ca CastlegarNews October 10, 1990 BUSINES: Yew tree key to treatment WASHINGTON (AP) — En- vironmental groups and cancer researchers have urged federal protec- tion for @ tree found mostly in the Pacific Northwest, saying it provides @ scarce chemical compound needed to treat ovarian cancer and possibly other cancers. Their petition asked U.S. Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan to list the Pacific yew as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Environmentalists say the action could introduce a new element into a bitter fight over proposals to limit timber cutting in the old-growth Pacific Northwest forests to protect the northern spotted owl. Industry of- ficials say saving the owl could destroy thousands of jobs in the region. “The debate over the future of the ancient. forests involves much more than a choice between spotted owls and Jogging jobs,’’ said Bruce Manheim, a lawyer and scientist for the Environmental Defence Fund. “Our ability to assure an adequate supply of this novel anti-cancer com- pound, taxol, is at stake as well.”’” The fund planned a news conferen- ce to announce the petition, signed also be several other leading environ- mental organizations and by cancer researchers William McGuire of the Johns Hopkins Oncology Centre and Susan Horwitz of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who conducted pioneering studies on taxol. The American Cancer Society was sending a separate letter to Lujan backing the proposal to designate the Pacific yew a threatened species. “This action will ensure that women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the years ahead will have access to a Promising drug treatment,”’ -said the society’s letter, signed by president Robert Schweitzer. ‘‘Taxol, while still under investigation through clinical trials, is proving to be a very exciting compound for treating this type of cancer.”* In the 1960s, a wide-ranging plant screening program sponsored by the National Cancer Insitute found the first indications that an extract of the Pacific yew’s bark could be used against cancer. The active chemical compound later was isolated and called taxol. “Taxol acts by a mechanism dif- ferent from other known anti-cancer drugs, and has demonstrated confir- med activity against refractory ovarian cancer,’’ the petition to Lujan says. It may also help treat breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck carcinoma, gastric carcinoma and malignant melanoma, it says. But taxol is in very short supply, with researchers reporting current supplies sufficient to treat perhaps 200 to 300 patients. Alternate sources are not promising in the near future. About 20,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year in the United States, and the cancer society said about 12,000 were expected to die of the disease this year. The petition said there appears to be a short-term need for about 600,000 large yew trees to develop taxol to treat ovarian cancer, while only about 685,000 yew trees greater than 25 centimetres in diameter remain on non-federal lands in California, Oregon and Washington “The status of the species on U.S Forest Service lands is also Precarious,’’ the petition said. It iden- tified major stands in the Williamette and Umpqua National Forests in Oregon and the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho. The Pacific yew, or taxus brevifolia, is described as one of the slowest growing trees in the world, appearing mostly as an understory tree in the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest. * Do you need a new furnace? ° Were the mild winter bills still high? ON SALE NOW! 90-96% Efficient Natural Gos Furnaces October Only GAS FURNACE $3 9 pus SERVICE ARROW LAKES AIR CONDITIONING 601-A Columbia Ave., Castlegar 365-2485 TELEPHONE 365-5210 DIRECTORY will be accepted up 15 5 p.m. Tue lay, Oct. 30 for me pb 5 of Acne: Brian L. Brown CERTIFIED GENERAL ACCOUNTANT 270 Columbia Avenue Certified General Accountant Office 368-6471 Residence 365-2339 1250 Bay Ave., Trail BUY or SELL by AUCTION Bonkruptcies * Estores © Conon 399-4793 Beauty “One of these is a prescription and one is a receipt from a Chinese restaurant.” Computer Training Associate Systems Castlegar's Only PRIVATE COMPUTER TRAINING CENTRE Now taking bookings for * BEDFORD ACCOUNTING Vee’s Electrolysis Unwanted Hair Problem? Make an appointment for o FREE ne obligation, consultation Avenues * 365-7616 Carpet Cleaning ( Steen SCENE CARPET CLEANERS * Most Advanced System Gets more deep down soil thon any other cleaning method x U ry Cleaning Too * INTRO DOS & LOTUS 123 GOVERNMENT FUNDING AVAILABLE KEN HILLSTEAD 359-7889 ° 365-5482 CASTLEGAR FUNERAL CHAPEL Dedicated to kindly thoughttul service COMPLETE FUNERAL SERVICE Cremation, Traditional Burial and Pre-Arrangement Plan Available Granite, Bronze Memorials Cremation Urns and Plaques PHONE 365-3222 Furnace Repair & RE IRS COMMERCIAL — RESIDENTIAL REASONABLE RATES Denny’s Furnace Service 365-7838 Morrison Painting & Insulation * Blown Insulation ° Batts & Poly DUNCAN MORRISON 650-5th Avenue 365-5255 ig - SATIATION GUARANTEED — }ot Call Us Today! Free eSTIN ATES PHONE 365-6969 We’re Back! PIX L4 NCPR MOUNTAIN VIEW CARPET CARE Now Offering 4 House Special '” House Special *%, House Special Full House Special FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL © 365-2112 Charter Buses DEWDNEY TRAIL STAGES “Charter for groups Anytime, Anywhere! 1355 Bay Ave., Trail 555 orccil toll free: 1-800-332-0282 RON COMI COMPUTERS AND ACCESSORIES GRANT OF w 365-3760 KOOTENAY INFORMATICS Now Has 0 Full Line of LAZER XT AND LAZER 128s EX South Stocan Junction 359-7755 Ia Please recycle The NEWS errr ee Buildings *COMMERCIAL © INDUSTRIAL © AGRICULTURAL For more information, call your Authorized Garco Builder Midwest Construction Services _ 365-1 Box 1633, prolid ARROW LAKES AIR CONDITIONING 24 HOUR SERVICE 601A. Columbia, Castlegar SCHARF CARPENTRY Contracting Finish Carpentry Framing Cabinets Closet Organizers Jecks PREE ESTIMATES CALL CHRIS 365-7718 Te ommic Design furniture ray Pork, 6c - (604) o— Handcrafted furniture for indoor and outdoor use specialists in stone murals, landscaping and light stone work. SANLAND CONTRACTING LTD. GENERAL CONTRACTOR 365-3033 ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR IN THE CASE OF AN ELECTRICAL EMERGENCY, WEEKENDS OR EVENINGS CALL 365-3033, 365-2973 or 365-6250 SANLAND CONTRACTING LTD. Castlegar, 8.C. LOCKSMITH Licenced and Bonded SCISSOR SHARPENING 365-6562 CALL 2181C Columbia Ave.. Castlegor Concrete WEST K CONCRETE LTD. PIPELINE PITT ROAD CALL PLANT 693-2430 CASTLEGAR 365-2430 Moving & Storage Williams Moving & Storage 2337-6th Avenue, Castlegar Invite you to call them for a free moving estimate. Let our representative tell you about the many services which have made Williams the mos! respected name in the moving business Ph. 365-3328 Collect Foot Care MODERN * REFLEXOLOGY AND FOOTCARE « Optometrist UL Le Noy 8.C. 0.0. OPTOMETRIST 1012 - 4th St., Castlegar PHONE 365-3361 Tuesday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m. to 12 Noon Plumbing & Heating CASTLEGAR PLUMBING & HEATING For all your plumbing needs and s: © SERVICE CALL 365-3388 TRAIL CUSTOMERS ONLY CALL Regular $1,048 won AQ 5-Year Warranty No Down Payment Easy Payment Plan With Trade SILVER CREST PLUMBING 713 Tamarak St., Castlegar Call 365-3044 Bartle & Gibson The Plumbing & Heating Centre * American Standard * Valley Fibreboth * Crane * Gulf Stream Spos * Duro Pumps & Softeners * PVC Pipe Fittings * Septic Tanks * Electrical & G.E. Lighting Supplies 2317-6th Avenue, Castlegar Phone 365-7702 Radiator Repair Mike’s Radiator Shop 690 Rossland Ave., Trail 364-1606 All work conditionally guoranteed RENT. WASHERS & DRYERS 364-1276 RENTAL APPLIANCES & TV Rent to Own Washers, Dryers, VCRs, TV, Stereos cal 365-3388 1008 Columbia Ave., Castlegar Roofing ROOFING * Guaranteed Work © Fait Prices © 40 Years if Business ‘AMES SWANSON Phe 367-7680 WICKLUM ROOFING CALL LORNE 352-2917 “FREE ESTIMATES” Septic Service COLEMAN COUNTRY BOY SERVICE Sump & Septic Tank Pumping Phone 365-5013 3400-4th Avenue Castlegar Vacuum Systems FREE E= evectrotux The name you can trust! 611 Columbia Ave., Castlegar Phone: 365-8431 0/ BEAM) Built-in Vacuums Don't Lug a Vacuum - Plug ina Beam! CANADA'S BEST-SELLING BUILT-IN VACUUM SYSTEM See Our In-Store Display! lil HOMEGOODS FURNITURE WAREHOUSE Genelle — Phone 693-2227 Open 9:30-5:30 Tues. to Sot Weddings SATURDAY 3 Sections (A, B & C) aia 75Cents « Premier says he won't quit ---A3 Red Cross keeps busy WEATHER Tonight: Cloudy with cleor breaks Risk of ground frost. Lows 2-4. Sunday: Sunny with occasional cloudy periods Scattered showers along the ridges. Highs near 12. Monday's outlook ts tor a mix of sun and cloud. Probability of precipitation is 10 per cent tonight and 20 per cent Sundoy ast. _lews Banjo's plucked Public hearings — this Regprorke te sochniert version — on the pr o ae a See = 2A = =! Sechueal AS “9! peers wg The U.S. Sealigy aorcamane Rhasdend pmo U.S. agency to appear at Celgar hearings By CasNews Staff The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology will be two of the par- ticipants at technical hearings beginning next week into Celgar Pulp Co.'s proposal to expand and modernize its Castlegar mill, said a spokesman for the panel conducting the review of Celgar’s Proposal. As well, the federal and provin- cial ministries interested in the Proposed project, such as the ministries of environment and the B.C. Ministry of Forests, will also make presentations to the panel during the hearings, said Alan Ferguson, the panel’s executive secretary. The hearings, which have been scheduled from Oct. 18-20 and 25- 27, with additional hearings Nov. 1, 2 and 3 if required, will be held in the banquet room of the Hi Arrow Motor Inn in Castlegar Some changes will likely be made to the order of topics at the hearings, Ferguson said. Briefs pertaining to the effects of the Proposed. project on the com- munity will probably be moved up to the session on Oct. 20 from the Oct. 27 hearing date, he said. The move will help to accom- modate the number of registered participants who want to speak about water quality and fisheries, which is currently scheduled for Oct. 25. If the change is im- plemented, briefs on air quality will all be heard on Oct. 27, he said. Air quality is currently scheduled for Oct. 26 as well as Oct. 27. The schedule change will leave two days — Oct. 25 and 26 — open for presentations on water quality and fisheries, Ferguson explained. Presentations on wood chip supply will be heard Oct. 18; tran- sportation considerations, Oct. 19 and truck traffic impacts, Oct. 20. Hearings will begin at 8 a.m. (except Oct. 18, when they will Start at 9 a.m.) and run until noon. Hearings will resume at 2 p.m. and finish at 5:30 p.m Sessions will resume again at 7 p.m. and-wrap up at 9:30 p.m. People planning to go before the panel during the technical hearings were required to submit either the full text or an abstract of their presentations to Ferguson at least 14 days before the hearing concerning the topics of their briefs and those submissions are being placed in the public file at the panel's Castlegar office, Ferguson said. Planning a Wedding? We Sell Distinctive Invitations, Napkins, etc. Come See Us At SS Castlegar News 197 Columbia Ave. Window Coverings Z LEVOLOR VERTICALS HORIZONTALS PLEATED SHADES Our policy (WINDOW COVERINGS —™“w 0 (ay-3% Bullt-in Vacuum Systems HOMEGOODS FURNITURE WAREHOUSE Genelle — Phone 693-2227 Open 9:30-5:30 Tues. to Sat Blackouts darken Castlegar By CasNews Staff Two power outages hit the Castlegar area Thursday morning and left parts of the city and surrounding areas in the dark between 7 a.m. and 9a.m. An outage at the Blueberry sub- station from about 7:15 a.m. to 8 a.m. affected Robson, Ootischenia, Blueberry and Pass Creek, said Doug Fergusson, the Castlegar divisional manager for West Kootenay Power. The second outage, caused by an equipment failure at the Kraft sub- station, darkened parts of Robson and north Castlegar for about an hour until 9 p.m., Fegusson said Friday. The Blueberry and Kraft sub- stations are two smaller facilities that are serving Castlegar while the utility upgrades the city’s main WKP spokesman Greg Fowler said. The outages were caused by an unusually heavy power demand Thur- sday morning, probably due in part to the cooler weather Wednesday night, Fowler said. Fergusson said West Kootenay Power has set up its mobile substation near Selkirk College to help handle the city’s energy demands following the equipment failure at the Kraft substation. West Kootenay Power is building a new main substation for Castlegar in anticipation of the growth the city is expecting in the next few years and the increased power demands which will accompany that growth, Fergusson said. The transformer in the old sub- station was reaching the upper limits of its load capacity, he said. Fowler said the work should be completed by the end of October. Coroner rules on accident By CasNews Staff Coroner Paul Ogiow has ruled the death of a Castlegar youth in a motor vehicle accident last May resulted from the youth’s own actions as driver of the vehicle and was caused please see CORONER page A3 ih alliancon ae ee ot public b which will be p eh ne srtdecppleps kame y op r information for a briet ird runway for Vancouver Local reps to help pitch new runway at coast By CasNews Staff and News Services Castlegar will be represented later this month at public hearings on a Proposal to build a third runway at Vancouver International Airport. A third runway at B.C.’s major airport will help alleviate delays at Castlegar Airport, Castlegar Cham- ber of Commerce president Jim Craig said. ““Vancouver is the gateway to B.C. and hence to Castlegar in a roun- dabout way,”’ Craig said Thursday. The chamber and the airport ad- visory committee, made up of representatives from the cities of Castlegar, Nelson, Trail and Rossland, as well as airport users, have already sent letters to the panei that will conduct the hearings as part of an environmental review process, said Dale Nielsen, the owner and manager of Adastra Aviation who Provided the airport information for the letters. Don Leitch will represent the two t groups at the hearings, set for Oct. 24 to 26 in Vancouver, to answer any questions the panel may have on the letters, Nielsen said. ‘Nielsen said the delays into and out of Castlegar will be alleviated by the third runway because the Vancouver tower will be able to release aircraft on one runway while preparing others for landings on the extra airstrip. A major problem in Castlegar and other small airports that feed into Vancouver is the amount of time a plane must sometimes wait before taking off for the bigger centre to help ensure aircraft are not stacked up over Vancouver waiting to land, Nielsen said. Such delays have left planes sitting on the ground in Castlegar for an hour or more and delays become longer as the weather gets worse, he said Delays are a particular problem in (Castlegar because pilots can fly in and out of the area only during daylight hours. If a plane is grounded here too long, either the flight must be can- celled or the pilot must take his air- craft up and circle Castlegar until he has clearance to head for Vancouver, Nielsen said. Circling burns needed fuel, he pointed out. All airports in the B.C. Interior are supporting the proposal for a third runway, Nielsen said. However, he said the delays will not be completely eliminated until Van- couver has more air traffic con- troliers. He noted that a recent Tran- sport Canada decision to remove the six controllers at the Castlegar Air- port was made in part to provide more controllers for Vancouver. But the runway project is facing opposition. At least one group — the Community Forum on Airport D — says the tal impact statement that has been filed for the project doesn’t answer all the concerns about noise and impacts on fish, wildlife and air ang water quality ploate see RUNWAY page A3 Robson post office shuts doors today By CasNews Staff The Robson post office will see its last customer before noon today when the building will close its doors for good. The new post office franchise at Johnny's Grocery will open Mon- day Postmaster Vera Salekin said Friday the closing of the rural post of fice will likely be unceremonious. **What else can we do?”’ she said. The closure will be ‘ta hardship’’ for some of the people in the small community — especially elderly people and young mothers — who normally walk to the post office, Salekin said Many people have expressed their opposition to the closure — par- ticularly during the last few days, she said “They've had me in tears all week,”’ said Salekin, who will begin a new job as postmaster in Montrose on Wednesday Robson residents were informed in January that their post office would a VERA SALEKIN . in tears all week be privatized. But Canada Post allowed the old post office to remain open while the federal agency negotiated a postal franchise with the past and present owners of Johnny’s Grocery By CasNews Staff Business people who attended a meeting this week dealing with the revitalization of Castlegar’s down- town core generally seem to feel the entire city should benefit even- tually from the beautification plans, Downtown Business Association president Jack Parkin But any pian will likely hinge on whether or not the money for such an ambitious undertaking could be found, Parkin said Friday Sprucing up the whole city would also take two or three years to complete, Parkin said, adding that work on the downtown area may begin in the spririg Approximately 20 local Revitalization plan hinges on money business people attended the meeting Thursday, called by the DBA’s revitalization committee. Those who attended met the Kelowna consultants the commit- tee has hired to prepare a strategy plan, the first major step toward upgrading the look of downtown Castlegar. Parkin said the consultants are asking the business people f fill out questionnaires on the “‘weaknesses and strengths” of north Castlegar and what changes could be made, Anyone who has not received a questionnaire can pick one up at city hail. They must be returned to city hall or Parkin’s downtown office by next Friday.