C2 December 31, 1988
Compiled by MARY PICTON

January

The first Castlegar area baby arrives at 11 a.m.

tlegar and District Hospital. The seven-pound
7%,-ounce boy is the son of Jean and Bill Stephens of
Castlegar, and joins a family of four brothers and sisters.

A CP Rail freight train carrying phosphate rock and
zine concentrate to Cominco derails in downtown
Castlegar, but all five rail cars involved are left standing.
An alternate line is used for train traffic while CP Rail
crews work into the night to repair the track.

Work on a $26,000 permanent underground emergen
cy water line from the City of Castlegar to Blueberry
Creek is scheduled to begin, pending the finalization of
legal documents between the city and province.

Castlegar teachers vote 96.2 per cent in favor of
becoming a trade union with full union rights. Nineteen
teachers’ unions are certified so far in B.C. under new
legislation which gives them full bargaining rights,
including the right to strike.

Regional District of Central Kooten: board comes
down hard on the provincial government's plan to privatize
the Ministry of Highways’ maintenance and bridge repair
services, as well as any move by Victoria to charge fees on
inland ferries. Régional directors make their views known
in a meeting with MLAs Howard Dirks and Chris D'Arcy,
who attend the regular board meeting.

A local hair salon, Avenues Hairdesign Ltd., is named
“top salon” in North America in a recent design
competition conducted by Modern Magazine.

The cold weather doesn't deter hundreds of area
residents as they gather to celebrate the Olympic spirit at
local Celebration '88 festivities. Relay runners selected
lottery-style from entry forms carry the replica torch
donated by the City of Merritt, from Selkirk College to the
Safeway parking lot. A torchlight parade to the
Community Complex is followed by an evening of
Olympic-related activities.

Castlegar’s Felix Beleyzk surprises the world as he
captures Canada’s first Alpine World Cup super-giant
slalom victory at Leukerbad, Switzerland A. civic
reception is planned to celebrate his return to Castlegar

Regional District of Central Kootenay decides to press
ahead with its court case against the provincial
government and B.C. Hydro in an effort to tax Hydro
property.

February

Canadian Airlines International announces it will
replace the 122-seat Boeing 737 jet on its Castlegar.
Vancouver route with a 52-seat Dash 7 aircraft beginning
May 1, thus eliminating the only jet service into Castlegar.

ster of State for the Kooteni Development
Region, Rita Johnston, calls on area leaders to give the
provincial government's decen alization program a
chance. She tells the crowd of about 100 at a meeting in
Castlegar that there won't be any “overnight miracles,”
but suggests decentralization is more of a “planning
process.”

Celgar Pulp Co. closes its woodroom, despite requests
from Castlegar council and Castlegar school board to
continue running the operation.

‘The 15th Olympic Winter Games officially open before
a crowd of 60,000 spectators at McMahon stadium in

lgary. The loudest cheer is for the Canadian team, which
includes Castlegar skier Felix Belcyzk.

Castlegar is now an official member of the United
Nations Association and the third ftommunity in the
province (behind Vancouver and Victoria) to be awarded a
branch. Its 20-member chapter will address issues ranging
from world-wide hunger relief to nuclear disarmament and
human rights.

An apparent bureaucratic bungle in Ottawa leads to
some interesting tax windfalls for some residents in rural
areas. Many are declared eligible for the northern
residents’ allowance deduction which could mean refunds
of up to $2,500 for those with net incomes of $30,000 or
more. But MP Bob Brisco wants everyone in Kootenay
West to be eligible for the tax breaks. :

City council seek: pecial meeting with Celgar Pulp

Co. for a “positive approach” to dealing with the woodroom
closure, as well as other issues that affect the community
and future of the area.

More than 800 teachers, support staff and parent
group representatives from Colville, Wash. to Creston,
converge on Castlegar for this year’s professional devel-
opment days. Organizers anticipate a “fantastic confer-
ence” featuring three key-note speakers of international
repute and 33 workshops.

Local residents bask in chinook-type weather, as the
temperature rises to 14.3 degrees — an all-time record.

Castlegar’s gas war, which is in its second month, hits
a new low, as the price of a litre of gasoline plummets to

March

The warm weather continues as the mercury reaches
10.1 C, setting a record for this time of year, as crocuses
sprout around area homes.

Kootenay MP Bob Brisco is successful in having more
of the West Kootenay deemed “isolated” for northern and
isolated residents’ deductions for the 1987 tax year. These
include Glade, Pass Creek, Shoreacres, Shutty Bench,
Slocan Park, Syringa Creek, Tarrys, Waneta, Waneta
Junction and Columbia Gardens.

Castlegar teachers express concern about overcrowd-
ed classrooms and ask the school board to hire more
teachers. The large class sizes top the list of concerns at a
forum of local educators and the school board.

Ootischenia residents say no to a gas station that a
West Kootenay development company has proposed along
Highway 3 near the Ministry of Highways’ weigh scales.
“That's the third hearing and even as scaled down as the
hearing was, the atmosphere is the same,” says a company
spokesman.

Castlegar school board approves a six-per-cent
increase in its 1988-89 provisional budget — which
translates into an increase of $55 to the average home-
owner. A lack of provincial government funding is blamed
for the board's decision to increase local taxes.

Castlegar council opposes the provincial government's
privatization of highways and bridge maintenance, citing
concerns for public's safety, and that privatization would
be detrimental to residents and the province, especially the
tourism industry. Members write Premier Bill Vander
Zalm about their concerns.

B.C. Hydro will not be installing generators at the
Hugh Keenleyside Dam for at least the next decade, the
chairman of the Crown corporation tells the Castlegar
News. Larry Bell says a lack of foreseeable power demand
for the project is the reason.

Castlegar council joins the furor across the country
about the federal tax deduction for northern and isolated
residents and wants Ottawa to include Castlegar in the tax
program. Under the complicated eligibility formula, com:
munities near large centres qualify while more isolated
communities do not.

e Robson resident Roberta Zurek is chosen
Castlegar area’s 1987 Citizen of the Year.

April

A tanker truck and trailer loaded with sulphuric acid
flips on Columbia Avenue near the Highway 2 overpass,
dumping about 3,700 litres of the corrosive chemical on to
Castlegar’s major thoroughfare.

Mayor Audrey Moore calls for a thorough investiga
tion into the tanker accident, as cleanup continues with the
Ministry of Environment, Highways Ministry, Cominco,
Inland Natural Gas, B. ‘el and city crews at the scene at
one time or another. Cominco trucks later dump nine loads
of lime on the spill.

A $2.4-million aquatic centre proposed for Castlegar is
the sole focus of the Castlegar and District Projects
Society. “The more money we raise before approaching the
provincial government for funds, the less taxes we will pay
when the facility is completed” says society president Ron
Ross.

Local refrigeration engineer, Said El-Farra, is ready
to go big time with his invention of an air pressure system
which could revolutionize the way beverages are dispensed
in restaurants and bars. The inventor says a Toronto

PENNIES PER LITRE

Castlegar residents lineup for bargain gas prices as
the city's service stations enter their second month
of a price war which sees the price of a litre of gas
plummet to 9.9 cents per litre

company will manufacture the system and plans on having
“one plant in B.C. and one down east.”

Pulp Co. and the Ministry of Environment
negotiate to accelerate the pulp mill's 10-year pollution
upgrading program in light of the company’s strong
economic performance.

Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco rests in an Ottawa
hospital after suffering a serious heart attack earlier this
month. Brisco is uncertain about when he will return to his
constituency.

Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s visit to the West Kootenay
is anything but a tiptoe through the tulips. Upon his
arrival, he is dogged by protesters at the airport, booed by
students when visiting a local high school, and criticized at
a demonstration in Trail. On an upbeat note, the premier
meets with hospital staff and administrators in Castlegar
to take part in a sod-turning ceremony for a $4.3 million
extension to the local building.

Charitable organizations which depend on funds
generated by casinos are outraged by a recent B.C. Gaming
Commission decision to disallow gambling in the West
Kootenay. No licenses are being issued for casino locations
generating less than $1,500 in winnings a night. Castlegar
just doesn’t have enough people coming out to spend the
kind of money that woudl generate that type of a win, says
a spokesman for one of the local casino supporters.

A mudslide at Sullivan Creek (located between
Genelle and Trail) ruptures a natural gas line, forcing
Inland Natural Gas to cut service for 12 hours to about
3,000 homes in the Castlegar, Robson and Genelle areas.

Castlegar council considers setting up a special task
force to look at solutions to the city’s growing truck traffic
when it is learned that the number of logging trucks
hauling wood to Westar Timber's Southern Wood Products
sawmill will double this year. The mill plans to purchase
more wood from outside the area this year, while the
Celgar Pulp Co. plans to ship all its chips by truck.

May

Area politicans agree to ask the provincial govern
ment to consider its proposal to look at transferring the
operation of the Castlegar-Robson ferry to local
authorities. Meanwhile, more than 700 Robson and
Castlegar residents sign a petition requesting that the
ferry service remain as it is.

’s ambassador to the United Nations, Stephen
Lewis, is a guest speaker at the Brilliant Cultural Centre.
He addresses a group of about 300 people, stressing
disarmament and development as the focal points for a
more successful global economy. The $1.8 million per
minute the world spends on nuclear weapons could easily

May

conquer world hunger, disease and poverty, he tells the
crowd.

Castlegar council pleads poverty during its meeting
with provincial Finance Minister Mel Couvelier. The
government's deregulation of the natural gas-industry, the
dropping of the provincial revenue sharing grant and the
elimination of the municipal liquor tax are major causes of
the city’s dwindling coffers.

About 175 concerned residents from Castlegar and
Robson gather on the idle Castlegar-Robson ferry to
protest the recent government shutdown of the services
and solicit names for a list of volunteers willing to guard
the ferry overnight in rotating two-hour shifts.

Eight B.C. Government Employees’ Union workers
who worked on the Castlegar-Robson ferry are laid off —
with only four remaining eligible for other BCGEU jobs
following the layoffs. Meanwhile, Robson residents
continue their 24-hour vigil on the ferry until the provincial
government reverses its decision to cease operating the
ferry.

IWA president Jack Munro and B.C. Federation of
Labor president Ken Georgetti are in Castlegar as part of a
province-wide tour to organize opposition to the free-trade
agreement and privatization. During a visit with the Ferry
Users Ad Hoc Committee, Georgetti pledges organized
labor's support for thier cause.

The National Transportation Agency of Canada holds
a public hearing in Castlegar to determine if the 161
kilometres of rail line between Castlegar and Midway
should be abandoned. CP Rail has claimed it can't compete
with truck traffic and is losing money.

A $31,700 federal grant for intensive forest
management on college-owned lands is approved, enabling
Selkirk College to undertake site preparation and to
purchase, plant and fertilize approximately 58,000 trees
during the next two years. A forestry instructor says its an
excellent opportunity for students to “study the develop-
ment and management of tree plantations close at han

The long-standing tradition of the country fair dies, as
organizers give up staging the Robson Fall Fair. The
project is abandoned because of a lack of interested

volunteers.

A 13-year Castlegar provincial court judge, Bruce
Josephson, is appointed to the position of chief judge of the
provincial court of B.C. and leaves for Vancouver to take
up his new position.

The 19th annual Sunfest celebrations kick off with the
crowning of 16-year-old Lisa Dodds as Miss Castlegar. The
88 celebrations go into full swing with the annual parade
and pancake breakfast. Two new events, drag boat racing
and a chili cookoff, attract both local and out-of-area
entrants.

The management committee which oversees Celgar
Pulp Co.'s local operation is in town for its quarterly
meeting. At a dinner meeting with Castlegar council, a
senior official of the committee tells council that the
provincial government's increased stumpage rates are to
blame for the closure of the pulp mill's woodroom.

Jane Fleet, a Grade 12 student at Stanley Humphries
secondary school, is one of 15 winners selected from 139
finalists from around the province to win the prestigious
Premier's Excellence Award, which carries a cash prize of

A delegation of Japanese officials from
Embetsu on the northernmost Japanese island of
Hokkaido, is in Castlegar as part of a goodwill visit that
could lead to the twinning of the two cities. Castlegar's
relationship with Embetsu emerges out of Selkirk
College's relationship with Aoyama Technical College,
which sends students here every year for English-language
instruction.

Valhalla Wilderness Society and the Slocan Valley
Watershed Alliance appeal the permit the Arrow Forest
District holds which allows it to treat with herbicides 459
hectares of Crown land about three kilometres south of
Summit LakerQpponents of the herbicides Roundup and
Vision say they have not Beem tested, pointing to

CROWNED

nN

Lisa Dodds waves to the crowd during the Sunfe:
parade which got the annual celebration into full
swing. ids, 16, was crowned Miss Castlegar at a
ceremony kicking off the 1988 Sunfest.

numerous instances of flyphosate-related damage to
humans and animals.

Selkirk College Eni Development Centre
receives a new $25,000 reference library which will enable
local businesses to get in touch with large manufacturers
and business contacts. The centre's access to business
contacts will make it easier for people interested in
starting their own businesses.

Castlegar school board approves a no-smoking policy
which will make the district totally smoke-free by the end
of, next June. The district will be providing funding,
information and support to employees who wish to quit
smoking.

Derek Ball presents the valedictory address at the
Community Complex as 172 Stanley Humphries secondary
school students graduate in the 1988 commencement
exercises. More than 40 community organizations and
individuals bestow almost $17,000-worth of scholarshipos
and bursaries to some 50 students.

July

Tourism in Castlegar is on the increase says a study
released by the local Chamber of Commerce. Ski packages
are bringing in an estimated $65,000 into the community,
while convention and tournament business brought in over
$1.2 million in the first four months of 1988.

National Transportation Agency of Canada turns
down CP Rail’s application to abandon its Boundary
subdivision line between Castlegar and lway. The NTA
rules that the projected carloads by CP Rail are
“pessimistically low” in view of future traffic commitments
by area industrie:

The it of Kalesnikoff Lumber Co. Ltd. of
Thrums says the company has committed $2.5 million in
capital funding to expand the mill and “stay in the lumber
business for years to come.” Kalesnikoff says the increase
in stumpage rate has forced the company into the
expansion.

Projects Society decides to take an aquatic
centre proposal to referendum with a $2.2 million price tag
on it. The referendum is scheduled for Oct. 15 and includes
Castlegar, Area I and Area J residents.

The Highways Ministry announces it will not start
operation of the Castlegar-Robson cable ferry because the
ferry is not an essential highways service. It has put the
ferry on the selling block with an asking price of $1, but
says it will not sell it to the Ferry Users Ad Hoc Committee
unless the group starts operating the vessel.

eger_ Air Terminal’s $4 million expansion is
officially unveiled by federal Minister of State Gerry St.
Germain. The minister credits Kootenay-West MP Bob

December 31, 1988 ¢3
Brisco for making the expansion possible, saying he fought
for it endlessly.

Raspberry Ferry Users Ad Hoc Committee
sends a letter to the provincial Highways Ministry seeking
permission to purchase the cable ferry for $1. “To show
good faith we've stopped occupation of the ferry,” says a
spokesman. “If we have to operate it, we're going to look
into funding.” The committee enclosed $1 in its letter to
cover the purchase.

CP Rail gives the green light to spray the herbicide
Spike along the rail lines leading from Castlegar to Trail
and Nelson. The permits for spraying, which were issued
last year, were appealed but the rail line earned the right
to spray the areas after the Environment Ministry turned
down the appeals and issued additional conditions for
spraying.

August

The Porcupine Creek forest fire in which the pilot of a
Conair air tanker recently lost his life is finally brought
under control. Meanwhile, the Canadian Aviation Safety
Board continues to investigate the cause of the air tanker
crash.

District of Central Kootenay and the City of
Castlegar decide against taking over the operation of the
Castlegar-Robson ferry, but would “be delighted to see
them (the Robson-Raspberry Ferry Users Ad Hoc
Committee) take it over,” according to a spokesman.
Although the Highways Ministry has acknowledged the
purchase offer by the committee, a decision is still up in the

air.

The United Steelworkers of America certifies 33
employees at credit unions in Castlegar, Fruitvale, Nelson
and Salmo. The certification covers tellers, loans officers
and office supervisors. Kootenay Savings Credit Union
challenged the ballots and the boxes remained sealed until
an Industrial Relations Committee hearing in Rossland on
July 28,

‘The Regional District of Central Kootenay succeeds in
getting an injunction to prevent CP Rail from spraying the
herbicide Spike along trail lines between Nelson and
Castlegar, and Castlegar to Trail. However, a spokesman
for the residents opposed t. .he spraying feels CP Rail “has
every intention of spraying.”

Damage to a 13,000-volt underground electric supply
cable brings Castlegar’s water pressure down for nearly
three hours. The cable, which runs from Celgar to the
Arrow Lake pumphouse near the Hugh Keenleyside dam,
blew to ground, stopping the flow of electricity from the
pulp mill to the pumphouse transformer.

A B.C. Court of Appeal decision turning down the
RDCK's bid to halt the spraying of the herbicide Spike
along the rail tracks between Nelson and Castlegar sends
protesters scrambling to the tracks in Brilliant to keep a
truck from going toward Nelson. As a result of the
successful confrontation, the truck is turned away. The
protesters intend to continue their trackside vigil until the
spraying permit expires, despite the threat of conviction.

A private-sector contractor, BEL Maintenance Inc., wins
approval in principle for a contract covering more than
$350 million worth of road and bridge maintenance service
in 13 areas. The Highways Ministry promises that current
standards will be kept — an issue that has concerned
former Highways Minister Alex Fraser and the
Opposition.

A CP Rail spokesman confirms the rail company has
abandoned its plans for this year to spray the herbicide
Spike along the tracks between Nelson and Castlegar.
Though CP Rail won't spray its Nelson to Castlegar
section, it did complete its spraying program in all the
other Kootenay areas. The spokesman is unsure about the
company’s plans in the area for next year.

September

After a five-year hiatus, the Red Cross blood donor
clini¢ returns to Castlegar. The president of the Castlegar
branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society says the 300-u
target in Castlegar will be about the same amount that the
community uses each year.

Plans for a $5.2 million feature film dealing with the
history of the Doukhobors and to be partly filmed in