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

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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

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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

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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

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