School books removed VICTORIA (CP) - The ministry of education decision to withdraw two English test-books will result in a loss to the education system of reading materials worth ahout $127,500. The ministry has advised schools and school boards it is withdrawing the Grade 8 text Incentives and the Grade 9 text Strawberries and Other Secrets. The move follows complaints from adults and students about blunt racial and sexual characterizations and episodes of violence. There are 85,000 books involved, all paperbacks, which would ordinarily have a shelf life in the schools of three years. There is no word on what will happen to the textbooks, worth $1.50 each. One official suggested they will be stored in a government warehouse. Flooding: 520 claims registered VICTORIA (CP) - A total of 520 claims for compensation for damage to personal effects and property as a result of flooding in the Terrace-Kitimat area have been filed with the provincial government, Provincial Secretary Grace McCarthy said Thursday. She said claims, averaging between $3,000 and $4,000 each, have also been received from Port Hardy on Northern Vancouver Island, the Queen Charlotte Islands, Bella Coola, Hartley Bay and Stewart in west-central British Columbia. The region was declared a disaster area by the provincial government after heavy rains and flooding damaged homes and washed out highways, bridges, a gas pipeline and a Canadian National Railways line last month. 'Kickbacks' described MATSQUI, B.C. (CP) -Three persons were convicted Thursday in provincial court in a scheme to defraud the Unemployment Insurance Commission. No date for sentencing was set. Harbhajan and Gurmit Hayre, owners of a fruit farm in Abbotsford, B.C., and their sister, Baldish Deol of Quesnel, B.C., were convicted of conspiring to defraud the federal government of unemployment insurance benefits by falsifying the work records of employees. Crown was told the trio was part of a conspiracy in which kickbacks of up to $290, were demanded from farm workers in exchange for the falsified records. Evidence showed that some women were receiving medical treatment in Quesnel, in the British Columbia central interior, at the same time they were claiming to have worked on the Fraser Valley farm. Man pleads 'not guilty' A man who claims he was beaten by four police officers pleaded not guilty Thursday in provincial court to a charge of obstruction of a police officer. Joe Baird, 34, of Prince George, was picked up in the downtown area Nov. 22 by officers who say he was drunk. Baird claimed he was handcuffed, leg-ironed and beaten, while in the drunk tank. He was later admitted to hospital. Baird elected trial by magistrate on the obstruction charge. Trial date was set for March 6. Hospital gets accreditation Prince George Regional Hospital has received a three-year accreditation from the Canadian Council on Hospital Accreditation. The three-year certification is the maximum the organization can grant administrator Bert Boyd told hospital board members Thursday. He said a number of other B.C. hospitals are only receiving two-year accreditations. “It’s kind of good to get that. It’s good because you get blinders when you’re here seeing problem after problem." Meanwhile board chairman Ed Barnes says the recommendations made by the national council will be made public after the board and staff have had a chance to study them. The last two accreditations granted to Prince George Regional Hospital were also for three years. THE CITIZEN, Prince George - Friday. December 1, 1978 — 3 'REDUNDANT' ROUTE Young fireman Citizen photo by Doug Wellrr Michael Pavey, 9, gets the feel of being a fireman during a Fifth Fort George Cub Pack tour of local airport fire fighting facilities. Adjusting the space-like asbestos head gear is firefighter Jack Matthews. VOTING STRUCTURE CHANGES Regional report debated by DON MOHBERC; Citizen Staff Reporter Fraser-Fort George Regional District will send a task force to Vancouver to discuss the Regional District Review Committee report. The way was opened at Thursday’s meeting for all directors to attend the Union of B.C. Municipalities Dec. 11 conference on the report. The report, tabled Oct. 31 and released Nov. 17, was highly critical of the provincial government’s lack of support of the regional government concept. It chastised government ministries for not giving regional districts the support necessary. It suggested a revamped voting structure and that the regional governments be given a stronger, more defined role in administration. Seven directors, or alternates indicated they would be attending and agreed to meet Dec. 5 for a sword-sharpening session. Director Art Stauble of Prince George said the directors should get the point across that the departments haven’t rec- Information office opens The Prince George Chamber of Commerce has opened a business information centre to explain various government assistance and service programs. Ethel Bliss, executive secretary for the chamber, will also serve as business information officer for the centre, located in the chamber’s Victoria Street office. The centre receives financing assistance from the provincial ministry of economic development. ognized the regional districts. The directors were divided on whether the brief should be covered by recommendation, or in general. ‘‘If you get bogged down on the report you will miss out on the opportunity to say the regional districts are good and are doing well," director Bob Martin of Prince George said. Hopes lor a united front faded as a round table discussion on the report opened. The first item, the voting system, split the board. Under the system proposed in the report, the city of Prince George would have 12 votes and the outside area 13, compared with the present 20 for Prince George and 12 for the outlying areas. Director Ron Metz said the weighted voting structure had been a thorn in the sides of the outlying areas. Director Stauble said the system whereby the city or the outside area could veto each other was a fair one. Director A1 Holdner said the weighted voting system had a devastating effect on the advisory planning commissions and made it difficult to hold people on the commissions. Stauble countered, saying that because the majority of the budget money comes from Prince George, the Prince George directors should have control of the board. Rural boundaries defined Boundaries have been set for the regional settlement plans for Valemount-Tete Jaune areas, and also for Area A including Reid Lake, Nukko Lake and Chief Lake and also Summit Lake from Area G. The regional board passed the boundaries at its meeting Thursday. The settlement plans, the first step toward a community plan, outline proposed land uses for an area. At the same time Area G director Floyd Crowley asked the regional board to investigate a proposed plan to phase out provincial forestry stations, moving the stations to the nearest large centre. Crowley said he had heard that the Summit Lake Forestry station, which serves up to Bear Lake, would be moved into the Prince George forestry office. “This doesn't appear efficient to me,” he told Thursday’s meeting. "It will be taking jobs from the Summit Lake area and costing taxpayers more.” Area K (Hixonl Director Earl Thorp expressed a similar concern about the Hixon ranger station. ‘‘They were talking about decentralization,” director Al Anderton of Mackenzie said. “That doesn’t appear to be decentralization to me.” “I guess they have to find someone to put in that big, new building,” Thorp said, referring to the provincial government office complex in Block 400. The board will send a letter to the forest service to ask about the moves. The developer of nine two-acre lots in Mi worth does not want to carry the cost of paving 3,200 feet of roadway in the subdivision, stating the $52,000 to $54,000 paving cost would put the price of the lots too high to be saleable. Wayne Loftus of MLD Construction told the board Nliworth had four to five miles of unpaved road and the paved roadway was still miles from Miworth. Loftus said the lots were unique because one side of the highway was parkland, meaning the nine lots must carry the entire paving cost. The board decided to table the request for relief from the paving provisions, pending more information on paving programs planned for the Miworth area by the department of highways. Sentencing date set A man charged with attempting to murder his wife pleaded guilty in county court Thursday to causing bodily harm with intent to wound. The attempted murder charge was stayed. Leonard William Henry, 38, of Prince George, was charged after his wife Yvonne was stabbed May 21. Henry was remanded in custody to Dec. 12 for sentencing by Judge Frank Perry. Second Ave. proposal draws more opposition by TOM NIXON Citizen Staff Reporter Second Avenue residents have not given up the fight against city proposals to turn the street into a major traffic route. Resident spokesman Colin MacPherson said today a letter of concern has been sent to the highways department, the housing and urban development department and Fort George MLA Howard Lloyd, expressing the residents' side of the controversy. MacPherson said it still has not been shown that a Second Avenue overpass and street upgrading will save any money over the long term. In fact, he said, it could cost an additional $1 million because a Fifth Avenue overpass-intersection might have to be built in any case, making the Second Avenue proposal redundant. “From the presentation (of the Stanley Associates traffic report) I heard at council (Monday) it was not at all clear that the proposed Second Avenue overpass would eliminate the need for a grade-separated junction at Fifth Avenue and The Bypass,” he said. "It all depends on a number of interrelated factors, but from what I have seen in many other cities ... I am convinced the money will have to be spent on the Fifth Avenue crossing anyway.” A $20,000 traffic study to bring up to date two previous studies was handed council Monday. No decision was made to proceed with either Second Avenue or an improved Fifth Avenue-Bypass intersection. 'Taxpayers bailing out pipeline' by ELI SOPOW Citizen Staff Reporter Prince George-Peace River MP Frank Oberle says the federal government’s intention to buy Pacific Petroleum Ltd. could mean taxpayer dollars being used to “bail out” the proposed Alcan pipiline. The Conservative MP in an interview Thursday said the proposed takeover is a “sinister plot” because the idea was conceived outside parliament and received no prior debate in the House. Petro Canada, a federal government agency, announced Nov. 10 that it intended to buy out Pacific Petroleum Ltd. which is the controlling shareholder in Westcoast Transmission Ltd. Westcoast, besides selling natural gas to distributors such as Inland Natural Gas in B.C., also has a 40 per cent interest in the construction of the Alaska Highway natural gas pipeline. The multi-billion dollar project is awaiting final regulatory approvals. The line will run from Alaska, through northeastern B.C., throughout the bulk of Alberta and hook onto gas lines in the United States. Oberle said the federal government’s link to the project through Westcoast now opens the door to “backroom" manoeuvring. He said public funds may also be used to bail out the project if financial difficulties occur. Oberle said there is no reason to believe the average Canadian will benefit from the takeover. Ron Morris A new or used cor or truck would make an ideal Christmas present . . . check with me today! Rice Chev Olds Ltd. 20th & Victoria 564-4466 DLN 00560A A&B v \. i. / Cr \ V SERVICES > A SECRETARY & FURNISHED OFFICES Now available . . . furnished office space and your own secretary. Reasonable rates, conveniently located in downtown Prince George. We also offer secretarial services in your office or ours. A&B Office Services Ltd. 203 — l378-5th Avenue Prince George, B.C. 564-7231 Regional District of Fraser-Fort George NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Notice is hereby given that pursuant to the provisions of the Municipal Act a Public Hearing will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 6, 1978 in the Mcleod Lake School, McLeod lake, B.C. in respect of the following by-law: "C.P.A. NO. 7 Zoning Amendment By-law No. 366, 1978" being a by-law to include District Lot 9609, Cariboo District, except plans 16629 and H212 in Community Planning Area No. 7 and to ^one the said land rural. This will permit Ihe subdivision of the land into parcels having a minimum area of 5 acres. The application is Harry A. Hanson and Frances P. MacNeil. The land is located approximately one mile south of McLeod Lake School. At the hearing all those who deem their interest in the land to be affected by the application shall be afforded an opportunity to be heard. Copies of the by-law may be inspected at the Regional District Office, No. 31 1, 1717 Third Ave., Prince George, from 8:45 a.m. to I 2:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and al the McLeod Lake Post Office. W.D. Kennedy Secretary Prince George, B.C. November 28, 1978 ,l,<‘ Citizen Tcrrv Roberts City Editor 5fi2-2m Local news All three studies were done by Stanley Associates Engineering Ltd.. at a total cost of $58,000. They have been sent to the highways department for comment. Mayor Harold Moffat and incoming mayor Elmer Mercier said Wednesday they weren't satisfied with the most recent report’s contents, compared with its price. The report said the Second Avenue overpass and upgraded street would cost about $1.2 million, compared with a $2.5 million cost for an overpass-diamond CITY CABLEVISION interchange intersection at Fifth and The Bypass. Upgrading of the Fifth-Second Avenue traffic corridor to the downtown is deemed necessary because of anticipated increases in traffic from Foothills Boulevard and the Foothills Bridge across the Nechako River to the Hart Highway-North Nechako area Second Avenue residents oppose plans to upgrade, the street because it will, they say. destroy the quite residential nature of the neighborhood. The area affected is north of Fifth, between Watrous Street and Ospika Boulevard. Telethon okayed It took a special ruling of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, but Prince George will see a 21-hour telethon. The telethon, to be broadcast on Cable Channel 9 Dec. 2 will star such diverse talents as Della Reese, and Darth Vader from Star Wars. The telethon, sponsored by the B.C. Lions Society for Crippled Children is being produced in Vancouver by CKVU-TV, this was the problem which brought in the CRTC. The society wanted the telethon to go out through the province; but CKVU’s licence limits it to the Fraser Valley. A special ruling of the CRTC was needed to allow the cable channels to carry the telethon. The special approval was opposed by BCTV who claimed that the telethon was a first step by CKVU to move into BCTV’s province wide market. Last year’s telethon raised for the society’s ongoing ser- vires to handicapped youngsters. Also performing in the telethon will be Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, Bobby Gimby, Jesse Jones, the Rythm Pals. Ken Delo and Gail Farrell from the Lawrence W’elk Show and El merTippe Group as well as a variety of Vancouver talent and the possibility of talent from the Prince George area. Telethon starts at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. A Thought for Today Beaton paths are for boaten mon. — Eric Johnston >•4==- Happyfoce Ptoce L The Presented as a Public Service Every Day by: Schultz Pontiac Buick Ltd. 1111 Control 563-0271 Are you Having an Affair . . .? A Christmas Party? An Office Meeting? A Club Gathering? A Social? LET HEIDI'S DO THE CATERING Catering for groups of up to 50 people. CALL HEIDI'S — 562-1648 ATTENTION SN0WM0BILERS Most transmission line right-of-way in the Prince George and Vanderhoof areas lie across private property. Please DO NOT ENTER these properties without the permission of the owner. B.C. HYDRO TO MOM FROM SANTA The 1979 Datsun 310 Front Wheel Drive on this little model. Save big From *6,295°° IMPERIAL DATSUN LTD ?st & Brunswick 563-0581