ive Library,
Bldgs., 501 Belleville
B. Cc.

St

Febi 28

we

y taxes up average $12

That's a decrease of some $440,000 or nearly 10 per cent
from last year

However, because of reduced revenues, the city still
increased taxed by some $196,000 this year — to $2.6
million from $2.4 million — a jump of some eight per cent.

A large portion of the drop in city expenditures this
year came in the capital budget. Last year the city had a
capital budget of more than $655,000, but some $420,000 of
that was for the new library building.

This year the capital budget fell to $317,000, a drop of
$338,000. As well, the city’s debt service costs fell by nearly
$82,000 this year to $257,000.

continued on poge A2

Both council and the school board used @ house and
property valued at $47,000 to calculate the average increase,

Last year the owner of a home valued at $47,000 paid
about $386 in municipal taxes. This year he will pay $398.

However, that same homeowner will have to pay a total
of $75 more on his property taxes this year when the school,
municipal and regional district taxes are combined ($55_in
school taxes, $12 in municipa) taxes, $8 in regional district
taxes).

Calderbank said the city increase of four per cent “lines
up a bit with the cost of living.”

“It's a very tightly trimmed budget,” Calderbank noted.
“This year of all years — and I have been involved in these

for many years -
every item.”

He also pointed out that this year's increase is less than
the 1987 budget increase.

Ald. Patti Richards noted: “Council did agonize for
several hours over this budget . . . and trimmed it as much as
we possibly could knowing that times are tough out there
and the unemployment rate is up.”

Mayor Audrey Moore noted that at the same time city
revenues shrunk.

Ald. Lawrence Chernoff called council “extremely
responsible,” in raising taxes only four per cent

The city’s portion of the budget totals $4.1 million.

Castlegar News

Vol. 41, No. 38

By RON NORMAN I don't think we have ever gone through
Editor

The average Castlegar homeowner will pay about $12
more on their city tax bill this year, Ald. Albert Calderbank
said Tuesday.

Calderbank, a member of the administration and finance
committee, introduced the city’s 1988 budget which contains
a four per cent hike in residential taxes.

“This is really quite reasonable when you consider what
the school taxes are going up,” he said.

Castlegar school board recently approved a budget
which will see the average homeowner pay $55 more this
year.

WEATHERCAST

Sunny Thursday with some atter
noon cloud. Highs 25-27 and lows 8
10. Friday will be sunny with in:
creasing cloud late in the day
Outlook for the weekend is unset.
tled weather Chance of
precipitation is 10 per cent Fhur
sday and 30 per cent Friday

60 Cents CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 1988 4 Sections (A, B, C&D)

Residents
post guard
at ferry

FERRY PROTEST . . . Robson and Castlegar residents gathered on the

By BRENDAN NAGLE
Staff Writer
Robson residents responded to the
call early this morning when it was
rumored the RCMP were going to
show up at the ferry to remove the
trailer parked on the vessel. Residents
parked the trailer on the ferry last

BULLETIN

The Castlegar News learned late this
afternoon that the provincial cabinet
has decided to permanently remove the
Castlegar-Robson ferry from service.

Jim Van, executive assistant to
Highways Minister Stephen Rogers,
said cabinet made the decision in a
meeting earlier today.

“(Cabinet] made the decision not to
put the ferry back into operation,” Van
said in a telephone interview from his
Victoria office.

He said the provincial government
offer to turn the ferry over to the local
municipal or regional government “still
stands”.

, Van said if the local

which some feel will be

cable ferry at the Robson side fast night to rally around their ferry service

duniess a

COUNCIL SPLIT
OVER PROPOSED
SMOKING BYLAW

By RON NORMAN
Editor

?

Castlegar council introduced its long-awaited smok
ing bylaw Tuesday night, igniting a furious debate.

The bylaw will regulate smoking in restaurants,
reception areas, retail stores, service lines, hospitals,
places of employ and public lies, among a
host of other areas.

However, it also provides for a number of excep-

“To make a bylaw restricting smoking is a very
difficult thing,” said MacBain. “I don't know who's going
to be able to police

He added later: “I'm not sure that I want to tell, shall
we say, a beauty parlour that yes in a small town like
Castlegar that yes they can have no smoking, that they
must enforce no smoking. How do they do it and are they
going to lose customers?”

MacBain said council can impose a smoking ban in
any building under its control, such as city hall.

“But to do it to the general public and the private
owner, I think that has to be his decision that he must
post the no smoking signs and that he in turn will enforce
them.”

MacBain added that he wants to hear from the public
before council proceeds further with the bylaw. Council
only gave the bylaw two readings and hopes to receive
‘ 4

tions, For instance, employers can simply di their
workplaces as “smoking permitted.” And restaurants can
designate all or a portion of their premises as smoking
areas.

The bylaw carries with jit fines of up to $50 for
individuals who don't comply and up to $500 and $50 a day
for businesses which don't ply.

But council was divided on the need for the bylaw.

Ald. Bob MacBain and Patti Richards said the bylaw
will be impossible to enforce.

dback from city r before adopting the smoking
restrictions.

Richards said MacBain expressed her
“exactly.”

“As a city council we have set the example by
making city hall smoke-free. I don't feel the city council
has the right to take it any further.”

Richards, a smoker, also said it should be up to

feelings

continued on page A2

watch is
CasNewsPhoto by Brendon Nogle

on island
a concern

By CasNews Staff

A small fire on Zuckerberg Island
over thé weekend has sparked con
cerns from a member of the Castlegar
Heritage Advisory Committee for the
island's safety.

Bunny Charters, said the fire was
apparently deliberately set in a densely
wooded area of the island sometime
Saturday.

Charters said Castlegar resident
Peter Ommundsen spotted the smoul
dering branches while on a walk
Saturday evening.

Ommundsen called the Castlegar
Fire Department, and fire chief Bob
Mann and heritage committee member
Alex Lutz scoured the island looking
for the blaze.

Pulp union strike looms

By BRENDAN NAGLE
Staff Writer

Unionized workers at the Celgar
Pulp Co. may be out on strike by July
1, says Mike Espenhain, first vice-
president of the Pulp, Paper and
Woodworkers of Canada Local ‘No. 1.

The union representing about 280
pulp workers at Celgar is unhappy with
recent talks with the pulp company
concerning loca} issues. It voted 91-per
cent in favor of strike action eight days
ago.

The local unrest coincides with cur-
rent negotiations going on in Vancou
ver between all of the province's
PPWC locals and pulp mills. But the
Castlegar local has pulled its negotiat-

ing team from the joint bargaining
session to return to Castlegar and
discuss local issues with Celgar man-
agement, which according to Espen-
hain has made a final offer that is
“totally unacceptable” to the member-
ship in Castlegar.’

The main issu%at the mill involves
work scheduling for relief pool em-
ployees. Espenhain said the union is
unhappy with Ceigar's use of the em-
ployees and the Castlegar PP'WC local
wants better hours for the relief
workers.

“We want more of a guarantee that
relief pool workers get a better work
week,” Espenhain said. The local talks
have been going on since March and

nothing has been settled locally, he
said. The provincial talks began April
18.

He said the company's procrastin.
ation on the local issues is just fuelling
the union's call for a strike.

“Most of all the other PPWC locals
have soived thei house difficulties,”
Espenhain said. “It's possible we're the
only local left in the province which
hasn't settled the local issues.”

The PPWC negotiates the joint
agreement on behalf of all its locals
across the province and the union locals
negotiate a separate agreement for
local conditions, Espenhain said

continued on poge A7

, after 1 hours of search
ing, Mann and Lutz couldn't locate the
fire and left. Ommundsen returned to
the island the next morning to discover
the fire still burning and telephoned
Charters.

Charters said she, her son Bruce and
another man “tore down to the island”
with shovels. But they, too, couldn't
find the fire.

Ommundsen finally led them to it
and the fire was quickly extinguished

“It was in a very wooded area near
the Indian pit si said Charters. “It
was obvious someone set it.

Mann said the fire wa: bout the
size of a round kitchen table,” but was
never in any danger of spreading. He
said the ground was simply too wet.

“There's no way that fire would have
spread anywhere,” he noted.

Mann also doubts whether those who

continued on poge AZ

governments don't want to take over
the ferry, it will be privatized.

“Barring that, we're going to offer it
to the private sector,” Van said.

night to house an around-the-clock
guard the community's ad hoc ferry
user group has established to keep the
Ministry of Highways from removing
the vessel

About 50 people were on hand today
after the alarm had been given that the
police were going to try to remove the
trailer from the ferry at 8:30 a.m. The
group blocked the gate to the ferry
with pickup trucks. But by 10:15 a.m.
the police were nowhere to be seen.

Both the RCMP and the Ministry of
Highways denied any action would be
taken today.

Residents agreed at a meeting last
night to post a 24-hour watch on the
Robson side of the ferry to prevent the
provincial government from “stealing
away” with the ferry. .

About 175 concerned residents from
Castlegar and Robson gathered on the
vessel Tuesday evening to protest the
recent government shut-down of the
services and solicit names for a list of
volunteers willing to guard the ferry
overnight in rotating two-hour shifts.

The ferry has been out of service for
more than two weeks and was first
closed because water levels on the
Columbia River were too low_to run the
ferry.

‘On Sunday the Hugh Keenleyside
dam gates were opened — to accom
modate environmental concerns stem-
ming from a salmon run starting up the
river — and the flow of water over the
dam increased to 25,000 cubic feet per
second from the minimum 5,000 efs it
was running at during the past two
weeks. The water level below the dam
rose about one metre on the shoreline,
giving the ferry ample water to
operate efficiently.

But now provincial Ministry of High
ways officials say the ferry may be
unsafe because of a crack in the hull,
through which water is leaking. Resi
dents are concerned the ministry
wants to take the ferry to a drydock

facility in Revelstoke for repairs and
never return it.

“The whole idea of removing the
ferry to Revelstoke is political,” Area J
regional director Martin Vanderpol
said to the throng on the ferry through
a bull horn. “We can not allow that to
happen.”

The ad hoc group of ferry users, led
by Robson resident Fred Stroes, is
worried the ministry is looking for a
way to pull the ferry service, imple
ment tolls or force the operational costs
on pal and regional taxpayers.

The group says the crack recently
discovered, by the ministry has been
there “fot years” and presents no
operating danger or safety hazard for
the users of the service.

Stroes said an underwater welder
could be called in to patch the leak on

continued on page A2

INSIDE

Haircutting
competition

page A4

Grad site
changed