BUSINESS It's a sellers’ market today stlegar real ‘estate going up/4B bl a a March 6, 1991. 6, 1994 The Castlegar Sun ~ LOCAL | What you think’ Send in your survey/5B of our schools - Castlegar Comments/7A,,_ CLOUDY Page 3A Vol. 2- No. 10 Castlegar, British Columbia aL Cents + G.S.T. Local ae threaten Celgar project By NANCY LINGLEY Sun Editor Local equipment ownes/operators have threatened to truckers turned out for a meeting at the'Hi Arrow Motor Inn last Thursday evening to express their disapproval with the hiring prac- tices being carried out on the Cel- shut down the Celgar Mod tion and B: gar ‘ion site. A similar project if more of them are not on the job by next week. “We supported it (the project) and the outsiders get the jobs while we sit here like a bunch of idiots,” said one angry trucker. “People have got families to feed. The con- tractors don’t seem to care about us, We should take our trucks out there. We should shut them down.” Despite a sudden snowstorm, approximately 60 unhappy local Final report is finally out By NANCY LINGLEY Sun Editor Not that it makes much differ- ence anymore, but the Final Report on the Celgar Mill Expansion was released at noon today. “It will certainly satisfy my curiosity to read through it,” said Mill Manager Jim. Browne. “I sometimes wondered how they arrived at certain:recommenda- tions.” The Final Report contains a full analysis of representations made by the public and government-agencies.. to the Panel and a complete discus- . sion of the Panel's reasons for its jogs and ey -Those recommendations were: : chaired by Provincial Secretary Howard Dirks had been held one week earlier. “I'm concemed that you're not working on that job and a lot of effort is being made to do some- thing about it,” said Rossland-Trail MLA Chris D'Arcy who chaired this meeting: “But it’s a free coun- try, you, can’t order somebody to released by the federal and provin- [7 cial governments on Feb. 5. Meanwhile, work goes on out at the site. "It's very difficult to assess how its proceeding. The large-scale stuff isn't started yet." said Browne. “They dig a hole, do a change, and cover the hole up. The biggest change we've noticed is we can't park as close as we could — plus the little mountains of sand here and there. It seems to be proceed- ing as well as can be expected." hire somebody they don't want to. I’ve been told in good faith that the majority of people will be local.” Ron Card, representing H.A. Simons Ltd., a consulting engi- neering company out of Vancouver hired by Celgar to oversee the pro- ject, concurred, “I'm here to offer information as to how the project is going, I can't deal with union guidelines,” said Card. “Tomorrow the job may be shut down because of the weather. It's very sensitive to cold weather. But we expect it to get much busier in two weeks, Our schedule says we have to have everything going full tilt at that time. If that doesn’t happen in two weeks, we're in trouble.” “Maybe it’s time we all got together and stuck together to do something about it,” replied a trucker, “Get our families out, put out picket lines, and shut the job down. If they’re’ union they shouldn't cross them. Show we're serious, We" 've got to give you an. ultim: “lm all for local hire,” added another, “but the least we can do is give these guys two weeks, ‘Then I'll stand behind anything you decide to do. But if you think a roomful of guys is going to shut down a $700 million project, you're crazy.” A policy statement released by the Celgar Pulp Company states that the company has made a com- mitment to the community to encourage all contractors to employ local labor and use local SeeLOCAL . a 2A Joint recycling for RDCK and RDKB is a remote possibility By FRANK ISERNIA Sun staff writer The prospects of regional dis- tricts of Central Ki y and concrete in respect to a facility was reached at those meet- plans ings. io spokesman for Stanley and Kootenay Boundary sharing a common recycling and solid wastes depot are very remote, if not hopeless. “Although a common depot in Genelle or Castlegar would cer- Castlegar is dragging its heels . 99 ~-taihly-benefit-Castlegar,-time-is Tunning out,” said RDKB. Planning Director, Bruce Borden. In a telephone interview, Doug Swanson, RDKB Chairman told The Castlegar Sun, that Castlegar is dragging its heels. “We've had two meetings in the past on the matter,” he pointed out. Castlegar Mayor Audrey Moore agreed with Swanson's statement. “He is absolutiey right,” said Moore. Aside from information ex- changes at the first meeting, and discussions‘aimed at fastracking the results of the consultant’s report during the second meeting, nothing ing Ltd. of Kelowna. the consulting firm em- waste ans . “Although the sub region is behind, it doesn’t mean that the plans for for a jointly operated depot should be shelved,” he said. ployed by both said that although there are pofential areas that could see this joint venture gel , it is too premature to read any- thing into it. The study will not be completed for another year and a half. “Right now. we are only partially through stage one;” said | spokesman Raymond Billevicius, “ ‘we're just narrowing our options.” -Billevicius said “that the study doés recognize that there are com- mon. components that should be looked at.” Once those areas are identified, they will be brought to the public, ata meeting to be held sometime in June he added. But, RDCK Assi Adi , RDKB isn’t as opti- mistic as their regional counter- parts, “RDCK is about a year behind us in terms of construction and funding, but simply put, we cannot wait any longer for them. We don’t feel that we have to do much more, we have an approved plan’ said Borden.” We have budgeted $500,000 for this plan and we ‘want to start work on this facility sometime in April or early May. ‘We are aiming for an early 1992 opening.” But Borden explained that, if RDCK is interested in a central facility, they should communicate their intentions to RDKB as soon as possible before a ision on trator, Barry Baldigara, said that although Swanson’s assessment of Castlegar was correct, he explained that Castlegar Sub-region I, J, and southem portion of H are restricted in the amount of funding they can generate towards the recycling pro- gram. But, be added that those resttic- tions can be removed through Valley residents to take on chip trucks By NANCY LINGLEY Sun Editor the valley by residents not satisfied with the phone numbers on the DCT Chamb trucks,” said A “Chip Truck Hotline” and a public questionnaire and leaflet asking for public input regarding the safety aspect of increased chip truck traffic on Highway 6 due to the Celgar Pulp Company mill modemization and expansion were two plans of action that came out of workshops held at the Silverton Andrea Wright, spokesperson for the Coalition for Pulp Mill ility, the tha sponsored the workshops. “They say they’ve only had five calls and the number of incidents related at the hearings of unsafe encounters with chip trucks was. fairly overwhelming. We're going to ish our own “Chip Truck Gallery this past “There’s been a great deal of sentiment generated up and down Hotline”, a phone number for peo- ple who have anything they want RUBES By. Leigh Rubin Why the highly venomous rat-tailed snake became extinct. to report regarding chip trucks. We hope to achieve our own file of infractions and misdemeanors.” Wright admi that in an unconstructed way, but now we want the public and the resi- dents more organized as highway such reports had been a seid in the past and persons making such reports would be encouraged to pass their concerns on to the RCMP, The “Chip Truck Hotline” number is 226-7873, the hdogs to report chip truck activities. In some areas, residents have already taken it upon them- selves to escort ucks through their neighborhoods to sec that they stay to the speed limit.” Wright also says that the increased chip truck traffic will burt property values in the Valley. “Most people in the valley live on the highway,” said Wright. “And I feel the property value along the road in the entire valley See VALLEY 2A where to locate the site is reached. “We were basically looking at Genelle or Trail. If we go it alone we will build in Trail because, not only do we reduce financial Tisks, but the site is already ours,” he added. “A central facility built at Genelle would benefit both regions, but if we choose to build in Trail, then any hopes of a com- mon depot would seem defeated. It would be extremely unlikely for RDCK to want to share a depot located in Trail. It wouldn’t be financially feasible.” However, Borden suggested that there are other areas of the study that could see a combined effort take hold, should the plans for a central depot fail. “Joint pro- and could be combined by both region- al districts,” he maintained. number of the newly-established Community Support Centre in Winlaw. “It's basically an open line,” she said. “We are also developing a public questionnaire and leaflet for public input on the problems relat- ed to safety. It will be forthcoming in the next few weeks, “We ‘want to be heard, we want the pub- lic to know what's going on,” added Wright. “The increased traf- fic won't happen overnight, it will happen over two to five years. ‘We've always been very much interested about what's happening: e Castleza Sun for all the local news and sports!