Gretzky to coach Coyotes /9

Duke boys Elvis fans dominate worried about theatres /17 Graceland /24

Peter Jennings dies of cancer /15

MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2005

80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 57 CENTS A DAY)

Survivor of bear attack back home
EDMONTON (CP) -- An elite triathlete just released from hospital after a black bear attacked her two months ago says the ordeal was just what she needed to motivate her. "I was at the stage of my life where something had to happen -- destiny takes control," Julia Gerlach, 27, said after her release from hospital in Edmonton. "We never thought something as drastic as this would happen." Gerlach was back at her Prince George home Friday but is still recovering from the attack on May 20. "If I had the c hoice of going back in time and GERLACH making this not happen, I would choose that I wanted this to happen because it was such an unreal experience in terms of the support that I received and people looking out for me," she said. "This has matured me as a person further." It's given her the impetus to leave her forestry services job and head into nursing. She plans to attend the University of Northern British Columbia this fall. Gerlach was working for a forestry company about 150 kilometres north of Fort Nelson, when the rogue black bear charged her. "When I saw him I said, `bear go away,' in a deep voice to intimidate him and at the same time I was trying to pull out my bear spray," she said. "As soon as I made eye contact, he got right on me." One ear was torn off as the bear ripped at her scalp. "I wasn't afraid of death," Gerlach said. "I was more concerned about how long this whole attack was going to take." Co-workers who heard her cries for help ran to her. One fired a shotgun blast to scare the bear off. Gerlach was transported to an Edmonton hospital where she underwent five surgeries, including two skin grafts. Puncture wounds and bites on her arms and legs took 95 stitches to close. A plastic surgeon spent 11 hours repairing the wounds and reconstructing the back of Gerlach's head using skin and tissues from other parts of her body. Gerlach, a four-time Ironman triathlete, is scheduled to return to Edmonton in three months for more reconstructive surgery to her ear. "I feel 100 per cent but obviously training-wise I'm a little behind." -- See TRIATHLETE on page 3

Huge fire destroys business
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff Northern Linen is no more. In a matter of a few hours, this weekend, it burned to the ground. According to proprietor Herb Millar, the flames consumed $1.5 million worth of coveralls, $3 million worth of cleaning equipment, and what's worse, he says, about 40 jobs. "It's a total loss," he told the Citizen Sunday. "I'm just sick about the people who work here. We had people crying. Some of our people have been with us over 30 years. I've only slept four hours in three days since this happened." The emotion is partly due to the history of the company. Millar and his family built their entrepreneurial venture up over the last 48 years, mostly based on Second Avenue and Victoria Street. They moved to Kenworth Road last summer. "We get into a nice, nice, nice plant and then it's all over in a couple hours. We will have been here one year on the 29th of August," said Millar. The business has not ground to a halt, but carrying on will be hard for a while, Millar explained. Northern Linen has 1,100 clients from Smithers to Grande Prairie, from Fort St. John to Vancouver, throughout the Okanagan and Central Interior. They do company cleaning contracts, as well as individual drycleaning. In the short term, work will carry on by trucking the jobs to facilities in Vancouver. Millar hopes his customers farthest removed will tolerate some glitches in service. Nobody was in the building when the alarm sounded about 8:25 p.m. Friday night. Nine firefighters from two halls rushed to the scene, extinguishing the fire by midnight, but the damage had been done. What wasn't burned or melted was smoke damaged. Millar laughed that you'd never know the interior was actually white with the pitch black coating now covering everything in the building. As for the cause of the blaze, "(fire investigators) have their theory, they think it was an electrical issue, but they're getting their high-powered guys from Vancouver up to make a determination," Millar said. "As far as I know, that will happen Monday (today)." Northern Linen will rise from the ashes if Millar has anything to say about it. He believes the building itself can be gutted and rebuilt to order. Procuring new equipment will be his biggest challenge, he says, while trying to juggle the needs of clients as best he can. "It is too early to say what we can do about this," he said. "Really, anywhere from three to five months is what we're looking at. I don't know. It makes me sick to think about it, about our people's jobs." Fire investigators do not consider the fire suspicious and have not yet determined an official damage estimate.

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

STEPPING FORWARD -- Naraa Little, 4, jumps from stone to stone with her balloons in tow at the Images Art Glass booth, during the 10th anniversary celebrations Saturday for the Farmers' Market.

Ranchers feeling relief from open border
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff Since the American border opened to Canadian cattle, at least to those aged 30 months or less, local ranchers have been breathing a collective sigh of relief, but it is not business as usual. According to Prince George Cattlemen's Association spokesperson Mark Grafton, the real signs of healing for the wounded industry won't be seen until late fall when the majority of cattle producers sell their fed calves. It is the first time young beef has been welcome in the United States since a single case of BSE (mad cow disease) was linked to Canada in May, 2003. "The cow prices have definitely taken a jump. They came up about 10 cents (a pound)," Grafton said. "It was timed with the border opening. We haven't seen near the jump in yearling prices, but a lot of that is due to the Canadian dollar being way high. That's had a pretty dramatic effect on cattle prices. The open border is only one of the factors." The limited trade was announced on July 14 by an American federal court of appeal. It has given ranchers some bottom line relief over and above any jump in prices. With nowhere to sell their cattle, no matter what the age, ranchers had to hold on to cattle since May of 2003, swelling their herds with more and more mouths to feed every year, many of them with no practical value. Old cows were being stockpiled alongside incoming young ones. Canadian slaughterhouses couldn't keep up. They had never had to process so many, as most Canadian beef was sent live over the border to American slaughterhouses. "We can sell the young ones into the States now, so there is a little bit more room made up to handle the older cattle in Canada," Grafton said. "I know Exell (a major Alberta-based slaughterhouse) is taking older cows now, and for a while there they were only taking young ones." The assumption was made by the Canadian beef industry about a year ago that the border may never reopen. With the age limit on Canadian beef exports, that is still a partial possibility, says Grafton. All the Canadian slaughter and processing plants are still, as far as he knows, continuing with plans to greatly expand killing and cutting capacity on our side of the border. "I think the ones who had a good probability of expanding are still going to go ahead," he said. "The word around the industry is there is a lot of energy still being put into the packing industry, making ourselves more sufficient here. If we can package beef in Canada, it is much better for the Canadian economy and insulates us much better from situations like we've faced with BSE. I haven't heard of any slaughterhouse expansion projects being shut down because of the border opening." Canadian consumers buy more beef to eat each year than the Canadian beef industry can currently keep up with.

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Local greenhouses continue to grow
INDEX
Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . . . 18 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . . . .3,5,13 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . 20-23 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . .17 Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14,15

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by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff A good crop of produce is being grown in local greenhouses and the whole province is warming to greenhouse agriculture with the Prince George area being no different. "I was originally told not to bother getting into greenhouses to grow produce up here. Even a produce manager at a grocery store told me that, but I never listened," said Yvonna Breed. She and her husband Roger went ahead with their first greenhouse back in 1991 and things went so well they added three more greenhouses in 1994. Their list of commercial crops is varied, at their Sunshine Crescent operation south of town, but they find tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, baking beans and basil are their favourite fare. "We grow tomatoes more than anything else, but I grow a really diverse amount of crops," Breed said. All of it is organic. Financially it has been a very worthwhile investment, she said. "It is a bit of a start-up expense and that might be what holds people back, but it has been very beneficial for me." Prince George North MLA Pat Bell agrees it is a

Citizen photo by Dave Milne

Growing produce at their local greenhouses has been a lucrative venture for Yvonna and Roger Breed.
harmful myth that this area isn't suited for greenhouses. In fact, he says, since he became B.C.'s Minister of Agriculture he has become thrilled at the possibilities for the commercial greenhouse op-

portunities in the region. He has made a recent study of the multi-million dollar greenhouse industry in B.C., noticing how almost all of it is concentrated in the Lower Mainland. He has toured many. "It is phenomenal the productivity these guys achieve," he said. "To build one hectare of greenhouse costs $2.5-million but the hectare of greenhouse will generate over $1-million in produce a year, and each one will employ, on average, 13 people. This is something the north can really get into. Technology now allows for year-round production." The weather really isn't the factor it once was, agrees Breed. Her foremost piece of advice for anyone getting into the greenhouse industry is to first get a copy of the book Four Seasons Harvest by Elliot Coleman. "If we get our year-round public market then there is very good opportunity to sell whatever produce you care to grow," said Breed. "I'm not sure how receptive the local supermarkets are, they haven't been all that receptive in the past but I am noticing a definite change in the way they think about local produce." -- See EAT on page 3

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