B16) Terrace Review — Wednesday, October 1, 1990
A year ago
this week —

hen Skylink Airlines
Wx 070 crashed: near
the Terrace-Kitimat

airport and killed all seven occu-
pants on the morning of Sept. 26,
a sequence of events began that
resulted in the complete shutdown
of the Richmond-based commuter
airline.

We reported a year ago this
week: "A clue to Skylink’s prob-
lems was offered at the beginning
when Skeena MP Jim Fulton read
alist of allegations in the House of
Commons regarding the airline’s
safety performance. Shortly after
these allegations were made,
federal Minister of Transport
Benoit Bouchard said Fulton’s
charges hadn’t been proven, and
Skylink president Rafael Zur said
they were false."

On Oct. 6, 1989, though, Sky-
link’s operating certificate was
cancelled by Bouchard and the
federal Justice Department was
asked to investigate possible crimi-
nal charges. The ministry cited
problems with aircraft maintenance
and other records, the use of un-
qualified pilots and falsification of
safety documents.

But this wasn’t the only big story
a year ago this week. There was
the issue of PCB’s, Do we want
them? No way! But were we going
to get them? Well... we might.
Transport Canada and Environment
Canada had determined that a
World War II ammunition bunker
at the ‘Terrace-Kitimat airport
would make a great PCB storage
site.

They hadn’t actually shipped us
a package of these toxic environ-
mental gems, but they were con-
sidering doing so with a couple of
barrels stored in Castlegar at a site
which they felt wasn't quite secure
enough. A decision was pending,
but even if they did decide to
dump Castlegar’s waste here it

might not have made a lot of
difference because, as the Terrace
Review found out, there were
already five barrels of the stuff in
our airport bunker anyway.

The transit system in Terrace
was under review and B.C. Transit
had decided it wasn’t a very effi-
cient system. With one rider here,
and another rider there, it wasn’t
what you would call a money
maker, Terrace council and the
regional district were therefore
considering a couple of options;
the favoured one being the imple-
mentation of a HandiDART system
and the replacement of the truck-
sized gas guzziers with van-sized
mini-buses for low volume runs. If
this idea flew, we were told, we
might have a revised transit system
in town as early as next summer.

s is the case every year

around this time, the

moming air in Terrace
had a bit of a chill in it: A sign
that winter, like it or not, was on
the way. We were prepared,
though. A barge load of salt, 5,400
tonnes of the stuff, had arrived in
Kitimat, and North Coast Road
Maintenance was busy splitting the
pile between themselves, their
counterpart maintenance company
in Smithers, and the Public Works

departments of Kitimat and Ter-
race.

A barge load of salt wouldn’t
normally be a big news item but
this one was a little different. It
was the brain child of North Coast
Road maintenance and the scheme
offered a potential saving to a

community the size of ours of |

about $20,000 in one winter alone.
Prior to 1989, the winter's salt
supply for the Northwest had been
transported to Prince George by
rail and then distributed by truck.
Perhaps, we hoped, that $20,000
saving would be reflected in more
frequent snow removal on city
streets. Only time would tell.

But wait. It wasn’t quite winter
and there was another phenomenon
in our city in greater need of atten-
tion, What do we get before it
snows? Rain! Buckets of rain! And
a few dozen, probably more like a
few hundred or thousand of those
buckets were dumped on us a little
over a year ago this week, causing
a medium-sized mud stide on
Skeenaview Drive.

All that salt wouldn’t help, but
city crews did find a solution.
After scraping the road clean with
a front end loader they installed
Gabion baskets (wire mesh cages
filled with rock) at two key points
at the base of the slope. The hill
was closed for a couple of days
but Public Works figured the
solution would last many years.

Around the community, the Road
Runners Motorcycle Club had
completed their annual toy run, the
Terraceview Harvest Dinner told
us Thanksgiving was neat, local
musicians Northern Pride raised
$2,100 for Teleguard units with a
home-grown concert, and Terrace
Little Theatre was offering to put
your name up in lights, figuratively
speaking. Their latest project,
Ladies in Retirement, still required

some roguish young cad for the
lead role.

There was, of course, the down
side too. Fire extensively damaged
a 4600 block Soucie Ave. home
when a lighted propane torch
ignited a tarpaulin, and cars on city
streets were still bumping into one
another. On the last weekend in
September RCMP reporied nine
motor vehicle accidents and said
they handed out four 24-hour
suspensions and charged four
drivers with impaired operation.
On the first weekend in October
things improved: there were only
eight minor vehicle accidents and
no’ impaired charges or suspen-
sions.

A TYPICAL TERRACE FALL CLOUDBURST a year ago this week caused some headaches for

Public Works crews and drivers when a mud slide cl
stabilizing exercise, the experts figured it wou

osad the Kalum St. hill, After a major slope-
idn't happen again for many years.

Dave Barrett jumped into the
national NDP leadership ring (or is
that wring?) with best wishes and
support from our own MP, Jim
Fulton.

In the world of business, the
Terrace Co-op board of directors
offered their facelift contract to
Kermodei Construction — with
expected opposition from local
unions —- and strange things were
happening in the gold mines north
of town. Skyline reported third
quarter losses of $347,000, four
cents a share, and gold mine in-
vestment king Murray Pezim was
appointed to the board of Gulf
International Minerals, owners of
the McLymont Creek property in
the Iskut Valley. What did it all
mean? .

The Terrace Health Care Society
released a 20-item, two-year stra-
tegy for health care development,
Northwest Aims for Health
released the results of their survey
(demon rum was the average sut-
‘veyee’s number one concern) and
the Happy Gang Centre donated
$2,700 toward a self-lift chair and
other furnishings in recognition of
the many contributions made to
our community by local pioncer
and Terraceview resident Erie
Sande.

The official opening and dedica-
tion of the new Centennial Chris-
tian School building took place
Sept. 22 and the Northwest Com-
munity College board of directors
held its first meeting ever at thelr
new college campus in Smithers.

finished first with Chad Edmonds,
David Edmonds and Adrian Balatti
close behind. In the same event,
Allison . Lindseth and Sandy
Loptson took the top two girls’
senior titles and Megan Read won
the junior event.

The Volleyball season was just
underway and local school teams
at all levels of play were showing
a great deal of promise. At the
same time the Youth Soccer sea-
son had drawn to a close and in
Terrace the AGM, the shortest one
ever, ended with a number of new
faces on the 1990 executive. For
soccer in Terrace, 1990 promised
to be a good year. That wasn’t
quite so true in Kitimat, though.
Their sixth bid for approval of two

new soccer fields there had failed
and their major drive was in
mounting their seventh offensive.

In basketball, local star of SFU
and Canadian Nationat Team fame,
Michelie Hendry, had been picked
for yet another award. Basketball
B.C. had named Hendry as senior
women’s player of the year. But
world-class wheelchair athicte Paul
Clark was still searching for his
new niche in the sport.

The Montreal Marathon was
"tough", he said, and his best
efforts earned him only a 13th
place finish. But this wasn’t really
all that bad, Clark was grouped
with a new class of racers last
year, and Terrace still had cause to
be proud,

hatever you wear j*
fe clean with care. |

EDNESDAY IS
DIRTY SHIRT
DAY |

regional district said ihey gearing up for an educational tour

feared uncontrolled deve- of France next June antd on the
jopment in the Highway 37 North local scene, high school students
corridor if the province didn’t step were raising money for trips and
in. It was said the Stewart-Hyder things of a smaller kind... thanks
border offered a haven for drug to North Coast Road Maintenance.
lords-and smugglers. The Redsand Students organizations were paid
Lake demonstration forest got the $6 a bag for litter collected from
nod from regional directors... and our highways, and in this little
watchdog Les Watmough as a project everyone won.
member of their committee. And

O n the regional scene, the A few NWCC students were

Men's or Ladies' cotton blend

dress or business shirts expertly
laundered.

» Only drive-thru in town
y Bast, most rellable and cleanest service
» Drop off point at Thornhill Public Market

the Ministry of Highways awarded
a $3.147 million contract for the

nd that brings us to
A school sports. Caledonia

Richards Cleaners

6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. — Manday to Friday
6:30 a.m, to 6:30 p.nt. -- Saturday

construction of the Esker overpass senior boys took the top
west of Terrace to A.L. Sims and four spots in a Prince Rupert
Son of Prince George. Oh, and cross-country. David Shepherd

KIDDIE CORNER FROM THE POST OFFICE

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