Ambassadors Mall partnership i is helping youth gain experience and ,improve their image . \COMMUNITY B1 St Provincial government commits thousands of dollars rike cash Fish fry The River Kings battle the Steelheads on home ice in ‘to Coast Mountains School .District \NEW A13 hard-fought doubleheader \SPORTS B4_ $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST - outside of the Terrace area) VOL. 18 NO. 36 « By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN » AT LEAST two credit unions have en- tered formal talks to merge with the Ter- race and District Credit Union. = The local credit union announced Oct. . 13 itis seeking a merger partner to better ‘take advantage of an expected rebound in the economy and because it is becoming “increasingly more difficult for small, in-._ dependent credit unions to provide com- petitive services. _ .Langley-based Envision Financial, . with $3 billion in assets, and the Northern " ‘Savings Credit Union, with $278 million | in assets, are two suitors that have entered. — into talks 'with’ Terrace and Districts The Terrace and District Credit Union asset value is $42 million. © . - How any merger between the Terrace ~ and District Credit Union and any other spill at the CN rail yard Dec. 8. _A FAST-THINKING CN employee ) prevented a chemical spill from becoming a potential risk for people on Keith Ave. , Dec. 8. Around 1 p.m. while rail cars were be- ing moved in the CN rail yard, a worker noticed some liquid leaking from the top . of a rail car, located a few hundred feet down the tracks from the Petro-Canada refinery, and called for help immediately, said Terrace fire chief Peter Weeber. ' The Terrace Fire Department assessed the situation and blocked off a 150-foot area around the rail car in all directions to avoid any exposure to the chemical, de- termined to be xylene, which is used j in petroleum refinement and as a solvent. Police blocked off traffic on Keith Ave. from the Sande Overpass to the intersec- tion of Hwys 16 and 37. The roads were one will proceed i is being kept very qui- et. Envision and Northem Savings ‘are bound by.a confidentiality agreement preventing them from discussing the de- tails of the process., Barry Delaney, Envision’s senior vice president of governance and. strat- . confirmed:last week it has been . egy, _ approached ‘by’ the Terrace and District Credit Union to’see if it is interested in being a merger partner. oo “We were delighted with the phone call,” Delaney says, adding merging with - Terrace: and. District would be a logical step for the company, which merged with the Snow Valley Credit Union i in Kitimat _ seven years ago. : .“Envision credit union wants to bea. / Provincial credit union because we think AN RCMP OFFICER | wears a gas mask asa » precaution while directing traffic at the intersection of Keith Ave. and the entrance to Wal-Mart after a chemical MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO Broken spring causes © chemical spill at rail yard www.terracestandard.com our members want to have banking ac- cess across the province,” Delaney says. “Since we merged with the Snow Val- ley Credit Union in Kitimat...we’ve been able to triple the size of that branch, we've been able to do more in the community as ' far as investment.” He says he believes Terrace i is ideally . located to.benefit from what he perceives | as an upswing in the regional economy *here particularly in relation to the Prince Rupert container port development and the récent announcement that Enbridge has chosen Kitimat as the endpoint for its ‘dual pipeline project. “The announcements with the pipe- - line ending up in Kitimat — huge news,” ‘Delaney said. “We take a look geographi- cally where Terrace i is located and future . Plans for expansion in Prince Rupert - we trustees reacted the way they did. revenue. ‘treasurer. . the move would cost $175,300. By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN WHEN NANCY Parkes an- . § swered the phone at 6 p.m. Dec. | it.was as if Christmas had come early — a voice on the other end told her a heart ‘was waiting for her tiny daughter Jenna. Less than 13 hours later, a brand new heart was pump-" ing in the four-month-old- § “T think the new trustees want background info, the pros and cons and the rationale behind why they should and shoudn’t support the recommendations,” Gowen said. The plan, which spans the 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007- _ 08 school years, recommends the examination of the board office’s move to brand new Mountainview this school year. At the meeting, Gowen said the district has been held back from getting capital monies from the Ministry of Education. ‘due in large part to the status of Mountainview Elementary. _ _ And because the school district owns the land on the - _ corner of Hwy16 West and Kenney, where its headquarters now are, it would be eligible for 100 per cent of the sale “If we share the land with the ministry we would only be | eligible for 25 per c cent,” said Marcel Georges, the secretary The School Act requires money gained by the property’s sale go toward capital projects, not operations. The plan, prepared by district administrators, estimates -New Terrace trustee Art Erasmus, who said he was part’ __ ofasimilar move as an administrator with the Prince George . Baby Jenna’s 8 thriving just think Terrace has a great future.” Mike Tarr, Northern Savings Credit Union CEO, also confirmed it’s also been approached by Terrace and District as a. _ potential merger partner. . “Yes, we've certainly spoken to them and they are still in-the middle of their -deliberations as to who their preferred. - partner might: be going down the Toad,” 6 said Tarr. “They are going about this in a very 7 organized and systematic way, which is the way they ought to do it.” He agrees the region is poised for.an economic rebound, though how long~ that will take remains unknown. And he hopes Northern Savings’ track record in the Terrace area will speak for itself. “The main reason that we have an in- _ terest would be because we already oper- They include Wednesday, December 14, 2005 mr ‘Two! in on credit union merger hunt. ate in the Terrace marketplace, we share the same. banking data system and we have a history, of working closely with. Terrace and District,” he said. “So -we have a number of similarities “for us that makes it sensible to consider the notion of merging together.” Northern Savings this year expanded its -operations to .the. Lower Mainland, where it opened ‘a wholesale - mortgage am lending branch i in Victoria and more re* = cently, Kelowna. . “These other projects have been n good ‘for us and we are happy with them but: our core business is dealing with: our members’ financial needs,” Tarr says. And speculation that Vancity had ‘en- tered the due diligence. phase with Ter- . race and District appears to be untrue. ° Cont'd Page A2 Trustees want new look at idea of using sc for their board o By DUSTIN QUEZADA . THE SCHOOL district’s new three-year plan, which in- cludes examining closing the board office, selling that prop-. , a erty ‘and moving administrators ‘to ‘the’ “ever-used ' ‘Mounta- . inview Elementary School on the Bench, will be brought up again next month after new trustees complained last week. they hadn’t had enough time to consider the details. | - Lorrie Gowen, returned as board chair by acclamation ” when trustees met Dec. 7, says she’s not surprised the new ool» ices | school district, questioned that estimate. “The price of $175,000 ... they’re dreaming i in technico- Jour,” Erasmus said. “Tell cost a pile more money.” eget “Re-elected trustee Hal Stedhain said’the move would” . backfire if enrolment numbers on the Bench were to increase, _ . forcing the board to relocate its offices once again. . Gowen also cautioned the ministry wouldn’t be: happy with a school board occupying a $3.5-million building built to use as.a school: Completed three years ago, Mountain- view has stayed empty because of declining student numbers on the Bench and elsewhere. , The bulk of the proposed recommendations and those that would most affect teachers, students and their parents in the three-year plan are proposed for the 2006-07 school year. consolidating E.T. Kenney Primary and Clarence Michiel Elémentary, converting Cassie Hall Ele- — mentary into a K-7 English school and Kiti K’Shan Primary into a K-7 French immersion school. : It is also recommended for 2006-07 to monitor the po- tential to consolidate the three high schools into two Grade 8 to 12 schools for 2007-08. Trustees agreed to. examine the 7 “recommendations Jan. 4. , ~ And Gowen says it will be a critical meeting if the plan i is . to move to the consultation stage at which point each recom- mendation.would be reviewed. individually. , “We need to make a decision in January,” the chair said. “If not, I’ll ask for a tabling next year.’ Gowen explained the board would ideally like 60 days ~ for the consultation in order to begin the process of “bump- -ing” teachers in March-and that the process might have to. ‘and March 2006. overlap with the school calendar consultations i in February reopened to traffic after several hours. A CN hazardous materials response team, employees from Canutec, a federal agency that deals with dangerous chemi- cals, and chemical experts from Prince . George were called in to investigate, ac- cording to CN public affairs Spokesman Graham Dallas. _ Dallas said the investigation revealed that a small amount of xylene leaked due to a broken spring. inside an emergency vent valve at the top of the rail car, but ‘the chemical had evaporated. and posed ' no danger to the public. He said emergency valves eliminate any pressure buildup and this was the first he’d heard of a valve spring breaking. Weeber said the CN crew transferred the xylene to another rail car and repaired the valve. _ Terrace baby’s tiny chest.. - “J do think our prayers were answered when she got her new heart,” said Nancy _ Parkes last week, adding ‘when the phone call. she’d been waiting for ' finally came, she felt sick. _ “TI was just nervous and excited and it was a lot to take in,” she said. “We got the phone call Dec. 1 at six o’clock in the JENNA PARKES i is ; looking at the world i in a different light thanks to anew heart received Dec. 2 after an operation in Edmonton. evening and she went into surgery on Dec. 2 at two a.m.,” Parkes recalls. “Sur- gery lasted not very long... the heart was in her body and pumping by 4:30 a.m.” The wait during little Jen- na’s surgery was difficult, but Parkes says the benefits of her youngest daughter’s surgery were immediately visible. After the operation Jen- na’s heart rate became regu-.. rr a rn ay a oe oe a oe i ee wa hee wo a 9 ae th, ce + + ath Meith to her retaining quite a bit of water prior to the operation, explains her mom. And so far, Jenna seems to be adjusting to her new heart very well. Cont’d Page A2 lar, her cheeks were nice and rosy, her toes were toasty and warm and her skin looked healthy and pink. Lit-- tle Jenna’s belly shrunk con- siderably - complications from her heart problems led 1