SATURDAY Vol. 44, No, 34 Castlegar, B.C. 2 Sections (A & B) = 75 Cents Valhalla Society disputes report «« AS WEATHERCAST Tonight: Clear with evening clouds. Lows near 2°, 1: sunny, Highs neor 20%, Prepobiivy, of ecipitation Is con om 10 per conttondey. aS@Xi>. asi..,..- .Vews om Off to Chilliwack --- Bl BOB MANN .. + Cleared of charges Bob Mann no Acquitted of sexual assault By DONNA ZUBER Staff Writer A B.C. Supreme Court jury found Castlegar fire chief Bob Mann not guilty Wednesday of two counts of sexual assault. The 12-member jury deliberated for about four hours before returning the verdict. After the second not guilty verdict was announced,’ Mann made the religious gesture of crossing himself before turning to embrace his family, then his lawyer and friends. Mann, 54, was charged in connection with incidents which allegedly occurred between January 1983 and Sep- tember 1989. He faced a maxiinum sentence of 10 years ‘on each count if found guilty. The womar-who made the accusations was not in court to hear the verdict. The court has imposed a ban on publication of her name. guilty Crown prosecutor Murray Whyte said Friday the Crown has no plans at this time to appeal the verdict. The trial wrapped up Tuesday with Whyte and Mann’s lawyer, David Crossin of Vancouver, calling character witnesses. Editorial, page A4 Throughout the five-day trial, the number of people observing the proceedings increased until the court was almost full Tuesday. But only Mann’s wife, Marilyn, daughters Bambi and Heidi, a friend, an assoc the media were present Wednesday evening to hear the verdict. Mann declined to comment after the verdict and again Thursday. “I've been advised I have no comment,” he said. ite and alleged assaults. A pediatrics specialist “highly improbable’’ Mann committed the assaults. Last week, the woman who made the accusations against Mann described, sometimes in graphic detail, the But Crossin, testified Monday it was in his closing arguments Tuesday, called her accounts unbelievable. The jury apparently agreed. Florists eye new store By SIMON BIRCH Editor The owners of Tulips Floral Co. want to tiptoe over to a new building in downtown Castlegar but they need the city’s permission to reduce the number of parking spaces the store would require under Castlegar's zoning bylaw. Fred and Kathereine Soloveoff of Blueberry Creek have applied to the city for-e development variance per- mit which would allow them to in- clude five parking spaces at the Proposed new building at the corner of 3rd Street and 11th Avenue on vacant property behind the post of- fice. The proposed 2,700-square-foot single-storey flower shop requires 10 parking spaces under the city’s zoning bylaw. City council will consider the ap- plication at its May 13 meeting. In the meantime, surrounding property owners must be notified and allowed to comment on the application. The Soloveoffs, whose current store is located on 4th Street, say a floral business doesn’t require as many parking spaces because over half of the business involves telephone orders and deliveries which don’t require customers to visit the store. Except for occasional times during the year such as Easter or graduation it’s unusual to have more than two or three customers in the store at the same time, the owners say. Including 10 parking spaces would mean reducing the size of the store to 1,800 square feet which the Soloveoffs say isn’t large enough for the business. please see STORE page AS SEARCH FOR A GOOD SITE Rolf Mail, Hannu Ravhanen and John Sumpter load a pump on to the barge to be used for drilling holes into the bed of the Columbia River as part the best location for a bridge linking Castelgar and Robson. the ongoing studies into CosNews photo by Donna Zuber Credit union mulls over mall project By ED MILLS Staff Writer There's been some developments in As the Mall Turns, the 10-year soap opera that is a-push to build another mall in Castlegar. But there still hasn’t been any development in terms of actually building another niall in this city. Apparently the race to do so is on again, though. And in the lead is the plan for a strip mall proposed on the site where the Hi Arrow Hotel and Safeway currently sit. Though exact details of the mall are sketchy at this point, the local developer said he hopes ‘‘to have it up and running by the end of the year, for sure.’ “‘It’ll take about three weeks to get city approval on it, then we'll do preliminary costings and then we'll decide whether we want to go for- ward with the project or not,’’ said Lorne Myhra, general managet of the Castlegar Savings Credit Union The credit union owns the proper- ty the mall would be built on and will develop the project itself, Myhra plan calls for a two- mall with one phase con- necting to Safeway and the second phase running off the credit union, with both phases eventually meeting in the middle at the back of the Hi Arrow. Myhra said a Kelowna architect is working on the drawings for the proposal The other mall in the race, an in- door mall prop next to the San- dman Inn by Vancouver developer Sandy Reid, hasn't got out of the starting blocks since Reid announced in a March press release that he would be going ahead with tht” Project. Reid still hasn’t exercised his op- tion to buy the property he needs to build the mall and, as of today, has only three days left to do so. Whether Reid has run into a snag with his plan or if his plans have changed were questions left unan- swered this week because Reid didn’t return repeated phone calls from the Castlegar News, The city’s director of engineering and public works said the city hasn't heard any more from Reid since it got preliminary information about the project earlier this month. “As of now, it’s not a whole lot further than it was when he submit- ted his preliminary concept plan," Kenn Hample said. Any plans to build a strip mall will have no effect on Reid‘s plans, said real estate agent David Daniels, who is handling the land transaction for Reid “Sandy knows about it and he’s not concerned about it,"’ Daniels said. ‘‘It’s not a big project. It’s not a big deal.”” Myhra said the strip mall project, tentatively called Credit Union Shopping Mall, is not an attempt to beat Reid to the punch in the mall race. “It’s something we've been working on for a long, long time now,"’ Myhra said. “But we're still not at a stage’ where we can talk about going ahead at this time.’” By BARBARA TANDORY Special to the Castlegar News First it got its goats, now it's got its award. In recognition of its successful award,'’ said Steve Davis, president of the West Kootenay Outdoorsmen Association, which is an umbrella organization for all regional wildlife clubs. ‘‘Their of Rocky goats to the Passmore area, the Slocan Valley Wildlife Association received Memorial Trophy at . Wildlife Federation convention in Cranbrook last weekend. At a meeting Thursday the award was presented to the 40- member club by Ron Milton who accepted the trophy Cran- brook on behalf of the’ The trophy is given out an- nually to a wildlife club with the ‘best project in the province for the previous year. The trophy has artist. ‘Ht is @ very prestigious goat was the best con- servation project in the provin- oe.” At the same convention in Cranbrook, the outdoorsmen association was awarded a cer- tificate of special recognition from the president of the provincial wildlife federation ‘‘for the best improved region,"’ said Davis, who accepted the award. “it just shows that the ac- tivities we have taken on here made us the most progressive region in the province,"’ he said, Moting that the transplant of the herd of eight goats from the East Kootenay to Passmore has been the major local project, accom- plished with the help and co- Relocation of goats wins club top award operation of .all sportsmen organizations in the region. In an interview after Thursday night’s presentation in Winlaw, Davis said all the sportsmen groups in the area share in the Slocan Valley club’s pleasure at receiving the trophy. “It is a tribute to all clubs,’’ Davis said. The memorial award was established in memory of B.C conservationist and author, Roderick Haig-Brown. The meeting was attended by. Kootenay West-Revelstoke MP Lyle Kristiansen who met with the Slocan Valley Wildlife Association to discuss the federal government's proposed gun legislation. The SVWA will transplant 10 more mountain goats from the East Kootenay to Passmore this June. local Regional directors nix pay raises for selves By SIMON BIRCH Editor Financial restraint won over an established practice April 18 as Regional District of Central Kootenay directors narrowly defeated a 6.5 per cent pay raise for themselves. Also defeated was a stipend for the board’s vice-chairman, Area I director John Voykin However, the directors approved taises in meal allowances ranging from $1 to $2.50 per meal for direc- tors. The defeat of the pay hike tecommended by the regional district’s executive and personnel committee bucked the established practice, followed in the past by the RDCK as well as other boards and municipal councils, of matching pay raises given t0 municipal staff. The tegional district earlier gave its em- ployees 4 6.5 per cent pay increase. In arguing for the increase, Voykin noted that regional district directors put in long hours, including evenings “I'm not laying the blame on anybody else,"’ he said. “‘I ran for the job and I got it. Six per cent isn't going to make or break me."” However, Voykin said regional district stipends pale in comparison to those of the provincial gover- nment in Victoria. “Over there it’s a big-money ball game,"’ he said, noting that the proposed 6.5 per cent increase would “hardly pay for gas."’ If approved, the raises would have given directors $159 for each regular or other meeting of the regional district board, a $10 increase from the current $149. Directors appointed to committees would have received $80 for each committee meeting, up from $75. Rural directors would have been given a $32 raise, to $529 per month from the current $497 Board chairman George Cady would have received an additional $565 per month. He currently receives an additional $531 per mon- th. please see PAY page A3