Cemetery rules s

Families want to decorate graves

By JEFF NAGEL
KAREN BARRY is on a
mission to make the rules at
Terrace’s cemetery more
compassionate and flexible
for those who go there to
grieve.

The widow and mother of two
is spearheading -a petition that
calls on the city to loosen the
rules banning the placement of
decorative fences, flowers and
other mementos on most of the
graves, a :

Right now anything that's placed
on those graves is removed on Fri-
days and either thrown out or
placed ina storage area.

“Is a really emotional issue for
me,” says Barry. ‘‘l go to the
graveyard because I find comfort in
going there and J get really upset
about this,”’

Her mother died six years ago
and her husband, Dave, died 18
months ago.

Forget-me-nots that she had
Planted on her mother’s grave were
ripped out by maintenance crews
last fall,

She finally vowed to act last
month when her two sons each
wanted to place something on their
father’s grave on Father’s Day,

‘T said you can leave it here but
it will be missing when we come
back,’’ she said, adding she then
decided to draw up the petition as-
king city council to change the
tules,

The city’s policy is primarily one
of cost-contral.

All but the oldest parts of the
cemelery are designed with flat
grave markers so city lawnmowers
can drive over them all quickly and
efficiently,

Any fences or anything placed on
4 grave mean ihat can’t happen and
forces extra maintenance costs if
the family doesn’t keep a plot
maintained,

City parks and recreation super-

intendent Steve Scott says there are
also safely concerns besides the
cily’s desire to minimize costs.

“People have put loose rock on
graves that gets spread about,” he
says. ““When our lawnmowers are
operating and it hits il, that creates
a safely hazard.”'

About a third of the cemetery still
has fences and above ground
omamentation, he added,

That's allowed to stay only as
long as the families malntain their
individual graves.

The city is drawing up a list of

those graves that have become un-

kempt, Scott added, and there aze
plans to begin enforcing the rules
with them.

Ornamentation is no longer al-
lowed with any new graves.

‘We want to maintain some con-
tinuily in the look of the
cemctery,”’ Scott added. ‘What
looks good to some people may not
look goad to others,””

Things like fences create special
problems in the winter, he said,

“Just because people
die, if doesn’t mean that
they should be forgot-
ten.”

when new graves need to be dug
and snow covers much of the
cemetery. Under such conditions,
the backhoc that digs the graves
can unknowingly rin over fences
or ornamentation, angering the
families.

The city’s policy is not unusual,
he adds,

“We've looked around and ex-
amined other cemeteries in the pro-
vince,’ he said. ‘‘Most mewer
cemeteries have a long time ago in-
sliluled ihe same kind of regula-
lions we’ve got naw.’”

Barry js starting to get support
from other local people who feel
the regulations go too far.

ERC Rar se Ok LS ROR REE A ie ai Bcd i
KYLA CAMPBELL holds mementos her family would |i

OSs fs

ke to place

on her father's grave. Her sister, Karen Barry, is behind a petition
to get the city to change the rules at the Terrace Cemetery.

Wanda Acker, whose daughter
Kristin died in an accident a ycar
ago, is also angry that her family
can’t place flowers or personal
items on Kristin’s grave.

“Why should her grave loak so
unloved and deserted?’’ ~— she
demands, ‘‘I want my daughter’s

grave to look as beautiful as she
was.”

Acker says a cemetery without
flowers, headstones and special
ilems is dreary.

“Just because people die, it
doesn’t mean that they should be
forgoiten,’’ Acker says.

Rural areas plug in to power by year’s end

TWO AREAS north of Ter-
tace are to be hooked up to
the B.C. Hydro power grid
by the end of the year.

A transformer and 13km
of power lines are being in-
stalled at Meziadin Lake up
Hwy37 from Kitwanga.

And clearance for a main
50km power line has al-

ready

taken place at Rosswood,

Rosswood, north of Terrace pay a yearly property tax.
on the Nisga’a Highway.

Residents
now use diesel gencrators, -

in both areas

while at The

There are 35 potential
customers in the Meziadin charged for each kilowatt
, area and approximately 60 hour they use for 10 years,
~ In both areas residents will ~-at-Rosswood,  Residents~in .. "Rosswood: residents «last -
pay for a portion of the cost’ both areas ‘Have Tobbled for year approved borrowing
which at Meziadin takes the years to be connected to the $243,000 to clear a right-of-
form of a surcharge on their
mouthly bills

B.C. Hydro power grid.
property

residents will

customers will

tax at

Kalum Street

Royal Canadian
Mounted Police

verboat Days 1999
Soap Box Derby

For youth ages 9 to 14.
Complete this entry form
below and drop off at the

Terrace RCMP Detachment
3205 Eby Street.

August 1, 1999
Park Avenue at

10 am to 4 pm

— me

ghoad

Pe

| ADDRESS;

| AGE:_______ DATE OF BIRTH:

' PHONE NUMBER;

Rosswood will be $300 for
15 years while at Meziadin,
be

way and install lines.
Total cost of the Meziadin

pee oa
BOX SPRING

project is $1.3 million and at
Rosswood it is $1 million,
not including approximately
$115,000 to clear the right
of way for power lines.

In both cases, residents’ -
cosis are eased by ‘a B.C:
Hydro grant and by buying
poles to be used jointly by
Hydro and by B.C. Tel.

sur-

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 14, 1999 - A3

News In Brief

City eyes multiplex vote

CITY COUNCIL has asked its staff to look into what
would be needed to go to referendum this fall ona pro-
posed $7.5 million multiplex.”

Parks and recreation superintendent Steve Scott said
city council would have to-make-a final decision to
proceed to a vole by carly September if it wanted the
referendum tagged on-at the same lime voters cast bal-
lots in November's municipal elections,

But he noted the regional district Would have to make
its decision before that, likely in August.

He says public consultation by the advisory design
committee so far paints to the scaled-down version of
the project unveiled this spring as being acceptable.

“The project now: is more affordable and ‘is just as
worthy as the previous proposal,’ Scott said,

The committee chopped: several components —
notably a 250-seal theatre — oul of its earlier $11.4
mnillion proposal to bring the price down for the multi-
plex’s first phase.

Bears gone, Exstew open

THE BEARS have left and Exstew forest service
recreation site is reopened for public use, says forest
service recreation technician Carl Johansen.

The recreation site was closed on May 28 after a
black bear sow with her two cubs and a juvenile grizzly
were spotled by a staff member contracted to clean up
the area.

The forest ministry made the decision to close the
popular camp site west of Terrace to prevent human in-
teraction with the bears,

Johansen said the bears were incvilably attracted to
the site duc lo garbage left behind by campers.

And because it has been such an unusually cold
spring, delaying the growth of berries, ihe bears were
reluctant to leave the food source,

If there are more problems with garbage and bear, the
site will be shut down again, Johansen said, —

“The onus is on the user to keep the site clean,’’
Johansen said.

Overnight use of most forest scrvice campsites, in-
cluding Exstew, now requires a $27 camping pass fol-
lowing imposition of the new fees this year,

Gun meeting planned |

AN ALBERTA-BASED protest group opposed to the
registration of firearms is holding a mecting al Elks
Hall July 20 at 7:30 pin.

Spearheaded by Bruce Hutton of Rocky Mountain
House, Alberla, the Law-abiding Unregistered
Firearms Association (LUFA) stands 11,000 strong,
with a large membership base in rural Alberta.

Burns Lake organizer Bill Waldron says the group is
oil a inembership drive to protest bill C-68 which re-
quires gun owners to register their firearms by 2003.

The Terrace meeting is the second of four meetings
planned in Prince Rupert, Terrace, Smithers and Hous-
ton July 19-22,

For more information call LUFA at 403-845-2280,

Election head named

ELAINE JOHNSON will once again take on duties
overseeing municipal elections on Nov. 20.

City council named Johnson chicf election officer,
and appointed Colleen Davis as depuly.

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