INSIDE PEOPLE

Lights brighten dark skies
over Kootenay River

SPORTS
Rebels and rink rats”
a winning combination

Chipping away at the economy
Celgar looks to'modernization

_ Tots take to the Ice / 9B

Wood chips no longer. aby ‘product J 4B ;

+

WEDNESDAY.

November 28,1990

CLOUDY: Page 3A

The

Castiegar Sun

‘Boat or UFO? / 13B

Vol. 1.’--No. 1

75 Cents

By NANCY LINGLEY
Sun Editor

An ‘aircraft that was forced to
circle the Castlegar airport with
only the city’s night lighting for a
landmark, while the pilot waited for
battery-powered portable lighting to
be set up so he could land his badly
iced plane has prompted action from
City Council.

“The potential for disaster was
definitely there,’ said Alderman
Lawrence Chemoff, in reference to
the late Friday afternoon incident.

Castlegar Airport manager John
Perry said that the incident was
“not a particularly unusual situa-
tion. The only thing that made it
different is that we have no runway
lights.”

Perry explained that there was a
typical type of weather system ex-
tending over the southern part of
the province from Cranbrook to
Penticton last Friday evening when
the last regular AirBC flight of the
day left the airport.

"In similar situations airplanes
are prone to picking up icing,” he
explained. "The pilot decided to re-
turn to the airport.”

Unfortunately, as the departing
flight was the last of the afternoon
and airport staff-had left for.the day,

“it took some time to call in the
necessary bodies to install the

lighting. Fi

who were called upon to assist in
the operation left the North
Castlegar firehall at approximately
5 p.m, Perry noted that the whole
procedure took about one hour.

"Everybody was gone by 6
p.m., " he said, -

Perry explained that the portable
lighting had originally been pur-
chased for medical evacuations at
night, "but it has served other usc-
ful purposes as well,” he said.

The airport i

Castlegar, British Columbia

Residents fear

new development

By BARBARA TANDORY -.

where people going

Sun staff writer

The urgent need for more hous-
ing clashed with ideals of a perfect
neighborhood at a public hearing
held Tuesday night by the city of
Castlegar.

Two major rezoning applica-
tions have driven more than 30 res-
idents to express fears at the hearing
that proposed development in South
Castlegar would disturb their quict
way of life in the south end's

_ wooded neighborhoods.

A proposal to rezone private
property from single family to sin-
gle family multiplex in one of the
city’s most posh districts in the
Kinnaird area has drawn keen inter-
est but cautious criticism when it
was introduced as a bylaw to amend
the city's official Community Plan
Bylaw 509.

Dr. Waldo Yule told the public
hearing that his decision to draw up
plans for a 6-8 unit retirement
complex followed a discovery that a
100 ft. lot of white pine was in-
fested with blisters and has to be
cut, making room for the type of
housing currently needed in
Castlegar.

"There seemed to be a

now to the Okanagan can stay here
and keep their retirement savings in
the community,” he said, noting
that the multiplex would be top-
notch, with caretaking provided to
make residence "worry-free" for the
tenants, but would not be restricted
toretirces.

"The trees have to come down,
anyway,” Dr. Yule said. "They're
danger; they clock power lines. "
Dr. Yule also said that his property,
at 1200 Park Lane, is ideally lo-
cated near the Kinnaird Park and an
"excellent spot” for residential de-
velopment.

But the Castlegar physician’ de-
velopment proposal worried fellow
residents who worried that once Dr.
Yule is gone, development plans
for the site might be extended to a
steep bank located nearby on the

roperty.

“We should have some protec-
tion from that slope being devel-
oped in the future,” said Susan
Kinnaird. She said she was not op-
posed to the proposal as it stands
now.

Another resident, John
Pinckney, said his concern was also
with the steep comer lot and the

that we need this type of

By NANCY LINGLEY

make recommendations to the
incial and

Because the -two levels of

‘Sun Editor
Christmas is just around the
comer ard residents of Castlegar and
area are still waiting for a decision
to be made on the proposed Celgar
izati and if

Bi

' review Di are
ilar-th incial Major Project

prov
is still working the
material presented to them.

"Right now the panel is going
through the mountain of material,
and has been, since the end of the

Project. 7
"Our people have been held in a
state’ of indecisi ‘or

on Nov. 2," said Alan
Ferguson, executive secretary to the
review panel. "There is no

approximately 18 months,’ said
Mayor Audrey Moore. “Last

that the equipment may be used as
often as two to three times cach
month for medical evacuation use
“for departures only.” The Castlegar
airport is only licensed for daylight
ts) ion.

In addition to the 36-passenger
AirBC flight, a iight iwin-cngine
airplane destined for Calgary also
had to turn back to the. Castlegar

See AIRPORT 3A

Cl ‘was in for many.
We owe people a decision before
Christmas 1990. To keep people in
a state of indecision. continually
creates a lot of problems. It's very
demoralizing. There's no chance to
plan, no certainty to their lives. It's
mentally and ‘emotionally
debilitating.”

Public and technical hearings on
the proposed Celgar project wrapped
up almost:a month ago. The
ii de panel i to

By Leigh Rubin

fgny 46:07 06610
“Duy ‘S]ESIPUAG Bx01BOLD

a (0

121

x

“Strict adherence :to

corporate policy: guaranteed

an.unusually high employee ‘turnover rate. |

d time for an
announcement."

P

Review Process and the federal
Environmental Assessment Review
Process-it was deemed sensible to
have a common, single process

Castlegar still-waiting for

decision,” McLaren stressed. "They
just make dati

See DEVELOPMENT 2A

-panel's decision

too,” stated Peter Kalesnikoff of
K

on
approval-in-principal. The
incial and fe

Lumber Company Ltd.
located in Thrums. The company

have the final say.” .
McLaren added that there was no
precident, in B.C. anyway, for

explained Jim McLaren,

the two

of Env
Protection (formerly
Management).
"The panel docs not make the

Waste

levels of go’
That decision will affect the
entire forest industry in this area.
"We'll go down with them,

Major issues on the table

"By BARBARA TANDORY -

Sun staff writer
Negotiations between the

‘Castlegar. and. District Teachers
A axnciatl 1

and the Ci
school board have moved to major
contract issues, but spokesmen for
both . said’ said they would not:
comment’ on’ specifics raised in’
meetings Monday and Tuesday.

Si. “Discussions are progressing,”

said School District No.:9:superin-
tendent Terry Wayling. "They're g0-
ing slowly, but progressing.” *

’Wayling, a spokesman for. the

school board, and Joyce Adams,
: the h both

have more bargaining power, said

who rep
said the two sides agreed not to re-
lease more information while the
talks continue.

The current round of negotia-

‘ tions is only the second time the

teachers arc negotiating under a new
legislation introduced by the
provincial government as Bill 20.

“ This’ is also only ‘the second
time, the teachers and the school
board are on the opposite sides of:
the bargaining table. Formerly they
‘were members of the same union.

“The teachers have now under
the School Act the ability to nego-.
tiate all terms ‘of their contract,
both the working and learning con-
ditions, as well as salary and bene-
fits," he noted. "Before it was just

benefits.” *

Since the legislation was intro-.

19) 100 workers when in full
production.

"We're only running one-third of
our production at the moment. The
lumber market is bad right now,”
he added. "If Celgar doesn't .go,
we'll be down. Chips are not a by-
product any more. They're a

uct,

“There's no getting away from
it," he repeated. "If they go down
tomorrow, we go with them.”

The B.C. Forest Service is also
waiting, with interest, for the

See CELGAR

duced, the teachers have acquired: |

also the right to strike, when before
they could only withdraw services

Under the new law the t ch

‘See TEACHERS

NES

} Castlegar ¢

Ab yy eteo meeps