_Wednésday, Nice place, city hall . The Committee of the Whole met Monday night to set 1989 ~ budget priorities, but it will be a while yet before their list is released. In the meantime everyone will just have to wait and.” wonder where city revenues will be spent.in the coming, year.’ City council has approved several financial items in the: past few months, In fact, they committed themselves to more . than $230,000 for better wages and working conditions in. the last. ' two months alone, and there’s-more to come, In order to main- | tain these wages and conditions, with no-further improvement, ° _ they’ve committed the Terrace taxpayer to something between $94,000 and $110,000 every year — forever, And where is this money-going? There’s an additional $1, 130 this year, and every year thereafter, for a better insurance policy. . for elected officials... This item-now costs us $1,760 per year in _ premiums in order to provide city aldermen with a round-the- _ clock $250,000 accidental death policy. The policy also includes -sOme new. items now — a weekly indemnity and some medical ex- penses. And then there’s the council indemnity i increase —_ from. $12,130 to $16,430 forthe mayor and from $5,789 to $7, 162 for. each city alderman. This, ‘‘to bring it in line with other com- munities of a similar size’’, will cost us an additional $11,402 — this year and every year after. It's true, they’ve declined a raise __ for the past few years, but we pay. our elected officials close to _, an aggregate total of $60,000 every year. LE te Aen a ene AEs gee ee mre LR Re ES me 5 ee a a officials and the people they hire. That’s going to.cost us $110,000 this year for new carpets and lights and blinds: Of _ course much of this will come from interest earned on an old slush fund, and the Teasoning is that it’s not costing us anything. - But we would all shed a tear if the bank caricelled the interest in our savings accounts because they decided it wasn't ours in the _ first place. And then, so all these people can be more effi cient we’re sell- “ing our $24,000 computer to the library for $5,000 (it's only on .paper) so we can lease something bigger and better for $7,301 a “year. It has more storage space so the city can do things like “keeping recreation bookings ‘in memory’’ — something that can ~~ "be done on an $800 Apple IIc.’ And it will allow more software to © - be accessed immediately — saving the frustration we all have watching a temporarily blank screen while the disc drive searches for something new. | We'll have computers in every office linked to one mainframe, and so everything will happen faster (except in committee); we've just spent $6,700 on new modems to increase phone line transfer _zfates from 2,400 to 4 phenomenal 9,600 baud (that’s bit’s per ‘second or 800 characters per’ second). And of course with all this ivhigh tech action we’re going to pay.a considerable fee to a com- ‘F Buter consultant to see if we bought the right equipment. ~, “Now some may feel this is all a little petty, but there is a point ° “to be made. As council sits down, behind closed doors, to decide . how our money v will be spent and where — should the taxpayer : continued on page 22 VWEAIFIED QCACULATION CNA Terrace Review Second-class mail Established May 1, 1985 registration No. 6896. The Terrace Review Is published each Wednesday by A ing in the Ti Raview | Close-Up Business Services Ltd. aI metere! appearing la copia Registra: Publisher: . tlon No. 362775 and cannot jegally be repro- Mark T wyfor a duced her any reason without pemnigeion of the ~ Editor: ; and omlesions. Advertising 1s accepted Mi chael Kell on the condition that in the event of Yo Ra eR - Staff Reporter. + ng f the ad "Tod Strachan ‘Tanna ln pl torah eniene sera must assume a or parang Manager rorein any classified ad which la supplied to the Advert - net ence’ with te 8. Human Rights Act, re sng Constant = no advertizement wilt be published whieh - —“Typonetting: «== =—‘non sd nena acuta 70> Gare Olson. of origin. " -" Broduction Manager: 4595 Grelg Avenue, 7° dim Hall’. . Terrace, BC. Production: 1M? _ Alvin Stewart, Phone: 635-7840 urbex Gill, Linda Mercer Fax: 635-7269 : Office: |; iam AAAI ae . Agcounting: ok in Canada $24.00 “oo Mar T Ord ‘enlors ie Yarse and Diatrlet $12.00 . Harminder Dosanjh . " ~ antors aut of Terrace and Olstrict $16.00 Letters to the editor will be considered for publication only when signed. - < Pfgase Include your telephone number. . "The editor reserves the right to condense and edit letters. Opinions sexpedased are not necessarily those of the Terrace Review, . And then of course we have to provide space for those elected | Wednesda ry _ Perspectives o _ by Bob Jackman a Are.Gentle Ben.and the... Steroids a new rock and roll. . group? How about Charlie and the Chemicals? If our need to produce winners is so great that, as almost 75 percent of surveyed athletes suggest, there are people willing to take liver- debilitating drugs to give them the winning edge, then maybe we should admit to our darker side and just let them ‘go for it’. Rather than trying to make our drug testing techniques bet- ter than their drug test avoidance techniques, let’s just say ‘to hell with it, it’s their _ bodies, if they want to risk dy- ing for a medal, who are we to ‘interfere?’ and let them get on with it, It’s not a whole lot dif- ferent from the entertainment value that a few lions and Christians gave to the Roman masses anyway, is it? If we're prepared to accept the fact that. the poor in the ghettos are go- ing to do ‘crack’ and heroin, why not accept the fact that our athletes can’t win without a few muscle enhancers? I was talking to a fellow the - other day who’s been involved in minor sports for a number of years. He was echoing what I’ve heard off and on over the years about some of the prob- lems in minor hockey, baseball and so on, where concentration on winning seems sometimes to overtake the teaching of skills, sportsmanship and team play. You know the scene — the coach’s kid gets to play ahead of some othets,: Of ‘the better skaters play 50 minutes and - others. ‘ride the bench’. In many cases, the explana- ‘tion is that this is the rep team ahd some of the better players - are being trained to take their . rightful places in the NHL or | NBA or where ever: The house leagues are set up for the aver- age kids, and that is where the © concentration on skill develop- ment, etc., takes place, From reading about some of the benefits of steroids, I guess 4 house team player who can skate Well but is a little light could probably down a few pink pills over a 10-week period, gain a few pounds of - muscle and maybe even make the rep team. And if we can admit to a darker side, the bet- ter rep team players could . steroid their way into the NHL, bigger and more aggressive than the ones who don’t get past junior. Have I opened a a. ‘can of worms? @ ...the question I really want _ to ask, looking at news from the past couple of weeks... Did Winston Churchill and the English know about the . impending attack on Pearl Har- bour two weeks before . December 7, 1941? Think - about that one for a few minutes! We know the U.S, was reluc- tant to join the war effort in Europe. Is it so hard to visualize Allied military leaders (guys like Ollie North, for ex- ample) holding back informa- tion? What do you think? If these reports are true, (and I’m not going to try to tell you what to think) look at the im- _ plications. Would the war in Asia even have happened? If . the Americans had been prepared at Pearl Harbour, would the first attack have been the last? No atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No Japanese oc- cupation and réconstruction. Who would the world’s in- — dustrial power have been to. day? Could the war.in Europe . have been won without the Americans? Closer to home, if David Suzuki had been brought up as a pampered rich kid in ’ New Westminster rather than. in a Slocan Valley internment _ camp, would he have beena Conservative MP rather than ~ what he is today? a This is bloody serious stuff, : and deserves at least as much -- thought as the City’s concrete -_porta-potties and turning all the streets south of Keith into one-ways. If the reports are true, and I keep stressing the — if, does that make Churchill one of history's greatest villains, rather than. one of its greatest heroes? The events that: led to: the destruction of two entire cities, that probably changed the way we'll live 7 forever, preventable? It’s worth - a few minutes of thought. ee ro Notice Due to the Easter holiday the. offices of Close Up Business Services, publishers of the Ter-. pace Review ard Close Up magazine, will be closed from - Kriday, March 24, through Sun- day,. March 26. Normal office hours will resume Monday, March 27, and advertising and news copy will be accepted for the Terrace Review March 29 issue until 12 p.m. Monday. — - Advertising deadline for Close. Up is Wednesday afternoon. For more information call 635-7840. .