Wednesday, November 16, 1994

Letters to the Editor
A presentation you won't forget

Dear Editor:

This is a time of year when we are
to reflect on the consequences of war and on the
need to find non-violent ways to resolve conflict

The Cx eS ; JUST STAY CALM
Sate onan wt go ea AND NOBODY’LL GET screenees oer

y ‘ i
pon an grate lpronen ‘eon , meet_someone who has gone beyond reflection
is politically feiapendna sndte nob ete Serine howe Gorcics, , to action in the, cause of peace-making.
A BC.C y Local resident, Valerie Hoff, has just
Newapapers Assocation, and the B.C. Press Council, Established returned from a three-month volunteer place-
28, 1990. 10420. ment with Project Accompaniment.
During that time she lived with communities
of Guatemalans who are in the process of
returning to their land after more than 12 years
as refugees in Mexico.
When the Guatemalan exiles decided to
attempt a return home despite the ongoing

The Castlegar Sun

WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994

OPINION

\

presence of the still brutal Guatemalan army
they asked for international accompaniment.
This meant not only having people like
Valerie living and travelling with them, but
also asking groups in the U.S., Canada, Europe
and elsewhere to monitor the human rights sit-
uation in Guatemala and to lobby for .
Canadians responded to this plea for help by
forming Project Accompaniment, a network of
small groups stretching from Victoria to the
Maritimes. The West Kootenay Central Ameri-
can Support Committee, co-sponsors of Thurs-
day night's event along with the K ry
Branch of the United Nations Associations is
one of those groups affiliated with Project A.
The committee has received tremendous
support from individuals, community groups,

unions and churches from throughout the West
and East Kootenay. This support made it possi-
ble to send Valerie Huff south from July to
September of this year and for her successor,
Nelson resident Kevin McKechnie to leave for
a four-month period Starting this month.

During her slide presentation Valerie will
talk about the people she met, the overall situa-
tion for the returning Guatemalans, as well as
concerns for the future of their return.

All are welcome to attend this public gather-
ing. The even is free of charge, but donations
(tax ible) to Project Acc i will
be gratefully accepted.

“oe C
jar Sun (Gro ws for ol your natural ne or

VISIT OUR SHOWROOM TODAY
1008 Columbia Ave, Castlegar
365-3388

Watch for
EXCITING SAVINGS
in our FLY ER

coming out

NOVEMBER 20TH

PUBLISHER MARILYN STRONG

Ann Godderis,
Castlegar

Columbia Avenue project a deal you can’t refuse

Dear Editor: potential loan of $1.8 million On an individual basis, many _right track if they work to reduce

editorial comment

High marks

Give Castlegar council full marks for its han-
dling of the ing issue.

Local skateboarders and the city were on a col-
lision course. The skateboarders—mostly teens—
felt they were being unfairly treated because of
the new ‘no skateboarding’ policy on city streets.

The city felt the ‘boarders didn’t have a very
good reputation b of incid of vandali
connected with the youths.

So they sat down to talk it out.

And what they come up with makes sense.

The boarders will be allowed use of the park-
ing lot behind city hall (adjacent to the CP Rail
Train Station museum) on a trial basis. For the
next 30 days the teens will have a chance to show
that they can use the lot responsibly.

‘That means no vandalism, no litter and no prob-
lems with people using the lot or the museum.

In the meantime, the youths will have 30 days
to come up with a long-term plan for skateboard-
ing to present to the city.

The city has done its part. It has said to local
teens: “We’re willing to trust you.”

Now it’s up to the teens to prove to council, the
RCMP and Castlegar adults that that trust is well
placed.

Ron Norman

Recycling headache

The City of Castlegar and Areas I and J are a lit-
tle like the fellow hitting his head. Mickey Pazurik
and the Trail Ecocentre are a lot like the wall.

The city had nothing but grief from Mr.
Pazurik’s recycling operation from the day it
opened beside Castlegar Foods a year ago to the
day it closed last month.

First it was the itself- or rather the lack of
a proper depot. ile Mr. Pazurik did construct a
fence around the depot, he never got around to
erecting a roof.

Then there was the story that broke in The Castle-
gar Sun that recycling materials from Mr. Pazurik’s
Operation

Granted, gional district and the city don’t
have a lot of room to move on this problem: resi-
dents who were in the habit of recycling for the
last year can quickly get out of that habit. The city
and ing areas need to act qith some haste.

And it’s not as if recycling operators are beat-
ing down the doors to get a piece of the action.
mein, it’s time the city and regional district
understood that recycling needs to be done prop-
erly. Maybeit’s time to look at Nelson’s recycling
program. After all, while Nelson’s recycling depot
may cost more, it certainly hasn’t had the same
problems as Castlegar’s.

Ron Norman

ERRORS:
The advertiser agrees that the publisher shail not be liable for
damages arising out of errors in any advertisement beyond the
amount paid for the space actually occupied by that portion of the
advertisement in which the error occurred, whether such error is due

In the Nov. 9 issue of The
Castlegar Sun there was a story
which said that the city would
proceed jointly with the Ministry
of Highways to upgrade
Columbia Ave.

I think this is a wise decision
since our city would receive a

. $6 million street improvement

for less than one-third of the
total cost.

would be a significant savings to
the Castlegar taxpayers.

This practical, business-like
decision should be a model for all
levels of government as well as
for individuals.

On the federal level, too much
borrowing has created a situation

of us borrow and buy on credit
and then find that land and inter-
est payments take precedence
over bread on the table and
clothes on our backs.

Many cities find their interest
and loan payments siphon off the
money that should go to mainte-

the existing debt, then pay our
way as we go into the future

N. T. Ogiow,

Castlegar

in the

WEST KOOTENAY

ADVERTISER.

nance and repair of essential ser-
vices like sewer treatment plants

where interest payments are cut-
ting into essential service like

The other and more si;
di is for our coun-

Is the sun setting on the for-
est industry in the West Koote-
nay? You couldn't be blamed
for thinking so in light of
recent developments.

First came the Forest Prac-
tices Code, which had the effect
of reducing the forestry land
base in the West Kootenay by
17 per cent and placed strict
guidelines on timber harvesting

Then there was the CORE
Report. It doubled the amount
of land set aside as protected
areas—from 5.1 per centto
11.3. In addition, it placed
another 19 per cent of the land
base in the West Kootenay and
Boundary into “special manage-
ment areas.”

Just what that means hasn't
been determined yet, but you
can bet forestry firms won't
have the same access to those
areas that they had in the past or
might have had without CORE.

Even the 50 per cent of the
land designated “integrated use”
has constraints on it. It will
come under the new Forest
Practices Code, but there will
also be particular sites empha-
sizing conservation.

Only nine per cent of the
land is to be used for inten-
sive forestry.

Now we have the timber
supply review for the Arrow

Timber Supply Area. And the
news for forestry doesn’t get
any better.

The timber supply must
shrink at some point, say
forestry efficials. It’s just a mat-
ter of when

(Don't get your TSAs con-
fused with your TFLs—it's easy
to do. The Arrow TSA is the
Crown land in and around the
Castlegar-Rossland-Salmo tri-
angle and extends north up the
Slocan Valley as far as Nakusp.
TFLs are tree farm licenses
which are managed by forest
companies. In this area, Pope
and Talbot manages TFL No.
23 and Slocan Forest Products
manages TFL No. 3).

The Arrow TSA supplies tim-
ber for many of the mills in this
area. For instance, the Atco Mill
in Fruitvale gets nearly 60 per
cent—or 167,000 cubic
meters—of its timber from the
Arrow TSA. Slocan Forests
Products gets 50 per cent of its
timber, or 218,000 cubic meters.

But that will likely change.
Why? Because unless we want
to start cutting along visually
sensitive areas like highways or
lakes, and unless we want to
start harvesting in watersheds,
there just isn't enough timber in
the Arrow TSA to keep cutting
at the level we have been.

Presently, forest companies
are cutting 619,000 cubic
meters of timber a year from the
Arrow TSA. That is about
19,000 truckloads of logs.

Forestry officials say if we
don’t want to cut in watersheds
and along highways, we have to
reduce the annual cut to some
422,000 cubic meters a year.

That's a drop of almost
200,000 cubic meters. And
every 1,000 cubic meters
accounts for 2.5 direct and
indirect jobs.

If we reduce the annual har-
vest by 200,000, we are looking
at wiping out 500 jobs.

Is it starting to get a little
darker around here?

Forestry officials blame the
reduction on a number of
things, the most significant
being what they call “the fall-
down effect”. Simply put, until
now forestry firms have been
cutting from stands of trees 100
years old or older. The trees
that are replacing them are

Black news for forestry

smaller—and so the volume of
timber is smaller.

The problem is already being
showing up at mill's like Atco’s
where shifts were reduced
because of problems with tim-
ber supply.

It will only get worse. It's
Just a matter of when.

And we should learn that in
the spring when the province's
Chief Forester announces the
annual cut for the Arrow TSA

For those who are
saying,"He's ba-a-a-ck!", don't
fret. I'm only here until Shar-
lene decides she has had enough
of Zincofax and dirty diapers.

In the meantime, I will be
writng a regular column and
editorials on pretty well every-
thing except education issues.
As a school trustee, it wouldn't
be fair to the school district, the
other trustees, or the voters to
use the Sun as a platform for
my views.

I will leave the commentary
on school matters to ‘Sun
reporter Karen Kerkhoff, who
covers that beat.

What about

I am proud to tell folks I was
born and raised in this area we
call the Kootenay's. My father
tells all our flat land friends and
relatives this is God’s Country. It
truly is a great area - hot in the
summer and not too cold in the
winter. The area has so much to
offer but really does anyone
appreciate this? I believe some
people do.

After living in the large city
(Edmonton and Montreal) I
moved back to this quaint little
city of Castlegar. Castlegar is a
beautiful, plentiful land of oppor-
tunity. Lots of sunshine, great
growing season, beautiful green-
ery, award-winning gardens,
clean rivers and lakes, plenty of
fish and wildlife, and the moun-
tains. Some of the best ski hills
are so close.

So much is going for the area
It's a nice place to visit, a good
place to live. But has anyone
noticed the litter? Walkers - you
must notice the cigarette Packages,
gum wrappers, coffee and Paper
cups, chip bags, litter of all sorts? I
have counted 37 cigarette pack-
ages from uptown to downtown.

Our sidestreets have quite a
problem as well. There are go
garbage cans to speak of on
Columbia Avenue from 4th St 1
the Castleaird Plaza. I believe’

there should be several placed
every few blocks. Whose job is it
to clean up this mess on our
streets? City workers? Some-
body should do it, anybody can
do it, but nobody is. I think I'll
become a somebody and take a
Safeway bag with me when I
walk and clean some of this
mess. Somebody has to.

Perhaps it would be a good
idea for people doing community
service work to pick up some of
the litter. I find it quite absurd
these “community” hours are

all the

given to private homeowners to
do their yardwork, painting or
constructing fences.

Community to me is an area
we live in. Community hours
should be given to do something
to perfect the community as a
whole, not just private homeown-
ers. The litter has to go.

Now the recycling depot is
gone. I’ve been recycling for
years in Edmonton. There they
Pick it up. It's the blue bin sys-
tem. Here I was impressed by
residents willing to take it to the
depot.

For years my parents have
been recycling and every week
put out one garbage can. Now I
hear the city wants to charge me
an extra $70 a year to take away
my garbage-- $70 for one can per
week when I see people with two
and three cans out. Do we all pay
the same amount? What about
apartment residents? How can
they charge us to take away our
garbage in this time of recycling
and when people are struggling
to make ends meet? We need to
encourage recycling. Save the
Planet. It's our children's future

Children are meant to be seen
not heard. Some people out there
are probably blaming them for
the litter. I know it's messy
around the schools but I don't

litter?

think they really are the ones to
blame. Maybe the teens could
clean some of the mess during
their detention time. After all,
they have nothing else to do.

Teens are suffering here and no
one seems to care or are listening
to them. Josey Smith wrote a
great letter to the Editor on her
issue of nothing for teens to do
and nowhere for them to go. That
is another issue and another col-
umn for My Turn.

So is the issue of truth, hon-
esty, trust and verbal agreements.
I wanted to start a business with a
longtime girlfriend who has been
here all her life. We approached a
local businessman about leasing
some space and offered a down
payment to hold things until I
moved from Edmonton, but he
said that wasn't necessary. What
happens? The building and our
idea is now being leased and
operated by someone else

I moved from the large city to
get away from the garbage, the
crime, the two-faced and dishon-
est people. Castlegar...Great
Opportunities. Beautiful sur-
roundings. Nice place to visit but
do you really want to live here?
Some changes need to be made

Kathie Fields is a Castlegar
native who has recently returned,
to the area

cil’s decision to fund this project
from current revenue. The sav-
ings in interest charges on a

Hats off to
Good Samaritan

Dear Editor:

My name is Garry Prior, and I
would like to relate a story
which my wife, Cheryl, and I
think would be worth printing in
your newspaper.

Most people who own a car
have probably had minor prob-
lems at one point or another with
a vehicle while on holiday or
travelling from place to place
These same people would know
and understand the frustration of
car trouble in a place they have
never been to.

These are usually the times
when those of us who have expe-
rienced this malady see a most
wonderful side of human nature.

As it happens, my wife and I
began our holidays on June 30
and decided to travel from Victo-
ria to Calgary via Highway 3 to
visit my parents. My mother had
just gone through major surgery
and had been diagnosed with
cancer, so I wanted to get home
to visit with her as well as have a
good holiday with Chery].

Our trip was going wonderful-
ly as we approached your splen-
did town on the July 1 long

Silk flowers, ceramics,
helium balloons

Playmor Junction

359-7135

Let's Pla
Poker!
720
Sun., Tues., — Fri.

Upstairs in the
City Centre Square, Castlegar
365-2216

42> GET READY FOR

RERHRISTMAS

Castleview Care Centre
Christmas Tea & Sale
December 3
2:00 - 4:00
Crafts, baking, woodwork,

ceramics, Russian noodles
& Borscht

~ Tickets: $1.50
at the door

health care and social programs. and water lines. Our city is on the

hyn

: the government of in

oo Columbia wacabaopd
governments, namely

City of Nelson, do not recog-
nize og a ey ge of
another province, Pretty
bad. In fact, it is an insult.

These few people should
realize that it is us taxpayers
who keep them employed. They

1 was never so disappointed
in my life. But I guess that is
nt.

governme:

If all people were like this
certain person, it would be a
hell of a place to work.

Garry Glauser
Castlegar

PEOPLES DRUG MART

Ha
Sunday — 10 am - 5 pms Mons Tues Wed. — 9am - 6 pm
Thursday — 9 am - 9 pm © Friday — 9 am - 6 pm
Saturday — 9 am -
(Tulips Buildis — pm
365-51

Let me show you how to get
more mileage out of your
advertising dollar.

Now you can save...

suggested retail prices

S52 anl nn Ces

Verticals - Horizontals + Pleated Shades + Roller Blinds
65% OFF SELECTED CURRENT VERTICALS
FREE INSTALLATION + FREE ESTIMATES

— We bring the showroom to you —
Rick Wyatt 1-800-668-8809 + Christina Lake Call 447-6634

THANK YOU
KOOTENAYS

The Government of B.C
congratulates all those
involved in the Kootenay
Value-Added Wood Forum
held October 21-23 in Creston.
A special thanks to the
participants, sponsors, and
the people of Creston
for making this forum such
a success,

If you would like more
information about value-added
wood manufacturing in the Kootenays,
Please contact

Ministry of Small Business
Tourism and Culture
(604) 354-6112
Ministry of Employment and Investment
(604) 387-0309

Province of British Columbia

NOW DOES
RADIATORS

Sony || KIDS EAT FREE
Off the kid 's menu
Monday to Friday 4:00 p.m. - 9 :00 p.m.

KIDS 10 & UNDER

1 kids meal per adult meal purchased
iy FAMILY RESTAURANT
iY ™ — 1810- 8th Ave. at Fireside Inn

For all your catered

365-3138
banquets & Russian weddings & funerals call Norma Jean

BUILT-IN
VACUUM SYSTEMS

+ NO Bags to buy

+ NO Fitters to clean

* 4.1 peak horse power
+ 140° water lift

* 10-year motor warranty

COMPLETE
wane
HALO TOOLS

(Other models avaitable)

365-5087

TOYLAND
SAVINGS

“te. sa 4°?

YOUR CHOICES,

Shop
Early!

Magic City Service sae2Q9”

by Majorette, reg. $39"

FS PHARMASAVE

1128-3rd St., (Downtown) Castlegar 365-781