LETTERS TO SANTA Dear Santa, I would like to wish every- body a happy Christmas, es- pecially all the children in Castlegar. Please bring everybody a big bag full of happiness and I look forward to seeing you on Christmas. your friend, Graeme Basson Age: 6 4-1690 Silverwood Cres. Castlegar, B.C. Dee. 2, 1981 Dear Santa, For Christmas I would like a Barbie, her Motorhome and Dallas, her ‘iorse. My sister, Treena, would like a typewriter. Thank you for all the pres- ents you brought us last year. love Lori Baker AgeS Dear Santa, How are you. I am 5 yrs. old. Is Mrs. Claus well? Are your Reindeer okay? I would like a Barbie Van, bit stuffed smurfette, smurf, puzzle, a butterfly, necklace, a jewerly box, purple pieman, Hope you have a nice Christmas. Love Leona Jones Dear Santa and Rudolph, I would like Love me Baby, Golden Dream Barbie, West- ern Barbie with Dallas the Horse, and Berry Bake Shoppe. I have been a good girl. I will leave you some cookies and milk and a carrot for Rudolph. Love Michelle Kalesnikoff Age5 Dec. 2/81 Dear Santa, Tm only 3, so my mommy is helping me write to you. I would like a Smurf doll and « Huckleberry Pie doll. My baby sister Mandy wants a doll too and a teddy bear. I will give you milk and peanut butter sandwich when you come. Love Becky Jones Dec. 2/81 Dear Santa, How are you? Hope Mrs. Claus is well. How are your Reindeer? I'm 91: yrs. old. I would like Western Barbie, Barbie Va, a game, Straw- berry Shortcake Doll, big stuffed papa smurf, a neck- lace, 2 new pair of jeans, Fresh 'n Fancy, a record, a smurfette figurine, a new lunchkit and a horse book. I hope you have a nice Christ- mas, Love Jennifer Jones Robson, B.C. Dear Santa, What are you doing? I want a black star. Two black stars. love, Ben [age 3 years) Nov. 27/81 Dear Santa, Hello Santa! My mother has to write this letter for myself and my brother, as I am scaly 2%, and my brother is 1 I would like a toy saw and a motorcycle. My brother would like a small bike. We will try very hard to be good boys for our Mom and Dad. Yours truly Scott and Rick Krull (Gen. Del., Robson] Dear Santa, Please may I have pop pop pinball for Christmas. Kyle, age 3. writen by Jessica Dear Santa, Please send me Lego sew- ing machine, blue. Thank you. Jeremy Reilly 4 Age 4yrs. P.S. Jeremy printed the letter himself except one letter K of one letter G. Dear Santa, I want a digger truck, All that toys in the world I want for Christmas. Holy Moly, it snowed on our garage topl Dear Santa, : Tam six years old. love you Santa. I would like a Super- man, Bat man and Robin. Ihave been a nice boy. Thank you for being Satna. Love Dear Santa, Please may I have Fresh and Fancy for Christmas. Santa I have been a very good girl. Love, Garet you very much, Jessica [age 3years) Brian ‘Ages You will find . . . Everything For Your Kitchen At Nelson's Only Kitchen Boutique “Kitchen Carrousel" Phone 352-9559 C.O.D. Phone Orders Available LOCATED IN THE CHAHKO-MIKA MALL, NELSON THE INCREDIBLE & WORKWERR WORLD — PRESENTS The Working Man's Denim Shirts 100% Cotton S,M,L, XL. Snaps. NOW .....cecccccccccccccccccce Sizes 30-38. (Limited Stock) NO Santa! Continental $4 $9377 $2477 FRENCH JEANS 100% cotton, no pockets. Sizes 27-34. ONLY.....eeeee KID'S Painter Pants 100% cotton. Sizes 7-14. $1677 $16” *3.50 OFF ALL BELL FLANNEL WORK SHIRTS 50% poly/50% cotton snap or button Small to 4 XL Also in Talls & Bigman We're working for you! 15% OFF All Sweat Wear (Limited Stock) ideal Sport Bags © Nylone Asst. colors WORK KING Bomber Jackets © Nylon shell Sizes 36-46 SAVE $10.00 Now Only ICHARGEX, a VISA g9s Now Only CANADA NORTH DOWN & FEATHER VESTS © Reversible. Save over $7.00 Qi1 Located in the Chahko-Mika Mall CHARGE IT! Nelson \ Phone 352-9166 Legislative . Parliament Bp Victoria, B. V8V 1x4 Library, ldgs., 50l Belleville st Published at ‘’The Crossroads of the Kootenays” WEATHERCAST Sunny $u morning with ins cress, clouds In the @ olternioon a wil of ‘clouds: ith some snow. Highs will be. pent O° with ‘overnight lows ¥rom VOL. 34, NO. 99 CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1981 3 Sections (A, 8 & C) Area | approves Police crack down Police throughout B.C, — including Castlegar — moved this week to crack down on drinking drivers as part of an overall holiday season traffic enforcement campaign. The stepped-up campaign was much in evidence Friday night on Columbia Ave. where Castlegar RCMP had set up a roadblock with the BAT mobile breathalizer van. Staff Sgt. John Stevens warned that patrols will increase over the Christmas season. Stevens said the police main concern. is for the “safety of the citizens.” How- ever, that doesn't restrict their concern to drinking drivers. Stevens also said poor road conditions which can cause accidents, and children’s en- thusiasm over the holidays which then overcomes their judgment and makes them careless, are also concerns. “To attempt to lower these concerns I would ask that all make every attempt to have a safe holiday,” he said. Meanwhile, Attorney- General Allan Williams said the BATmobile — will be --backed_up_by “road. checks... and saturation patrols using every available resource”, Ib ~ Castlegar 5 Reine Comat: season Pol director John Voykin said the, voter turnout was a& record idents to approve # $800,000; loan for land, equipment and. construction costs of the two. halls. 3 Actually, the total | cost. is protection fund, which will be “used to offset the total cost of é However; the ‘six mill max- imum ‘will only be levied if ALLEGED POLLUTION VIOLATIONS Embree presses il By Ron Norman itor Edit Castlegar Ald. Len Em- bree confirmed this week he has asked Nelson Crown counsel to prepare charges asainst BC Timber for alleg- edly violating pollution con- trol permits at its Celgar pulp mill. In an interview with the Castlegar News, Embree said he started proceedings against BC Timber Nov. 27 — three days after Castlegar council met with, provincial environment ministry offi- At that meeting, ministry officials told council BC Timber was not meeting air. emission standards from its recovery boiler about half the time. As well, officials said a problem with the mill's efflu- ent discharge was respon- sible for the brown foam that formed on the Columbia River for several days. However, officials indi- cated they would not press. charges against BC Timber for alleged violations of either air emission standards or effluent discharge levels. That prompted Embree to take his own action. “I had. no other recourse after the statements made at the last council meeting,” Embree said. He said he is pressing charges as a “private citizen” — not a council member. He added his is “very disappointed” that he was forced to take action as a private citizen.and the envi- ronment ministry didn't see fit to press charges. Embree noted the ministry pressed charges against the Central Kootenay Regional District for violating ‘its. pollution control permit at the Ootischenia dump — and that ended in a $8,500 fine. against the regional district. j He said he would have liked to see the ministry take similar action against BC- Timber. Embree intended to hold off making D'Arcy complaints go to provincial council The Rossland-Trail NDP riding executive voted Wed- nesday to take complaints of membership irregularities to separate complaints in early November about irregular- ities with membership cards signed by D'Arcy. The came in the the party's p! 1 council for review. The provincial council con- sists of about 180 members midst of a nomination battle between D'Arcy, riding vice- president Stan Lanyon and Martin and is made up of del from each riding executive =p D'Arcy eventually won the on the second and the p The council is meeting this weekend in Vancouver, but at press time it was unclear if the membership irregulari- ties would be on the council's agenda or if they would have to wait until the next council meeting, sometime in the new year. The decision to go to the council came after provincial NDP president. Gerry Ston- ey failed to resolve com- plaints against MLA Chris D'Arcy at a Wednesay meet- ing in Trail. The executive and an indi- vidual riding member laid ballot with a two-vote mar- gin. Stoney responded to the complaints just days before the Nov. 15 nomination vote, but not to the satisfaction of the riding executive. : They asked him to attend Wednesday's executive meeting to further explain his response. MacNeill in again By Cas News Staff There are several” new faces on the Central Koot- enay Regional District board this year; but both the chairman ‘and deputy chair- man are still the same. Salmo director Ned Mac- Neill was returned by accla- mation as chairman, while Area J.director Martin Van- derpol was returned by accla- mation as deputy chairman. MacNeill and Vanderpol also joined 12 other directors, including Castlegar» Mayor: Audrey Moore, in the annual swearing-in ceremoney Sat- urday at the board's inaug- sural meeting. Vanderpol was also re- turned as‘the board repre- sentative on the West Koot- enay Union Board of Health and will head both the planning and building com- mittee, and the Murphy Creek Project Committee. pointed out he LEN EMBREE public the charges until they had been confirmed. The charges “have been drafted “and will become formal once they are accep- ted by a justice of the peace. Embree said Crown coun- sel has subpoenaed all: the Pollution Control Board's air emission and effluent reports for the pulp mill for the last six months. Under the Pollution Con- trol Act, can only Salma Ta a letter ‘tothe board” | Louisiana-Pacific Canada * the : can nco | holiday Approximately 190 ‘em- ployees in Cominco's lead refinery will: take vacation time from Dec. 24 to Jan. 4 while the company extends its normal four-day -Chris- tmas shutdown to 12 days. Company officials say the extended shutdown is to cut production costs. About a dozen other em- tployees will’ be re-assigned other duties. ions at the extends closure Ltd. board make a public apology for a resolution the board passed at.its Noy. 28 meeting. The resolutien, which was’ recommended by the region- al rig I again denied impending mas- sive layoffs in the new year. The company has: experi- enced a bleak earnings per- formance this year. During the first nine months of 1981, mining and metal profits plunged ‘more than $91 million — from $158.8 million. during the same period in 1980 to $67.3 million in 1981. . ° Earlier this fall Cominco i Ne commission, said the board is - opposed to shipping cants — : or semi-processed timber — to export markets. ing submitting an application to the Ministry of Forests to: export cants to the, com-; pany’s Idaho mill. The commission’ said the move would result in a loss of lead smelting operations, . which involve some 500 em-: ployees, will continue as usual, Cominco spokesmen once jorm attributed the cause to the Fra: smelting and refining opera- tions, such as Trail’s, and not the company's mining interests. Hospital union votes to strike By RON NORMAN Editor Hospital Employees Union (HEU) members at Castlegar and District Hospital joined their. counterparts across oe be .charged for within six months from the’ are charges are initiated, he Spans said’ he suspects ‘that over the 180 day period BC Timber exceeded the pollution limit at least once. Meanwhile, Crown counsel Don Skogstad would not comment directly: on the charges until Embree had signed them. He said he wanted to talk with Embree before he made any state- ment to the press. Maximum fine under the Act is $100,000 per charge. Embree is former presi- dent of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada at the Celgar mill. He is now business agent for the United Brotherhood of Cgrpenters and Joiners of America, Local 2300. ae overwhel: oe favor of strike action. * Local: HEU. chairperson George Clark said. members voted 95.8 per cent in favor of strike action ‘to back. the union bargaining committee in negotiations with the pro- vincial Health Labor Rela- tions Association (HLRA). Only 24 -of the union's nearly 70 members turned out for the vote. ‘ The hospital employees in- clude licensed practical nur- ses, maintenance staff, diet- ary staff, clerical and clean- ing staff and nurses’ aides. The next step for the union is to await the results of strike votes at the province's 120 ‘hospitals. Jack Gerow,. secretary- business. manager for the 25,000 member HEU, said earlier the hospital employ- ees province-wide have been voting strongly in favor of strike action. Workers at both of Nel- son's hospitals — Kootenay Lake District Hospital and Mount St. Francis Hospital — voted in favor of « strike. The union's current two- year contract expires Dec.-31 and the union is seeking a. one-year $3 an hour across- the-board increase. Other issues include equal pay fcr work of equal value, large raises for clerical work- ers, and a cost-of-living ad- justment clause. HLRA has offered the union 80 cents an hour effec- tive Jan. 1, 1982 and $1.15 an hour effective Jan. 1, 1983. The average hourly rate the HLRA proposal would be $9.83 in 1982 and $10.98 in 1988, excluding benefits. Benefits in 1982 would rep- resent another $4.74 an hour and increase to $5,31 an hour in 1983, for a total contract package of more than $16 an hour by 1983. media. in‘'a very. biased “manner.” He sald Louisiana-Pacific is t planning to ship semi- processed logs to the U.S. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” - Steenvoorden said that the Salmo:mill did not re-open a ;.the end of the forestry. stike The economic development. commission told the. board | Louisiana-Pacific is. consider- - _due to poor, market condi- tions..A total of 77 employees were’ laid off. He said in September the union asked the firm to join in a job placement committee to help employees find alter- native work. But the com-- pany turned down the offer because “we felt that gover- (nment . . . was much better nk said he takes issue with the board “on the discussion and rec- ommendation you made con- cerning our apparent decis- ion to ship sem processed, logs.” Steenvoorden said:he finds it “totally unacceptable that: people in your’ positions would make responsible deci- sions on anyone's: or ‘any~ . company’s plans without first: listening to both sides, of the story.” ped to find the jobs,” Steenvoorden said. “Realizing: that our em- ployees were faced with a grim future, the idea was brought forward. that one possible way of keeping some employees, working. was to temporarily cut ‘cants and process:them at another mill in Idaho,” Steenvoorden said. “This would give some > employees at both mills some work.” Mare ca, page AS Work underway on courthouse By CasNews Staff Work began this week on the new Castlegar court- house after Fame Construc- tion Ltd. of Trail was official: ly awarded the contract. A B.C. Buildings Corp. spokesman said Fame took out a building permit for the $571,888 single-storey struc- ture earlier this week. The company has moved a shed onto the site at the 500 block Columbia Ave. (across 9th St. from CKQR Radio). The spokesman said the building should be ready by Aug. 31, 1982 and Fame hopes to have the foundation in before Christmas. The building will cover 550 square metres (nearly 6,000 square feet) and will house a single courtroom, as well as a few other court-related ser- vices. About a dozen men will be working on the site over the next nine months. Provineial court is current- ly held in the Kinnaird Hall, which will be returned as a Scout and Guide hall once the new ‘courthouse is finished. BCBC had initially indica- ted it. would wait until February before calling ten- ders for the courthouse, but pushed the date ahead in light of the recent construc- tion slump and drop in prices. ‘BCBC turned. down five tenders submitted in Sept- ember because they were too high.