' Saturday, October 17, 1992 2 this is nant: this, is my Spur PolicCBEAT Ieuan Gilmore, 63, was charged for failing to yield at a Kam transport truck. stop sign after a two motor ve- hicle accident on Columbia Av- eee enue and 2nd Street on Oct. the vehicle pulled onto Wednesday morning. Columbia Avenue off of 2nd St. and ran into the side of a Van There were no injuries. Several lights on the exte- 15. rior of the Community Com- plex were smashed some time The accident occured when _ between Tuesday night and There are no suspects. OTEU ups strike benefits W@ Extra strike pay has WKP wondering if labor dispute will ever be resolved OTEU, totake a serious look at the value of our final offer.” Bradshaw also expressed concern over a an- _ nouncement by OTEU calling for a mediator to “wreplace the one appointed by the Industrial Re- lations Council. Don Cott — who helped negotiate an end to te ar : " will changing play: ,an 11-week dispute by WKP’s members of the ’ At least’ West Kootenay Power's director of community and public affairs was saying Thursday in response to recent moves by its striking union. According to the president of the Office and Technical Employees Union, striking members 7 Anternational Brotherhood of Electrical Work- ers — has been working to settle an end to the six-week strike by the company’s OTEU mem- bers, Bradshaw said that “(Cott) is familiar with both parties and has taken us to a point we're quite satisfied with.” will begin collecting 60 per cent of their regular salary next ‘The members are determined to week. achieve a fair settlement and He said that “we’d like to do anything reasonable to get (the dispute) resolved,” but “People may be certainly are not willing to go back tO would not say if Cott’s suffering and this re- lieves it,” Ron Tuck- wood said. “We had the ability to do this work on the current terms.’ L OTEU’s Ron Tuckwood process is considered removal from the reasonable. sooner, but we didn’t think the dispute would go on this long. “The members are determined to achieve a fair settlement and certainly are not willing to go back to work on the current terms,” he said. Bradshaw, however, said that the move is not a good one. “I don’t think (the increase) is a favorable signal for the bargaining process at this junc- ture,” he said. Bradshaw said the 60 per cent is net income without deductions. “It’s so darn close to’a regular paychecque,” he said, explaining that employees might not be in the hurry to settle now that they are re- ceiving increased stirke pay “It removes the im- petus from our employees, represented by “We don’t see Mr. Cott as an issue. “We're open,” Bradshaw said of the change, “put it’s not something we'd initiate.” Paula Stromberg, however, said that a new mediator was needed because of the stall in pension plan negotiations. “Cott was able to get the company moving to the place we are at now, but it’s these few out- standing issues that we wanted a new media- tor to get resolved,” OTEU’s communications director said. She said that “despite his presence, the com- pany was still unwilling to resolve” the pension issue. “With one more player in the equation it may help get this resolved.” For APPROACHABILITY » Castlegar's ¢ Lunch & Dinner to 9:00 p.m. ¢ Casual Lounge ° Cozy Fireside Decor ¢ Fully Licensed ¢ Affordable Prices The Fireside Restaurant For Reservations call 365-2128 1810-8th Avenue, Castlegar JEFFREY ROGERS Happy 4th Birthday Oct. 16 Love Mom, Dad and Jordan KRISTY Happy 11th Birthday Oct. 16 Love Mom, Dad & James ALIA SHAY Happy Birthday Love from Grandma & Grandpa Shay" TYLER Happy 2nd Birthday Oct. 17 Mom, Dad, Don and Nolan ‘MATTHEW POSTER Happy Birthday Oct. 17 From Jennilee, Amanda, Ashley & Cody MATHEW POSTER Happy October 17 From Mom, Dad, Jeremy & Daniel THIS WEEK'S WINNER IS INDICATED BY THE DAIRY QUEEN LOGO. Phone in your birthday wish or drop by the Castlegar News office. We will print it free of charge. All birthday greetings must be in by 10:00 a.m. Thursday for our Saturday paper. Our phone number is 365-7266. Pick Up Your Royal Treat At The Castlegar Dairy Queen. WE TREAT YOU RIGHT” LUNCH SPECIAL Cheeseburger, regular fries, regular = °3.49 CASTLEAIRD PLAZA CASTLEGAR 365-5522 @ Saturday, October 17, 1992 3a dhe News pe r © - ~ > S F @General Inquiries 365-7266 OUR HOURS The News is statutory holidays. SUB RATES The News is published by Castle News Ltd. for Canwest Publishers Ltd. Mail subscription rate to The News is number 0019. Vacant homes face wrecking bal Neil Rachynski NEWS REPORTER The wrecking ball will hit seven local homes by the end of the month. The province acquired 15 properties to make way for the Castlegar-Robson bridge and sub- sequently put them up for sale. But seven homes and one garage didn’t even receive a bid, and those houses are slated to be destroyed. On top of this, another two houses will be given to the fire department to train its mem- bers. They, too, will eventually be torn down. Robson resident Sandra Groepler is ap- “There's just so many homeless people out there and a lack of low income housing,” Groe- pler said. “Those houses could be located and Peeps on some government or municipal Groepler figures a reasonable solution could be reached “if people put their heads together. “As a town, the City of Castlegar and the Re- gional District of Central Kootenay should get together and come up with a useful solution.” Councillor Lawrence Chernoff said some- thing should have been done sooner. “If we did something a year ago there would —_ been the opportunity for it,” Chernoff said. A “I guess it’s an idea we never really thought of.” Acting property management-land survey co-ordinator Drew Reidy of the Transport Min- istry said it’s probably too late to do anything about it. “I would think so,” Reidy said. “We've let the —— go and that should start by month- end.” Reidy figures one of the deterrents people had to placing a bid is the cost of moving the houses and finding a suitable location. Bids for the homes closed Aug. 31 and the wrecking crew was contracted Sept. 28. “The government is not obligated to accept any bid,” B.C. Purchasing Commission com- munications manager Candide Temple said. “We're obligated to obtain the best value we can for the taxpayer.” One of the buildings has been claimed by the Castlegar and District Heritage Society. The group wants to restore an old jailhouse that was being used as a garage — and the gov- ernment gave it to them. It will become a her- itage building. Temple said each offer is judged on its own merit. “We're just paying more money to destroy (the homes)” Groepler said. “That's very sad. “Hopefully it’s not too late to turn this thing FENDER BENDER =F Campagnolo to campaign in Castlegar W@ ‘Yes for Canada’ committee attracts keynote speaker Scott David Harrison EDITOR Former Liberal heavyweight Iona Campagnolo is ready to join the battle for the West Kootenay. A former Canadian Liberal Party president and federal cabinet minister, Campagnolo will be promoting the Charlottetown Agreement this Tuesday at Selkirk College. “I think to have someone of charged with failing to yield after stopping. News photo by Jonathan Green Two trucks met at 2nd Street and Columbia Avenue Thursday morning, and leuan Gilmore's pickup got the worst of it. Gilmore pulled out onto Columbia and was struck by a semi-trailer driven by Mark LePage. No injuries were reported and local RCMP estimate some $3,000 damage was done to the pickup. Gilmore was SuperValu ready to negotiate Corinne Jackson NEWS REPORTER Castlegar Super Valu is getting down to business. One week after its employees voted in favor of strike action, local manager Richard Howes says the company has come up with an offer. “We just put a new proposal in to the Teamsters that they are probably working on right now and then the members will be voting,” Howes said Thurs- day. SuperValu employees voted on Oct. 7 to give the Teamsters’ Union the right to issue a strike notice. The workers, who have been without a contract since July 1, 1991, are seeking a new deal which includes better wages and pension benefits. Top wage among SuperValu employees is $18.60 per hour. Howes said the company will do what is within its means to keep it shopping as usual at SuperValu. “We're going to be trying to meet with them this week to discuss it,” he said. Howes said he is sure the contract can be settled without help from a third party. He said SuperValu wants to “make it as simple as we can. “If we have to go to a mediator, we're open to that,” he said. One Teamster leader said he’s been getting a dif- ferent message from the local SuperValu, however. Business representative Keith Kennedy said the union has been the one trying to resolve the Castle- gar dispute for some time. “We even brought a mediator in about one-and-a- half months ago,” Kennedy said “The employer has refused to meet with us.” Kennedy said he was unaware of SuperValu’s lat- est contract offer, but added that he is pleased that the company appears ready to negotiate. Howes would not reveal the contents of Super- Valu’s contract offer. Instead, he said his biggest pri- ority is to reach an agreement which was beneficial to both Super Valu and its 24 employees. “We're definitely looking at the long-term,” Howes said, pointing to rumors of two new supermarkets opening in Castlegar, “but at the same time we don't want to shortchange our employees.” Ms. Campagnolo’s stature speaking on this is very important,” said Bruce Ketchum, co-chair of the West Kootenay Yes for Canada Referendum Committee. “She should provide us with some very good input on the Charlottetown Agreement,” he said. “She’ll be speaking as a women, as a Westerner, as a British Columbian and as a person with vast political knowledge.” Campagnolo, who was promoting the merits of the Charlottetown Agreement in Nanaimo Thursday, is scheduled to tour the West Kootenay for two days, beginning with her 1 p.m. speech at Selkirk College. “Ms. Campagnolo is an extremely dynamic speaker,” Ketchum said. “I would encourage the public to attend and see what she has to say about this important agreement.” Meanwhile, in the ‘no’ camp, Reform Party candidate Jim Gouk will address the Castlegar and District Chamber of Commerce Tuesday at the Fireside Inn at noon.