Think small

The local Community Resources
Board is worried by Kitlope
implications/NEWS A5 |

The Volunteer Bureau continues.

Yolunteer power

to grow by leaps and
bounds/COMMUNITY B1

Mat magic

big in their first

| Terrace’s girl. wrestlers came up

tournament/SPORTS B11

" WEDNESDAY
DECEMBER 14, 1994

R

75¢ PLUS Bt GST
VOL. 7 NO. ae.

~STAN ren D-

YOUR SNOW © shovelling
suspicions are correct,

More snow fell last month
than in any November since
the airport weather office be-
gan keeping records in 1955.

The 182.5cm of white stuff
broke the previous record of
167cm in November 1975 and
is four times the average
snowfall for the month,

“We're not running at 4
record pace for December but

HIGH TECH surgical laser is used by Dr, Martin Van Lierda to cure problem snoring, The
procedure is relatively painless. He's pictured here practising the technique on a potatoe.

The laser unit also has a range of other surgical applications.

Doc starts to zap

snoring patients

By JEFF NAGEL
A LOCAL DOCTOR is now
armed with a laser in the
balile against snoring.

Ear, nose and _ throat
Specialist Dr. Martin Van
Lierde is zapping his patients
wilh a high-tech carbon
dioxide surgical laser to end
their problem snoring.

Van Lierde has shelled out
$55,000 for the Sharplan 1020
unit, which is only the third of
its kind in B.C.

Some of us snore because
the palette — a flap of skin at
the back of the throat — gets

looser and floppier as we

prow older,

When we snooze, it tends.to
flap around in the wind,

‘About 20 per cent of men
Snore at age 20,’? Van Lierde
says. ‘‘At age 60, about 60
per cent of men snore.’*

Conventional —_anti-snoring
surgery involved cutting into
the palette to reduce its size,
and removing the uvula — the
dangly bit that hangs down at
the back.

That method was catremely
painful, was done under gen-
eral anaesthetic and required
about 10 days off work, Van
Lierde says.

The new laser technique can

be done in a few minutes in
the doctor's office — under
local anaesthetic — and re-
quires no hospital stay or time
off work. ;

Van Lierde says the laser is
used to scar part of the
palette, forming scar tissue
and causing it to retract, open-
ing the airway.

“It takes three to five sit-
tings to eliminate the snor-
ing,’’ Van Lierde said of the

procedure.

About 20 per cent
of men snore at

‘age 20. At age 60,

about 60 per cent
of men snore.

So far five local patients
have ‘come forward to end
their snoring days.

Not surprisingly, however,
the provinciat Medical Ser-
vices Plan docsn't cover all
anti-snoring surgery.

Only the serious cases are
covered. Others determined to
put an end to their siibring
will have to pay about $1,000
out of pocket for the surgery.

tions...

Those wko would snicker at
the thought that snoring is
scrious simply don’t know the
facts, says Van Lierde.

Snoring can reduce the
amount of deep sleep you get,
he explained, because it tends
to interrupt the Rapid Eye
Movement (REM) phase of
sleep. ,

In children, says Van

Lierde, that can result in a:

poor attention span and can
lead to behavioural problems.

In adults, it can reduce the
efficiency of adult workers.

And some snorets lave even
died in their sleep of heart
failure brought on by the par-
tial blockage of air passages.

‘We assess them {fo see
how serious It is,”’ Van Lierde
sald. Patients sleep overnight
hooked up to various monitors
to determine the severlty of
thelr condition.

Previously northwestemers
had to go to- Vancouver — a
number of times — for such
treatment.

The new machine should
make it easier for patients to
get treatment here.

Van Lierde says the ma-
chine has a varicty of other
precision surgery

we're getting more than

normal,’ added weather of-
fice official Dan Morrison.

November did not set a
record for precipitation — the
term for all moisture that falls
from the sky.

“The pattern bas changed
where we would see a
weather system go through
and have snow tum into
rain,” said Morrison,

“We haven't had cold
tempcratures by the mean
temperature is lower than

White stuff sets record

normal,’” he said.

The snow’s so deep on the
Onion Lake cross couniry ski
trails that the trail signs are
going to be raised so skiers
won’t have to bend down to
look at the maps.

Shames Mountain, manager
Scott Siemens said 450cm of
snow fell in November.

He’s predicting the
mountain will have the most
snow since 1990, its first year
of operation.

applica

Councillors delay
mill kiln decision

By JEFF NAGEL

BRAUN STREET residents
have won a reprieve in their
battle to keep Terrace Precut
from expanding further.

City council voted Monday
night to put off until January
23 a decision on whether to

-allow the small sawmill to

build a dry kiln next to the
residential neighbourhood.
The motion to table the

‘issue passed by a 3-2 vote,

with councillors Ed Graydon,
Ruth Hallock and Rich
McDaniel in favour, and
David Huli and Yat George
opposed.

Councillor Gordon Hull
voluntarily left the table when
residents accused him of being
in conflict-of-interest. Two of
the 12 trucks contracted or
leased by Don Hull & Sons
Contracting Ltd. are owned by
Terrace Precut owner Mo
Takhar.

Hull maintained there was
no conflict "’ because he pays

Takhar for services, not the.

other way around but
‘decided to leave to avoid any
perception of conflict.

Council's decision was a
major reversal from Inst week
when it appeared Graydon
recommend council grant the
permit.

Most councillors Monday
night said they had been
prepared to accept the
recommendation and grant the

‘Ed Graydon
permit on the basis of a report
by Urban Systems planning
consultant Bruce Anderson.

The city had asked
Anderson to give an opinion
on whether a dry kiln is a

permitted use in an area zoned

light industrial.

Anderson said that assuming
Terrace Precut is an
acceptable light industrial use,
then a dry kiln would be as
well.

But residents said that's an
assumption that shoulda't be
made,

They noted that they -had
asked council to determine
whether the mill itself fits the
zoning.

That argument was s enough
to sway councillors Ruth
Hallock and Rich McDaniel,
who voted with Graydon to
lable the issue.

“When the report came in I

was sold on it,” Hallock said.
But she said the. residents
arguments have pursuaded her

would be the only councillor
opposing the development
permit application.

“It has encroached far
enough into the
neighbourhood,” Graydon told

the cily's planning commitiee _
Thursday. ““By allowing this

we are allowing it to encroach
further  ‘into™ that
. neighbourhood."

He said he could not vote
for something that he might
look back in shame upon 20
years from now, |

Graydon backed residents in
their contention that any
further development of the site
will strengthen Takhar's hand
in seeking future expansion of
the same site.

“The more he invests in this
site, the more difficult it is for
him to relocate,” ° addéd
resident Kaeleen Foote. =”

Graydon said the case will
set a precedent, sending the
signal that “*neighbours don't
have a say in their own
neighbourhood and that a
developer can bulldoze his
way through."

Committee members Gordon
Hull and David Hull voted 2-1
against’ Graydon

David Hull said it's possible

council didn’t ask the right. -

question of the consultant,

Gov’t approves bucks ©
for teleradiology test

THE NORTHWEST will get

$400,000 to carry out a pilot

project in teleradiology.
The hi-tech method of
transmitting x-ray images is

expected to-help remote areas

because it will allow a
specialist far away to quickly
interpret the x-ray.

Health minister Paul
Ramsey says the. proposal
from the northwest's interim

- regional health board is such a

gocd idea, he wants to see il

done everywhere.

And because it's a pilot
project for the rest of B.C.,.it
won't come. out of the
northwest's share of the Closer
To Home Fund, as the board
had originally proposed.

More. money will be
provided if needed to.make
teleradiology work, Ramsey
promised. .

Ramsey says “there's -still
$1.035 million set aside for, the
horthwest. Se

“SE look: forward: to: ‘seeing

smore.. proposals, from:

northwest urea," he said.

Ramsey was here Monday
to officially designate the
northwest regional health
board and to appoint five
people to the board.

The new addilions are
Terrace’s
Houston's. Daniel Parish,
Telegraph Creek's Alice
Hamlin-Auger; Prince. Rupert's
Victor. Prystay, and Margo

Hearne, ‘from the “Queen —

Charlotte Islands, .
But the Nass. Valley is still

‘ one big question mark.
-Nisga’a leaders have been -

demanding Victoria let them
form a separate regional
health board, distinct from the
northwest.:

Ramsey, however, wants. the:
Nispa'a to agree’ to join. the
northwest board, because the
Nass is.. inextricably linked to
the northwest in terms of

~. health’ services:

On’ Monday,

Larisa Tarwick,, .

Ramsey .
 fejected the Nisga'a tequest:to
of arena”: he asked.

“The proposal for a ‘eglonal one

health board just for the Nass
is not on," Ramsey said. “It is
not allowed within ‘the

legislation."

Nisga'a Valley Health Board

chairman Peter Squites’ said

the Nisga'a will send a
representative to the northwest
regional health board to act as
an ‘observer only.

“Why should we give bnek

. what limited autonomy we've.

already gained?" he said. ° -

The Nisga'a will meet again

in January with Ramsey.
Squires sald ~~ smaller
communities -- the Nass: in

- particular -- will suffer as-the -
_ larger centres battle it out for ©
~. reglonal services,

“*Look’ at. the infighting:
that's already happened, " he
said. -

Designalion of ‘regional’
-hospitals, nuclear medicine,’

~ and: orthopedic service. have

ali pitted parts of the : region

against each other, he said,”

we going to have dn: that’ kind

eerie

Mogae eee tas