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High today: 26 Low tonight: 6 Details page 2
TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2002
PRINCE GEORGE
Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
Teacher
layoff
numbers
reduced
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
Thanks to additional early retirements and other changes, the number of local teachers to be laid off is now expected to be 38 or 39, down from 62 predicted last month, said Dick Chambers, superintendent of School District 57.
There have been a few more early retirements than forecast, a few more teachers going on leave and others taking part-time jobs, Chambers said.
There could be more changes in the expected number of layoffs in the next couple of weeks if more people decide to retire, Chambers added.
Moreover, the number of teachers laid off could change in September if a few more children than predicted show up at a particular school, or if something happens during the summer to change some teachers’ career plans, he said. The district had sent out 263 layoff notices, 83 to secondary school teachers and 180 to elementary school teachers.
The reason for issuing more layoff notices than the actual number of job losses is that a teacher must have a layoff notice in hand before initiating the bumping process. In a hypothetical example, a teacher in Prince George who receives a layoff notice may seek a job in Mackenzie held by a teacher with less seniority, and bump into that position.
The district has about 1,050 fulltime teachers.
National health survey ignores area improvements: officials
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
Health officials are disappointed about Maclean’s magazine’s health care services survey ranking Prince George 54th out of 54 communities across Canada, but the survey doesn’t tell all, they say.
“Putting us on the same planet as West Vancouver is not the thing to do because we’ll never be on a par,” said Dr. Bert Kelly, vice-president of the Northern Medical Society.
“These are broad numbers which are not reflective of medical or hospital care as such. The numbers also include the socio-economic factors like employment, education, housing and poverty, of which we don’t have a lot of control.
“But the survey does underline what the NMS has been saying for more than three years — Prince George and the NHA (Northern Health Authority) are areas of special need,” Kelly said.
“The communities in this area are traditionally difficult ones to recruit medical professionals to. On the bright side, we are in the third of a 10-year program that will result in better services in the NHA,” he said, referring to an expansion of Prince George Regional Hospital and the medical training program at UNBC.
“It will be fascinating to see where we rank in seven years. We can’t get much lower than 54 out of 54,” said Kelly.
Public health officer Dr. Lorna Medd, speaking for the NHA, said although Prince George has been “near the bottom of the survey” for the past two or three years, “it’s disheartening not to see any change upwards when everyone is working hard to bring that about.”
Medd believes Maclean’s “may not be aware of some of
the things we’re doing well — like our Make Children First program, which isn’t even ranked in the survey.
“Yet our ranking of fifth for low birth weight is commendable, and in asthma readmissions we rank 30th, which is a good mark, because of the work being done by the NHA staff.”
Prince George isn’t ranked at all in categories of heart attack and stroke survival because B.C. doesn’t collect statistics in the same way as other provinces, but that’s changing and will be included among the health indicators next year, Medd said.
“We take these scorecards seriously. The employees, administration and the NHA board are doing their utmost to address the shortcomings in our region,” she said.
Both Kelly and Medd believe there’ll be an upswing in the local ranking when the Northern Medical Program to train doctors for the North is up and running. The survey shows that most communities with medical schools have high rankings in health services.
Across Canada, the survey ranked Prince George in health services last with rankings of 48th in life expectancy, fifth in low birth weights (up from 38th in the 2000 survey), 45th in the number of caesarean sections, 30th in hip fractures, 54th in pneumonia and flu, 37th in mammograms, 39th in pap smears, 45th in preventable admissions, 25th in general practitioners per capita and 47th in specialists per capita.
In the 20 “largely rural communities” ranked in the survey, Prince George finished in 20th spot with an overall score of 71.8 compared with 85.3 scored by Kelowna, the top-ranking community in this group.
— See related editorial on page 4
City adds $500,000 to road repair budget
by SCOTT STANFIELD Citizen staff
An extra $500,000 has been allotted by city council for the maintenance and repairs of Prince George streets this year.
Slightly more than half the amount has been targeted for numerous road and drainage repairs, including parts of Westwood Drive, Hamilton Avenue and Cranbrook Hill Road.
The remainder has been allocated to overlay Carney Street from Massey towards 10th Avenue.
Without the additional funding, these problems can only be “band aided” with existing maintenance funds, as stated in a report to council from city officials.
“I’m delighted administration is bringing this forward after the budget deliberations,” said Coun. Don Zurowski, who at a previous meeting made a motion to request city staff to explore possible ways of coming up with $500,000 to invest in road repairs.
“It’s necessary, and it’s been a very severe spring indeed.”
ZUROWSKI
“This spring a number of problem areas have cropped up,” concurred Frank Blues, the city’s transportation manager.
A review of weather records indicates a number of mild days occurred between January and March, which may have accelerated pavement deterioration by allowing moisture to enter the normally frozen road surface, the report said. Because asphalt plants do not open until spring, the city is restricted to using a cold asphalt mix which only provides a temporary patch to potholes and cracks in the winter.
There was also mention Monday about the Highway 97 Road Rehabilitation program from the Si-mon Fraser Bridge to North Kelly Road.
City officials met with the Ministry of Transportation to discuss the possibility of additional city street work at 5th, 10th and 15th avenues to be added to the Highway 97 project, which could result in a potential saving of nearly $50,000.
“It’s something worth looking at,” Mayor Colin Kinsley said.
E-Mail address:
neWS@piincegeorgeciti2en.COm
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http://www.princegeorgecitizen.corn
INDEX
Ann Landers..... .......25
Bridge.......... .......24
Business ........ ....18-20
City, B.C........ ____3,5,13
Classified ....... ... .21-24
Comics ......... .......16
Coming Events ...
Crossword ...... .......16
Entertainment ... .......15
Horoscope ...... .......24
Lifestyles........
Movies.......... .......15
Nation ......... ......6,7
Sports .......... .....8-12
Television....... .......15
World........... ....14,17
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Bike stolen from German tourist
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Udo Zimmer’s round-trip cycling tour from Calgary through northern B.C., Vancouver Island and southern B.C. took an unfortunate pit stop on Sunday.
The German tourist had his mountain bike stolen from Spruceland Mall while taking some time out to stock up on fresh food at Overwaitea.
Zimmer had already been through Whitecourt and Grande Prairie in Alberta, and then Fort St. John and Prince George. He was to continue on to Vanderhoof that day, then on to Prince Rupert before catching a ferry to Vancouver Island.
He had locked his bike, but only to itself, in a pathway that leads to a small back parking lot of Spruceland Mall. He was gone maybe 45 minutes to an hour.
“It’s hard to believe. That bike is very heavy. It would take two people — or maybe a very strong person — to carry it any distance,” said Zimmer, 34, an elder-care nurse from Radeberg in eastern Germany.
Zimmer said he would be happy to get any of his belongings or the bike back.
If he cannot recover the bike, he’ll be forced to bus the remainder of the tour, he said.
The bike, which he has used on several other bike
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Submitted photo and Citizen staff photo
Udo Zimmer, Inset, a German tourist cycling through B.C. and Alberta had his bike, pictured above in Dawson Creek, stolen In Prince George on Sunday.
tours of Canada and trips in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, had 30,000 kilometres on it. It’s an early ‘90s model Giant that has been paint-
ed grey, with black forks. The Giant name is no longer visible.
Also missing with the bike are his four faded-red travelling bags, which included all his personal belongings like clothes, bike tools and camping gear. He’s also lost gifts he was given along the way and his return plane ticket. No money was stolen as he had that with him.
Zimmer has already been to the police and spent time walking the town, even popping into one local bike shop to see if any local riders had seen his bike. The RCMP told him there’s little chance of recovering his bike.
However, at Summerside Sport and Cycle on First Avenue he was introduced to a local Good Samaritan.
Bob Benui, who overheard Zimmer’s story, and his partner Alexandra Ewashen have given the German tourist a place to stay and are helping him try to hunt down his bike and possessions.
Ewashen says anyone with any information can phone them at 561-7203.
And Summerside Sport at 1191 First Avenue has offered to be a drop-off spot for the bike or any of Zimmer’s belongings — no questions asked. Zimmer said he’s also prepared to offer a reward for the return of his bike and belongings.
SWITCHBOARD: 562-2441
CLASSIFIED: 562-6666
READER SALES: 562-3301
Eyes turn skyward for solar eclipse
Citizen photo (above) by Brent Braaten
Doug Wayland, foreground, adjusts the focus of his telescope to take a picture of the partial solar eclipse Monday afternoon in Prince George. Wayland’s photograph of the sun, left, is so detailed that the dots on the sun are sunspots. Behind Wayland, other stargazers came out at the observatory to observe the year's first solar eclipse, including, from left, Rob Frith, Rod Herd, Brian Battersby and Alex Kish. The eclipse was visible across much of North America, as well as eastern Asia. See related photo on page 17.
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