Bl4 Terrace Review — Who ts... | Cliff Best? by Betty Barton Cliff Best is a teacher at heart, the seniors chairman at the Tuck Avenue Seniors residences for the Christian Council Resources, and the retiring Fire Chief for Terrace. Today is Mr. Best’s last day of work and then he’ll be back on December 31 "to finalize every- thing", he says. Cliff Best has been a member of the Terrace Fire Department since Feb. 1, 1952 when he joined the volunteer force. He came here from Saskatchewan in 1948. His brother was on the volunteer fire department and encouraged him lo participate in practises. From 1948 until 1954, Clit worked at Pohle Lumber’s old mill out of town. After that, he went to Reum Motors as a mechanic, a skill he says has served him in good stead as a fireman. For three years after that, he worked for the ie, Ministry of ‘Transport at Terrace- a Kitimat airport as their first fire- = fighter. He trained in Esquimalt and Camp Borden, Ontario. Macintosh Classic with 1-floppy disk, - 4 megabyte of RAM, Keyboard ar and . mouse, Macintosh Classic with 1 floppy disk, 40 megabyie hard disk, 2 megabytes cf RAM, keyboard and mouse. °1949 " — ata new low price. - The Macintosh Classic comes standard with the Apple Superdrive™ allowing you to read and write to Macintosh disks as well as MS-DOS, OS/2 and ProDOS® disks. , The integrated design of the Macintosh Classic makes it a good choice if you want a system that’s easy to set up-and move around. Kamloops 657 Victoria St. 374-6887 Check for other instore Specials Introducing the new Apple® Macintesh”™ Classic®, offering all of - the most valued advantages associated with Macintosh computers Dawson Creek 900 - 102nd Ave. Bh att 782-6965 Prince George 1330 5th Ave - 563-2263 546 Leon St. Wednesday, December 5, 1990 On: April 1, 1960, Cliff Best "joined the paid staff of the Terrace Fire Department. By 1969, he was captain of the paid staff and assis- tant chief for volunteers. His first big fire was when the Pohle Lum- ber mill bumed down. He was in charge because the chief was out of town. Almost 17 years ago, on Feb. 1, 1974, Cliff Best was appointed fire chief when then- chief Andy Owens left Terrace to work at Tranquille in Kamloops. After only one month as fire chief, | the big old army drill hall on the Birch bench burned to the ground. Best notes that other memorable fires have been the two civic centres (one at Riverside Park and the other on the present site of the Terrace Public Library). "The only large fire I missed before the Bavarian Inn was the Terrace Hotel. I was on holidays then." When the Bavarian Inn burned, Best says he was "flat on my back with back problems. Per Helvorsen and our seven paid firefighters and many of our 30 volunteers were The New ‘Macintosh Classic at a special low price for Christmas | ot Sart Cov Cliff Best: | would much rather teach fire prevention than fight fires. fire department. "Whenever things got tough, I had a real good crew, both paid and volunteer, to back me up. We got along really well over the _ years," Best.commends his staff * Terrace 4720 Lazelle Ave 638-0321 Prince Rupert 601 2nd Ave West 624-6560 systems. Introducing the first low cost colour Macintosh system. Introducing the Macintosh LC. The first low cost colour Macintosh system. The Macintosh LC uses a 68020 processor that increases system performance. It offers built in video displaying up lo 32,000 colours. . The Macintosh LC also provides anew Macintosh capability: sound input, You can now add sounds to documents created with the computer. The sysiem has one built in slot and seven build in ports, allowing you to expand the system with hard disks, printers, scanners and other peripheral devices. When equipped with the Apple He card, the Macintosh LC can run virtually alt applications developed for Apple Re Cranbrook 1107 Baker St 426-2775 Kelowna Sale ends Dec 25 762-7753 Authorized Dealer opis and the Apple ogo, Classi: and ProOGS are reghlered ade merle of Apple ‘Elton lace and Bupettve ere ado mars ol Apps Compe, fc and city council, "The last few. years have been the best with administration and city council. All departments are working together and all the girls in the office are really. friendly." Best identifies one of the high- lights of his time with the Terrace Fire Department as "the tours with the little kids... the younger they are, the more enthusiastic and interested they are. I would much rather teach fire prevention than fight fires," states Best. He has conducted fire prevention kit lec- tures at Northwest Community “College and‘at the fire hall: Best credits his full life to "a good crew, faith in God and my wife, Trudy, always standing beside me." The Bests have four daughters and four grandchildren, all of whom will come to Terrace this Christmas to mark -Cliff’s retirement. Best is proud to note, "The c only - promise I made when I became chief was to keep harmony between the volunteer and paid. staff. A lot of fine departments don’t have this (harmony). I think I've accomplished that goal." He is also proud to note, "We've improved the firefighting equip- ment a hundred-fold during my time as chief". Best has been on three junkets to pick up new fire trucks, two from Quebec in 1965 and 1975 and the newest one in Langley last year. The new chief Bob Beakett will be in Terrace December 10th to take over. He's already spent three days with Cliff Best and been introduced to everyone. Lieutenant Per Helvorsen will look after him, Best is confident. And Cliff him- self is available if Bob Beakett has "any concerns. "It’s time to move on, but we'll be staying in Terrace. We have to retire at 60. I'll be 60 on December 16th." And after that? The Bests bought an old motor home and they plan to travel. The volunteer fire depart- ment gave them tickets to Disney- world for ‘a week: in March. The paid fire department pave Cliff a recliner (chair), so he. figures they're ail set. Also, he'll have time to work on ‘the house, do some uninterrupted fishing, and continue to be active with the Tuck Avenue Seniors, Thornhill Pub € Ouwl’s Nest Kitchen POOL TOURNEY - Every Sat. 1:00 p.m. Cash Prizes !! — = > th ips S55 SN Ly € ‘ v ) ° ~t = «Vf Z choy DN {i Ne oh uy 7 . = |G A { = Z \ . AT r ‘i 7 | — Pm “ee Fea ele = 2587 Thornhill St. 638-8404 eG ye Sh PEATE et aepsline acne TE ate Rca ne Ime A rane reap Rare em Oe ne pam REA a CTP RSE re oe eee | career hag RE ~