} l _ Cast VOL. 38, No. 57 The rest of his office is nearly as empty after six that he keeps only two things on his office walls: a map of Westar's tree farm licence No. 23, and a series of graphs charting the mill's performance. : Both are crucial to the mill's future. The tree farm licence is of particular interest. There have been recent charges from several quarters, _ including the mill's tugboat operators, that Westar isn’t logging its tree farm as required. Critics say the mill is selling timber from the north end of the tree farm and buying logs from outside the tree farm to supply the Castlegar mill. The timber from outside the tree farm should’ be used for other, nearby mills, critics charge. Cross agrees the tree farm licence has been a “high profile issue”. He says Westar Timbei™has just begun a scries of Despite Cross's admission that the tree farm will TFL No. 23 shrink. Cross says it's still too early to say how much of the tree farm Westar will lose. “It’s a fairly complicated process that we have to go through,” he “says. It's also @ long -process,—he. notes, adding that the company would be “doing well” if all the issues were worked out by the end of the year. weeks on the job. Cross explains with some satisfactign—three boys, David, 9, amie, 7, and Michael, 5, Cross was solveable™ Westar's five-year plan for the tree farm expired last year. However, -the Forests Ministry has extended the plan until the end of- 1986 when: a -new five-year plan should be in place: Despite Cross’s admission that the three farm will shrink, it's clear he would like it to stay the way it is. And he says it’s his intention to ensure the new plan wil “have as minimal a negative impact as possible—or none™ on the Castlegar mill. That means securing: as much timber supply as possible for the mill. And if Cross’s record is any indication, he has a good chance of getting his way. i Married (his wife's name is Norita), and the father of born and raised in Alberta. Following graduation form the University of Alberta in 1971, Cross began working ‘for. MacMillan Bloedel's Alberta whotesate distribution section. He-went-from-there,to-B.G.-where—he-worked_in— lumber marketing for MacBlo. Along the way he worked with his two predecessors at Celgar sawmill: Al Thornton and Bill Ford, as well as now Westar president Sandy Fulton. . Cross left MacMillan Bloedel in 1982 to take the manager's position at Westar Timber's Terrace sawmill. “I joined the company to go to Terrace and take it out of the U.S. (lumber)-market,” says Cross. Until that time, the Terrace mill had produced lumber exclusively for U.S. customers. Cross guided the mill through its changeover to the export market, not an easy transition. - \ “We really had to focus on our: people because the real skill in manufacturing a high quality product is in the people,” he says. The export market has much tougher standards than the North American market, says Cross. “The most demanding market in the world is Japan,” ‘on page A3 --danger, the was revoked. Lake, who said when the evacuation was ordered that he didn't feel it was necessary, did leave town last week. But it was to attend a golf tournament in Fernie, southeast of here, not to avoid the forest fire that at one. point was 1,500 metres from the town. By SIMON BIRCH Staff Writer Castlegar city council Tuesday voted in favor of signing a provincial-mun- icipal agreement that will provide tax reductions to industries. With Aldermen Len Embree and Bob MacBain opposed, council voted 4-2 in fayor of signing the provincial-muni- cipal partnership agreement in which the province will exempt a minimum of SO per cent of provincial school taxes for industrial-improvements and muni- cipalities will exempt between SO &nd 100 per cent of taxes for improvements. _ The_council_members_opposed_to. signing the agreement expressed con- cern that they were being forced into signing the agreement because the provincial government would withhold funds if they didn’t “If we don’t sign the partnership agreement we get nothing,”” MacBain said. “We'll lose what: we have at this_ time. That's what really bothers me." Embree agreed, saying signing the agreement would change the basic tax « structure. “When we start talking about re- ducing the tax base, somebody's going * to: have to pay for it. It’s going to be ; don’t think the e’s too much burden to be transferred to residents. It's ‘a ‘good move on behalf of this council to sign this agreement.”” Embree disagreed, saying that there were no advantages to the city. “*I don’t think it’s a good move when _there’s a_number_ of questions . that haven't been answered. Everything is *eligibility’ or ‘maybe’. ' A 3 “*We're buying a pig in a poke. The only industry we'll be giving - an advantage to is Westar. ‘*What really irks me is_the black- mail by the provincial government.”” __ Also on Tuesday, council held.a public— meeting on an application to rezone property on 6th Ave. from light to heavy industrial. Kinnaird Home Heat Service Ltd. is requesting the zoning change to build a Petro Canada bulk fuel plant for the storage and distribution of fuel. The plant would be located at 2181-6th Ave. Peter Stoopnikoff, owner of the Cedar Manor apartments across the street from the proposed tank site, said he would lose 50 per cent of his tenants because of the noise and dust problems that would be created by increased truck traffic in the area. paid for by. the ity.” Mayor Audrey Moore said the prov- incial government would make. special funds available to municipalities that signed the agreement. She said 42 per cent of B.C.'s municipalities had al- ready signed it. nikoff asked council to reject the rezoning application. Bruno Tassone, representing Kin- naird Home Heat, said there would not be an increase in truck traffic. “Probably no more than one or two trucks per week would be coming into the plant,”’ he said. Lightning sta rts new fires in Nelson region By CHERYL CALDERBANK Staff Writer . Over S50 lightning strikes overnight sparked new fires in the Nelson Forest Region. Nelson Region spokesman Fred Thie- ssen said this morning’ that 69 “‘smokes’’ were reported as of 9 a.m. He ‘said tankers were being kept busy doing initial attack work. In the Region Tuesday there were 219 fires burning with 40 of them being uncontained. The total number. of hectares burned so far regionally is 50,500. The cost over the past 24 hours was $1,677,258. The total cost to date for the region is $11,734,621.. The Lake said he never felt he had to get out of town because of the fire danger “but we're retired, we had nothing to stay here.for."" : Corie Gish, owner of the Mountain Village dining lounge about 10 kilo- metres north of Canal Flats, chose to ignore the evacuation in order to protect her property. the cops could have had we all evacu- ated,"’ she said. ‘‘We stayed the entire time. We did send our children out.” Gish said many Canal Flats residents had returned home before the order was lifted, adding ‘that she hopes to reopen her restaurant, shut down for _the past I1 days, in two or three days. WAS NECESSARY Gish felt the evacuation was neces- sary at some points, but she feels it could have been handled more: diplo- matically. “We are ready to admit we are in but—don‘t-literally__boot__us out," she said. When the evacuation was under way. | Ross McIntyre, of the provincial emer- gency program, said while residents would have the danger of the situation explained to them, people would not be forced from their homes. Most of the 1,400 residents did leave town. Bob Hickey, Interior regional fire commissioner, said in lifting the evac- uation that while the immediate danger has , serious problems could arise again if there is another period of hot, dry we'ther. 5 & “We've had a rain. shower here today (Tuesday) and with the work they were able to do over the past three days on the ground and in the'air, we have come to the conclusion (to lift the "* Hickey said. number of people fighting” fires is 3,666. In the Arrow district alone, 61 fires weré still burning Tuesday with 20 of them uncontained. A total of: 1,610 hectares have been burned. Cost for the district in the past 24 hours is $104,817 while total cost to date on fires is $966,722. There are 478 people fighting fires in the Arrow district. Provincially, as of 1 p.m. Tuesday there were 694 fires burning. — Total area burned was 200,553 hectares. The cost in the last 24 hours was $2.6 millionb. Total cost at press time was $45 million prvincially. Total number of fires is 5,263. Meanwhile Thiessen said it is “‘real quiet’’ in the East Kootenay. An evacuation order for Canal Flats was lifted Tuesday although a campfire ban still remains in effect for the region. He also said some forest (logging) roads are closed due to the seriousness of the fire’ situation. ——“The fire hazard is still extreme,” ~ Thiessen said. ‘‘The little bit of rain (Tuesday) didn’t help much," he said._ Meanwhile only one forest road restriction is in place in the Arrow di west of Rossland residents of the area and industrial operations but is closed to recreation. —inside- PS eee fy pincher. When he walked into of the copper coins. ready to cash them in later, had 40,000 but, what four $100 bills in return. Reid said. “Reid said he would start collecting again right away. PARK CONCERT: Thursday's con- cert in the park series will feature music by Kootenay old time fid-, J A4 - * “SILVER MEDALS: Two girls softball teams from Castlegar won silver_ provincial championships PENY PINCHER: KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — Clorence Reid is a real pen- the First National Bank of Kissim- tee, he was pulling a little red wagon containing three buckets full He'd been collecting them for 13 years, he said, and he, was for crisp $100 bills so he could visit his gran- dson in Oklahoma, whom he hadn't seen in almost seven years. When head teller Dave Roberts stopped counting 30 minutes he had 39,800 pennies on the counter. Reid, 60, was sure he the heck, he gave Roberts $2 and received “These are a little bit lighter than what | walked in with,” “ill go back and start collecting some more,” he said. “Maybe when | reach 80 or 90!'ll cash them in again.”