Not so peppy

A clown’s smile turns
upside down as her car
goes up in flames at ski
resort\NEWS A14

Cup crazy

A local girl talks about
competing against the
world’s best alpine
racerS\SPORTS B4

Explore Peter Dickson’s
creative impulses

in a new art
exhibit\COMMUNITY B1

$1.00 plus 7¢ GST
($1.10 pilus &¢ GST
outside of the Terrace area)

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riesday, April 17, 2002° ~ :

school closure plan moves along

PARKSIDE PARENT Tracy Fethauer
says time is running out to save five
schools in the Coast Mountains School
District.

Last month the school board an-
nounced plans to close Parkside, Cop-
per Mountain and three other schools -
and to not open nearly-completed
Mountainview Elementary — to save
moncy, only to rescind the decision a
week later, saying it needed to first
follow a 60-day public comment per-
iod.

At an April 3 meeting in Kitimat,
the board told about 200 people every
school in the district would be consid-
ered for closure between now and May
24, the end of the 60-day time frame.

But on April 12, the school board

released an information package on
school closures that looks at closing
the same schools.

A final decision will be made at a
closed board meeting June 11, after
the board considers written submis-
sions handed in by the end of April
and conducts public meetings in carly
May.

Felhauer said the board’s own regu-
lations say a school closure must be
announced by the end of the school
year in June, giving staff and parents
enough time to adjust.

Education ministry guidelines re-
commend giving the public at least 60
days to comment on any potential
school closure before a final decision
is made.

Felhauer thinks that means there’s
only enough time for the board to
close the same five schuuls.

Felhauer said there’s almost no
time for the affected schools to react
and come up with alternatives. “Our
lirne limits are very quick,” she said.

Parkside parents will submit an al-
ternate proposal to keep the school
open.

Felhauer said the proposal would
include turning E.T. Kenny - a school
that had recently been considered for
closure — into a community centre and
daycare facility.

Their proposal will likely also sug-
gest expanding Clarence Michiel Ele-
mentary to include kindergarten and
the primary grades.

The new school board report on
school closures does not look al clos-
ing E.T. Kenney Primary, a propusal it
had originally considered in a feasibil-
ity study on Terrace’s Horseshoe area
schools,

Nor dues it say how large class

sizes will haye to be in order to ac-

commodate students inside existing
classrooms.

Closing those five schools will cost
the district: $140,000 in renovations
and other expenses, the report says,
resulting in a net savings of $2.2 mil-
lion.

Closing Parkside alone will save
the district more than $576,000 a year,

Closing Copper Mountain will save
another $480,000, But it would mean

at least one portable at both Thornhill
Elementary and Thornhill Primary to
accommodate the 156 displaced stu-
dents. ,

Copies of the information package
have been distributed to schools, tea-
chers’ and employees’ unions, public
libraries, parent advisory councils, and
government offices.

School staff in Terrace and Thorn-
hill will meet with district officials
May 2 at Caledonia Senior Secondary.
That meeting is followed by a public
meeting at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre.
Meetings in Stewart and Kitimat will
follow that same week.

The time line sets an April 29
deadline for comments on the proposal
with the meetings to follow.

ast

GLEN EISENBACH readies his trailer for occup
Inn Motel's RV park spot. He's one of those who will have to find
another place to live now that the Reel Inn has been told by the

‘Campers’

By JENNIFER LANG
RESIDENTS at a local RV park one city
councillor describes as “a shanty town” have
been told they'll have to move.

Reel Inn Motel owner Peter Gill handed out
eviction notices to four residents April 1 in-
forming them they have until the end of the
month to find somewhere else to live.

City officials recently warned Gill he faced
a court injunction if he didn’t take steps ta
comply with city bylaws by April 17.

Terrace’s campground bylaw limits the
length of stay to 150 days a year, or five
months. ;

But some residents in RVs and campers
have lived at the Reel Inn much longer — in
some cases ycars, putting up skirting, porches

ation at the Reel

told

and joey shacks.

Tenancy advocate Roseanne Pearce of Ter-
race Anti-Poverty said the residents are seniors
on low and fixed incomes whe can’t afford to
pay moving expenses.

“There’s no way they can come up with this
money out of their own pockets.”

Pearce has asked the city to consider ask-
ing Gill to pay for moving expenses in the
event it seeks a court order.

“| ‘think Mr. Gill should be responsible for-

moving expenses and relocation fees,” Pearce

said. ,
She’s asked the city of Terrace to consider

putting that request in any injunction it seeks
against Gill. The city has now forwarded that
request to its legal advisors.

on aS hia 3 :

city it can no longer let people treat the RV spot as a mobile
home park location, Four people are atfected by the situation
and there are suggestions the Reel Inn should help them move.

to leave park |

Pearce added the eviction notices residents —

"2.

i

received are not lepal, because they’re not
signed, so they can’t launch an appeal.

The city had warned the Reel Inn late jast
fall it would take action once winter was over.

“You just can’t have people set up shanty
villages,” City councillor David Hull said last
week, defending the crackdown, citing issues.
of health and safety.

“These aren’t trailers. These aren't perma-
nent dwellings,” Hull said. “They don’t meet
any criteria for permanent habitation.”

Hull thinks the RV park’s managers are to
blame because they let residents believe they

could stay indefinitely.
Cont'd Page A2

Mammography back on tr

THE NORTHERN Health Authority has ended
months of delay by announcing it will order a
_tew mammography unit to service Terrace and
‘ outlying communities.

A plan to do just that was put in motion late
last year and the money was approved but the
project was halted when the health authority was
created. .

“We had to take a look at everything that was
out there,” said Patty Stewart of the new author-
ity which was formed through the merger of
smaller community-based health councils.

“There were a number of capital projects and
they had to be looked at for the whole picture."

This new unit is a mobile one and will replace
one taken out of service at Mills Memorial Hos-
pital last fall because it was unreliable.

Not having a manimography unit at Mills has
meant that women here and in outlying commu-

nities have had to travel to Kitimat or elsewhere
for screening which is considered essential in the

early detection of breast cancer.

The push for a new one began through the

from communities
such as Stewart,
Dease Lake and the
Nass Valley won't
have to come down

Health cuts
getting closer

THE NEW Northern Health Authority (NHA) will start
shedding senior administrators and announcing other
cost-cutting measures within weeks, its chair says.

Harry Gairns said the authority’s plan to overcome an
anticipated deficit of more than $40 million over three
years is now being checked over by the health ministry,

The authority was created late last year by the merger
of 15 smaller ones across the north. Those 15 smaller au-
thorities came with their own chief executive officers
and other administrators and not all will be needed in
the new authority chain of command.

“Some will be offered other duties which they don’t
see as a fit for themselves or whatever,” said Gairns.

Other cost cutting measures, such as combining pur-
chases of supplies or services into large amounts for vo-
lume discounts, are already underway, “Some of this
was logical. It just made sense,” said Gairns.

Other measures such as merging or consolidating of
administrative services and lab work are also expected.

One thing that won't happen, at least in the first year
of the deficit-cutting plan, is the contracting out of ser-
vices, Gairns affirmed. That’s in direct contrast to other
health authorities which are moving ahead on plans to
reduce labour costs by contracting out services such as
laundry, housekeeping and food.

And facilities won’t be closed either, Gairns said, be-
cause of the distances separating northern facilities.

“It’s a lot different than places such as the Fraser
Valley where some facilities are 15 minutes apart,”
Gairns added.

But northerners can expect to see changes in what
their local hospitals and other facilities offer. That’ll
happen through what health authority officials call
“evolutionary changes” to occur in the second and third’
years of the plan.

Gairns and others say it is unrealistic to put such
changes in place within the NHA’s first year. And Gairns
cautioned that the plan still has to be ratified by the pro-.
vincial government. ;

That’s because the province has given the NHA and
other authorities a series of objectives it must achieve
and is checking the plans sent to it to ensure they meet
those objectives. The NHA plan will be released at the
same time as the plans of the other new health authari-
ties across the province. 7

Gairns said the NHA plan is very specific about cost
cutting in the first year. The essential elements of the
plan were put in place by NHA executives, working with
the health ministry, prior to the appointment of the au-
thority board,

The board met for the first time just two weeks ago
and gave its blessing to the one-year scenario. 7

“All they approved was the first year. There’s quite a
lot more involved with the plan but there was no time to
get further with that,” Gairns said.

ack here |

covered by the provincial mammography screen-

ing program, she said. oo
And it will cost more in that the first price

was put at $147,000 compared to the new esti-

Terrace and Area Community Health Council
and the money was secured last December. But
the health council was then eliminated in mid-
December 2001 when the new authority was cre-
ated, leading to the delay.

While the delay has meant the unil must be
re-tendered, Stewart said health authority offi-
cials expect that to happen within days with a
successful bidder chosen and order placed within
two weeks, :

Those same officials have set_mid-June as th
date when the new unit should be in service.

“It’l be in Terrace 95 per cent of the time and

"on the road 5 per cent of the time,” said Stewart.

The mobile nature of the unit means women

Rich McDaniel

to Terrace specific-
ally for mammo-
| grams anymore.

a| slightly different

’ than the one of late
last year.

Instead of buying a
van, one will be
leased, said Ste-
wart. :
That cost, as well
-as- the. cost of poing
on the road, will be

The new project is

mate of $175,000. Stewart said health authority
officials are ensuring the cost covers training and

that warranties are in place.

Forty per cent of the money comes from the
Northwest ‘Hospital District, a. regional taxation
authority which raises meney through local taxes
in aid of buying health care equipment.

Tetrace city councillor Rich McDaniel, who
acts as chair of the hospital district, said he was
happy the project is finally getting underway.

“The most important thing is thal there is a
date and ‘it’s mid-June,” said McDaniel who has
expressed his frustration at the purchase delay.

“It’s good to have a date for this much-needed
piece of equipment,” he said, oe