bpen house. Sy Meet the people on the forefront of anti-poverty dvocacy in Terrace \COMMUNITY B1 Sandbiasted — The city looks to address boat launch problem at Fishermen’s Memorial Park \NEWS A10 cee pee te erent cet ence BAe Masterful Terrace contingent at ‘World Masters Games in Edmonton does us proud \SPORTS B4 $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST 4 outside of the Terrace area) 7 8 NO. am ne By MARGARET ‘SPEIRS THE T ERRACE and District Chamber of Commerce: ‘has started a plan to educate business whers about crime, but at least ler isn’t sure that’s the answer. ast. week, the chamber an- dit was undertaking an initiative to cover four key areas ~ courts, policing, how’ ‘ctime affects businesses and the root causes’ ‘of crime. - Local: efforts stem from initiatives un- dertaken by the B.C. Chamber of Com- merce, the parent body of chambers around the province. : The first presentation entitled “Mer- chants Against Money Laundering” held late last week saw-an RCMP summer stu- dent' from Vancouver talk about ;money » I wieiaretemees anaard com les crit _ ~ laundering tactics and how businesses can spot it. John Taylor, executive director of the Terrace and District Chamber of Com- - merce, hailed this presentation and the chamber’s initiatives as a way to begin to _ deal with the crime problem. “TI firmly believe that crime and dis-— respect for.property and other people’s values is increasing,” he said. - “f think the chamber is going. to take a stand on issues such as crime and deal with them. _ “It’s getting to be a sad commentary . when a small town like Terrace has to put bars in its windows.” Taylor believes the presentation last’ 7 week and the chamber’s initiatives will have a significant impact on retailers. “Anytime you’re more aware of things that go on today as far as crime and crime prevention it’s a benefit definitely,” he: | said. He said the chamber. will be holding more seminars for business owners and he’s talked with local retailers asking © for input on what could help them fight crime. “They’re behind it 100 per cent, ” he said about the chamber’s initiatives. a John Heighington, owner of Richards Cleaners and Laundromat, wasn’t ‘sure about the effectiveness of the chamber’s idea, | > ; “T don’t know what the chamber can really do,” he said, _ adding the Citizens on Patrol group does patrols. . Heighington has often come down- - town at night to check on his business. “All I wanted to see was the police ‘come down: here and take care of this area between one and three in the morn- . ing because that’s when it all happens,” he said. On the positive side, his business _ hasn’t suffered: any more vandalism in the last couple of weeks; but he adds it - could begin again anytime.. ~ “T don’t know: if the: COps . are in the ; area watching or the criminals are just . taking a holiday,” he said. He agreed that crime has taken its toll on downtown retailers. Wednesdoy, August 3, 2005 _ me issues “The businesses in town are all « on. _their last. straw,” he said, adding’ that: ° "merchants aren’t making enough money” , to take a break or a holiday. tae “They’re just basically hanging in ~ there. We can see the light at the. end of - the tunnel but we’ re just not there yet.” _ Another downtown business owner, Sports, who is also a past président of the chamber, welcomed any’ attempt by. the chamber or other groups to attack crime. , . Park, who has had to put bars on his store windows, has already been advocat- ing for more cooperation between busi- — ness owners and with the RCMP to share information and come “p with tactics to ease the cost of crime. ,_ “4 MW ee ae Bin the saddle AUSTIN Robertson, left, and Rae-Lee Rioux get that western feeling aboard a horse during the Afternoon for Kids event at Terraceview Lodge July 29. One of the first Riverboat Days 2005 events, it also featured - ‘Hula Hoops,, bubble blowing, llama feeding and live music. DUSTIN QUEZADA PHOTO Natives buy timber licence -THE PURCHASE of Forest Licence Number One by the Lax Kw’ alaams First Nation could signal good news for the Terrace Lumber Company. ‘The $5.5 million sale of the valuable forest licence, which has been tied up in‘court proceedings stemming from former owner New Skeena’s bankruptcy, was approved July 19 and means nearly 650,000 cubic metres of wood is available to harvest. “We're ecstatic, ” says Wayne Drury, CEO of Coast Tsim- shian Resources Ltd., the forest company wholly owned by the Lax Kw’alaams. * The company has begun talks with Terrace Lumber Com- pany (TLC) officials in an effort to-develop a | fibre supply agreement. — “We've been working along those lines for the last six months getting a better understanding of their mill, their needs, what type of wood we'can supply them with, price ranges and things like that,” says Drury. “We’re looking at, in the next little while, being able to have an agreement with the Terrace mill that gives them certainty on pricing so they can plan their business and we can plan our business.” Getting a deal in place, in writing, with Coast Tsimshian or another long-term log supplier, is a crucial step toward ' getting the operation here up and running. “Out intention is to get going so we can supply logs to the Terrace Lumber Company,” Drury said. “Our need i is to get going as quickly as possible.” Though there is more than 17,000 cubic metres of wood in the TLC yard — about three weeks worth of logs if the mill were to operate on one eight-hour shift per day — the company is not committing itself to an opening date, says company chairman John Ryan. The lumber company. has so far spent $900,000 on logs in the yard, which have been coming from the Meziadin area north of Terrace and also from the Kitimat area. But it has yet to put out a recall notice to the unionized workers that have the first crack at Jobs once the company picks a start up date. The completion of the sale last week also included the closing of the sale of the Terrace Poirier Yard for $585,000. Along with TFL1, Coast Tsimshian also completed its purchase of the Terrace Poirier log sorting yard for $585,000, some fixed assets for $30,000 and core lands other than the Poirier Yard for a cost of $160,000. Sportsplex c delayed for the project. ‘spring at earliest. -price of the build. UNIONIZED Telus ers on strike here have been engaging in “flying pickets,” - other cities to take their place. ‘ Insome cases, strikers have followed replacement work- ers into restaurants and orner _ places, calling them “scabs” i the process, © The company, maintains no new workers have been brought i in since strike action began July 21 but several new. .' : faces have surfaced in Ter- race, Aaron Bjorge is an ir pro- fessional who was brought to Terrace from Burnaby last -week to help work on service lines. Telus official Bruce Okabe .says Bjorge is an IT manager | from “the north”, not a new employee. . “We've got contract work- but I can tell you without ex- ception that all of them were employed by Telus prior to the strike and it’s a natural part of business‘ to do that,” Okabe says. Bjorge is unapologetic for crossing the picket line even -. By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN THE CITY has. delayed a ceremonial - groundbreaking of its planned second sheet of ice/sportsplex because construction bids - are higher than the money it has tucked away .Council.members, had wanted a ground- ~ breaking during this past weekend’s River- boat Days but it has now been put off until - To date, the city is approximately $2 mil- ‘lion short of favoured contractor Wayne Wat- son Construction’s bid of $8.59 million for a , barebones second sheet of ice that would be 7 > built on the north side of the existing arena. The company has extended its estimate for another 30 days in an effort to allow the city, its architect and the company’s own: staff more time to find ways of reducing the City. officials have identified a possible | $355,000 savings stemming from a poten- _ tial new roof design, says Ross Milnthorp, the city’s director of leisure services. But whether that design will be used has yet to. be determined. Even with those savings the bid is still nearly $1.5 million more than the ° $6.8 million budget set by the city. ; City council will have to decide before Aug. 22 whether it will accept Wayne Wat- - son’s bid, go through a retendering process --or abandon the project all together. ' The latter option, however, is not even be- ing discussed as a viable course of action by ¥ Telus picketers stalk > s replacement workers. work-. aimed at those brought in from’ ‘ing pickets — when striking workers or managers as they ers all over the organization . while city Toney: any city officials. “There is no thought at cancelling this project, ” says Mayor Jack Talstra says. The push to have shovels in the ground by Riverboat Days stemmed primarily: from a condition on the city’s $2 million provincial- a use-it or lose-it clause by } March 2006. . That deadline, however, - “has. een ex- tended to March 2008 giving the city an ad- ditional two years to get the project’ started. _ The extension is being given to several other municipalities which have also been hard hit by skyrocketing costs associated ‘with the price of building materials. Even though the use- -it-or-lose-it date has been extended, the pressure to build the sec- ond sheet of ice remains high since, Terrace was’ chosen to be the host city for the 2010 B.C. Winter Games —a bid that.included a second sheet of ice to accommodate the are. na-based sports. “The pressure’s off in the sense that we don’t have to use those funds immediately,” says Talstra,' adding the city continues ‘to ‘look at ways cost savings can be found on the project. That includes the possibility of . putting the build off until winter is over. It’s ‘cheaper to build in the spring, summer and fall when the weather is better. The city is also pursuing a grant through the federal natural resources ministry, says Ross Milnthorp. Other grant requests have been unsuccessful. TERRACE Telus service manager Glen Woollett, left, discusses a work order with out-of-town manager . Aaron Bjorge last week. © SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO no dial tone. Woollett said it hasn’t been hard to get people to help fill the empty positions. ° Okabe was not sure how though he’s been called a scab by strikers taking part in fly- employees | follow - contract go from job to job. many out-of-town managers “Tt doesn’t bother me,” have been brought in to Ter- Bjorge said. ‘ - race since the strike began. “If they want to work, they As‘ many as 7,000. Telus can come back to work.” : managers have been rede- He was on the job July 29 _ ployed to take on the duties of striking members, he says. - There are 32 Telus union- ized Telus workers in Terrace. with local service manager Glen Woollett as they looked into a customer complaint of federal infrastructure grant which'camewith . .. 7!