[ Looking back... here was an idea floating i about for a new city tax a year ago this week. A two ‘percent hotel room tax was being considered by the city’s Finance Committee because they felt it was the only way the needed cash for tourism promotion could be raised. It was only an idea, but if imple- mented the tax was expected to net $70,000 a year. But there were other ways of raising money that were. a little closer to reality. City administra- tion was busy identifying bylaw violations and an appropriate range of fines for each. Once the list was complete, and approval was obtained. from Victoria, the city bylaw enforcement officer would be busy writing tickets for a variety of offenses. While a number of ways for collecting money were in the works, so were ideas for spending it. The city had decided to spend a few dollars by adopting the North Coast Road Maintenance idea of paying local groups for every bag _of litter they collected. It would cost the city but it was a good idea... Everyone would benefit. Also,. it. would - ‘cost.the city a handsome sum. ‘for the’ east Halli- well upgrade; the exact. number . was still being calculated. A-new animal shelter was required, but there would be no action on that until Halliweli was done. And there was the maintenance of the city’s convention assistance fund... but nobody was using that anyway. And then there was the CNR. They city opted for the best of two bad choices following receipt of a letter from their real estate divi- - sion. For the privilege of having existing sewer and water lines remain "under" the railway, on "CNR property", the city would pay $6,700 in advance for the next 20 years. Choice number two was to pay $670 a year ($13,400 for 20 years), a 167 percent increase, and the 20-year option was only an 83.5 percent increase. For what? No one seemed to know. stories from our past? B Three years ago this week the Terrace Child Development ut what about other Centre got a new van, compli- - ments: of the Rotary Club and Terrace Chrysler, the food bank was collecting feod, as usual, and the shelter component for welfare rates went up 20 percent. A crack down on overweight and over-length logging trucks resulted in 20 local truckers being charged with 45 offenses, three Terrace residents were among nine nabbed following a province-wide drug conspiracy investigation, and the government announced a pilot project called "Reconnect" which was designed to rescue street kids who were “at risk", A year later, 1988, Project Reconnect was operating in Ter- race. Street worker Suzanne Dufour had been on the job for two weeks. We had a new senior building inspector, Bob Lafleur. And the province announced another new program, this one for the preservation of local history. But it wasn’t designed for Terracc, To qualify for funding, local heri- lage sites had to be owned by the é city. Traffic safety in the downtown core came under fire following an incident Dec. 2, 1988. One of our senior citizens was seriously injured when he was struck down in a Lakelse Ave. crosswalk. The cause, according to RCMP, "driver inattention". That same week ICBC announced a seven to 12 percent insurance increase in our area. The reason, according to ICBC, was due to the continuing rise in bodily injury and property damage claims. Last year, RCMP reported four } traffic accidents in our area during § the week. A four-car pile up at Apsley and Lakelse resulted in $17,000 in damages and an impaired driving charge. A Kispiox woman was uninjured but destroyed her car when she lost i ‘control near Cedarvale. And a & Keith Ave. pedestrian and a High- way 37 moose were struck down by motor vehicles in separate traffic mishaps. The discovery of an illegal ani- mal trap in a residential area near NWCC had many people upset. ‘The trap, which was "designed to kill” according to animal control officer Frank Bowsher, was dis-. covered by children playing in a wooded area at the rear of their home. A 60-pound wire-haired terrier was lucky, it survived, the trap, but it took the strength of two adulis to release the family pet. The frightening thing, said Bow- sher, was that it could have been one of the kids. O years ago this week, the province was still trying to explain privatization to anyone willing to listen. According to Skeena MLA Dave Parker, the scheme wouldn’t compromise public safety and would save pub- lic funds. Two years ago this claim was put to the test. The headline on Dec. 7, 1988: "Ordeal by snow for new highways and bridge contractor". North Coast Road Maintenance took over maintenance on Dec. 1 and. on. Dec. 3 we were buried under 20 centimetres of snow. Plowing the snow caused the formation of ice, sand spread on the ice was soon covered by more snow, and later in the day we got 47 millimetres of rain. During the night skies cleared, temperatures plummeted, and the entire mess froze solid. A tough test, said North Coast manager Mike Zylicz, but added their first real call to duty went reasonably well. Still, "We don’t want to see any more of those,” he was heard to say. In another privatization story, the Thornhill Nursery was also on the block three years ago this week. Offers were being accepted from the public but employees were being urged by Victoria to take the bull by the horns. They eventually did, and a year ago this week we offered this update: under private ownership, the nursery was still growing its annual quota of seedlings, and n the regional scene three The Thornhill Nursery became a newly privatized operation in 1989, and during the Christmas . season Joe Pitzoff and Tom Harvey displayed: the nursery's nolday bid to > diversity — acrop of thousands of poinsettias. something else: 3,000 grown poinsettias, ready to brighten our Christmas season. To the best of everyone’s knowledge, it was the furthest north in B.C. this native flower of Mexico had ever been grown. On this date in 1987, CBC had recently announced the dismantling of CFPR in Prince Rupert, and the federal government announced the third year of a five-year Depart- ment of Indian and Northern Affairs reorganization plan. The feds’ vision of native indepen- dence, though, was apparently not the same as the native vision of self-government. "Empty promises," said Kitsum- kalum chief Cliff Bolton. Accord- ing to Bolton, money saved in staff cuts was not being given to the bands to replace the services that had been lost. One effect, he claimed, was to counter Bill C-31. Under Bill C-31, native people could move back to the reserve and reclaim their status, but because of the bureaucratic re-organization, there were no services to meet the needs of those wanting to take advantage of the Bill. "The povernment is not cutting back on these things for the Indian people," he said at the time. "The government is cutting back and closing down their offices to save money." In the world of business, the Terrace Farmers’ Market was buzzing with excitement. City council and the Tourism and Eco- nomic Advisory Commission had shown an interest in the potential of this group and were secking ways of tapping their potential with a more permanent base of operations. In the larger scheme of things ihree years ago this week, Repap CEO George Petty was in town and in his wake left a promise: If Free Trade went through, it would lay the cornerstone for a new pulp mill and coated paper plant in the northwest. locally. : A year ago this week, Repap’s Skeena: Cellulose was said to be contemplating a $600 million expansion project, but it wasn’t based on Free Trade. It was based - on a secure source of timber. Skeena Cellulose had two bid proposals in; one for 265,000 cubic meters in the Cariboo and another for 623,000 cubic meters in’ the Prince Rupert Forest Region. The outcome, we were told, would be the determining factor in the expansion decision. In the world of electricity a year ago this week, the switch was officially thrown on the Stewart connection, and two routes were being considered for a second Kitimat Valley hydro line. The first public meeting in the area on the Kitimat line was held in Ter- race Nov. 21. @) we were told that AIDS was the threat of the decade and the Skeena Health Unit was urging all kids to take "Family Life". One year later, Dr. David Bowering warned: "Unless educa- tion measures are effective on young people, teenagers could become the next high-risk group of carriers." It was three years ago that the Mills Memorial and Terraceview boards merged to form the Terrace Health Care Society, and one year ago we saw signs of progress. The regional district approved a bylaw allowing them to borrow $300,000 for their 40 percent share of the cost of the nuclear medicine pro- ject at Mills Memorial Hospital, and with the blessings of the Ministry of Crown Lands city council gave the go-ahead on a five acre site destined for suppor- live housing. n health matters in 1987, The evolution of education in the past few years has seen School District 88 come up dry in their search for a new name, Val Napo- leon win the school board chair in 1987, ihe federal government's culting of fee payments for native students, the digging of trenches in Dec. 1988 for a pending teachers’ strike, Juice and Squeeze, and a number of student starvathons for the benefit of others. In 1987, the Caledonia girls — placed fifth in the B.C. senior girls double ’AA’ volleyball finals, local Minor Hockey rep teams were at the top of the league, the Blue- ‘backs Swim Club announced tenta- tive plans for a full-time, paid coach, and Terrace Youth Soccer was saved when a second AGM attracted 43 people. The first meet- | ing held in November attracted only six people and the existing executive threatened to resign. In the grown up world of sports, the Houston Deans won the Ter- race fun hockey tournament in "87, ’88 and *89. Kitimat golfers voted to add the back nine in 1987. This might have been a good thing. That same year the annual public meeting for sports fishermen painted a dismal picture of the future. It may be no indication of global warming but the trend in the last three years was headed in that direction. This week in 1987, saw mixed rain and snow with tem- peratures ranging between -3 and +5, The following year it was a little warmer and we had a lot more rain, and in 1989 even the lows were above freezing and we had even more rain. Rain and snow makes slush, of course, and that created havoc last year on Highway 37 north. It was the cause of an asbestos spill near Stewart, and south of Meziadin offered Terrace alderman Mo Takhar took an opportunity to lend a helping hand. A Washington state trucker was in trouble on a slight incline and veteran trucker Takhar. who was returning from Stewart with a busload of local dignitaries, helped the unfortunats driver chain up.