February 21, 1968 Castlégar News MAIABER OF THHE B.C, PRERS COUNCHK V98-AUG. 27, 1980 ESTABLISHED AUG. 7. 1947 THE MO: WERK LV. CAMPBELL to Castle News Lid MONEE OF COPYRIGHT: fyi. complete ond vote copyright 1m a longs provi TWICE WEEKLY MAY 4. 1980 12 PUBLISHER AUG. 7, 1947-FEB. 19, 1979 PUBLISHER — Burt Campbell 1OR — Ron Norman a Gary Fleming CIRCULATION MANAGER — Heather Hadley ted matter produced by Cas! thet copyright in tha’ Nights CasNews reporter Brendan Nagle’s recent feature on Castlegar minor hockey unearthed an interesting fact: Ice times at Pioneer Arena have been cut back by one-third over the last 18 mon- ths. A year and a half ago the arena used to be open 72 hours a week. ‘Now, in part because of declining minor hockey enrolment, the ice times have been cut back by 24 hours a week to just 48 hours. This bit of information prom- pts a couple of observations. The first is that the reduced use comes only a few years after the regional recreation commission — which oversees both Pioneer Arena and the Community Complex — spent several hundred thousand dollars renovating the old arena. Despite the fact Castlegar was the midst of a recession and families were leaving the area in droves, the commission decided to go ahead with the upgrading. It wasn't lack of foresight on the commission's part. The arena was in dire need of major structural work. The beams required special attention and if the work wasn't done, in all likelihood the arena would have been closed. The commission went ahead Our rich Heritage Week ends today. And what a week it has been. The many hundreds of Castlegar, Robson, Blueberry, Ootischenia gnd other area residents who took the time to visit the displays at the old Castlegar CP Rail station and at Zuckerberg Island Heritage Park will have a renewed appreciation of our roots. As CasNews columnist Jack Charters admonished in his Reflec- tions and Recollections column last Sunday, our heritage — and specifically the CPR station restoration project — serve as reminders “to all that those who have no past have no future.” We live in an area that is rich in history, and it behooves all to us to kating? with the work knowing that ice time would likely shrink because of the r sion, but also knowing that the arena would be needed years down the road. Beside knew it would be cheaper to repair the old arena than build a new one in five or 10 years’ time. Still, it's interesting that we have a newly- renovated arena that is un- derused. That brings the second obser- vation. With Pioneer Arena in less use by local hockey groups, why can't it be used for public skating? Presently, there are ni évening or night ice times for public skating. All skating is during the day. That may be fine for people who don't work, or on weekends (and then the ice is usually crowded), but it doesn't really let large numbers of residents use the arena It wasn't all that long ago that public skating on a Friday or Satur- day night would attract huge crowds. It's often said that small towns don't offer much for its young people. Yet, here we have a facility that is underused and we have no night skating. It seems obvious that Pioneer Arena should be available for night public skating. How about it recreation commission? heritage do what we can to preserve and record that history for future generations. The Castlegar Heritage Ad- visory Committee is a hard- working group, relatively few in numbers, that is making sure what happens today will be remem bered tomorrow, and that we who are here today may have some ap- preciation of what has gone on before us. Anyone with an interest in our Past, present and future should suppgrt the group with their mem- bership. Anyone with a par ticularly strong interest in our heritage should try and become ac- tively involved. We will all be the richer for it Ron Norman The failure of the Canadian men's downhill ski team to even come close to winning an Olympic medal in Calgary last Monday has trig- gered an avalanche of anger from fans and the media. Canadians are upset at the skiers for not doing better. One Castlegar fellow suggested to me indignantly that the best Canada can get for spending “millions” on the downhill team is 14th place. And the fans aren't the only one’s gunning for the team. The Calgary media, which is feeling the pressure of having te produce in front of 2,000 colleagues from around the world, has decided to take the lead in ski team-bashing Larry Tucker, a columnist for the Calgary Sun, wrote of the men's downhill event where the Canadians placed 14th, 16th and 18th: “The Canadian showing in the undisputed glamor race of these Olympic Games is so ugly, disappointment borders on disgust. Questions are in order.” But you have to wonder just how much Tucker knows about downhill skiing. The Canadian men's team has been good this year, but not great. Take Castlegar’s Felix Belcezyk as an example. Belezyk only became a pre-face favorite less than a month ago when he won the super giant slalom World Cup race at Leuker- bad, Switzerland. It wasn’t even a downhill event. As for his previous finishes on this year's World Cup circuit, they were: 4th, 5th, 10th, 25th, 31st and 32nd. He also didn't finish a race. Those aren't exactly stellar per. formances. Belezyk never finished in the top three on a downhill race this year, but suddenly the Canadian media expects him to be on the medal podium. The results for the other top Canadian skiers are much the same. Brian Stemmel? He had a 3rd, 9th and 15th before injuring his knee Jan. 15. There were no first and no seconds. And he's been skiing on a wonky knee for the last month. Rob Boyd posted the best results of the Canadian team this year and was a legitimate contender for a medal, but again, he was by no means a sure thing. Take a look at his finishes this year: 1st, two 5ths, 7th, 9th, 21st and 32nd. Yet, for some reason the media saw this team as world-beaters. I just don't get it. The other point to all this is that the Olympics theoretically isn't supposed to be a gold rush. I say theoretically because from almost every standpoint medals are what count. But the Olympic ideal is supposed to be athletes competing and doing their best. Granted, I don’t believe Belezyk skied as well as he is able, but no one can argue that he didn't try. The media and fans would have real cause to complain if the athletes were indifferent to their results. But the athletes have been anything but. Remember Wien? AGO From the Feb. 26, 1948 Castlegar News - At the Commissiéners meeting on Monday night the Castlegar milk by-law was given third reading, the traffic by-law second reading and the building by-law’ was introduced and given first and second readings. WINTER OLYMPICS — First pictures from St. Moritz. For the first time since 1986 the flames of the Olympic Torch are alight. * 28 8 Red Mountain becomes a ski-land paradise! Here, a giant new tow pro- vides a vertical heave of 1,400 feet. ._ * «@ The Chase, starring Robert Cum- mings, Michelle Morgan and Peter Lorre plays at the Castle Theatre Wednesday and Thursday. *_ * « calling for is “May it please the court, my client wishes to be tried, under Bill C-72, in the tongue of his choice — to wit, Grade One elementary reader, West Coast French.” Letters to the Editor Team wasn’t stacked This year the Novice Division of Castlegar’s minor hockey was organ ized in a new way. It was decided to divide this division into the three levels of junior, intermediate amd senior in stead of only junior and senior. It was also decided to assess each boy by ability, rather than by age, and to place him in a level accordingly. Thus, some six- and seven-year-old boys were placed in senior and some nine-year. old boys were placed in junior, as their assessment showed. When Castlegar was invited to send one junior novice team to the Rossland tournament the coaches from Castlegar spoke with the organizers of the tournament and explained that our Junior Novice Division was comprised of boys who had low skill levels and who were not as yet playing the game. These boys are doing practice drills and skill development after which they are moved to the intermediate level where games are being played. There fore, the lowest level of boy$ organized to play a game would come from the intermediate level. The coaches were told by the tournament organizers that this was acceptable. As well, it was pointed out that of the boys in this level are over seven years of age and that age was not our criteria for classification. This was understood and accepted by the organizers also. Further, since there are two teams from the inter. mediate level and only one team was invited to go, the coaches surveyed the parents of both teams and took all the names of those wishing to play. The names went into a hat and 17 out of 28 were pulled to go. This is how the selection was made — not by selecting the strongest players as has been sug. gested. It is noteworthy that under the same principle of ability classification, many boys of senior novice age are playing in the Atom division in Castlegar. The senior novice team that went to Réssland could have, but did not recall these boys to play with them. The senior novice team faced tough competition in the tournament and took their loses gracefully. Last year the junior novice team that went to Rossland didn’t win a game. Many of the boys from that team played and won this year. It’s my experience that to hold a tournament for boys of this age group (five to nine years) it's unlikely that all the teams will be of near equal skill at any given time. Almost without exception the people that I've met in our commun- ities who coach these boys are always concerned mainly with the learning experience and not with the winning experience. These people are dedicated to building good character in boys. The accusation that Castlegar coaches “stacked” a team for the Rossland tournament is simply not true. Dean Carter Castlegar Fedrs came true On Friday, Feb. 12 the residents of Hills had their worst fears come true regarding logging on the slopes above our community. An avalanche, that began on Ranch Ridge just south of Hills, ran for about 1,000 vertical metres down a draw, piling a mountain of snow, mud and huge, broken trees on the edge of Highway 6. I first heard about the slide from the school kids as they got off the bus from New Denver in Hills. Highways crews were removing huge trees that had crashed onto the road. According to Brian Ewings of the B.C. Forest Service's Nakusp field office, who investigated the slide on Monday, it began as a slab avalanche on a steep section of a clearcut ne; crest of the ridge. The block wf one of three on the ridge clearcut“by Slocan Forest Products just last spring. Mercifully, the drainage whgre last Friday's slide occurred had no one living in it. Just north of this site, however, are Arthur, Cadden and Owl creeks, which supply almost all of the water used hy Pills residents. All three of these creeks rp through our yards and next to our ‘houses. What would have resulted had this clearcut been Life given by God What Nancy Knight wrote in the Feb. 14 Castlegar News on the abortion question said about all that is neces. sary to commdén-sense thinking people. people. Written in three precise state- ments with no other comment, it pre sented an irrefutable argument against abortion on demand. There ate a few grey areas on the subject that call for further clarifi cation, but, if proper honor is paid to the truth that all human life is given by and made in the likeftess of God, then the sacredness of life, sex, conception and birth would be seen through unclouded eyes. George P. James Castlegar made at the headwaters of one of these creeks? The answer is too awful to consider. As it stands now, we have an avalanche chute that will be a threat to Highway 6 indefinitely. This isn’t the first time this has happened in the Slocan, Five or six years ago, one early spring night as I was driving back up the valley, I en- water licencees to ensure that our vital water supplies would be protected in the event of any activity in our water- sheds. How did we propose to protect our water? By ensuring that adequate planning and risk analysis were under- taken before any potentially water- threatening activity took place. To ish this, the alliance entered a huge that covered the highway at Memphis Creek, just north of Slocan City. A friend of mine, on his way to work the graveyard shift at the SFP mill, was up to his bumpers in mud. A’ Highways department loader was scraping the mud and running water from the road. This slide, too, had begun above, in a fresh clearcut, and ran all the way to Slocan Lake, taking out a huge swath of earth along the way. As your readers may be aware, Hills residents and people living throughout the Slocan Valley have been concerned over the encroachment of clearcut logging into the main valley corridor and especially into drainages from which we draw our water. Of course, tributary drainages to the Slocan, like Shannon, Wilson, Enter- prise, Springer and Lemon creeks have been major sites of logging activity for years. Our concerns were formally ex- pressed during the drawing up of the Slocan Valley Development Guidelines in the early 1980s. Also during this period, the Slocan Valley Watershed Alliance was formed by concerned Society cruel or caring? Euthanasia, infanticide, and abor- tion are absolute matters of life and death. Certainly, they are wrong be- cause an elderly or handicapped person of “no use” to society, or an unborn baby is a being who possesses intrinsic moral worth, dignity, and value. No matter how opinions and beliefs differ, all share a concern for the future. Action or apathy will determine the society of our descendants. Will it be a caring or a cruel society? M. Hendricks Blueberry into another planning process with the ministries of forests and environment and Slocan Forest Products. This process is still underway, and progress has been slow and difficult. In fact, in a public meeting in Hills a few years ago, we were assured by both SFP and the Forest Service that they had a new policy of public involvement in place. There would, we were told, be public meetings to dis- cuss any logging plans for our end of the valley. Then, suddenly, last spring involved in i in cases where drivers haye no insurance protection, as provided in the new provincial public safety and respon- sibility law, will not be enforced in Nelson. * * « The annual meeting of the Castle- gar Legion Band was held in the Mem- orial Hall on Monday, February 24th, at 9 p.m. President W. Rigby was in the chair. * *# « On Monday, February 16th, mem- bers of the Castlegar Guides’ and pat rae iation were h to the Kinnaird mothers at a tea in the parish hall, at which 30 guides from both centres were present. 25 YEARS AGO From the Feb. 21, 1963 Castlegar News The two main factors in favor of a regional college located in the Castle- gar-Kinnaird area are “the geographi- cal location plus a nable~“as- iy of the and District — of Commerce were told at their meeting last week. + 8 «6 Columbia Cellulose has announced that it will make available eight scholarship awards annually to Grade XII students planning to enter univ- ersity. * 8 6 Storm drainage, sidewalks, right- of-way acquisition for future storm sewers and sewerage, a spring clean-up and paint-up campaign and a sign for the Crest View: subdivision were sub- jects discussed by Kinnaird council at its meeting last week. * * « Castlegar has requested Kinnaird to advise it of the estimated cost — if that village has established one — of any alternate system of providing water to the jointly operated cemetery other than by using the old tank from the Sherbiko water system. * 8 «6 A total of $2,850 will be dis- tributed to nine organizations following the February meeting of the Kin- naird-Robson-Castlegar Community Chest directors. * 68 « Castlegar village chairman Aage Sylvest has suggested to resident T.J.G. Hughes that he obtain “comp- mt advice” on his “persistent im- plication” that a clause in the agree- ment with Oglow Brothers Building Co. commits the village to building an underpass at any specific location. 15 YEARS AGO From the Feb. 22, 1973 Castlegar News A cluster of hexagon modular units, wil » with a lumi: ex- the Ranch Ridge PP When asked last summer about the public meeting that should have been held to discuss the proposal, the Arrow Forest District office in Castlegar insisted that it had been held but resulted in no public input. La‘ it admitted that the publicity for the meeting may have been insufficient. Nobody I know ever heard or saw any notice about such a meeting. The Forest Service and SFP have been working hard to convince us that a new era of forest management is here; that the debris-choked creeks, denuded slopes and erosion that are common in the back drainages will never be seen again. They have argued that, even in our steep-walled, wet-belt valley, clearcut logging has its place. As it stands now, any confidence we had that this might be true has Hills terior lighting which would be visible from all directions was the verbal description given Saturday of a pro- posed exhibition centre to be located south of the already established Doukhobor Historial Society communal village. * 28 « The question for Kinnaird's rep- on Ri ion C No. 1 remained unresolved following Tuesday night's council meeting. * 8 Sch landings at Castl Airport by Pacific Western Airlines have been 88 per cent successful in each of the past two years. More than a thousand tons of wet clay slid down a 60-foot embankment early Friday morning and crashed through the rear of a Cast bus- iness, resulting in more than $100,000 damage. to: The Cast er News, -O, Box 3007, Castlegar, B.C. VIN 3H4, or deliver them to our office at: 197 Columbia Avenue, Castle- gor, B.C. Letters must be signed and include the writer's tull name and 8. Only in very * ,exceptional cases will letters be published without the writer's nome. Nevertheless, the nome and address of the writer must be disclosed to the editor. The Castlegor News reserves the r to edit letters tor brevity, clarity, lapel ond grommor rte of the Valhalla mountain range into a elass A provincial park. * 8 -« Cominco Ltd. production and maintenance workers in Trail and Kimberley this week voted 96 per cent to reject company demands for wage and benefit No solution offered for woodchip supply The recent closure of the wood- room at Celgar Pulp Co, has raised our awareness of the complex integration of the forest industries in our com- munity. The surplus of wood fibre in the area seems to have caused a problem. When there is a difficult problem to solve, a good approach is to get a professional to weigh all the evidence and then recommend~a logical and workable solution that addresses all aspects in the final submi n. Good ions build credibility: The code of ethics of a professional engineer states, in part, that he approach his work with devotion to high ideals, personal honor and integrity. We therefore know that the positions taken on any subject will reflect these commitments. The recent article “Why so many chips?” by certain professional for- esters attempted to educate the public by describing the local fibre situation. Unfortunately, in the end it offered no clear solution. While the reader is left to draw his own conclusion, not all the facts are clear. By reading “Many of the provincial cutting rights were granted during (a) period on the condition that the companies have chipping facilities,” we may also deduce that many sawmills were not “re- quired” to have chipping facilities, but decided to do this voluntarily knowing that the market had a finite capability of absorbing chips. It was also known at the time that there was a commit. ment to Tree Farm Licence No. 23 to harvest pulp logs. This was tied to the original construction of the Celgar woodroom. Cops form joint bargaining council VANCOUVER (CP) — Police in 13 British Columbia districts including Nelson thorough the 13 municipal- ities, but said police units in B. have preferred to go to Why does the article seem to absolve all sawmills of any respon. sibility for oversupply ‘of fibre? They took their chances and knew they might not be able to sell all the chips they produced without increased pulp capacity or some alternative industry. The Celgar mill has received wood chips from as far away as Kelowna while the woodroom was still operat ing. How many” sawmill problems should the Castlegar pulp mill be ex pected to solve and from how far away? The article also seems to excuse the shutdown of the woodroom on the basis that this pulp mill has to compete with all other B.C. pulp mills. We must realize that each balance sheet is particular to its ‘own specific situation and the market, which is now and for the foreseeable future, very lucrative. Running the woodroom can be con sidered part of the cost of doing bus. iness here, as it enables us. to harvest the pulp logs from TFL 23. The woodroom operation is a long way from being a deficit operation. While the pulp mill produces around the clock, the woodroom in recent years has run 40 hours per week, supplying only 20 per cent of the necessary chips for the mill. This left 80 per cent of the supply for elbow room sawmill chips, the daily cost of running the woodroom is estimated at $448 (112 tonnes of production times $4). This is approximately one-tenth of one per cent of sales — a small price to pay for 17 direct jobs, many ancillary jobs, and better management of area forests. The professional foresters go on to suggest not harvesting the pulp logs, but leaving them for 25 years and losing that period of time when new trees should be growing. The possibil- ity of windrowing, burning, or other- wise wasting the pulp logs is an alternative that contravenes a Forest Ministry policy of preventing waste. It is perhaps short-sighted to suggest that everything is fine because the stability of sawmill jobs depends on their supplying the 20-per cent of chips that the woodroom previously pro- duced. This is a trade-off for the woodroom jobs, tugboat jobs, and related forest jobs. The final sug- gestion of exporting chips and pulp logs is no solution, as we all know that as we export raw material we also export jobs. The situation now is that we have the fibre (logs, chips), water, hydro power, manpower, and market to produce much more. We need expan- sion of the pulp mill or “new” invest. ment in our area. We challenge the (purchased from while still helping to clean up TFL 23. At the pulp mill production rate of near 560 tonnes per day and a sales price of $798 Canadian per tonne, daily sales can be estimated at $446,880. With only 20 per cent of the chips supplied from the woodroom at a $4 (per tonne of pulp) greater cost than have joined together to form a single council to co-ordinate their contract talks and given them more clout in bar- gaining. “It gives us a little bit more power and quite a lot more professionalism,” Paul Bat- tershill, a Vancouver police officer who is chairman of the new Co-ordinated Police Bargaining Council, said. First on the agenda for the police, whose contract ex- pired Dec. 31, is catching up with wages of police across Canada. Battershill said the RCMP are about 13 per cent ahead of municipal forces in B.C. Battershill said any strike arbitration rather than use the strike weapon.” Members of the new coun- cil are police in Vancouver, Victoria, Saanich, Central Saanich, Delta, Esquimalt, Matsqui, New Westminster, Nelson, Oak Bay, Port Moody, West Vancouver and the Ports Canada Police force. Planning a Wedding? We Sell Distinctive Invitations, Napkins etc. Come See Us At Castlégar News 197 Columbia Ave. action could be RENEW YOUR AUTOPLAN CASTLEGAR SAVINGS INSURANCE WITH OUR CONVENIENT ¢ FINANCE PLAN © See us for details. OPEN SATURDAYS AND MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29 FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE Your Community Insurance Centre CASTLEGAR 601-18th St. 365-3368 aS SLOCAN PARK Highway 6 226-7216 THE SHORT TERM HALF NO HALF LA ex POLIC profess foresters and other local groups to get positive, get onside, get the woodroom running, and get expah- sion. Let's hear from the rest of the community! The Public Relations Committee of Local No. 1 of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada. Hills avalanche teaches lesson It's easy to see why resi. dents of the Slocan Valley are frightened and angry about the avalanche which came onto Highway 6 between Rosebery arid Hills. They are frightened because it tore out healthy trees two feet in dia- meter on its way down, opening up a slide chute which will allow future ava- lanches to hurtle across the highway at high speed. They are angry because the ava- lanche was caused by clear- eut logging on a steep moun- tainside above the highway, despite the warnings of local people and the misgivings even of fallers working for the company. The B.C. Forest Service has allowed a logging comp- any to create a serious haz- ard which will threaten high- way travellers for many years to come. And later this year the same company is planning to log Perry Ridge, which caps watersheds serv- ing hundreds of Winlaw area residents. I drove over to see the avalanche because I wanted to see firsthand what mis- management of our forests really means, and I learned a lesson which is worth re- peating all over the province: Local communities must be full participants in resource development decision- making. We are fools to trust the forest companies and the Forest Service to safeguard our watersheds, our high- ways, our recreation areas and our backyards. Only local communities have a direct interest in safe, responsible development of resources in their environment and they know the land, its history and use better than developers and “experts” who live else- where. From now on when we push for regional develop- ment plans and community forest management pro- grams as vehicles for local decision-making, let's remember the lesson this avalanche has taught us. Donald Scarlett Kaslo Send message to athletes Castlegar residents now ean send congratulatory notes and best wishes to members of Canada’s Olym- pic team instantly using Intelpost, Canada Post Corp. announced this week. Intelpost, Canada Post's cy? TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1988 VERSWEET COOKED HAM facsimile service, has been established at the athlete's village in Calgary. Members of the public can now send messages electronically from the Castlegar post office for reception at the village with- in minutes. The service will be available until Feb. 27. 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