Page 8A = Letters to the Editor The Castlegar Sun Wednesday, March 24, 1993 Heritage Society hatched be dreamers, but needs fuel from bureaucrats Dear Editor May | use The Sun to make up fora serious sin of omission. Last Thursday at ¢he Railway, Station, I attended a very important ting of the Castlegar and District Heritage Society. Despite the fact that many people were on holiday fot the school mid term break, it was one of the best attended meetings in some tume. I had come to the meeting in a very black mood, very tured and deeply distressed over the sudden loss of an old friend. | was equally dis: couraged by the apparent lack of concern for the 10 year old Castlegar Heritage Society. Having just reached my 77th year with declining physical and temporal (mental, too, L suspect) capabilities and with many commitments I had decided to announce my resignation after ten years, from further involve ment in local Heritage affairs However when | arrived | found three members of city council Mayor Audrey Moore who has been a king pin in the Castlegar heritage movement from its beginning, Councilman Bob Pakula, the city’s first representative to a B.C. Heritage Conference and heritage liaison for Council, and new council man Jim Chapman a strong supporter. It was the Strongest representation from council ever and it gave me strong cause to reconsider. I was equally. impressed with treasurer Charlie Hor rey’s excellent and revealing financial statement. It showed that the society had handled over $66,000 for the seven and one half months period including ¢ $5,778.00 from the city for operating and capital expenses. The $44,125 in government grants (less $9,932 because the Society could only train and super- vise four instead of six employee-trainees) were used to keep the buildings open from May to December. Included in the receipts column were cash dona. tions of $4,400.00 and an almost equal amount in memberships, special events and magazine sales — considerably in excess of the city’s grants. The : financial statement does not include, of course, all of HOME GOODS TETAS eee emma sess eannneeeeseanan the volunteer hours and personal expense incurred by the executive John Coyle, Carolee. Fitz-Ger ald, Charlie Horrey and others Particularly those who worked on the old jail. It does not include the equipment and material donated by companies and individuals to relocate the old building or resurface the causeway. Nor does it include a valuation of the donated artifacts, and équipment or historic records which could have been lost forever for lack ofa home Let me therefore do, @ private citizen, what I should have done at the meeting on behalf of all other private citizens, that is, move a vote of thanks to the City representatives for coming and Speaking to the meeting. It was deeply appreciated; to acknowledge the significant part that the City has played over the ye and propose to play in the near future. It does offer the hoped-for-light at the end of the tunnel. Secondly, I should have moved a motion of thanks to executive members John Coyle, Charlie Horrey, Carolee Fitz-Gerald as well as other members for carring the Society one step further over the year and also those companies, unions and individuals who saved the jail and restored the causeway. Their names will appear on appropriate plaques and the contributions of all recorded in a book of deeds They have all helped secure our heritage for genera- tions but few realize how often and how close we came to losing everything. Finally, I would like to thank the staff of the late Castlegar News, the Castlegar Sun and as well, Bryan McGill, the patient editor of the Beautiful B.C. Maga- zine for focusing attention of people here and elsewhere on what we have and what we have to offer. Without your cooperation it would have been impossible * And where do we go from here? I think it is essential to realize that the heritage drive in Castle- gar has reached a watershed as is so well indicated by the financial statement. It is like pushing a snow- ball up a hill. It gets so large that it is impossible to push it any further without the coordinated efforts of many. Otherwise it rolls back down the hill to possi- ble destruction. A paid coordinator is therefore need- ed to organize the efforts of the volunteers and others to push it to safety. Once on this plateau it can be integrated, like the snowballs, into a larger structure i.e. the broader aspects Of city and regional activities Morever, this was, as I understand it, the crux of the discussions between the mayor and the President John Coyle Coordination, cc | jon, and ofa number of related projects under a senior authority. But, as the mayor pointed out, it takes time - possi- bly a year to get the machinery into place. But it does indicate the dawning of a new cancept It behooves us therefore to Carry on the momen- tum so, far generated until the infrastructure for greater integration is in place — i.e. use the funds made available to hire a coordinator, apply for gov- ernment training grants for staff and since Coyle has indicated that he has achieved his goal and will not run again for president, get an executive and direc- tors to carry heritage forward and onto the plateau. Pete Oglow, 1991 Citizen of the Year and valued member of the Society, who has spent half a lifetime on community volunteer projects such as the Koote- nay Doukhobor Museum, restaurant, bridge etc. said; “If anyone had offered me money to do these things I would have refused. Too much work. But because I love it and it was my dream, I do it for nothing.” Madam Editor, the Heritage Society, like the Recreation Complex and the Public Library were all hatched by dreamers, not politicians or bureaucrats, but dreamers and bureaucrats together with an fi d and supp public are for their growth and maturation. The Heritage Society began with an island and the dream of an old man. It was picked up by a farsight- d council and carried forward beyond all expecta- tions by other dreamers. The success of the Castlegar article in the Beauti- ful B.C. Magazine is only one indication of the inter- est and quiet pride in this community and of she numberof visitors we can expect in this and years to come. Whether they leave angry or happy will depend on the Society's success in opening the buildings for display and that depends on the amount of cooperation and support it gets from the commu- nity of dreamers and the city. A closing note: Dr. Alexander Vaschenko of Moscow University presently lecturing at Selkirk College and a scholar well acquainted with the locales and work Isaac Levitan, whose painting at the Chapel House inspired Alexander Zuckerberg, wrote last Thursday in the visitor's book the follow- ing tribute, “Great thanks to the keepers of dreams.” Makes it all worthwhile somehow. Yours sincerely, John A. Charters Share group used to hang on to status quo Dear Editor: The “Share” groups have a right to organize and invite any speaker they wish, but, does that solve the problem of declining jobs? For many years now, the forest industry has cut an ever increasing amount of trees with WASHER & DRYER -Super Capacity -Full Featured “Extended Warranty Entertainment Centre from, “199 SHIPMENT OF WHIRLPOOL DISH WASHERS | Continues to Color TV... and 6 MONTHS INTEREST FREE ever dec! ig employment. In other words, timber volume is up, but job rate is down. Instead of concentrating on issues such as over-mechanization or lack of secondary industries (value added), the “Share” groups zero in omthe- creation of parks and wildemess areas. Even if 12 per- cent of B.C.'s land base is pro- tected at some point, it’s mostly rock or muskeg and represents a very small percentage of actual tim ber. The Interior Lumber Manufacturing Association and the Council of Forest Industry are only interested in their agenda of profit-making right up to the point of collapse. Forest Indus- try’s greed and mistreatment of the forest is directly responsible for the inevitable “fall-down effect”. Fly over B.C. in the day- light and look down if you need convincing proof. In order to direct attention away from the real issue of over-cutting, another culprit has to be found in the form of parks and wildemess. To avoid the responsibility for the short-falls, forest industry strikes fear into the minds of the work force by blaming parks for job losses. 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