Page Ad — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 5, 1890

—a

, ceva ao, 1908 _

Rogietraton No, ‘7a20 4647 Lazelle Ave., “Terrace, BC, yaa: 188° : (@04) 638-7283: ‘gd

Serving the Taree area. Published on | Wecinasday of each wreak by Cariboo Prana (1880) Ltd, ry 4047 Lazate Ave, ‘Terrate Batish Columbia. %
Stories, photographs, Mustrations, designs And typestyles in the Terrace Standard ard the moperty Of the copyright holders, . Inclatng Carthoo Prass (1969) Lid., its i al

lustration tepro services, and advartising agencies.
Reproduction in whole | on Part, without wiitten permission, és specifically proniblied,

Authorized as Second-class mail panding the Past Cifice Cepartment, {or paymmant of postage in cath,

oe ) ?

Prodution Manager:
‘Edouard Credgeur : .

- Typesotter, Susan Credgeur = Camposln
tlising Ponaullan Tory Miller.

sing. Manager, Janet Viveires — ~" Advertising Consultant -
~ Circulation Supervisor

‘Special thariks to a ee

ur.centribistors. and | a

* Gofrespondents: for io
thelr time and.

. talents, .

EDITORIAL, |

Repedi,

As thoughts of most people turn
toward Christmas, thoughts of teachers
and the school board turn toward
something else — strike.

Judging from the recent break-down
in contract. negotiations, things are well
on their way to closed schools early in
the new year.

The issue, as in past years, revolves

around money. The board is offering six
and five per cent over two years.
Teachers want 17 per cent over one year.

But before things get out of control,
there are some interesting things to con-
sider. School boards remain severely
constrained by the provincial govern-
ment. It has removed commercial and in-
dustrial properties from the board’s tax-
able base, preferring instead to assign
portions of money it regards as suffi-
cient.

This places great pressure on school
boards for it has to bargain with money
over which it has no control. If boards
need more, they can go to referendum
but can only ask homeowners to cough
up. It’s a clever provincial government
tactic of divide and conquer.

Until this year, the board hasn’t
swallowed this piece of provincial

. Ahead

‘Atéeiinan Danny Sheridan likened’
council and the mayor to a captain and
crew during last month’s municipal elec-
tions. Now that all hands are once again
on deck, what course will they steer
toward a community centre?

Forget about that: exotic convention
use destination. That was proved wrong
in recent surveys. What will make or
break the centre is local use.

There is a demand for larger meeting
and other banquet facilities. There is

Repeat

chicanery. What it has done in this
round of negotiations is cleverly add up
what it said it can afford and offer it to
teachers. Yet it also says other monetary
items would have to come out of the
same pot. In a sense, the board has simp-
ly passed along the provincial tactic.

While this is a good negotiating
method; the board has problems defen-
ding its position of extreme poverty.
Remember earlier this year when it cut
$400,000 from its budget? Just before
that it found enough to pay $70,000 for a
study on what to pay principals and
other administrators and, just recently,
has created another senior position in its
bureaucracy: It also hired a full-time
negotiator but still finds it necessary to
bring in outside help for these negotia-
tions..

As for the teachers — well, they con-
tinually fall into the most common of all
labour negotiation traps. They simply
ask for the sky at first, saying it is a
figure that is open to negotiation. A re-
quest for 17 per cent over one year simp-
ly isn’t realistic.

It’s as if teachers are fighting the bat-
tles of the early 1980s all over again,
Their knowledge of history is admirable
yet their sense of the real world is shaky.

all full

also” demand for rooms “for” ‘Sinallet

groups.

More importantly there is-a demand in
this city for a local gathering point. It’ll
provide a sense of identity and belong-
ing. It’s not fancy and doesn’t come
under the fancy lure of economic
development that has captivated govern-

_Mments-in the last decade.’ But it is.
something that could truly represent all |

the citizens of this city.

It’s for the birds —

Walt Whitman, the American

poét, said, “You. must not
know too much, or be too
precise or scientific about
birds,..; a certain free margin,
and even vagueness — perhaps
ignorance, credulity — helps

Through
Bifocals i\
by Claudette Sandecki

oe

- Observer deserve the- failing -..
* me the writer: mave it? Hard. ~ sider the time and commitment ‘':
= lye,

- passing grade. But of them all,

- one of the best.

‘ pared itself to the Vancouver

your enjoyment of these
things.’'

Maybe that's why I get so
much pleasure out of feeding
winter birds. About all I know
is a menu that attracts them. A
mixture of sunflower seeds for
the blue ones, millet and other
round seeds for small gray ones
with black heads, and dry dog
food to be ‘‘stolen’’ by orange
birds with a black vee on their
chests. .

Feeding winter birds ‘sounds
like a relaxing pastime, doesn’t
it? Sprinkle feed about in an
area safe from neighbours’ cats,
retreat to the warmth of the
house and observe the diners’
antics close up.

Well, bird-feeding is about as
relaxing as income tax. It
demands dedication, and
unlimited credit at the feed
store.

‘In past winters, I fobbed off
leftovers of dried bread or stale
pastries. Steller and gray iays,
as well as cedar waxwings,

favour doughnuts, muffins; and .
*.dend wall, Two thrushes’ and 4.

poundcake. However, CBC's
veterinarian, Dr,
Cooper, says bread dehydrates
birds and can kill them. --.

“My bird feeder is primitive: a a
wooden birdhouse without: side
walls, perched atop five feet of

aluminum tubing . anchored.
upright, ina, . _Srayel-weighted ,

chuhk.: of’ ‘Onie-foot “Alar
steel pipe. ;

Adrian’
_ by. flying Wham into a window..

. have a dainty ring to the ears of
“the overweight. To juncoes and

; through, to nightfall
fer; their: hunger has me: t-there
a shovelling away stiow and dum.

It stands in front of an out-
building, a totem pole before its
longhouse, sheltered on two
sides from wind and snow.
Shelter is welcomed on those
wintry days fit only for polar

‘bears, penguins, and construc-

tion workers,
Neighbourhood cats like to

- believe I'm raising live meat for

them. To dispel their notion, I
shovelled gravel into gaps under
the outbuilding’s foundation
where a furry face might peek
through, Next; I set the feeder
in full view of the front yard for
optimum surveillance by our
two dogs, A six-foot ‘high fence
poses a- barrier to prowling
felines, given our dogs’ superb
acceleration and intolerance of
anything earthbound,

Other dangers. are impossible

for me to ward off. Several

times a day, a tiny body Thunks«
into’\a windowpane, leaving a:

; bat-shaped splat of tiny feathers

like Coyote colliding with'a dea-

junco recently killed themselves °
“Eating like a bird" may

jays, it means tying on the blb in

the dark of dawn and gobbling
Ofte

ping seed before I've drunk my
morning coffee,

The first year [ set out bird-
seed, only.a few juncoes showed
up. But word of beak advertis-

ing- has fured many more, -.

especially on days when the
neighbourhood is shrouded in

snow.’ Now-I host four Stellar -

jays, seven thrushes, and ump-
teen juncoes,
Besides animating a lifeless

landscape ‘with their bustle;

birds leaven: the air with chirps:
and caws,. Jays tquabble and

screech; juncoes click like ,
“denture-wearers

in need of

Poligrip; and, ‘in the half-light

of morning or evening, thrushes’

- whistle plaintively, ,
Small ‘benefits, perhaps, but

--much more than I get from my__

handouts to Victoria or Ottawa.

~ Observer over the Sun any |

_ the future,”’: said B. Austin.

_-nion on-everything and the in-
“nate desire to share their opi-

taking a "acking

VICTORIA — I came across

two letters to the editor last
week that lambasted the news

media, One letter writer zeroed From the

in on the local community.

newspaper, while the other Capliai
harangued the big-city media, by Hubert Beyer |

No doubt, B. Austin con-

sidered his letter to the editor

" of the Quesnel Cariboo

Observer quite witty. A report nion with everybody?” he ask-
card forthe local paper; nota ed. me

bad idea, but does the The Observer, B. Austin

concluded,: had ‘failed to con-

; -*" offered to the community by
this one to the editor of the . . Femuneration received. At the
Lillooet News, bashes the ~~~ yery'léast,B.Austin said, they
Vancouver Sun and Province are performing a public ser-
and BCTV for doing a lousy vice.
job. Is that criticism.deserved?
To a large degree, yes. _ . The Observer, on the other

Every week, I go throgh just.
about every community. :
newspaper published in British
Columbia, and I wouldn’t
hesitate to give most of them a

formed a disservice to the.

ed in its obligations,

‘What rubbish. Aside from
_ containing a cute turn of
phrase or two, it was B,
Austin’s letter which was a

the Quesnel Cariboo Observer.
I'll have B. Austin know, i is

B. Austin said in his letter
that the Observer recently in-
formed its readers of the
Paper’s standing among other
B.C. community newspapers’
and noted that it hadn’t com-

munity. Since when is it wrong
to expect. toa’ mingh’ from peo-
ple? Advocating thediocrity is
dangerous, ‘We already have
too much of it.

- According to B. Austin,
people with good command of
the English language can’t be
found in small towns, and

Sun, Nor should it have, he
added.

Well,- I'll have B, Austin: ;
‘kow that for journalistic ex-

cellence, ] would choose the’ find them...‘

‘I think it should. A
newspaper, any newspaper, |
had an. obligation. to set’ the
highest standards possible, As -
one of society’s watchdogs,
and a very effective one at
that, a‘newspaper must pot:
allow mediocrity to creep into
politics at whatever level it
covers. ‘For a community
newspaper, that’s, the local .
level, ©:

~ Contrary, to what B. Austin
says, community: newspapers.
do an excellent job of serving
their communities. They cer-

day, On the other hand, of
course, one needs to read a
.daily newspaper or watch the
television news if one wants to -
be informed of world events;
It seems that the disgruntled
letter writer didn’t want his’.
community newspaper to set.
too high a standard.
“The Observer's Philosophy «
seems to be elitist in nature,
making it unlikely that or-
dinary citizens participate in.
‘our’ community’s politics in ©

“Do we really need, or even tainly doa better job than
‘want, Our: local. Politicians to. some dailies ‘do ‘of s ‘Serving. *
be great orators or polished: theirs, 3).

Community newspapers have
- roots in the towns they serve.
‘That’s why they are’ called

Stage perforniers with an opi-

MAKE. MEA FORTUNE! | Stake ITAND

AS FASTAS YOU CAN «)

from local politicians, had per-.

potential disservice to the com-.

local paper shouldn’ t expect to.

~ Gray said:

community papers, The editor
and the reporters know most .
of the residents and are, in ©

_ turn, known to most of them.

The ‘people who. work for...
community, Mewspapers are not ,
just concerned with “‘the
story,” — although no jour-

-nalist worth his or her salt is
ever free of the exhilaration a ©

good story creates. To put it in’
a nutshell, newspaper people in --

. take mc :
hand, by expecting too. much | ‘small towns take more than a.

' passing interest in their com-

community and, therefore fail-’

' public, not reporters, Our ’-

- “Opinion is‘the realm: of col-

- but the premier: is still ‘in’:
; Sérlous trouble," I. get’ furloug

_ the Facts and keep his damn :
: musings to himself, :

oo everybody is In agreement

PRILLIT AND Ac
r SALT WITH GOLD )..

‘public; not-reporters. Our

-media than the big. citie

munity, They are part of it.
So what about their big-city

counterparts? Well, here's os
‘what B, Gray of Lillooet she

thinks of them. a’

“One thing I do know, they’ aoe
are caught in a vortex of tun-. °°
nel vision, sucking their open
mindedness and integrity into
the world of habit; bad
habit,”’ B. Gray sald in the let-
ter to the Lillooet News. -
“Opinion is the realm of cole ’
umnists, editorialist and the —

media shouldn't be telling us.
umunists, editorialist and: ‘the |

media shouldn't be telling u5
who’s rotten, they should be:
giving us honest, objective -
facts. We, the Public, should
decide who's rotten: If the’
facts be known, thé medid
would be | Prime candidates”

Right on..1 couldn’ t agree.
more, Every time I hear'a TV.
reporter say something like

As a columnist'I can. Say that?
but a reporter should stick't

To suit it up, small towns
are better served by their.
$ are b
he

theirs, but judging froi
two letters I quoted, ni

5 ‘au SELL:IT Down soul ee
“AS THE MaTHER oe a