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Maple memories & ‘Longtime Terrace forester 2 reminisces over heritage | trees on his old land \COMMUNITY B1

\NEWS A5

Head to awareness One local woman tells the story of how a brain injury has affected her life

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Roaring engines Local drivers compete in WESCAR races at the. Terrace Speedway \SPORTS B4

= $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST - ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST . outside of the Terrace area)

VOLS f NO. 9

By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

MONEY GENERATED from a recently introduced

‘two per.cent hotel tax in Terrace and Thornhill is

providing « capital to the Terrace Tourism Society to.

implement an aggressive marketing campaign.

The tax was introduced in December 2004 and is.

‘expected to annually generate about $83,000. So far, the society has collected $24,298 from the proceeds from December 2004 to the end of March 2005. .

_ When local hotels and motels charge the addi-

‘tional tax on their room rates, it is then collected and’

‘handed over to Terrace Tourism to boost marketing ‘strategies.

“Tt’s allowing us to do things we couldn’ t afford to before,” says the society’s executive director, Jen- nifer Lewis.

_ The money is earmarked specifically for exten-

sive marketing and promotional campaigns designed

. www terracestandard.com

to increase the city’ s provincial, national and inter- national exposure and draw-more tourists here. Part of that strategy includes doubling the num-

were . distributed, says Lewis.. That’s because the guides were primarily sent out on request due to budgetary restraints:

This year, a revamped guide was produced and’

40,000 copies have been ‘distributed to a variety of locations including the Prince George airport, all the southeast Alaska Visitor Centre Bureaus, the. Ter- race airport, all 110 Visitor Info Centres across the province, BC Ferries and Alaska Ferries. ~

_ “The two per cent money is paying for that fee to rack those brochures on those ferries,” explains Lewis, adding the money also pays for the freight to

Before, distribution of the guide was based solely on requests, Lewis says.

The society is also producing marketing materi- als, such as teddy bears and T-shirts that can be sold? . or distributed to, travel agents and tour operators as promotional freebies, she says.

“Those are all the things that we can'do because . . cap. The city already gives the society $35,000 a year to cover some of its operational and marketing.

of that two per cent that we could never do before,” Lewis says.

. The society is also developing an interactive Web |

site, which will allow visitors to learn about services available in the, Terrace area and then book directly

through the Web site... 0

“If you want.to book a jet boat tour, ‘you "Il be able to do it through our site,” she says. “Our board really wanted to:‘push getting the Web site up and running

~ because 80 per cent of visitors research on the inter-

ra

Wednesday, June 8, 2005 |

otel tax boosts money for marketing |

The two per cent tax would not have been avail- able if it. wasn't for the support of hoteliers, the re- gional district, the city and the province.

Of ail the hoteliers in Thornhill and Terrace, 100 ,

percent now support the tax, Lewis says.

_°The City of Terrace has also committed to match :

the money collected from the tax — up to.a $40,000

expenses.

The provincial government collects the tax, then | forwards it to the regional district, which in turn _

hands it over to the tourism society, Lewis Says.

“It’s the first regional district in the province that. tums over its marketing money toa ‘municipality to Lewis says. “It’s quite a big deal. A lot of other people in the province are quite envious

market. ihem,”

Austin - takes recount.

A RECOUNT of the ballots cast inthe Skeena riding

in the May 17 provincial

election ‘resulted in more

votes for Roger Harris but not enough to change the outcome of the election.

Robin Austin remains the .

MLA-elect for the region. Liberal ‘candidate Roger

Harris made the request.

Initial numbers® showed

Harris lost by a margin of —

439 votes on election night with NDP candidate Austin

logging 5,954 votes to Har- .

ris’ 5, 515.

After the recount, the gap was narrowed to 138 votes, still in Austin’s favour. The

“recount uncovered a mis-

- take at one polling station

“1 believe every’.

vote counts. and there —

properly,” - Robin Austin

. where “votes which should have been counted for Har-

tis ‘were in fact given to .

Austin. “I see there was good - reason to ask for the recount because there was an error made in the original num- bers where the numbers -from one poll were trans- posed,” says Robin Austin. ’ That resulted in 60 votes being counted for Austin that should have gone to Harris." ; “I believe every vote

counts and there were 60

\people whose votes were not- counted properly,” Austin adds. “It’s very im- portant, obviously, and I recognize now that having a recount can spot something like this, so I’m glad.”

' The recount was con- ducted in Kitimat under the supervision of district elec-. toral officer Marjorie Phelps" and scrutineers representing both candidates.

After the recount, how- ever, election officials con- ducted the final count of all ballots including approxi- mately 500 absentee bal- lots.

Those final numbers show Roger Harris’ votes did increase to 5,807 while Austin’s rose to 6,166 leav- ing him on top by a 359- Vote margin.

1 were 60 people whose votes - were not counted.

MLA-elect

ship the brochures out to other locations.

net prior to coming.”

CALEDONIA Senior Secondary School principal Cam MacKay and vice-principal. Keith Axelson show off their new masters in Education degrees they received from UNBC’s spring 2005 convocation. ROB VAN ADRICHEM PHOTO.

-UNBC 2005 convocation. celebrates new graduates

By KAT LEE

TWO LOCAL school administrators sere | among 45—

students who participated in University of Northern B.C. spring graduation ceremonies for Terrace, Kitimat and the Nass Valley.

- Of the 24 Terrace graduates, Caledonia Senior Sec-

ondary School principal Cam MacKay and vice-princi-:

pal Keith Axelson received their masters of Education degrees. ,

“I wanted to keep learning and I thought it would be a “great opportunity to learn new things and apply it to my job,” Axelson said last week.

The UNBC community campus allowed the men to take courses while continuing to work, which both Axel- son and MacKay believe is important for working people in the community. ,

“To be able to do it in your own community is fantas- tic,” MacKay said.

In the time it took him to complete his masters degree, MacKay moved ‘from being a teacher at the high school

to vice- principal and now principal, all while continuing to coach the senior boys basketball team.

Both administrators attended compressed summer ‘courses and designated weekend classes in the fall, win-

ter and spring for two and ahalf years at UNBC’s Terrace campus.

“Tt takes it’s toll, ” he said. “There’ sa lot of studying to be done.”

This year was also the first time UNBC students could obtain a degree in Disability Management, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the interdisciplinary Master

- of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies. -

Terrace’s Bryndel Fell is one of the graduates with the new Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Another notable graduate i is 75-year-old Judith Mor- gan from Kitwanga, who received her masters in First Nations studies.

‘All told, 730 students graduated at UNBC’s 2005 convocation.

ce

-g

of our relationship with the RD and the city.”

1 Immersion —

Kindergarten

needs one | more pupil —

By DUSTIN QUEZADA TIME is ticking away in the push to have two full French

~. Immersion kindergarten classes at Kiti K’Shan school this ©

- fall.

As of June 4, the number of students enrolled to start kin- |

dergarten in French immersion for September i is one student short of two full classes.

And June 15 is the deadline for the program of choice to add one more student and reach the Tequired 40 students.

The school district decides what the minimum enrolment numbers must be per class for a program of choice, and 20 is what it has set for the language program.

“Are we going to run with 19 and 20? No, we’re going to run with 20 and 20,” said Rob Greenwood, the district’s as-

© sistant superintendent, adding there would be no negotiating

“if minimum numbers aren’t met. i “We’re not the big, bad. wolf,’ Greenwood said.

Minimum numbers are not.required for standard kinder- .

garten because the district must provide the program regard-

~ Jess, the administrator said. . If there aren’t enough students for two full classes, the

district would operate.a full class and a second one split be- tween kindergarten and Grade | students. Grant Holkestad, Kiti K’Shan Primary School principal,

said he fully, supports having two French i immersion class- ~

es. ©

“ft want to see all kinds of registration — English. and

French,’ he said. “We have excellent programs both ways.” _ Ultimately, it’s up to the parents, said Holkestad. _ “LT have no sway,” he added.

All kindergarten classes — regardless of the ‘program

— have a maximum of 22 students.

C redit U nion appoints new

interim GM -

THE Terrace and District Credit Union has named Ken Earl,

the existing senior area manager for the Northern Savings Credit Union as its new interim general manager.

Earl replaces Don Huie, a retired credit union executive who was brought in temporarily by the board of directors in March after the Terrace and District Credit Union’s general manager Val Gauvin was put on paid leave pending a hear- ing before the province’s chief credit union watchdog.

- Gauvin was put on leave after an investigation by the - _ province’s Financial Institutions Commission determined -

she broke loan lending policies and provided misleading i in- formation to obtain a personal loan.

. Ken Earl will work on an interim basis to help bring some stability to the internal workings of the Terrace and District ‘Credit Union. _

“T’'ll work with them and resolve those outstanding issues

and basically put the credit union into proper standing,” Earl

said. He added the credit union remains solvent and well capi- talized thanks to its long-standing presence in Terrace. The

duration of his appointment has not been determined, but |

Earl doesn’t expect to hold the position for much more than ‘10 months because he plans to retire by March 31 of 2006. Board chair Dan Condon said Earl is a good choice to help settle members’ concerns because of his knowledge of the community and his excellent professional reputation.