e right stuff

'| | Going fine

coming\NEWS A10

A system of transmitting xray and
other images around the area is

A young crow called Clutches is
getting excellent care after an
injury\COMMUNITY B1

Where to go?

‘Unwanted and unloved,
skateboarders want a place to
hang out\SPORTS BS _—

WEDNESDAY
JUNE 5,:1996

ANDARD :

93¢ PLUS 7¢ GST
VOL: 9 NO. 8

High school plan worries teachers

THE AREA’S two junior secondary
schools could be a thing of the past if
suggestions by a school district planning
committee take hold.

Under consideration is a plan to con-
vert Skeena Junior Secondary and
Thomhill Junior Secondary into Grade
8-12 schools and add junior level grades
to Caledonia Senior Secondary.

it's one option that has surfaced since
planning began this spring to replace the
aging and crowded Skeena Junior
Secondary.

And it’s tied to the large jump in stu-
dent populations on the bench where a
replacement for Skeena Junior could be
built.

At first, the planning committee —
made up of teachers, administrators and
parents —- was simply looking at

whether to build the new school on the
bench or in its present location.

But that then changed to three schools
each offering complete junior and senior
secondary grades,

The committee thinks the school board
might save on bussing costs, since popu-
lation growth on the bench is expected to
exceed that elsewhere.

Three Grade 8-12 schools would also
generate healthy competition in both
academic and athletic disciplines.

Finally, the committee thinks this
might be the solution which best ad-
dresses the long term needs of the city.

But the new plan would have far reach-
ing impacts if it ever came about, says a
school teacher from Caledonia Senior
Secondary,

“This is going to affect the schools for

the next 25 years,’’ says Geoff Parr, a
band teacher at Caledonia, who sits on
the committee.

‘We know we need a new school but
what will it be and where will it be? We
don’t know yet,’’ says Parr.

There are a number of other potential
problems with this solution.

Making Thornhill Jr. a Grade 8-12
school would likely involve an addition
to handle the greater number of students.
Right now about 160 Grade 11 and 12
Thornhill students attend Caledonia,

But Parr says there might not be any
money available for thal addition.

And whether Skeena should be located
on the bench or in its present location
also depends on what the city plans to do
with Lanfear Hill. The school district has
long bad concerns about the safety of

students walking to the horseshoe from
the bench.

The committee will mect with city
council to discuss this and also the op-
tion of including a community centre in
the new school building. Location would
also come into play with that as well.

Caledonia teachers are concerned
about what might happen with courses in
three separate, smaller high schools,
They’re not sure if there will be enough
students in each school to offer more
specialized courses such as French 12
and Physics 12, as well as ‘fun’ courses,
With such a scenario tcachers are con-
cerned students’ education might suffer.
And without those ‘fun’ courses, some
Students might lose interest and drop out
of school.

Committee chair Stew Christensen
says having three high schools, ‘‘is just

one of many options being considered.
We don’t know what impact it will have
on the other two high schools.”

But he adds that making the new
Skeena a Grade 8-12 school is likely be-
cause of projected enrolment.

The school board has until next spring
fo come up with answers to its questions,
but there is pressure on the commitice to
work much faster than that.

Parr is worried about the length of time
iV ll take to reach a decision, saying that
construction money might be allocated
elsewhere.

The committee plans fo meet June 10
to discuss these issues,

Although the pressure is on now, the
city won't see results for quite some
time, The earliest Terrace residents can
expect a new Skeena school to open its
doors will be September 1999,

No vote
on water

THE CITY won't hold a
referendum on water fluo-
ridation.

City councillors have de-
cided not to change the
city’s policy of Duoridating
the Terrace water supply,

Some councillors wanted
to look ‘at cutting fluorida-
tion as a possible way of
saving $27,200.

City administrator Bob
Hallsor says the issue would

have led to a divisive
debate,
Some people strongly

favour fluoridation to help
guard against tooth decay,
while others believe it’s
potentially toxic and can
lead to health problems.

Area medical health of-
ficer David Bowering ad-
vised the city to continue
fluoridation.

Hallsor also said council
should be prepared to take a
stand on any issue it wants
to take to referendum.

“If you do go to
referendum on this, you’re
going to split your com-
munity and itl} be a
dandy.””

Councillors Gordon Hull
and David Hull said the
potential saving. made it
worth examining, but con-
ceded it may be better to
leave it alone.

Councillor Ruth Hallock
was strongly against ‘the
idea, and slammed the no
tion of saving money by
cutting back on public
health spending.

“We've got more things
to think about on this coun-
cil than just bottom line dol-
lars and cents,’’ she said.

Only nine per cent of the
drinking water in B.C. is
presently fluoridated, city
director of engineering Stew
Christensen said,

Drinking water in Thorn-
hill, Lakelse Lake, and rural

FULL CART belonging to Nick! Barton, pictured
harer with son Matthew, was just one of many last
week as local shoppers stocked up at Safeway
and Overwaitea stores before their unionized em-

known until June 15.

ployees were locked out. The two companies are
taking the last offer made to their employees to a
government-supervised vote, Results won't be

Lyile said last week.

ple,” said Lytle.

new hires.

demand.

Food union
set to vote

PROVINCIAL LABOUR officials are busy setting up a
voting system to record the ballots of more than 14,000 locked
gq out Overwaitea and Safeway workers across the province.
Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union will vate June 10 to 12 on what is called a final offer, the
last contract proposal given them by the two food store comipa-
nies before they were locked out midnight May 30.

But it li take until June 15 before the votes are counted and
the results released, Labour Relations Board official Clive

“We've had between 70 and 90 final offer votes in ihe past
two and half years but none have been of this magnitude
f involving more than 100 places and with this number of peo-

Final offer votes are provided for under provincial labour
law and come at the request of companies. The contract propo-

sal must be the same as the last one submitted to unions and
employers can only present them once. for a vote,

Safeway and Overwaitea are bargaining together and
4 locked out their workers after the UFCW issued strike notice
against Safewny stores on the lower mainland.

The two sides have spent the last two and a half months

trying to reach a collective agreement. UFCW members voted
| to strike by a margin of more than 96 per cent a month ago.
: Atissue are demands by the two companies to reduce wag-
H cs and benefits for full time workers and to hire more part time
f workers to meet what they say is increasing competition by
other food store companies.

Union officials have said the first proposals would have
reduced wages and benefils by at least $2 an hour immediately
and more over the life of a contract. .

The companies responded in their last offer by laying out a
systein of buy outs for existing workers, keeping benefils intact
for existing workers and proposing u start rate of $8 an hour for

In the meantime, Terrace Co-op has added two cush reg-
isters and Copperside Foods has set up a temporary Facility at
the old Petrocan station on Lakelse to meet the increased

Locked out workers here ure receiving the support of the
5,000-member strong Kitimat Terrace and District Labour
Council which is asking people to shop only al the Co-op in
Terrace and at Super Valu in Kitimat during the lock out.

“Workers in these stores ure represented by the UFCW so
we're saying to at least support them and not shop anywhere
else,” said Jabour council president Norm Lavallee Jast week,

Continued on Page A2

Terrace is not Muorldated.

Russia could horn in on ’shroom boom

By JEFF NAGEL
THE GOLD RUSH could soon be over
if the Russians start picking the lucrative
pine mushrooms.

Some professional pickers are worried
the prices for the fungus will lake a nose-
dive this fall if people in Siberia begin
harvesting it in lange volumes,

So far it’s lite more than campfire
talk, Nobody can say for certain if it will

happen.

But industry insiders say it makes

sense and will likely happen sooner or
later.

“Nature knows no boundaries,” says
buyes/exporter Stephen Mills, owner. of

Tsunami Mushroom Co. ‘That
mountain range from Korea up through
China also carrics on right on through
into Russia. There’s mo reason what-
soever why pine mushrooms wouldn’t be
there.”’

UNEC forestry professor Dr. Hugues
Massicotte agrees,

“There are lots of them there," he
said. “But it (a commercial harvest)
hasn’1 happened yet,”’

Prices for top-grade pine mushrooms
Quctuate wildly during mushroom sea-
son from as little as $10 a pound up to
more than $200 a pound ¢ On tare occa-
sions. .

The price paid to pickers here is usual-
ly low when a major crop from Korea or
China -—~ the world’s two largest pro-
ducers — is arriving in Japan.

Those two couutries make up about 70
per cent of worldwide production.

The addition of another large producer
could permanently drive prices too low
to draw North American pickers into the
bush, and put the multi-milllor-dollar
business on the ropes in B.C, -

Mills says the key is whether the Rus-
sians get well cnough organized and can
develop a reliable system to transport the
mushrooms to markets in Japan,

-China has always had the mushrooms,

but has only ia recent years improved its
hinterland transport network to the point
the crop could make it to Japan withoul
spoiling.

“Shipping could be the biggest prob-
lem —- aS it was for China for years,”
Mills says. ‘Until the last three or four

years they couldn’t get a handle on their’

quality.”

Since then, however, the average price
paid in B.C. has declined, while prices
paid for Chinese pine mushrooms have
more than doubled, he said.

“Once they got their shipping soricd
out they increased their production and
they've been kicking Korea’s butt on to-

tal volume shipped.”’

Russia should be able to duplicate
China’s success, Mills thinks.

‘Siberia is just one big huge pine
forest,”’ Mills says. ‘‘Every valley is a
potential mushroom area. They’ve got
Sikorski helicopters. The labour’s there.
The potential is definitely there.”

What could work against a Siberian
crop is resistance from Japan.

Mills says some Japanese consumers
may associate anything grown in Russia
with Chermobyl —- even though the 1986
nuclear disaster was half a continent

away.
Cont'd Page A2

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