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Workers lay the founda-
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Ridin’ the river
Visitors travelling along
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come for an evening
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Bringing it home

Kim Evans wins the
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| TERRA CE | |

ANNIVERSARY

2003

ednesday, August 20, 2003.

Airport eyes even longer runway

1,500-foot extension

may just be the start

AIRPORT OFFICIALS have begun to
think past their current plan to add
1,500 feet to the 6,000-foot runway
here by suggesting it could get even
longer some diy.

The current planned 7,500 foot run-
way: project is meant to attract larger
passenger and cargo aircraft but even
-more length down the road could lure
large international freight carriers,
says Fraser. Mackie, the chair of the
society which runs the Northwest Re-

gional Airport.

Since the society has to move land-
ing aid equipment anyway for the
7,500 foot project, moving it to a
place so it wouldn't interfere with any
future lengthening made sense, he
said.

“We know Prince George iS @X-
panding to 9,500 feet - which is 8,000
feet here because of the altitude dif-
ference — and we know they are talk-
ing to international freight haulers who
might be interested in an airport that is

‘quieter and less expensive than Van-

couver,” said Mackie.
“And since we're a good hour

a

closer to the Orient - you can see
those jets, we’re right under the north-
ern route — who knows, maybe they
would want to land here. I know this is
real pie in the sky stuff, but it is

something to consider,” he added.

Airport society engineers are now
working on the details of moving the
landing aid equipment. Once that’s
done and factored in, tenders will go
out for bids on the $2.5-$3 million run-
way project.

Most of the work leading up to pav-
ing could be done this year with fin-
ishing touches and asphalt to be laid
down once winter ends next spring.

@ By the book

“We hear there will be a lot of
roadwork here next year so we're hop-
ing we'll get interest from several pav-
ing companies. And we understand
construction prices are a little less ex-
pensive in the spring,” said Mackie.

The society has also put ils financ-
ing requirements out to tender but has
yet to hear back from financial institu-
tions.

It is also hoping to receive a pro-
vincial grant for up to one third of the
cost but has yet to get a response to an
application it filed earlier this summer,

The society is more than capable of
assuming the debt burden by itself

based on current and projected reve-
nues, said Mackie,

But it is has also been told that
starting before receiving any provin-
cial momey won't jeopardize the
chances of getting some later on, he
added.

The society has acknowledged that
Westjet is interested in serving the
northwest provided there is a longer
runway.

The society says a longer runway is
needed to solidify the airport's future.

Some of the society's anticipated
passenger increase figures come from
conversations with Westjet officials.

fell.

same period.

Dry summer?
Not even close

SUNNY AND warm weather this summer has
raised the question of whether this is one of the
driest in recent memory.

“Not even close,” says Bill Miller of Environ-
ment Canada, .

Out of the last 10 years, this year has been the
third rainiest for the summer months of May
through July during which 190 millimetres of rain
fell. Miller said the lowest surmmer rainfall in the
last 10 years was in 1995 when 116.3mm of rain

He said the perception of a ‘dry summer this
year may come from the number of days it rained.

Measurable. days of rain include those where .
“20mm or more fell. This year was the lowest in
five years, There were 38 days of rain from May
through July, It rained on 47 last year during the

“You got more rain [this year] when you got it,”
Miller summarized.

‘Christian group

not wedded

THE CHILDREN'S writers workshop of the past while counted Kesa Van Osch, 11, as one of its participants. The goal of the
workshop for burgeoning young writers was to teach them how to gather their thoughts and translate them into the written word.
A key part of the workshop, organized and hosted by the Terrace Public Library, were talks given by local writers. The workshop
is but one of the many and varied activities available to youth throughout the summer. SARAH A, ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

Mental health facility here
will end years of waiting

AFTER NEARLY 15 years
of planning, several propo-
sals and several false
starts, the northwest is get-
ting a regional. mental
health residential facility
worth $2.5 million. .

The Seven Sisters Resi-
dential Adult Health
Facility 20-bed -special-
ized care residence will be
located adjacent to Mills
Memorial Hospital.

_ Tenders will go out next
month aimed at a 2004
opening.

The name Seven Sisters
comes from the mountain
range visible from Hwy16
east of Terrace and sur-
faced as a title for the
facility nearly 10 years
ago.

Costs are contained be-
cause the land is already

mainland.

vincial

facilities.

Northern Health Author-
ity official Mark Karjaluo-
to said an operating budget
has yet to be established
and that the staffing level
is not yet known.

And because the Seven

services throughout the
province as opposed to
having them concentrated
at Riverview on the lower

Although it will be op-
erated by the Northern
Health Authorily, con-
struction monies come
from the health ministry.

The operational money,
for the time being, will be
funnelled through the Pro-
Health Services
Authority, which runs Riv-
erview and which has
gradually aided in the de-
velopment

of regional

around.”

THE NEW Seven Sisters regional adult menial health facility to be built next to
Mills Memeriat Hospital will closely resemble Iris House which is shown here. It's
a residential facility built in Prince George and contains 20 beds, the same
amount that Seven Sisters will have when it opens next year.

to new school

A GROUP of Christians parents here who are starting a
school still prefers to lease the brand new, but empty,
Mountainview Elementary, but will lock at any other al-
ternatives presented by the school district.

Roger Ewald, who has helped found the Mountain
View Christian Academy, made the comment last week,
saying it doesn't want to give the impression it wanls
Mountainview or nothing.

“Mountainview is still our preference, but we'll con-
sider anything else the district has,” said Ewald,»

“As apposed to building ourselves, we prefer to have
something that is a school, Once we're up and running
and with our program then established, we can look

The academy must first convince the school board to
alter its policy of not wanting to lease or rent out facili-
ties to other schools,

Ewald said it would be wrong to think the academy is
a competitor to the public school system,

“At the most, right now, three of our students would
come from the public schools,” he said.

Terrace trustee Diana Penner has suggested the aca-
demy might be able to lease or rent space at a school
other than Mountainview. But it would be at a rate to re-
coup the per capita student grant amount the schoo! dis-
trict would lose by having students leave its own

schools.

Penner has proposed the former Copper Mountain as a
possibility, but because it is rented on Sundays to a
church group which also uses it during the week, it may
not be the ideal location for the academy.

Harris last week,

that is now in place and is
slarting to work,” said
"The
idea is to provide services

is the latest in a series of
health care services that
have been added here
since the Liberal govern-

psychiatric ward at Mills.
Harris did acknowledge

that several of the projects

were started by the previ-

owned by the Northern

Health Authority, which
will operate the facility,
and its design. will, be
based on Iris House, a 20-

bed similar facility located

in Prince George,
Locating the regional
facility in Terrace is part
of the long-standing, but
frequently delayed, plan to
put residential psychiatric

Sisters facility will be ad-
jacent to Mills Memorial

Hospital: and its 10-bed

short term regional. psychi-
atric unit, the grouping to-
gether of these kinds of

services will mean a better ©

and more co-ordinated lev-
él of care, said) Skeena

MLA Roger Harris.
“This. is part. of a.plan-

for people closer to home.”
Harris said more facili-
ties such as Seven Sisters

_will be-built across the

province as Riverview
continues to. be scaled
down.

“Any one who has been

‘to Riverview can’t. tell me

itis a great place to be,”

he said,

Harris said the. facility

ment was elected,

The fist includes the
McConnell Estate suppor-
tive housing project, a new

and mobile mammography ,

unit based at Mills but
used throughout the area,
the kidney dialysis unit at
Mills, improved training
and equipment for am-
bulance .paramedics and.

the renovated regional

ous NDP government,

“I can say there are a
lot more services today
than ever,” he said.

‘Bach patient at Seven
Sisters will have his/her:

own private room. Kitchen
and living facilities will be
in a central setting, along

with care and supervision

facilities, 7

Penner’s own estimate of the loss of students from the
public system is higher than that of the academy.

The school district here closed Copper Mountain Ele-
mentary in Thornhill, Parkside Elementary in Terrace
and decided not to open the brand new Mountainview
Elementary on the bench as way to ease a budget deficit
and to compensate for declining enrotments,

Parkside has since been converted to contain the pub-
lic schoo) district’s various alternate education pro-
grams, leaving Copper. Mountain and Mountainview as
possibilities for use by other groups.

One strong point in the academy’ § proposal to lease
space is that short term lease monies, due to recent pro-
vinctal legislation, can be used by the school district,

“We have a couple of other options we're pursuing
and we'll be OK for now if that’s the way it has to be but
it is a bit frustrating knowing there are empty schools in
the district,” he said,

Ewald stid Mountain View Academy has:a list of 70

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