Music beckons Check out the Rosswood Jamboree and Mae Moore Aug. 16\COMMUNITY B8 Rugged runners — Oodles of runners ~ ad tackle the gnarly s Terrace Mountain trail\NSPORTS B4 | Slow. down: Power boaters on ‘Lakelse Lake now have to be aware of a speed limit\NEWS A141. $1.00 plus 7¢ GST ($4.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terrace area) L. 16 NO.-18 _ | Wednesday, August 6, 2003. . Olympic emblem coniest starts SHARPEN THOSE pencils and fire up those compu- ter-based graphics pro- grams. It’s time for the “Unofficial 2010 Winter Olympics Emblem Con- test” hosted by The Ter- race Standard, With a groundswell building to have the north- - west’s famous Kermode bear chosen as the em- blem for the games, there’s no better time to advance the cause. The rules are simple: 1. The logo should be in colour. 2. The logo should be designed and have an im- pact so that it will be suit- able on everything from large flags. 3. It must feature ithe Kermode bear and the five Olympic rings. And it must also feature in a text for- mat, the words “Vancouver 2010”. 4, The deadline is Sept. 30, 2003. 5. Entries will be pub- lished in The Terrace Standard as they come in and on The Terrace Stan- dard's website, www.ferra- — eestandard.com Ownership and creative Tights rests with each em- blem’s designer. “All we want to do is publish the emblems and promote the Kermode Olympic campaign,” says The Terrace Standard pub- lisher Rod Link. Calgary ‘88 Albertville, France 1992 “We fully anticipate there wilf be an official Athens, Greece 2004 logo search contest down Calgary | 1988 sanctioned 2010 Winter mittee. But it is better to be involved in some fash- ion early on,” he said. “This is a chance for logo designers to get those creative juices flowing and to hone their skills and art- work so that they can enter the official contest, when- — ever it off the ground.” The unofficial contest has the backing of Skeena MLA Roger Harris who has been at the forefront of the campaign to have the Kermode bear chesen. “I see this as an oppor- tunity to have the north- west sland out before the world. Having the Ker- mode become our symbol -is our chance to create gets cial ta create an aware-' ness of who we are and what we do. It is not about you or me. It is about our children,” said Harris. “This is as important as anything else that can take place.” A winning emblem will be chosen by readers who will ‘have a chance to vote on their favourite. The winner will receive a se- lection of 2010 Winter Olympic clothing and ‘other products provided by Harris. Emblems can be mailed toe The Terrace Standard at 3210 Clinton St.,. Terrace, B.C, V8G 5R2. They can also. be emailed to newsroom@terracestandar d.com the road by the officially Olympic organizing com- bail hats to letterhead to something here very spe- E A crowning moment - BOB GOCDVIN and Maxine Smallwood are crowned Riverboat Days’ Captain and Queen at the Thursday evening opening ceremonies in George Little Park. It included speeches from mayor Jack Talstra, regional district chair Harry Nyce, freeman Vesta Douglas and Riverboat Days and 75th anniversary organizers. Musicians included Terrace Pipes and Drums and the Masala Singers. The Terrace Nisga’a Cultural Dancers and X’bishuunts dancers also performed. JEFF NAGEL PHOTO Christian parents renew bid to use Mountainview school | TURNED DOWN once already, a group of Christian parents who want to start a school have again approached the Coast Mountains School District with a proposal to use the nev- er-opened Mountainview Elementary School. Last month the school board refused a re- quest by Mountainview Christian Academy to buy the school located on the bench. Now it wants to negotiate a two-year lease. Academy parent Roger Ewald said a short- term lease would answer the school district’s worry about being locked in for a longer period should it soon find a way to use the school it- self, Finished last year, the $3.2 million school never opened because of budget cuts and a de- clining school population. Even a short term lease would put an other- wise empty facility to some use, said Ewald, particularly if that use involves setting up a school, | Mountainview Christian Academy wants to open next month and is forecasting an enroll- ment of. 70 students, including some who would come from Kitimat. School officials have expressed some reluc- tance to the idea of leasing one of their own facilities for what could be competition for a limted supply of students, COMPLETED LAST year but never opened by the schoal district, Mountain- view Elementary Is the facility of choice by @ group of Christian parents who want to start their own school. “This is what I told them,” said Ewald. “We're going to start a school regardless if we are able to rent from them or not. We'll find room in a church or someplace else. And if we're going to draw from them, we'll do it no matter where we are." “It would be more logical for us to use that | [Mountainview] school without it being wasted . because it is empty.” Ewald, a teacher by training, believes the - majority of its students, at least for now, will be those who are now home-schooled or who attend other Christian private schools. The academy has a founding principie of using the Bible literally and one of its goals is to develop trades iraining as a focus, he con- tinued. In addition to possibly soon finding a use for Mountainview, school board trustee Diana Penner said the building, even though vacant, continues to be insured within the district's master policy. And although the board may not be willing to lease out Mountainview, Penner said she has told the academy that the former Copper Mountain school may suit its needs, “Ie is being used by somebody else, but that is on weekends and so Monday to Pridays are free,” said Penner. But Ewald said that the other user also uses the school on weekdays on occasion. “And some of that school is boarded off so it may not be a good fit. We also don’t believe the location is as goad as Mountainview,” said Ewald. Alcan rips into study by Kitimat No limit to power sales — firm By JEFF NAGEL ALCAN officials are denouncing a Kitimat-sponsored study that concludes B.C. loses out when the company chooses to sell power rather than produce aluminum. The study found Alcan’s move to cut 200 jobs in the past couple of years is costing the province millions in tax revenue and lost industrial output. But Richard Prokopanko, Alcan’s B.C. director of cor- porate affairs, says those job cuts have nothing to do with the company’s sale of power over the same period. “It’s regrettable the city used that as a basis for their study,” he said. Alcan maintains the job cuts were largely the result of a company-wide decision to. cut its workforce by seven per cent because of low aluminum prices. Alcan kept smelter workers on the payroll, Proko- panko added, when it had to reduce smelter production because of low reservoir levels. The town maintains Alcan used every opportunity to gradually minimize aluminum production and maximize power sales — and predicts that trend will continue to the detriment of the northwest unless-that option is blocked, Kitimat paid $21,400 for the study. Dick Lee, Alcan’s director of new business develop- ment, called the study an. “oversimplification” that merely translates job levels into dollars in the economy. He said that neglects the fact that competitive com- panies routinely work to improve their productivity — re- ducing employment. | “ft doesn't take into account that if an operation is unprofitable, it’s going to cease to exist," Lee said, “Then all employment is at risk, ” In defending the company’s actions, however, the two - executives made the clearest statements so far confirm- ‘ing Kitimat’s basic contention ~ that. Alcan intends to __ self power as it wishes. Kitimat has argued power sales are restricted to the “vicinity of the works” and the province should block much broader power exports, Asked what Altan views as the limit of its ability lo sell power, Prokopanko indicated the company believes there is no limit. He cited a Feb. 13 letter from. attorney-general Geoff Plant stating that nothing in the past agreements pre- cludes Alcan's sale of electricity. “In their review of our agreements no where did it state how much aluminum Alcan had to make nor how much power it was able to sell,” Prokopanko said. “As one of the partners to the agreement, we take that as our direction.” Prokopanko and Lee argue power sales — which began in 1954 —help stabilize the Kitimat smelter. “Every company has diversification of its product line,” Prokopanko said. “Power sales allowed us to get through some tough aluminum markets.” “We're selling aluminum as our primary product but we do enhance it with power sales from time to time,” added Lee, “We honestly believe the right thing to do is a mixture of power sales and smelting to enhance and improve our stability - which it has done.” Fears the smelter could close are overblown, they said. “We have been and continue to be the largest con- tributor to the B.C. economy,” Prokopanko said. “Anybady who thinks we’re going to put that | in jeopardy doesn't understand our 50-year commitment.” Alcan tias commissioned its own study on how to im- prove the northwest economy but has not yet released it,