80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 50 CENTS A DAY)
INDEX
SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441
CLASSIFIED: 562-6666
READER SALES: 562-3301
FACTBOX
Rainfall since Tuesday (as of Friday morning) Tumbler Ridge: 167 mm. McBride: 100 mm.
Prince George: 50 mm. (Normal rainfall for Prince George for the month of July is 60 millimeters, McBride 67 mm. and Himbler Ridge 70 mm.)
Source: Environment Canada
HSA sticks to strike deadline
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
There was still no word late Friday as to how the Health Employers Association of B.C. (HEABC) made out in its request to the Labour Relations Board for a cease-and-desist order to thwart a provincewide strike Monday by Health Sciences Association workers.
Although HSA would provide essential services in hospitals across the province, many procedures like X-ray, ultrasound, CT scans, lab tests and therapy would be delayed.
Fred McLeod, HSA director for the North, said the plan is still for job action to go ahead at 6 a.m. Monday, which will reduce HSA services to the essential-service level.
“The only way this could be averted is if the employer (HEABC) was to make a proposal to mediator Stephen Kelleher with an offer that they are willing to bargain in good faith,” McLeod said.
“We’d be willing to return to the table. Our desire is to get this contract settled so our members can get on with providing good health care.” Renee Foot, Prince George Regional Hospital communications director, said PGRLI “wants to avoid cancelling procedures Monday unless it has to.” Hospital staff is contacting all those scheduled for procedures at the hospital to advise them of the situation.
‘They can choose to delay their appointments or come in Monday and take their chances.”
She advises those whom the hospital hasn’t been able to reach to call the hospital at 565-2000 for further advice.
“This is a very difficult situation because we don’t know how other unions, like the B.C. Nurses Union, will respond if the strike proceeds,” Foot said.
The walkout would violate a 60-day cooling off period imposed by the province last month against the HSA and the BCNU.
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SATURDAY, JULY 21,2001
PRINCE GEORGE
Rainfall swamps the North
Weather alert lifted in Prince George, but not in the Peace
Crime levek plunge
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
The number of crimes reported in Prince George during the first quarter of the year plunged 17% over last year, according to the RCMP’s latest statistics.
From January to March, there were 2,550 criminal code offences recorded, compared to 3,087 during the same period last year. The latest statistics continue a downward trend seen in the first quarter of 1999, when there were 3,136 incidents reported.
“Over the last four to five years, there’s been a drop in crime rates across the province and across the country. It seems to be the trend,” said Supt. Steve Leach. Prince George appears to be following the pattern, he said.
The total number of crimes reported in Prince George in 2000 dropped four per cent, while at the same time national crime figures also decreased.
Last year, there were 12,563 criminal code offences reported in Prince George, down from 13,058 in 1999.
Leach said it’s difficult to pinpoint the reasons for the slide in crime locally. One possible explanation for the decrease is the changing demographic landscape, he said, noting the decline is occurring across the province.
Health officials ponder need for vaccine
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
There has been no increase in meningitis cases in the Northern Interior Health Region, says Mary Margaret Proudfoot, public health nurse assistant administrator.
Cases have been confined to the Fraser Valley communities of Abbotsford and Mission.
“There have been three cases of meningococcal disease in our region in 2001, but they have occurred in children under the age of one year, the last one having occurred in April,” she said.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control recommends the pub-
licly-funded meningitis vaccine for the following people:
■ Young adults who live, work or study in Abbotsford. •
■ Abbotsford students who attended high school in 2000 and 2001.
■ Young adults who live in Mission.
■ Young adults, regardless where they live, who have repeated saliva sharing with the affected group — young adults 18 to 29 years in Abbotsford.
■ Household contacts aged 13 to 29 years of young adults in Abbotsford.
Health officials are monitoring the meningitis situation in the Fraser Valley, where an outbreak has hit Abbotsford and Mission. Nine cases
have been reported there.
Deputy provincial health officer Shawn Peck, in conjunction with health staff members, will decide Thursday if a provincewide vaccination program is necessary.
“At the moment it does not appear a mass inoculation program is necessary,” Peck said.
Officials will consider how many cases of the potentially fatal disease have been diagnosed and if it is spreading around the province.
Peck said in addition to the Abbotsford area outbreak, cases have been reported in Kamloops, Kelowna, Richmond and Nelson.
A vaccination program to include British Columbians aged two months to 29 years would cost $97.5 million.
Meningitis is an infection that affects the lining of the brain, and symptoms can include fever, headache, severe neck stiffness, nausea, vomiting and irritability.
The disease is spread through direct contact with droplets from the nose or throat of an infected person.
Meningitis strikes all ages, but is more common in infants, youth and the elderly.
Anyone who meets the criteria for vaccinations is asked to contact the health unit at 565-7311.
-h c& ... Ml
canada.com
High today: 29 Low tonight: 10 Details page 2
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Mavis Bartell stands at trail’s end with her dog, Zak, in Cottonwood Island Park, where a picnic area with tables has been flooded by rising water from the rain-swollen Nechako and Fraser rivers.
Rail washouts result in two diesel spills
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Canadian National Railway is working to contain and clean up a pair of diesel spills from locomotive derailments east of Prince George, both caused by heavy rainfall.
The latest derailment took place at 4 a.m. Friday where the Goat River enters the Fraser River, 150 kilometres east of Prince George. The heavy rain caused a slippage of land, creating a 12-by-50-metre sinkhole under the track, said CN spokesman Graham Dallas.
There were no injuries to CN crews.
The two locomotives, which can contain up to 30,000 litres of fuel, are leaking into the Fraser River, said Rich Girard, an official with the Ministry of
Water, Land and Air Protection.
“The (diesel) sheen can be seen on the river 11 kilometres downstream on the Fraser,” said Girard.
All the fuel has not leaked out, however, and the priority is to pump the remaining fuel from the locomotives, he said.
Trying to contain the slick on the fast-moving river is difficult, although CN has booms to contain the diesel near the shore, said Girard.
It’s difficult to say what damage the diesel spill could do to the river, but the risks are reduced since the river — which is high and fast flowing because of heavy rains — will dissipate the diesel quickly, said Girard.
Provincial environmental staff will be out checking the site and investigat-
ing whether diesel could be backing up in river eddies, he said.
Dallas said equipment and crews are on site filling the hole and repairing the track, which was scheduled to reopen Friday night.
The first derailment Tliesday morning in Mount Robson Park was caused by a rail washout. There were also no injuries, and the line was re-opened Thursday, said Dallas.
The two locomotives that derailed there contained up to 22,000 litres of diesel. The derailment diverted a creek, which pushed the spill into a swampy area where it’s being contained by booms, said Girard.
The ministry is satisfied the first spill is contained and doesn’t pose a danger to the Fraser River, he said.
TODAY
SATURDAY
REPORT
Ann Landers..................29
Bridge.......................20
Business .................22-24
City, B.C................3,5,13
Classified ..............17-21
Comics.................30,35,36
Coming Events..............2,29
Crossword ...................30
Entertainment.............28,30
Horoscope ...................20
Lifestyles...................29
Movies.......................29
Nation .....................6,8
Sports ....................8-12
Television...................28
World .......................15
Dave Barry...................36
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
bare feet, wearing a swimming suit and a vest, hauling gear up a road.”
The crew tried to pack up as much equipment, as well as the trees they were meant to plant, into four-wheel drive trucks and headed for town. They were put up in Tumbler Ridge’s recreation centre. Some equipment was lost, but none of the treeplanters were hurt.
Another 11 campers had to be evacuated by helicopter from back roads and camping sites, said Tumbler Ridge deputy administrator Nigel Black. The town, which is on high ground, was largely untouched, but forestry roads and bridges were washed out, he said. “The water was flowing pretty good.”
There were other hot spots in the area.
Dawson Creek has experienced some flooding, and the animals from a game farm near Taylor, including a 600-pound Siberian tiger, had to be evacuated to higher ground. Some highways remain closed north of Prince George, including Highway 29 at Moberly Lake and Highway 52 east of Tumbler Ridge.
Repairs continue to a partial washout of Highway 16, about 140 kilometres east of Prince George, and crews had to be mobilized to shore up a creek threatening to wash out a work camp on the Bowron Forest Road.
A road in Dome Creek has been washed away, stranding one home, and Cottonwood Island Park in Prince George has been closed due to flooding.
There could be more heavy rainfall so crews are on standby, said Transportation and Highways district manager Grant Lachmuth.
“It’s darned wet,” said Edra Carmichael of McBride, where she’s lived for 33 years. “This is the worst it’s been.”
Her grandsons, aged six and nine, asked her if they should start building an ark, she said with a chuckle.
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Communities in northern B.C. are still recovering from a torrential down-pour that washed out roads and bridges and stranded campers over the past three days.
While Environment Canada said the weather system that brought the rains looked like it was weakening Friday, highways crews and Provincial Emergency Program staff remained on alert. While the heavy-rain alert has been lifted for Prince George, it remains in effect in the Peace River area.
In Tumbler Ridge, 150 kilometres northeast of Prince George, more than 35 treeplanters had to evacuate their camp Thursday when a creek at the edge of town rose suddenly.
Joe-Ben Barkey said he awoke at 2:30 a.m. to find water streaming through his tent. The creek, which normally can be jumped across, grew to more than 18 feet across in just a few hours, said Barkey.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Barkey, a Trinity Western University student who has planted for several years in the area. “I never imagined to be in the dark, in the rain, in my
The pros and cons of canopy removal
Cornered by Baldwin
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