Dor} ye ee bee

Educational boost

Adam and Eve on stage

Progress is made as planning
continues to bring university
courses to the Nass/NEWS A11

The light side of the Garden of -
Eden from Terrace Little |
Theatre/COMMUNITY B1

Book ‘ em, Danno

Local rugby players ventured to
Hawaii and came away with a
good showing/SPORTS C1

WEDNESDAY
ocTOBER 20, 1998

AN INVESTIGATION into al-
lepations of. cheating at bingo
here has tumed up no proof of
wrong-doing, according to an of-
ficial with the B.C, Public
Gaming Branch.

Rita Connacher said the branch
responded afr several com-
plaints about rigged bingo games
here at the Lucky Dollar Bingo
Palace.

“We don’t have any proof that
any cheating took place,’’ Con-

nacher said Saturday,

“However we felt it was in the
best interests of the public — be-
cause the integrity of bingo was
being questioned — to report our
findings to the hall owners and li-
censees to ensure the alleged
scam couldn’t occur’ in the. fr
ture,”’

That took place last Thursday —

night at the Inn of the West when
Connacher. met: -with: non-profit
clubs and organizations that con-

duct bingos.

. Connacher explained that the

alleged scam would involve three
people:

The “winning’’ player would
dab the whole card and then fal-
sely call bingo. ,

The floorwalker, hired by the
club sponsoring the bingo, would
take the’ card to a second player
who would verify it as a bingo.
The trio would later split the
money. ,

yo fraud complaints probed |

“We've wamed the licencces
that this could happen and we
have, asked them to keep closer
track of their operation,’’ Con-
nacher said.

-Bingo hall owner John Belcher
has now purchased. a -com-
puterized bingo card verifier that
should eliminate any possibility
of such a scam in the future, she
added. Fee

“He’s.been very cooperative, ”
Connacher said,

r The sound of music

OLD AND YOUNG. Joanna. Keating, 10,
plays a .300-year-old violin in Terrace's
newly formed symphony orchestra. A union
of several groups of musicians, they're

‘

_ practising now. vand hope to perform in pub-
lic for the first:time for the first ¢ time before
Christmas. =

For the story, turn to page BI.

SCI cheques held back

SKEENA CELLULOSE employ-

ees got bad news last week: they

will not be. receiving the profit
sharing cheques they expected. | .

Senior  vice-president- Reg
Lightfoot delivered the blow at a
special’ meeting of both shifts last
week,

“Under the company profit shar-

ing scheme, hourly paid workers
and staff were supposed to
receive the cheques this Friday.

Although Lightfoot refused to
reveal how much ihe cheques
were for, employees have told the
Terrace Standard they were told
they ‘could: expect to take home
more than $3,000 after tax.

They also said the sudden can-
cellation had placed sonic, who'd -

already spent the: MON, ina.

tough spot.

But Lightfoot emphasized the
money {fs not permanently lost to
the employees.

“Wels ve: pat ‘the Pr sing .

Zs

. i verall

plan into suspension until the
forest industry im-
proves,” he explained.

Once that. improvement! oc-
curred, he said employees would
receive the promised cheques.

Although the Terrace mill had
made money over the last quarter,
he pointed out it was part of an
integrated operation.

And the pulp side of thal opera-
tion is taking a hammering with a
glut on the market and prices less
than half 1989 levels. '

SCI recently’ announced it
would be closing part of its
Prince Rupert pulp mill and com-

‘panion woodroom for at least

three months beginning Dec. 27.

“You get fo the point where
prudent management says you cut
"discretionary *.

, Spending,”
Lightfoot said. -

The profit shating moncy fell
into that category, be sald, adding

It was @ company initiated plan

i.

Reg Lightfoot
and SCT therefore had the right to
change it at any time. -

As for the short notice of can~,

cellation, he said that reflected

the company's reluclance to’ take

such action, ‘
““It was one of the last items to

be cut’? be explained. ‘We -

didn’t want to touch it” 7
However, a serous slip in pulp

prices last month had foreed SCI:

to do so. ‘We had {o tighien the
belt that one more notch,’’ be
said,

Lightfoot also. confirmed the
entire profit sharing scheme is
now suspended pending a. Pulp
Tecovery.

However, he stressed, the ¢ com-
pany ‘“‘firmly believes in profit

sharing’? and he’ anticipated it

would be reinstated in the ‘not
too distant future.’?°
Asked what SCI had done with

- mote than $1 million the profit

sharing cheques ~_—stotailed,

Lightfoot declined to answer
other than say Jt had gone tc fo run-

ning it its renal. op

The computer has a record of
all bingo cards in circulation and
all the numbers on the cards.

The draw numbers are entered
into the computer and when the
serial number of a winning card is
entered in ihe computer, it in-
stantly determines whether the
card is a winner or not.

‘‘We have all kinds of scams
ihat we investigate,’’ Connacher
says.

west
TNAUIBE

75¢ PLUS 5¢ ast we
VOL. 6 NO. 27°

Usually it’s a matter of a dis-
gmuntled player who hasn’t won
for a while who makes an allega-
tion.

But this case was ‘‘different,’”
Connacher said.

‘Several. pcaple had com-
plained. That’s why we took il a
little more seriously.’’

She said the gaming branch is
still investigating. Terrace RCMP
are assisting.

Reform party
now in front

REFORMER MIKE Seoit has
taken the lead over NDPer Joe
Barrett among decided voters,
suggests an opinion poll commis-
sioned by The Terrace Standard.
The poll, conducted between
Oct. 11 and Oct. 14, indicates that
Scott has the support of 32 per
cent of decided voters while Bar-
rett has the support of 27 per cent,

But. the pollialso found:aHigh - -

28 per cent-of voters  wefe: un-

“decided heading Into the. final,

days Of thé tampaign,

Educomp,: based in the. lower
mainland, contacted 430 voters
for a maximum error of plus or
minus 4.8 per cent 19 times out of
20.

Bui once the undecided number
was removed, the sample size
dropped accondingly and — the
margin of error was plus or minus
5.4 per cent,

That means. the difference be-
tween Scott and Barrett is within
the margin of error for this partic-
ular poll.

In a poll published two weeks
ago, Barrett had 31 per cent sup-
port of decided volers while Scott
had the support of 30 per cent.

This latest poll lists Tory Danny
Sheridan and Liberal Rhoda
Witherly tied at 17 per cent. Na-
tional party candidate-Dr. Isaac
Sobol has four per cent of the de-
cided vote, Green candidate Peter
Mehling two per cent, Christian
Heritage Party. candidate Luke
Kwantes one per cenit and Natural
Law. parly hopeful Calvin

Danyluk one per cont.

Rounding errors account for the
total exceeding one per cent.

Educomp polister Ron Taylor
treated the figures cautiously,
saying the voting decisions by the
high number of people who say
they are undecided could be a
factor Oct. 25.

And he said that while ‘tho. in-

abe ‘of. attacks on. the

political advertising cither works
dramatically for or against the
party using them.

**The NDP. is concentrating on
the seniors about health care and
pensions and what they say the
Reform will do,”’ said Taylor.

“Taylor sald it was very difficult
to get answers from people con-
tacted, but he does fcel a lot of
the remaining undecided voters
did support the NDP in 1988.

“Pye never seen this kind of
fragmentation here or in England
where I started polling in the ear-
ly 60s,” said Taylor of the prefer-
ences expressed through the poll.

Nationally, be described as
“Balkanized”’ the kind of elec-
toral showing that could be regis-
tered next Monday.

“By the figures we’re now
seeing, the official opposition
could very well be the Bloc
Quebecois or the Reform party,”’
said Taylor.

THERE’S NO shortage of
entries for those chasing
seats on city council or
school and regional district
boards.

Property and store owner
Francisco Trigo’s eleventh
hour entry in time for last
Friday’s deadline. means

there are. three ‘candidates
for the mayor's position.

Jack Talstra, is running
again ‘and the other chal-

ager Lynda Bretfeld.
The field for council
swelled to 11 as new candi-

before the deadline,
Incumbents Bob Cooper,
: Ruth Hallock and Rick King
are allsecking re-election. -
Also vying for one of the
six seats are Joc Duben, Val -
George, Ed Graydon, David
Hull, Gordon Hull, Rich
McDaniel, Scott Macdonald
and Carol Sabo.
With councillors Daztyl
Laurent, Danny Sheridan
and’ Mo Takhar having de-

Local election
choices soar

lenger is Skeena Mali man-

dates rushed to file papers —

Robinson.

' their mind about running -
‘cided “not to seek Te-.-
election, a’ minimum of

three new faces are guaran-
teed on the new council.

And for the first time in
some years, there will be a
race for the five Terrace
school trustee positions,

Back to try fer anothor
term are incumbents Stew
Christensen, Laurie Mitchell
_and John Powsette. -.

The remaining candidates
in the Nov. 20 election will
be Rod Falconer, Norm
Lavailee, Roger LeClerc,
Tan Lorenz and = Gary
Turner.

Not secking re-clection
are Edna Cooper and Wayne
Braid.

In the batile for the
regidnial - district electofal
area E (Thornhill) seat, cur-
tent director Les Watmough
is being challenged by Rick
Hawke and Peggy Julseth..

And in electoral area C In-
cumbent Sandy Sandhuls —
will be up against William ,

Candidates who change

have’ until « this Friday {0°
withdraw thelr names. Ban ale