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Aa - The Terrace § Standard, Wednesday, July 27, 2005

TERRACE

) TANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988,

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ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G BR2.
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~ Park place

Two weeks ago four Standard staffers spent a

~ full-day in George Little Memorial Park captur-
. ing the activities of local people in Terrace’ 's most

central green space.

_ We were struck by the sheer number of people |

» who came and went throughout the day. Rarely
‘did.15 minutes go by that somebody wasn’t walk-
: ing through park, stopping : at a picnic table, loun g-

ing on the grass or enjoying on the playground.

Families, business people, play groups, dog-

~ walkers and some of Terrace’s most visible street
roa people came to the park in droves. _
- It is exciting to see a community park bring-
”. ding people together doing exactly what city parks. |
officials want to see — local citizens enjoying a
| public space to relax and rejuvenate.

‘Soit’s a bit disheartening, when you: take aclose

look at the park and see bits of garbage, cigarette
- butts and the occasional alcohol bottle. strewn
_ about the park. It’s also disappointing to see big
‘patches of bald soil exposed where the grass has

’ - been trampled and stopped growing.

Ross Milnthorp, city leisure services director,

~ has an. exciting plan to revitalize George. Little. .
‘Aerating; weed control, landscaping and cultural |
program development is at the top of his to- do list
».. for next spring:
~ The boost in maintenance is expected for other
. ’. parks as, well. Let’s hope his plan will indeed be.
_. put into action — it’s high time some of the green”
_ spaces, around Terrace got a Clean-up. - a

Our day at the park came the same week an un-

_ identified man was seen chopping off the lower

limbs of a grouping of trees located near the chil-
dren’s playground. Many area residents believed
he was: working: ‘for.the city but he wasn’t. :

“* Some Terracites herald the tree-trimmer’ S move

saying it has cleared up a spot where vagrants hide

out drinking booze and doing drugs.
After spending a day in the park, it is clear it

». has'become a place where some of our commu-

nity members meet to hang out and drink. We saw
it first hand and those sipping from unconcealed
bottles. did nothing to hide their actions. In fact,

they were more than willing to pose for photo-
| graphs and speak to reporters. |

One Terrace citizen commented last week that

he had discovered drug paraphernalia and other.

garbage in the park. But to assume that these

same people are solely responsible for all the lit-
ter found in parts of the park isn’t fair. |

It’s incumbent on every single person who uses

‘that park to pitch in and do their part. There’s

nothing more irritating than watching someone

- toss a cigarette butt on the same grass where a
: child will be playing minutes later.

There are garbage cans and dog-poop bags sta-
tioned throughout the park. Come on Terrace,
let’s use them and show some pride i in our park. .

ek .
iy

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Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published on Wednesday of
each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace, British Columbia, V8G SR2.
Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy-
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Special thanks to all our contributors and
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* every
_in town that is taking the op-
. portunity to put these venues

+}

CCNA BETTER ©

S @) Black Press"

es

NOW THAT THE BAN ON CANADIAN
CATTLE IS LIFTED AND You' RE ALLOWED
BACK IN THE U.S., WHAT
You GOING To DO?

a ARE

\ Diseveaee

GOING To

WERE DESTINED TO BE SHORTLIVED

SADLY, ELGIE AND HER MISPLACED ENTHUSIASM, 3

Volunteering enhances all of us. 7

-and support those proponents
who* say government must .

IF YOU drive down to Ferry

‘Island. you. will notice an —
addition to the campground

~-a new kids. playground —
courtesy of the Rotary Clubs.
When you start to take the

time to look. around town, it

becomes apparent there is a
tremendous amount of: time,
energy and resources put in
by many different people and

_ organizations in improving the
quality of life for all of us.

The first visual you get of

Terrace from - either end of.
highway 16 is the Millennium 7
- Trail’or the park at’ the four

way stop, both courtesy of the. -
Terrace ‘Beautification. Soci-

ety.
These projects, especial-
ly the trail, are some of the
best-used spaces in town. The
evidence of this group’s hard
work stretches through the

‘downtown with flower boxes, :
. gardens. and. now includes a.

new addition at the Farmers
Market. If you haven’t seen
these new sitting areas, go
have a look.

The legacy of. fields and

parks from groups like the Ro-

tary, Kinsmen, Lions Club and
Elks are all around us.

_ Then look at the hundreds
of volunteers that are part of
sporting . organization

to great use and the spirit of

_ volunteerism becomes . very

obvious.
-, But it doesn’t stop just in
parks and recreation.

All of us have benefited.
from the Dare to Dream pro-

"gram that has produced nation-

ally recognized musicians and

&

-ROGER HARRIS —

bands from our community.

The REM Lee Hospital Foun-.
dation has been purchasing.

‘ equipment and supplies for our

hospital for decades, their tire-

less work and talent for Taising "

money is quite impressive.

ing what has to be the longest

_.and largest parade north of the.
Okanagan and possibly north "
_ of Hope.

So, I guess what comes to

mind is why write an editorial
piece on all of this? Well there
is no’ doubt, that. when you

~ look around and see,how over
“the years the volunteerism of
others has provided each of us .

with so much, we ‘can never

‘say thank you enough.

In. small towns especially,
the role of volunteers and the
projects they pursue are so

critically important to defining _
_ who we are as a community.
The value of a project.is so’

much more when it is driven

by community spirit rather _

than government budgets. and
that is where this editorial be-
gins.

There are groups out there

nity events,

ernments to move in.”

Foreoem nt gees that “ are
groups dedi- —— constantly~
cated to the | “As the society we calling for
arts to vol- five in becomes more 2°vernments
unteer Or- demanding and fast to” increase
ganizations paced, there seems to their role in

around sports" he a greater call for gov- °V°rYthing
and commu- we do in so-

ciety.

there seems
to be a core.
of people’ who are always
there when the community has
a need, ready and seemingly
willing to find some. time’ to

turn someone’s idea into real- |

ity. .
- Over the August long-week-
end we all witness the great vi-

sual of that collective spirit at .

work with Riverboat Days.

The event is truly one of
the" largest community cel- °
ebrations in the North, sport-

Every
time a new
idea or project comes along,
people look to government for

-. the solution and resources.

Within our education sys-
tem, some of these cries have
been the loudest.

. In a recent document put
out by the Vancouver School

District, they. site a camping . ;

trip taken by students as some-
thing that the provincial gov-.
ernment should be funding.

Now, I absolutely believe.

too. - 4

provide adequate funding for

-the essentials of education, but

the role of parents and students

_in.raising money in education

for special projects has been
around for decades. —

-I].know whether as a stu-
dent myself, or with my own

children, we participated in
numerous projects year after

year to raise money for trips,
supplies or equipment.

One of the places that we

can continue ‘to teach the val-

‘ues of volunteerism isin our

school system.
_ Even today for young peo-
ple, projects have greater val-

ue when they put a little bit of |
‘themselves into it. aS
- That is why it is so critical-

ly important to not allow our-
selves to be drawn into a trap
of dependency.

Student projects that. are
conceived, planned, > financed
and completed without the ex-
pectation of government sup-

port create a sense of pride of

project and pride of place. :

As the society we live in
becomes more demanding and
fast paced, there seems to be a

greater call for governments to

move in. 5

A look around our commu:
nity at what volunteers havé
contributed should be incen!
tive enough to compel us td

people involved.
ernment that is perceived .ag

being free, loses it’s valud
and with it, we lose something

:
t
’

IN. THE 1970s,, we. operated
a private campground

welcoming those who needed ~

a hot shower, water, and a
sewer disposal.
Our clientele
mainly of tents. tent-trailers,
and smaller RVs. For $2.50, a

_couple got unlimited hot show-
ers, a quiet campsite, friendly —

neighbours, and Skeena River
fishing. ,
So the afterrioon sticks in

my memory when two :Grey-:

hound buses lumbered along
our driveway.
~ The lead driver pushed back

-his side window to relay our

answers by radio to the couple
behind.

“We’re fully contained,” he

said. “We don’t need any fa-
cilities. Just show me where I

can park.”

For free, no doubt.
- His snotty attitude didn’t sit

well with me. I was relieved to |

see his tail lights signalling a
turn on to the highway.

To let the Greyhound’s ar-
rogant attitude shape my judg-
ment of RVers today is unfair
and unreasonable. I know
that. -

consisted _

THROUGH BIFOCALSE

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI.

Nonetheless, ‘the bad. im-
pression he left influences my
view of big rigs 30 years later.

‘So you can see why I object
to RVs overnighting - free - in
any mall parking lot, especial-
ly despite clearly visible signs
that overnight parking in a
customer parking area violates
Terrace’s by-law.

As part of Wal-Mart’s per- .

mission to build a box store in
Terrace, the owners agreed to
post signs informing visitors
that parking overnight on their
lot is prohibited.

After all, ‘Terrace operates
a public campground seconds
away on Ferry Island.

The city would shoot itself
in the foot if it allowed free

. parking by RVs in any lot in-

tended for shoppers.
Allowing RVs to park in

“mall lots also robs legitimate
campgrounds where propri-

etors have invested to create
facilities that meet high stan-
dards for travellers’ safety and
pleasure. |

How do they feel when

‘spaces in their campgrounds

wait empty while RVs park
with impunity along the outer
edges of paved supermarket
lots?

Only standoffish. or tight-

fisted travellers would prefer .
to camp at the perimeter of a _.

mall lot unless they crave the
lulling whoosh of four Jane
traffic. '
I’ve seen them parked «in
Hinton, with major trucking
rattling past their metal cages

all night. And not a soul to

chat with.

Maybe,. as some suggest,
these RVs end up in a parking
lot because they arrive after

RVers money savings not worth. it

campgrounds have closed for
the night, usually 11 p.m.
don’t buy that.

A high percentage of big
rigs belong to retired couples,
the only age group able to af-
ford such expensive units. Re-
tirees tend to rise early and re-

. tire early. I suspect they’re just

cheap and can’t back up.
And I don’t buy the sugges-

tion if RVs are refused parking -
_ overnight in mall lots they will -
avoid Terrace and not return. ”.

_, American tourists often ar-
rive with their rigs groaning
under the weight of provi-
sions. They can drive from the
border to Anchorage without

‘concentrate on programs that
-continue to get more young

A project supplied by govt a

reprovisioning groceries. or |

propane.
All they need is gasoline. "a
If they stayed in a camp-

site, they would have achance fj

to chat with the operator and
fellow campers to learn about
our area - tours, sightseeing;
historical sites, current events
such as Riverboat Days, and

specialty souvenir shops. « |

_ Any trip I. ever took was
made memorable by the peo-
ple I met, not the pennies I
saved on accommodations. -