Legislative Library, * Parliament Bldgs., 501 Belléevil: Victorta, B. C. vav 1x4 Febi Vol. 40, No. 70 4 Sections (A, 8, C&D) Hospital addition approved By MIKE oe Staff Wi Construction of a new 60-bed ise term care facility has been approved for the Castlegar and District Hospital. Approval of the $4.3 million expansion was announced Monday by B.C. Health Minister Peter Dueck. ‘The project will add 25 extended care beds and 35 intermediate care beds to the hospital. Presently, the hospital has only 15 long term care beds. “We're certainly delighted with the news,” Ken Talarico, the Castlegar Hospital administrator, said Tuesday. “It's definitely a much needed service for this area.” 1 Talarico said the hospital has been pushing for the expanded facility for the past five years. Government approval covers ~Laty 60 per cent. of the cost. The Central Kootenay Regional Hospital District will be required to pick up the remaining 40-per cent. The facility will occupy # new building connected to the hospital, but Talarico could offer few details, explaining that “the hospital still had not received official written word from Victoria. Talarico said the new facility will “just meet the needs of the community.” He said it will “take the pressure off” surrounding facilities by keeping those in long term care near their relatives and opening up additional beds in the hospitals of surrounding districts. “The problem has Ween that families and friends don’t want their relatives to be located outside the Castlegar area for on rei reasons as distance and time,” larico explained that the sapanaen i not see Castlegar’ 's hospital overtake neighboring facilities in regard to sheer size, but he did say that Castlegar will have more long term care beds than Nelson's hospital, while Nelson will have more acute care beds. Martin Vanderpol, chairman of the Central Kootenay gional Hospital District, said the province's approval of the construction is a sign of a changing attitude. Though he refused to speculate on whether the CKRHD approve the 40 per cent funding, he did say that in his opinion the project would be beneficial to the area. “The approval is a tremendous step in the right direction,” he said. “People approaching their later years need a different kind of care. Naa as AIRPORT “We have to recognize that the population is aging,” he said. “Emphasis has always beph.on the with the changing population effort must tye put into care for the aging.” P ¢ Vanderpol said the. expanded facility’ could make Castlegar a better place for retirees. “We could take the shape of a retirement. community,” he said, adding that the elderly may not feel secure living in an area that could-not offer top quality, specialized care. He said people would prefer to live in an area that could relieve some of the burden of caring for an aging spouse or parent. “And people don’t want to travel 20 or 30 miles to see «their relatives,” said Vanderpol. “It will make this area a much more attractive place to live.” WKPL sale port terminal bursa. is beginning to take shape as construction crew parking and entrance. TOURISM UP AND DOWN IN CASTLEGAR By MIKE KALESNIKO Staff Writer Though summer isn't officially over, it seems Castle- gar had either a good or bad tourist season this year, depending on who you talk to. A report out of the Castlegar Chamber of Commerce's information centre shows that tourist inquiries at the office are down compared to 1986 for every week of the summer. According to Michele Lalonde of the information centre, inquiries tended to be about accommodation or information on attractions. The report shows that the majority of visitors for each of the months of May, June, July and August were from B.C., with Alberta and the remainder of Canada ranking a distant second and third, respectively. On the other hand, Jim Young, manager of the Sandman Inn, said the number of overnight guests at the hotel increased by 10 per cent over 1986. Young attributed the increase to the growing number of sporting events in the area, such as softball and golf tournaments, and said last year's slow season was probably due to Expo 86, which drew normal.tourist traffic from the area. However, Peter Morisseau, manager of the Monte Carlo Motor Inn, said his occupancy rate is down. Morisseau did not speculate on “whether he felt tourist traffic was down overall in the area, but instead emphasized that previous management had neglected to list the hotel on provincial accomodation guides. Morisseau emphasized that a new approach to managing the hotel should have a greater impact on next year's season Attendance figures at Syringa Creek indicate the provincial park campground was filled to ‘capacity all summer, and the number of campers there was up over last year. According to Bob Russell, zone manager for Parks and Outdoor Recreation in Nelson, the entire West Kootenay region saw an overall increase in tourists of 29 per cent, with Syringa Creek park experiencing a dramatic increase. According to park records for July, Syringa had a total of 1,702 groups or families spend the night, compared to 1,396 last year, an increase of 26 per cent. The park's day use increased 43 per cent with 7,784 cars registered on the campground’s car counter, compared to only 5,441 in 1986. Since the season is not yet over, exact figures on this year's campground use are not available, but last year's breakdown shows that most of the park campers as high as 86 per cent, were from B.C., with only four per cent from the northern United States and four per cent from Alberta. Of the 86 per cent of B.C. campers in the park last year, 36 per cent were from Castlegar, 18 per cent were from Trail, seven per cent from Fruitvale, five per cent from Rossland, three per cent from Montrose and three per cent from Nelson. Not surprisingly, day use for 1986 showed that 89 per cent of the park users were from B.C., while some 50 per cent of that figure were from Castlegar. But Russell pointed out that of the figures available for this year, transient use of the park (or in other words use by those from outside B.C.) increased by 10 per cent. Dallas Tait, part-owner of Scottie’s Marina on the Arrow Lakes, also agrées the tourist season improved. continued on poge A2 Workers return to Cominco wage increase, an extra week's annual By The Canadian Press It was back to normal today after of! ice and technical workers at Cominco Ltd. operations in Trail and Kimberley voted 275-41 in favor of accepting a 38-month agreement from the mining company, officially ending a 17-week strike. “There is a great deal of satisfaction that we did not cave into concessions,” Jim Saare, president of Local 9705 of the United Steelworkers of America, said in an interview following the rati. fication meeting Monday. “Teck (the Vancouver-based parent company) thought they could take on those 400 office workers and beat them into sub- ission. There was a mood at the meeting that we did a good job,” he-said. Those who voted against the settlement, reached Friday, said that the union had not held out fora large enough increase in exchange for agree- ing to workitig 40 hours a week, up from the present 87.5 hours. The union won a two-per-cent vacation, for a minimum of three weeks, a $250 signing bonus and cost of-living adjustments. It also retained a rate protection clause that ensures that office workers moved to a lower classi fieation continue to receive their higher wage rate. About 2.200 production workers, members of the same union, accepted a new agreement in July, but stayed off the job until Monday night in support of the office workers who were . New $4.6 million expansion to the Castlegar air- erects support beams and frame. Work has created temporary changes to —KesewsPhote| by Ron Norman Valley man sentenced to 25 years By Press NELSON — Pedophile George Danchella, 67, of Crestent Valley was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison for 26 years of sex-related crimes against girls ranging in age from six to 16. Danchella had been convicted on 15 counts June 19 in county court, The charges covered the period from 1957 to 1982. The charges included sexual as- sault, indecent assault and one count of threatening with a weapon to force a girl to submit to indecent assault. Some counts included repeated forced inter. course hundreds of times against one victim. Danchella’s vietims lived in his neighborhood at the time of the as saults. Sentences ranged from one to eight years on €éach count, with some being consecutive and others con- current. The consecutive terms added toa total of 25 years, but Danchella will be eligible for parole in seven years. Crown counsel Dana Urban asked Judge Raymond Cooper to impose a life sentence, while defence lawyer Oliver Butterfield asked for a sentence of 12 to 15 years. “I conelude the accused is a fixated pedophile for whom there is no known cure or treatment,” Cooper said, ac cepting the evidence of psychiatrist Dr. Shaboran Lorasbe. “This is not a case of isolated incidents . is a continuous series of pedophelic acts (occurring) over a quarter century.” Lorasbe did not examine Dan. chella, but gave his opinion based on the facts of the case. The judge said he would not con- sider Danchella’s age in sentencing, be- cause in his actions, “rage, power, and sadism do have a role and age is oti a separate agr signal to investors By DAPHNE BRAMHAM VICTORIA — The sale of West Kootenay Power and Light to an American company is seen by some as the first concrete sign the government of British Columbia is welcoming foreign investment. But the Opposition NDP and the 7,100-member Kootenay-Okanagan Consumers’ Associa‘ are about repatriating the electric comp- any if the Social Credit party is de- feated in the next election. The $80-million sale of the comp- any by Comineo Ltd. a United Ltd. of Kansas City is acest tobe today, a B.C. Hydro is for sale as part of a privatization program favored by the Social Credit government. Ted Muncaster, senibr vice-presi- dent of UtiliCorp, said the controversy has not gone unnoticed. “We are certainly aware of the concerns,” he said in a telephone in- terview from Kansas City. “But I don't think that being a utility company you have to tréat that concern negatively. Utilities have.to be sensitive to their cust “2 He said consumers will not notice changes in the company, which lias its office in Trail: the American company said pares The sale of the only private electrical company in B.C. was ap- proved earlier this year by the federal and provincial governments and the B.C. Utilities Commission despite ap- peals from the Kootenay-Okanagah Consumers’ Association and the 2,400- member Council of Canadians. It marks the first time a Canadian utility has been sold to a foreign firm. Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal member of Parliament, has described the sale as a dangerous precedent and a possible erosion of sovereignty. CAN'T AFFORD Premier Bill Vander Zalm, who plans a three-week selling tour to Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and China later this fall, said the province couldn't afford to stop the West Kootenay sale. Vander Zalm said the province can't leave the impression it is being too selective about which companies can inv@yin British Columbia. The premier has said he would not oppose any American company buying B.C. Hydro, a Crown corporation that carries nearly $7.5 billion in debt and had revenues of $1.99 billion last year. insid NO BRAINS: VANCOUVER Vanna White admits that turning letters on the television game show Wheel of Fortune “doesn’t take a lot of brains.” White, 31, visited the anhual Pacific National Exhibition Tuesday where she appeared brietly at the fair's own version of the game show. White was picked in Novem- 200 women who auditioned for the job. starts trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. LOWER RATES. But the sale to a foreign company doesn’t sit well with the consumer association that represents some of the 98,000 West Kootenay customers in southeastern and south-central British Columbia. Those customers have en- joyed power rates lower than those lost jobs. They don't believe the 13 conditions placed on the sale by the B.C. Utilities Commission to protect against unfecessary rate increases, di- version of power and in- stability are enough. Association president Don Scar. lett warned that members will do all they can to repatriate the company. ‘to Canadian hands, although I don't rule out the continued on pege A? She said she makes more than $100,000 a year-on the show, taping five shows a day in the eight days a month she works. But the job is not as easy as it looks. “Vm under a lot of pressure,” she said, “You lose o lof of privacy — people follow you. “A game show is a fantasy, except it's a true fantasy — peaple do win prizes and cash on our show. And here is a girl, me, who dresses vp like @ Barbie doll and goes out there without a worry in the world.” MAN ARRESTED: A U.S. man arrested in Salmo over the weekend af- ter he failed to return his three children to their mother’s home: in| Utah... A3 NUCLEAR LIABILITY: Kootenay West MP Bob Bristo says the Nuctear| Liability Act should be extended from 10 to 30 years . NEW COACH: Castlegar Rebels have replaced coach 1 Jobin with former Nelson Sr. Maple Leaf captain Brian Burley s