PARENTS GET ANOTHER SHOT AT SCHOOL BOARD
Stage is set for Highglen school sale showdown
 Highglen subdivision parents plan to pack Vanier Hall Tuesday night for a showdown with the school board over possible sale of their school.
 “I hope the whole neighborhood turns out en masse,” says parent Ted Taylor.
  “I hope they’ll have 400 screaming parents there.” says Highglen school teacher Rob Watt.
  Sale of the school, firs* brought to public attention last June after a year of "secret” talks with the Catholic Church, is only part of the problem faced by the school trustees.
 They are wrestling with surplus space in various schools resulting from declining enrolments as population shifts and birth rates drop.
  But to residents of the Highglen area.
possible sale of their elementary school is something they're prepared to fight over In fact, a delegation travelled to three earlier hearings on surplus space held in McBride. Valemount and Mackenzie.
  Parents argue that construction planned in the Highglen area will produce more families with elementary-age children, thus providing enough youngsters to fill the school in the future.
  And the school board, caught with an over-enrolment in Highglen this term, was forced to shift some of those youngsters to Heritage.
  Part of the debate at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday will centre on these issues:
 •	Some parents say they may sell their houses if the school is sold
•	Teachers are worried what will happen to the students if the school Is
sold
•	The Highglen principal says he's worried where his staff will go if the school is sold.
0	Parents are worried lot prices will go down if the school is sold, leaving the area attractive to only a Catholic market
•	Parents say the school playground may be in jeopardy if Highglen is sold, and it’s the most heavily used playground in the subdivision.
0	And parents are worried public use of recreational facilities at the school will be lost if the building is sold to the Catholic Church.
Parent Darlene Massey has three
children in Highglen School. She lives two blocks behind the school.
 “We have considered selling this house if the school is sold. I would hate to see my Grade 3 cross Ospika in the winter."
  School trustees have said if the school is sold Highglen students will be relocated in Highland and Quinson Elemen tary Schools.
  Highland is north of First Avenue and Quinson is east of Ospika Boulevard.
  "I feel kind of powerless, as if we're being manipulated by the administration, and like we’ve been led down the garden path in these public hearings.” Massey said.
  And parent Jacquie Fichtner says although she and her husband just moved
into the Highglen neighborhood, they would consider moving if the school is sold.
  ‘‘We have two children in the scohol and we moved here in the first place because our house is right behind the school."
 Highglen Elementary teacher Watt says though none of the teachers at the school are worried about job security, they are worried where they’ll have to go if the school is sold.
  “It will mean a different lifestyle for some of us if it’s sold; I’ll miss this school if I have to go; it’s been a terrific place to work,” says Watt
  Watt says however, he questions the administration’s decision to place the students in Highland or Quinson.
  There are 382 students in Highglen already, and if those students are reelected in those two schools, they’ll be overflowing.
  ‘‘These statistics assume there’s no growth in this area, and that is patent nonsense.”
  Watt and several parents interviewed say the public hearing Tuesday is “crucial.”
  Parents and teachers also say they don't know which way the board will vote.
  “I think the board's split over this, but let democracy take its course, everything's been out in the open, there's been a good airing, now the board has a decision to make, says Bill Mains, principal of Highglen Elementary.
'now hear this]
"featured inside]
V___S
FORT ST. JOHN AREA
Trestle fire cuts BCR's north link
Citizen
20‘ Copy
Monday, October 22,1979 Vol. 23; No. 204 Pnnce George. British Columbia
 Smoke billows from trestle that formed part of Peace River crossing near Fort St. John. Story on right.
RESIGNATION, COURT ORDER
Israeli gov't sent reeling
  JERUSALEM (AP) -Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s government was reeling today under two surprise blows - the resignation of Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and a Supreme Court order that Jews must give up a controversial West Bank settlement.
   The court order, handed down today, said the government’s seizure of privately owned Arab land for the Elon Moreh settlement near the Arab city of Nablus was illegal. It gave the settlers 30 days to get out
   The Arab landowners had
 challenged the government’s claim that the settlement was essential for Israel’s security, an argument the high court had accepted in all previous cases involving Jewish enclaves in occupied territory Dayan had cited his opposition to the Elon Moreh settlement as one of reasons for his resignation Sunday. But his chief gripe was his lack of influence over the negotiations with Egypt and the United States on autonomy for Palestinians on the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River and in the Gaza Strip Begin and other leading
 members of his cabinet said the resignation won’t change their tough stand in the autonomy talks. But Israeli newspapers today predicted Dayan’s departure will weaken a government already staggered by a domestic political crisis.
   Shimon Peres, opposition Labor party chief, reacting to the resignation, called on the government to schedule a new election, a call Begin is not likely to heed.
  Even before Dayan resigned, several opposition parties raised motions of no confidence in the Begin gov-
Tories 'won't duck' issues
  FREDERICTON (CP) -Prime Minister Clark, warning that tough decisions lie ahead, has called on Canadians to make sacrifices now for the long-term good of the country.
   He told about 900 delegates to the annual meeting of the New Brunswick Progressive
 Conservative Association that tough decisions face the government in setting oil prices and budgetary policy.
   ‘‘Your government has decisions to make in the field of national energy policy and in budgetary policy, we have meetings with President Carter, we have a conference of
 first ministers and will be sub ordinating short-term conside-rations in all of those meetings for the longer-term interests of the country,” he said Satin day. As a party, the Tories are prepared to plan for the future of this country and not ‘’duck the tough decisions that governments are elected to face.”
 ernment, primarily challenging its handling of the economy. Those motions come up for debate Tuesday when parliament opens its winter session
   Dayan, who played a key role in hammering out the peace treaty with Egypt and is considered by many to be Israel’s most creative negotiator, quit Sunday to protest his lack of influence over the autonomy talks with Egypt and the United States.
   ' 1 svas relegated to doing what I didn’t want to do, attending cocktail parties and ceremonies,” Dayan told reporters after making his announcement at the weekly cabinet meeting.
   Although he was the chief architect of the original proposal for autonomy for the 1.2 million Palestinians on the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, his home-rule concepts were blunted by cabinet hard-liners who demanded Is-siaej retain firm control of the territories.
MAJOR CHANGES STUDIED
Faster justice for drinking drivers?
   VANCOUVER (CP) - British Columbia is studying placing impaired driving offences under provincial statute, rather than the federal Criminal Code, an official of the provincial CounterAt-tack program says.
   Also being studied are mandatory blood tests for all traffic accident victims and lowering the legal limit for impaired driving, measures endorsed Thursday by Attorney-General Garde Gardom
   Dealing with drunk drivers through criminal charges stands in the way of prompt, appropriate justice, Russ Rockerbie, director of research for Counter Attack, told the annual conference of the government program against drinking and driving.
   Children are disciplined right away when they misbehave so the lesson sticks, he said, “but we say to drinking drivers, ’we’ll try you next April
   The Criminal Code also limits the sanctions to fines and jail terms, Rockerbie said, but if drinking driving offences were defined under a provincial statute like the Motor Vehicle Act, offenders could be sent to an alcohol treatment program
   Removal from the code also would remove some of the civil liberty barriers to enforcement, he said in reference to the proposal to do blood tests on all traffic accident victims.
   Rockerbie said the blanket approach might be questioned on civil liberties
 grounds, but is needed because hospital personnel can’t sort out who was the driver and who the passenger.
  The blood test plan is an infringement of civil liberties, Reg Robson, Civil Liberties Association spokesman said Friday, but ‘‘there are so many other, more serious infringements of civil liberties in this area to worry about.”
 lie was particularly critical of laws that permit 24 hour roadside suspensions of suspected impaired drivers and the fact that convicted impaired drivers can receive a number of penalties for the offence such as licence suspensions and higher insurance premiums in additition to fines and jail terms
  FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. (CP) —The resource-rich Peace River area of British Columbia lost its major transportation route Sunday when a spectacular fire destroyed a B.C. Rail trestle 20 kilometres south of here.
   The 500-metre wooden trestle, built over a Peace River flood plain and linked to a steel bridge crossing the river, caught fire after 11 runaway fuel cars toppled off it and exploded into flames.
   The 67-ton capacity cars — six carrying gasoline, four loaded with diesel oil and one carrying butane — rolled out of control off a siding about three kilometres north of the trestle and spilled off the tracks when they reached a curve.
   Railway officials and Fort St. John RCMP are investigating to determine how the cars got loose.
   The loss of the bridge, which the railway estimates could take up to four months to rebuild, will place a severe hardship on the lumber, petroleum, grain and sulphur industries in Fort Nelson and Fort St. John, which rely on the railway to haul their products to the coast.
Will hurt forest firms
   Hardest hit will be the forest products companies — three in Fort Nelson, one in Fort St. John and one in Taylor, 15 kilometres south of Fort St. John- and Pacific Petroleum McMahon refinery in Taylor.
   “A brief break in the service we can live with, but it would be a near disaster if it was a long break,” said Doug Mac-Phail, manager of Tackama Forest Products of Fort Nelson.
   “It’s the old thing, if the railway is down, we’re down. I’m sure going to raise a lot of hell.”
   Seventeen locomotives were trapped north of the trestle which is used by about 65 cars a day to carry lumber, grain, petroleum, sulphur, veneer and wood chips to markets in the south.
   Hugh Armstrong, B.C. Rail spokesman, said the company likely will make a decision today on whether to rebuild the structure or fill in the flood plain with earth.
'Chamber' ends life of killer
  CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Jesse Bishop, a tough-talking murderer who sneered at attempts to save him from the Nevada gas chamber, was executed early today, the third man put to death in the United States in the last 12 years.
   “This is just one more step down the road of life,” Bishop told Charles Wolff, state prison director, in his final words.
  Moments later, he was strapped in a freshly painted death seat and green curtains went up in the gas chamber. Bishop smiled at a reporter among the 14 witnesses - 13 men and a woman - standing on an adjacent room.
   “He looked each of us in the eye, I think," said Tad Dunbar of KOLO-TV in Reno, one of those who watched the 46-year-old former paratrooper die for the murder of a Maryland man.
   Bishop shook his head and said nothing Cyanide pellets fell into an acid bath, unleashing deadly gas. Bishop wrinkled his nose, seemed to search the room and breathed deeply several times.
   Wolff had offered Bishop, 46, a chance to appeal even up to the point at which the prisoner, clad in blue denim pants, a white shirt and white socks, was brought into the chamber and strapped into the death chair
 See also page 5
    In the meantime, B.C. Rail is considering using trucks to haul commodities around the trestle to Dawson Creek.
   This is the busiest time of year for the forest products companies and having to truck large amounts of lumber for an extended period of time could prove costly.
   “We may be forced to seek assistance from somewhere to pay the extra freight charges if we have to truck products or trans-ship,” said MacPhail. “We are as far from the market as you can get. And Fort Nelson is vitally dependent on the industry.”
    More than 700 persons in the town of 5,500 are directly employed in the forest industry.
    MacPhail said the mills will stockpile any lumber that can’t be shipped, but some workers could be laid off if space runs out.
   Vic Hope, manager of the Pacific Petroleum plant, said his company will ship butane and propane by truck to its customers, but liquefied petroleum gas might have to be trans-shipped.
  Operators of grain elevators, already stacked high because of an excellent crop year and a rail car shortage which has slowed movement to coastal ports, also could experience problems if the bridge is out for sometime.
   The blazing trestle, which caught fire shortly after midnight, was brought under control Sunday by firemen backed by railway water tankers and helicopters dropping fire retardant.
News story on oil deal 'speculative'
  EDMONTON (CP) -Premier Peter Lougheed said today a published Ottawa report saying that the federal and Alberta governments had agreed to a $4-a-barrel oil price increase for next year was “purely speculative.”
   A spokesman for the premier’s office said Lougheed, in Calgary today for a session of a provincial energy ministers’ meeting, declined further comment
   Lougheed will be in the Red Deer area later today to open an ethylene plant, leaving Energy Minister Merv I^itch at the ministers’ meeting Leitch had said earlier that any comment before the end of federalprovincial oil pricing negotiations would jeopardize the negotiations.
TODAY
“Manage to unload f’ctrocan yet?"
★
  (Jot a news tip? Call The Citizen’s 24-hour news line at 562-2441.
 Hillside slayings admitted
 Kenneth Bianchi has admitted the grisly Hillside Strangler sex slayings and implicated his cousin. Angelo Buono The two operated a prostitution service and ultimately decided to commit the 10 brutal murders, say law enforce-
 ment officials. Page 5
 Index
BuHineHH...........................8,9
 City, B.C...................2,3,6,25
 Classified.....................16-22
Comics...............................10
Crossword........................18
Editorial..............................4
Family..........................26,27
Horoscopes.......................30
International......................5
 Morberg Column...............3
.Movies...............................10
National..............................7
 Moiling Stone...................31
Sports...........................13-15
Television.........................11
   The forecast for tonight and Tuesday calls for cloudy skies with rain showers.
   The expected high today was 8, the low tonight 0. Tuesday’s forecast high is 6 The high Sunday was 8, the low 4 On this date last year the high was 4, the low 0.
   Sunset today is 6 p.m. Sunrise Tuesday is 7:52 a.m., and sunset at 5:57 p.m.
Details page 2
 • Prince George Theatre Workshop wants to get “luted.” The workshop needs a lute for its production of Taming of the Shrew. If you can lend one, please call Lynne Brougham at 563-9426.
 * A man who saves his pennies to go to a handful of the best movies that come in a year, robbed the piggy bank to attend a highly-recommended flick during the weekend Going to one of the local new-fashion multi-theatre movie houses, he paid his $3.75 (up 25 cents from the last time) was told to go to the right and ended up watching Burt Reynolds in a movie that hadn't advertised as having Reynolds. Right. He was in the wrong theatre.
 0 Bob Herchak, director of the local drug treatment centre, says many staff members realized, a long while ago, how hard it is for an addict to kick his habit, when they were challenged to give up smoking. “I know a number of them didn’t make it.”
United Way
Target: $210,000 To date: $66,394.67