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Febdi 28

ouncil shrugs off report

By RON NORMAN

Editor

Castlegar council isn't writing off the $982-million
Keenleyside dam generating project, despite a report that
B.C. Hydro doesn’t plan to start work on the dam for another
decade.

“We're carrying on as planned in promoting that project
and not accepting press reports,” Ald. Len Embree told
council Tuesday night.

The Sunday CasNews reported that Hydro chairman
Larry Bell said there isn't enough domestic demand to
require start-up of the Keenleyside project “until the turn of
the century.”

But Bell said that date could change with increased

demand for export power to the U.S. and “we are actively
examining that.”

Embree said he contacted Mayor Audrey Moore at the
Canadian Federation of Municipalities meeting in Char.
lottetown, PEI and Moore in turn contacted Bell and
provincial Energy Minister Jack Davis.

“The mayor is being assured by the chairman of Hydro
that his report is being given out of context,” Embree said.

Bell made his remarks to a Castlegar News reporter last
Friday during a press conference at the Crown corporation's
control centre in Burnaby.

Embree added that Moore has set up meetings with Bell

and Davis on her way back from the Charlottetown meeting.

In addition, Embree said Hydro representatives plan to
appear before council on April 12.

“It is my intention and all of council's to put to rest all
the rumors once and for all (at that meeting),” he said.

Embree noted that Bell will also visit the area in duly to
tour Hydro facilities

“He seems to be talking still in a very forthright manner
about our possibilities of having some development, so press
reports aside, | think my report to council is that I'm not
writing off that project by a longshot.”

Embree said it is up to council on behalf of the
community to find out for itself what the situation is.

“And that's what we intend to do.”

Dentist faces
sexual charges

By The Canadian Press
NELSON — A dentist and prominent civic activist in
‘this community faces five counts of sexual assault and
of indecent assault for incidents police allege took
between 1962 and the present.
_Mas pean 49, was granted bail after an
court. He is led to appear
Ge faad she cosine cad pee
Fujibayashi is a former Nelson citizen of the year and
an organizer of the city's minor baseball leagues.
City police Cpl. Peers Pendlebury said all the alleged
offences involved children.

 Castlégar News

Vol. 41, No. 24 60 Cents

CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 1988

WEATHERGCAST

Sunny Thursday with increasing
cloud in the afternoon. F

see clouds with

Outlook for the weekend is un:
tled weather. Highs Thursday 10-12
and lows Chance of
precipitation is 10 per cent Thur
sday morning and 50 per cent over
night Thursday and Friday

3 Sections (A, B & C)

Parents
oppose
changes

By BONNE MORGAN
Staff Writer

A Castlegar school board decision
to transfer all elementary school
principals in the district has angered
some parents.

Parents belonging to the Wood.
land Park and Twin Rivers parent
groups have expressed their concerns
to school trustees.

Effective July 1, which is the start
of the next administrative school year,
Kinnaird elementary principal Paul
Phipps will switch with Twin Rivers
elementary principal Terry Rogers.

Russil Rilkoff, now principal of
Robson, will work at Tarrys elemen-
tary, while John Plotnikoff will go from
Woodland Park to Robson, and Richard
Dodds will go from Tarry’s to Wood.
land Park.

A letter to parents from the
executive of the Woodland Park
Parents Group says the changes are an
unnecessary upheaval.

“The children are happy, the staff
works well together, and the school is
well run,” the letter states.

continued on page A2

INSIDE

Avalanche

HIGH AND DRY .. . Unusually low water levels on the
Arrow Lakes is causing problems for Scotties Marina.
Scottie Tait stands on the marina staircase which is

water level is now 424 metres above sea level
another 15 metres down from where Tait's dog is
standing on the old Broadwater Road.

City wants
in on tax

deduction

By CasNews Staff

Castlegar council says the federal
tax deduction for northern and isolated
residents is unfair and wants Ottawa to
include Castlegar in the tax program.

The deduction is intended to
compensate northern and isolated resi.
dents for extra living costs, but has
created a furore across the country
because some communities near large
centres qualify while more isolated
communities do not.

As well, under the complicated
eligibility formula, some residents
qualify for the deduction but their
immediate neighbors do not.

A total of 45 West Kootenay
communities have been declared elig
ible for a deduction of up to $5,400,
which could translate into a tax saving
of as much as $2,500.

“Probably the original intent was
OK,” said Ald. Patti Richards Tuesday.
“But I think it is snowballing and just
getting worse.”

Richards said it has led to a situa
tion where “people living six miles

away (get) a $5,400 tax deduction (and)
buy their groceries and gas, etc. at the
same place I do. I don't think that's
right.”

She suggested council write Fin.
ance Minister Michael Wilson, National
Revenue Minister Elmer McKay and
Kootenay West MP Bob Brisco. “I feel
very strongly about it.” Richards said.
It was a mistake that they made out of
lack of knowledge,but I think it is-enly
getting worse.”

Ald. Len Embree suggested coun
cil write and suggest a “fair and equit
able solution” would be to include the
city in the tax deduction — “at least for
1987.”

Embree said what the federal
government plans for 1988 “hopefully
will be a little more appropriate.”

However, he said he is strongly
opposed to any, retroactive legislation
that would eliminate the tax deduction
for those who already have it

“Quite the contrary, I think the
logical solution is to inelude the City of
Castlegar in the exemption.”

Westar purchase
concerns council

kills one

normally floating in summer months when the water
level rises to the dock (at the top of the photo). The

CasNews Photo by Bonne Morgor

page A2

Lottery
numbers

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were 7, 15, Pha ek ie
and 51.

AIDS
testing

page A4

FOR RECREATIONAL USERS

Lake level a problem

By BONNE MORGAN
Staff Writer

Unusually low water levels on the
Arrow Lakes could cause problems for
recreational users this summer.

And despite low reservoir and
snowpack levels in the Columbia River
systems, B.C. Hydro is still releasing
water to the United States under the
Columbia River Treaty.

“The main effect will be on recrea-
tion and will be visual,” Hydro chair.
man Larry Bell said at a press con-
ference last week.

Owners of Scotties Marina Ltd., a
few kilometres between the Hugh
Keenleyside Dam and Syringa Creek
Park, say low water levels are a nui
sance, but won't ruin their business.

“It means that I'm going to have to
do an awful lot of running,” says Dallis
Tait, half of the husband and wife team
which owns Scotties Marina.

Presently, Tait must walk down 56
stairs which are normally floating in
the summer months and then walk
another 15 metres to reach the edge of
the water where the boat docks are.

But, Tait says she doesn't think
low water levels will deter boaters.

“It's not going to stop people from
boating. They can go out in less water,”
she said. “We've managed to keep
everybody floating.”

The water level is now at 424
metres above sea level, according to
Scottie Tait.

After calling the Hugh Keenley

side Dam, Scottie reports that the
water level could go as low as 417
metres above sea level

Scottie admits they knew they
would have to deal with rising and
falling water levels when they built the
marina seven years ago, but is hoping
the levels won't be too low in summer
months. People don't like to walk far to
get to their boats, he said.

Scottie says he doesn't think the
lake will go any lower but if it does,
he'll have to run out and move his
docks and fish hatchery farther into the
lake.

The last time the net pen, which
contains about 20,000 Gerrard Rainbow
trout, was moved when the level

‘on poge A2

WKPL justifies project

VANCOUVER (CP) — West
Kootenay Power and Light Co. Ltd.
says it must be allowed to build a
generating plant in Kelowna, or its
power purchase costs will increase.

The B.C. Utilities Commission will
begin a public hearing April 26 in
Kelowna into the Trail-based utility's
request to build the $33-million,
130-megawatt facilicy.

Unless the project in place by the
fall of 1989, the cost of power purchases
for that winter will be about $4 million

higher, the company said in its applica
tion

West Kootenay is proposing to
build the natural gas-fired generating
plant to provide power during the peak
winter season. That power now is pur.
chased from B.C. Hydro and Cominco
Ltd. Utilicorp United, based in Kansas
City, Mo., bought West Kootenay last
year from Cominco Ltd. for $80 million
Cdn.

West Kootenay said it decided to
add to its generation capacity using gas
turbines — it has four hydroelectric

plants on the Kootenay River — after
conducting a resource study. “The
study identified a gas turbine facility in
the Okanagan area as the most
economical alternative to purchases
from B.C. Hydro,” the application said.

Two turbine generators will be
installed in the proposed plant on an
11.5-hectare site in an industrial area in
Kelowna. Inland Natural Gas Co. Ltd.
has a pipeline running by the property,
just off Highway 97

“The plant is expected to operate
for about 84 days during a typical
winter period,” the application said.

By RON NORMAN
Editor

Castlegar council wants to meet
with Westar Timber Ltd. to discuss the
company’s purchase of an Interior
sawmill and its effect on Castlegar’s
Southern Wood Produets mill.

Westar bought the cedar mill at
Malakwa, midway between Salmon
Arm and Revelstoke, for an undis-
closed price. The mill has 140 emp-
loyees and produces approximately 45
million board feet of lumber annually.

Westar intends to ship cedar logs
from its Tree Farm Licence 23 to the
mill — logs that are now shipped to the
Southern Wood Products mill.

The Castlegar mill will cut only
white wood. Westar spokesman David
Mitchell told the Castlegar News at the
time that the change to a 100 per cent
white wood mill would make the
Castlegar mill more efficient and would
make better use of the tree farm.

But Ald. Terry Rogers told council
Tuesday he is unsure what effect the
new mill will have on the Southern
Wood Products sawmill.

“I am not expert enough to know if
that will have an impact on the people
of this area,” he said.

“I don’t know if I can assure people
when they ask me, ‘No problem, jobs
are secure; wood supply is good; wood
utilization is good.’ Or I don't know if I
should be concerned about this.”

Rogers said he would like Westar
to outline the impact on jobs, on forest
utilization and on the community in
general if no cedar is cut locally.

Acting Mayor Lawrence Chernoff
noted that local sawmill manager Wade
Zammit contacted him about the
Malakwa mill purchase. Chernoff said
Zammit offered to speak with council
at any time.

Meanwhile, Ald. Len Embree took

ALD. TERRY ROGERS
. what is impact?

a shot at the Dale Nielsen, president of
the Castlegar Chamber of Commerce.

“I would hope the president of the
chamber of commerce doesn't take
umbrage with us for asking those kinds
of questions,” Embree remarked.

Earlier, Rogers said that Nielsen
had criticized council for its “negative”
comments about the Celgar Pulp Co.
woodroom closure.

Rogers said Nielsen made the re-
marks at a chamber-sponsored lunch-
eon where pulp mill manager Wilf
Sweeney gave “an interesting talk.”

“I was kind of pleased while I
listened that the chamber was in-
terested in gaining information about
the whole issue,” Rogers said.

But he suggested the chamber

continued on pege A2