A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 11, 1996 TERRACE STANDARD ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Strect Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2 TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 * FAX: (250) 638-8432 MODEM: (250) 638-7247 Tricky position HOW MANY school district administrators does it take to screw in a light bulb? We don’t know, but we are sure there will be more than enough for that task given the flood of appointments to the new Coast Mountain school district last week, What was to have been a merger of the Terrace and Kitimat school districts to save money in overhead and other areas looks — at least for the moment — to have accomplished the exact op- posite. We now have an acting superintendent, an ac- ting assistant superintendent, an acting secretary- treasurer and an acting assistant secretary- treasurer in addition to a former assistant super- intendent who, for the moment, is someplace in administrative limbo. All of this is in aid of the smooth operations of the new district pending the final selections of people for the permament positions. While school district chairman George ‘Neumann hit the right motherhood button in saying the board is to act in the best interests of students, it also has to act in the best interests of taxpayers. And that’s where it’s going to get tricky for the new board in choosing its senior administrative complement for the former Terrace people who might be in the running come equipped with fair- ly hefty contracts. The heftiest of the contract clauses calf for virtually perpetual five-year terms and for full payment of the contract amount should the person’s job be terminated for reasons not connected with employment per- formance. In the case of the former Terrace su- perintendent and assistant superintendent, amounts of $500,000 appear to be in the severance package ballpark. So the unfortunate impression laid against the board is that its hiring decisions might be coloured by severance package payouts. One can only imagine the public relations nightmare cre- ated by the news that a hard-pressed taxpayer- supported body saw fit to pay $500,000 to a departing official. Thanks, Ruth RUTH HALLOCK deserves the good wishes of the citizens of Terrace for her many years on city council and for her record of community in- volvement. . Council for some time has missed Mrs. Hal- lock’s sense of humour and down-to-earth crusti- ness and will miss it all the more now that her time as a councillor has officially concluded. Mrs. Hallock was an accomplished print and electronic journalist who brought a solid back- ground in city history and affairs and a question- ing mind to city council business. Her best line came at the 1993 municipal elec-' tion all candidates meeting. During a discussion concerning the attributes of Mayor Jack Talstra, Mrs. Hallock said, ‘I’ve only got one good eye and Ill be keeping it on him.”’ To no one’s surprise Mrs. Hallock was a peren- nial favourite among the electorate. In 1993 she topped all comers, gathering 1,677 votes. We like to think those 1,677 people received Mrs. Haliock’s best efforts in return. PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ADVERTISING MANAGER: Rick Passmore PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS Jeff Nagel » NEWS SPORTS: Dave Taylor COMMUNITY: Cris Leykauf OFFICE MANAGER: Kathleen Quigley ADVERTESING CONSULTANTS: Sam Collier, Janet Viveiros, Karen Dietrich ADVERTISING ASSISTANT: Emma Law, Kelly Jean, Shannon Cooper TYPESETTING: Sylvana Broman DARKROOM: Susan Credgeur CIRCULATION MANAGER: Karen Brunelte MEMBER OF B.C. PRESS COUNCIL Serving the Terrace and Thombill area. Published on Wednesday of each week by Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd, at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, VG SR2, Stores, photographs, Hlustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property af the copyright holders, Including Cariboo Press (1969) ild., ifs illusiration repro services and advertising Comuaunery Newsrarms aba atiatign Gi) Calnebae eee Fale agencies, 7 Reproduction in whole of in part, without written parmission, is specifically prohibited, Authorized as second-class mail pending lhe Past Cifice Department, for payment of postage in cash. Special thanks to wii our contributors and correspondents 2 - for thelr time and talents. - = = 7 eH ke ale py * Wy vf oi Ree woe’ bee i wate TERRES a = ran, ws SS SS eg Se q RS a REMIND ME... | TIS THE SEASON TORE JOU... = | ae a Old liquor laws need fixing VICTORIA — When I ar- rived in Winnipeg in 1957, a new immigrant from Germany, one of the biggest culture shocks in store for me were the repressive and archaic liquor laws, A few days after my arrival, I met a girl and suggested we have dinner and a few drinks at a restaurant. Little did ] know. Restaurants, I found out, weren’t allowed to serve al- cohol. And where alcohol was served — beer parlors — women weren't allowed. I also found out that there were places where alcohol was served illegally. In fact, one of the best restaurants in town was operated by a bootlegger. The best chicken you ever ate and any drink you wanted. It was a busy place, the ac- casional raid by police notwithstanding, Since those dark ages, we've come a long way, baby, or have we? Just how far have we come if the provincial booze police can shut down a reslaurant because its TV screens are too big? How far have we come if parents can take their children for a meal to a pub-style restaurant but not a pub, although the two may look identical? We have about a dozen dif- FROM THE CAPITAL HUBERT BEYER ferent types of liquor licences in British Columbia, and the regulations covering each of them are so convoluted that the Liquor Control Branch can tell a restaurant how many televi- sion sets it is allowed on the ‘premises and whether or not patrons are allowed to play’ - darts or chess. : Restraints are required to ask patrons if they intend to eat If the customer changes his mind, the establishment is in breach of the law. In the most recent example of bureaucratic folly, the Lig- uor Control Branch ruled that Planet Hollywood, a ritzy chain of restaurants, owned by film stars Demi Moore, Arnald Schwarzenegger, Sylvesier Stallone and Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, can’t have giant TV screens in its new downtown Vancouver outlet. Planet Hollywood — spent about $7 million on the devel- opment of the site and will employ 300 people. The liquor cops said 32-inch screens are the limit. Tn another case, the Aqua Viva restaurant in Vancouver was told to remove a TV set because it could be watched from the holding lounge area. The Restaurant and Food Services Association of British Columbia feels — and rightly so, that the mishmash of con- tradictary liquor rules and regulations is an impediment to its members. The associa- tion wants a level playing “:field;-on which restaurants. can-+! ‘compele with bars. ~?:Attamey ~ General Ujjal Dosanjh is currently reviewing lhe province’s liquor Jaws, but I fear that any quick fix will only complicate and already intolerable mess of rules and regulations. The problem can't be fixed with band-aids, Modernizing British Colum- bia’s liquor laws is not just a question of letting restaurants put TVs where they want or al- lowing beer sales in pool halls, It’s a question of getting the gn goverment off the backs of business. It’s a question of government relinquishing its role of self-appointed guardian of society’s mores, British Columbia has become a world tourism destination. Living up to our reputation as Beautiful British Columbia re- quires not only treating our guests to the province’s natural beauty. bul welcoming them with a modicum of cos- mopolitan flair. IT can tell you that some of my friends visiting from Europe were quite flab- bergasted by our quaint liquor laws. This column is obviously not intended for those who frown on drinking, period, and would rather shut down any place that serves alcohol in any form. «Tnstead, I invite anyone who - believes that social drinking is acceptable and thal we don’t need goveriment to guide us from cradle to grave, to fire off a letter to the premier, telling him it’s time for a radical over- haul of British Columbia's fragmented liquor laws, The address is: Hon Premier Glen Clark, Victoria, B.C, V8V 1X4, Have at it, folks. Beyer can he reached at Tet: 920-9300; Fax; 385-6783; E- Mail: huberi@coolcom.com There’s really no life like it LOCAL STUDENTS Among Grads, reads the caption of a news item. “‘A number of northwest residents received degrees this weekend from the University of Victoria,”’ “UVic conferred degrees, diplomas and certificates on 662 graduates at the univer- sity’s 49th convocation ceremony on November 30.’ There follows the names of nine who received Bachelor degrees: one each from Gitwinksihlkw, Hazelton, and Kitwanga, and six from Ter- race. Those brief paragraphs sum up three, maybe four years of relentless, grueling endeavour to reach a goal crowned by a handshake, a scroll, and a pho- tographer’s flash. The news item conveys no hint of the personal effort, commilment and sacrifice of each student who earned a de- gree by correspondence courses, ABAH ! NOTHING LIKE A DIP ON A HOT DAY! FEELING THE ICE COLD WATER SOAK INTO MY FUOR«. ‘THROUGH BIFOCALS CLAUDETTE SANDECKI Daily life for correspondence students bears no resemblance to the carefree society whirl depicted by American movies and television. Instead of dormitory hijinks, it’s long solitary hours trying to study while the cyelids droop, wearing: two pair of actylic socks to keep feet warm on a basement floor, and Shopping with a calculator to stay within a skinflint budget. for exains, | Bor THE BesT IS YET To Come! It's dressing in wash and wear, walking bent over to balance a backpack forever loaded with textbooks, and popping corn for a weekend treat. Far from lazing in ihe sun, summers are frenetic months of working days at any job available, then studying nights lo gain an extra credit or two. Each semester is preceded by filling out pesky student loan forms, wringing household ex- penses to pay tuition on time before the loan arrives, fol- lowed by an unyielding burden of debt as student loan piles on student loan to formidable heights. Every semesier terminates in a crush of deadlincs, cramming revising and photocopying resumes, search- ing job wanted ads and bulletin boards for yet another short term job. Carciree fun is a rarity, Reading novels, going to a NOY 5¥-00t.: movie, watching a sitcom - these seldom fit into the sched- ule of a diligent university stu- dent, Besides texis to be read, es- says and reports to be written, and research to do, some de- grees call for practicums where the student must devote a num- ber of hours per weck to gain- ing experience in the ficld of her choice, Yet a quota of sludying must be shae-homed | into the day. Molhers of little children know the stress of relentless pressure — that stop the worid, I want to get off fecling when it seems impossible to cver relieve the unremilling grind, That’s the reality of a cor- respondence .student’s life from the moment she delves into her first course until she submits her final exam. The news item also fails to convey graduates’ pride and elation at their considerable ac- complishment.