Urban salmon A study says the city tighten development protect fish\NEWS AiO should rules to Looking upwards Students here get a trip to the stars courtesy of a roving planetarium\COMMUNITY B1 Vown to the wire A Games crisis is averted as locals open up their homes to. athletes\SPORTS B4 WEDNESDAY ~ JANUARY 22, 1997 93¢ PLUS 76 GST “VOL. 9NO. 41 Hospital can’t staunch flow of red ink MILLS MEMORIAL hospital is staring at a deficit for the third year in a row despite an ambitious plan which cut jobs by re-organizing its nursing service. Although there are two months: yet to go in the hospital’s financial year, it’s al- ready $200,000 in the hole. The re-organized nursing service, brought in last fall, has combined specialties and shifted and cut jobs in hopes of saving $400,000 a year. But budgeted goals of having an aver- age 25 patients a day in the hospital’s 32 beds on its main medical services floor, in combination with the re-organization, haven't worked out. Instead, the hospital is averaging 30-31 patients a day, almost 100 per cent ca- pacity, commented Michael Leisinger, chief executive officer of the Terrace Regional Health Care Society which runs Mills. **We lost $60,000 in a recent period,”’ he said. The hospital tracks expenditures by pe- tiods, each one representing 28 days. Leisinger said some large expenditures were contained in the $60,000 figure and he doesn’t expect that to repeal itself, Siill, Mills is expected to have to dip mw Maternity changes haven't cut costs, Page A8& into its surplus bank account to cover the gap between income and expense when its financial year ends. And there’s more bad news for the next budget year because the hospital has already been told not to expect an in- crease in the operating grant it receives from the provincial government, This’Il be the fifth year ina row Mills has either had its budget frozen or been granted minuscule increases. All of this comes at a time when Mills has been turned down fora third time for approval to renovaie ils main medical services floor in the expectation it'll lead to better patient care and staffing ef- ficiencies. The hospital first wanted to spend $1 million-plus to centralize its nursing ser- vices at one slation, improve patient rooms and move its pediatrics section closer to the main nursing station. That request for money was tumied down aS Was a more modest request for $400,000 to simply modernize its pediatrics section and create one main nursing station. The third request would have used money from the regional hospital district cand from the hospital’s own surplus for the $400,000 project. But the health ministry isn’t convinced that renovations will lead to lower staff costs. a And unfortunately Mills can’t tell the health ministry specifically how much’ money it’li save in wages by undertaking the renovations, said Leisinger. Continued Pg. A8 acer an Second arena plan dropped By JEFF NAGEL CITY COUNCIL has given up on negotiations with an Alberta firm to build a privately operated second sheet of ice. Mayor Jack Talsira told second sheet proponents Monday night that council feels uncomfortable both with the hidden costs associated with the proposal by Community Facilities Development Inc. and with the company itself. He said council doesn’t think the firm’s proposal would get the approval of voters in a referendum either. “| think it kind of puts us back to square one,” Talstra said, The only hope Talstra was able to offer demoralized second sheet proponents is a promise that the Terrace Advisory Parks and Recreation Commission will be expanded and directed to hold hearings and determine the city’s recreation: needs-for the next LO or 15 years. . : . Talstra said he hopes that process will unify the commiunity about whal’s needed for the future. . Several councillors suggested that perhaps what's needed is a proposal for a multi-use facility that combines a second sheet with other possibilities — perhaps a community centre or a youth centre. Talstra said the facility may have to appeal to a broader por- tion of the public — and that more money may have to be spent - than wes proposed in the 1995 referendum. “Tt might lead to a higher cost proposal but it might be more acceptable and easier to get through a referendum than a second sheet of ice alone,” councillor Val George added. Council's decision was based on new analysis of the CFDI bid by city economic development officer Ken Veldman. Veldman found a series of hidden costs in CFDI's proposals that would have cost the city millions more over a number of years. The largest of those was that B.C. labour law likely would not ailow the new operator to carry out its plan to eliminate the existing union from the arena operation and then cut wages by nearly 50 per cent. The union would have what's called “succes- sion rights” to the new facility, and that would increase annual @ Moose burgers ACCIDENTS INVOLVING moose are all too common during north- woods. Instead, he spends his winters picking up the hefty creatures west winters. In the Terrace area, the animals are routinely killed by and delivering them to needy locat families, Fer more on this un- both cars and trains. But one man refuses to let the meat rot in usual volunteer, see page AS. labour costs by $100,000. Continued on Page A2 Dump expansion okayed Thornhill site could take more garbage By DAVE TAYLOR THE CONTROVERSIAL = Thornhill dump would be a good location for a new sub-regional landfill, according to a recently released environmental study. A hydrogeotechnical investigation con- ducted by Sperling Hanson Associates found the site could expand to include waste from all Greater Terrace without significant environmental impact. While the year-long study will not be completed wutil June, results so far indi- ‘cate that discharge from the dump does not have much effect on atea water sup- plies, including nearby Thornhill Creck. However, the study also says leachate management will be critical should the regional district expand the site. That’s why it recommends rigorous testing, and the building of a leachate treatment system if an expanded dump is to be used there for an extended period. But even though the site has an en- vironmental thumbs up, regional district manager of development services Roger Tooms says that’s just the beginning. “We still have to look at costs, techni- cal and public concems,’’ he says. ‘'No decisions have becn made yet and we are still looking at other sites.”” The other likely candidate for the new landfill is south of Onion Lake, on the east side of Highway 16, That site has undergone preliminary testing and the regional district has ap- plied to the lands ministry ful'a notifica- tion of interest, which will allow test wells to be installed. Referrals to other agencies on that site should be completed by Fune, which is also when the environmental study of the Thornhill dump will be finished. “Then we will have a site in cach hand,’ says Tooms. “So we can weigh the casts and benefits of each.’’ One advantage of the Thornhill site is that it has a natural clay base. It funnels leachate from the dump into a nearby swamp, where il naturally decomposes. The Onion Lake site does nol have a natural clay base, so some sort of liner would have to be built, However, the site has a big plus in terns of geography. “Ti bas the preferred location, which is between here and Kitimat, away from homes,’’ Tooms says. ‘‘Kitimat could use the site as well.”’ Kitimat has not decided if they want to get involved in regional dump project with Terrace. If the Thornhill location it chosen, the landfill would only serve Greater Terrace. ‘I don’t think the RD would ever accept Kitimat refuse at thit site,’’ Tooms says. Meanwhile, some Thornhill residents may have trouble accepting the idea of an expanded dump in their backyards. “T personally would favour a regional dump between here and Kitimat,’’ says Thombill director Les Watmough, ‘“The Thombill dump may be cleared as far as effluent discharge goes, but there are other things to consider — like the volume of garbage and the number of residents in the immediate area.” Rape victim escapes attacker A TERRACE woman says she was raped and imprisoned in her own home for more than 24 hours last week. Staff Sergeant Doug Wheler of the Terrace detachment says the viclim said she and her two-year-old child were bar- ricaded in her Thornhill residence from about 11 a.m. January 15,-until about the same time the next day, The victim told police she was sexually assaulted during that time. The 22-year- old woman apparently knew her attacker. Terrace RCMP first beard the story when they attended what they thought was a domestic dispute at a gas station in Thornhill at noon on January 16. The victim told police she bad con- vinced her attacker to go out with her to get food and money. Once the couple reached the gas station, she secretly ap- proached the management and requested help. They called the police. RCMP arrested a suspect al the scene. The victim's two-year-old child was found by police atone at her home, A 36-year-old Thornhill man is charged with forcible confinment, sexual assault with a weapon and sexual assault causing bodily harm. Other charges are pending. THE COUNTDOWN ito the 1997 Northern B.C. Winter Games officially began Sunday evening with a torch lighting cere- mony at City Hall. The weather cooperated and about 100 people turned out for the lighting, which saw local biack powder shooter Peter Nicholson light the six-metre Northern Games torch. Nicholson and several young athletes jogged down Lakelse Avenue with a police escort Counting down the days before lighting the torch in front of a cheering crowd. Games chairpersons Rod Cox and Steve Scott thanked volun- teers and the community for pull- ing together for the event, espe- cially for finding enough beds to biliet the 1,000 youth athletes who will be competing at the Games, February 7-9. Mayor Jack Talstra, Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht, and Skeena MP Mike Scott were also on hand to start ihe countdown.