gz Job well done
MORE THAN three decades of work in the administration department at
Mills Memorial Hospital by Betty Misfeldt ended this month when she re-
tired. Misfeldt officially has 31 years of recorded service, but it is actually
more than that. She started working at Mills in 1965 but in those days,
when women went on maternity leaves, the time away was not counted
when it came to seniority accumulation.

Dialysis cost to be less
than originally predicted

A REGIONAL dialysis unit
at Mills Memorial Hospi-
tal should come in under
its planned budget, says
the Northern Health An-
thority official in charge of
its construction.

Michael McMillan said
money has already been
saved by moving the unit
from a first-planned shell
location on the second
floor of the hospital to the
old administration wing on
the main floor.

“By moving from what
is a shell to an area that
was more or less stripped
but which had some ser-
vices helped,” he said.

“We did some demoli-
tion early on and we got
excellent pricing as a re-
sult because contractors
could look at the full
scope of what needed to
be done,” McMillan
added. moe,

Officials also decided
that having the dialysis
unit located just inside the
main door of the hospital
made more sense for pa-
tient access as opposed to
having to go up to the sec-
ond floor. .

Successful bidder Pro-
gressive Ventures of Ter-
race submitted a price of
$378,000, a little less than
half of an original con-
struction estimate prepared
two years ago.

McMillan also said
economic conditions have
created a very competitive
bidding market.

“When people want the
work, they sharpen their
prices,” he added of the it
companies bidding an the
work,

Three of the bids were
very close to ihe winning
one.

The timing of the con-
struction also helped as
there is not a lot of outdoor
work during the winter
months, so contractors will
pay close attention to in-
door projects, McMillan
continued,

He also pointed out the
work of architect Dan
Condon in providing good
drawings for contractors to
consider.

“When you get good
drawings, you get good
prices,” McMillan said.

The original all-in esti-
mate to bring the unit to
start up was just over $1.4
million.

It included a con-
tingency fee, consulting
and testing fees, managing
the contract. and. purchas-
ing the dialysis equipment.

“Consulting is on..bud-
gel, program management
is on budget and we're not
expecting any significant
overages,” said McMillan.

Demolition costs and
some other items will be
added to the overall con-
struction tally.

The final cost of the
dialysis. equipment itself
won’t be known until the
end of January.

The unit has a plained
spring opening date, end-
ing years of lobbying for a
service for people with
kidney ailments.

The northwest has been
the only area of the pro-
vince not ta have a regio-
nal dialysis service.

It’s meant that north-
westerners have had to

Seasons Greetings
from
Terrace Little Theatre

Tickets are now available for
February’s Dinner Theatre
presentation of
Norm Foster’s

Affections of Ma

and

Yuk Yuk’s On Tour
January 24 & 25

“Season Packages

'. Are Still Available For
The Terrace Littl Theatre's

2002/2003 Anniversary Season

Wa

move away to be close. to
a dialysis unit.

Our official ticket outlet is

~ Visit br web sitel >
Pwinytit.ca-

ove Travel
47 18A Lazelle Ave y

KEITH AVE. MALL
TERAACE KITIMAT
GIS~S3I3S

getting raises
THE NORTHERN Health Authority has granted wage in-
creases to some of its senior and non-union employees.

The average increase worked out to five per cent per
employee, said authority official Mark Karjaluoto.

Individual breakdowns weren’t-available, nor were the
number of employees who received a raise out of the
204 senior and other non contract staff. .

But Karjaluoto did say the total. cost is $675,000.

The raises were granted after an. internal and external
review of pay structures which looked at job functions,
at what other health authorities pay their people and at
private sector salary levels.

That review was prompted by the need to examine
job responsibilities and salaries after the 16 smaller
community health authorities were merged into the
much larger Northern Health Authority last year,

Senior officials and other non-unionized workers from
those smaller authorities were transferred over to the lar-
ger body. ,

“We tried to ensure that salary levels were consistent
with with responsibilities,” said Karjaluoto.

“In some cases people were getting paid Jess than the
people they were supervising.”

Karjaluoto said the raises were examined by a provin-
ce-wide health employers association to ensure they
didn’t breach guidelines.

He noted that some senior and non-union workers
hadn’t received increases in several years.

Karjaluoto also said some employees did not receive
a raise because their salaries were already over that
what the position would normally pay. But they won't
have their pay cut, either.

_Karjaluoto did add there used to be 226 senior and
hon contract employees prior to the authority cutting its
expenses.

“We're down about 10 per cent in that area,” he said
of the 204 employzes of that type who remain.

CIiry CENTRE

G2I2-SO000
t-BO00-663.

MacKay’'s Funeral Service Ltd.

Serving Terrace, Kitimat, Smithers & Prince Rupert

Monumenis Concemed personal

Bronze Plaques service in the Northwest:

Terrace Crematorium - since 1946
4626 Davis Street

Terrace, B.C, V8G 1X7
funeral Sevice §= Phone 635-2444 © Fax 635-635-2160
Association 24 hour pager

www.safeway.com
TERRACE TERRACE

PAT CHRYSLER] ie) TOYOTA

www.terraceautomall.com

on, “on,
TER TER
3 aoe et vor
info @terraceautomall.com

STANDARD

advertising @terracestandard.com
newsroom @terracestandard.com

»AudiolRoni

"“SKEENA MALL
FEF FACE
GO3FIS-aaBd3IS

<3 FT 3