a eel ee

At long, long iast .

Witness to history.

The province is kicking in
$200,000 for the library
expansion project/NEWS A10

Local lawyer returns from
observing the South African
elections/COMMUNITY B1

That's teamwork

Local gymnasts combine forces
for a provincial gold medal
showing/SPORTS C1

_ WEDNESDAY
MAY 18; 1994

TANDAR

75¢ PLUS 5¢ GST
VOL. 7.NO. 5

Howe Creek land purchase fails

By MALCOLM BAXTER
A CITY attempt to buy land
along Howe Creek has bogged
down over price.

Councillor Ed Graydon,
chairman of the planning com-
mittee, confirmed last week ef-
forts to reach agreement with
property owners Howe Creck In-
vestments (HCI) had failed.

The land in question is a 10
acre parcel at the foot of the
bench escarpment between Eby
St. and Skeenaview Drive.

On April 2, 1993, Fred Ken-
nedy of HCI applied to have the
property rezoned R41, single-
family residential. He indicated
plans were to construct a 13-lot

= Recipe for fun

TAKE A SUNNY day, a generous portion of playground equipment, add some kids and fun is
what you get. The slide is one of the mare popular piecas of equipment at the Elks Park on
Agar and this young lade took full advantage of the weather to enjoy the slippery slope.

subdivision.

The planning committee of the
council of the day recommended
approval of the rezoning, noting
the new Official Community Plan
designated the land as low
density residential.

However, the proposal came
under fire at a June public hearing
by residents from across the com-
munity who maintained the ara
should remain green belt.

The protest also led to the
formation of the Terrace Green
Belt association.

With a decision postponed until
afier the November municipal
elections, the matter did not reap-
pear on the planning committee

agenda until three months ago. ~

Tt quickly disappeared from
view again as the committee en-
tered in-camera negotiations with
the owners.

Graydon said the committee
had tied to come up with a
“win-win”? solution, suggesting
fhe city purchase the two-thirds
of the property nearest the creek
and allow development of the re-
mainder.

He also noted the land the city
proposed to buy would have been
the most expensive part of the
property to develop.

Graydon said the deal involved
having an independent appraisal
carried out with the city agreeing

Fish deal helps

By JEFF NAGEL
AN AGREEMENT reached last
week will extend the commercial
fishing season to help fishermen
qualify for unemployment {nsur-
ance, .

The deal to conserve Skeena
fish stocks will allow the com-
mercial fleet to fish for chinook
salmon in June and coho in Sep-
tember. Traditionally recreational
stocks, coho and chinook have
nol been targetted by commercial
boats in recent years,

Those special openings are to .

compensate fishermen for major
cuts in fishing time this summer
during the peak of the sockeye
Tun when .the Skeena's
threatened steelhead also move
into the river, .
Sporisfishermen agreed to the
tradeoff in order to get a 42-per-
cent reduction in the number of

. Steelhead killed accidentally

commercial nets,
But Northern Gillnetters Asso-
clation spokesman Des Nobels
said the carly and late openings
won't: ‘be Jucrative because

chinook and coho are fewer in
number and lower in price than
the more valuable sockeye.

“It dgesn’t go any distance to
make up what we’ve lost in the

August |fishery as far as sock-.

eye,” he said.

The main advantage to the extra
openings, he said, is that it will
help fishermen work enough
weeks to qualify for unemploy-
ment insurance this year.

New legislation will require
fisherment to work 12 to 14
weeks this year — instead of the

to pay the value ihat survey estab-
lished.

However, HCI would not settle
for the appraised amount, asking
instead for ‘‘one-third more,”
Graydon explained. ,

He did not release the exact fig-
ures involved.

“They wanted tog much,”
Graydon said, maintaining it
would have been foolish for the
city to pay the extra.

“We're the keepers of the tax-
payers’ money. Why would we
pay more?” he added,

Although Graydon anticipated
HC] would now abandon it
Tezone attempt, city planning
technician Jack Heppelwhite said

it had not been formally with-
drawn as of last week. ‘'That’s
something we will have to get an
answer on,”’ he added,

Confirming HCI could still de-
velop two lots without rezoning,
Heppelwhite said the city would
have no control over the develop-
ment in that case.

That’s because the Municipal
Act excludes single family lots
from the controls of the develap-
ment permit area system recently
adopted by the city.

However, he pointed out, the

‘provincial Environment ministry

would likely require a setback for
any development, usually SOft,
from the creck,

“Old Gimpy” killed

AFFECTIONATELY known to
many as Old Gimpy, an aging

kermodei bear was killed by—

hunters a week and a half ago.

Local conservation officers say
they’re investigating an illegal
kermadei kill that took place May
5-6 and have so far laid no
charges. 0.0.

‘““We have custody of the hide
and the carcass,’’ said Terrace
conservation officer Martin
Melderis. ‘It will be preserved
and retained as evidence.”’

He said he could not identify
the dead bear.

But Video Stop owner Jim
Wold said photos of the kill were
processed by his store and he is
convinced the dead bear is a well-
known kermodei that roamed the
area southeast of Kalum Lake.

The white bear was distinctive
because he dragged one foot after
being hit by a vehicle a few years
ago.

“We set some traps to have him
caught and have a vet look at

him,’’ said former district conser-
vation officer Peter Kalina, now
working in Smithers. ‘‘But we
could never catch him.'”

“Pm pretty disappointed,”’
Kalina added. ‘‘He was a regu-
larly, regularly photographed bear
— very well known in the area.”’,

Photographer Mike Whelpley
says Old Gimpy was so often
photographed because he was rel-
atively relaxed among people.

“Even after he was hit by a

PHOTO BY WAYNE TOPOLEWSKI

vehicle he didn’t seem to be
camera-shy or people-shy,’’ be
said,

Wold says he’s seen roll after
roll of film come into his store
every summer with photos of Old
Gimpy. .

“He was like a big pussy cat,
rolling around on the grass,"
adds Wold. ‘‘For a hunter to blast
away with a gun and blow him
apart — it’s really upsetting.”’

Man who bilked $19,000
from senior gets jail time

A MAN WHO bilked a local senior
citizen out of half his retirement
money has been sentenced to two
years in prison,

Calvin Lawrence Willis, 22,
pleaded guilty to charges of thefi,
fraud, and stealing a bank card.

Willis took advantage of 69-ycar-
old Roland LaPierre and plundered
nearly $19,000 from the retired
man’s bank account.

The pair met through Willis’
girlfriend whose family are friends
of LaPierre's.

The court was told of how Willis
heiped LaPierre get around and go
to hospital to get medication.

One day while at his home, Willis
found the man’s bank cand —
which had the security number
written on the back of it.

On every day for the next six
weeks, Willis withdrew the maxi-

fleet

10 in previous years — to qualify
for UI.

‘It’s going to at least give them
the weeks they’ve lost in that pe-
tiod,’? said Nobels. ‘‘It will at
least maintain their accessibility
to the Ul system if they require
It.**

Wild Steelhead Campaign
spokesman Robert Brown said
some anglers may be angered by
the chinook and coho openings.

But he predicted few boats will
target those stocks, due to a com-
bination of better sockeye open-

mum $400 from the account using °

automatic teller machines.

‘He was spending money like
there was no tomorrow,”’ said Cpl.
Rob MacKay of the Terrace
RCMP,

Willis’ spending spree included a
used Toyota 4x4 pickup trick and
nume¢rous pricey eddilions for it

He paid for all of his purchases
-— incl the truck -—- in $20
bills, court was told.

LaPierre didn’t know how to use
the bank card and never realized it
was missing.

Willis milked the account from
Dec, 15 until Jan. 23, when a Bank
of Nova Scotia employee — and
friend of LaPierre’s —~ noticed the
withdrawals and decided to investi-
gate.

The account was frozen immedi-
ately, but by that time Willis had

taken $18,490 — nearly half the
$40,000 originally in the account.

“These were the victim's only
real savings for his retirement,”
Crown counsel Paul Kirk told the
court of LaPierre, described as a
diabetic with a failing memory.
Police could only account for
about $12,000 of the money taken.
They also seized $500 cash from
Willis that he had not yet spent.

Judge Paul Lawrence said . the
victim was ‘very old, very vul-
nerable, and very frail,’’ in sentenc-
ing Willis.

He also ordered Willis to pay
$15,490 in compensation to
LaPierre. The sentencing ‘ook
place March 25.

Originally from Slave Lake, Al-
beria, Willis came here to, dodge
numerous outstanding warrants for
thefts in Alberta,

net pogey

ings elsewhere, and the hassle of
using different net sizes for those
species. :

Sportsfishermen didn’t get the
full 50 per cent reduction in the
steelhead kill that Deparment of
Fisherles and Oceans officials

_ promised them two years ago.

But they won a 25-per-cent
reduction in the bycatch of the
most threatened steslhead stocks
— the early summer run sieel-
head that return to rivers such as
the Copper, the Morice and the

upper Sustut.

Steclhcaders clalm some of
those mins are on the brink of ex-
tinction,

They had feared any overall
reduction in the steelhead bycatch
would come at the expense of the
early runs.

Earlier proposals had called for
a reduction in Fishing In August
—— when most steelhead run — to

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