local news City editor: 562-2111, local .‘jll.’l I Ilf • A • L itizen Wednesday, December 11, 1985 — 3 I NDIANS 1 fO TALK WITI H CN by Canadian Press KITWANGA - The Gitwangak Indian band will meet with CN Kail officials in Vancouver Thursday to continue negotiations over the disputed ownership of 28 hectares of land at this northwestern B.C. Indian village. The band blockaded the vital CN main line to Prince Rupert on the weekend before the railway obtained a B.C. Supreme Court injunction ordering Indians off CN land. Chief Glen Williams said the band will not proceed with plans to ask the court to overturn the injunction until after it sees what comes of the Thursday meeting. The band and CN Rail have Deen locked in a long dispute over the land the Indians say was improperly transferred in 1910. The disputed land includes the railyards, the railway rights-of-way and a 12-hectare industrial park. Williams said the band wants the industrial park returned and compensation for the loss of Indian land. Counterfeit bill found A counterfeit U.S. $100 bill has been passed at a food store in Hixon and was reported to police by a bank in Quesnel on Tuesday. Counterfeit bills have recently been passed in Kamloops, Cherry Creek. Clinton, Boston Bar and Williams Lake. The couple passing the bills are believed to be travelling in a late-model Buick or Oldsmobile with B.C. licence plates. The man is clean-shaven with brown hair, and is about five feet, seven inches tall. The woman has shoulder-length red hair and is about five feet tall. Tools stolen RCMP are investigating the theft of tools and two chain saws from the back of a green pickup truck parked in downtown Quesnel Tuesday night. The stolen property is valued at about $4,800, police said. atf*"" ’"T' 4 't Marking the start of construction for the Trees for the World project, Steve Marynovich from the Prince George East forest district, committee TREES FOR THE WORLD chairman Dave Belford, Aid. John Backhouse and city operations manager Rick Lloyd examine the landscape design for the finished project. 'Exciting project' starts Construction of an access road to the Trees for the World site on Cranbrook Hill began Tuesday. According to Dave Belford, chairman of the committee heading the project, within a week a 1.4-kilometre rough graded road will be completed and the site will be ready for initial planting by the first week of May, 1986. The $229,000 project will include an arboretum, a nature house, picnic sites, an area with grass and wildflowers, demonstration forestry sites showing natural forest, the results of brushing and weeding, plus seedling plantations near Beaver (Shane) Lake. “I think it’s an exciting project, in that it takes advantage of the natural beauty of the area, and uses the expertise of the area,” said Aid. John Backhouse, representing the city. “It’s not just a short term rah-rah Expo type project, but has THE LABOR FRONT Food operation to close immense values for generations to come.” Bruce’s Excavating Ltd. donation of an excavator, Finning Tractor’s donation of a D8 Cat and the Ninth Nechako Boy Scout’s removal of trees so they can be sold as firewood, demonstrates the services which are expected to contribute $120,000 toward the budget. The city has provided $20,000. Canada Works projects and the sale of seedlings to those who plant them will also contribute toward the project, according to Belford. “Since we’re looking at a longterm project, we hope to involve associations interested in promoting forestry in the Central Interior as well, Belford said. The Unemployment Action Centre's food store will be closed within three months. That decision was made at the regular monthly meeting of the Prince George and District Labor Council Tuesday night. This move ties in with a plan by the Prince George Consumers United Co-op to open a major cooperative food store in Prince George early next year. “The move then, obviously, is that the labor council closes the food store and then a group of individuals open a co-op,” said Donn Stanley, labor council president. He pointed out that the food store’s business has dropped about $1,000 per month since September. The food war going on between commercial grocery stores in Prince George makes it difficult for the food store to compete, he noted. “On top of that, the action centre co-ordinator is paid to do a job. and the job that he’s paid to do is as the action centre co-ordinator and not as the food store manager." Stanley said. “It’s not competitive, it’s not serving the function that we assume it should be." In October, Cecil Kelley, centre co-ordinator, said the co-op would serve those currently going to the centre's food store and members of the public. ★ ★ ★ The Prince George and District Labor Council is putting up $400 to co-sponsor the play The Enemy Within to be performed here in the spring. The play is critical of the provincial government. “It’s a political play and it has got excellent reviews,” labor council president Donn Stanley said at Tuesday’s regular monthly labor council meeting. The council will match $400 put in by the New Democratic Party. The first $800 that comes in will pay off the sponsors’ investment and any profit will be split between the sponsors and the theatre company. ★ ★ ★ The Unemployment Action Centre is planning to distribute 50 food hampers for Christmas. Applications for the hampers close at the end of this week. The labor council voted to buy 10 turkeys for the centre’s hampers and also voted to donate $50 to the Mexican earthquake fund. ★ ★ ★ Bert Kerkof and Carol Dwyer were elected to sit on Prince George Senior Secondary school’s carpentry advisory committee and business education advisory committees respectively, at tuesday’s labor council meeting. Kerkof is a member of Local 1998 of the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America and Dwyer is a member of Local 611 of the B.C. Government Employees Union. ★ ★ ★ Today marks the third week of the strike by three unions against Pacific Western Airlines. “I’m not sure that we’re optimistic about having an agreement before Christmas.” said Paul Aikins, United Auto Workers spokesman, one of the three unions on strike, speaking at Tuesday’s meeting. Man's death investigated Mackenzie RCMP are investigating the death Monday of Kurt Van Dennis, 20. of Grassy Bluff, 32 km west of Ingenika Point on Williston Lake. A police investigation found that Dennis had been in a fight while at a party with other Grassy Bluff residents. A male youth is in custody and is expected to appear in youth court in Mackenzie Thursday, police said. INSULATION GRANT ENDING Government grant lor upgrading insulation is ending. Homes built before Sept 1st, 1977 are eligible lor a nonrepayable grant ot up to $500.00 Landlords and tenants qualify Electrically Heated Homes qualify lor low Interest Hydro Financing For more Information call 562-6200 COMFORT INSULATION Serving Prince George since 1978 THE HOT SPOT now has Elias Honey See Us For All Your Honey Needs EXAMPLES: 500 Gr. Jar.M.79 Honey Bear 375 gr. Jar............. 1.03 5 Kilo Pail. *11.49 1666 Nicholson 564-2274 NEW CURLING RINK Community pitches in by DAVE PAULSON Staff reporter Old fashioned community spirit in Salmon Valley is helping to turn a dream ot a curling rink into a no-cost reality. A three-sheet curling complex is nearing completion adjacent to the Salmon Valley Community Hall, thanks to a construction force consisting of community volunteers which has saved the community association about $300,000 in labor costs. Materials were purchased with a $150,000 grant from B.C Lotteries, which agrees to pay one-third of the costs of such community projects. “That's their portion, arid how we come up with the rest is up to us," explained Vonda Hofferd. secretary treasurer of the Salmon Valley Curling Association. “We've estimated labor costs are $300,000." A further $5,000 was donated by the Fraser-Fort George Regional District. Planning began in June after the lotteries grant was approved and construction began in October Next month the 400 residents of the sprawling Salmon Valley district, only a few kilometres outside Prince George's northern city boundary but about 20 km from downtown, will have a curling facility to call their own Like other communities around Greater Prince George. Salmon Valley prefers to have its own rural identity. Those with curling experience have commuted in recent years on cola winter nights to the Bear Lake curling club 50 km north, rather than make the shorter drive to the Prince George club The new curling sheets will not only be teeming with 24 mixed adult rinks next month, but will also be used to teach the game to students at Salmon Valley elementary school. Principal Gervin Halladav said students from Grade 2 to 7 are to begin curling in January as part of their physical education curriculum, adding one more form of recreation for resident children who are a long way from facilities in Prince George. Major forms of recreation for young people there now are horseback riding and skating, says Halla-day. “They're all looking forward to curling," Halladav said A mini school bonspiel is also scheduled. A club logo, to be erected at the building's entrance. was chosen last week from 54 entries in a contest open to Salmon Valley students. Dallas Peterson’s depiction of a salmon heaving a curling stone won him $50. while Tricia Eberle won $30 for second place and Carrie Robinson won $20 for third. CORRECTION In todays Citizen on Page 25, there is an advertisement indicating Midnight Madness at Zellers and City Furniture as Tonight, Dec. 11. IT SHOULD READ “TOMORROW NIGHT, DEC. 12.” Mackenzie asks help to tackle grizzly problem by MALCOLM CURTIS Staff reporter Environment Minister Austin Pelton has turned down a request from Mackenzie district council for a conservation officer to cope with the bear problem in the municipality- As part of the government restraint program more than two years ago the Environment Ministry office in the town was eliminated. The nearest conservation officers are now in Prince George, more than two hours drive away. Meanwhile, grizzly bears gambol through the centre of Mackenzie. “We’re right in the middle of the boreal forest and this is their natural stomping grounds," said Vern Ciccone, town administrator. Ciccone said bears have been seen at all times of the year. So far there have been “close encounters’’ with the giant bears but no recent maulings or injuries, he added. Although grizzlies are generally dormant for the winter they make unscheduled appearances from time to time. Complaints are currently handled by the RCMP. But Mackenzie council, which contracts the Mounties to police the municipality, is upset that the force is being taken away from its duties to enforce the Wildlife Act — which it feels is a provincial responsibility. Council this week rejected a “partial solution” offered by Pelton in a letter last month to help train municipal staff to deal with the bears. “The council is contending that the province is failing in its respon- For Quality TELEPHONE ANSWERING & PAGING Call sibility to look after the conservation problem," said Ciccone. The administrator said the town was “well-served” when there was a conservation office there. Don Walker, regional conservation officer in Prince George, said he would be happy to see more staff but he said nothing will change until government restraint is lifted. There are only 29 conservation officers to patrol northern B.C., an area comprising two-thirds of the province. When two additional officers were hired to patrol the Tumbler Ridge area more than two years ago officers who retired in Mackenzie and Prince Rupert were not replaced, said Walker. The result is that a huge area of land north of Mackenzie is unpa-trolled, except for occasional forays made by Prince George offic- GTS. Walker praised the RCMP for doing a “aamned good job of covering our responsibilities." The police force is empowered to enforce the Wildlife Act in the same way as wildlife officers. Walker said his department has been asking for more staff for more than three years, but added the ministry has not been as hard hit as other government departments. “I’d love to have more manpower, but I don’t say our department has priority over other areas that are worse off than we are.” Cy) m — '■ 564-7231 A&B Office Service Ltd. men ' CORRECTION On Pg. 16 of Zellers “Looking For Savings” circ. Dec. 11th-14th, the Knitting Stand which appears In copy only will not be available. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers. 1303 3rd Ave. 563-1671 Takla Rainbow Lodge Want to spend your holiday season in a true wilderness atmosphere? Away from the quiche wimpinews. Really howl with the wolves. Takla Rainbow Lodge The place to be Get your group together and come on up for some good times. --SPECIAL RATES-- During the Holiday Season Dec. 20 - Jan. 5 Inclusive Cabins $37.50 per Day — Real Homecooked Meals NEW YEAR’S EVE SPECIAL Cabin, midnight buffet and all drinks for those who survive, our traditional New Year brunch of steak and champagne $75.00 per couple. Music by Wurlitzer. Of course besides howling, hot springs, ice fishing. REAL WOLVES. Just bring your snowmobile or crosscountry skis. For Reservations Call Anytime Radio Phone Operator for Takla Rainbow Lodge A1 Winter Rd. to Lodge N698499 or H49 - 4924 YL or JW Mount Dixon Channel Please have patience with B.C. Tel they are getting deregulated or something. *2.00 each Mon., Tues., Wed. & Thurs. 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