Derby

Alvin Bojey, left, and Ben Draper work in the new long-

’ term facility under construction at the Castlegar and

District Hospital which is near completion.

@ Traffic

Continued from 1A

seek public input before proceeding,
with the improvements.

“This means a pretty significant
change, and a public meeting and
an open house will be held in mid-
January,” said Hample.

To further inform the general
public, the city will then distribute
brochures in late Seba: before

statistics, the city engineer pointed
out points on a large map of the city
where accidents tend to occur most
frequently.
“The bulk of traffic accidents
occur on Columbia,” he noted.
Hample presented the traffic
report in more detail in a briefing
prior to the regular evening meeting
of council,
“It sounds like an excellent
Kirk

starting to i
changes sometime in fe spring.

” rooking
Duff commented afterwards. “Tell
bei ing to see it

Ina quick recap of

a Strike

Continued from 1A

However, be noted, “any action
that we take will be dictated to us
by our membership.”

A transit strike would affect
operations in Castlegar and Trail,
including the new Handy DART
service for the disabled, be said.

The unionized bus workers are
seeking parity with municipal pay
rates and asking for i

Blatchford said 3 more drivers
were recently hired back, making it
27 transit employees in Castlegar
and Trail. In Castlegar, two of the

five bus drivers employed are full ”

time, the remaining three casual
employees.

Blatchford noted the strike vote
has given the bus drivers a legal
tight to withdraw services, which
they may or may not do, depending

- to RRSP contributions from the

employer.

Remaining unresolved are
pensions, wages and training
programs.

on how proceed with
the employer.

“We're hoping thai it doesn’t
happen,” be

The tal te Transit Office declined

That's the day!

Wednesday, December 12, 1990

The Castlegar Sun

Page 3A ;

Public must be educated to recycling

By NANCY LINGLEY
Sun Editor

Reduce, reuse, and recycle has
got to become a way of life if the
community is to meet the

of reducing solid waste in sanitary
tendon by 50 per cent by the ycar

“The provincial

tires," noled Livingstone. “There
are an estimated two to three
tires a week dumped out

there from the three tire shops in ©

town and Joc Public. At present
there is nothing else to do with
them.”

Livingstone did say that some
tires were being processed in
Cranbrook where the rubber was

has made. us aware that sanitary
landfills aren’t sanitary anymore.”
said Mike Livingstone the interim

d into rubber matting.
““But it costs money to get them
over there,” he said.
ous money is something the
is sh

for the Castlegar and District Sub-

_ Region of the RDCK. “There is

toxic leaching. Poisons filter down
to ground water. A h

ort on,
one have to bave aplant and a
collection process,’ pointed out
Livingstone. “At the urging of the
the RDCK

mix of oil and anti-freeze
perculates down. Much material
presently buried doesn’t
deteriorate. Now we need to
educate the public to the need for
recycling.”

Livingstone stated that an’
estimated eight to 10,000 tons of
garbage ended up in. the
Ooteschenia dump annually.

“The more you dig into it, the
more the need is apparent,” he
said with a perfectly straight face.

But the solid waste problem is
no laughing matter.

“One of our worst problems is

has undertaken a role on waste
management for the whole of the
RDCK at a cost of $180,000, It
won't be complete for 18 months
and the idea is to develop a plan
of bow to handle the waste of all
the regional district. Recycling is
a part of that.”

Livingstone noted that some
recycling efforts are already
underway in the community.

“Safeway has a small baler and
they compact all. of their
cardboard and send it down to
Vancouver. Cardboard is one of
the biggest contributors to solid

waste because it’s so bulky,” he
said. “As a’ public service,
Mitchell Auto Parts will accept
auto batteries, They put them ina
container and ship them to Trail. I

Livingstone

think that’s an excellent idea. A
plant is under construction in the
Woaneta Industrial Park. When it's
built, they will remove the acid
from batteries, take the lead out
and ship it to Cominco, and
pelletize the plastic casing.”

Livingstone said be would also
like to establish a municipal
compost pile to be used in the
municipal gardens “and given to

the public if necessary.”
“We need to make people

d Li

”

WEATHER

The forecast for Wednesday;
Increasing cloud with periods of
light, snow. or rain fate this
afternoon and overnight. Highs
from 1 to 3. Lows from 0 to -2. Outlook for Thursday
will be cloudy with snow or'rain easing off to flurries.
Friday calls for smoe sunny periods and remaining mild.

ALOOK BACK AT THE PAST WEEK:

“eventually we'll have to present a
money bylaw — ask the public to
fund recycling. The only way we
can do that at the present time is
with a money bylaw. And if we're
going to ask them for money, they
should know'something about it.

“We have to get the message to
the public so we can have a
successful bylaw. It would be
temible if it failed, We'd be back to
square one.

“Everybody is becoming more
and more aware,

Normal
Mean

pel Max/Date Min/Date Mean

7.3/4 64/7 0.2 “L7

Precipitation: = Rain Snow Total Normal

Total

22.4 cm. 9.0cm 311 cm. 23.6 cm.

Number of
Hours

Sunshine: Normal Number

of Hours
3.5 8.2

‘We're all aware we throw away
huge volumes of reusable material.

“Until such a time that we get
something operational for
recycling, we have to try to reduce
the amount of material going to the
dumpsite.”

Teachers and School Board ratify

By BARBARA TANDORY
Sun staff writer

lot of anger and hostility.”
The school board ratified the
on Dec. 3, soon after a

The Castlegar school board
and the Castlegar and District
Teachers Association have
ratified the newly neg

was
by the two sides on Nov. 27.

The board’s endorsement of the
deal was i said Turner.

teachers’ contract, settling the
issue to the satisfaction of both
sides .School District No. 9 board
chairman Gordon Tumer said the
board feels it struck a good and

The contract is for two years,
and provides for a seven per cent
salary increase in the first year and
6.5 percent in the second.This
compares to a similar provincial

fair deal with its who
ratified the new collective
agreement Monday night.

“The school hoard is pleased
with the agreement because of the
stability over the next two years
and because of what's happening
in other districts, where there’s a

Celgar panel

By.NANCY LINGLEY
Sun Editor

ge in those where
teachers have already settled.

In the Nelson district, for

example, the teachers received

6.85 (first year) and 6.5 (second:

year) increases. Turner said other
“significant increases” in the

involve increasing teacher
preparation time from 70 min. a
week currently to 80 min. in Sept.
1991, with a further 20-minute
increase for the school year 1992-
93 for a total of up to 100 min. a
week.

“I think they got a pretty good
deal,” Turner noted.

Joyce Adams, the president of
the teachers district association,
concurred, noting that no contract
deal is perfect but the new
agreement presents a good
compromise.

“We're reasonably satisfied,”
said Adams. “We think it’s a
worakable contract.”

Adams said the contract

the hers are most

are y and

pleased with having class size
bumbers written into a contract.
“We don’t think those

REMARKS: ;

A large number of scheduled flights out of Castlegar
were cancelled due to the low cloud and poor visibility
that has persisted in the very stable:air.

Ski operations are under way but labor problems have
slowed the opening process. Let's hope all problems
are solved so we can all enjoy the upcoming holidays!

Forecast provided by
The South - East Interior Weather Office
at Castlegar, B.C,

are low enough, but it’s nice to :

have them,” she said.

The school board has agreed to
the following class size
miximums, based on school
averages: 25 in early primary
levels; 28 in grades 4-7; and 28 in
grades 8-12.

This, said Adams, is a
significant victory for teachers.

“All we had was a statement by
the board which said ‘d do its best
and keep class sizes at 30 or less,”
she said about the previous
contract that expired last June.
“This is the first time we have
actual class size in our contract.”

interim report draws mixed reactions

1 impact

assessment,” said). Susan
Ft 4

Mixed reactions and
contradictory feelings have
surfaced since the release of the
Celgar Expansion Review Panel's
interim report.

“The whole process indicates
industrial rubber not

for the
Kootenay Coalition in a press
release. “Within one month of the
end of the hearing process, the
Review Panel claims to-have
analyzed thousands of pages of
socially and technically

FEEDBACK

...a fair

quires more than one
month.”

MLA Chris D’Arcy has a far
different opinion.

“The system has worked,” said
D'Arcy. “It’s just been
exctutiatingly slow. So slow there
was always the risk the project
could have been stillborn because
of economic reasons, Hopefully

we're over that hurdiejand the
project will proceed.”

According to their release, the
Kootenay Coalition is also
unhappy that the interim report
provides no details regarding air
and water emissions or cleanup of
existing pollution in the Columbia
River. As well, the release claims
that the Panel’s terms of reference

LOCAL TIMBER
DOLLARS
SUPPORTS THiS

BUSINESS

did not permit of the

See DISCORD 4A

SUN STAFF PHOTO/ Nancy Ungiey

December 5 was a lucky day for Paul Oglow, right,
and Yvonne Moore (not pictured). That was the day
they chose for the Celgar approval-in-principal to
come down. and they won the lottery that was
conducted at the Celgar Info Office. Oglow donated
his half of the pot to the Hobbit Hill Children’s Centre.

By NANCY LINGLEY
‘Sun Editor

One of the maior piped oF the Celgar modernization and
to increased chip truck traffic,
especially along peteed 6 through the Slocan Valley. Monday
afternoon, Sun Editor Nancy Lingley was able to catch a ride with
truck owner/operator Andy Roberts on a ron to the Pope and
Talbot Ltd. sawmill located in Midway . Along with 35 tons of wood
chips for Celgar, she picked up these opinions from a driver directly
connected to the controversial issue.
see
At 29, Andy Roberts has been driving big rigs for five years. He's been
under contract to DCT Chambers to haul chips for Celgar for the past 40
months. As do most of Chambers’ drivers, Andy owns his truck. The
trailer belongs to DCT Chambers, Andy works a regular 12-hour day,
Monday to Friday. He usually employs a second driver to keep the truck
on the road 24 hours a day, five days a week. However, he is currently
looking for a driver that meets his standards for his payroll. On
weekends, ney inliees Herel ‘by maintaining us truck.

"TIS THE.
‘SEASON.
TO BE JOLLY...

_ Advertising i in 1 the:

to, but lots of times there's lots already stopped and we'd ¢1

“government. I ‘operate under Ch C
I'm caught doing s hi an ascii

The weather is grey and wet, but the cab of the big rig is warm and.
cosy. And the view from up here is superb, The views being expressed are
worth paying attention to as well.

“I don’t understand what the problem is with the persons who object to
the chip truck traffic. The way I see it, they want to stay up the (Slocan)
Valley. They want to stay in hiding up there. They don’t want their little
world disrupted.

“We pay road taxes like every other truck on the road. Why are we
discriminated against? If there’s not enough taxes, then they should raise
them for everybody.

“If leave the chip trailer behind, put a flatdeck on, and go up to Slocan
City for iumber, aii of a sudden i'm OX? That's the thing

“There's no doubt about it. Everybody agrees that highway needs to be
upgraded. Right now, to ride a bike on that highway you are in the lane of

traffic. There are no paved And Right
from the Junction all the way up to Nakusp. It needs Saved shoulders.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of traffic up there. Not compared to the rest
of the world. There’s not a lot on this highway (Highway 3) either.

“I think it’s a perspective thing. There’s more than there used to be and

jthere’s going to be more than there is. But on a provincial standard, it’s
still a very small amount of traffic.

“Look at the Fraser Canyon. The truck traffic there boggles the mind.

“We also run Highway 3 steady to Midway and back and never get any
complaints over here. In fact, a couple of years ago School District No. 9
wrote Ch to i them on how their drivers are.

“These people (the persons who object to chip truck traffic) circulated
some stuff before the hearings that was all b.s. If they do their research
and talk facts, I got no problem. That’s what started me writing letters. It
made me feel better anyway.

“The phone number is on the back of all the trucks, If somebody sees
somebody do something wrong, all they have to do is phone. They

infraction, overload, hours of work infraction — it goes against
Chambers. Tn theory they could lose their license. There are iaws on how
many hours you're allowed to drive a week and how much time off you're

mpi every call they get. They also get calls if we do

During the just over five hour round trip, Andy chats with other
truckers on his VHF radio which, he says, has almost made the shorter
range CB radio obsolete. There is a real comraderie among these drivers
on the road. Most comment on Andy’, 's glow-in-the-dark Santa mounted on
top of his truck cab. However, in addition to providing dispatch messages
and the lled trucks can fill a real need for the
travelling public.

“With the radios we call in a lot of accidents. We stop if there’s a necd

Lup a hazard
by having too many vehicles on the road. On stretches iike this (the

\Blueberry-Paulson) there’s not too much traffic along at two or three in

the moming. But with us on the go.24 hours a day we can sometimes help.

“When it's snowing heavily the tracks from an accident get covered up

pretty and nobody would see them by moming. That bappened to a
guy T knew. Luckily he was able to crawl back up to the highway.”
‘Truckers; and their trucks, are monitored carefully by the government
and the parent company.
“Bach company. has a National Safety Code number from the
Safety Code

d to have in b Bach driver also keeps a log that records
their duty status 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Whether on or off
duty. We also run tach cards, a card that fits into the speedometer and
records speed and rpms. They're read by computers and all the drivers are
monitored on an ongoing basis. And we always perform a pre-trip
inspection that’s a basic circle check of mostly safety items.”

Almost back to Castlegar, Andy pulls his truck over to the side of the
road and steps out into the snowy darkness in his shirtsleeves to check his
tires, his lights, and his brakes before the final downhill stretch.

“One of the biggest problems we have with the public is they’li pull
over to let us pass and they don’t understand that with a loaded tuck we
can’t just go around. We're at least 60-feet long, three times longer than
they are. And it takes a lot longer than in a'car to get around something. It

~also takes time to build up the speed to do it.”

The big Kenworth rolls into town and. Andy drops his passenger before
heading for Celgar to unload, His day, at 6 p.m., is half over. He will take

a load of “dust,” wood shavings from:Westar, to CanPar Ltd. in Grand

‘ Forks, where particle board is made, on his second run today. Then he

will collect another load of chips for Fr Cagar
“Half tho problem is that the who! Ne indiiary is so stereotype Udon”

permit or driving

profess that ly is
else does. But we re notan tn siley ake set obs