A6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, June 5, 1991 -_. 7 What price convenience? he call for tenders is out and the deadline for submissions is ; June 19. As reported when we described details of the - city’s 1991 budget, council has set aside $54,000 for a slab and concrete block public convenience in the northwest comer of George Little Memorial Park. Council tried the same thing twice last year with a budget of $30,000. The first time no bids were received, the second a couple of bids were received, but they exceeded the budget by about $15,000. The solution? Simple. Put more money in the budget next year. If this process sounds familiar, you're probably thinking of the swim- ming pool expansion... A project that started out with a $350,000 price tag and ended up costing $1.1 million. We have had a few comments on a story we ran on March 20 one from a city employee who would like to remain anonymous. The story described an internal memo received by city council that offered a few options for their consideration. The basic comment isn’t really a comment at all... it's a question. What ever happened to that memo? Why didn’t council at least give it a little more thought? From this memo we learned that the washroom proposal wasn’t new. The original washroom solution invoived an external addition to the library. The idea was scrapped, though, when the library started talking about expansion. Next came a suggestion for an addition to the bandshell. But that one didn’t fly because the city didn’t have the money, And then came the current proposal for separate building in a far corner of the park. But the memo suggested to council that the best idea of all was to include washrooms in the library expansion we're supposed to be voting on in November. Coupled with an overall expansion, it would be much more economical to design, build and heat, and the public would have easy access through an exterior entrance. The current proposal doesn’t call for any kind of a heating system at all. Who’s going to use them in the winter? But washrooms in the library expansion could easily be heated and an interior entrance would mean they could be accessed from the library during winter months, so they would be used all year round. The only thing wrong with the idea, it was pointed out, was the fact that the library option meant there would no permanent washrooms for this yeats Riverboat Days celebration. We would be stuck with porta-biffies. Still, in the long term, the integrity of the park would be preserved and options for the northwest corner of the park would — remain open. And when compared to $54,000, a-rental porta-biffy looks pretty good. It would cost only about a $1,000 a year for a rental or the city could buy their own for around $650. The rental was recommended because the city wouldn’t need to worry about vandalism or maintenance. On the other two options, it was pointed out that a separate building would preclude any future use of that corner of the park and vandal- ism and maintenance costs would be "horrendous". In addition, because the building would not be heated, it would have to be winterized every fall and reopened every spring. RABE Pao © 1 Don Vo ZNSFUVUEWV (om Second-class mail registration No. 6896. All material (including original art work) appear- Ing in the Terrace Review Is protected under Canadian copyright Registration No. 362775 and cannot legally be reproduced for any reason without permiasion of the publisher. 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It would appear that both the governing Social Credit Party and the opposition New - Democrats intend to stir the “muck mightily in their fight for power. Perhaps one should not have ‘been surprised to see debate in the Legislature deteriorate to an exchange of accusations about corruption, mismanage- ment, sleazy political tactics and the like, as evidenced in the past two weeks. (I won’t even get into the argument of whether or not _ charges of corruption and favors for friends are wholly accurate, partly accurate, or in- accurate. I'll leave that to you voters). a Whatever the case, the NDP continues to hammer home its belief that the current ad- ministration is the most corrupt government in the province’s history. NDP critic Glen Clark even went so far as to accuse Finance Minister John Jansen of misleading the House by claiming the deficit was one- third of the actual $1.2:billion . the Socreds will borrow this year. In doing so, they were vir- tually following disgraced former premier Bill Vander Zalm’s lead. For it was he who repeatedly labelled Mr. Sihota ‘‘Sleazy Moe, a moniker enthusiastically supported (not surprisingly?) ‘by disgraced former attorney- general Bud Smith. The view from Victoria — by John Pitfer The Socreds intend to remind (you should excuse the expres-_ the voting public ad nauseam that it was Sihota who in- troduced into the Legislature the first of the infamous audio tapes of Mr, Smith's car- telephone calls into the Legislature... tapes which led to his crashing fall from grace just 10 months ago. You may rest assured that come the election campaign, Mr. Sihota will be painted as a wire-tapping eavesdropper. The Socreds seem determined . to leave the impression that the Esquimalt MLA did the actual taping, rather than just making the material public when hand- ed it on a platter by a sym- pathetic reporter. Some of the vitriol Mr. Smith and the Socreds feel toward Mr. Sihota oozed into the House last Wednesday when former Cabinet Minister and former Speaker John Reynolds launched a vicious at- tack aimed primarily at the poor business practices of Mr. Sihota’s deceased father. What next? Slurs against an opponent's dead mother? If this session continues through June, the sewer-tevel “debate’’ reached by Reynolds will likely set the tone... in other words, anything goes. And now that it’s all being televised daily, thousands have the opportunity to catch every innuendo, every acusation, every bitter interjection from both sides of the House. Why, it’s almost as good as watching Dallas or Dynasty! But howabout we name it “As the Stomach Turns’’! A quick note about the race sion) for the leadership of the Social Credit Party? As delegate selection meetings for the July 18-20 convention begin, there are per- sistent rumblings of more can- didates emerging. And there is one member of Cabinet who is little known to the general public, but highly respected by his colleagues, who is getting some pressure to Tun. I speak of Norm Jacobsen, the second member from Dewdney and currently social services and housing minister. For the past three years, the former Maple Ridge mayor has been described by his confreres as “the most common-sense voice in Cabinet’ and one of the best at operating his ministry. Mr, Jacobsen has a proven record of business (he owned a logging company), and was the voice of sanity and reason in caucus in August 1988, when all hell was breaking loose around then-premier Vander Zalm, what with the abortion controversy, Cabinet resigna- tions and the egregious David Poole affair. Some Socred MLAs are championing the unassuming Jacobsen for Premier, saying . the fact that he is quiet, con- templative and capable can be used to advantage, especially in contrast to the loud, careless- thinking, incompetent style of leadership from Wild Willie. So, can a man who looks » like a retired banker fire up a party in this era in which televi- sion glitz and glamour takes precedence over substance?