TERRACE — Jim West- erman was inside Mac- Kay’s Funeral Home on Davis St. in Terrace mak- ing coffee on the morning of Jan. 8. While on his way to check things out at the back of the building _he heard, a roar, a crash and a bang... as the roof blew away from the build- ing’s warehouse area. by Daniele Berquist Westerman said he was curious to see if the winds ’ gusting over 70 kilometers per hour that morning had caused any damage at the back of the funeral home. It all happened around 8:40 a.m. “1 went out through the workshop and the garage leading to the outside door 2 Terrace Review — Wednesday, January 14, 1987 “off building at the back of the build- ing,” he said. ‘Halfway through the garage I heard a sort of roaring starting up. There was a banging, roaring. It got louder and louder.’’ By that time Westerman was wondering what in the world was going on. “I was getting a little nervous at that point,’’ he confess- ed. ‘“‘Then there was a huge crash above my head...- plaster dust and pieces of plaster started coming down.”’ Wester- man said he was trying to figure out which way to run. “There was tremendous noise building up all around me. You couldn’t hear anything,’’ he recall- ed, Afterwards Wester- man said it made him Legal aid seeks replacement — TERRACE — The Ter- race area director for legal aid stated recently that he wants to withdraw from . the position, but he will continue to run the lawyer referral service until some- one else is found-to take "over, Gordon Crampton, a partner in the Terrace firm of Crampton, Brown and Arndt, has acted as area director for the Legal Ser- vices Society for ten years. The voluntary position is normally rotated among local lawyers, and Cramp- ton stated in a recent inter- view that he has probably served in the function longer than anyone else in B.C. Crampton. said since 1976 the legal aid system, which provides legal counsel to British Colum- bians who cannot afford to pay for a-lawyer, has undergone a: number of changes. Funding cut- - backs and iower fees have made the legal aid practice far less attractive to lawyers than it was a Police report - On Thursday, Jan. 8 the Terrace RCMP charged a 27-year-old Terrace man - with break and enter and _ theft. ' Police reported the man _ was found inside a Terrace business at approximately li the | local man appeared _in Terrace Provincial Court on Friday, Jan. 9. decade ago. “In 1976 the tariff was low, but a lawyer could make a living on legal aid cases,’? Crampton said. “In 1981 the tariff was in- creased, but in 1983 a lot was lost to cutbacks. . There was a 12 percent rollback in tariffs, and lawyers were instructed to obtain contributions from clients. Even if the con- tribution wasn’t given, the stipulated amount was still deducted from the fee. At this point the B.C. legal aid tariffs are the same as they were five years ago, and they’re almost cer- tainly the lowest in Canada.” Crampton’s responsi- bility as area director has been to. screen applica- tions for legal aid and refer approved clients to local lawyers. In addition to changes in payment to lawyers, Crampton said, the types of cases eligible for legal aid have also come under restriction. Family law cases such as uncontested divorce and enforcement of mainte- nance orders no longer qualify for assistance, although matters involv- ing child custody can still qualify, Summary convic- tion cases like impaired driving and theft under $1,000 no longer come under legal aid guidelines unless there is a strong likelihood that the accused will go to jail as a result of conviction. Crampton said he noti- fied the Legal Services Society in November 1986 of his intent to withdraw from the area director ‘to -do,’’ think of the state of con- fusion people experience during an earthquake. “A -person doesn’t know at the time if a building is coming down, or what’s causing that noise” he ex- plained. ‘‘You just don’t know where to run, like whether it’s safe to run back into the building or not.”? . I didn’t know whether I should try to get outside’ he said. “‘It was a real state of confusion. If I - had been outside and had seen the roof coming to- wards me, I’d know what said Wester- man. ‘‘Being inside the building was like being blind.’’ Westerman said that a piece from the roof of the warehouse at the back of the funeral home landed ' position effective Feb, 1)" 1987. If no replacement i is secured by that time, Crampton said, he will continue on an interim basis. If legal aid is to con- tinue in the Terrace area, the Legal Services Society will have to find another local lawyer to assume the area director duties or establish an office in Ter- race. Crampton said the establishment of an office is unlikely due to the start- up cost, which he esti- mated to be around $100,000. The Terrace area direc- tor provides legal aid referrals for the entire Northwest region, he said. No comparable service ex- ists'in Kitimat or Prince and the Rupert, Com- EYEWEAR EXCITEMENT FROM BENSON Opticat 4623-2 Lakelse Terrace, B.C. ese-tett square on’ the garage roof. “It peeled off just like an orange, the whole half of the waréhouse roof. It must have come off really quickly, then it must have flipped through the air and landed on the garage roof, It was incredible,’ he explained. The beams were still attached to the metal, There were five or six beams which caused extensive damage to the roofs of our vans in the parking area. He said damage estimates were not immediately available. This is something that Westerman will not soon. forget. In his two years with the company Wester-. man doesn’t recall winds of that strength. ‘‘I have hever experienced any- thing like it,” he stated. director miinity. Law “office’” Smithers closed two years ago due to lack of fund- “ing. It was replaced, he said, by a paralegal ad- | visor working out of the Smithers Native Indian Friendship Centre. The demand for legal aid remains at a high level. Crampton said he screens an average of 40 to 50 ap- plications monthly with an approval rate of about 80 percent, -_ a Jim Westerman, assistant manager for MacKay's Funeral “Service Lid., was present in the building when the roof of their warehouse, located at the back of the funerat home, was lifted off due to strong winds of over 70 kilometers per hours, * Danlele Berquist phalo Do you have problems with picking up prescrip: tions, grocerles, appliances or anything else? 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