WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1991 Vol. 7, Issue No. 28 Phone 635-7840 Fax 635-7269 Serving the communities of Terrace, Thornhill, Usk, Cedarvale, Kitwanga, Meziadin, Stewart and the Nass Valley 75 cente plus GST RY : a es PETITION DRIVE LAU Victoria to get protest over funding shortage chief executive officer, says the petition will be presented to health minister Bruce Strachan at a public rally to be held at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre sometime this summer. The rally will be funded by the by Tod Strachan Close to 100 people attended a staff-management mecting in the Mills Memorial Hospital cafeteria last Friday morning, and after a NCHED FOR HOSPITAL + : lengthy discussion everyone agreed ‘the quarrel over staff cuts was not between management and staff. Feast h we tae Bie hee 3 ——————— ap TS hs RAT ea fin fa: dee ta tg PRESIDENTIAL BLESSING. ater com plaining that all he got was a lousy handshake from Doug Smith after presenting him with a gift from the Chamber of Commerce for being outgoing president, Bob Park got more than he bargained for from installation of officers for the chamber last Friday and roasting of Year. For the rest of the story, turn to page B1. Smith. The occasion was the annual the Business Executive of the Photo by Nancy Orr - ‘Road, bridge decisions await cost analysis Ministry of Highways regional director John Buckle says work is continuing on the Kitselas-Usk access study and a report is expected later this summer. According to Buckle, road access is not a great problem but flmancial and land ownership still need to be worked out. Road access to Usk, howeyer, is still up In the air. . Although the study Is not yet complete, Buckle says there are major terrain difficulties to overcome between Kitselas. and Usk, and in the winter snowslides would be a problem. This still Jeaves the bridge option, but here again, a complete financial analysis will be required. About 50 people live in the portion of Usk isolated by the Skeena River, and at today’s costs a bridge would cost in the neighbourhood of $2 million. The biggest expense, explains Buckle, is the foundation and piles required in a river the size of the Skeena. On the other hand, maintaining the present ferry service is expensive too, Annual operating costs run around $200,000 and maintenance costs are about $50,000 a year. Based on these numbers, the cost of paying for a bridge, including interest, would only take about 10 years. pn aan Sicneecinae Re eer tak a ee oo Instead, the four unions and the hospital administration came to a consensus that the quarrel is between Mills Memorial Hospital and the Ministry of Health. It was agreed that a Joint Action Commit- iee should be formed to recruit public support and lobby Victoria for regional funding. The Joint Action Committee — which consists of representatives of each of the four unions, hospital management and Terrace Regional Health Care Society board — met Friday afternoon in a strategy planning session, and again Tues- day moming to develop the word- ing for a petition local residents will find in local retail outlets as of this morning. Michael Leisinger, the TRHCS Hospital Employees Union, says Leisinger, and the date will be set by Strachan himself. He explains that an open invitation has been sent to Strachan asking him to pick a date between July 20 and Aug. 20. David Lane, TRHCS board chair- man, says if the R.E.M. Lee Hos- pita! Foundation can sell 5,000 calendars to help buy. a CT scan- ner, there should be no problem getting at least that many signa- tures on a petition to save a health care system that has taken a lot of work and a number of years to develop. But Lane says he doesn’t understand why it should take a public rally and a petition to explain simple logic to the Minis- try of Health. The Ministry of Health has so far — Continued on page A16 City’s bid to move Ottawa St. goes into high gear TERRACE — The city has found a way to speed up the approval of relocating Ottawa St. — 4 pre- requisite to the expansion of the Terrace Safeway store. Last night Terrace city council rescinded a bylaw which had gone to third reading and was waiting for approval from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. They then gave first, second and third reading to a few bylaw that doesn’t require the blessings of the ministry. Under Section 574 of the Muni- cipal Act, local governments have the authority to “dispose of a por- tion of highway in exchange for land necessary for improving, widening, straightening, relocating or diverting a highway". The only requirement is that the intended change be adveriised in a local newspaper for two consecutive weeks before any changes are made. And this was done with the first bylaw. City administrator Bob Hallsor says the new bylaw will allow the relocation process to go ahead sooner. He says city solicitors are presently meeting with Canada Safeway lawyers to work out an agreement on just how the reloca- tion will proceed and who will pay the costs. He adds that Canada Safeway has already informally agreed to cover the cost of the city's lawyer and all costs of the relocation. Safeway has also agreed that the current Ottawa St. will not be closed until the new Ottawa St. has been opened to traffic. But accord- ing to Hallsor, work on the reloca- tion could begin in four to six weeks and might be completed this fall. This would allow Safeway to begin their expansion project later this year. The relocated Ottawa St. would be east of the Bank of Commerce and PetroCanada service station and nearly line up with Sparks St. The change will allow Safeway to add 86 new parking spaces, increase their staff from 100 to 120, and add 12,800 square feet of floor space. This will increase the total available floor space to 42,000 square feet.