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A popular multifaith
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out of cultural awareness
\COMMUNITY B3

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Cal's boys basketball team
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Classic here this
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Big welcome _
The first truck bearing
2, supplies rolls into
I the tiny village of
Kincolith\NEWS A15

$1.00 pLus 7¢ GST
($1.10 plus 8¢ GST
outside of tha Terrace area)

VOL: 15 NO: 36.

Chamber pushes Thornhill merger

BUSINESS leaders are planning a push ta
put Terrace-Thornhill amalgamation back
on the local agenda.

Terrace and District Chamber of Com-
merce president Sheila Love said amal-
gamation, along with construction of a
multiplex, are two things the chamber
thinks could speed the city toward econo-
mic recovery.

“We need to have something happen
here,” Love said. “Nothing’s happening

.and people are leaving Terrace in
droves.”

She said merging Terrace and outlying
areas would create a larger, stronger city
with more clout in the region and a bigger
draw for visitors.

“It makes it more appealing to people
wanting to come into Terrace,” Love

THIS WILL be a familiar sight to Terrace area drivers in the com-
ing weeks, as the RCMP cranks up its holiday anti-drinking and
driving campaign. Constable J.R. Walker, above, says police are keep drunk drivers off the road. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

Budget cutters get more exposure

said. “If both communities work together
as one cily rather than regional district
and city council it would be stronger.”

She also said amalgamation would pul
an end to the-current two different juris-
dictions that sometimes complicate deve-
lopment plans.

One example, she said, is if Wal-Mart
wants to come to Terrace. There’s relat-
ively little suitable land in Terrace, but
development in Thornhill would mean the
tax base wouldn’t benefit the city.

Love said she and Terrrace Mayor
Jack Talstra are planning a charmber-
council meeting in January to find ways
to advance the idea and to explore other
development ideas.

Amalgamation was last tried in 1996,
when a referendum got 87 per cent sup-

port in Terrace but was defeated in
Thornhill, where 58 per cent of voters re-
jected the plan.

The city responded with a sirategy of
gradually expanding its boundaries and it
began by taking over the airport lands.

The mayor pursued the idea three
years ago of extending city water to
Braun’s Island if it joined Terrace, but is-
landers refused.

Love says construction of a multiplex
is another area where the chamber wants
to push for action.

“If you had that here you'd see more
weekend sports, nore conventions like
Rotary,” she said.

Love also said the chamber also wants
to see a container port develop in Prince
Rupert and new measures to boost tour-

planning to catch people dodging road blocks by placing spotters
in the surrounding areas. It's a new method RCMP hope will

ism.

She said the chamber has invited Lib-
eral leadership frontrunner Paul Martin to
visit in the hopes of getting a sympathetic
government voice in Ottawa.

Also on the chamber's to-do list are
pushing for development of lands around
the airport, increasing its capacity, more
connections with aboriginal governments
and businesses, promoting passenger rail
traffic to Terrace in conjunction with the
Prince Rupert cruise ship industry and
promoting community projects such as
the 75th anniversary mural, the new track
at Skeena Junior Secondary School and
extending the millennium pathway to
fishermen’s park.

“We want to pet the message out that
we will do whatever we can,” said Love.

CounterAttack
has returned

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN
DRINKING drivers won’t be able to dodge roadside po-
lice checkpoints very easily this month, thanks to a
local new emphasis.

“We'll be using spotters to get people who are avoi-
ding the road blacks,” says. Terrace RCMP Constable
JR. Walker.

He said drivers try to avoid road blocks when they see
police lights flashing, but, spotters located in the vicinity
will help police broaden their target area. :

Those people dodging roadblocks ‘generally have
something to hide, says Walker..- They: may. have been
drinking, may not have appropriate registration, insur-.
ance or a valid driver's licence.

Using spotters is just one way RCMP members are
trying to be more innovative when it comes to getting
drunk drivers off the road.

But that desire to be innovative and use different me-
thods to nab drunk drivers is what led, in part, to the
B.C. RCMP not taking part in this year’s CounterAttack
program until just last week.

“The issue is a balance between the police’s.need for
flexibility and ICBC's need for accountability,” says
ICBC spokesman Doug McClelland. “If we are going to |
spend our policy holders’ money we need ta know what
we are going to get because we need to measure its ef:
fectiveness.”

After months of negotiations between the Crown cor-
poration and the RCMP, an interim agreement was
signed Dec. 4. It sees ICBC giving $1.6 miliion to the
provincial Solicitor General’s office which will, in turn,
give the money to the RCMP to run an anti-drinking and
driving campaign for the next 10 weeks.

Cont'd Page A2

Accident claims

Sheila Love

THE NAMES cf people who sit on a school
district committee looking at ways to cut $5
million from the annual operating budget will
be circulated among community groups.

The move comes after new school trustees
asked why only Parent Advisory Council
members from one school ~ E.T. Kenney in
Terrace — appear to have joined the district’s
reconfiguration committee, struck in Septemr
ber to suggest ways to save money or find néw
sources of revenue.

“I went to all the Thornhill PAC meetings
and this didn’t come up at all,” newly-elected
trustee Lorrie Gowen said. |.

Schools superintendent Randy Smailbrugge
said PACs and schools were invited to take

art.
P Whoever showed up at that first meeting
formed the committee, he said.

Another newcomer to the board, Hazelton
trustee Jessica Mikolayczyk, said she’s con-

cerned the committee may not have enough
First Nations representation.

She also wants the district to create recon-
figuration committees in each community be-
cause issues vary widely.

The district was forced to close five schools
and delayed opening Mountainview Elemen-
tary School in Terrace in order to save money
for the current school year. About 35 teachers

* lost their jobs as a direct result of cuts.
With continued declining enrolment and a

funding freeze, the Coast Mountains school
District faces another shortfall for the coming
year.

That means school closures are once again
on the table, along with more than 50 other
suggestions, which.range: from year-round
schooling and a four-day week to magnet
schools. and selling theatres.

“We will be looking at cuts in the next fis-
cal year,” Mikolaycezyk said. “The priorities

are different in each community.”

She would like to see trustees meet with
PACs and schools to develop community-
based reconfiguration commillees.

“There’s a real issue of the big, bad board
that is sitting in chambers and making deci-
sions for communities,” she said,

There is a precedent. Schoo! board chair

Peter. King said the district set up community -

advisory commitiees after the Kitimat and
Terrace school districts amalgamated.

He suggested something similar could be

set into motion on budget cuts.

“We're sort of inventing the wheel. as WE BO

along,” King said.

_ The reconfiguration committee’s ideas are:
_now -being studied’ by various: ad ‘hoc. and
standing committee for review and recommen-

dation,

Their findings will be presented to the board .

in February.

Rec site handoff deadline looms

By JEFF NAGEL,

THE PROVINCE’s drive to off-
load forest recreation sites and
trails is moving into high gear.

Volunteer groups are up against
a Dec. 18 deadline to decide if
they want to take over mainte-
nance of trails and rec sites — at
no further cost or liability to Vic-
toria.

The forest ministry’s decision
to cut off cash for 1,250 forest ser-
vice rec sites and 580 trails‘ pro-

vince-wide is supposed ‘to: gave

around $5 million.

In the Kalum Forest District
there are 16 recreation sites
—- places like Red Sand Lake, Ex-

stew, and Lakelse River. In addi-
tion, there are 25 trails. They pro-

vide access to for alpine hikers,
snowmobilers and anglers. to
places like Pine Lakes, Thornhill
Mountain, Sleeping Beauty and
Sterling Mountain.

The job of handing them off to
new carelakerd 18 one of the final
tasks “for Carl: ‘Johansen; the
Kalum - Forest ‘District recreation |

technician who has worked io’ de-

velop or improve many of the
local trails and sites.

His current job ends next year,
when he'll use his seniority to

A special report
mw Users fear policy will
lead to dismantling of
sites, trails. A5

- move to another ministry position!
Two recteation officers based —

-in Prince George will oversee all

‘sites and trails ACTOSS northern

B.C.
“The ministry is out of the

-management of recreation sites

and trails,” Johansen said,

For years he has. battled to
keep the district’s sites in good
condition against sometimes diffi-
cult odds.

Picnic tables, signs and out-
houses eventually rot and break
down under the elements — -if

they’re not first attacked by, van-

dals ¢ or partiers.
-- Johansen -has worked. dlosel

Continued Pg. ‘AS.

northwest artist

THE KITSUMKA-
LUM .community hall
was filled Dec. 8 as
people paid tribute to
Freda Diesing, one of
the. northwest's pre-
‘Mier artists and tea-
' chers, who was killed

in a motor vehicle ac-
cident Dee. 3.

Diesing, 77, was

killed when her pick-

up truck‘ went off the
road about 35kms
west of Terrace on
Hwy 16. She was
driving alone heading
eastbound at about
4:40 p.m..Dec. 3 when
she lost control of her
pickup truck on an icy paich of the highway, says
RCMP Constable Natasha Stultz.

The vehicle went off the highway near Andesite
Creek. It rolled and came to a rest upside down in
a slough. Stultz said the water was about one
metre deep at the side of the road.

Several peaple stopped to help. A passing tow
truck: was used to right the vehicle and Diesing
was pulled from her truck before fire, RCMP and
ambulance crews arrived on the scene but officials
‘say she likely had already drowned.

The accident happened on a fairly straight sec-
tion of the highway, Terrace fire chief Randy
Smith said. “The road conditions were interesting

| that-night ~ a lot of places were dry and clear and
then all of a sudden areas had black ice,” he said.

_ .! Far more on the fe of Freda ia Diesing, please. see
Poe \

Freda Diesing