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PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 5 Low to night:-4 Details page 22
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6,1997
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 50 CENTS A DAY)
TODAY
COMMUNITY
PAGE 13
City boy’s courage earns high honors
SPORTS
■ Len McNamara has stepped down as coach of the Prince George Spruce Kings to concentrate on his duties as general manager. Taking over behind the bench is a familiar face: Dale Marquette, who has been head coach of both the Spruce Kings and Cougars. /8
CANADA
■ Robert Latimer, who said he killed his severely disabled daughter to protect her from years of “torture,” was found • guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder. /6
PROVINCE
■ The federal government says B.C.’s NDP government had better change its attitude if it wants the $25 million Ottawa promised the province for upgrading roads, sewers and water services. /5
Cornered
by Baldwin 1997
“Endangered species cracker?”
E-Mail address:
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INDEX
Ann Landers..... .......14
Around Town---- .......14
Bridge.......... .......22
Business ........ ....18,19
City, B.C......... .3,5,13,15
Classified ....... ... .20-23
Comics ......... .......26
Crossword ...... .......26
Entertainment ... ... .25-27
Horoscope ...... .......22
Lotteries........ .......14
Lifestyles........ .......28
Movies.......... .......27
Nation.......... ........6
Sports .......... .....8-12
Television....... .......27
World........... .....7,16
58307
00100
Tire slashers go on spree here
Nine vehicles had their tires slashed as their owners watched the Prince George Cougars play hockey at the Multiplex Tuesday night.
Cars parked along Ospika Boulevard had their right side tires slashed in some cases, both front tires slashed in others, according to the RCMP. In addition, at least one car in the parking lot had its tires slashed as well.
The calls from irate car owners, who said they
each were out at least $300 in their reports to the police, came after the game, after the culprit(s) had fled the scene.
Tire slashing is an uncommon incident in Prince George, but the police had other cases the night before and the morning after the Multiplex incidents.
The security staff at Budget Car and Truck Rental on Victoria Street saw a man slashing tires at 3:30 a.m. Tliesday.
When they approached him, the man came at them with a knife. The man was detained by the security staff while the police were called. An intoxicated 41-year-old was arrested. The RCMP are now preparing charges that will be forwarded to Crown counsel on this matter.
In addition, a pickup truck parked at Sixth and Brunswick which had its tires slashed was reported to the police at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
LONG-LOST FRIENDS — Debbie Wood, left and Pat Westerlund found each other in Prince George after 31 years with no contact. They shared a childhood friendship in a Saskatoon hospital in 1966. See story, page 13.
Public-private partners seen in bridge deal
by DON SCHAFFER Citizen staff
Mayor Colin Kinsley isn’t giving up on the concept of twinning the bridges at the north and south entrances to the city.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.
“I’ve talked to the premier about it, and I’ve talked to the minister (Lois Boone, Prince George-Mount Robson) about it, and they haven’t ruled out a public-private partnership,” Kinsley said Wednesday. “They’re looking at accounting ramifications.”
During his election campaign, Kinsley said he wanted the city to seek partnerships with corporations to expand both the Simon Fraser Bridge and the John Hart Bridge to four lanes in order to smooth travel flow to and from the city.
“I used this in my election platform and I was a voice in the wilderness — everybody said bridges aren’t an issue,” he said. “Last year I said maybe they’re not a big issue today, but they sure will be in a couple of years.
“Well, a couple of years is now.” Kinsley said the bridges are a provincial responsibility, and he’s been told by the Ministry of Transportation and Highways that the money isn’t there.
“Now I’m waiting for the ministry to get back to me about the possibility of a public-private partnership,” he said.
Since his election he’s been sending out feelers to corporations about the possibility of a partnership, which would see a company or group of companies pay for the construction and lease the structures back to the city or province.
“That has been done in other jurisdictions,” Kinsley said. “I’m just waiting to hear back from the province jf we can move in that direction.”
The Municipal Act, which goverrflj what municipalities can and cannot do, prohibited cities from entering such partnerships. Bill 46, introduced earlier this year, was designed to ease some of those restrictions, but Kinsley said the new rules might not apply to roads.
Red Cross slates city survey on bringing back blood clinic
Quality of Life report called ‘tape-measure’
by DON SCHAFFER Gtizen staff
A 340-page report on Prince George’s quality of life won’t lie around unread by city officials.
Mayor Colin Kinsley says the report, created by the Prince George Healthy Community Committee over the past 18 months, is a good yardstick by which to judge the city’s state of health.
It’s not a report the city feels bound to follow up, however.
“It’s not the kind of report that all the recommendations will necessarily be followed out,” he said. “It’s the kind of report that’s going to have to fit in with the overall corporate plan of the city. “It’s more of a tape-measure than a micrometer, because we quite frankly have a lot of reports forwarded to us.. .It is another tool.”
Dr. Alex Michalos of the University of Northern B.C. presented the report to Prince George city council Monday. Michalos, a professor in the department of social work, got involved in the project at its inception in 1995 and watched it grow far beyond its original 20 chapters.
He said as more people got involved, they included more and more information. Since the work was done on a strictly volunteer basis, the report’s range grew wider as the number of people working on it grew.
“I don’t think it will gather dust, because I don’t think they will let it,” Coun. Anne Martin said. “I think a number of us will find it useful, anyway.
“It’s a sort of a snapshot of the community, and I think it will become more useful if it’s maintained — if we do it every two years or however often it might be.”
Even though one contributing group — the one which wrote the chapter on lesbians, gays and bisexuals — made recommendations in their chapter, that wasn’t the intent of the document.
“The way I look at this type of research is shaking the tree and waiting for something to happen,” Michalos said. “From our point of view you’ve done plenty already by making it available.”
Copies of the report are available at City Hall for $27.50.
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Gtizen Staff
The Red Cross will conduct surveys in the next two weeks here to see if there is support for the return of blood donor clinics.
The Prince George clinics were suspended more than two years ago because the Red Cross said it cost too much to collect blood outside the Lower Mainland.
“We don’t want to instill a false expectation that the clinics are coming back,” local Red Cross official Chris Bone said
Wednesday. “But it certainly — to me anyway — points to the realization that the situation with the blood bank is critical.”
Even though donor participation rates were traditionally higher in the Northern Interior, the Red Cross hoped to capitalize on the Lower Mainland’s greater population.
That never materialized, said Bone.
And now that blood donation is to be taken over by a new agency following an inquiry into blood handling by the Red Cross, it has created confusion across Canada, and overall donation is down, she said.
“I think these kinds of factors are prompting a look at what we could do in the Interior and the North of
If blood collection does return, a permanent location would be established, open one or two days a week and staffed locally.
the province,” explained Bone.
If blood collection does return to Prince George, the method will change, she said.
There will no longer be a clinic that rolls into town four times a year and tries to pump 400 people through a day, she said.
Instead, a permanent location would be established, open one or two days a week and staffed locally, said Bone.
While Prince George Regional Hospital executive director Alex Berland said there have been no blood shortage problems here, Lower Mainland officials said last week B.C. is on the verge of a crisis.
The officials said blood supplies are below safe levels in B.C., and there are no available surpluses in nearby jurisdictions such as Alberta or Washington state.
In a highly-publicized case this summer, B.C. MLA Ed Conroy had his life-saving liver transplant cancelled because of a blood shortage.
Berland pointed out the development of bloodless surgery has reduced the need for blood. New techniques reduce the amount of blood required or recycle it, he said.
“That’s a very important stej), and it’s leading us towards not needing as much blood for surgery.”
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