Terrace Review —

Wednesday, April 18, 1990. . BD

as service, traffic lights unlikely —
at lake, community association told

by Pam Whitaker

The second meeting of the
Lakelse Community Association
was attended by about 40 people
on April 9 in Oli’s Pub at
Lakelse Lake. The association
was formed Feb. 26 to address
needs in the area for youth func-
tions, a school bus shelter, safer
- intersections ancl other con-

cerns, .

The old Lakelse firehall and
surrounding 10 acres will be
upgraded and utilized as the
community center. It was agreed
that this building and the bus
shelter on Creston Drive, when
finished, will be insured.

Main discussion at the
meeting revolved around reports
by the Ministry of Highways and
Pacific Northern Gas. Highways

_ District Manager John New-
house explained some of the
policies and objectives of the
highways maintenance system.

He said that for specific prob-

' lems the area manager for North

Coast, Earl Nygaard, is the per-
son to contact, —

He explained how roads are
classified according to the
number of people living on them
and consequently, snowplowing
begins first with the main
highways and school bus routes.
“It is not as likely for someone
to be killed on an unploughed
side road as it is on the
highway,’’ he said.

As far as hard surfacing is
concerned, Newhouse said the
side roads are upgraded in a
systematic way, and when the
roads are ready with a firm base
they do them all at once —
budget permitting. It is more ef-
ficient that way.

The possibility of traffic lights
being established at the intersec-
tion. of Oli’s turnoff and
Highway 37 was addressed.
Newhouse explained that they

would have to. be installed on a

cost sharing arrangement with
the regional district. ‘“There is a
problem in. that the Regional
District of Kitimat-Stikine
would need to go to referendum
in this case for a small amount
of money,” he said. ‘‘We are at
a stand-still until a cost-sharing
arrangement can be estab-
lished.”’

Earl Nygaard pointed out that
a left-hand turning lane is soon
to be incorporated at the turnoff
to Oli’s from Highway 37 and
that North Coast also is looking
at the Water Lily Bay turnoff
for improvements.

Nygaard responded to ques-
tions from Lakelse residents
concerning culverts that need to
be installed at driveways coming
off access roads as the roads are
upgraded and ‘ditching’ occurs.
Whether surface water would
then be diverted into streams
used as drinking water was one

Pulpwood key to future
of new mill, Stege says

by Tod Strachan

The Stege Logging sawmill in
Hazelton might be thought of as
small, remote and unimportant by
many Terrace residents. Some may
not have even heard of it. But
when the mill burned down in the
early hours of March 21, 14 Ter-
race people lost their jobs.

Irwin Stege says that when his
mill was operating, between seven
and elght Terrace truckers were
employed hauling chips to Watson
Island, another three were trucking
lumber to Prince Rupert, and
another two or three were hauling
logs out of the bush. In. the
Hazelton area, the destruction of
the mill put about 80 sawmill
workers out of work as well as six
logging truck drivers and two
lumber transporters.

Stege says now, however, he’s
confident that he will soon have
another mill at the Rim Sawmill
site in Hazelton in operation. Just
how important it will be 1o the
northwest will depend to a large
degree on the government's deci-
sion on Pulpwood Area 17. That
decision is near, says Stege: all the
meetings are over and the mini-
stry’s recommendations are in
Victoria. Any indication of just
what that decision might be, howe-
ver, is still as elusive as morning
mist. According to Stege, the rec-
ommendations are a “secret” and
there are enough of them that
Victoria can choose almost any
direction they wish.

How important is this decision to
Stege? He explains that the mill
will probably reopen anyway but
that its future may hang in the
balance. The purpose of PA 17,
according to forestry consultants
Hugh Hamilton Lid. of North

Vancouver, Is to encourage the full

utilization of chips and to provide .

_ Cmergency sources of fibre in the
_ event that sources of chips are

inadequate. Ave rting to conten-

ders for the PA 17 licence, this

would give them the security they
needed to exapand existing pulp
mills or, if they didn’t already
have one, to build a new pulp mill.

But there was one application for
timber rights submitted before PA
17. Stege Logging needed more
timber and Stege says they applied
for 300,000 cubic metres in the
Kispiox Timber Supply Area, a
portion of the area covered by PA
17. He explains that his mill has
license to only 65,000 cubic
meters of wood annually but they
use 260,000 to 270,000 cubic
meters every year. The difference
is bought on the open market, and
Stege says that if this trend con-
tinues it could affect the operation
and possibly the existence of his
mill.

According to Stege, the timber
offered in PA 17 is perfect for his
needs, Timber stands which he
describes. as one-quarter to one-
third rotten hemlock still contain
usable wood. He explains that 50
percent of the remaining timber is
sawlogs while the other 50 percent

‘is best used for pulp. But even this

latter category of logs can have
value in the right kind of mill. In
the past, he says, lumber has been
milled from at least a part -- up to
1/3 of these logs, Siege claims --
by cutting what lumber they could
and sending rest of the log through
the chipper.

This is a problem in_ itself,
though, says Siege. They only get
$15 per cubic meter for the chips,

80 profits from the sawlogs have to
go towards paying for the produc-
tion of the chips; good use of a
questionable resource, but not an
economically sound practice. Most
modern mills, therefore, couldn’t
accommodate this sort of special-
ized handling but the Rim site is
gearing up for something a little

different -- providing basic cuts to

on-site secondary manufacturers.
Stege says one firm is already
interested in leasing land on the

millsite, near the dry kiln, and ie

concern expressed.

A spokesman for Pacific
Northern Gas, Wally Classen,
also a Lakelse resident, reported
that the gas company would not
finance bringing gas out to the
community. ‘‘The answer is
no,”’ he said. ‘We live in an
area that is not populated
enough. That is the price we
have to pay for rural living.’’

However, he pointed out that
there were two things they could

do: ‘‘You can go to the govern-:

ment and perhaps get a govern-
ment incentive of some kind, or
(needing a base of $70,000 col-
lectively), we can get 40 or 50
people together and each paying
a certain amount can get gas
maybe even before fall. It could
be a community effort,’’ he sug-
gested, ‘‘maybe some residents
have backhoes?

‘I want to go on record to say

that (if that is done) I will write a -

cheque for $2,000 tonight and

expect to get my money back i in
savings.”

This meeting of the newly
formed Lakelse Community
Association was brought to a
close with the announcement
that there would be an Easter
egg hunt and community spring
picnic Easter Sunday. Margaret
Sullivan hoped that the Easter
bunny wouldn’t hide the eggs
too early lest the birds and squir-
rels make off with the goods.

‘Missed credit

In our introduction to the
Miss Terrace candidates in
the April 11 Terrace
Review, we failed to credit
the fine work of photo-
gtapher John Roders, who

. Supplied the original photo-
graphs of all candidates.

“|

inn

oT

intends to build a remanufacturing :

Plant,

Stege also suggests that if he
were to get the 300,000 cubic
meters of wood he applied for in
the Kispiox forest district it would
not only insure the success of his

own mill but provide security for |

chip users like Skeena Cellulose as

well. "I could guarantee Skeena

Cellulose chips for 20 years,"
claims Stege.

But he has plans for using some

of the waste as well, trees that are

Fine Dining
in quiet surroundings!

5 p.m. — 10 p.m.
4620 Lakelse Avenue

638-8141

& Polly’s Cafe
Bes. cine & Western Cuisine —

 Mon.—Thurs. 10:30 a.m. — midnight
Fal. & Sat. 10:30 a.m, — 1 a.m.
_ Sunday 12:00 a.m. — 10 p.m.

4913 Keith Avenue,
638-1848 o 638-8034

no good for chips, let alone lumb- :

er, and are literally being "pushed 3

over the side of the cliff at the

present time. “It’s important what §

you do with your waste," Stege
says as he describes his plan.

There’s no natural gas in Hazelton j

and he would like to build an J
incinerator that would bum up to &

30 tons of waste per hour in order &
“to provide heat for the dry kiln and 9 4
the mill. Eventually, he says, they fA
may even be able to create their [EM

own electricity from this waste.

This whole plan, however, hinges |

on the government’s decision on
the PA 17 licence. Stege was

asked what it would mean if that §
decision went against him, but he §
tefused to predict doom and §

gloom. "All my life I’ve been an
optimist,” he replied, "and I’m
going to stay that way."

In the mean time Stege is prepar- -

ing for a bright future. He’s pre-
pating to relocate salvagable

equipment ‘from the burned-out iw
Taill, and as early as next week §

hopes to cut 100,000 board feet of
lumber as a fest run. After that, he
plans on more salvage and cleanup
work ‘at the old site and hopes to

install a whole log chipper at the [ar

new site,

»
(

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