It begins Saturday Doing fine in Germany Tracking them down Support\NEWS A5 The province wants more powers to get those who don’t pay family 1997 take part in a talent contest\COMMUNITY B1 The six vying for Miss Terrace High school product Michelle Hendry is enjoying professioinal basketball\SPORTS BS WEDNESDAY JULY 16,, 1997 Hospital halts bed closure p! 25 patients on the floor in the 32-bed section at any one time. “We're still working toward that goal of having 25 patients on average, but we won't be closing any beds,’ said MILLS MEMORIAL Hospital has reversed a decision made earlier this year to cut the number of beds on its main medical services floor. The planned putting into storage of seven of the hospital’s 39 beds on its main medical services floor was an- nounced as one way to cope with a con- tinual budget deficit. “We want to get away from the idea of scaring people, to give them the idea there won't be a bed. There will be,” said the hospital’s chief operating of- ficer, Michaet Leisinger, last week. Miils also wanted to have no more than Leisinger, said Leisinger, Not affected by any of the hospital’s closure plans are the 10 beds in the psychiatric unit or the three-bed in- tensive care unit. ‘We're a 52-bed hospital now and we're going to stay a 52-bed hospital,” The decision to reverse the bed closure plan was made last week by the hospi- the plan. budget increase of only $75,500 year. In addition to bed closures, Mills sible restrictions on the use of its baby nursery. a Trying his luck OREGONIAN CURT ROPER and his wife, Twila, come north to Terrace pretty much every summer to fish and to relax. They're among what appears tal’s new governing body, the Terrace and Area Copumunity Health Council, The council came wnder criticism for . But still murky are details about how Mills is to balance its budget this year given a $330,000 deficit last year and a it faced restrictions on the number of people in its intensive care unit and pos- Mills is running a deficit already of budget year. Leisinger. this continued. Mills, the health council, and the provincial health ministry are continuing a series of conversalions and information exchanges regarding the deficit situation. Leisinger declined to give details on what might happen but there does appear to be a general agreement on what | Early tourist stats | said sick $150,000 only three months into its new ‘When we run at 25 patients or less we do very nicely. We have adequate staff and things look wonderful,’’ said But when Mills is full, costs rise, he 93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST VOL. 10 NO, 14.. should happen next. Reaching a resolution will grow into importance soon given the $150,000 deficit already rung up by Mills this year, he said. “Once the plan is considered feasible, we will be going forward,’’ said Lelsinger. He added that the health ministry ap- pears to be listening more to the hospi- tal’s problems than in past years. But Leisinger added the overriding message from the provincial government is that there is no more money. i giving good news | Roper does note that planned fishing fee In- creases next year may keap him away from clas- sified waters in favour of more time fishing from unclassified spots such as Ferry Island. to be a fairly healthy crop of tourists this year. Curt Sawmill sale threatened By JEFF NAGEL UNION LEADERS are dismissing a threat from Skeena Cellulose to sell its sawmills as a package and scrap its Prince Rupert pulp mill. “We're not wasting much time with those comments,” said Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) local spokesman Kal Sandhu on Friday. “We're very much focussed on the mat- ter at hand.” Skeena Cellulose owners the Royal Bank and the Toronto-Dominion Bank have told the PPWC they want to cut 250 of the more than 750 jobs at the Prince Rupert mill as one step toward re-start- ing operations. The union is working on its own plan through New York consultants but that won’tbe ready until the end of month. “In conversations with senior represen- tatives of the banks, they understand our response. union. need lo have professional advice and that it will take some time,” Sandhu said. He also noled the province is awaiting a consultant’s report due around the same time to help guide the provincial Skeena Cellulose vice chairman Harry Papushka’s letter sent to the PPWC last week urged (he union to act quickly. A sell-off of the sawmills and wood- lands operations could begin after the end of the month and it would spell the end of the pulp mill, It would be dismantled and its equip- ment sold off, company vice-president Rudy Schwartz confirmed. That prospect represents the biggest hammer the company can hold over the But such a move would also require the approval of the provincial government which, through forest licences assigned to Skeena Cellulose, can dictate where the wood poes. Provincial employment minister Dan Miller, who also represents the riding in which Prince Rupert is located, refused to speculate last week when asked how he would respond to a company attempt to sell its sawmills separately from the pulp mili. “To get into that kind of endless specu- lation is nat going to be helpful,” Miller told the Standard. “Et takes your mind off dealing with the issue in front of you.” “] think there isa sense of urgency. [ have a sense of urgency about this mat- ter, 1 am worried about the market side, particularly in pulp. And I think every- body involved in this has to have that same sense oF urgency.” The province must approve the transfer Continued Page A2 TOURISM NUMBERS are up dramatically at the infocentre so far this year. Ta June alone the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce’s infocentre re- corded 1,313 parties made up of 2300 people compared to the 592 parties and 910 people for June 1996. Chamber manager Bobbie Phillips ack- nowledged that some of the reason might be due to the infocentre being located in the mall last June because of the 1996. highway repaving project which hampered access to its regular location on Keith. . But May’s numbers of 604 parties and 935 visitors doubled May 1996's total of 299 parties and 428 visitors. ‘Tt's hard to explain lhe increase,’ noted Phillips in adding that numbers at the Hous- ton and Smithers infocentres are down. “‘It may be that we have new facilities, good signage and are open from 8 to 8,"" “These numbers are great,’’ said Phillips in pointing out that the 1997 tolals for the first six months of the year far outweigh the ones for the same period last year. And portions of the recreational fishing business appear to be doing well, despite fears that planned increases in licence fees would undercut that portion of the regional tourism industry. “Right now we're looking at as good or betier season than last year,’’ said Brian Patrick of Misty River Tackle, one of the key organizers of this spring’s protests over the planned hikes. Business has picked up in the last several weeks now that the Skecna River’s waters have cleared up after spring run off. Most Rallies on TONIGHT'S THE night for two rallies regarding the proposed teaching in public schools of tolerance toward homosexuality. One’s in favour; the other doesn’t. The issue stems from a British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) recommenda- tion this spring that it create a program to eliminate homophobia. The largest of the two rallies takes place at 7 pam, at the arena with guest speaker Kari Simpson from the Langley-based Citizen's Research Institute. of the business is from B.C, residents while Patrick described out-of-province traffic as “pretty dismal’’ early on. Patrick remains worried that next year will be a different siory when those fees are increased by the provincial government, ‘We're getting people in who say this’ be their last year bere,’* he said, Tourist business is also up at the Coast Inn of the West, reports manager Doug Barrett. Se ‘7 was afraid of the fishing licencé issue, but we've had a fair amount of Americans this year although the number of Germans is down a bit?’ he said. Barrett estimated the increase in tourism at five to six per cent. There's a different story at other accom- modation places, Ed Gingera of the Copper River Motel is one of several owners saying business is down, Gingera says his second quarter was 38 per cent lower than last year. ‘“We usually "hit 98 to 99 per cent occupancy in June but this ycar we hit just 60 per cent,”’ he said. Most of that is due to cancellations from European customers but Gingera added that other business tied to the forest industry has also suffered. He’s noticing a tend of Europeans to avoid B.C, with some saying this province has become an expensive place in which to have. a vacation. Provincial park officials say ‘camping numbers were down in Junc compared to last year. But Jamie Habn from the area parks office said June’s weather wasn’t the most conducive to camping. tonight Also at 7 p.m. isa rally in the Northwest Community Health Services Society's auditorium in favour of the planned tolerance teaching program. One person who has been invited to at- tend both rallies but who won't be at cither is Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht. He’s committed to being in Victoria be- cause of the on-going legislative session which has now begun night sittings. Gies- brecht’s on record as favouring the BCTF recommendation, TERRACE RCMP officers are assisting theit counterparts in Kilimat in the search for suspected killer Kevin Louis Vermette. Local officers on the RCMP’s northwest Emergency Response Team, identification officers, plainclothes officers and a dog- master are involved. Three young Kitimat men were kilied and another seriously injured in a hail of shot- gun fire Saturday night at Hirsch Creek Campground, just north of the city. Dead are Michael Mauro, David Nunes and Mark Teves, all 20. Donnie Oliveira, 20, was transported. to Vancouver General Hospilal with multiple wounds where he is incritical but stable condition. Vermette has been charged with three counts of second degree murder and one Giant manhunt on for triple murder suspect count of altempted murder. Police believe he is on foot - they have both of his vehicles - but have not recov- ered his shotgun so are considering him armed and dangerous. Vermette is 42, about L77cm (5'7 1/2") and 64kg (140lbs), has blue eyes and light brown hair. Anyone with information as to his whereabouls is asked to call RCMP. After the shootings, police found Vermette's truck - which matched the description of one a witness saw leave the camperound — back at Vermette’s residence at the Kitimat Motel, on Dadook Crescent. Police surrounded the room and tried to establish contact through: (he night before raiding the room at 8 a.m. Sunday to find it unoccupied.