The Prince George
Citizen
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1988
REGION TO SPEND $3.8 MILLION
The Fraser-Fort George Regional District board approved a provisional operating budget of $3.8 million at Thursday’s inaugural board meeting.
The provisional budget gives the district authority for spending until the final budget is approved in April.
There will likely be an increase in tax rates for some areas, but the amount won’t be known until property assessments are made available in January, said deputy regional treasurer Gerry Nilson.
New services the district will be providing this year include the establishment of a cemetary at Bear Lake, the Azu electrification project to bring power lines from Honeymoon Creek to the Azouzetta Lake area about 45 km northeast of Mackenzie, and
a house numbering project in rural areas.
The house numbering project is being done to improve services like ambulances and fire fighting to help locate homes by specific number.
Earlier this year, Bear Lake residents voted in favor of raising taxes to establish a cemetary in the rural community, 50 km north of Prince George.
At the time, it was estimated the cemetary would cost the average householder about $6.50 a year in extra taxes.
Regional district budget meetings are scheduled for January.
During the meeting, the Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital District board approved a $5.2-mil-lion provisional operating budget.
Manager defends snow-clearing job
by MALCOLM CURTIS Staff reporter
Four days after Tuesday’s heavy snowfall, city crews are still clearing city streets, but Gary Champagne, public works operations manager, expects the job will largely finished today.
In the wake of numerous complaints from motorists about the treacherous condition of city roads, Champagne defends the job his department is doing.
“There’s no question about it, the road conditions have been rough,” he said.
“But let’s face it, this was the heaviest snow we’ve had in a while.”
Wet snow accumulated quickly early Tuesday morning and was compacted by traffic before plows were able to clear it, Champagne said.
The result is some streets are like skating rinks.
RCMP reported a single-vehicle accident on an icy section of Northwood Pulpmill Road Wednesday morning when an All-Points Express delivery van went over an embankment.
There was $8,000 damage to the vehicle, driven by John Green-slade. Passenger Paulette Green-slade was treated for minor injuries at city hospital and released, said Staff Sgt. Jim Bessant.
Workers at Northwood Pulp and Timber have complained about the poor condition of tne road.
“There aren’t too many roads that are safe,” Bessant said. But he said the fact few accidents have been reported indicates motorists
are showing “some prudence.” Champagne said crews have removed ice from Northwood Pulp Mill Road and crews are beginning to remove packed snow from other city streets. Special ice-cutting blades have been attached to graders to do the work.
The snow clearing department concentrates on ensuring streets are passable first before returning to remove further snow, Champagne said.
He urged motorists to drive according to the season.
“I can’t stress enough that people have to adjust to conditions, drive slowly and not tailgate. . .we can’t be everywhere at once.”
The city has a fleet of four graders, seven sanding trucks, four sidewalk snow plows, nine snow plows and three snow loaders.
As well, the city hires private contractors to add an extra nine graders and various other equipment.
From a list of 20 or 30 contractors, the city can contact eguip-ment operators within “a coupie of hours” even in the early morning, Champagne said.
His department keeps a close eye on weather forecasts, but they can’t always be relied on to be accurate, he said.
No snow is expected until Sunday at the earliest, according to the latest weather bulletin this morning.
The city has a new policy this year to ensure that downtown streets are cleared on weekends. Work begun clearing the streets during tne week will continue through the weekend, Champagne said.
Sunday
planned
shopping by chain
by MALCOLM CURTIS Staff reporter Overwaitea Foods plans to open its four Prince George stores on Sundays starting in January, company vice-president Gary Heppell said today.
Heppell had expected Thursday the store might open this Sunday after the B.C. Appeal Court ruled that the provincial Holiday Shop-
Nechako pact okayed
Teachers in the Nechako School District voted about 75 per cent Thursday in favor of accepting a first contract giving them a 14.6-per-cent salary increase compounded over two years.
Ernie Mannering, president of the Nechako District Teachers Association, said about 140 of 160 teachers voted in a show of hands.
Teachers will receive six per cent retroactive to July 1, followed by an increase of one per cent Jan. 1, 1989, six per cent July 1, 1989 and one per cent Jan. 1,1990.
“Generally speaking, we are pleased with most of the language in the contract. We are in the ballpark when it comes to salary. Basically the only disappointment we have was our inability to address class size in the contract.”
Mannering said some teachers
felt negotiators should have held out for a larger salary increase.
“Over the last six years, their salary has been eroded fairly steadily and this sort of increase
was not a significant catch up.” Michael Fitzpatrick, superintendent of School District 56, called negotiations “cordial.”
“We are pleased. This being the first contract we will have, I’m sure, difficulties in some areas we are not even aware of.”
But he said the two sides have agreed to hold regular meetings to smooth out problems.
Pay phone disappears
Quesnel RCMP are calling for public co-operation concerning the theft of a pay phone at Strathnav-er.
The phone, valued at $1,580, was taken some time between Oct. 1 and Nov. 16, but the police didn’t get the theft report until this week.
Police are asking anyone who might remember seeing anything suspicious happening there, in that time period, to call them.
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'It's for my mother-in-law. Got anything rabid?"
60 CENTS
Bourassa faces decision 5 Shamir ponders own plan 7 Perron coaching again 17
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City, B.C.......... ....2,3,16,33 .........36,37
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TELEPHONE: 562-2441
ping Regulation Act is unconstitutional.
The decision has the effect of invalidating a city bylaw which bans larger retail enterprises like department stores and supermarkets from opening on Sundays and holidays.
Heppell said administrators from Overwaitea’s Langley headquarters will discuss the situation with staff in Prince George before changes are made.
He said the company needs two weeks to make staff changes and adjust food supplies before the stores here can operate seven days a week.
However, he said the stores will still open this Sunday on a limited basis if “the competition” decides to act.
Extra Foods owner Al Comeau said he is “looking at all the possibilities” but couldn’t say whether his Pine Centre Mall store will be open this Sunday.
“Right now we’re not planning to open,” said Scott Paton, mamnag-er of Woodward’s Food Floors at Parkwood Mall.
Don Bell, public relations spokesman for Canada Safeway, said the chain still hasn’t decided whether to open the extra day.
Bell said Safeway has done a survey of customers in Prince George but he would not say what the results showed. “I will be commenting on that when we make a decision.”
Department stores are taking a wait-and-see approach.
“We do not want to be open on Sundays, our position hasn’t changed on that,” Peter Gresko, general manager for Sears Canada’s western region.
“But if the competition forces us to, we’ll have to look at it.”
Most communities in B.C. already have wide-open shopping. The more notable exceptions besides Prince George are Williams Lake, Chilliwack and Terrace.
NOW HEAR THIS. . .
■ Because the original winners in Studio Fair’s recent lottery didn’t come forward, new numbers were drawn and published last week. The new numbers are: 4916, for the first place prize of a trip for two to Vancouver and an overnight stay at the Pacific Palisades Hotel, and 3385, for second prize, a weekend stay at Esther’s Inn.
Welfare decision lauded
A Prince George-based welfare support group has cheered a provincial government decision to rescind a $50-a-month cut in benefits for some single parents on welfare.
Audrey Schwartz, co-ordihator for Active Support Against Poverty, said the changc in policy is a “really positive step.”
“We feel very positive about the fact that the government gave back the $50 and that it is recognizing the difficulties of being a single parent and living on welfare.”
But she said her group would now like Social Services Minister Claude Richmond to review other welfare issues, including day care, job training and the overall adequacy of welfare benefits.
A total of about 20,000 people were redesignated as employable and had their monthly cheques cut by $50 under welfare changes implemented Nov. 1 by the Socials Services Ministry. The move left a single person designated employable with a monthly welfare cheque of $430 at most.
The original decision was made to help people get off welfare and back to work, Richmond said.
But since the change was announced last spring, then implemented last month, attention has been focused on the $50 cut in monthly benefits, he said.
After a request from Premier
Bill Vander Zalm for a review, Richmond said, cabinet decided to change the policy.
“What we have done is taken every single parent to the higher rate and removed the $50 issue from the table,” Richmond said.
The $50 will not be effective until Jan. 1, Richmond said, and payment will not be made until February.
Two single welfare mothers filed a B.C. Supreme Court suit in mid-
November challenging the benefit cut.
Under the new policy, all single parents who had fewer than two children under six years old at home were automatically reclassified as employable.
The two women, in separate actions, said their children were being discriminated against on the basis of age.
No date had been set for a hearing.
INFLATION: 4.1 PER CENT
OTTAWA (CP) — Prices increased by 0.3 per cent in November, the same rise as in the month before, Statistics Canada said today.
Inflation was at 4.1 per cent, down slightly from 4.2 per cent in October.
The increase was due mainly to higher transportation costs which were boosted by a 5.8-per-cent jump in the price of 1989 model cars.
“Small increases were also observed in tire prices and in vehicle maintenance and repair charges,” the federal agency said.
There was, however, a drop of 1.7 per cent in the cost of gasoline, reflecting a continuing oversupply of crude oil.
Groceries cost less last month but the price of eating out was higher.
A 0.7-per-cent fall in supermarket prices was mainly due to lower prices for fresh fruit and meat. “Declining producer prices combined with a stronger Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar have contributed to the lower meat prices,” said the agency.
Dairy products, coffee and tea also had lower price tags but turkey, eggs, some fresh vegetables, fats and oils and canned soup cost more.
Restaurant meals were 0.5 per cent higher.
Food prices overall have risen by 2.9 per cent in the first 11 months of the year.
The agency recorded price climbs of 0.3 per cent in housing and 0.7 per cent for alcohol and tobacco products.
Take it off!
Citizen photos by Dave Milne
Tim Rippel, member of Prince George’s 1991 Mount Everest expedition, strips to show off layers of clothing needed for climbing in the Himalayas. Rippel’s effort earned more than $200 at a fund-raising event at the Simon Fraser Inn’s Eterna Club. The expedition plans to donate any surplus money raised to a charity for women with Rett Syndrome, a genetic brain disorder.