Long walk Local woman accomplishes goal of finishing the Honolulu Marathon\SPORTS B4 Reading minds Distance psychiatry may be on the horizon using new technology\NEWS A11 Our time to talk i Two Kitselas women describe the role of the matriarch \COMMUNITY Bi $1.00 pus 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST ~ outside of the Terrace area) 7 1 ee O es — es — EA |) 95 a SE 69) I a 7 Wednesday, January'9, 2002: Well still awaiting repairs ‘By JENNIFER LANG REPAIRS TO the city’s well won’t be camplete for a few more weeks, a city official says. An electric motor that went on the blink back in early October had to be seat to North Carolina for Tepairs. The city’s director of engineering, Martin Kwiatkowski, had expec- ted the repaired motor and pump assembly to arrive back in Terrace before Christmas. The motor, pump, and cable have made it as far as Vancouver and should arrive here this week. A new valve far the Frank Street well is al- ready here, but the city is still waiting for some pip- ing, and Kwiatkowski ex- pects that to take another couple of weeks. He’s already lining up a crane operating crew: and mechanical specialists to reinstall the motor as- sembly once: all- the parts «ff are here. Meanwhile, the. ‘city continues to draw its water from the Skeena River, Terrace’s main water supply until the well came on line in 1995. “The water is really clean,” he said. The city has received some calls on the issue, — but not many. “Some people are real- ly happy and hope we never go back to the well,” Kwiatkowski said. “Some people are the op- posite.” Once complete, the re- pairs will cast between $75,000 and $80,000 — iess than the $100,000 original- ly expected, he said. m@ Alien splashdown THESE freaky and squeaky alien creatures were caught on film during the 11th annual Kinsmen Kermodei Bear Swim, The bone-chilling New Year's Day ritual at Lakelse Lake attracted visit- ors from far and wide. For more on the frosty event see page B4. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO. Skeena bidder still out in cold Deal with Mercer gets closer By JEFF NAGEL NWBC Timber and Pulp Ltd. has again been rebuffed by the province in its attempt to enter serious talks to buy Skeena Cellulose. And all indications are the province is gelting’ steadi- ly closer to sealing a deal to. sell the operations to Swiss-based Mercer International. NWEC, which is chaired by former Repap Enterprises chairman George Petty, tabled a revised offer for Skeena Wednesday, removing or altering some clauses that were problematic for Victoria. The rival bidder removed its demands for up-front pro- mises of forest practices changes and would delay its demands for compensation to the operations for the ef- fects of the Nisga’a treaty. But NWEC president Daniel Veniez said the offer still hinged on his firm becoming the exclusive bidder with 90 days to raise money in financial markets, Provincial officials rejected the proposal Thursday, saying any other bids must he prepared to close the deal on Feb. 15. “We have underlaken a thorough, rigourous and pro- fessional assessment of all the proposals that came -in and it was felt the Mercer proposal was the best one,” said provincial spokesman Lucy Stephenson, The rejection came in spite of a Prince Rupert- led civic delegation to Victoria last week in support of NWEC. Allies in the region are also rallying significant public support behind NWBC and pressing the government to reconsider. Veniez spoke to 400 people in Prince Rupert and 220 in Terrace at townhall meetings in the last week of De-.- - cember, Allan Melntyre, an-SCI lumber grader and IWA. member who or parle the meeling here, says Veniez Continued Pg. A13 PETER 2 CROMPTON, the college's facilities manager, inspects work underway to prepare a classroom . there for the new nursing program about to get started. JENNIFER LANG PHOTO Nurse classroom work ‘inderway By JENNIFER LANG PREPARATIONS are underway in a classroom at Northwest Community College, where new nursing students are expected to begin their studies in . . afew weeks. The college’s facilities staff are - renovating a large classroom in the northeast-corner of the trades build ing at the Terrace campus in pre- . -paration for the new -Licensed Prac- - tical , Nurse’s, program,. ‘slated | to! -begin Jan. 21. The. renovations, will. create -a: ~ combination. classroom: and labora- . tory. for the nursing siudents.- ares $0. We an “aceamtimodate a lab with Le “8We're- putting up.a dividing wall fice Space ‘that, the. progrant eight beds and a_ classroom,” NWCC’s facilities manager Peter Crompton said. _ The work is being done in-house. , “We're in the throes of building sink units, cupboards and. shelving units,” Crompton said last week, Right now ‘the classroom is pretty bare, apart. from .a few tables and chairs, but the sinks and cupboards will be installed shortly. - - Hospital, beds ‘for the nursing lab — donated: from: Kitimat’ General ’ and ‘Mills’ Menicrial - have ‘already. ar- rived: and are waiting to be moved ” into. their new home;: -. - The’ clagsroom: is aijaceit 'S i i n structors will use. Alaskans want road into B.C. Idea hit as a resource grab By JEFF NAGEL AN ALASKAN plan to build a new road up the Iskut River to connect the panhandle to Hwy 37 is a dangerous U.S. attempt to tap B.C, resources, envir- onmental groups charge. They say the road idea, advanced by Alaskan towns like Wrangell, would make essentially create a new port on the Bradfield Canal in competition with Stewart. Any ore mined or timber logged significantly north of Meziadin Junction in the Cassiar Forest District cauld then be trucked down the new road and be exported out of the new Alaskan port, rather than Stewart ot Hwy 16 communities. “We see this is as a resource grab,” says. Jim Bour- quin, Cassiar Watch’s [skut- based wild rivers director. “[t's a short cut to export re- |: sources that’s going to avoid the B.C. economy.” — _, He said the Alaskans are playing down their real agen- da, instead claiming their in- terests cenire on fish exports — and tourism. . “Regardless of what Wrangell and Petersburg may be saying about what they | want the road far, underlying all that is their long-range § economic development pro- posais that they would like to become the port for exporting the resources out of northern B.C.,” Bourquin said. “Once the road is in then it’s a done deal — Stewart is left out of the picture.” The Transboundary Watershed Alliance has been for- med by 20 Canadian and U.S. conservation SToups to fight the road idea. “It is going to be a mineral development road that is going to alter the way that industry opertaes in northern B.C.,” said Gil Amoid, the alliance’s Nelson-based con- sultant. Although motivated by environmental concerns, the groups are instead keying on the resource drain and the Gil Arnold - potential threat to B.C. jobs — an avenue of attack they see as more likely to attract local allies. Continued Pg. AS : Top cop selected By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN A REPLACEMENT for Terrace’s top RCMP offi- cer has been selected. Inspector Doug Wheler is moving to Langley and Sergeant Marlin Degrand, a watch commander from Red Deer, Alberta will take on the duties of in- spector here in the coming months. The move means De- grand is getting.a promo- tion from Sergeant to In- spector, Though the replacement * has been named, Wheler said it’s not clear exactly when he'll be moving to Langley or when Degrand will be coming here. Transfers within the - 2000. : Course. materials have been or-. Twenty-four successful applicants from. the region learned before Christmas they’ve been accepted to .NWCC’s first-ever licensed practical nursing program. . Planning began . in. the spring of dered and a program coordinator has been: hired. ' ‘ Two. representatives from the B.C. College. of Licensed: Practical | Nurses were expected to Visit, the . campus, last week. | oc The- regulatory: ‘body ‘must ‘give “final approval -before’ the’: ‘program | RCMP can sometimes be lengthy while officers wait to sell their homies. - Wheler’s new job in Langley will entail over- ‘seeing: operations support -there. He will be looking after most plain clothes _ operations, including ser- ‘ious’. crime; intelligence, identification and dog ser- ‘vice sectlons. | - ‘Wheler. has been in -Tertace since 1998 when é:replaced- Outgoing. In- “specto Steven Peach.