A year ago —
this week —

A NEW OVERPASS was on the
schedule for an approaching city
council meeting a year ago this
week. The meeting had been sche-
duled at the request of Northwest
Loggers’ Association president
Alex Houlden, who stated in a
letter to council that a more
thoughtfully-engineered railway
overpass was "urgently" needed.
And, "We would like some practi-
cal input into the initial design of
such a project."

Houlden said that in the view of
his association, the Sande Overpass
was totally unsuited for heavy
truck traffic but that.100 loads of
logs, 50 loads of chips and 20
loads of lumber cross it every day.
And this was only the local traffic.
In addition, there were loads of
logs destined for Kitimat, chips
from as far away as Prince George
headed for Prince Rupert and other
loads of heavy equipment and fuel.

Some might deem the overpass
safe (the rate of overturned trucks
on the overpass was less than
1/1000 of one percent, according
to Houlden) but he maintained that
the percentage rate should be zero.

"When the last truck overturned
on the overpass we were very
fortunate that it was a cold windy
day," Houlden wrote in his letter to
council. "Had it not been, the
chances of someone at the cross-
walk would have been greatly
increased."

RCMP PRIORITIES HAD
BEEN SET for 1989, according to
alderman Danny Sheridan, and

. beginning on May 1 there would
be a significant change in down-
town policing. Effective May 1,
RCMP foot patrols would bring
the personal side back to law en-
forcement and as soon as the city
repainted downtown crosswalks a
"public awareness pedestrian safety
blitz" planned the previous winter
would begin. This, it was hoped,
would stop the ongoing fight for
the right to a piece of Lakelse
pavement between legal pedest-
rians, jaywalkers, and motor
vehicles. .

Also, city council would be.
talking to Skeena Mall manage-
ment in the weeks to come about
some suggestions made by the
RCMP. According to police there
had been a number of accidents at
the mall caused by the original
parking lot design. On the agenda
would be traffic flows, enforce-
ment of no-parking regulations in
the fire lane in front of the mall,
and angle rather than straight in"
parking in the lot.

At the same time, efforts to
reduce vandalism hadn’t been
forgotten. RCMP inspector Larry
Yeske expressed appreciation to
both the Rotary Club and city hall

- for posting a reward that led to the
arrest of the arena hill vandal and
. said he hoped the practice of post-

ing rewards would continue.

- MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE
-" FOPIC OF SAFETY... council was
considering doing something about

a growing concer over the vol-
ume of traffic near a few Terrace
preschools and daycare centres,
The Planning and Public Works
Committee was given the job of
reviewing the problem.

HEALTH CARE WAS A PART
OF THE COUNCIL AGENDA.
Specifically, orthopaedic surgeon
Dr. David Kuntz. Terrace residents
Don Bodnar and Frank Donahue
approached Terrace council asking
them to join Kitimat council in an
appeal to the Ministry of Health

‘for a public inquiry. There was no

decision, though; the matter was
referred to the Committe of the
Whole for further discussion.

AROUND THE COMMUNITY
there were a couple of items of
note. First, the Skeena Theatre
Aris presentation "Squeeze" was
about to premiere before an audi-
ence of elementary school students
who it was hoped would learn
something about the relationship
between social pressures and alco-
hol abuse. And the second was the
Centennial Lions Ladies Diamond
Dinner that had received rave
reviews only a few days before.
Big winners a year ago this week

_were Debbie Menzies, who got the
trip for two anywheré in western

Canada, and Erlean Steele who
took home the big one, a 14-carat

gold diamond cluster dinner ring
valued at $900.

EDUCATION DIDN’T HAVEA
NUMBER ONE STORY... IT
WAS ALL BIG NEWS. A byelec-
tion had been called due to the
resignation of trustee Barbara
Johnson but this news was offset
by the ratification of the board’s
$28 million dollar budget. Included
in the budget was $70,000 to cover
the salary of a new position, Direc-
tor of Personnel Services, $150,000
for specialized teacher training,
$54,000 for a Gitksan language
program and wages for additional
classroom assistants, training for
principals, and implementation of
the first phase recommendations
from the Royal Commission on
Education.

School District 88 had moderated
their belligerent stand on an erron-
eous billing by B.C. Hydro and
decided to pay the $44,500 they
owed for their 1985 to 1988 E.T.
Kenney hydro bill, but this was
shadowed by events in the Nass
Valley. Mediation was scheduled
to begin Sunday in the dispute that
shut down schools in the Nass
Valley the previous week altering
the lives of 43 teachers and 500
students in four schools.

STUDENTS, THOUGH, WERE
ENGROSSED IN HEADLINES
OF THEIR OWN. Thornhill math
students came close to sweeping
area titles in the zone finals of the
1989 nationwide Pascal and Cayley
Mathematics contest for Grade

9/10 students. According to princi-

pal Tom Hamakawa, their achieve-
ment represented the best overall

Performances by the Strathcona Chinese Dance Company delighted hundreds’ of local schoo!
children a year ago this week. Each dance performed by the talented trio of Chinese-Canadian

sisters from Vancouver was introduced by their mother Mimie Ho.

results achieved in the history of
Thornhill Junior Secondary School.

f

THE BUSINESS WORLD PRO-
VIDED SOME TALK. AROUND
TOWN. The Northwest Mining
Conference drew a full house and
promise of much more to come.

The primary goal of the conference

was to give Terrace businessmen
an opportunity to try to tap into the
multi-million dollar Northwest
mining industry but only history
would tell how well they had
achieved that goal.

AND THE OKANAGAN
SKEENA SHOPPING CENTRE
WAS READY TO GO. "We can’t
wait," said Okanagan Skeena real
estate manager Bob Guy a year
ago this week. Their $5 million
shopping center would was ready
to go without the Otlawa St. clos-
ure, Approval for the closure could
take months, he said, but in the
meantime interest rates continued
to rise. Here again, a few more
chapters of history were waiting to
be written.

THE MINOR HOCKEY
AWARDS NIGHT attracted a
great deat of attention a year ago
this week and the Caledonia
awards banquet drew a large
crowd as well. But there was a lot
more going on. In the teen world,
the best in basketball were
attracted to the Caledonia basket-
ball camp and they attracted a lot
of attention as they did their best
to gain.a spot on one of the B.C,

all-star squads. Did our area have
teens with enough talent? "Defi-
nitely" said B.C, under-16 coach
Steve Pettifer. In the meantime, the
Canon ladies basketball team

proved we’ve had the potential for
years. The placed third in the
senior "B’ B.C. ladies finals in
Fort St. John.

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