_and operated newspaper Your hometown locally owned . - National Access Awareness Week National Access Awareness Week was recognized at Northwest Community College May 29. The purpose of the day was to identify areas in the college which prevent or hinder accessibility, increase awareness of the needs of students and staff who are physically or mentally challenged, improve the community’s awareness of the services available at NWCC, and to support the National Access Awareness Week statement that "Access is a right". Grade 2 and 3 students from | Uplands Elementary School were taken through an Awareness Lab of seven stations involving mobil- ‘ity and handicaps - wheelchairs, walkers, slings for simulated bro- ken arms and canes, Each group of © ACCESS TO HIGHER LEARNING. National Access Students had to go through each exercise and feel some of the frustrations of not being able to move around freely in doing daily tasks. Students later said, "it was really hard"; "I spilled my water"; "I had trouble getting the wheel- chair through doors"; and "I couldn’t get into the bathroom. Somebody had to help me". Bight Northwest Community College staff members also partici- pated in the day as an awareness team hindered by hand bandages, wheelchairs or neck braces. Adutt Basic Education coordinator Larry Bolingbroke found he had diffi- culty getting through doors, using — Continued on page A4 Sports Community News Arts & Entertainment Fi ea tures Awareness Week was recognized at Northwest Community College last week with eight staff members, including Larry Bolingbroke, and Grade 2 and 3 students from Uplands Elementary School using wheelchairs, walkers, and other aids to simulate some of the difficulties of the physically challenged. Winter access becoming critical issue in river-locked community by Michael Kelly Wilf Geyer, a familiar figure who can often be seen on the streets of Terrace, bought two lots in Usk 14 years ago, having fallen in love with the quiet, scenic ham- let on the west side of the Skeena River a few kilometres outside Terrace. A month after he bought the land Wilf Geyer was involved in a car crash that put him in a wheelchair. Now he lives in Rosswood and manages the community's only store, which also serves as its _Ksan House Society opens new headquarters at et rane | ttn oP The Ksan House Socicty is holding an open house today to show off its new premises, the old provincial police building at the comer of Lakelse Ave. and Kalum St. The society has been busy renovating the land- mark building for more than a month, and the public is invited to take a look at their work from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. The non-profit society operates the Terrace Transition House for women who need temporary shelter, the Terrace Sexual Assault Centre and Osborne House, a shelter for mentally ill people living in the com- munity. The new office will also be the site for the society's 1991 annual general mecting, scheduled to take place tonight starting at 7:30 p.m. The only renovation remaining to be donc is removal of a directional sign on the front lawn. The sign, directlng visitors to attractions like Heritage Park, has been located al the corner of Kalum and Lakelse for a number of years. The socicty has asked the city to find a new location for it, and council’s Planning and Pubtic Works Committee has referred the item to another com- mittee, Tourism and Economic Development. While they’re at il, alderman Bob Cooper has asked them to go a litite further and find a use for an unused hydro pole standing at the north- cast corner of the building. The building, one of the oldest in Terrace, has a long and colourful history, It began as the police headquarters and jail. More recently it has been home to a health food store and the office for architect Alan Soular. The Cuture of the building has been in doubt recently, with a pro- posal for its removal to Heritage Park being dcclincd by the museum sociely and an express- ion of intent by the lot owner to scll, With its occupation by Ksan, it would appear the old building will be around a while longer. nerve centre because it has the only telephone. He was back in Usk for a visit last week, but the idea of living there, he says, "is an unrealistic goal". The reason it is unrealistic is that for six months of the year a cable cat, five flights of stairs above the ground, is the only way to get in or out of the community. Geyer was there May 29, having crossed on the ferry that serves Usk during the time of year the river isn’t frozen, for a meeting on National Access Awareness weck. People who move to the west side of Usk know from the outset that accessibility is going to be a problem. The community, inhabited by about 50 people, used to be a major centre for the rail- way, mining and logging, at one time carly in the century populated by over 3,000 people. But when the highway went in on the far side of the river the action moved westward to Terrace. The residents are looking for improvements. Terrace district highways manager John Newhouse accepled an invitation to the May 29 event, a potluck dinner and informal discussion on access. One family has a child with a degenerative condition that will eventually require a wheelchair. If nothing changes, they will be forced to move out of Usk. Marie Hildebrand, the Terrace representa- tive for the Canadian Paraplegic Association, told Newhouse the current equipment for crossing the river in winter is impossible for anyone in a wheelchair and ex- tremely difficult for anyone in leg braces, on crutches, or even a person with arthritis or back prob- lems. When the ferry is docked for the winter, travel across the river is by a small cable car. To get on the car, the passenger is required to ascend three flights of exposed stairs on the east side of the river or five flights on the west side. The difficulty is. not only for people with disabilities or infirm- ities, several residents told New- house — if someone is injured in an accideni, evacuation was also be hard or impossible. The Ministry of Highways and Transporiation has been studying the Usk situation, and all ihe sol- utions are expensive. This year an engincering study is being done for a road from Terrace North to Kitselas, on the same side of the — Continued on page A4 * 4 ee ERE en ee mk 1 tm! ie ae a aml it iin tg