January THE LAST of the airport's four firefighters were taken off the job in response to a federal govern- ment plan to cut costs. The number of aircraft land- ings and takeoffs at the airport weren’t considered - enough to justify having on-site crash, fire or rescue services. That opened the way for discussians to have city firefighters assume some of the responsi- bility. CREDITORS OF Skeena Cellulose voted a second time and the result was an acceptance of a debt pay- ment package. The package will give unsecured creditors $10,000 and £0 cents on the dollar after that. Passage of the package was crucial for the company to refinance its operations and avoid _ closure and massive layoffs. ‘A MILD winter has produced far less snow than normal, leading the local road and bridge maintenance company to pay attention to patching roads, Last year’s snowfall was 42 per cent above normal, said John Ryan af Necahko Northcoast Construction Services. TERRACE WELCOMED its New Year’s Baby at 4:21 p.m. January 1 when Marlene McLean gave birth to a girl. She had plenty.of company with four..- gyeg jab down south sisters and a brother already.part of the familysin ivory 20% _ WEST FRASER announced a continuing shutdown of its mill here, affecting 200 workers. They were to go back Feb, 2 after a shutdown that began Dec. 19, 1997 but continuing poor lumber prices have made it economically unfeasible. The company is also moving wood in from its Prince Rupert opera- tion and that will extend a halt to its logging opera- ‘tions here, CONSUMERS BEGAN paying extra for flam- mable liquids, pesticides, solvents, bug spray and the like, The eco-fees are intended to help pay for safe disposal at specific collection depots of the containers once empty. : February THE CAMPAIGN to recall Helmut Giesbrecht an- nounced it came up short of the 7,558 signatures ‘needed for victory. Organizers said they collected about 6,000 signatures in the campaign which be- gan in late 1997. Although unsuccessful, organizers said it should come as a wake up call to the Skeena “NDP MLA. They also called for a healing process ota’ begin. Giesbrecht said he knew the campaign would fail and pledged to work to regain the cont- -. fidence of the electorate. -.° DOCTORS ANNOUNCED tentative plans to close * their offices for at least one day a month in ©. response to a monetary dispute with the provincial “government, Doctor fee totals have been capped "FLAGS BECAME a political weapon early in ‘ihe year following a dust-up In the House of Commons where Reform MPs waved flags ‘and sang O'Canada to put pressure on the. ‘separatist Bloc Quebecols. City bylaw enforce- ‘ment officer Frank Bowsher also got In on the ‘act by handing out desktop flags. RECALL organizers here burned © their petition in February after it became clear their 60-day campaign had fallen well short of the 7,558 signatures re- quired to remove Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht from of- fice. Recallers said they were destroying the document, rather than submitting it to Elections B.C., to keep private the B names of people 7 «who signed it. and everything over is being clawed back by the province. In essence, doctors said they are being asked to work for free. The closures won’t affect emergency or on-call duties. ; THE WORKERS Compensation Board has determined that a rail bridge between here and Kitimat collapsed because 100 much wooden brac- ing was removed while steel supports were being put in place. The Oct. 27, 1997 collapse killed two people and injured several more. A heavy cranc was on the bridge when it collapsed, Scott Steel of Alberta was found to be partially responsible, said the WCB, but the laying of charges awaits the con- clusion ofa federal investigation. A DEBATE about putting condoms in schools arose when the Terrace Women’s Resource Centre made the request to the schoo! district. Centre ‘worker Sarah de Lecuw said condoms would bring safety and awareness 10 teenagers regarding HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. The school board is scheduled to debate the request in March. THREE CANDIDATES have so far filed to run for a vacant Terrace city council seal. Jim Fraser, Dennis Lissimore and Olga Power submitted their nomination papers by the deadline. The by-election was made necessary when Tim Down resigned to pia t ot wie vataily | hn wanene a . WARM WET weather has made the road to the Nass Valley a never-ending pathway of potholes and ridges, And it's destroying the suspensions and frames of vehicles, causing one dealership to com- plain to the highways ministry. ‘We're seeing all sorts of suspension-related damage”’ to oider and new vehicles, says Tim Wiebe of Totem Ford. The ministry bas said that the Nass road will be a priority this year. FRAN LINDSTROM and James Mackay were nated the queen and king of the 15th annual Sweetheart Dinner and Dance. The event is sponsored by. the Terrace Kinette club and features entertainment as well as food. March IN AN aitempt to staunch a flow of red budget ink, Mills Memorial Hospital is cancelling all elective surgery for one week and is turning off its CT scan- ner for two weeks. The measures are to stop what might be a deficit in excess of $200,000 and should save the institution $30,000 over the course of the month, Mills Memorial has been plagued with budget problems since the start of the decade. AREA PHYSICIANS announced they were joining others across the province in closing their offices for three days, The closure is the latest in a dispute with the provincial govermnent with the doctors saying their fee levels aren't sufficient to cover their workload. In effect, says physicians, they are working for free so closing their offices recognizes that, The closures don't apply lo cmergency . caverage at the hospital. A THREE-MONTH shutdown at Skeena Sawmills ended when the sawmill went back to work. The mill closed last Dec. 19 citing poor market condi- lions and high logging costs. It re-opened March 16. THE CITY won’t be the location of a Bay store. The suggestion surfaced when the Hudson’s Bay Company bonght the K-Mart chain, leading locals to speculate the one here might be converted to a Bay. But company spokesmen said the area does not have the population base for a Bay store. In- stead, the KMart here was converted to a Zellers store by late summer. SKEENA CELLULOSE has named experienced woods industry executive Bill Steele as the person to take it back to profitability. He’s a 10-ycar veteran of West Fraser and was most recently its vice president of pulp and paper. THE PROVINCIAL government has given its ap- proval to re-open a copper, gold, lead and zinc mine north of here. The Tulsequah Chicf site has been closed for decades and mineral prices have fallen but Redfern Resources says its convinced il can make it prefitable. OLGA POWER was elected to Terrace city council . March 28, handily defeating Jim Fraser and Dennis Lissitore. The seat became vacant when Tim Power took a transfer with the B.C, Assessment Authority down south. mo “April POLICE NOW suspect foul play in the dis- appearance of Larry Vu, 28. Vu was reported miss- _ing Feb, 24 and his car was later found abandoned just off Kalum Lake Drive just outside of town. Po- lice said few tips have come in and that’s unusual in a missing person case. A SPRUCED UP railway coach from the 1930s will be the highlight of Terrace planned linear park. The park will wind its way alongside the CN tracks from. town to Kalum Lake Drive. The coach belongs to the Skeena Valley Railway Club and was bought from the Prince George railway muse- um for $1. SKEENA CELLULOSE will close its sawmills here, at Carnaby and in Smithers for two weeks be- cause of continuing poor market conditions. The closures marked the beginning of an open-close cycle for Skeena Cellulose’s sawmills and logging operations affecting the company’s operations in the northwest. A MISSING container of cooking utensils foiled the attempt by two Northwest Community College cooking students to enter a national skills competi- tion. Vicki Lanrip and Jodi Trombley’s problems ‘-Gegan when several flights from here and then to Victoria were canceled. And when they did finally arrive in Victoria, it was withaut their cooking equipment. It would have been the first time for Northwest Community College cooking students to enter the competition. CAROL AND JIM Glen threatened to quit as park contractors at Kleanza Creek amid the province’s attempt to eliminate free firewood at numerous small campgrounds. Victoria retreated in the face of fierce protests. AN ATTEMPT by B.C. Parks to cancel free fire- wood at two provincial parks bere met with fierce opposition. Skeena NDP MLA Helmut Gicsbrecht said he had extensive discussions with environment and parks minister Cathy McGregor over the issuc. The cancellation was part of a plan to save $750,000 a year. Finally, the parks branch relented. One parks operator, Carol Glen, had threatened to quit over the issne. LOCAL RCMP AUXILIARIES have joined others across the province in striking until they get their firearms back. The province made the decision to disarm auxiliaries until a review is completed. Provincial officials said there were cases of auxil- jaries not be well trained, Local RCMP officers say they depend greatly upon auxilaries. May TERRACE CO-OP employees and members were shocked with the announcement the gracery and de- partment store would close permanently June 30. Eighty workers were laid off in the move to stem huge losses in the wake of new competition with big box retailers. The building was still up for sale by year’s end. SCHOOL TRUSTEES voted 6-2 against installing condom machines in local junior and senior secondary schools. CONDOM MACHINES were destined for city buildings but not local high schools after city coun- cil voted 4-2 to do what the school board would not. NEARLY 700 people protested plans to cut band and music programs iti local schools to deal with a projected school district deficit, SETUP of a big green chipper got underway in the Skeena Cellulose log yard. The machine — leased and operated for SCI by Don Hull and Sons Con- tracting — became contentious later in the summer because of the noise emanating from it. THORNHILL residents began to mobilize to fight any expansion of the Thornhill dump to serve all of Terrace, Using the Thomhill dump would be far cheaper than building an entirely new dump uecar Onion Lake, a report concluded. THE PROVINCE once again began talks with Gitxsan natives, a possible thaw in frigid relations since trealy talks broke down in 1995 and led to the Gitxsan land claim being appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. A SECOND year of declining enrolment signalled more budget trouble for School District 92. GITANYOW natives threatened to ban provincial government officials from their territory if a court challenge to protect the group from the effects of the Nisga’a treaty proved unsuccessful, THE SCHOOL BOARD didn’t file its budget on time, electing to wait for au cfficiency team report on how best.to save money and cut a budget deficit of more than $1.3 million. THE ONLY DESTINATION casino in this region to get approval of the provincial goverment was a cruise ship with gambling room thal was to sail be- tween Vancouver and Prince Rupert. Inside Passage Cruises MV Aurora delayed its maiden voyage several times and never did sail in 1998. LIBERAL LEADER Gordon Campbell backed down from his demand that nalives ‘‘cede, release and surrender” their aboriginal title for treaties, and agreed to the ‘‘releasc’’ wording in the Nisga’a treaty. FALLING MOOSE populations prompted officials to ban hunting of cows and calves in the Skeena region for three years. SPORTFISHERMEN feared a complete fishing shutdown would be imposed to protect threatened coho salmon runs and fishing lodges braced for cancellations. Federal fisheries minister David Anderson’s promises of tough action was hailed by ihe Steelhead Society as ‘‘necessary medicine.” HEALTH MINISTER Penny Priddy got an earful from hospital and city officials here who demanded more money for Mills Memorial Hospital to deal with ongoing budget deficits. June LOCAL SIKHS defied an edict from India. to remove tables and chairs from the Guru Nanak tempie on Medeck Ave. TOURISM-BASED businesses predicted big losses over anticipated fishing restrictions. THE NORTHWEST unemployment rate came down below 10 per cenl, leading an analyst to con- clude the jobless rate may have peaked and that the worst may be over for the region. The rate would remain in single-digits the rest of the year. THE SKEENA provincial riding might have to be radically changed or even eliminated as part of an electoral boundaries review, a commission in charge of the process warned. Locals pleaded with the commission not to change Skeena’s boundarics. STUMPAGE reductions promised for months final- ly took effect, saving Skeena Cellulose an estimated $1 million per year. SMALL SCALE salvage became the new buzz- word among out-of-work loggers who flocked to take advantage of a new forest ministry program. RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL victim Willie Abrah- hams biked from Prince Rupert to Nanaimo to raise money for native people abused in the schools. FOUR OFTIONS for construction of a multiplex here were unveiled, ranging in cost from $7 million to $10.5 million. WEST FRASER announced a two-month shutdown of its sawmill and logging operations. The mill had operated barely three months since its previous three-month shuidown. Skeena Cellulose had also taken a series of shutdowns of up to three weeks. HOSPITAL OFFICIALS predicted they could eliminate the deficit by adjusting a provision that let workers take extra days off when they worked extra minutes each day. FOREST FIRE fighters were happy there had been relatively few fircs in the region so far. APARTMENT dwellers said they weren't happy with noise from a skateboard park on the arena hill and weren't thrilled about the idea of a permanent facility there. SKEENA MP Mike Scott said the Supreme Court's Delgamuukw tand claim decision has cast a pall over B.C, and called on Ottawa lo introduce legisla- tion to limit the effects of the ruling. THE NISGA’A hired a referendum commissioner fuelling speculation the treaty was about to be con- cluded, Tribal council president Joe Gosnell said money had emerged as a final issue in the talks. SWEEPING RESTRICTIONS were placed on sal- mon fishing in the Skeena.to protect endangered coho stocks. The tough new rules in the latter part of summer would tikely remain in place for several years, officials warned, A JUDGE allowed Gitanyow natives to press for- ward with some of their challenge against the Nisga’a treaty. The group claims the treaty gives the Nisga’a rights to part of their traditional terri- tory. KITSELAS band members launched a petition seeking the resignation of their band council and reinstatement of a fired band manager. SCOTT STEEL and a company director were charged under the Workers Compensation Act in connection with the collapse of a railway trestle bridge killing two workers in 1997, ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS minister Dale Lovick promised accelerated treaty negotiations to resolve land claim. ‘uncertainty arising from the Del- gamuukw decision. oe