m aie issues aebat Sky high The political gloves came off at Monday night’s all candidates forum in Terrace\NEWS A5 Marathon Man Sunshine and spectacular perfor- mances made the airshow an event to remember\COMMUNITY B1 WEDNESDAY , MAY 15, 1996 By CRIS LEYKAUF MOST PARENTS register their children for kindergarten when they tum five or six, Shawn Krienke registered his son when he was two weeks old, And the little guy wasn’t even first on the list for the class which will begin in September 2001. The school which is in so much demand is Uplands Elementary. Enrollment has been climbing at the school, as more and more people move to new homes being built on the bench. “It’s a really serious concern,’’ said Krienke, who lives on the bench, was stunned by the idea of enrolling his new bom so soon. Friends had contacted him, telling him it might be a good idea to sign his two and half year old daughter up for kindcr- garien. ‘She was 23rd on the list!,” said Krienke. ‘It’s just.bizarre.”’ When he enrolled her, he was asked if he had any other children. That’s when he signed his son up. “He hadn’t even deen issued a birth certificate number yet."’ Martin said that the only kindergarten At age 48, runner Ed Ansems proves he’s still at the top of his class\SPORTS B6 year Which is full right now is next fall,» They’re automatically placed at the 96/97. But the following year is almost full, she added. As for families who move to the area with children in older grades, Uplands isn’| accepting any new pupils right now. At a recent public meeting parents and the school board decided that when classes are full, the school board will help find another school for that child to attend. People who plan to move to the bench in the next few years can still sign their children up for kindergarten, but those names are “‘red Dageged,”’ bottom of the list, and those children could lose their spots to children who al- teady live on the bench. Despite enrollment problems, there are no plans to put additional portable class- rooms by the school, said Martin. But the school will be sending the Tegistration lists to the Ministry of Edu- cation, to persuade the government of the need for a new elementary school on the bench. The Chamber of Commerce has also wrillen a letter to the school board, and maps showing the ever-incieasing devel- S TAN DAR 1) <= School crunch affects infants opment of the bench will be sent to the ministry as well. "It would be nice if we could get even more letters,’’ said Martin. So far parents have been very under- standing about enrollment problems, but Martin is worried about what might hap- pen this fall, as families continue to move to the bench. In a mecting with ministry officials at the end of April, the school district was told there would not likely be an an- nouncement regarding a new elementary school for the 96/97 school year. Uplands principal Dawn Martin. mw Freeze, punk! CONSTABLE SANDY FAZAN takes aim with her new nine millimetre Smith and Wesson during a practice session at the rifle range, Fazan Is taking part in a three-day training program designed to famlliarize ACMP officers with their naw handgun. For more on the new weapon and training, see page Al2. City backs Kitimat plea A KITIMAT GROUP has received the support of city council in its efforts to reach a negotialed settlement bet- ween Alcan and the provincial govern- ment over the death of the former’s Kemano Completion Project. Northwest Communities: Coalition spokessnn Allen Wakita told ecuncil May 13 the coalition feels the futures” of Kitimat and Terrace depend’ upon. Alcan getting power‘to replace that. which was lost when the completion - project was cancelled by | the “Provin- cial government.” Kemano Completion was hole in- ished at (he time of its cancellation, leaving Alcan inthe posilion of seek- t ing compensation for the more than $500 million it had already put into the project. “If Alcan sues the government we see that as a huge loss to our commun- ity. We can’t see that as a win,” Wakita suid, > Also unwanted i is Alean receiving a cash settlement, from ‘the province tn return for losing Keinano Completion . power. as the company could teinvest . it elsewhere, Wakita added.’ We: don’t beli ieve any ‘amount of. cish is a benefil to ‘our community" _ he said, Alcan and the provincial govern- inent had been negotiating a. compen- ; Wakita. . “He compared Kitimat’s loss of KcP: we sation package but those talks are on hold because of the provincial election. The Northwest Communities Couatition began Jife last year as the Kitimat Communities Coalition. in response to the death of the Kemano Os project. -- Ate: has recently been renamed “becnuse of the potential for northwest-” ern communities to become involved” in issites other than Kemano, sald’ “to What) might happen: in: Terrace. should. foresiry companies ‘lose sub- > stantial portions of their timber rights. Another company on clean up list ANOTHER PROPERTY has been added to the list of businesses on Keith Ave. that will be forced to clean up an old con- taminated site. Representatives of B,C, Automotive — the first one south of Keith to be affected ~-- are also invited to a meeting of property owners this week to deal with the issue. “They are the major land holder directly south of the site,’ says Environniént Cana- da waste management engineer Richard Glue. ‘There is additional contamination identified from some of the work CN has donc.’” . The probe of the site is being led by En- vironment Canada, B.C. Environment, and CN Rail — which bought the old MacGillis and Gibbs pole yard and then later broke up the property, selling it io existing businesses, Analysis. has shown creosote con- taminants left behind in tanks on the prop- erty have entered the water table. *‘Any ground water there tends to flow towards the Skecna,’’ Glue said. ‘‘We want to make sure there are no toxic discharges to the Skeena River.”’ There’s no significant health risk posed to people, but fish and other aquatic life could be affected if chlorinated phenols and petroleum hydrocarbons were: to reach the river. The chemicals were probably stored in dip tanks on the old pole yard site for a couple of decades, Glue said. “A lot of that material has probably migrated as far as it can go,’’ Glue added. “We weren't aware of contamination is- sues until about three years ago.”’ At that point, Glue said, CN pumped left over contaminants out of the remaining dip tanks there and since then has begun assess- ing the site. Government agencies want the property owners to prepare a cleanup plan by July 31 and to provide an outline of it by May 31, City of Terrace officials believe the city would be exempt from any blanket waste Management order that might be used to force property owners to clean up. The city has a right-of-way for a water line running in a narrow strip through the contaminated area. Councillors were sympathetic to business owners there, who théy noted could Tace large cleanup bills. Environment Canada officials have said the cleanup cost could run into the millions of dollars. B.C. Environment waste management of- ficer Alex Grant said options range from “everything from doing nothing to taking all the buildings down.”’ ‘Hopefully there’s an option in between that’s affordable and will help protect the environment.’’ How much work is needed depends on the results of more test drilling now being carried out by CN Rail. “What has to be determined is if the con- tamination is moving, and if so how faat,’* says Grant. City councillors said the events unfolding seem unfair to the businesses there now — who had nothing to do with the original contamination. **There seems to be an element of unfair- ness as far as I'm concermned,”’ councillor Ruth Hallock said, ‘Why is there no recourse against the people who actually polluted the property in the first place?’’ Grant says the MacGillis and Gibbs com- pany dissolved in the carly 1980s. The operators of the firm could face civil lawsuils, Grant said, but added that was far from certain. “They would be liable only if contamina- tion could be directly related to their decti-' sions in running their business,’’ he said, Two die in plane crash FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS are stu- dying the scene of an airplane crash which look the lives of two Saskatchewan men May 9. The two were flying a single-engine Otter east from Prince Rupert in a snow storm whet it slammed into a remote mountain range directly east of. Terrace , May 9. Dennis O’Brien, 46 of Saskatoon and John Iverson, 62, of Meota, were employees of. Buffalo: Narrows Airways based out-of Buffalo Narrows i in northern . Saskatchewan, © The pair were flying the Otter back to the base from Ketchikan, Alaska, where the aircraft had just been purchased. “The last contact: anybody had with them was air traffic: conirol. in ‘Terrace,” said Capt. Kirk Sunter of the Rescue -Coordination Centre i in Victoria. “They were apparently concerned. with... the weather, and they asked if there’ been ‘any pilot reports of. weather to the east,” he said. “In fact, we believe’ (hey. crashed “about 10 minutes after that last contact.” ~ The’ Otter. was" following a commonly’ -Used ‘aircraft’ route through the rugged - Telkwa pass. The plane was equipped with an: Emergency Locator Transmitter, bul it was destroyed on impact. The aircraft struck a 6,000-foot ridge in the Howsen Range at about the 4,500-foot level, scattering debris tor about 1,000 feet ind causing a small avalanche where it struck. The company reported the plane over- due Thursday evening May 9. By noon Friday, four Canadian Armed Forces Buffalo aircraft, four helicopters and an armed forces Hercules aircraft were scour- ing the Terrace area. A Buffalo aircraft spotted the crash site early Friday evening and notified an amred forces Labrador helicopter, which hovered over site, delermined there were no sur- vivors and set down on a logging road at the bottom of the ridge. “We hit the first bits of debris about a half hour-out of base camp,” said New ‘Hazelton RCMP Cpl, Sandro Colasacco. “And then it still took us another half hour or more to.get up to the bulk of the crash site. Parts were even farther up the moun- tain as well,” ’ The crew. recovered ond removed the bodies of both pilots Saturday, “Two Transportation Safety Board inves- ligators were to begin their analysis of the crash site yesterday.