COST CUTTING

City follows one of the

three Rs, reducing crew —

Garbage collection and dis-
posal may not be the biggest
item of expenditure in the
city’s ’93 budget.

Bui, in a year that’s seen
deep cuts in several areas, the
cost of dealing with refuse has
gone up.

However, says engineering
director Stew Christensen,
that’s because the city is trying
to save money.

That may sound con-
tradictory, but he’s talking
about the long term.

Noting the city had recently
bought its second one-man
garbage truck, Christensen
said that will reduce the size
of the crew from three to the
equivalent of 1.5 men.

However, the saving hasn’t
shown up this year because
that manpower cut was
achieved by ‘‘buying out’’ one
employee through early retire-
ment, he explained.

Christensen said the next
item on the garbage collection
agenda is a complete review of
the system.

‘*We’ll be looking at several!
options,’” he said, adding the
public works department ex-
pected to make its report to
council by late summer or ear-
ly fall.

Among issues the depart-
ment has raised in the past is
the need to contro! the amount
of garbage individual
households put out and to
make the amount users pay
more accurately reflect the
cost of collection.

Noting the present landfill
site will be at capacity by the
year 2000, Christensen said
the city wanted to encourage
people to follow the first two
of three Rs: reduce and re-use.

RCMP point to

alarming stats

THE LOCAL RCMP detachment §
responds to an average of more §
than two false alarms every day
of the year. . a

That, says inspector Lamy
Yeske, is too many and he wants §

_ the city to take action.

-Yeske told councillors his
members answered 758 false
alarms last year. In the majority Ai

- of cases, they were set off be- Fy
cause of human error or atmo-
spheric conditions. In others, the j
wrong type of equipment was home
being used. Insp. Larry Yeske

Explaining not all alarm owners

were co-operating, Yeske asked the city to bring in a by-law to
tackle the problem. Councillor Bob Cooper added the fire depart-

ment faced a similar problem.

Apart from wasting RCMP time, councillor Darryl Laurent

pointed out there was a danger officers would get complacent about

alarms.

Laurent suggested there should be a limit set on the number of

false alarms allowed for a single premises. Once that was reached,

the owner would be told to fix the problem or the police would not.

respond to Fnture alarms.

Council accepted a committee recommendation a false alarm by-

| law be drafted, then sent to commiltee for study.

Approval given

ONE DOWN, one more can to go. But city employee Bill Wilson says that not always the © case, Ha
reaccied one house that had put out 30 bags of garbage one day. That's just the kind of thing the
public works department will be tackling as part of a review of the refuse collection system. It ex-
pects to deliver a'report to council on the subject by the early fall at the latest.

JUNE 7-13 has been proclaimed Serriors Week by council in
‘response to a request from the local B.C.. old Age Pensloners
Branch 73.

Secretary Aileen Frank said plans include a Seniors Advisory.

Commission booth in the Skeena Mall where buttons and refresh-

_ ments will be handed out and an invitation to local school students

to attend a lunch atthe Happy Gang Centre. .

.. Also approved was a requesl from the Oldtimers Fastball Club to
hold a beer garden at its annual tournament held at the Northwest

Band gets travel bucks

TERRACE COMMUNITY Band will receive a $2,000 grant from
the city’ te toward the * cost of travelling to MusicFest Canada in n Ed-
monpion. we

The band was recommended to the national ‘event ‘based ¢ on its

performance at the local Pacific Northwest Music Festival.
Spokesman Theresa Ross recalled the adjudicator there had in-

formed the audience they had just listened to ane of the best bands

in northern B.C.
She said the community band would be. ‘competing at the top level
at MusicFest, taking on college and university bands.

Members of the 30-strong troupe have to raise $15,000. They.

have collected approximately $13,000 and were asking the city to
help swel! the total.

Ross pointed out the band performed, free of charge, at numerous
community events including Riverboat Days and Remembrance
Day as well as putting on events such as the Christmas Caroling
evening.

Proposing ihe band be given $2,000, councillor Ruth Hallock
agrecd it already received $1,700 a year in city money through the
Terrace Arts Council grant. However, with instrument replacement
costs as high as $5,000, that amount was not enough to cover the
band’s expenses. Last year, she added, lack of money forced the
band to pass up an invitation to attend a prestigious international
festival in the U.S,

While her husband was a member of the community band, Hal-
lock said she felt there was no conflict because it was ‘‘a purely
community organization.’’

-Her colleagues agreed unanimously to the grant which will come
out of the $6,000 set aside in this year’s budget as council’s con-
tingency Fund.

Child care invite turned down

ANY CHANGES to city by-laws regulating the size of daycares
in residential areas will be handled through one of its existing
commiftees, council decided last week.

The local branch of the Early Childhood Educators of B.C.
had asked the city to sit on a special joint committee “‘to draft
by-laws that would support the development of more child care
options,”

However, mayor Jack Talstra reminded councillors of their
deciston earlier this year not to add any new committee commit-
ments to an already full list. At present by-law questions are

handled through council’s finance committee,

Countillor Rick King also pointed out Darlene Westerman, lo-
cal child care licensing officer, had recommended the city take
no action until the results of the current provincial review were
known, ‘

Even then, councillor Bob Cooper said, any by-law changes
could be handled by the existing finance committee. Administra-
for Bob Hallsor said in the meantime a city staff member would

04° most 60 years old now. '

Community College May 22-24.

be available to offer advice.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 19, 1993 - Page AS

Dear Sir:

In these days of constantly-
impending austerilics, with the
expense-account bunch con-
tinually braying that ‘‘there’s
no free lunch,’ I thought it
might be instructive to apply
some of that neo-conservative
fiscal philosophy to a broader
field than just dull old econom-
ics,

What would happen if you

took the tenets of today’s
trendy entrepreneurial cultists
and applied them to some en-
vironmental balance sheets, for
example?
. Nothing..not even a chunk
of apple pie after a tax-
deductible lunch..seems to
tantalize ihe neo-conservative
gland like the prospect of
thoroughly-balanced budget.

Well, the environment opera-
tes on ““budgets’’, too. If for
example you pour more waler
into a watershed than you take
out at the other end, you find
yourself with a surplus of
water. (Surpluses are not in all
cases a desirable thing, as
many a flood-victim will at-
test.)

In the case of the atmo-
sphere, one of the many
“budgets” is currently running
quite a surplus. This is the
“greenhouse gas’’ account.

One of the principal grecn-
house gasses is carbon dioxide.
It is produced primarily
through the combustion of so-

Dear Sir:

A lot of focus is given to tak-
ing time to find out about the
Nisga’a but there scems to be
no time for any non-native
concems.

One of my main concerns is
for employment for our future
generations of children here in
the Nass Valley. Some of us
were born here and we’ re e al-

‘We have deep roots here’ as
well as the Nisga’a and unless
we are 100 be discriminated
against, I believe we deserve a
right to make a living here
also,

If we are to pay taxes to the
Nisga’a we must have employ-
ment in order to do so. I put

Dear Sir:

I am writing regards to our
local school district. We hear
and read about al] the cuts the
school board has proposed but
not once has the board looked
at its own house to cut costs,
namely the superintendent on
down.

It’s about time we, the 1ax-
payer, were told what their
salaries and expense accounts
are,

Also, why is it when their
contracts. are up for renewal,
we do not hear publicly what
they get? ,

It's time your newspaper
gave out all sides, I’m sure the

Another

Dear Sir

I was extremely disappointed
in your newspaper recently, the
one printed April 26, 1993. On
the front page was a photo of a
born-again Christian traveler.

Twenty-two pages into that
newspaper was a photo and
small write up of recipients
who received a Canada 125
medal], Eight members of our
community were honoured for
their contribution to our com-

LETTERS,

An airing out
of Orenda’s mill

called fossil-fuels... coal, natu-
ral gas, petroleum and wood
products.

Locally, Orenda Forest Pro-
ducts has plans to build a pulp
mill that. will produce -
amongst other things -— al
least 143,543 tonnes of carbon
dioxide a year.

This . contribution to the
global warming problem has
been dismissed by Orenda as
‘insignificant’? noting that it
is only .0009 per cent of total
annual global CO2 production,
Well, let’s take a closer look at
the balance sheet...

One of the best (indeed, one
of ‘the few) CO2 ‘'fixers’’
around here is our forest. Your
average tree will ‘‘fix’’ about
4.5 kilograms of atmospheric
CO2 into the form of wood
fiber each year. So to balance
their CO2 budget and
‘eliminate that ‘‘insignificant’’
contribution to the. greenhouse
effect, the good corporate
citizens steering Orenda have
no doubt already made ar-
Tangemenis to plan the mere
31,898,444 trees required cach
year to correct thal tiny im-
balance in their budget.

What’s that other mystical
incantation the No Free Lunch
bunch are constantly intoning?
“Short term gain for long term
pain’’? No, that can’t be quite
right.

John How,
Lakelse Lake

What gives with
native gov't plan

this question to some of the
Nisga’a leaders of one of their
open houses held in Terrace.
Some only agreed that we
would have to leave the Valley
if we had no employment.
Others indicated that if a per-
son wanted to submit a request
to open a business within the
land claim area a letter should
be forwarded to the Nisga’a

oe Drtbal Counc)! Sere cscsutie

This letter of request was
submitted to the tribal council
but was ignored without reply.
Is this an indication of what
native self-government has to
offer us? .

Yours truly,
Lloyd Brinson,
Nass Camp, B.C.

Probe is needed

public would be shocked at a
few of the board staff mem-
bers’ salaries.

J am a strong proponent for
education and health. I feel
there is a great waste on all
sides, but when I hear my hus-
band's hard earned money is
going on flowers and paying
people to exercise, | see'red.

It’s time your newspaper did
an indepth story on our local
school district, namely salaried
workers starting with the su-
periniendent on down as they
are or should be accountable to...
the taxpayer.

Mrs. S. Broughtoi,
Terrace, B.C.

opinion

munity and other services,

The medals were presented
by Skeena MLA Helmut Gies-
brecht, on behalf of Canada, at
a short ceremony at cily hall,

I would think this special oc-
casion should have been
placed on the front page of
your newspaper as a tribute to
these individuals,

Yours truly,
Ivy Ray,
Terrace, B.C,

wt

= learning how to read,

The s Start is for. people -

Bear

Watch out for black
bears.

They are starting to
show up in town.

One bear tried to get
into a trailer here at night.

It tried to. get in through

a window. Then it tried to -

come through the door.
“Bears prowl around

_ homes. because they are
hungry. :

alert

Nobody knows what a
bear will do.

That is why people
should be careful.

They should not go up
to bears.

They should store gar-

bage correctly.

They should pick fruit

right away.
Pet food left outside will

attract bears.

Drinking

Police are looking for
people who drink and
drive.

They will set up road-
blocks.

An. they will check
vehicles.

This is called
CounterAttack.

It happens a couple of
times a year.

People are. killed each
year in accidents. because

of drinking and’ striving

.s