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ahd Vigrovia, 1x4

Vol, 41, No, 100

501 Belleville St

Castlegar News

60 Cents

CASTLEGAR, BRITISH COLUMBIA, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14, 1988

WEATHERCAST

Tonight: Clear with @ ew cloudy periods. Lows trom

Tomorrow: Low t i" he morning changing to clouds with sunny periods *. The outlook for Thur and Fridoy includes clouds with sunny periods. Highs to 1°.

4 Sections (A, B, C &D)

Ministry to spend $16m on Bluffs

Highways project depends on spring budget

By BONNE MORGAN Staff Writer The Ministry of Transportation and Highways will spend $16 million to improve the treacherous stretch of road between Slocan and Silverton at the Cape Horn Bluffs.

NARROW ROAD . . . Motorists slow right down to go around the Cape Horn Bluffs between Silverton and Slocan, The road is closed for 20 minutes at a time while crews clear rock from the single lane

CosNewsPhoto

Transportation and Highways Minister Neil Vant announced at a public meeting in New Denver Tuesday that the Cape Horn Bluffs project could be completed within two years if the highways budget is passed by cabinet this spring.

But Vant’s announcement to the crowd of more than 150 residents who regularly travel the road wasn't met with a warm reception. People shouted at the highway's minister and demanded an assurance that the project will be completed.

“We are trying to say to you that in no uncertain terms, we need a commitment,” one resident told Vant.

“I wish I could say to you for sure I'll get the money,” replied Vant, adding it might be helpful if people wrote to Finance Minister Mel Couvelier.

The present road is built on the edge of a cliff 185 metres above Slocan Lake. It narrows to one lane for one kilometre at the bluffs which rise 220 metres overhead.

Plans for the roadway include almost six kilometres of two-lane highway, a concrete guardrail on the outside shoulder, a 3.6-metre-wide ditch to catch falling rock and snow and a 90-metre-long concrete retaining wall. Bolts will be put into the cliffs in several places to improve the stability of the rock over the road.

Highways began the Cape Horn project this year, but didn’t have the money in its budget to complete it.

“We have to have the money to make sure we can carry on throughout the year,” said Vant.

A private company hired by the Ministry of Highways is drilling, blasting and scaling the cliffs above the road which narrows to one lane for one kilometre.

For the past three months, motorists have waited for about 20 minutes while rock from the blasting is cleared from the road.

The Ministry of Highways hopes to begin work this fall and could close the road for three months starting September.

Residents will have to use Highway 31A which goes around the bluffs towards Kaslo as an alternate route

Residents want good businesses

By SIMON BIRCH Editor Castlegar residents want “good quality busi. nesses” and have singled out the Canadian Tire chain as the type of department store outlet they would like to see in town, according to early results of a

h

well as to existing b to see what patterns are in Castlegar and area,” he said.

“It'll be a good report to have for new businesses and for developers that are coming into the area,” Stan added.

The board is also identifying existing businesses and the goods and services they, provide in the Castlegar and aren

“The results of that will be to identify the gaps that exist and turn them into investment opportun ities for our area,” Stan told council. “We have a good complement of businesses in Castlegar and area but there are other opportunities. There are gaps in our business sector and our service sector.”

The board is also working on a computerized “on-line” directory in conjunction with Douglas College and the Greater Vancouver Regional District

survey the Castlegar and District D: pI Board is now conducting.

The board will contact 400 homes in Castlegar and expects to have the survey completed by the end of March, said CDDB executive director Harry Stan who, along with economic development officer Richard Maddocks, presented the board's year-end report Tuesday to Castlegar city council.

“We're about 20 per cent of the way through that survey.now,” Stan said. “The results are quite phenomenal.”

“They want good quality businesses,” Stan said of the early responses. “A good quality department store — the major retailer is Canadian Tire that they're asking for.”

The survey will help the board prepare and file information on community shopping patterns and is part of a comprehensive project the board is currently working on under the Employment Plus Program of the provincial Ministry of Social Services and Housing, Stan said.

The Employment Plus Program provides the CDDB with funding to cover the salaries of two workers.

The information “will provide technical and demographic information to the three shopping centre developers that are interested in Castlegar as

to help on the Lower Mainland and in the West Kootenay become familiar with each other.

“There is a problem with manufacturers, large and small, in this area not having access to those Lower Mainland markets,” Stan said. “But also the purchasers on the Lower Mainland don't know what we produce in this area. So that’s all going to tie together.” However, that project is not likely to start until later in 1989, Stan said

Part of the project also involves preparing an inventory of manufacturers and cottage industries in Castlegar and the surrounding area with an eye to identifying opportunities to supply goods and services locally that are now purchased outside of the area, the province or the country, Stan said.

The board will also prepare a directory of home-based businesses.

In addition, the board will update the two-year-old Cas Circle Tours, a brochure listing area businesses which deal with tourists and which maps out various “circle tours” for visitors to the area.

“It was a useful tool for visitors coming into the area,” Stan said. “We found that with the conventions and visitors coming into the area they were looking at ‘What can we do in Castlegar?’ and that's what was produced.

“It’s basically to increase awareness of local points of interest and promotion of tourist-related businesses in the Castlegar area.”

FINISHED PROJECT . . . A model of what the Cape Horn Bluffs will look like after the Ministry of Highways finishes its planned $16 million im provements cdptures the attention of an area

and the Ministry of Highways plans to provide a “water taxi" to bypass the road closure.

Residents complained that a tugboat provided to bypass the road closure took 1'/ hours from Slocan to Silverton and was no good for emergency transpor tation from Slocan to the Arrow Lakes Hospital in Nakusp.

It was pointed out that weather conditions can make emergency evacuation by air impossible

“We don't know from hour to hour whether we can

resident in Nakusp. The Ministry of Transpor- tation and Highways held a public meeting to an- swer questions on the project

get an ambulance down to the hospital,” one resident said.

Highways representative Gordon Sutherland said a water taxi would be twice as fast as the tugboat.

Vant was told that Highway 31A is in poor shape and needs to be seal coated before it can be used as an alternate route.

“Highway 31A will be fixed up first thing. in the spring and seal coated prior to any closure of the bluffs,” Sutherland told the crowd.

Celgar chips in $50,000 for pool

By CasNews Staff Celgar Pulp Co. has agreed to $50,000 to the Castleger and District Projects: Society to pay for the new aquatic centre's whirlpool.

Celgar manager Wilf Sweeney made the announcement Monday prior to a meeting of the Castlegar and District Aquatic Centre Building Committee.

“We took the donation from the (Castlegar and District) Projects Society to our owners at the joint management meeting last week in Vancouver,” Sweeney told the committee mem

,

donat

request for a

bers. “They agreed to your sugges: tion to fund the cost of the whirlpool to the tune of $50,000."

Sweeney presented Projects ety President Ron Ross with a letter committing the company to the donation.

“We're extremely pleased that Celgar has shown what fine corpor ate citizens they are again,” Ross said. “We look forward to seeing the Celgar logo as part of the tile pattern in front of the whirlpool so that the citizens of Castlegar can see what a good corporate citizen Celgar is.”

Sweeney, who was accompanied

Soci

Firm to study mill expansion

By CasNews Staff

Celgar Pulp Co. has hired the Vancouver engineering firm of H.A. Simons Ltd. to conduct a study on the possible expansion of the Castle- gar mill, Celgar manager Wilf Sweeney said:

“All we're doing is we have en. gaged a consultant to start a study,” said Sweeney, who would not commit the company to a certain expansion of the mill.

“It wouldi be wrong for me to say that it’s going to result in an expansion,” Sweeney told the Castle. gar News. “We certainly hope that it will but I don't know what the outcome of the study will be.

Options pondered

By BONNE MORGAN

Vant said safety is a concern in

NEIL VANT . it's not up tome

Staff Writer

The Ministry of Transportation and Highways is still trying to figure out what to do with the Castlegar. Robson ferry.

Highways Minister Neil Vant says the government is considering prop osals from the private sector and has no intention of running the ferry itself.

“Well, certainly we're looking at options other than the government itself running it again,” Vant said at a public meeting in New Denver yes. terday.

Vant and Minister of State for the Thompson Okanagan and Kootenay regions Howard Dirks were in New Denver to announce the govern- ment’s plans to have the $16-million Cape Horn Bluffs highway project completed within two years.

privatizing the ferry.

“We have to be assured that it will be operated according to the Ferry Act and all the regulations. When you have the public on the ferry, ii has to be a very responsible party that we feel comfortable would run it properly,” said Vant.

The ministry is considering several different “proposals and options” re- garding the ferry, but Vant wouldn't speculate on the fate of the ferry

“It's not up to me to preclude any final decision on it at this time,” he said.

He said the Ministry of Highways is interested in receiving proposals on the ferry and is currently analyzing one from Bel Maintenance which took over the highways and bridge maintenance contract for this area.

Vant said it isn't likely the ferry will be moved and used elsewhere in the near future.

“We will look at several options before even a thought of taking it away is entertained,” he said

Vant said the Robson-Raspberry Ferry Users Ad Hoc Committee's attempt to have the Supreme Court force the ministry to resume ferry service is not affecting a government decision on the ferry.

As I understand it we have every right to shut down the ferry as we did so that has little bearing on our plans,” he said.

The ad hoc committee had charged that the Ministry of Transportation and Highways acted illegally when it shut down the ferry service, but Mr. Justice Allan Stewart ruled in favor of the government.

“Obviously, we would hope that it (the study) will carry on into a full-fledged project,” he said. “But you can't prejudge what the study's going to say or what the outcome of the study will be. I don't know.”

Sweeney said he expects the study to be completed by the end of February 1989.

Teachers vote on strike

By CasNews Staff

Castlegar teachers voted 91 per cent in favor of striking Monday, but Castlegar and District Teachers’ Association president Joyce Adams says teachers won't exercise their right to strike until at least after the new year.

Teachers have been bargaining since May for a contract which expired in June. A bridging clause within the contract extends it so that teachers are not without a contract while the new one is being drawn up.

Adams is hoping some progress will be made at a meeting tomorrow with the CDTA, the school board and a professional negotiator hired by the board.

The most important issues that have not been resolved include hiring and transfer policies, sick leave, class size and salaries.

‘We really needed to make a statement that we are very serious,” Adams told the Castlegar News.

continued on page A2

by Celgar's controller John Lebidoff and industrial relations manager Ron Belton, said the almost 80 per cent support residents of Castlegar and Areas I and J gave to the aquatic centre in October's referendum help- ed sway the company’s management to donate the $50,00C.

The Projects Society hopes Cel gar’s donation will be an incentive to other potential corporate sponsors to help support the aquatic centre.

INSIDE

Letter winners

page A2

Lottery numbers

The winning numbers drawn Tuesday in The Pick lottery were 12, 13, 24, 25, 29, 44, 49 and 53.

Lemieux chosen

page B2