Aé - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 20, 1998 Floating casino gets — government’s approval A FLOATING casino aboard a Prince Rupert-based pocket cruise ship is the only destination casino to get the government's nod in this region. Victoria released a list of three casinos proposals in the Kootenays, Cariboo and North Coast that have now received the province's approval-in-principle. The Motor Vessel Aurora, proposed by Pacific Gaming Ltd, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Inside Passage Cruises Inc., is among the three, Besides a 70-seat restaurant, pub, cabins and viewing lounge, the $4 million pocket cruise ship would also have a gaming room with four tables and 35 slot machines. The ship would sail between Prince Rupert and Vancouver in the summer, and to Victoria, Seattle, Nanaimo and Campbell River in the off season, Company officials also say they'd tie up the vessel in its home port of Prince Rupert some of the lime so northwest residents could visit the casino. Company president George Bartel estimates the project will mean 32 seasonal and 12 full-time jobs in the first season of operation, increasing to 90 seasonal and 36 full-time jobs by the third year. The vessel is expected to make its first sailing to Prince Rupert June 8. Also going ahead with approval-in- principle is the Casino of the Rockies, pro- posed by the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket Tribal Council on reserve land near Cranbrook and Kimberley, and the Jack O’Clubs —a casino proposed for the town of Wells, near . Barkerville. Both of those casinos are to be consider- ably larger than the Aurora. The Wells casino would have seven tables and 125 slot machines, while the Cranbrook area casino would have 30 tables and 300 slots as part ofa large resort complex. “None of these projects, however, will open until 1 am fully satisfied that each of them has met appropriate regulatory and environmental requirements,’’ sald employ- ment and investment minister Michael Farmworth. The government made decisions on the nine proposals for the Kootenays, Cariboo - and north first — ahead of other parts of the province, The reason given for that was the shorter construction and tourism seasons in the north. Still awaiting decisions are 15 proposals in the Thomspon-Okanagan and Vancouver Istand and another 13 in the Lower Main- land, Destination casines are limited to a maxi- mum of 30 gaming tables and 300 slot ma- chines. Terrace was the preferred location of two Telephone/Voice Mail Systems af ZG 1-800-893-5033 af LANADS INCORPORATED INCORPORATED Official Suppliers of Norstar, Mitel, Lucent Technoiogies Formerly Tolsec Telecommunications Charlie Graydon 638-6024 Leona Klein 638-6025 Tutoring Available! Does your child struggle in school? Help Is Available! | am available to tutor school children grades 1 through 8 in a wide variety of classes. Reasonable Rates! For more information call Kelly at 635-4768 Evenings casino proponents -~ Vancouver-based Royal Diamond Casinos owner Gary Jack- son and Terrace Inn owner John Georgilas. Georgilas wanted to redevelop his hotel including a casino. Jackson pursued sites in Terrace, Thorn- hill and Kitsumkalum reserve. But the idea of allowing a casino in this area met widespread opposition here and was rejected by all local government bodies, including the Kitsumkalum band council. City pays to squish millenium bug. WONDERING if that pesky Year 2000 bug is going to paralyze City of Terrace computers and cause them to spew out generous tax refunds on Jan. 1, 2010? Fear not, says treasurer Keith Nonnan. The city is installing an upgrade from Vadim Soft- wate for its municipal government PC-based com- puter system. Norman says the Year 2000 fix is part of the soft- ware upgrade, which the city city wanted anyway to make the program Windows com- patible. He says the upgrade is scheduled for completion in April, 1999, at a cost to the city of $48,000. ‘Some people are doing it, eatlier, But that’s when we've scheduled _ it,’’ Norman said. ‘““We thought we'd let other clients debug it first.”’ Older computer software only used two digits to keep . track of years and now must be upgraded to handle the four digits required for dates after 1999, Regional district officials say they’re going out to tender for a new computer system this year that will be Year 2000-compatible, School district officials say the computers that hand- le their payroll and adminis- tration have been all ready for the millenium for a num- ber of years now. $$ Millionaires Club $$ Friday, May 22 & Saturday, May 23 Want to feel like a million bucks? Come to Hanky's this weekend and you might just get the chance to win the big ane!!! We; will be giving away lottery tickets as spot prizes all weekend. 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