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WEDNESDAY
June-28;-2000-- -- -

_ $4.00 PLUS 7¢ GST
{$1.10 plus 6¢ GST-putside of the ....--
Terrace area)...” :

VOL. 13. NO, 12

Buyer wants chunk of airport land

Council rushing to
control any airport

land development

By JEFF NAGEL
THE SELLING of the airport
lands has begun.

And fears that unexpected deve-
lopment there could run contrary to
city wishes has prompted council to
move swiftly to slap restrictions on
the area. .

Provincial officials have confirmed
they’ve been approached to sell part of
the 170-hectare airport lands.

The proposal, from a local group, is
for a log marketing sort yard.

_.“We are having discussions with

Airline
struggles
to get off
ground

By JEFF NAGEL

HAWKAIR AVIATION is
close to a deal to finance
its purchase of a Dash-8
airplane and bring home-
grown competition to Ter- .
race’s skies. oo

The effort to conclude
financing has been far
more torturously complex
than any of the company
owners ever expected.

Hawkair spokesman
Dave Menzies said
they’ve pushed back their
anticipated first flight to
mid-August.

“[’m hoping that we’re
going to be able to offer a
scheduled service on Au-
gust 15th,” he said.

The delay has been due
to the complexity of finan-
cing arrangements and
now the push to get flight
crews and other staff
trained and certified.

Hawkair thought it had
a deal in place in early
June with a Vancouver
venture capital bank to
lend the majority of the
$5.5 million it needs to
buy the plane and pay

one proponent right now,” said Ri-
chard Hough, regional marketing man-
ager of the B.C. Assets and Land Corp.

The land in question is about 10 per
cent of the total airport lands, or about
17 hectares. ,

Hough said ils value is approxima-
tely $150,000.

City council had at one time hoped
either the city or the socicty running
the airport could acquire the airport
lands from the province for free to help
finance the airport’s operations.

Discussions did take place with the
society, Hough said, but those have
ended.

“There was too big a gap in
dollars,” he said, noting the entire air-
port lands are vulued at $1 million.

“Tf the airport wanted we would be

aati
iar eee Chis Slt. ame

startup costs.

That deal fell through
about 10 days ago and
Menzies spent last week
scrambling to slitch toge-
ther a new deal with a dif-
ferent bank and other part-

ig ade ay f Ee ‘ti : “
a a a

@ A tradition begins

TERESA ROBINSON and the Many Nations dancers entertain the crowd at George Little Memorial

Park during National Aboriginal Day celebrations in Terrace. Hundreds attended the June 21 celebra-
tion, the first of what will become an annual event. For more on the festivities, turn to Page Bt.

prepared, lo sell it af market value. We
would not be prepared to sell it at less
than market value.”

Any proposed sale will likely be
advertised to ensure other interested
parties also have a chance to bid on
the land, Hough said.

“We get the best value for the
property that way,” he noted.

While a small slice of the airport
lands could soon be part of a sale,
Hough doubted the majority of the
lands will soon be snapped up.

“We would see that property being
developed in phases,” he said. “That
may mean some properly comes on
now and some comes on four, five or
I) years from now depending on the
need.”

While it's possible a speculator

could purchase all the land there, he
said it's untikely.

“Who could afford to sit on that
without receiving some sort of return
that they could get by having the
money sit-in the bank?”

Any sale of land would require sub-
division and rezoning of the land from
its present designation of rural residen-
tial to industrial.

Councillors decided last week to
quickly extend the city’s Official
Community Plan out to cover the air-
port lands. That process will take a
couple of months.

Since the zoning now is residential,
city planner David Trawin noted there
was a remote possibility someone
could buy the land from the Crown and
put in a residential subdivision without

the city being able to stop it. That
would run counter to the city’s overall
vision of the area as an industrial area.

Extending the community plan en-
Sures any development there has to go
thraugh council.

“Before all sorts of people grab up
this land with ideas of what they want
to do with it we should get some defi-
nilive control over it,” said councillor
David Hull.

“It's the first time in Terrace that
we've actually got a blank pallette,”
he added. “I'd hate to see something
happen and handcuff the future of the
area,”

Mayor Jack Talsira also pushed for
the move, suggesting the Crown is
under pressure to sell land and refill
depicted government coffers.

ners,

It was still up in the air
at press time, but if ap-
proved would invoive a
handful of private local in-
vestors, the Canadian
Western Bank, the eastern
Canadian vendors of the
airplane, the Business De-
velopment Bank of Cana-

sensus agreement at

Land-use plan in overtime
as forest impacts weighed

By JEFF NAGEL

last week's

potential threat to jobs,

Princess to
be scuttled

School landmark called unsafe

By SARAH GLEN
SHE SITS moored on the
grass, her flaking paint
wor from 23 years of
small feet clambering,
running and jumping on
her hulking metal body.

While the Parkside
Princess may be looking a
little worse for wear these
days, the steel boat that
fronts the elementary
school’s playground has
helped form the childhood
memories of almost all the
school’s students.

And now School Dis-
trict #82 wants to take it
away.

“It seems that the
school has been hit with
one piece of bad news
after another,” said Anna
Beddie, a parent of three
children — two who have
graduated from the school,
and one who still attends.

“First it was the school
closure, then losing a prin-
cipal and now the

Princess.”

The idea to remove the
Princess comes from a
safety inspection report to
the district that deemed
the boat unsafe.

The report has since
been lost.

“We have to make
things safe for both the
kids and the employees,”
said Robert Gilfillan,
maintenance superinten-’
dent with the school dis-:
trict.

With the loss of the first!
report, Gilfillan is hoping:
to get another safety ‘in-!
spector to take a second’
look at the boat either in
July or September.

That could determine
whether the boat can be
altered for safety rather
than being completely re-
moved, he said.

Gilfillan notes that a lot
of the district’s playground
equipment needs to be
brought up to current safe-
ty standards — not just the
Princess. ,

“The safety standards
for children’s play equip-
ment has changed drastic-
ally in the past few years,”
said Gilfillan.

Some of the other play-
ground equipment changes
include cutting down the

Cont'd Page A16

da and 16/37 Community
Futures. ;

“Irs turned into a very
complicated process,”
Menzies said. “We are’
trying to do something that
we have been told by a
couple of professionals is
very, very unusual.”

The main difficulty is
the small size of the Ter-
race-based airline, and its
financial assets. ;

“The problem is we're
not the Bronfmans,” Men-
zies said. “That's what it
boils down to.”

He said the tentative
deal to borrow the money
and buy the newly refur-
bished 37-seal Dash 8-102

Cont'd Page A13

A LOCAL LAND USE plan is
going into overtime to give forest
companies a chance to analyze ils
possible effects on their operations.
Participants in the Kalum Land
and Resource Management Plan
agreed Thursday to another round of
meetings. in August where they hope
to reach an agreement-in-principle.
' The group had been under pres-
sure from Victoria to reach a con-

Another big

THE NUMBER of developers and
developments poking around town
has increased dramatically, says
Terrace’s city planner.

David Trawin told city councillors
last week representatives of another

possible big box retail slore are
looking around at possible sites in

meetings.
The province said it had no more
money to support the Kalum process.
Bul Skeena Cellulose and West

' Fraser representatives said they

would not put their signatures to the
plan without a detailed examination
of its consequences.

City councillor Val George alsa
said he could not sign the document
without better assurances about the

box scopes out Terrace

Terrace.

“It’s a 25,000 square foot big
box,” he said. “Rumour is they’re
sending someone up in the next few
weeks,” a

He sald that comes in addition to
plans by local businessman, Glen
Saunders to build a:hotel next to-the

A report to the table in May fore-
cast as many as 420 jabs could be
lost, depending on which scenario is
used to protect grizzly bears,

“As far as I’m concerned if
there’s several hundred jobs on the
line, there’s no way I can sign on,”
George told the table, predicting the
community won’t accept that.

Continued Page A14

river on the former River Industries
property, as well as a number of
smaller development prospects.
Another phase of Rossco Ven-
lures’ Mountain Vista Drive subdivi-
sion is also expected.
“Things are starting 10-(urn around

-a little bit it seems,” Trawin said.

m Roadster whistlestop

RACERS with the Around the World in B80
Days Moter Challenged roared through Ter-
race, avernighting hare June 17. That's Ameri-
can driver Donald Sevart in his team’s 1929
Bentlay. For more on the vintage road rally,
see sports coverage page BE.