Northern B.C. residents favor joining Alberta
                                POLL TAKEN IN FORT NELSON
!*'Citizen
Thursday. June 1.1978	Vol. 22; No. 106 Prince George. British Columbia
by ELI SOPOW Citizen Staff Reporter
  The majority of Fort Nelson residents polled recently are mad enough at lack of service from Prince George and Vancouver to join Alberta.
  A poll by the Fort Nelson Chamber of Commerce originally wanted to know if people there were willing to join Alberta if the B.C. Railway Fort Nelson extension wasn’t kept open.
  On May 28 Premier Bill Bennett said the line would stay open despite a cost of about 130 million to reconstruct the link.
  However, the chamber poll also showed the majority of people in Fort Nelson are unhappy with the way they’re being treated by the south.
  Chamber president Len Shmelyck said in a telephone interview from Fort Nelson today that about 75 per cent of more than 100 replies favor breaking away because of poor servicing from B.C. centres.
 He said responses are still coming in by telephone, letters and newspaper ballot, with the majority disgruntled.
 Shmelyck said the BCR isn’t the only issue facing Fort Nelson residents.
 What really upsets them is the lack of good servicing from Prince George - and particularly Vancouver.
Shmelyck said Edmonton is the service centre for Fort Nelson but there is no reason Prince George can’t fit that role.
Although he indicated the situation has become better in the past three months, Shmelyck said there is a lot of room for improvement.
“We’d like to stay in B.C. but if we can’t get the facilities and service we have no alternative,” he said.
 Shmelyck said business people in Fort Nelson are particularly worried about the lack of understanding Vancouver companies have about what’s happening in the north.
 "When we need goods right away it’s usually a crisis situation but we can’t get Vancouver to understand the importance of the situation.
 ‘‘The people there are not as oil or maintenance-oriented as Edmonton or Calgary,” he said.
 Shmelyck pointed out a $150 fitting for an oil rig can be costing the company $15,000 a day while it waits for a part.
 The same part can be rushed from Edmonton or Calgary in a matter of hours by plane, he said.
 Shmelyck said people in Fort Nelson would like to see Prince George become their supply centre rather than Edmonton but that means better freight service by truck and the BCR.
 "Prince George should enlarge its services. We get good service once we see each other’s facilities but there should be more co ■ peration,” he said.
NATO
must face bleak odds
An analysis
by GARRY FAIRBURN The Canadian Press
 WASHINGTON (CP) -When Prime Minister Trudeau, President Carter and the heads of 12 other governments concluded their two-day Washington summit meeting, nothing had changed in the bleak statistics confronting the North Atlantic alliance.
  On opposite sides of a divided Europe, 165 Warsaw pact divisions face 66 NATO divisions, more than 57,000 Warsaw pact tanks face only 13,700 NATO tanks and 10,752 Warsaw pact airplanes and helicopters face 7,642 NATO opponents.
  Politically, the NATO members also had severe handicaps: France continued its non-involvement in NATO’s military structure; Greece remained on the borderline of abstention because of its dispute with Turkey over Cyprus.
  And while some NATO leaders voiced qualified optimism about prospects for eventual disarmament and detente, NATO collectively accepted a comprehensive study that concluded that the Soviets are not yet ready to dismantle their menacing armored mass poised on the West German border.
 Yet the grounds for pessimism were only part of the story. As President Carter told the summit’s opening ceremonies, NATO has a solid, even unique, 29-year history of achievement:
  "History records no other alliance that has successfully brought together so many different nations for so long, without the firing of a single shot in anger...
  "Never Defore has a defensive alliance devoted so much effort to negotiate limitations and reductions in armaments with its adversaries. Our record has no equal in the search for effective arms control agreements ...
  "If we continue to build on the fundamental strength of the North Atlantic alliance, I am confident that we can meet any challenge in the years ahead."
  In a television interview, Trudeau supported and elabo rated on Carter’s basic theme, saying that the democratic nature of NATO’s members may create problems in coordination of strategy but it gives the alliance great moral strength and credibility."
  "We are as an alliance a defensive alliance. ... We don't need great armies to defend our empires or to crush internal dissent. None of the NATO countries are in that position. They are all democracies and the only reason why we have military might is because of the other side.”
CKJxen Photo by Doug Weller
Summer study
 It may be hot outside; but on the inside final exams still have’to be contended with. Kathy Vogler, 17, a student at Duchess Park Secondary took advantage of Wednesday’s 23-degree temperature to catch up on both her suntanning and her studying, The clay produced record high temperatures around the province. According to the weatherman, the good weather should last for the weekend.
32-HOUR WEEK
Airport meets
I L	| • r I	meeTS i
Labor chief hit standards for statements
 VANCOUVER (CP) -Statements by Dennis McDermott, president of the Canadian Labor Congress, that a 32-hour, four-day work week is impractical drew sharp criticism Wednesday from two of British Columbia’s top labor leaders.
  Len Guy, out-going sec-retary-treasurer of the B.C. Federation of Labor, said "there just doesn’t appear to be any consideration any more
for the considerable number of unemployed or the disastrous results if that situation is not turned around.”
  Guy said the Canadian trade union movement should be taking care of the citizens of Canada.
  Roy Gautier, secretary of the B.C. and Yukon Building Trades Council, said the trades wanted to “completely disassociate themselves from McDermott’s position.
Workers return
  Some Husky Oil refinery workers reutrned to work today; but the bulk of the 35 workers involved in the 41-day strike will return Monday.
  The workers, members of the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, voted Monday to end the strike.
 A union spokesman said some of the employees were going back to work right away. Those involved are the loading rack workers and boiler house operators.
  Most of the remaining workers will return to work on day* shift Monday, the spokesman said.
  Because of the length of the strike, some of the workers will not be returning right away.
 “Some of the employees have other obligations,” the spokesman said. "Union president Richard King will be submitting a list of those employees to the company along with the dates they can be expected back."
 Refinery manager Ralph Haack could not be reached .
  The workers voted to accept terms of a contract proposed by the B.C. Labor Relations Board.
QUESNEL (Staff) - Contrary to a report released by the ministry of transport, Quesnel airport does meet fire safety standards.
  Airport manager John Gunn said the list, carried in a news story May 26 was incorrect when it included Quesnel among B.C. airports which did not meet minimum fire standards for emergencies like the recent Cranbrook crash, in which 43 people were killed.
  Gunn said Quesnel, because it has less than 75 take-offs or arrivals by heavy aircraft, per month, is a Class F airport, not Class E as claimed in the list.
  This was confirmed by Jules Cassette of the MoT emergency division. He said Quesnel must have been included in the list by accident.
  Quesnel has 48 take-offs or landings by heavy (over 25,000 pounds) aircraft per month.
  Gunn said the Quesnel airport fire suppression standards exceed those set for a Class F airport. The airport has a 1,000-pound dry chemical truck and there are three trained part-time fireman on standby when a heavy aircraft lands. The airport also has an agreement with the town’s fire department.
  A Class E airport would require a foam truck.
FEEL BETTER?
You're worth more
  CHICAGO (AP) — Thanks to inflation, you’re now worth 5 Ms times more than you were just a few years ago. Literally, ♦.hat is.
  The calcium, magnesium, iron and other chemicals in your body were worth 98 cents in the early part of this decade. Now they’re worth S5.60, according to Harry Monsen, professor of anatomy at Illinois College of Medicine.
  Most of the human body is water. In a 160-pound person, there are about 5 pounds of calcium, lte pounds of phosphate, about 9 ounces of potassium, a little more than 6 ounces each of sulphur and sodium, a little more than an ounce of magnesium and less than an ounce each of iron, copper and iodine.
   ‘‘When people were told they were worth only 98 cents they were shocked,” Mr. Monsen said. “They feel better knowing they are worth $5.60.”
   Also hit by inflation are cadavers used by medical schools for research and education. "At our school, we use 150 to 160 a year for 750 students,” Mr. Monsen said. "In April, the price went from $145 for each cadaver to $165, and in another two months the price will be about $200.”
 Robbery charges laid
  A 22-year-old Prince George man has been charged in connection with the armed robbery May 26 of a Vancouver bank.
  Michael James Cross is charged with three counts of armed robbery and one charge of possession of stolen property.
  An armed man held up the Toronto-Dominion Bank on South West Marine Drive in
Warm trend: forest fire hazard seen
    If the warm weather continues to hold, the region may have a high forest fire hazard rating by the beginning of next week.
    Tom Waller of the forest service said the region, which stretches from Valemount to Fort St. James to the Yukon border had five new fires bringing the total since May 1 to 66 eight of which are still burning, most in the Peace River area.
 Vancouver, escaping with about $4,500 in cash, Prince George police say.
   The man entered the bank at about 10 a.m. and took money at gunpoint from three tellers.
   Cross was charged after a man was arrested here the evening of the day the Vancouver holdup occurred.
   City police say about $4,000 in the man's possession may be from the Vancouver bank.
Prisoner wouldn't play ball
 OTTAWA (CP) - A new theme song has been suggested for prisoners looking for a change from the humdrum existence of life behind bars-Take Me Out To The Ball Game.
  Conservative MP Allan Lawrence told the Commons Wednesday that in view of the escape of a convicted murderer who was attending Monday night’s baseball game in Montreal, particular emphas is should be laid on the line that goes "I won’t care if I ever get back.”
  Lawrence related how Albert Marinello, a convicted murderer who had escaped on all three occasions in the past when granted a pass, did it again as he and four other prisoners, accompanied by one guard, watched Montreal Expos defeat Chicago Cubs.
  Marinello, due for a parole hearing next week, was at the game as part of program that prepares prisoners for parole when he slipped away into the crowd at Olympic Stadium.
  Lawrence asked Solicitor-General Jean-Jacques Blais to explain the escape of Marinello who has been described by Quebec police as dangerous.
  Lawrence then asked Blais if he was aware that one of Marinello’s previous escapes occurred on Mother’s Day in 1974 "when he took the occasion to convert a pass home into a home run.”
  The Conservative MP asked if there was any sports program in the federal prison system that teaches prisoners that rather than three strikes and you’re out, three outs and then you take a walk.
  Blais said a judgment has to be made about people up for parole but conceded that “undoubtedly the application that was to be heard next week is going to be negatively affected by Mr. Marinello’s absence.’'
 Feel lucky? Page 9.
  About 725 acres have been burned this year, which includes some fires which covered 50 to 60 acres. One of the larger fires was in Mackenzie.
  Waller said the story is similar to past years with human carelessness causing many of the fires.
  Regional air tankers have been called out twice this year to bomb fires. One was in the Ingenika area north of Mackenzie and the other was near Shelley, east of Prince George.
Barrett: Dease line 'killed'
  VICTORIA (CP) - Opposition leader Dave Barrett said Wednesday that Premier Bill Bennett’s statement that Americans must provide the bulk of financial support ior a rail link between British Columbia and Alaska has effectively killed B.C. Railway's Dease Lake extension.
  The NDP leader said any link with Alaska would involve extension of a completed Dease Lake line in northern B.C. Current plans call for the Dease Lake extension to stop about 200 kilometres short of the Yukon border.
  Barrett said it is up to the provincial government to make the decision on the extension, not the federal government or governments in the United States.
Phone firms eye merger
 VANCOUVER (CP) -Shareholders of British Columbia Telephone Co. voted today in f^or of a merger of B.C. Tel and Okanagan Telephone Co. ‘
  A similar vote is to be held Thursday Jjy Okanagan shareholders; ‘	*
  Keith Matthews, a spokesman for B.C. Tel, said that,'assuming Okanagan Tel shareholders' also approve the proposal, federal regulatory agencies should give the go-ahead for the merger to take place by the eija-of the year.
  Matthews saiijj the move would aid the companies in introducing technological advances, making them available to all telephone users in the province.
TODAY
(featured inside)
THE WEATHER~] ( NOW HEAR THIS)
‘I don't baHave hi I spend all day trying to persuade Russia to disarm and get stuck up by an American V
Bridge................................IB
Business..............................8
City, H.C......................2, 3, 0
Crosnword........................18
Editoriul..............................4
Entertainment...........10, 12
Family.........................20, 27
Ready to roll. Page 3.
Horoscope*.......................29
International......................5
National..............................7
Sopow column...................9
Sports...........................13-15
Television.........................11
   The forecast for Prince George and the Central Interior today and Friday is for sunny skies and warm temperatures.
   The expected high today is 24, the low 5. The high Wednesday was 23, the low 2, with no precipitation. On this date last year the high was 15, the low 6.
 •	A Prince George couple visiting Alberta were looking, at the end of a long day, for a place to camp for the night. Unused to the strange terminology of our neighbours to the east, the couple followed a sign directing them to a Nuisance Ground. Expecting some sort of recreation area that would suffice as a stopping spot, they were dismayed to find only a garbage dump, and a road so badly Cut up4hat they became stuck.
 •	A local resident was delighted to receive information on German wine festivals; but it. waned when he discovered the information was, logically, in German.
                                                     ¥
 •	A local slowrpitch baseball’player says he hopes his team doesn’t win any more games this season. After Wednesday’s win his head still is smarting from the victory bash.
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