Terrace Review — Wednesday, February 7, 1990 Al |

~ Rating the road maintenance ‘Letters to the Editor
Ad from Co-op members.

_ Most everyone wanted a little:
more winter; It didn’t look a lot
like Christmas at Christmas. But
the fourth and fifth weeks of
1990 changed all that... we got
all the snow anyone could ever
wish for.

by Tod Strachan.

| Along: with the snow,

however, comes the annual road —

maintenance crew-bashing ses-
sions, and in that respect 1990 is
no different that 1989 or any
other year before that. On the
street, criticisms were heavy and
compliments were few, so the
Terrace Review made a few
phone calls to see how people
really feel.

Maintenance. scored: a ‘“‘not.
bad’’, but Terrace city
maintenance crews didn’t fare
quite so well,

Canadian Freightways man-
ager Bob Petras said the talk
among his drivers was that, con-
sidering the amount of snow we
had in a very short time, things
weren’t too bad overall as far as
the highways were concerned.
‘*it’s better than last year,’’ says
Petras. ‘‘They were trying to do
their best and I would give them
full marks considering what they
were dealing with.’’ In fact,
from Prince Rupert to_Burns
Lake, he says, there were no real
complaints.

But this wasn’t true within
city limits. Petras concedes that
things may not have been all that
bad for private vehicles but for
the big rigs, he says, it was a
nightmare. In the city, “It was
very difficult for trucks,’’ Petras
says. The major problem: snow
piled on top of snow on the
center line, leaving no place for
cars to park and no room for
trucks to turn. The cause, he
says, was demonstrated Satur-
day morning when there wasn’t
a city maintenance vehicle in
sight. ‘They have to work week-
ends,’ says Petras. “Snow
removal isn’t a -five-day-a-week
job. They need to stay on top of
it. If they had maintained con-
trol of the situation from the be-
ginning the situation might not
have been so bad.”

It may seem unfair to put the
whole weight of this critique on
Canadian Freightways but
Petras’ words were. chosen
because they echoed, with few
exceptions, every call made. The
manager of another local truck-
ing company, who chose not to
be named, said that overall the
highways weren’t ‘‘all that bad’
but he didn’t drive in the city so
he couldn’t comment on their
performance. ©

The biggest problem between

Smithers and Prince Rupert, he

‘ditions from year to’ year, but

said, was the wind and that had
nothing to do with road main-
tenance. He did say that some
drivers complained about
‘tough sledding’? on the-
highway at times, ‘‘sometimes

crews: seemed a little slow to re- ..
. spond’’,
‘ amount of snow we had, he says
-no one really blamed ‘road

but ‘considering the:

maintenarice crews.

Greyhound spends .a lot of
time on the road ‘and Terrace
manager Richard Bowen con-
cedes that it’s very difficult to
compare weather and, road con- :

the general consensus seems to.
be that things are pretty much.
the same as they have. always

In general, North Coast Road: been, There has been very little

change since maintenance re-

- sponsibility was taken from the.

‘ministry and given to private

contractors.

Bowen points out that,
basically, ‘It’s still the same
equipment and the same men..
it boils down to how much
money you spend.”? Though
Bowen didn’t draw a picture, it
appears that the converse of that
philosophy is also believed to be
true.

Allthe same, with the excep-
tion of the city, Bowen rated
northwest roads fairly good
when compared to highways
found in the Fraser Valley and
Fraser Canyon. As far as the city
is concerned, though, ‘“‘It’s pret-
ty mucha mess,”’ he said. ‘‘They
do nothing on the weekends and
it’s piled up on them.’’ Speaking
on behalf of a local delivery ser-
vice, Ted Garner pretty much
agreed. ‘The city’s a mess,”’ he
said. Even with this statement,
however, Garner did rate main
city roads much better than
residential roads.

.Kalum Kabs proved to be
somewhat of an exception. Ac-
cording to Kalum Kab owner
and manager, Ailsa Henderson,
drivers there say the highways
were bad and the city was worse.
The main difference here may be
that unlike truck and bus
drivers, cab drivers spend much
more time driving on city and
rural roads than main highways.
Henderson’s husband, though,
does spend a lot of time on the
highway and she says that he

reports that the highway from
Kitwanga to Smithers was
“beautiful”? while the stretch
from Kitwanga to Terrace was
‘terrible’. She describes this
end of the highway as nothing
more than “two ruts’’. A little
closer to. home, though, the air-
port hill, wasn’t too bad, she
says. Although, she adds,
‘Nothing like it should be.”’

Switching to private residents,
the comments are little different.

Pifer — continued from page AG

oriented Sierra Club, which has.

lobbyists in the highest places. °
Methinks that if the govern-.
ment goes very much against —
that recommendation, Bruce
may stay out of caucus.a lot
longer, despite the vast majori-
ty of his executive having voted
that he return, cap in hand.
Stay tuned.

Parting Thought: The only

regret I have about taking a
quick 12-day holiday (so no
column next week!) is that I
won't be here to see what, So-
cred grande dame Grace Mc-.
Carthy does or says (if

. anything) in response to
Vander Zalm’s blatant
challenge to her to put up or |
shut up....sort of an “In your
face, Grace’.

ly good marks.
‘maintenance of rural roads is’

Sandy ‘Sandhals lives at Lakelse
Lake and gives North Coast fair-
The winter

just as good as it has ever been.

The city though, he says, is bad, -
and his wife, who has lived here
all her life, describes them as

_ “terrible”? according to San-
dhals.

And, “This snowfall
wasn’t like. the.good old days,”’

‘he. ‘adds. ‘‘There’s no place to
_park,?? ?” says Sandhals, but even.
af there was, because of the piles
“of snow, there’s no way to open’
the’ ‘passenger door. ““Years ago
-jt--was fairly good,’’ recalls

Sandhals. ‘But now, it’s not.
‘like it used to be. The town has.
gone to the dogs.”

Don Highe and Norm Carey -
both live in the Woodland Park
subdivision north of Terrace and
both say they have no com-
plaints. Highe, in fact, says that
from a dollar point of . view
things are even better. Highways
used to waste money by plowing
and sanding when they didn’t
need to, according to Highe.
Carey describes rural roads as
‘‘acceptable’’. When compared
to ministry days, they’re “‘no
worse, no better’ than they were
before. But, here again, city
public works crews failed to get
that slap on the back that might
boost worker moral. ‘‘The town
is deplorable,”’ says Carey.

‘Speaking from the Kitselas
Band office on Queensway, Mel
Bevan and. Bill Young said their
roads are ‘fairly good’’, Bevan,
though, admits to owning a
four-wheel drive and Young says
he has a front wheel drive.
‘‘There’s no need for anyone to
have any trouble as long as
they’re not flying around,” says
Young. ‘Ti's all in the way we
drive.’

Young's philosophy on driv-
ing is one that’s likely to be well
accepted by both public works
and North Coast Road
Maintenance. Speaking for the
city, director of operations John
Colongard says that considering
the weather conditions he
doesn’t believe city crews have
done all that bad. The problem,
he says, is the amount of snow
that fell in a short period of
time.

An example of this, he says in
response to charges that city
crews take weekends off, is what
they actually did last weekend.
On Saturday, says Colongard,
most of the city was done with
the exception of the Westview
Dr, area on the bench and on
Sunday crews worked from 5
a.m. to 8:30 p.m. plowing
almost all roads in town. The
problem, says Colongard, was
that: in places the road was
covered by four inches of snow
only an hour after the grader
had gone by.

As far as the piles of snow in

the center of the road are con-
cerned, Colongard says they get
to them as fast as they can, But.
before they can, they have to

plow every road in town and as.

long as it keeps snowing there’s
no way they can get to the center
line. And at times, in the past
two weeks, says Colongard,
‘sWe were buried in snow,’

Adding to the problems caused
by

continued on page A14

the heavy snowfalls, .

warrants an

To the Editor;

I noticed the advertisement
placed in your newspaper by
“concerned members of the Ter-
race Co-op’’. The intention of
the ad was to. counter ‘the cam-
paign to expose the seemingly
bad corporate decision of the
Co-op management in awarding
a major renovation contract to
Kermodei Construction, whose
employees belong to the General
Workers’ Union.

“I support the principle of co-
operation which led residents of
our area to establish the Co-op
four and one-half decades ago.
Unfortunately, -this is the only
aspect of this ad on which we
find common ground.

If the tendering process for
this contract had been done on a
level playing field whereby both
bidding contractors had a good
record in construction and equal
treatment of their workers, then
certainly bid price would
become the determining factor.
But this is not the case. As has
been shown in some detail,
based upon public documents,
information released under the
Federal Access to Information
legislation and close monitoring,
Kermodei Construction, with its
General Worker connection, has
failed to meet these criteria. I
understand, and believe it to be
true, that Co-op management

was made aware of this informa-"

tion. before the contract was
signed.

Under these circumstances,
the large $200,000 difference in
tendered prices should have set
alarm bells ringing. Instead, the

price appears to have been ac- |

answer

cepted with little consideration
or questions.

It is patently incorrect to sug-
gest that only two or three trade
unionists are involved. Literally

hundreds of Co-op members

have signed letters of complaint
on this issue. These members
support cooperative principles,
but see that the current Co-op.
board and management have
deviated from this path.

Rather than masking the issue.
through ads of this nature, ‘it
would seem more appropriate to

look for a solution. The Co-op a

leadership has made an error. It
is time to admit this and enter in-
to meaningful dialogue to at-
tract back to. the Co-op those
members who feel aggrieved.

In closing, may I impart to
you a little bit of history on the
Co-op movement in Terrace as
told to me by my father, Charles
Kofoed, who was one of the
Charter Members of the Co-op.

At a directors’ meeting, one
of the directors embarked on a
long disparaging tirade against
‘unions and of a particular dis-
pute that was taking place in
Terrace at the time. When he
was finished, he was promptly
told that if it wasn’t for decent,
hard-fought-for union wages
and support from those same
union workers, the Co-op would

cease to exist. Unfortunately, if
‘the same director were to make
the same speech today, the other
directors would make him chair-
man of the board. How times
have changed and, in my opin-
ion, not for the better.

George Kofoed,
Terrace, B.C.

_.and the Labour Council
adds a response as well

To the Editor;

Recent ads placed in your
paper by ‘‘concerned members
of the Terrace Co-op’’ begs a
response to correct misinfor-
mation given.

The people that you see
around the Co-op on weekends
handing out information are
not, as the ads suggest, anar-
chists doing their dirty deed.
They are dedicated, ordinary
workers carrying out decisions
that are unanimously decided by
all delegates to the Kitimat-
Terrace and District Labour
Council in the hope that the Co-
op board of directors will see the
light.

This appears to be unlikely,
considering that representatives
from the Labour Council met
with the board of directors in
mid-December in an effort to
reach a solutio:: the Labour
Council was turned down.

We asked for the following:

1, That the Co-op board and
management would not interfere
in efforts by council affiliates to
organize Kermodei’s workers.

2, That the Co-op board

would not interfere with the
council’s efforts: should. an at-
tempt to organize Co-op
workers. and staff be under-

taken. We were simply as! ‘1g
the board on these two issue. (0
abide by the law.

3. That the board would, as
they have prior to this job, use
building trades members on
future renovations. We ack-
nowledged to them that this
board could not commit future
boards and considering that ma-
jor renovations would not take
place for many years to come,
we did not consider than an out-
tageous suggestion.

The board turned down all
three requests, leaving us with
no alternative other than to con-

‘ tinue with our campaign.

That the board would not ac-
cept a proposal, which for all in-
tents and purposes was a face-
saving device for all concerned,
boggles the mind.

We hope that it is a question
of the board disliking unions so
much that they would not agree
to anything, rather than them
not caring for the future of an
organization that has put trust in
their judgement and common
sense.

_ John Jensen,
5 Ist Vice President,
ws .Kitimat-Terrace

District Labour Council. |