Sports Features Community News Arts & Entertainment Your hometown locaily owned and operated newspaper WHILE THE CT Scanner project needs money, so do other patient care aspects of Mills Memorial Hospital. Administrator Michael Leisinger and representatives of the Terrace Elks and Order of the Royal Purple signed a contract Dec. 12 that will provide $23,000 over monitor, an oximeter and an isolette. These items are on the hospital’s priority list but do not qualify for government financing. The two serice clubs raised the money through joint bingo games. Shown above are Leisinger, Joyce Martel and Joe Turner (seated), and a three-year period for the maternity ward. The money will buy a fetal Photo by Shirley Porter Lawrence Baker, Jean Baker, Pete Smyth and Mary Doell. * City fine-tuning 1991 transit agreement Terrace city council is in the process of reviewing their 1991 B.C. Transit agreement, anda part of that process might include both a fare hike and some kind of a . package deal for Northwest Com- munity College students. ' The Finance Committee chair- .man, alderman Danny Sheridan, asked council to consider special rates for college students to bring those rates in line with other com- ‘munities. A fare hike, though, shouldn't surprise anyone. The last increase was in July 1988, and at the pre- sent time the average fare on the Terrace system is the lowest of all ‘comparable systems in the pro- vince. Our average fare of 50.8 cents is low compared to 563 cents in Kitimat, 62.2 cents in Port Alberni, 63.3 in Prince Rupert, 74,8 cents in Kamloops and 89 cents in Squamish and Prince George. These numbers are derived from revenues, including passes, ‘divided by the number of revenue - passengers. . In "real" fares we still come out looking fairly good. ‘Current bus fares within Terrace city limits are for seniors, students and children five years and older. For travel between Thornhill and Terrace, adult fares are $1 and for seniors, students and children a ticket costs 85 cents. By comparison, our single-zone adult bus fares are more expensive than Kitimat but the same as Prince Rupert. Three of the 23 service areas listed by B.C. Transit charge 65 cents for adults, one 70 cents, 11 charge 75 cents, four 80 cents, one 90 cents, and Squamish _and Nanaimo both charge $1. Using the same comparison for seniors, one community charges only 45 cents while four charge 50 cents, two 55 cents, nine 60 cents, four 65 cents and Nanaimo, Squa- mish and Prince George are the most expensive at 75 cents. For students and children, four communities charge only 50 cents, two 55 cents, nine 60 cents, four 65 cents, one 70 cenis and Nanaimo, Squamish and Prince George top this bracket as well at 75 cents per fare. For transfer fares we rank about the same; four communities are more expensive while two cost less. 75 cents for. adults and 65. cents. _ As -far as projections for ‘local service are concerned, B.C, Tran- sit’s small community systems manager Steve New estimates a total transit expenditure of $394,367 in 1991 compared to $326,570 in 1990, Along with this increased cost, however, is an 11 percent increase in conventional transit service hours and a 100 percent increase in custom- paratransit service hours. At the same time, conventional tiders are expected to drop from 108,200 to 103,000, custom but paratransit passengers are expected to number around 7,000 for an overall two percent increase in ridership. New adds, however, that the estimated 1991 ridership is "very conservative” and it could well be higher. Aside from the addition of the custom ft-ansit service last July, New blames higher fuel costs and the GST for fare increases. According to New, $9,000 is included in the budget estimates to cover anticipated GST costs in 1991. Medical loading zones to be tried Terrace city council has approved patient drop-off zones in front of the Emerson Medical Clinic, The Medical Clinic on Greig Ave. and ‘Kermodei Physiotherapy on Park Ave. Council hopes the drop-off zones will ensure there is a place for motorists to pull over to the curb when dropping off or picking “up patients attending one of the. ‘ thirée’ medical" facilities named, but “it may not be a. permanent arrarige- ment. According to Planning and Public Works Committee chairman Ruth Hallock, the situation will be monitored to see if patient needs are being met, if additional drop- off zones are required, or if something altogether different is required to address the problem of clinic access by elderly or disabled © patients. Demand for Christmas food hampers up this year The Salvation Army’s volume of requests for food hampers in the Terrace area -is up this Christmas compared to 1989. Last December the number of hampers ordered was 291, but Lt. Mike Hoeft said Friday they have already reached that figure and he predicis another 50-75 hampers will be needed by the end of December. Hoeft says the big thing this year is that the economy is down. Salvation Army staff and volunteers are seeing more and more people who have been laid off, are collecting unemploy- ment insurance, or working for minimum wage. So far this Christmas the Salvation Army has raised less: than $16,000 but spent $20,000 on the poor and needy.