2m VOL.19 NO. | Freaky flies Local, resident wants | neighbourhood egg farm to deal with excess flies \NEWS A9 | Musical Memory Murai unveiling on Millenium Trail honours a Terrace musical icon \COMMUNITY B1 Brewer Mania Retiring teacher to say goodbye to students in hit-to-pass stock race \SPORTS B7 | of $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST. _ ($1.10 plus 8 GST outside of the Terrace area) 10 TERRACE eedatlon ate T ty 7 : By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN | - THE CITY of Terrace will now. act as” ‘its own general’ contractor for its. long- ’ "planned second sheet of ice project and - wants to start construction at the current . - arena site this summer. ” But: the move, which the city hopes. ~ will dramatically’ cut costs and make it affordable, also means it is dumping an architectural. firm whch it ‘has already _ paid half.a million dollars to for a series of designs and Tedesigns over the Past - two years. . _ That firm, PBK Architects of Vancou- over see Ice city wanted, acting mayor Brian Downie . ‘said last'week. | A new firm, regarded as'a leading ex- pert in ice rink: ‘construction, will act as. . “the city’ S, Project. manager. at a “cost of $200,000.. North American Ice Development will : in on the already pared down second: now re-work the project, ending months of speculation surrounding the second. : Sheet of ice which the city is calling Phase » One of a sportsplex project. Se ‘The company’s credits include Burna- : . by’ s 8 Rinks facility. “We've .met with them, we’ ve had: Said” their assessment of ‘the situation,” not complicated and they expressed con- fidence that we could build: for a much he lower price.” Downie says the’c ‘company. has over- seen similar projects that have.been built”. less) for between $3.5 and $5.5 million — than half the cost of bids that have. come sheet of ice. the project. : . Though the city y juste the half mil- lion dollar expenditure on PBK’s draw-" ings by saying it now has the design plans -and could proceed using them, it is now | ‘ spending more money ‘on having. the new. “If indeed the. prices: come in at that range, the city may have:a chance .of - -avoiding ° any short term’ borrowing to_ offset costs, thanks to the roughly $4 mil- | lion it has in‘its fundfaising account for designs drawn | up. _ “You. can’t use 2 exactly the same ‘design because: they bring to the proj: ect their own skills. and perspectives,” Downie said. The city tendered the existing second sheet of ice: project’ in the. summer of 2005 and received a low bid of $8.6 mil- lion. Acting on the advice of PBK project manager ‘Allen Jury, the city tried re-ten-. dering the project several months later in_ hopes: ‘that prices would be more compet- buil itive in the winter. when contractors stend ” to be less busy. ... That plan backfired to ‘the tune. of $2 - million as the. subsequent low bid this. - past February came in at $10.5, million, forcing the city to look at other options. - “T think we're disappointed with what we've got from PBK, ” Downie said last 7 week. - want to go ahead,” Downie said. “We still see the need in the communi- ty to invest in infrastructure and to. invest in an ice sheet.” - Cont'd Page AZ “ ver, just couldn’t come up with what the rm] Sweet ride - Downie. «Their feeling is the project. is. _ GRADE TEN graduates Kara Reinhardt and Alex Maguire oat all I dolled up for Skeena junior Secondary School's S ‘prom dune 8 The duo arrived to the party in this shiny convertable —- Maguire won the ride in a. raffle. The two friends joined dozens of other students who celebrate leaving j junior high behind as they move on to Caledonia Senior Secondary School i in the fall. . SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO .. 4 /sue Province — _ By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN: a policy changes. : ; ging and Construction Ltd. have been left out of the Forestry Revitalization Trust established to help contractors which. ae vn 20 per:cent of their wood for a new program. ae ~-Contractors here were affected more than most when large er ‘areas to come within that overall 20 per cent amount,’: ' At the same time, the loggers who held ‘so-called ever- costs. After a failed court appeal the local companies lost sidered evergreen contractors... oT ‘cess.it,” says former Skeena Liberal MLA Roger Harris who. ~ 2005 provincial election. , Teachers want contract settled ‘that means finding the resources wherever they can.” . : Lloyd Hull of Hull'and Sons and K’Shian owner Frank a , a Z| Loggers may — lost work when major forest licence holders had to surrender 7 licence holders gave back much more wood here than i in oth- green contracts here with New Skeena Forest Products found, _» themselves on.the losing end of another situation. When that. ~ company’ went’ into bankruptcy ‘protection,’ it managed to” have those evergreen contracts cancelled to lower its overall.” their evergreen status days before then-forests minister Mike™ deJong signed the 20 per cent takeback order in 2005. _. The companies: were ‘denied* compensation under the. . _ takeback relief trust fund. because they were no longer, con- es = ‘ “My opinion is that this is unique becduse these § guys did . have rights at the time of the passage of the: legislation,” he“ said, “The fundamental intent of the legislation makes it, - think, ‘ecessary- for the government to deal. with them ‘and. By DUSTIN QUEZADA TEACHERS MAY have voted overwhelmingly _ to strike to’back pay demands but they remain committed to getting a contract settled before . © their current one runs out June 30, says the local teachers’ union president. Veralynn Munson, who also sits on the teach- ers’ provincial bargaining committee, said last. week’s 85.2 per cent strike mandate is a sign of how determined the teachers are about a contract — that meets their wishes. ‘Teachers want a pay in- crease of\24 per cent over three years, substan- tially more than the provincial government's offer of eight percent over four years. Mill startup date unknown . Although the government offer comes with a signing bonus of approximately $4,000 if.a deal is signed by June 30, that’ S not the main issue, said Munson. “What we really need and what we are com- mitted to getting is a negotiated settlement,” she said. “The incentive has been mentioned, ‘but for “us, it is the settlement.” In any event, Munson said any incentive would be short-lived given what would be left after taxes and other deductions. - Of the approximately 38,000 teachers i in B ROA . 30,202 cast a vote. The current contract was im- . posed by the government after teachers took il- legal job action last fall. During, the October 2005 « strike, teachers focused on three issues: ‘Yearning conditions, compensation and bargaining rights. Salaries have become the key issue for teach- _ ers since the government introduced legislation ini ~May that addresses class sizes and composition. . B.C. teachers Say they rank fifth in the coun- ‘try among the provinces (the three territories pay. ‘teachers the most) in salary, and 20 per cent be- hind Alberta and Ontario. Munson said there are wage disparities within districts in B.C. but that local teachers are gener- ally on the high-end of the scale. ‘ B.C. remains the only province where educa- tion is deemed an essential : service ‘through leg- . islation. tact forest minister Rich Coleman.. _ “We met-Rich Coleman nearly a. year ago when he had just been appointed ‘forestry minister and he said he'd get . back to us within two weeks,” Hull said. “Here we aré a year _ later and that two weeks is long gone.. .they don’ teven give you so much as a letter telling you to piss off.” - Company lawyers have forwarded a final letter to Cole- 7 man to resolve the situation before tomorrow, “As of yet we are not suing them, we are. threatening a suit...we don’t need to keep lawyers i in Vancouver's wallets fat, we need that money coming back to our ir community,” Hull said last week. 7 “You've read the propaganda that this was going to ‘be a smooth operation, well it may! have been for some, but it’. hasn’ t been for us.’ By SARAH. A. ZIMMERMAN ‘THE TERRACE Lumber Company (TLC) has closed its sawmill for the third time in two months, but this time a re- "- opening date isn’tknown, . The problem this time is the price of lumber i in the United States has dropped-14 per cent, more than enough to make the mill here uneconomical. Unlike the previous two clo- ~ sures, where officials were able to target a start up date, this ~ time it depends entirely on when the market turns around. “Until the market picks up until the point where we can _ be cash positive,” says general manager.Wayne Haw about a potential start up date. The mill’s planer and dry kilns will keep operating for now. The troubles plaguing the mill are many and include a high Canadian dollar, a fluctuating North American market, inconsistent wood supply, difficulties unloading chips and hog fuel and high US softwood lumber duties. Despite some optimism that a softwood lumber deal is being worked out, companies such as TLC can’t yet count on getting money back from duties paid. “We've paid more than $1. 25 million duty and we expect * to get the majority of that back at somepoint,” about softwood tariffs paid since the mill started Aug. 29 & of last year..“Meanwhile because it’s not resolved yet, we . _ continue to pay more than 20 per cent duty every day on US-bound shipments.” . TLC board chair John Ryan says having that money back * would provide a significant boost to the company’s ability to operate. The challenges continue to be something of a vi- ‘cious circle. When the company shut down its mill-and log yard before, logging companies were affected. But when says Haw |. the mill was to open again, it faced a problem 1 in lining up. . oa enough wood. “That’s life.isn’t it? -I can’t imagine that for any of usin | any endeavour that if it were so sinooth that we didn’t have any ups and downs it would be terribly boring,” Ryan said of the closure. “We just down’t have the finanacial capacity - to take a long downturn in the lumber market.” Steelworkers Union local 2171 president Darrel Wong confirmed unionized workers at the mill were told the clo- sure is temporary. r Bombs | away ~ began last week just east of Terrace. Officials believe the fire was caused by AN AIR tanker drops a load of fire retardant over the Copper Mountain fire that person and not natural causes. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO _ “We turned down the project | but we 7 4 a TWO. LOGGING’ contractors: may sue: “the provincial OR “government unless they become eligible. for compensation a a from a program, meant to help’ companies affected by forest’ a Don Hull and Sons Contracting Lid. and K’Shian Log- - “Through no fault of their own and through: a lot of activi- bee : ties that went on around them that they had no control over, “they? ve" been denied access ‘While all the other [evergreen contractors] i in the rest of the province have been able to ac-., “was the forests | operations m minister until losing his seat in the: ‘ Cutler, who was also affected by the New Skeena’situation, . say they have made repeated unsuccessful attempts to con- fe Oe ee ee te oe