WEDNESDAY

romney, 6, 1991

Vol. 2- No. 6

By NANCY LINGLEY
Sun Editor .

Pathe ry

Less than one week after the
Reid)Group' of Vancouver
announced that a planned $7

‘is all but filled with prospective

tenants. .

“I can’t believe the interest I've
had today. I've got the shopping
icenter two-thirds filled right now

* and if the others talking about it
today came in, it would be filled

completely." said Sandy Reid,
president of the company at noon
yesterday..“I did not expect this
response when I flew into Castlegar
this moming.”

’ Reid said be will be announcing
the tenants who will occupy the
mall, possibly by the’ end of the
month, He did say that two national
companies that are locally operated
are involved “and the others are
local — one from Kelowna.”

The Castlegar Sun has con-
firmed that the Reid Group is
negolsene with Giant Foods and

Fields Stores Ltd.

Initiative underway

By BARBARA TANDORY
Sun staff writer ~

LT

A new provincial initiative for
women is underway in the
Castlegar area as part of a regional
{program for East and West
{Kootenay co-ordinated by Carel
(Scott.
’ Scott, who just last month
completed her work as the co-
ondinator for the Seniors’ Survey,
has been hired on a short-term
provincial grant to work out a
community Program to help
‘women in need of assistance for a
variety of reasons.

The focus of the initiative is to
increase community involvement
im the delivery of women’s

+ programs, .said-Scott;-a:Shoreacres,.........Locally,:..thi

resident.
The. ‘opportunity

for the agenc: at ‘work with

‘women — those whose clientele is -

primarily or totally women — and
also women’s groups and other
individuals to come together and
explore what's available in
Castlegar,” she said.

“And there’s money to do it,”
Scott said. Approximately
$300,000 has been made available
throughout the province.

At regional level, one time
grants are being made available to
communities to identify local

*. meeds and develop local solutions.
‘These funds can be used to do a
needs assessment study, to co-
ordinated planning and delivery
systems, or to develop pilot
Projects.

Scott explained: “We can
decide as a community whether we
want to do a needs assessment or
we might want to look at some
kind of co-ordinated planning.

: But the primary function is

. Community development of

- women's networks, she said. “This
is really about networking and
sharing.”

: The initiative’s general purpose

is not create new women's

Rubes®

programs but rather to make sure
that the existing services are more
readily available to women. Scott
explained by way of an example.

“We bave a Transition House
in Trail and they'll accept collect
calls from women who need help.
But many women don’t know
that.”

Scott suggested that installing a
365 number would make it easier
for women in the Castlegar area to
use the service.

“One of the things this (project)
will do is to make people aware of
what is available and what isn’t.”

Although the scope of Scott's
job is regional, she works with
individual communities to develop
individual community programs. __
€., CO}

Initiatives For Women in the’

Castlegar area will be. officially
initiated in a meeting Feb. 12 at:
noon at Castlegar City Hall. Public
attendance is invited.

At present, Scott is facilitating
community meetings to assist
agencies and local women to come
together to discuss how they want
to participate in the provincial
program.

Scott was in Castlegar Monday,
before leaving for Cranbrook
where she’s setting up a similar
community program. Earlier this
month she visited Grand Forks for
organizational work there. Later
this month Scott will be also
holding conimunity meetings in
Nelson and Trail. In Castlegar,
Scott can be contacted at Home
Support office on Columbia
Avenue, phone: 365-2148.

“I would encourage anyone,
male or female, who wishes to
come to that meeting and express
their concerns and take this
opportunity to be part of the
solution,” she said.

Scott’s contract is until the end
of June, but she hopes the
program’ *s live will be prolonged
by continuing funding from the
province.

By Leigh Rubin

Evidence focated atthe scene of the
blaze-led Investigators to. conclude that
the fire had been deliberately set. -

The’ mall, which will be
anchored by a department store on
one end and a major food store at
the’ other, will also include a triple

theatre and approximately 20 other’

shops. The development will be
close to 60,000 square feet in size.
Reid said that was a little larger than

| the ‘Castleaird Plaza, which he

believes is somewhere. in. the
neighborhood of 45,000 square fect.

t Approximately Six acres of property i

is involved, ‘one-and-one-half lots

P
beside the Sandman Inn and another _
‘four lots adjacent to that.

‘Tenders for construction will be

‘put out locally in ‘April said Reid:
i Between '100:and 200 persons ‘will’

be employed in the constriction of
the m:

ame eonstractiol manager’ is

‘from Vancouver, ut we' will use

is

Speed limit reduced

By BARBARA TANDORY
‘Sun staff writer

—— ee,
The proposal for traffic changes’

on Columbia Avenue. became
official as Castlegar council voted
Jan. 21 to implement the short-
term plan, including ten

* recommendations that emerged

from public input to the proposal.

But it wasn’t unanimous.

One alderman, Bob Pakula, was
strongly opposed to the inclusion
in the new traffic plan the
lowering of the speed limit to 50

km from 60 km.on Columbia.

between Arrow Lakes Drive and
20th Street.

Pakula insisted on going on
record with.his opposition to a
further speed limit reduction when
the final -staff report was presented
to;council for, implementation by

Alderman Lawrence Chernoff,
chairman of the city’s Works and
Services Committee.

people wherever possible, "

mised.
Work’ will'begin “as soon as
spring break-up starts,” and the mal!

is to te completed by October this ©.

year.
, Ted Charne, Sr., president of

First Commercial Properties in
* Winnipeg, owners of property .
; us," he said. “I think Castlegar is

located on the south side of Hi;
way 3 west of the Columbia River
where the Winnipeg company: is
proposing to build its own shopping
center, offered Reid bis best wishes.
“I know Mr. Reid is a very
responsible individual and I only
wish. him well,” said Charne. “If
Mr. Reid has the land, the tenants,
and the money, God Bless him. I
think it’s in the best interest of a
community to have a shopping
center in an area. We had hoped to
have.a shopping center on our site.
If all goes well we will do it. I think

with interest rates coming down it |
‘encourages everyone to go ahead

with eras projects Set he
interest is at 14-15 per cent there’s
no chance for anyone todo anything
but sit tight.”.

i, Reid ‘maintains that the Celgar
expansion and'/modernization
project was the-go-ahead for his
development. ,

““Celgar made our decision ‘for

going to be a boom town. There will
be over $1 billion spent here. Celgar
alone is over $700 million.

“And South Castlegar is
becoming the focal point of the
area,” he added. “I think this
shopping center'is something that

compliment the other shopping
facilities in Castlegar. I think the
timing is right.”

“As a good corporate citizen of
Castlegar, we're delighted that the
prayers of women who want to shop
in their own community will be

“And besides, it will provide jobs.”

Celgar a go?

By NANCY LINGLEY *
Sun Editor

Last Friday, Jim Browne,
manager of Celgar Pulp and Paper,
really thought the whole Celgar
modernization and expansion
project was down the tubes.

“I really thought on Friday

hap, id Browne on Monday
afternoon. “It’s:so naive to.think
that it can’t happen. I’m sure some
people at Coastal mills were saying
“they can’t shut down our mill.’
Those same people in various parts
of B.C, are now.unemployed. We
can’t assume that since it makes
sense, it’s going to happen.”

Yesterday, just over 24 hours
later, a press release from the B.C,
Ministry of Regional and
Economic Development stated,
“recommendations directed to the
company have now been reviewed
by the Ministers, They have
concluded that meeting these
recommendations, together with
some additional conditions they
have specified, will enable the
project to proceed.”

“I guess the feds are probably
going. to wait until they see the
whole thing [Ed. note: the Review
Panel's full report, due out in Mid-
February] before they give aclean
approval-in-principle,” .. said

* recommendations,”

Browne following the. press
release. “I think they’re say if
we can live with the conditions
and recommendations, there’s no
reason not to give approval-in-
principle.”

Browne added that two
engineering firms were currently
reviewing the, recommendati

“Ii’s their task to assure our
lenders there will be no substantial
changes in capital or operating
costs’ to pay due to the
explained
Browne. “I don’t think there will
be any surprises, it was pretty well
as advertised in the interim report.
Once that is done and the
government gives final approval-
in-principle, I think the banks will
get on board. I do know the banks
are still on board. They have
agreed to an extension to allow
time to properly review the
recommendations. I think the
project looks good. What it looks
like to me is like they're saying,
‘you've got a project, let’s just not
screw it up’.”

The recommendations, which
were released to the ministries
early last week, expand on the
general conditions outlined in the
interim report submitted by the
panel on Dec. 20,1990. They are

See CELGAR