rv) November 8, 1987

Cc Neat News )

fnasenan OF THE B.C. PRESS COUNCA

weeny MAY

—Gary
(CIRCULATION MANAGER — Meares Hedley

ult,
vested in ond belongs to Castle:
any edvertinement prepared trom repro proots
belong to the odvertser as

owe tnd provsded. Newever "shot Copyraght wm tat port and
‘Srorevange ot provides Oy tha waverneat shal

er produced by Castle News Ld: 1

rat pon ony

Gas war questions

Trying to predict. the price of
gasoline in Castlegar these days is

@ trying to play the stock

— it's a- roller coaster.
Prices are down, then up, then
down again. It will be interesting
to see what happens at the end of
this latest gas price war.

The end of the first price war
earlier this week drew a number of
complaints from area residents
who were upset about the jump in
the new price. Before the gas war,
regular gasoline went for around
46 or 47 cents a li But when a
truce was finally called on Wed-
nesday morning, regular gas
hadn't returned to the pre-war
figure of 46 cents a litre. It had in-
stead jumped to 51.6 cents a litre

*— five cents more than it had been

prior to the war.

One service station owner as
much as admitted that the in-
creased price was to help offset
some of the losses incurred during
the price war.

But that raises two questions.

Firstly, should customers have
to pay for a decision over which
they had no control? Castlegar's
gas station owners decided to drop
the prices — for whatever reason.
Then they made local drivers pick
up the tab for that decision.

d

to the free market system? All
eight gos stations in town were
selling regular gas for 51.6 cents a
litre — not 51.5 or 51.7 cents, but
exactly 51.6 cents a litre.

Only battle won

Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco
has won his battle with the
Canadian Rod

Castlegar to one of the restricted
channels — somewhere above
113.

levision and Tel-
ecommunications Commission, but
the war is still far from over. Mr.
Brisco was successful in convincing
the CRTC to extend its deadline for
submissions on Shaw Cable's pro-
posed rate increases. However,
the hard part comes in persuading
the federal regulatory agency that
Shaw Cable's request for a $1.81 0
month increase in cable fees is
unacceptable.

The rate increase isn't the only
aspect of the Shaw Cable ap-
plication that presents concern.
Shaw Cable also wants to shift the
House of Commons channel. from
its present spot on channel 5 in

The move would allow Shaw
to put other more commercially
appealing channels in its place.
The only trouble with this proposal
is that mony residents with older
television sets wouldn't be able to
pick up the Parliamentary channel
without a converter — and they
sell for more than $100.

\t is also interesting that
nowhere does Shaw Cable mention
its own cable shopping channel.
This channel occupies a prime spot
— and for what? To hawk knick-
knacks. Shaw Cable should shift its

before te
plating moving the Parliamentary
channel.

Ron
Norman

It seems I stirred up a hornet’s
nest with my mention two weeks
ago of Ald. Nick Oglow’s position on
the new library. I deliberately didn’t
expand on the issue because I
thought Oglow’s position was well
known. After all, it had been the
focus of new stories for several
months.

But I was wrong. Michelle Bou
vette decided there could be a mis-
understanding, so to set the record
straight, she wrote to the CasNews
last week pointing out that Oglow
never opposed the new library.

And she's right. Oglow opposed
tearing down the old library. He
was in favor of a new library — just
not on top of the old one. I won't get
into the pros and cons of that,
because it was debated fully at the
time.

However, my point two weeks
ago was that Oglow's position could
be viewed by many who supported a
new library as obstructionist. They

up with the $180,000 figure. The
city’s share of the library was
$200,000, though there has been
some confusion about how the city
came up with the money without
ever putting it to taxpayers for a
vote in a referendum.

It came about as a result of the
Expo Legacy Fund. Originally, the
city was to have one of the pavilions
used at Expo 86 after the world fair
closed. However, it was deemed too
expensive to move the portable
pavilions to places outside the
Lower Mainland, and besides, re-
quests far outnumbered the pavil-
ions.

So the B.C. government decided
to create an Expo Legacy Fund for
all those communities which
wouldn't get a pavilion. The prov-
ince agreed to donate up to half the
funding for a special community
project, if the community came up
with the other half.

Castlegar council appointed an

were concerned at the time that if
the library project was delayed
while further sites were examined,
a new library might never get built.

Whether or not Oglow was ob-
structionist depends on your point
of view. His supporters would say
he was trying to get good value for
tax dollars. Opponents would
charge him with nearly scuttling the
library.

However, Bouvette’s letter miss-
es the mark on the subject of the
alleged $180,000 library cost over.
run. I don't ever remember Oglow
expressing concern about a $180,000
overrun. In fact, the first I heard of
any overrun was in Bouvette's
letter. I thought perhaps she was
simply misinformed. But Oglow
repeated the same figure again
Tuesday morning during a debate
with Mayor Audrey Moore on CBC
Radio’s Daybreak program.

The remarks have prompted two
letters to the editor in this issue. As
the letters explain, the library con:
struction actually came in under
budget. I won't go into the details,
because they are clearly set out in
the letters.

I don't know where Oglow came

to select an
appropriate Expo Legacy project.
After some deliberation — including
a straw poll using the CasNews —
the committee decided on a new
library (an aquatic centre was ruled
out as too expensive).

The city hoped initially to be able
to put up part of its $200,000 share
of the new library in the form of
land. However, the province
wouldn't buy that, and the city had
to match the Expo Legacy grant
dollar-for-dollar.

That's how Castlegar came up
with the $200,000 for the new lib-
rary.

What seems to have been lost in
this debate over the library is the
fact that we now have a wonderful
new facility which is heavily used.
(The library board's recent sub-
mission to the provincial task force
on library funding pointed out that
Castlegar has one of the highest per
capita user rates in B.C.).

We also seem to forget the tre-
mendous community effort which
raised more than $22,000 to allow

fo) A
“Ny. gp torah Far East
tastic!

Everybody wanted to
know about my plans
to privatize B.C.
jovernment
oldings!

the library construction to proceed.
It was a pulling together that many
said was just as valuable to the
community as the new library.

Ripln ftom, Grooms yase

UNE Pa tke den 60 pe sam]
your new premier...

Letters to the Editor

What is Halloween?

What is Halloween? I doubt any of
us know anymore. I kfiow it used to be
a time when children got all dressed up
in original costumes and went from
house to house trick or treating and
generally having a good time. Carving
out pumpkins with various faces and
having them on one’s front steps was
also a tradiiton of Halloween. Turning

Claim an
‘insult’

When I read the letter to the
editor in the Nov. 1 Castlegar News
stating that the new library building
had a $180,000 cost overrun, I assumed
that this was merely the error of an
overly enthusiastic supporter of Ald.
Nick Oglow.

However, when I heard the latter
make the same claim on CBC's Day-
break program on Nov. 3, I could not
let such a gross distortion of the facts
go unchallenged. I am no longer di-
rectly involved with the library, but
the following information was available
to anyone who cared to ask, or to read
this newspaper.

The facts are that the bid for the
building was $40,000 over the $400,000
available (provided in equal parts by
the city and the B.C. Lottery Fund).
The community then demonstrated its
support for a new library by quickly
and generously donating more than
half of the shortfall; this amount was
matched by the Lottery Fund. The
library was build at no extra cost to the
taxpayers of Castlegar above the
$200,000 originally pledged. There was
no cost overrun at all.

To claim otherwise on provincial
radio is a disservice to this community
and an insult to those who supported
the building of the new library in so
many ways.

Susan Port
Castlegar

Polluting
normal?

the article in the
lews “Foam blamed

In refere!
Nov. 1 Castle;
on valve”:

This article states that the foam
has-been in the river only since
Tuesday, Oct. 27. My companions and I
often walk to and frou: school and
we've seen the foam on the river
almost every day since September.
What about that?

Another point: If that foam is the
same substance that results from pulp
bleaching processes then, as I under-
stand, it likely contains dioxins. How
can anyone claim that such wastes pose
no environmental threat? Do we need
dead fish thronging the river banks
before so much poison becomes too
much poison? I'd like to know what the
foam actually is.

Lastly, if as claimed, the mill
wastes are pumped into the water at
the river bottom as a matter of course,
why doesn’t it float to the surface,
being a foam?

Personally, I would question “the
nature of the business,” if the business
involves the blatant polluting of a
water resource. We are assured that
“it's not anything abnormal.” If that is
true, I think that the accepted norms at
Celgar pulp mill bode ill for the life of
the Columbia River.

Cathy Nixon
Castlegar

over mail boxes, ripping up people's
shrubs, stealing someone's Atlantic
Giant pumpkin, etc., are all acts of
crime, not acts of Halloween.

We do not condone the fact that
our son threw an apple at someone's
house on Gate Night, but does this give
a so-called full grown adult the right to
terrorize these young boys. They could
have broken a window, yes, but they
didn’t and this is the first time these
young boys went out on Gate Night.
Suddenly, the throwing of an apple
means all out war.

Last year we had a drunk women
come onto our property trying to break
down our door. She threw whatever
she could lay her hands on at our trailer
and windows. This was an adult.
Everyone said, “She didn't realize what
she was doing because she had been
drinking.” We were just supposed to
forget the whole thing happened. Is is
right for an adult to act like this? What
kind of example is this to our young
le?

Gate Night and Halloween seem

to give some people the idea that on
these nights they can break the law.
‘The damages caused on these nights is
not caused by children. It is caused by
an ignorant, unthinking, uncaring few

so-called “ad ‘4
Most of us live in a small country
for the It

seems to me that it doesn't matter
whether we live in Vancouver or a
beautiful community like Glade, idiots
abound and create havoc, leaving us
afraid to go to bed on Halloween.

I do hope the people who stole our
97-pound Atlantic Giant pumpkin with
the light fixture, have sore arms and a
backache. That pumpkin was not put
on our front steps to be stolen. It was
our way of taking part in Halloween
and was to be many pumpkin pies after
that. I guess we'll just have to go
without pumpkin pie this year. It was
the only one we had left. We gave the
rest away because we knew our
Atlantic Giant would be enough for us.

C. Cross
Glade

Inaccurate facts
taint new library

I would like to respond to the
letter from Michelle Bouvette, which
appeared in the Nov. 1 issue of your
paper. In this letter, Ms. Bouvette
states that she is attempting to clear
up the confusion about the cost of the
new library and Ald. Nick Oglow’s
stance on that matter. Unfortunately,
she merely adds to the confusion by
misrepresenting the true facts.

ere has not been an overrun of
$180,000. The budget for the new
library was $445,162. The actual cost of
the library was $443,500. This indicates
a saving of $1,662,

The library board will not become
involved in the political debate that is
ensuing over the mayoralty race and
for which the library is becoming one of
the issues. However, we would like to
appeal to people, such as Ms. Bouvette,
that if they choose to participate in
such political discussions on a public
level, that they first ensure they have
current and correct facts as regards to
the library. Accurate facts must also be
supported by the appropriate historical
perspective which will enable inter-
pretation of the facts to be logical and

Refund
in order

Can you believe $12 million for
ammunition for the Canadian military
and it's all defective? And our Con-
servative government doesn’t know
what to do about it. Any Canadian
shopper knows what to do: Take it
back and demand our money back!

Or how about our military paying
$9,000 for a $900 valve, the increase
justified by the fact that the military
has to make these purchases through
a Canadian agent (required by the
same government)? Again, the solution
is obvious to any child, but seems to
escape this government: Change
agents or get rid of this requirement.

And this is the same government
that wants us to blindly trust them to
negotiate a free trade deal with the
United States. No way!

Maurice Eggie
Nelson

not misleading.

In reference to the comment about
the destruction of the old library, I can
assure the public that if there had been
a feasible alternative we would have
supported it. Although, we studied
many options, none was workable
under the restrictions we were given to
work with.

It is unfortunate that an ac-
complishment for which this com-
munity can 80 Proud is being
tainted by jena hee

D. Chmara
Castlegar Library Beard
chairperson

Closing
book on
October

As the evening of Halloween ends
on the last day of the month, I regret-
tably close my memory book on this,
golden October and reflect on some of

bloomed and flowers smiled while the
contrast between the golden birch
trees and the clear blue sky was inspir-

Some of our dearest friends visited
us from Vancouver and we shared
many happy hours with them.

Halloween was such a delightfully

As I turn down the lights and close
beplesh ger ge bor hnncchesarag
Thanksgiving and Halloween I am
truly grateful.

Pat Romaine

Remember
When?

4 YEARS AGO
From the Nev. 6, 1947
News
Mr. Dick Elliott, manager of the

This is good news to the residents
and businesses of Castlegar as it will
save a lot of unnecessary travelling to
Nelson and Trail, which is often quite
inconvenient and expensive.

._ 28 @

Playing at the Castle Theatre is It
Happened In Brooklyn starring Frank
Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Peter Law-
ford and Kathryn Grayson.

A giant teenage dance noe and activity
night is being planged for Nov. 24 at
the Castlegar arena.

‘The plans for the evening are the
results of a meeting held last Thursday
night to discuss the setting up of an
organization which would plan teenage
activities and help set up teenage
organizations “which would give the
teenagers of the district some re-

sponsiblity.”

The meeting called, by Dick
Wayling, principal of Woodland Park
elementary school, was attended by
representatives of many district or-

i and by of
the RCMP and both village councils.

Former Castlogsé village council
chairman N.T. Ogiow has been ap-
proached to run for school board
trustee and is giving serious con-
sideration to the matter while at
Kinnaird, the Ratepayers’ Association
there is calling a meeting open to the
public to nominate candidates for the
municipal election.

. 8

Remembrance Day services will
be held Sunday at jthe cenotaph in
Castlegar Memorial Park at the top of
Bloomer Hill.

In the event of rain or snow, the
service will be held at the Castle
Theatre.

The parade, led by Jim Leamy and
the SHSS band, will gather at Pine St.

plain about the condition lots being
used for gravel pit purposes are being
left in adjacent to the Columbia River.
Brian Kilpatrick and Paul Phipps,
who have homes in the 700 block on 7th
Ave., told aldermen their residences
back on the gravel pit properties.
They said trees are being removed
indiscriminately, the area is being used
as a garbage dump with no
for back filling, no effort is being made
to re-contour the area with a future
view to landscaping, some of the
excavations are left with vertical faces
creating an unsafe, unstable condition
and trucks and machinery work seven
days.

. 8 «6

Castlegar council refused Tuesday
night to endorse a City of Rossland
suggestion that local residents be
asked to indicate during December's
municipal election whether they favor
year-round daylight saving time.

The intent of the Rossland request
is to have both East and West Koote-
nays of the same time 12 months of the
year.

The East Kootenay will stay on
Mountain Standard Time and the West
Kootenay will stay on Pacific Daylight
Saving Time.

eo 8 6
5 YEARS AGO

From the Nev. 7, 1982
Castlegar News

Closing some schools is one of the
cost cutting measures the Castlegar
School Board will consider Tuesday as
it tries to come up with a plan to deal
with a drastically reduced 1983 budget.

“It's one of the considerations the
board will be faced with . . . one of the
many options,” a school board official
said Thursday.

School board secretary-treasurer
John Dascher said in an interview the
board is faced with a 1983 budget that
bas Bees fostuend °o & ferteee See
on top of an original cutback
$338,459.

7 8 «

Nursing students at the Selkirk
College Castlegar campus who are
eligible for financial aid bursaries have
not received any funding and may have
to borrow money to get them through
the school year.

Selkirk College financial aid officer
Jake van Hemert said the number of
students in health-related fields who
are eligible for the Conditional Health
Bursary almost doubled since last year.

. 28 «@

BLAZE BUSTERS . . . From left, Lisa Coe, Jason Gallo
and Alyssa Watson proudly display Honovrory Fire
Chiet Certificates after they were chosen from the

Students made fire chiefs

By SURJ RATTAN
Staff Writer

For two of three youngsters who were picked to play
fire chief for a day last week, riding on a fire truck was
the highlight of the day. For the third one, wane trip to
MeDonald’s.

‘The three, who represented the fire departments in
Castlegar, Robson, Pass Creek and Tarrys, were chosen
at random to play fire chief for a day last Thursday as
part of the Get Out Alive campaign teaching young school
children how to escape from their homes in the event of a
fire.

. exciting, but it does not rate as high as going to

Get Out Alive is an annual national campaign
sponsored by McDonald's restaurants and is directed
towards children in Grades 1-8. They are given talks by
representatives from their local fire departments on how
to escape from their homes during a fire and what pre-
cautions ta.take in. preventing fires at home.

All students were given questionnaires to fill out
with their parents and to return to the fire department in
their area. One student's questionnaire is then drawn at
random and the student gets to play fire chief for a day.

In Castlegar eight-year old Jason Gallo of Kinnaird
elementary school was chosen. In Robson it was
seven-year old Alyssa Watson, who attends Robson
elementary, while six-year old Lisa Coe of Tarrys

Meeks neha tut te boot pare of koliig Bro dled
for a day was to be able to ride in a fire truck. That

Castlegar, Robson, Pass Creek and Tarrys areas to
play tire chief for a day.

—CashewsPhoto by Sur Ratton

‘experience will no doubt come in handy for the youngster
as he has his sights on becoming a firefighter when he
gets a little older.

Young Lisa Coe also thought that riding in a fire
truck was the highlight of being fire chief for a day.

But unlike Gallo, fighting fires is not in Coe’s future.

When asked what she wants to be when she gets
older, she replied: “A dentist.”

‘But Coe says the Get Out Alive exercise taught her
how to escape from her home in the event of a fire.

“I would feel the door to see if it was cool,” said Coe.

As for Alyssa Watson, riding on a fire truck was

McDonald's for lunch, which she said was the highlight of
being fire chief for a day.

She doesn't know yet what she would like to be when
she gets a little older but does know how to escape from
her house during a fire.

“I would go out the laundry door,” she said.

» Castlegar Fire Chief Bob Mann said more and more
youngsters who take part in the Get Out alive campaign
‘are aware of how important it is to guard against fires in
the home and he said they are beginning to teach this to
their parents.

“For most parents, the last thing they think of is fire
safety until their kids hound them into it. The kids do
bring it (Get Out Alive Program) home. It's good
education and they won't forget it.”

Jim Richards, Tarrys deputy fire chief, said he has
found that as children go through Grades 1 to 3 they are
becoming more familiar with fire safety.

“T find most of the kids answer my questions as I put
(them) to them. sa know where the smoke alarm is in
their homes,” said Richards.

Report recommends
spending $108,000

above and beyond the
+ amount we're getting now,
but we don't know,” Lamont
$108,000 be given over a five- 6
year period to the Castlegar
school district for new com-
puters and software.

puters (PACC) in report fol-
Jowing a three-month prov-
ince-wide tour of schools.

“We are hopeful we will progra:
get at least some of that education and musie com-
money anyway,” said Super- position.
intendent éf Schools Terry Funding is needed to main-
‘Wayling. tain computers already in

The district has 170 com- use, and to replace worn out
puters now and needs a 25 — softwate. More printers and
computer lab at Stanley disk drives are needed and
Humphries secondary school some teachers need to be
and 30 computers for ele- trained to teach using com-
mentary schools, according
to Inga Lamont, computer
coordinator for the school
district. cations system for gifted stu-

“That would be terrific. dents to easily access Selkirk
We could plan for five years. College and university lib-
We're hoping it would be raries.

Robson women
plan craft fair

Members of the Robson The Robson flea market
Women's Institute met at the continues to do well and the
home of Dolly Kaardal, chair-
man for the regular monthly
meeting.

Final plans were made for
the craft fair in Robson Hall
Dee. 4 and 5. This year there bers are busy knitting hats,
will be a fish pond for chil. mitts and sweaters for the
dren, a giant raffle of home- Children’s Hospital.
made articles and refresh- After the business meeting
ments. was adjourned, Dolly Kaar-

Members are still busy precy ving besa mony
preparing articles for the Reports from anor conten:
Toth anniversary next year pani hed aah ae.

ips were en.
when WI members will come joyed. An extra meeting is
from eight districts for a ‘

planned for Nov. 80 at the
spring conference In Hobson h of Polly H ft.

VOTE
Bob MacBain

A committee was formed
to arrange the Christmas pot
luck supper. Gifts will then
be collected to send to the
Children’s Hospital in Van-
couver.

For Your Convenience

OPEN MONDAY
WIN TICKETS -

Costume
winners

‘The Robson Fire Depart-
ment held its annual Hallo
ween party last Aatanday and
nine youngsters in three dif-

ee PSoe  shown efticg Toeodey Wed-
p.m, Wednesday to claim. Find your hf

ferent age groups took top
honors for their costumes.
In the one- to four-year old
age group, Darcy Garrett
took first place for his angel

name below

In the nine- to 18-year old
Fok or Martin Whitehead
first place dressed as a

Our answe

Castlegar Safeway Store

WILL BE OPEN

For Your Convenience

Wednesday, Nov. 11

The shorter hours are so our customers
and staff can respect Remembrance
Day Ceremonies.

Monda November 16
7:00 .m. Sharp

STANLEY ‘anne ACTIVITY ROOM

did will be lable to di
their pre aie ‘and answer your concerns.

reall

merce.

, —Puplic NOTICE — 4

PUBLIC NOTICE le
of seer Sm rates

GIVEN under my hand at Nelson, British Columbia this ord
day of November, 1987.

V. WENSCHLAG ©

searens $] 19

SaWay LimiTeo