The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 14, 1994 - A11 # FRESHEN YOUR Z HOME FOR THE Smaller road sand oe eT ee Class gets mixed results 7 OFFICIALS OF the = road maintenance company responsible for the area to the easi and north are this weck checking oul the results of a sanding test. Nechako Northcoast is using smaller pieces of aggregate on _. winter. roads than is normal to ‘determine if they can still do the job and reduce the amount of broken windshields. One of the more common com- plaints and costs of winter driving is' broken windshields caused when pieces are Kicked up. Nechako. Northcoast president John Ryan said it’s still too carly, other: than receiving some preliminary reports, to judge how the test is going. “We have had reports that in ‘the Bear Glacier arca where the -wind can be really strong that it’s not working,’’ said Ryan of a stretch of Hwy37 leading to Stewart from the Meziadin Junc- _ tion. Status . changed THE HIGHWAYS ministry has reduced the level of winter maintenance required on a stretch of Hwy37. But the reduction from Class A status to Class B on Hwy37 lead- ing south of the airport and stop- ping at Mount Layton Hotsprings probably won’t even be noticed, says the president of the local road maintenance company, John Ryan said that Class A al- ‘lows accumulations of up to dem of snow while Class B permits 6cm, Plow trucks have to start work- ing when 2cm of snow accumu- lates on Class A roads and 4cm on Class B roads. ‘*Whether it’s 4cm or 10cm, it docsn’t really make a dif- ference,’’ said Ryan. , “This has nothing to do with pulling down abrasives. And we run, a. 24-hour operation regan less," ” he added, ae ' A’ Class A designation is determined by, the amount of traf- fic.on a highway. The only other Class A designa- tions in this area are Hwy16 as it ‘passes through town and the stretch of Hwy37 from Terrace to the airport. Highways ministry spokesman Jane Stead said the Class A desig- -nation from the airport to the hot- springs occurred some years ago. She said it probably was placed in anticipation of more residential development in the Lakelse Lake arca, Stead added that a re-evaluation of roads this year determined the A designation wasn’t justified, The test size is 9.5mm (approxi- mately three-eights of an inch) compared to the standard 12.5mm size used on other paved roads. A test conducted several years ago in the Prince George area found there wasn’t a strong con- nection between the size of sand- ing particles and the number of broken windshields. ICEC statistics show that the number of windshield claims has declined in the Prince George area. But ICBC has also increased the glass claim. deductible from $50 to $100 and that’s said to be responsible for at least some of the decline. Whatever the results of the sanding test are, a forest company official says he and others in the Stewart-Meziadin area are un- happy with what’s been going on. Tony Kelly of Orenda Forest Products said he drove from Ter- race 10 Meziadin one day last week and saw sand on the side of the road and not on the highway. ‘In colder weather, with large transport trucks, the sand simply gets blown off because of the air following the trucks,’’ he said. a ( may save a few windshields but we're bending an awful lot of iron out here,’’ said Kelly of acci- dents this year. He described the road condi- tions as the worst he’s seen in “AWN eanmanank t seven years of driving here. Kelly’s also worried about safety involving logging truck drivers who are paid according ta the number of loads they deliver. They can’t drive as fast with full loads and so drive faster than is safe when empty to make up for lost time, he said. ‘Somebody is going to get creamed on the highway,"’ said Kelly. HELPING THE WORLD | WRITE NOW 4 one oF Men’ s Night | Get the Fashions. Jewelry, Lingerie, Coats & Accessories she wants for the prices you want! 2 oO % Regular Priced off Merchandise Thursday, December 15 5 pm -10 pm 4620 Laketlse Ave. (Right beside the White Spot) 635-4550 TiN ei tierra Mls wath a eH he ven One person’s trash... Behind the scenes at City Council, the issue of garbage colfection and who should do it is being analyzed and discussed. It is one "subject that every taxpayer and resident of . Terrace should also know something about. What is the issue? City Council is considering a pro- posal to stop having unionized city crews pick up commercial garbage and turn the service over to private contractors exclusively. Currently, private companies and the municipality both offer commercial garbage pick-up. Commercial garbage includes apartment buildings, the hospi- tal, the long term health care facilities and small businesses like stores. The system has served the taxpay- ers well. It provides options for those who want their garbage totally managed by the city or those who wish to use com- mercial pick-up. And it keeps costs down! _ Private companies.do not pay tip- ping fees or any other fees to dump gar- bage. They dump garbage into regional Jandfill sites, free of charge. There are no - controls over what is picked up and dumped into our regional, public landfills. ; . CUPE workers currently pick up both residential and commercial garbage throughout Terrace. Last year, we made some recommendations for bringing down the cost of pickup. And they were successful. The savings were returned to general revenue. Commercial clients who have switched back to our service from private say ours is superior. They say we keep sites safe and clean. So we know we ate more than competitive and doing a high quality job. And the future? Private companies are there to make a profit. And so they should be. We just don’t feel that profits should be made on the delivery of services that are so closely related to public health and the environment. The private garbage collection sec- tor pays lower wages and they can raise their fees at will. And they will, especially | if they have a monopoly! The way we deal with garbage now wiil affect us in years to come. It is important that the collection, monitoring and safe disposal of all garbage ( waste) remain patt of our collective responsibil- ity. Terrace Municipal Workers Local 2012 certificate for someone Zp. J.ODORMISER HOLIDAYS or consider a gift special Products services “free” estimates. SSS SSSR core. S “Safety First” A. R. K. Extinguisher Ltd. 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