Vol. 2, Issue No. 70

Forest
strike
over

An eleventh-hour pro-
posal originating with a
member associaton of the
Forest Industrial Rela-
tions (FIR) has ended the
longest strike in the
history of the B.C. forest
industry.

A draft agreement sub-
mitted ‘by the Truck Log-
gers’ Association, one of
the employer organiza-

tions represented by the.

FIR, came at a point when

the disputing parties were | *®

being threatened on one
side with being legislated
back to work by the pro-
vincial government, and
on the other side by the
possibility of the strike
spreading throughout the
industrial fabric of the
province under the leader-
ship of the massive B.C.
Federation of Labour.

Surinder Mathotra, rep-:
resentative for the Terrace _ -
office of the International

. Woodworkers of America.
. (ITWA), said the member-

ship vote for this area will
be announced sometime
today (Dec. 10). As a
preliminary indication of
the voting trend, Malhotra
indicated that IWA
members employed by the
Skeena Cellulose sawmiil
in Terrace have approved
the proposal by 90 per-
cent, a stark contrast to
the 92 percent rejection of
the Hodgson Commission
report that was put to a
vote last week.

continued on page 24

Legislative Library,

Parliament Buildings,

Victoria, B.C.
V8BV 1X4

The Shames, Mountain Ski Corporation racently improved access to the base area of the peak with the laying of a 30-meter
prefabricated steel bridge across the Shames River.

Shames ski development

TERRACE — “As the Kit.
Hill...
prepafes to ‘Gpen’ “for

sumkalum: “Ski

another season, work con-
tinues on the access road
to the. major new. alpine
ski

facility at Shames-

Mountain west. of Terrace...
.Demnis Lissimore,: presi: ‘
“dent6f thé Shames Moun
tain Corporation; said the
company recently leaped
- over the Shames River
‘with the installation. of-a.-

- from Highway . 16: ‘about

crosses another bridge |

“20k kilometers west t of Ter:

‘was made: fiear ‘kilometer
three of the logging road

that leads to the base area

of the skiing development

Outside

Dats Hi Lo Prac,
Dac. 1 2-1 4mm
Dec. 2 -5§ a nil
Dec, 3 -4-6 nil
Dec. 4 -4-6 nil
Dec. 5 -5 -7 nil
Dec, 6 7 6 66mm
Dec. 7 4-1 10mm
Forecast: Sunny,
cloudy periods, con-
tinuing miid, possible
rain on Friday. After-
noon highs 3, overnight
lows — 1.

be

Terrace librarian Ed Currall pus
points to a wide crack In one
of the posts in the library
basement after a recent In-§
Spection of the building.
‘Engineer Chris Peterson
(center) informed Alderman

Robert Cooper that the crack-g
Ing is not a structural hazard. |

TERRACE — A recent in-
spection of Terrace’s
public library by local
engineer Chris Peterson
- has shown that, despite
some alarming cracks in
timbers supporting the
building’s roof and floor,
the structure is still solid.

During a tour of the
building Peterson told
Alderman Robert Cooper
and librarian Ed Currell
that the provincial

building codes account for
the eventuality of cracking
in solid wood beams and
call for timbers that are
oversized in relation to the
actual load. As he pointed

to gaping cracks in some

of the posts and beams,
Peterson also called atten-
tion to ‘‘dishing’’, a war-
page about the axis of the
wood that causes it to
crack. The culprit, he con-
cluded, was low humidity

in the building’= =
The library--t ingralle
forced-air gas---heating..

system several:-years:: ago,
“system's

but the .
humidifiers - -are -smail
residential -

quate for ‘the ‘building.
Lack of humidity, Peter-
son said, has dried the
timbers and resulted in
shrinkage, warping and

cracking. ‘‘The cracks are -

druti-type -
machines that are not ade-.

. More of a cosmetic pro-
- blem than a_ structural

-problem,’’ he said, and he

‘advised Cooper and Cur-

rell that a_ better
humidifier would ‘arrest

the process.

~. The rot detected recent-
ly in the ends of the roof
beams has been examined
by Peterson, and he deter-

mined through core

samples that it is not a

prefabricated.

r ace.

Liséimore said the

bridge replaces a wood
structure that was taken
out about five years ago.
It is a single-piece steel
frame span, wood-decked
and four meters in width
with a capacity of 50 tons.

‘Completion of the

 Shames River crossing will

allow the Shames Moun-
tain corporation to con-
tinue removing timber
through the winter in
order to widen the road-
way and clear out the base
area.

Inside

Business Guide 20
Church Directory 23
Classified Ads 22

Coming Events | 8
Comics 21
Crossword 4
Dining Directory 19
Entertainment 23
Horoscope 16
Letters 4,5
Opinions 4
Sports 6
Stork Report 17

Talk of the Town 5

serious problem. The rot-
ted ends projecting out-
side the walls have been
sawn off, the centers were
reamed out and treated
with a fungicide, and the
exposed wood has been
covered with metal
flashing. The core
samples, Peterson said,
have shown that the sec-
tions of roof timber inside
the main walls are still
sound.

50 CENTS

Teachers

may have
contract |

TERRACE — The board
of School District 88 has
altered its bargaining posi-
tion in contract talks with
the Terrace District
Teachers’ Association
(TDTA), and it appears
that an agreement on
wages could be signed by
the end of this week. .
In a letter to TDTA

president John Eades,

trustees have offered
reinstatement of isolation
allowances for teachers in
remote sublocals and an
overall salary grid increase
of .69 percent. Unlike the
board’s previous offer,
this settlement is not part
of a package. A similar
wage increase in late Oc-
tober was tied to accep-
tance of a draft proposal
to control class sizes, and
it was met with a counter-
proposal from the TDTA.

John Eades called the

+. new. offer. ‘‘a- significant

change’’, and he said that
the TDTA membership
will take a general vote on
the proposal sometime
this week.

Skip Bergsma, assistant
superintendent for School
District 88, indicated the
board has also sent letters
to Premier Vander Zalm
and Education Minister
Tony Brummett protest-
ing the negative effect the
Compensation Stabil-
ization program is having
on teacher salaries and
teacher recruitment in
northern districts. Salary
increments, the annual
raises given to teachers as
they go up in seniority, are
included in the limits im-
posed by the CSB. North-
ern districts tend to have a
high proportion of young
teachers, and approved
salary awards can go
almost entirely to in-
crements, leaving only
nominal grid salary in-
creases. The board’s offer
of a .69 percent salary in-
crease is the maximum
allowed by the CSB.

School districts in the
Lower Mainland, by con-
trast, have a higher pro-
portion of senior teachers
who have gone off the end
of the increment scale.
Bergsma said the urban
districts can offer grid in-
creases of two percent or
higher, making those
areas more attractive to
teachers seeking work.
Since the Compensation
Stabilization program

_ began in 1982, Bergsma

said, the-accumulated dif-

ferential between northern:

and southern districts is as

high as five percent in

some instances,

»

eae

we we ee

ee a ee