he Terrace Siendard, Wednesday. July 26, 2006 me TERRACE ESTABLISHED APRIL 27 . 1988 as TANDARD_ < PUBLISHER: ROD LINK ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace. B.C. - V8G SR2 WEB: www. terracesiandard.com EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 - FAX: (250) 638-8432 Take a walk | “One year ago. a mysterious person took it upon himself to do something about the increasing num- ber of. incidents of people drinking. doing drugs - and partying at George Little Park downtown. The man, who has never been publicly. identi- . — fied, drove to the park, got out of his blue pick- . up truck, fired up his Chainsaw and set to pruning trees. He aggressively delimbed them. effectively taking away any space. where. would-be. Partiers -could hide out. = _ Though the tree trimming is technically illegal, - the clandestine approach to addressing a serious societal, problem was hailed by many residents. * The incident lead to calls from businesspeople, ~ concerned parents and others to clean up George ‘Little Park and once again make it the metaphori- cal and physical heart of the community. The. city’s department of leisure services has rightful- -. ly prioritized maintenance at Terrace’s parks and George Little Park is at the top of the list. - Small but important changes have been made, "Trimming and pruning of trees in an effort to re- _ duce spaces for potential partiers to conceal their activities has continued. Tree beds have been ti- oe died up and wood chips added. Last week, a roof- . ing crew replaced aging shingles and made much needed improvements to the roof of the bandshell.. | The’ city is doing its part to clean up the park. © 7 : But one element: has remained unchanged — an. increased police presence there. . — Last year: locals called on the, RCMP. to. take the time to do foot patrols downtown and through » the park: to increase their visible presence and’ perhaps dissuade people from drinking publicly and causing other trouble. It’s not the cure-all to the deeper societal problems we as a community must address. but it would help create the optics of police officers being seen more in the commu- __nity, thus making people feel safer. - With the hot summer weather upon‘us, the par- tying and drinking at the park is once again on the rise and on more than one occasion residents have reported such incidents to police. — And while the police do respond in time, often by the time they arrive the miscreants have made off or have otherwise concealed their activities. To be sure, the RCMP face serious challenges stemming from being understaffed and stretching resources to the limit in light of numerous recent major cases officers have been investigating. ~ But that’s the role of the RCMP ~ to balance investigations of serious crimes with.a proactive and preventative approach to policing. “RCMP members are a part of our community and their presence at the downtow n park has been | requested ‘on numerous occasions. So the call is renewed. Let’s see more police officers getting out of their cars: and take a walk - presence is long overdue. _ that t physical FRONT OFFICE: Darlene Keeping. Carolyn Anderson '. CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: /PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Rod Link ‘ ADVERTISING MANAGER: Brian Lindenbach - PRODUCTION MANAGER: Edouard Credgeur NEWS: Sarah A. Zimmerman | COMMUNITY: Dustin Quezada NEWS/SPORTS: Margaret Speirs ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS: Ben Husband. Ellie Higginson AD ASSISTANT: Sandra Stefanik PRODUCTION: Susan Credgeur | Alanna Bentham | SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: $57.94 (+$4.06 GST )=62.00 per vear., Seniors $50.98 (+$3.37 GST}=54.55; Out of Province $65.17 (+$4.56 GST)=69.73 Outside of Canada (6 months) $156. 91(+10.98 GST)=167. 89 , B.C. AND YUKON COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ASSOCIATION VEW: BR OF cas ngs aes itd FRIIS: ¢ TWAT Special thanks to all our contributors and - correspondents for their time and talents. THE SECOND ComING \ 1S (AMINENT r bo You REALIZE | | _ WHAT THis WILL MEAN? EVENT: S IN ISPAEL ‘ ARE PROOF THE BIBLES leaf BE TAKING TRUE PROPHECY IS BEING CHRISTIANS INTO . HEAVEN Jesus WiLL WE. WON 'T. HAVE To _ WAT UNTIL 2.008 To Qt BUSH ‘OUT oF THe Waite House! “IN 1998. following | the: col- lapse of Skeena Forest Inc.,_ . the government of: the day © commissioned a: report into ° the state of the northwest for- _ est industry. It gave’ the responsibility. of producing the report t0 a | , former assistant deputy min- “ister within the forest ministry “and individual with extensive — > forestry background. Wes Cheston. He delivered his re- port in January. 2000. It out- _ lined ways the high operating | . ‘costs and: Jow returns in the | ' region might be. addressed. “Tf this sounds familiar. it’s day. | When you live j in the low- est Value timber profile in the province. a small change in any one financial indicator can have a dramatic impact. So when you have the com- bination of softening lumber prices, higher counter-veiling duties, higher Canadian dollar. higher energy costs, increases in stumpage andno markets for pulp, it's no surprise that the forest industry in the north- west is in Crisis once again. The Wes Cheston report was a menu of items that. if implemented, he felt would help a struggling industry and region re-bound from the lat-- est financial failure of Skeena - Forest Inc. The report identi- fied things such as including a separate zone for pricing timber, re-allocation of timber to smaller tenure holders, cut control relief and limited log and chip exports, all of which - have been implemented. But even Cheston never contemplated the impacts of wood chunks with. the words “Live crabs” scrawled across them in red paint degraded the intersection of Highways 16 and 37 recently reconfigured by. B.C. Highways at some ' cost to make the four-way stop safer. For an itinerant. to strew his makeshift signs where they have no legal right to be. reduces the effective- ness of the. ministry's safety improvements. Such unauthorized signs not only clutter the intersec- tion. confusing. tourists. thev break the law. B.C. High- ways permits no unauthorized signs within several hundred metres of a highway right-of- way. Gaining permission for a right-of-way sign involves fill- ing out an application, meet- ing specific regulations, and receiving a permit number. . Unauthorized | signs. locals — an impression of an unkempt community lacking pride. On one hand. the cham- ber of commerce and the Ter- development in new ~ economic zone.” what does. In all of this it is Illegal signs should be scrapped | LAST SATURDAY. two ply-- vendor also _ present to visitors — and to “ Roger Harris “because high costs are still the _ the pine beetle. _ challenge. of the northwest to- | Two of his recommenda- ions that were never acted on _ were the creation of aspecial . economic zone” and a propos- al that the province become di- rectly involved in the construc- tion of roads. The government ° of the day worried about the “me too” effect: Companies outside the northwest could ask for similar treatment. But let's look at the In- terior today. With the pine beetle infestation. the provin- cial and federal governments ihave embarked on a number of investment initiatives in- cluding: $20.7 million in road upgrades ; $30 million to the Northern Development Initia- tive for helping communities ‘respond to the mountain pine beetle: $800.000 for regional beetle action groups. 4 special pine beetle regulation to sim- ..plify the permitting process: $13 million for research and wood products and marketing and it doesn’t stop there. Now, if this doesn't sound like a “separate CLAUDETTE SANDECKI may IT don't know. - THROUGH BIFOCALS Ff race Beautification Society in- vest time. money and muscle enhancing the area. while oth- ers. such as weekend vendors, vandalize public property to display their haphazard signs without regard to blocking drivers’ sightlines. The highw av ministry dis- approves of makeshift signs set up randomly but lacks the. manpower to police infrac- tions. However. if anyone complains to Highways. pin- pointing the site of the of- Time for gov't to turn eyes west | "important ‘to. remember one important fact. The decadent _-timber stands predicted for the Interior over the next decades, as a result of pine beetles, exist in the northwest today. The employment implications pre- dicted for the Interior over the next decades are the reality of the northwest today. So, if there is a region that _ still needs attention it is the northwest and there is good reason for the province to con- sider implementing these two ‘components of the Cheston re- - port. In about a decade, some significant reductions in the harvest levels across the j interi- or of B.C. will occur and with | ita loss of revenue to the prov- “| - ince. These are dollars that support our public services like health care and education. As much as the northwest have. highly timber stands, we also have . some of the best growing sites - in the province. looks at significant strategic: A plan that investments in intensive silvi- culture today has the potential “to advance the second growth stands of the northwest by up to 20 years. and improve the economic value of the wood. So at a time when govern- ment revenues from the inte- . rior Start to decline, increased harvest levels across the north- west could make up that lost revenue. By creating a “North- west Economic. Zone” the province could direct resourc- es to infrastructure and roads, silviculture projects, commu-.. nity economic development initiatives. all.of which will reduce the cost of harvesting. It could look at creative new forest tenure agreements and fence. the infraction will be dealt with. | — ' Local citizens have a right "to be upset with proliferating - scrap signs situated anywhere that suits a vendor: The crab seller operates every week- end year-round from the same roadside parking lot and could well afford to pay for a prop- er sign he could hoist near. -his tuck with wording large enough to be easily'read by in- tersection traffic. The post office. too. objects to unauthorized signs plastered on its mailboxes, such as the green sheet with typewritten. tear-off sections taped to the .green mailbox at the corner of Parmenter and Furlong last week. “Shape up for Summer. . Free Body shape Analysis. Call: 250-638-XXXX. www, XXKKKXKXAXXXXX. org” the strips read. _Posties are expected to keep mailboxes in their territories free of such signage. Citizens who value an attractive neigh- bourhood should freely yank down such ads and stuff them in the garbage. Proper adver- -apolicy change in the BC Tim- ‘ber Sales (BCTS) mandate. ’ BCTS has already changed the _method of calculating stump- -— this has reduced: the upset ‘market work in determining - ‘volumes of wood for sale. decadent’ the market with an upset’ be- _ oil fields of the northeast. paper announce garage sales, partnerships for the land. based — y with a focus to reforestation. A special zone could allow for investments in areas that have. cross industry applications in tourism, mining or gas and oil exploration. The province could look’ to age rates from a market-based model to a cost recovery one price for timber sales.. BCTS . could go further, below the’ variable ‘rate. and let the pure the value. . BCTS could increase the and search for opportunities in specialry markets. Putting ; greater volumes of wood on low the variable rate would have the effect of reducing the average selling price of the timber. reducing the input cost for manufacturing facilities. . The focus to specialty mar- kets with small unique timber © sales in package sizes and spe- cies required by the small mill-- ing sector is equally important. In low value timber profile re- * gions, the Ministry of Forests needs to be flexible. This is a reality that the Interior will tind out in about decade. ° The northwest forest in- dustry needs help and there are - examples of innovative policy . and political decisions.al- ready in the pine beetle forests of the interior or the gas and It's time for the politicians to turn their eyes and attention to the west. tising is an accepted cost of | running a legitimate business. Hydro poles draw handmade posters the way plate glass windows tempt rock-throw- ing drunks. Posters scrawled on every kind of kindergarten © lost kittens and missing dogs. Posters are often left like elec-. tion come-ons to tear loose in the wind and became roadside litter, though most posters bear addresses, even phone num-- bers. for easy identification by law enforcement. Terrace publishes aw eekly garage sale flyer: handed out free. at participating stores ev- ery Friday. Listing a garage . - sale in the flyer casts $22.50 per week where it will be read. by every serious garage saler prior to setting out on the weekend circuit. I question how many sales result from makeshift posters stapled to. - hydro pales. Be responsible. Advertise: _ your wares legally before ca you cause a hydro employee” a compensational injury or a motorist to lose his life. Stig ET