ie, B chit ahd a Oe TT eet Cre ort © GUSIRGSS ioe ee hs tae hi Mae By thd better\NEWS A9 Another attempt is being made to make public transit a bit © - Kids to get tips on how to safeguard themselves away from home\COMMUNITY B1 WAL-MART. Canadian Tire, Anoth- er major supermarket. A new fast food outlet. The rumours abound of new com- mercial developments on the verge of coming lo town. But most of them are looking for big chunks of property that are hard to come by. A new survey of remaining land that could be developed points to an acute shortage of large chunks of commercial land. ‘The interest is out there,’’ says city economic development officer Ken Veldman. ‘‘The question is whether they can get the land for it,’” In cach of the last five years, an average of 40,000 square feet of new Led City can’t meet commercial space has been built. But that ballooned to 100,000 square feet in 1995, and senior build- ing inspector Paul Gipps thinks that ' breakneck rate of commercial con- struction will continue for the next couple of years. “Last year, this year and next year could be very good years for Ter- race,” he said. And the planners at city hall simply don't know how that kind of demand will be satisfied. “If someone comes in with a big one, or two big developments, we're shot,’’ said planner David Trawin. For the short term, they hope to en- courage developers to be more crea- tive in making deals that put together Six locals are working hard to prepare themselves for a May marathon\SPORTS B7 — ~ STANDARD 75¢ PLUS-5¢ GST -- VOL. 8 NO. 40 a number of lots. But the key to making sure the city continues to grow over the mid-term is to canvert light industrial land to commercial space. “T think we’re just a couple of major commercial developments away from a critical mass and really solidifying our position as a regional centre,’” Veldman said. That’s why city officials see the ac- quisition of the airport lands as being the key to the city’s future. A light industrial site at the airport would allow things like truck shops and warehousing businesses downtown or along Keith Ave, to relocate, freeing up valuable com- mercial space. “You couldn’t draw up a beiter site,’* Veldman says of the airport. It’s got the necessary infrastructure, it’s a large area, and many light in- dustrial outlets don’t really need to be on prime real estate. As long as there’s somewhere to ‘go, the market will take care of the lransilion. A truck yard would likely see the value of the land go up to the point that they could sell, move to another industrial site, and come out with money in their pocket and lower tax bills. The city is beginning negotiations with the province to lease lands sur- rounding the airport. But Victoria has indicated it wants land demand | a cut of any profits that come from the deal. The possibility of amalgamation with Thornhill — especially if it came along with provincial money for infrastructure upgrading there — would also ease the crunch for space in Terrace, Big developments are reluctant to invest in Thornhill without adequate infrastructure and with the area’s fu- ture still up in the air. A referendum is expected on some restructuring option this year. There are a few large pieces of commercial property ready for de- velopment. For more on that, please see Page Al2, Bed cut plan readied A VANCOUVER architect is expected back in town ncxt week with plans for a centralized medical ward at idills Memorial Hospital. Michael Morris of Van- couver spent a long day at the hospital last week work- ing on the concept to cut as many as 10 medical beds from the 42 now there. This will reduce the num- ber of employees needed in anticipation of Mills losing up to $500,000 from its provincial operating grant in ils new budgel year begin- ning April t. Mills administrator Michael Leisinger said Morris spoke lo as many people as possible last week to get their ideas on the layout of the centralized ward. “When he returas he'll show the plan to the em- ployees again before it’s submitted to the (hospital) board,’’ said Leisinger. The bed cut plan is designed to fit the amount of money Mills receives from the province, As the situation now slands, the hospital’s costs exceed its budget when more than 25 people are ad- milted to the medical wards, Mills wants to run at an occupancy level of 75 to 80 per cent, translating into having approximately 32 beds on its medical wards, The ward centralization plan calls for moving the varigus medical wards closer logether by grouping them around a new nursing slation. The centralization scheme doesn’t involve the 10 beds located in the hospital's psychiatric ward, LAKES Oi ry, ; MONDE A tapi a # Non-smoker for life ALL BABIES born today at Mills Memorial Hospital to non-smoking parents will receive one of these non- smoking bibs, Today is Weedless Wednesday, and the staff at Mills Memorial Hospital encourages smokers to make an attempt to ‘kick the habit’ taday. Young Colby Willis above, born Jan. 3, hopefully won't ever start smoking, say hls parents, Christy and Kelly. Statf at the hospital hope to encourage teens to give up smoking. For story see B3. Big bucks flow to Skeena area SKEENA RANKS fifth in the province when it comes to electoral ridings receiving BC21 community grants, indi- cate figures released last week, The $802,000 over the past three years for the riding held by NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht went to six major com- munity projects. All of the four ridings which topped Skeena are held by top-ranked NDP politicians. .-- - One of those, the Vancouver-Mount Pleasant riding, is Premier Mike Harcourt’s. It received $934,000. Release of the figures last week led to criticism by oppo- sition politicians who said the grant system favoured ridings represented by NDP MLAs, That’s very much a traditional attack by opposition politicians who say the government of the day deliberately steers community grants to ridings it holds. Opposition Liberals used figures prepared by the provin- cial Auditor-General, an independent financial watchdog, as justification. The Auditor General’s breakdown indicated that 81 per cent of the BC21 cash over the past two years went to the 61 per cent of the electoral ridings held by the NDP. oe Liberal party spokesman Gary Farrell-Collins called it “pork barreling’’ while Reform leader Jack Weisgerber - called the grant system a slush fund, But Gordon Wilson of the Progressive Democratic Al- ” liance said those figures are skewed because they included grants for province-wide organizations. ‘*Let’s say for the sake of argument the B.C. Association for Community Living gets a grant and its headquarters are in Vancouver-Kingsway, an NDP riding,” said Wilson. “The association uses that money across the province - but because it's in a NDP riding, the Auditor General as- signed that figure to the riding and that’s not right,’’ he said. Wilson took out the province-wide grants and came up with 65 per cent of the BC21 cash going to NDP tidings. “7m not an apologist for the NDP and I'm not doing this in defence of the provincial government but this is one of the things they have done correctly — they are being fair in the application of the grants,” Wilson added. He said those MLAs that fight hard for BC21 grants will get results, Wilson’s Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding received $651,000. Skeena’s $802,000 total was substantially more than the $372,000 which ‘went to training and labour minister Dan Miller’s North Coast riding to the west and the $461,500 which went to highways minister Jackie Pement’s Bulkley Valley-Stikine riding east of here. Skeena MLA Helnut Giesbrecht was reluctant ta take credit for the amount received here. “Peaple put in good applications and those that provide service to kids, those that have wide community support get favoured,” he said. The six major BC21 grants in Skeena over the past three years include amounts for the Terrace library expansion, the new Kitimat curling rink and the Kinsmen’s Lakelse Lake youth camp. Non-smokers gaining upper hand in city ARE SMOKERS a dying breed in Ter- race? Over the last five years, a number of buildings in Terrace have gone non- smoking. All federal and provincial buildings course, bul there are also local businesses who’ve voluntarily chose to oy go the smokeless route, Among the smokeless restaurants in town are Tim Hortons, McDonalds, Don Diego's, A&W and Subway. Customer complaints and public and staff health concerns prompted Tim are now non-smoking of : Hortons’ conversion a year ago. Smok- ing is still permitted in the Skeena Mall’s food court where there’s a Tim Hortons outlet A concert for children’s health was be- hind the change-over in McDonalds. Don Dicgo's switched over a year ago because of customer requests, Subway has always been non-smoking, because the food is prepared right in front of the customers, Other local restaurants put in smoke- free zonea but have kept half of their seating as smoking because of customer requests. The Golden Flame, Mr. Mikes, Pizza Hut and the A&W drive-thru restaurant all have smoking sections, While local bars and pubs remain smoking, there now exists a smoke-free entertainment option. The newly-opened Chalky’s Billiards on Lakelse Is smoke and alcohol free, “We wanted more of a family atmo- sphere,” said manager Colin Sheil. “And it’s cleaner and easier on the equipment, — “Scie. older, die-hard smokers. said we should have a smoking area,’’ he said, then added that “several people say they love to come here because it’s non- smoking.’ Mulligan’s Home Run, also new to Terrace, has chosen to go the opposite toute, People who come in to practice their golfing, or to try out the batting cages can smoke and drink. And many of the customers do, said the management. The Skcena Mall is also slowly becom- ing more non-smoking. Officially, the food court is now the only place where smoking is allowed, and more than half of those seats are non-smoking. Smoking is no longer allowed by the planters, but as of now, there are no signs telling people they can’t smoke. The city of Terrace also has a by-law preventing people from smoking in pub- lic places, wilh some exceptions, It seems the public Is fairly happy with the status quo. By-law enforcement of- ficer Frank Bowsher says he only gets two to three smoking-related complaints a year. But if you break those bylaws, watch out. The RCMP don't allow any smok- ing in the detachment cells in thelr downtown offices. :