Serving the 10,000 people of the Castlegar Area, The Castlegar Sun

is every by Sterling Lid, at 465

Columbia Ave. Castlegar, B.C, V1N 1G8. The Castlegar Sun is

cally independent and a member of the Sterling News Service,

Canadian C , B.C. Cr

Newspapers Assocation, andthe B.C. Press Council. Established
28, 1990. Mail 10420

PUBLISHER MARILYN STRONG
CHRISTINE MOYER
PRODUCTION MANAGER:

TRICIA LAKTIN
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

ACTING EDITOR
KAREN KERKHOFF
REPORTER

JEFF GABERT

SPORTS REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER,
MARGE LALONDE
OFFICE/CIRCULA TION MANAGER
CARI ROHN

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editorial comment

Ponies at the back

Have you ever heard of a controlled runaway?

The term is often used to describe the cultural
phenomenon of chuckwagon racing which takes
place throughout the summer and fall across the
prairies. There’s lots of noise. Lots of action. And a
whole ‘lotta dust.

Thé same term could be used to describe what’s
now happening in Castlegar in terms of develop-
ment. And just like a chuckwagon race on the
prairies, the action is fierce, the noise is certainly
getting louder and the dust is far from settling.

Like a major strike in a Kootenay mine, Castle-
gar has become the motherload for development,
both commercial and residential

We've been discovered folks, and the race has
begun.

Those are the facts. Development is happening
and there’s not much this city can do to stop it. And
why would we?

That doesn’t mean, however, that the political
players in this community cannot extend some
strings, or at least plan to control the runaway.

Without a doubt, the biggest concem surrounding
development involves traffic — and more to the
point — where the traffic is going. Most developers
are looking at Columbia Avenue south, otherwise
known as Highway 22. Everyone knew this explo-
sion of activity wefld occur, yet both the city, and
the Ministry of Highways has done little except
exchange arguments over who is responsible for
that major stretch of highway where most, if not
all, the commercial development will occur.

If you have problems driving on Highway 22
now, just wait until Canadian Tire opens its doors
in November. Never mind the fact that a major
hotel is planning to build in the vicinity, and that
several fast food franchises are chomping-at-the-bit
to get in.

So the question remains: why is 1990s-style
development still happening along a 1950s road-
way? How much more development has to take
place before a firm decision is made to expand the
route for traffic? The city is not likely going to put
the brakes on development, which is understand-
able. But maybe it should consider that while it
volleys back and forth with the Ministry of High-
ways over who’s responsible for making changes,
drivers are becoming increasingly frustrated with
the ever-forming bottleneck. And in the end,
drivers really don’t care who's responsible.

Commercial and residential development has
caused Castlegar to outgrow the current Highway
22 infrastructure. To continue promoting more
and more development along that road without
making the necessary changes to it could backfire
in the end. After all, no one ever won a chuck-
wagon race by hooking up their ponies to the back
of the wagon

Sharlene Imhoff

$a
ERRORS:

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Paid for such advertisement. All advertising subject to publisher's
approval. Contracts must be completed within one year from contract
date. No contingent orders accepted

-~- WONDER, IF THEY RE
STILL BROADCASTING
THE DOMINOES PLAYOFFS?

Newspapers a funny business

Newspapering is a funny busi-
ness. No doubt about it. It is peo-
ple who make it that way, because
it is people who make the stories.

In the last seven months that
I've been Acting Editor here at The
Sun I've had to deal with all types
of people. Some are nice no matter
how difficult the situation. And
some are just plain ornery from the
moment they don’t say, “Hello.”

Others are easy to please and
thank you sincerely for whatever
you do—even when you spell
their name wrong.

Then there are those who get
full-blown coverage and ask why
you used the photograph you did
when they distinctly instructed yoy
to use the other photograph—and
never say a word about the story.
You can do little right for these
people. Thankfully, they are the
minority of the people I deal with.

I'm an old-fashioned newspaper
type, the kind who calls himself a
“reporter” rather than a “journal-
ist”. I believe a community paper
should cover the community—all
parts of the community, but espe-
cially local governments. After all,
local governments have the great-
est impact on our lives.

If you need any proof of that,
look only so far as the latest issues
around which literally hundreds of
people have rallied: the fourth ball
field at Kinnaird Park; the removal
of the fencing from Kinsmen Park;
development in the south end (and
throughout the community, for
that matter).

Not earth-shattering issues, to be

BPA backo

BARRY GUNN
Sterling News Services

ut pa

sure. No world hunger, poverty,
peace or war. But they are issues
which touch people directly; issues
which affect the way we live.

That's one of the reasons I
placed an, empha-
sis on coverage of
Castlegar council,

Castlegar school
board and Castle-
gar and District
Hospital board,
and to a lesser
extent on = the
Regional District
of}Central Koote-
nay and Selkirk
College (lesser only because of a
shortage of staff to cover them all).

I know some people thought I
helped fuel some of the issues
with my weekly column. Others
thought I was simply biased jin my
reporting. They couldn't téll the
difference between my column
and editorials on the one hand
(which are supposed to contain
opinion) and my news stories on
the other.

The fourth ball field at Kinnaird
Park was one such issue. I was
chastised for my “pro-trees” stand
by some members of the ball asso-
ciation, who said they were going
to go through all the stories I,had
written on the issue to show how I
had it in for ballplayers.

This, despite the fact I have
played ball since I could walk,
played fastball here in Castlegar
for years, then slo-pitch for even
more years, and have been
involved in girls softball for the

with Canada.”

last seven years as a coach, man-
ager and member of the league
executive. (One year even coach-
ing two teams while being a divi-
sion manager). ¥n

So I decid-
ed to go a step
further and
collected the
dates and
issues of each
story, column
and editorial I
wrote on the
fourth ball
field.

Funny
thing is, I was also criticized for
being on the side of the ballplay-
ers. A supporter of the trees wrote
a letter—which he asked not to be
published—outlining all the areas
he thought I had fallen down on in
my coverage of the issue.

Perhaps by doing everything
wrong, I was doing something
right. Or maybe I was just doing
everything wrong.

The thing to remember about
newspapering is that everyone has
a bias. Any reporter who says he
or she doesn’t, isn’t telling you the
truth. Most reporters keep their
opinions to themselves and their
editorial room colleagues. But
they have them nonetheless.

The only difference between
them and me is that I put my opin-
ions out there each week for
everyone to see. Does it mean I’m
right all the time? I'd like it if I
was, but I would be foolish to
believe it.

THE VIEW

NORMAN

Does it mean I’m less objective
than the reporter sitting beside me
when I write my news story?
Absolutely not. If anything, I have
to be even more scrupulous
because everyone will be watching
for my biases to reveal themselves,

If it appeared as if I was hector-
ing council in many of my
columns, well maybe I was. But
just because I disagreed with cer-
tain members of council on certain
issues didn’t mean I couldn't
appreciate their points of view.
They were just wrong, that’s all.

Seriously though, this is my
swan song as Acting Editor. You
won't have to look at my face
week-in, and week-out here on
page A6—or rather part of my
face, because production manager
Christine Moyer cut off my ears to
make the photograph fit the new
column format. I've been told it
looks like my face is in a bench
vise. Funny, it's felt like that some-
times, especially after I’ve had to
deal with irate politicians.

I've enjoyed by stay here as
much as any in my newspaper
career. At best, newspapering is a
whole lot of fun. And I have to say
that my stint here at The Sun has
been a whole lot of fun.

I said at the beginning of this
that it is people who make the
business, and I have worked with
a wonderful bunch of people—not
just in the editorial department,
but throughout the paper. I thank
them for accepting me so-easily
and say to them, and to the read-
ers, “See you around.”

rt of cutthroat American style

“The reasons are related to some of the same
issues that are causing us to pull out of the deal

U.S.$500 million per year. Environmental
groups recently took the agency to court,
lieging it was changi

— and los-

Like a drowning sailor, Bonneville Power
Administration is dragging others under as it
struggles to stay afloat.

The troubled utility’s decision to call off a $5
billion deal with the B.C. government is the lat-
est move in a desperate effort to cut costs and
stay npetitive in the h » di
U.S. energy market.

Bonneville press officer Perry Gruber said
four factors made terms of the 1994 memoran-
dum of agreement uneconomical: lower prices
for natural gas, improved technologies that
make gas and co-generation projects more effi-
cient, environmental regulations and a gas sur-
plus on the west coast.

“In the short term, it's the best move for
Bonneville because if we were to go through
with the terms in the deal, we would lose
money,” Gruber told Sterling News Service.

Losing money is something the U.S. federal
energy giant cannot afford to do.

Scuttling the deal with B.C. will save Bon-
neville $250 million this year, the first payment
in a 30-year-deal under which the utility would
have bought part of the province's entitlement
to the energy benefits of the Columbia River
Treaty.

But a glut of cheap power from new players
in the U.S. energy market has cut the value of
power capacity in half, Gruber said

“We're reviewing all of our generating pro-
jects,” he said. Some contracts are being rene-
gotiated, while others are being canceled
altogether.

According to The Oregonian, a Portland,
Oregon, based daily newspaper:

* Bonneville recently told builders of a
U.S.$935-million gas turbine generation pro-

‘Bonneville lost about $600
miilion last year and is
struggiing to get out from
under $16 billion worth of debt’

ject that it wanted out of ofa contract to buy
the project’s power. The utility's partners in
the deal responded by filing a U.S.$1-billion
lawsuit.

+ Bonneville lost about U.S.$600 million last
year, and is currently struggling to get out from
under U.S.$16-billion worth of debt. In March,
officials announced plans to slash U.S.$1.5 bil-
lion from its budget over the next six years, an
average of U.S.$250 million a year. Meanwhile,
Democrats in the U.S. Congress are considering
turning the federal agency into something akin
to a Crown c ion, while the i
want to sell it

+ Mitigation measures for fish and wildlife,
including regulating flows on the Columbia
River system to aid salmon stocks listed under
the Endangered Species Act, are costing BPA

ing more money— to favor it major industrial
customers while claiming it cannot afford to
protect fish and wildlife. A decision is expect-
ed soon.

+ Another U.S.$500 million of the agency’s
annual U.S.$2.2-billion budget is spent to cover
the costs of its connection with plans to five ili-
fated nuclear power plants in the state of Wash-
ington in the 1970s. Bonneville buys all the
power produced by the only one of those plants
still working. Two were mothballed in the
1980s due to cost overruns and collapsing
demand for power. The remaining plant is los-
ing money, but it would cost the utility
U.S.$450 million to shut it down.

* Bonneville is scrambling to adjust to
demands from its major customers, including
other utilities and aluminum companies which
have threatened to take their business else-
where if the agency doesn’t lower its prices.
D lation of power tr services
in 1992 forced Bonneville to provide its trans-
mission lines to other operators. Gruber said
competitors can now offer short-term contracts
at prices lower than the utility can offer, often
at a loss but allowing them to grab a share of
the market

All of these factors were at play when Bon-
neville entered into the agreement with B.C.
last summer.

“But none of this had really taken full
effect,” Gruber said, adding the agency is still
willing to make a deal, but B.C. must be willing
to renegotiate the price.

Wednesday, May 31, 1995

The Castlegar Sun

Page 7A

Letters to the Editor

Council failed to
consult neighbors

Dear Editor:

This letter is being written to
protest the removal of the fence
at Kinsmen Park. {

I agree it was not particularly
esthetically pleasing, but it was a
safety factor and could have been
easily and inexpensively repaired.
Mothers could take their children
to play in the park without having
to watch them closely every sec-
ond. Children playing softball and
soccer were safe as the fence
stopped the ball (and them) from
running into the street.

The councillors, in their obvi-
ously limited wisdom, didn’t
bother to consult with anyone in
this neighborhood when they
decided to tear it down, They
held a meeting on May 16 and
began the demolition on the
morning of the 17th. Apparently,
their logic was that if they tore it
down fast enough we wouldn't
realize what was happening until
it was over.

It’s reminiscent of the disap-

pearance of our ferry.

I called city hall at 2 p.m. when
I realized what it was doing. The
heavy equipment could have been
‘stopped at that time,

Kinsmen is the only play-
ground park in the north end of
the city, It is a family park and is
well used by péople having pic-
nics, children playing, and as a
sports field. I have watched as
one by one they have removed
the children’s wading pool, gaze-
bo, permanent tables, trees, and
now the fence. I wouldn't be
very surprised to wake up one
morning and find that the city
had overnight turned it into a
parking lot.

I spent the afternoon phoning
the mayor's office, city adminis-
trator and all the councillors and
was met with total aggression and
inconsideration in some cases (the
best defence is a strong offence)
and complete indifference in oth-
ers. Doug Green, chair of the
works and services/parks commit-

LET'S HELP KIDS

Snow fence troubling

Dear Editor:

I am feeling deeply troubled
that our town had put up fencing
to keep our young people out of
that nice little meeting area
between CastleRock and Greek
Oven. Who was that nice spot
created for? Did we expect just
the seniors to congregate there
with their canes and walkers?

What is the message we are
sending to our youth by banning
them and their skateboards from
parking lots? Aren't we, telling
them, that we don’t trust them?
Aren't we telling them that we
expect them to vandalize?

We, as a community, have a
responsibility to make our town a
friendlier place. We, as, adults,
could and should be posifive role
models to our community's chil-
dren. We should be ‘enhancing

their self-esteem instead of tear-
ing it down.

Prescott Leckey, psychologist,
States: “Every human being's
central mission in life is the
Preservation and enhancement of
his concept of himself.”

S. L Hayakawa tells us: “The
primary goal of a human is not
self-preservation, but preserva-
tion of the symbolic self.” In
other words, we do what we do
because of who we think we are

2nd, what, we shink is expected of

us. If we consistently send out the
message to a child that we expect
the child to misbehave, the child
will misbehave. The child will
not let us down. The child will
act bad because he thinks that he
is bad because he thinks that you
think that he is bad. We do what
we do because of who and what

City hall, Canadian Tire
need to mend fences

Dear Editor:

As I was waiting, for what
seemed like the hundredth time,
engine idling, in the line-up
which allows the dump trucks to
take fill into the Canadian Tire
site any time they wish, the fol-
lowing thoughts came to mind.:

1) Is my time a lot less valu-
able than Canadian Tire’s time?

2) Did Canadian Tire ever con-
sider publishing a letter or a dis-
play ad in The Castlegar Sun,
beford it started work at the site,
apologizing for the inconve-
nience it would be causing the
people of Castlegar?

3) Would city hall care to

explain how traffic signals can be
ignored by flag people and traffic
flows can be disrupted at will?

I think Canadian Tire has a lot
to learn about how to announce
its presence in a small town, and
that part of city hall’s mandate
should be to explain it to them. I
suggest that city hall and Canadi-
an Tire have some fence mending
to do. I assume the next public
relations disaster will occur when
the store actually opens and the
traffic is held up as vehicles tum
on and off Columbia Avenue all
day long.

Sally Williams
Castlegar

tee, told me that “if the

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Castlegar Medical Associates wish to
announce that Dr.-D.W. Strangway, M.D.,
ie 4 C.S. (C) has joined the practice.

Dr. Strangway brings with him 20 years
of surgical practice in Terrace and 2 years
of family practice in Bella Bella.

of the fence doesn't work out (7)
we will rebuild it”. We can only
wonder what the cost of that
would be to the taxpayers.

Whatever has happened to
elected representatives listening
to the people? Bob Pakula was
the only councillor who took the
time to come to my home and lis-
ten to my concerns.

This council has totally disre-
garded people's concerns over
the subdivision at the south end
of the city and the Kinnaird ball
park issue. Now it is jeopardiz-
ing the safety of the children.
What do we have to look for-
ward to next? {

Sherrel Koreen
Castlegar

P.S. Despite Mr. Green telling
me that it was useless and they(7)
didn’t pay attention to them, I
have been circulating a petition to
have the fence rebuilt. Anyone
interested may sign at the library
or at my home.

we think we are, so, at the very
least, let's get this one thing right.
He will act bad.

These children are desperate
for attention. They are desperate
for love.

There must be something that
we can do, as a community, to
show that we care. Let us help to
nurture them before it's too late

It’s beginning to look a lot
like Abbotsfordhere, where the
children are taking over the
streets and the adults are hiding
behing.their locked doors, won-
dering when the home invasions
will begin.

I really believed that this was a
better place to raise children.
Now I'm not so sure.

V.S. Kalesnikoff
Castlegar

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plus GST. Students should or borrow the book “Plants of Coastal B.C.” Sat. & Sun.,
June 10 & 11,9 am~-4 pm. Meet at Selkirk College, Castlegar Campus,

An Introduction to Forest Ecology: If you are participating in a watershed technical planning
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CASTLEGAR CAMPUS
365-1208

Letters |
Policy

Letters to the Editor are wel-
come on any topic of local or
general interest. Letters should
be double-spaced, typewritten,
or legibly handwritten, and no
more than two pages if possible.
Letters may be edited in the
interests of brevity, legality or
taste. All letters must be signed,
with an address and telephone
number. Names may be witheld
from publication only in
extremely exceptional circum-
stances and by the approval of
the Editor. Send letters to: The
Castlegar Sun, 465 Columbia
Ave., Castlegar, B.C., VIN 1G8,
or drop them off at the office.
Poetry will not be published.

FAMILY
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