Guitar grad | . Music fest adjudicator » makes some history with | his brief homecoming | \COMMUNITY B1 Don't do it. Government Officials hope to examine ways to reduce hitchhiking \NEWS A12- Kick off . , Caledonia girls soccer y hopefuls start training for a the upcoming season \SPORTS B4 — $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus8¢ GST. outside of the Terrace area); VOL.18 NO. 52 ‘s “Building to become THE. PROVINCE: OF’ ‘BC. . UNBC nearly $1 million to buy a building . one’ of its crown corporation’, sold just . one year ago for $485,000. ; new. UNBC campus - SARAH A: ZIMMERMAN ‘The former provincial transportation “ministry building at 4837 Keith Avenue | had ‘been owned by the B.C. Buildings Corporation until March of 2005 when it © ‘was purchased by M and M Ventures, a is giving . - _ Mike and Michele Scott. « “The Scotts bought the cy 15,000 . square-foot building for $485,000. just one year ago and sold it to the UNBC two. ' weeks ago for $950, 000. - _” Last week: UNBC ‘announced it had. received $972,000 from the provincial - government to buy the building — twice - what the’ province’ $ Own corporation sold - it for the previous’ year. But- UNBC of- _ ficials insist it’s a good deal. ; ' “We dida very careful market. research | on this building,” says Dennis. Macknak, “UNBC’s . regional operations director. “We hired a firm, they did an extensive review of what the: ‘building was worth . purchase pricetag. =. » like that: for us.” ‘ -Macknack ‘says the cost of building . new far exceeds the nearly $1 million “Yes, we:looked. at: it very, very, care- - fully and long,” he said... That idea of buying rather than build... ing is one of the reasons the Scotts opted’ to purchase the’ building last year. “We recognized that the real value of the structure was much higher than the - selling price was,” Mike Scott said. “It’s. a $3.5 million structure.” The Scotts had first planned to lease - out the building and were in’ negotiations with two other parties when UNBC ap- - ding y it for roughly a year when. his company - - bought it; Scott said, adding anybody else * could have bought it, but nobody did. — It’s: a gamble. to buy a commercial property of that size because of the ongo- once The building had been on. the market , ing costs to maintain the building, Scott said. He estimates between property tax- es and utility bills the cost. to maintain a building like that can exceed $60, 000 ina _year. The building remained empty from the time the Scotts bought it until it was ’ sold last month to UNBC. » Tf the potential purchaser had been any entity other than the, university they may ° . not have sold it at all, Scott said. “Tt was not only good ‘for ourselves, 7 Wednesday, ata 5,.2006 - owner obviously, but also good for the commu- nity,” he said, adding he is | excited to see the Terrace UNBC campus expand. ~ .: “Michele and I both feel very strongly’ this i is UNBC's, time to get the’ recogni fata * tion.” Renovations on’ the building: are “to start in the coming weeks and’UNBC’ ~ » officials hope they may ‘be able to'move ‘* - into the building in time for the: start ‘of September classes. The building became surplus t to the | provincial. government’s needs after it. cut back on the number of transportation 7 ‘ ministry employees here.’ . * | For more on UNBC’s plans fori its new. campus building, please see. Page ¢ Al 4. . company 0 owned dby local business People “ and what it would cost to build a building . rt Beautiful Beverly _ DARRYL BJORGAARD puts some finishing touches on Beveity Hill, one of his three entries in the Durr ‘Downhill at Shames Moun-: tain March 26. To read how Beverly and the other event entrants fared in 1 their skiing or. snowboarding debut, turn to page B10. proached them soon after buying it. ral: centre © wantad-by t By DUSTIN QUEZADA | DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO. - Soft lumber markets spark closure | _of TLC sawmill until mid-month | _ By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN THE TERRACE: Lumber Company (TLC) has. ‘ closed its sawmill for at least the next two weeks, citing a soft lumber market. . Ss International lumber prices have fallen recent- ly meaning the cost to produce the lumber are out of line with the low market prices, says TLC mill ‘manager Wayne Haw .” Between 15 and 20 sawmill workers and log ‘yard employees are out of work until April 17, the -- _ date company officials are hoping to come back on line. “Right now we’ re saying it'll be down for, we think, the next two weeks, ‘but what we’ve also © told everybody is that the market is soft right now but it could change,” says Haw, who recently be-: came the mill’s general manager. “It’s a fluid situation and we’re evaluating that . every day because we want it to run,” he said. Other operations at the mill location continue, including planing and drying wood. Haw started in his new post March 6 after for: mer mill-manager Terry Bennett switched posi- tions to become ‘the mill’s chief financial officer. Haw once ran the former Pohle sawmill here until 1988 when he moved to Smithers to run the mill there. Most recently he’d been living on Vancou- ver Island, but not working 1 in the forestry | indus- © With the log yard closed the company is also not purchasing any new wood. “Right now we’re on hold as far as buying | cult. - But Haw says that kink appears to have now is ‘concerned until something changes, so the _ ‘Rupert’s ‘pulp mill by Chinese-owned Sunwave log yard is closed,” Haw said. “We’re out there looking for wood but we’re not actively buying today.” challenges the mill has faced since a group of lo- cal investors bought it from bankrupt New Skeena - Forest Products last year. _.. Those challenges include. difficulty i in secur- ing rail cars to, ship out its finished lumber and an overabundance of hog fuel and sawdust. > Last month the mill had a backlog of roughly : 70 rail cars worth of packaged lumber ready to ship, but its marketing agent was having trouble . securing ‘the cars from CN, said TLC board chair- man John Ryan. Smithers so there are lots of cars but we don’ t ‘know where the trouble is,” he said last month. ° That made getting its product to market diffi- been worked out.’ The company also needs an economically vi- - - able place to dispose of its chips and sawdust. “Hog fuel and sawdust has been a bit of an is- sue,” said Ryan. “At the moment Eurocan is kind- ly helping us out with hog fuel.” . But Eurocan is not taking its sawdust. And the sawdust in ‘the mill’ s yard is beginning to accu- mulate. : The closure is the latest hiccup in a series of “We’re just having a very difficult time to get cars for the lumber. There’s hundreds of empty - cars sitting outside of our mill and the sidings by That makes the potential reopening. , of Prince Forest Products all the more important. That company has another extension until the _ end of April to close the deal on the mill. “It would be significant for everyone — for the _ Lax Kwalaams, it would: be significant for the Terrace Lumber Company...it would be very sig- nificant for the loggers,” Ryar fact that the pulp mill would need two million cu- . “ft Ryan said, adding the. . bic metres of chips per.annum means plenty of opportunity to dispose of its chips. . Whether Sunwave will close the deal is not . guaranteed, but it has had to’ pay for the ongoing - “maintenance costs of. the mill while’ the closing - date is extended, which means it’s pumping sig- nificant cash into the deal already. “As time goes on, their commitment. in terms’ of resources are becoming more significant over time which therefore leads me to believe that there’ is a better chance of the Chinese activating the A mill,” Ryan said. _ “They are dismantling the B rail but that was — always the case.’ And like many independent sawmills without | an established history such as West Fraser or Can- for; TLC is also slapped with significantly higher ” . softwood lumber tariffs at the border. . . While companies such as West Fraser pay less” - than 10 per cent duties, TLC faces tariffs in the - range of 20 per cent. The mill re-opened under its’. new Terrace Lumber Company name the end of August last year. create a call centre for the Northern Health Authority that is -. one-of-a-kind in the province, says the society’s ‘president. “It’s the first time’ in B.C. that any health authority ‘has * doiie this,” said Danny Sheridan of the proposed service... The society’s bid would see it administering a call centre ‘and Web site that will’ provide ‘information’ and. assistance.” - "to patients and their families on all tion- emergency health-" related sérvices. the Queen Charlotte Islands. available through this one service. assist them to get to where they have to be.” - number that ensures anonymity is maintained. pee ag! with some medical and social services background. . _ Cont'd i Page AZ JAKE 'STROOMER ‘of Northwest: Traff ic Control! ° poses with the red light that hangs above the | . . four-way stop at the intersection of Hwys 37 and. | -16 April 1. A-work crew spent the day replacing two lamp posts involved in recent motor vehicle. e accidents. MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO THE MUKS Kum Ol Housing Society has. put in a. bid to The call centre would be available to the 300,000 people : . in the health authority’s geographic area from the Yukon’ .. - border south to Quesnel and from the Alberta border west to . -Sheridan says the service’s goal i is to make all informa- . tion surrounding health care in. non- emergency situations “We're not giving medical advice, we’re avigatiiig f peo- - | _ ple-through the healthcare system,”. Sheridan said. “we will : ‘The bid outlines ‘several examples where callers have, aw “non-emergency problem, such as discovering their son isus- © 4 ing crystal meth, to a woman wishing to travel to: ‘Vancouver a to be by her husband’s side i in hospital, toa Smithers, man ee “ needing to get to Kitimat to see.a bone specialist. » ari wR! “,In‘each case, a call taker will answer “the call and deter- ; mine whether the case is a new one and, if so, generate 2 a case oe _ If the.caller’s need surpasses the cail taker’s training, he . ‘or she. would then pass the caller on toa navigator, someone va local agency |