C4 - The Terrace Standard, Monday, December 23, 1996 SKEENA- ANGLER ROB BROWN Road care ben ] tured toward Kitimat at the four-way stop it was snowing light- ly. Visibility was good. Since it hadn’t snowed heavily overnight I expected to see pavement for the duration of my tip. At the airport the road was covered in snow. They're bound to be plowing up ahead, I thought. I continued on to Lakelse Lake at forly kmph. The speed of vehicles passing me on their way to Terrace convinced me that 40 was not too fasi given the conditions. I listened to a CBC broadcast of the Prime Minister speaking at a town hall mecting the night before. ‘‘Hey, times dey are tuff,”’ he said to an unemployed woman with three university degrees, ‘“You have to keep trying, eh.’ Mo- ments later he tells the assembly he didn’t really plomise to get rid of the GST. This bald lie is greeted with an even louder chomus of jeers. The comment starts me thinking about the constitution of the federal parliament. Who do we have to oppose these pseudo liberals? Certainly not the Bloc, a treasonous rabble who devote all their energies to their separatist machinations, The New Democrats, who could always be counted on to rise up in defense of fairness, honesty and the poor, no longer have Status, while the conservalives appear io have blended into the right-wing woodwork. As I’m thinking along these party lines, Preston Manning lakes a couple of sound bytes Out of the, air waves. The leader of the Canadian Reformation, our own political Martin Luther, suggests we should be giving corporations a break so they will create jobs. I’m non-plussed. Where has this chirping twerp been for the last decade as acquiescent governments shifted the tax burden away for corporations and heaped them on us; has he been napping like Rip Van Winkle while one per cent of corporations have acquired control aver 90 per cent of the busi- ness in this country? Was Manning out of the country when the BIG banks announced their pornographic profits while hinting they were about lay off employ- ees? Corporations have led the way in firings which they euphemistically refer to as *downsizing’’. I waited to hear that this was a spoof of Manning done by the salirists Double Exposure, But no, this was the real deal, | shook my head and squinted into the snow looking for a snow plow. The snow was falling more heavi- ly. There was no place 10 turn around, besides, I was half the way to Kitimal anyway. [1 felt as if I was entering a tunnel. Yeah, give everything to the corporations, Preston. I thought. Here I’d been driving a dangerous unsanded and unscraped road that would have been safe had il been left to the De- partment of Highways. The Kitimat River Bridge was wrapped in fog and snow, It looked like a giant, gaping animal. I drove into ils mouth and through its entrails. I passed the first washout safely, Still no plow or sand. Then — wham — at the second washout my tires hit ice and ] thumped quickly but softly into a snow bank. ] reached down to disengage my bell, WHAM. My head shook like one of those plastic football figurines with spring-mounted heads. The woman behind had tried to stop. On a properly maintained road she would have, The kind gentleman who pulled my Honda out with chain and four-by-four shook his head and Said the road has been a problem since the De- partment of Highways was relieved of the re- sponsibilily. The man who slopped to inquire before that said what amounted to the same thing. So did the RCMP constable, the Chip Truck driver and al least a dozen peaple I spoke to later that day in Kitimat; so did the tow truck driver who towed me back o Terrace that night. At 11 am, slightly shell shocked, [ saw my first snow plow of the day. It was just on the outside of the Kitimat city limits. It's blade was set too high to properly scrape the road. Ht should be obvious that putting highway maintenance up to bid is patently absurd. Even the dizziest scissorbill can appreciate that put- ting a company in a position where will they sometimes have to decide between losing money and protecting the public is obscenely stupid. In the end, money saved in wages, equipment maintenance, sand, and plow blades will be moncy spent on vehicle damage, injury and funeral arrangements, Highway service is at essential service. The notion of privatizing it must be dropped, Until tt is, a firm that can do the job should be hired in favour of the company that currently pretends to maintain the road between bere and Kitimat. " TERRACE STANDARD _.. SPORTS 638-7283 Summer sport hits the ice | GO-CARTING in Terrace just got a bit more bite, But now the sport needs a home. The bile comes courtesy of several dozen spikes em- bedded in carts’ the tires to help them grip the winter ice, ‘Basically, we're trying lo keep the interest up through the winter,'’’ says | carting proponent Jim Weightman. “It’s fun, but we need more space,” Weightman has poured about 500 gallons of water on the parking lot behind Auto-Magic Tire to make a small track. He says the spot is fun to practice, but he would like a larger track on a lake. ‘We need about twice as much space,’’ he says. ‘A lake would be ideal.” Weightman points out that it might be a problem to keep all the snow cleared : away, but he’s willing to give it a iry. “It's fun to be able to keep carting through the winter,” he says. ‘‘But I still can’t wait till spring,”’ That’s when Weightman hopes to rev up interest in his sport. He’s planning to raffle off a cart and ‘raise funds to help pave a track. The problem is be has no where to put it, “We need two to five acres that we can pave,"’ he says, ‘The government will pay for a third, but we have to come up with the rest ourselves,"’ Weightman says if the Terrace Drag Racing Asso- ciation manages to get tenure on some land near Onion Lake, the Go-Cart AVID GO-CART racer Jim Weightman put studs in his cart’s tires so he cou needs a place ta race, both in the winter and in the summer months, Id drive on the ice, Now he just Club might be able build a track there. If that doesn’t happen, the club might be able-to work something out with. the Speedway. But both options are still up in the air. : “We have no real home. yet,’’ Weightman. says. . ‘'L hope everything works out’ because this is such a great sport for the whole family. Eight-year-old — kids drive these things.’”* Weighman. says he was heartened by the support for the sport when he sel up a track at the Skeena Mall parking lot last summer. “That was alot of work, but it was’ worth it,??” be says. ‘‘So many people came up and said ‘Wow, (hat looks like fun! Give me can a call when you get going.’ The problem is we need Prince George is one town their support to get things going in the first place.?’ Weightman points out that carling is relatively in- expensive. A good ciyt-can’. be had for about $2,000. After that, he says, all you need is oil and gas to keep tearing up the track. that has certainly embraced the sport, Ils club boasts over 100 members, and every third weekend drivers come from all over BC to race, ““T'think it can work here loo,”” Weightman says, ‘We just need some support to get il off the ground.”’ Terrace bags bronze in Rupert TERRACE SWIMMERS really made waves at the Prince Rupert Regional Fall Meet two weekends ago. The Bluebacks swam to success in a number of events, finishing third over- all with a total of 498 points, The Kitimat Marlins took top spot with 634 points while Rupert finished second with 573. Top Terrace swimmers in- cluded Kaela Cammidgc, Shauna Palahicky, Kaya Downs, Scotti Vanderlec, Thomas Demetzer, Bryan Palahicky and Greg Narat. Ten-yeat-old Kaela. Cam- midge did very well, taking three bronze and three sil- ver, Thomas Demelzer, 11, took a gold, three silvers and a bronze. And Kaya Downs grabbed a gold and two bronze. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Greg Narat had two bronze ani a silver, and finished no less than fourth in all bis events. Kyle Narat fared even belter, snagging a gold, two branze and a silver. Ten-year-old Evan Palah- icky and 14-year-old Brian did extremely well. Brian took two gold, two silver and twa bronze, while Evan OUR TERRACE Midget rep hockey team ou tscored the competition by a 3-1 margin on their way to victory at a tournament two weekends ago in Houston. Midgets squash | the competition OUR TERRACE Midget Rep hockey team outscored competing northwest leams 26-9 to win big at a tourna- ment in Houston two weekends ago. The Midgets played like a well-oiled machine, with ail three lines getting in on the scoring action. “That was the best part about it,’ says coach Bruce Nicholls. ‘‘Everyone was contributing.’” The boys came out strong, blowing past Burns Lake in thelr first game. The final score was 7-1. In thelr next match, the Terrace Midgets faltered — but only slightly. They played a tough Vanderhoof squad and ended up with a 2-2 tie. The boys next went up against {he host Houston team, This time. everything seemed to: click both. of- fensively and ‘defensively, and = the Terrace lads tromped the home team 7-2, That win. sent the boys — into the fluals against Prince Rupert. This time the squad really put on the jets, pound: ing Rupert into submission with a 10-4 win. Nicholls says that it’s nice | to see the team ‘coming to- . gether. oe “We're getting . better," he says. ‘'Kitimat is still the team we have our sights set on. They're very good this year,” The ‘midgets’ next touma- ment is coming up Decem- ber:27-30 when they. travel to Quesnel. The team makes the trek soulh on Boxing Day to play a Variety of teams, in- cluding rivals Quesnel ‘and Kitimat. took two gold, four bronze and finished with 100 per cent best limes, And 12-year-old Shauna Palahicky garnered gold in one event, a silver in anoth- erand two bronze. Scott Vanderlee, 10, had an amazing performance, ishes, a silver and a bronze. Hali Downs, William Shack and Nathalie Gour also did well, caming close to 100 per cent best times. Meanwhile fellow Bluebacks Femando Polanco and Lauren Simons actually did post 100 per posting four first-place fin- cent best times. ountdown BY Sanpy GLexn Get in the spirit It’s finally here. Christmas is the day the kids of every age look forward to and I’m sure you’re no different than any other kid. Everybody involved with the North- ern BC Winter Games from the president to the direc- lors, the office staff to the volunteers hapes this is your best Christmas ever and that it’s spent with the folks you care about. This is the season of giving and I'm sure that you have been generous with your family and friends, It’s also 9 great time of year to give something to your community. The staging of the 1997 Northem BC Winter Games in Terrace presents you with a great op- portunity to give something back to this greal little city of ours. If you have children you know that this a wonderful communily in which to raise them. The Winler Games will leave a lasting legacy in Terrace in the farm of sports equipment, better trained coaches and officials and, of course, the economic benefits to the city, . - If you are a regular reader of this column you know that week after week I have been urging the citizens of our area to get oui and do their part for the Games. It would be dreadful to think that Terrace, the community that’s known far and wide for our great community spirit and generosity, could not Stage the Northern BC Winter Games on the anticipated scale because of a lack of involvement on the part of you, the folks who make this such a great city. In this season of giving and sharing make a decision to give your lime as a volunteer or share your home for a few nights with a couple of youngsters who would otherwise be very disappointed when their event had to be canceled because of a lack of billets. Come on Ter- race. Fill in that billet registration form before the year ends. Make it your Christmas present to the Northern BC Winter Games folks who have been working so hard on your behalf and to the young athletes out there who just want a chance to participate.