Railway ties head south THOUSANDS OF old rail- way ties that had been removed from CN tacks near Terrace were sent out of the country last week, headed south of the border by truck and by train, to be used by American businesses for landscaping. Only the useless, damaged ones remained here. Chilliwack-based Valley Tie and Rail bought the old ties from C.N. and sold them, according to one worker, to a Portland Oregon landscape company. The ties are popular for landscaping because they have been treated with creosote, a wood preserva- live, In total, 35,000 old, loose lies were removed by C.N, from the tracks around Ter- race and replaced with new wood. Valley Tie and Rail SOUTHBOUND: CN railway ties are being shipped out of town for the landscap- ing market by both truck and by railway flatbed. then moved in to pick up the old ones, Valley owners say the company is a small, family ‘business that buys and sells old ties all over western Canada. ‘We do between 200,000 and 500,000 tics on an aver- age job,'’ says Mike Salon. “So this one’s actually pretty small.’’ Salon runs the company with his father, Lou, and his brother, Wayne. He says that there is a much larger market for the ties down south. , ‘We sell the odd one to folks around here, but people are used to getting them for free,’’ he says. Salon points out that there are about a half dozen com- panies like his in western Canada, all bidding on rail- way ties, _ The ties are being dumped in the Thornhill Landfill and Ministry of Environment municipal waste manager Alex Grant insists they don’t pose a threat to the soil or groundwater, “The ties are there be- cause they’re old,’’ he says, “Most of the leaching that would occur, has already occurred."” While Grant says that dumping the ties in the land- fill is acceptable, it is not high on the list of accept- able alternatives, According to Grant, the three best disposal methods are: re-use, landscaping, and authorized incineration, Landfilling is number four. Still, Grant isn’t worried about the old wood, ‘They aren’t classified as special waste,”’ he says, “They don’t pose a risk.” “It’s actually very compe- titive,’’ he says. It must be. Salon and his family spent the entire con- tract camped out beside the railway tracks in a serics of tents and campers. ‘Hotel bills add = up quick,” Salon says.‘'And we're pretty comfortable where we are,” Ironically, most of the ties were sent south by truck, not rail, because trucking is Second sheet bids probed ASSESSING the bids that have come in to build a second sheet of ice are like comparing apples to oranges, So economic development officer Ken Veldman has gone back to the proponents to try to reword their proposals to make them more comparable. For one thing, they’ve based their proposals on the city guaranteeing to buy hours for different numbers of years. That’s one item Veldman hopes to standardize, “We hope ta come out to a final number that’s much more comparable,’’ he said. He said thai might be finished by sometime this week. So far the city isn’t releasing the bids or any detailed in- formation about them. One of the two proposals is from Community Facilities Development Inc. of Edmonton. The other proposal is fom a Vancouver based con- sortium thai includes the architectural firm that designed the new medical centre. Both proposals involve building a second arena adjacent to the existing one, and it’s expected their proposais will include taking over the operations of the existing arena, aad possibly ihe aquatic centre, The delay means that if city officials pick a preferred proposal, it’s increasingly unlikely that there could be a referendum held on the plan in conjunction with this No- vember’s municipal election. Reformers target air travel points AIR TRAVEL points collected by people fying on government business are being targetted by a Dill intro- duced fast week by B.C. Reform MLA Richard Neufeld. Neufeld’s scheme is to require that bonus air travel points earned by MLAs and government employces be pooled to reduce travel and accomodation costs for north- em and rural patients who must leave their communities to get medical care, All employees — including school district, municipal, Crown corporation, and hospital board employees — would be legally required to donate all points to the Travelcare Fund. “This is one of those rare opportunities to assist northem and rural residents in accessing health care services, without any additional cost whatsoever to the taxpayers,”’ Neufeld said, ‘‘Travel points on taxpayer-funded air travel are still an untapped resource — they’ve been vanishing into thin air. It's time to take action.”’ Box 22, IMPROVING Terrace, B,C, Major Credit Cards phar VaG 4A2 Accepted var «=| AGAINST. «= Marjorie Park Your donation is AND sTroxe | CANADA'S 638-4167 tax deductible FOUNDATION | #4 KILLER Your In Memoriam gift is a lasting tribute. Please send your donation to the address above, along with the name and address and the name and address of the next-of- kin, for an acknowledgement card. cheaper. The ties were sorted and bundled by workers along the tracks near the Terrace Inn before being sent out, In total, Salon had some 18 people working on the contract in town. “All but two of those were locals,’ Salon says proudly, Many of the ties were damaged beyond salvage. These ones are worthless to Salon, but be stiil has to find a way to get rid of them. {i PITCH-IN CANADA! ‘We were going to build a big burner in Vancouver and incinerate them,”’ Salon says of the creosote-soaked ties. “‘But the government wouldn’t go for that. So we have to put them in the land- fill, but they don’t even like that sometimes.” The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 21, 1996 - A11 Car blazes investigated TERRACE RCMP are investigating two vehicle fires ‘that occurred in the early morning of August 16, The first blaze brought officers to Toyn- bee Street in Thornhill just after midnight. A car had been completely destroyed by fire, the cause of which is undetermined, No one was injured and foul play is not suspected, Loss is estimated at $1,000, The second fire occurred in the parking lot of Elks Park at Haugland and Molitor. The vehicle had been damaged and set ablaze. No one was injured in the fire, but foul play is suspected. The car was completely destroyed and loss is estimated at approximately $2,000, = [Summer Stock On Sale - Come Home For Value WE'RE ON THE MOVE. COME AND TOIN Us There is a “Can Do” atmosphere at Q.M.S. 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