loco S3 news City editor: 562-2441, local 503 "Citizen Saturday, December 28, 1985 — 3 GRIME STOPPERS . Trash can firebug plagues officials More than 100 suspicious fires have been set in Prince George during the last nine months and police want to catch whoever is responsible. The majority of the fires have been set in the downtown area, mainly in garbage containers in back alleys. “Fortunately most of these fires have been extinguished in their early stages resulting in minimal property damage," an RCMP press release stated. “The police and the fire departments are very concerned that unless the person or persons responsible are apprehend- ed the next fire could have a far more tragic outcome." Crime Stoppers is focusing on a fire that happened at about 6:30 a.m., Oct. 2 at the rear entrance of Fantasy Plus One Tailor Shop at 421 George St. The fire department responded to the alarm and was able to qu'ckly extinguish the fire. Damage was confined to the rear door and wall. A police investigation found that the fire was started by igniting paper debris combined with an oil-based accelerant from a one-litre plastic container of motor oil, which was found at the scene. Crime tips wanted The ninth in a continuing series of crime re-enactments produced locally by Crime Stoppers is being shown on CKPG (Channel 2, Cable 3) for the next two weeks. The clips will be played from Monday to Friday shortly before 6 p.m. and again after 11 p.m. and then again from Jan. 6 to Jan. 10. Organizers of the Prince George Crime Stoppers program hope the publicity will encourage the public to give anonymous information to RCMP that will help solve the crime. How you con help If the publicity sparks your memory about the suspects or if have any information on the crime, Crime Stoppers wants you to call 564-TIPS. The telephone is answered by police officers who give tipsters individual identification numbers allowing them to remain anonymous. Once police get the information, they ask the tipster to call back in one week, giving RCMP time to follow up on the tip. If the information was useful to the investigation, the caller is asked to call back after the Crime Stoppers board of directors meets to decide how much the cash reward will be. The maximum Crime Stoppers reward is $1,000. During the final call, the caller will find out the amount of the reward and arrangements will be made to meet a board member in a public place. The reward is given to the caller when he identifies himself by using the identification number. An arrest must be made before a reward is paid, said a Crime Stoppers spokesman. The recent Prince George Art Gallery budget problems which were cured by a grant from city council signify a cultural problem that goes beyond that group alone. Alderman Art Stauble was not off base in his worry that by giving the gallery money, council might be leaving the vault door open for other groups using the same basic pleas for more money. How would council refuse them? It wasn’t so long ago that the Prince George Symphony Society was whetting budget-paring blades. Earlier, the concert association trimmed its offerings rather than close down altogether. Neither was bailed out by council. The predictable initial program for any new organization is a fundraising scheme (usually membership fees) to be followed by committees dedicated to spreading members’ efforts by holding bingos, selling raffle tickets or whatever. But once the organization is established. increasing membership fees to keep abreast of the economy is like pulling teeth — and for many arts-based groups this is especially true. Unfortunately, the one thing most people connected with the arts don’t seem to have tried to do is to convince their members to consider their activity as do people connected with almost any sport. Both athletes and artists have one thing in common: They work darned hard to reach any level of competence. Aside from the basic talent to do either: If athletes practised an instrument, paint brush or typewriter as much as they do at their sports, they’d be accomplished artists. Similarly, if artists worked at a sport for the hours they spend at their craft, they’d be no slouches on the fairways, rinks, courts or in the ring The difference is that most athletes put a heck of a lot of money out just to belong to a club. Their personal equipment and the Arnold Olson By the way . . . An occasional column by Citizen staff members. time they give to their sport is extra. The golfer doesn’t expect to get much of a membership for less than $300 a year - more if membership involves an 18-hole course. Locally, curling costs are more than that for a season. It appears the least a local adult athlete pays for an annual membership is $50 a year. Many local art groups" memberships are in the $10 range. Members of arts groups should ask themselves if their activity is so insignificant that it doesn’t warrant support similar to what athletes give to their activities. Imagine what almost any art-based group in this town could do if its members paid $100 or even $50 a year. Certainly, the membership list might drop significantly, but the groups should look at who would leave. If those who can’t afford the extra are the ones putting in a lot of volunteer hours, by all means make allowances and reduce their fee — thev pav in a different coin: Effort. If they are the ones who don’t contribute anything beyond the membership and a bit of lip service — who needs them? The elite, be they those who can pay or those who can produce, gather around them others of their kind, or those willing to meet the membership criteria just to be associated with them. Increasing membership fees won’t cure all financial ills, but it would shove imminent problems further away. However, higher fees shouldn’t eliminate the community’s duty to support the arts. But if the arts are important enough to deserve community support, they are certainly important enough to warrant more support from the people at the core of the various groups. That $10 membership for most arts groups represents a level that wasn’t enough 20 years ago. It’s hardly enough for newsletter postage today. Famous lodge razed CAMPBELL RIVER. B.C. (CP) — Painter's Lodge, a local fishing landmark for years, was destroyed by fire overnight. The lodge was built in 1938 and over the years was frequented by many celebrities including the late prime minister John Diefenbaker and actors John Wayne and Bob Hope. Water pressure problems hampered firefighting efforts but firemen were able to keep the blaze from spreading to nearby buildings. There was no one in the building at the time of the fire. Rosanna Wlasitz doesn’t need help to make a phone call anymore, thanks to the Telephone Pioneers of America, who donated this breath-activated telephone with money raised through a softball tournament last summer. This . , type of device allows disabled people to operate a phone, without the use of NO hands hands. Here, Rosanna calls her husband for the first time, while Don McDonald, president of the pioneers’ Prince George chapter, teaches her how to operate it. The phone works by blowing into the microphone, which dials the operator. The phone can be answered the same way. Citizen photo by Dave Milne FREE WADE VS. FREER TRAPS Lumber issues loom in '86 An analysis by KEN BERNSOHN Staff reporter Canada and the United States will sit down in mid-January for formal talks on lumber, following a full year of commotion about the subject. After a sheaf of bills in Congress to limit Canadian lumber exports going to the U.S., submissions to the International Trade Commission, and a plethora of political pontification, the first step toward resolution is expected in San Diego- From Jan. 14-16, talks between Canada, Japan, the U.S and the European Community are scheduled. Just before, or iust afterwards (the bureaucrats haven’t set a date yet), International Trade Minister James Kelleher will talk with U.S. trade ambassador Clayton Yeutter on the subject. This is expected to define what will be talked about when the bureaucrats gather soon after in an attempt by the Reagan and Mulroney administrations to get the issue out of the way so free-trade talks — as they’re called in the U.S. — or freer-trade talks — as they’re called in Canada — can start. The threat of restricted lumber exports to the U.S. has overshadowed a lot of changes for the better in the Northern Interior forest industry. Prince George will soon be the home of the first chopstick factory in B.C. adding more than 80 jobs, and a new type of industry. Another 300 jobs were created in the area this year by the federal-provincial Economic and Regional Development Agreement which will increase in activity over the next four years, reclaiming forest land which has improperly grown back after harvesting or fire. There are other new mills in the area, but they have old names. The Pas Lumber’s fully computerized mill, Balfour Forest Products’s new small log mill, and Takla Forest Products’s rebuilt Isle Pierre mill are all getting more lumber from every log, making the forest go further. Modernization can. mean fewer chips as byproducts of making lumber. Good thing, because there’s more chips than pulp mills, which have been running at 80 to 85 per cent of full capacity, need. Although pulp and lumber demand has been strong, the supply has been stronger, forcing prices down For lumber producers the market has been soft. For pulp producers the market has been flabby. The forecast for next year? Some sawmills see fewer homes being built in the U.S., the major market for our lumber. Ross Hay-Roe, head of PaperTree Economics thinks they’ll increase. Pulp is expected to remain at about the same level of demand with perhaps a slight increase, depending 'on who you talk to. The method of managing the forest that all this depends on is changing as well. In the past, bug infestations have decided cutting patterns. Fighting forests pests created the largest clear-cut in the world, a 40-kilometre by 40-kilometre bald patch visible from the moon in the Bowron River watershed an hour’s drive from Prince George. Nov/, the spruce bark beetle has been slowed down in the area — although not in the north as a whole — thanks in part to forest fires which roared through the logging debris and infected timber. Unfortunately, 631 fires during the most expensive fire fighting season in the province’s history, also roared through thousands of hectares of timber in the north. Al MacPherson, deputy minister of forests, said the fire problem was so bad that reforestation plans would have be expanded, changing the shape of the forest. The shape of timber holdings was changed early in the year when the government took back almost 6,000 square miles of forest from a Westar Tree Farm Licence near Terrace, then changed again, and again, as land was taken back in some areas, then given out in others. Clearing of giant beetle kill patches in the MacGregor and Cariboo areas speeding logging in some areas, while other firms lost Swimmers take plunge NANAIMO, B.C. (CP) - The water was warmer than the air — but not much — as a record 151 hardy souls took part in this Vancouver Island city’s 27th annual polar bear swim. Participants came from New Zealand, Australia, Europe and even Labrador to take part in the traditional Boxing Day dip. Air temperature was zero and the water was 5 degrees. The persistent fog made way for glorious sunny weather and a crowd of almost 3,000, most of them well-clad, shivered as the swimmers plunged into the water which had barely a ripple on it. After taking part and receiving a silver dollar to commemorate the plunge, swimmers warmed up in a giant hot tub. cutting rights, which slowed down the rate of harvest. The cost of all this changed as well with new machinery speeding up cutting and lowering the cost per cubic metre of wood harvested and through a change in rules which will add $30 million to government revenues for timber rights. Despite all these changes, forest companies and government officials are expected to plan ahead. About the only plan that’s a sure thing is that this May there will be a second Prince George Region Forest Exhibition. And with luck it will be as successful as this year s: the largest exhibition ever held in the North of the industry on which the city depends. Mr. Justice Henry Hutcheon, writing the reasons of the three-member appeal court, said MacKinnon’s ruling “is not in keeping with the definition of ‘dispute’ or the stated purposes of the code." The Labor Code defines a dispute to mean “a difference, or apprehended difference between an employer and one or more employees, or a trade union, as to matters relating to terms or conditions of employment." Hutcheon said there was a dispute. “Four (employees) enlisted the union in an effort to get their jobs back and to improve alleged unsatisfactory working conditions. The legislature has alloted such matters to the Labor Relations Board." J. lan Evans & Associates OPTOMETRISTS 1, B.Sc. O.D. AlANE EVANS, B.Sc.. 0.0. DONNA MOCKLER, B.Sc., 0.0. ROBIN G. SIMPSON, B Sc., O.D. CHERYL SKOTNITSKY B.Sc., O.D. Optical Wing. 401 Quebec St., Fane Building. Prince George, B.C. 562-1305 Mon. to Sat. Adam & Tanna Doika 40th . Anniversary OPEN HOUSE Sunday Doc. 29th 1:30 to 5 p.m. 1135 - 2Cth Avo. PASSPORT PHOTOS Sooter Studios NEW LOCATION: 1204 • 2nd Avenue 5630882 PRINCE GEORGE eip us help you R.C.M P. Prince Gioige has two excellent modes of transportation for drinking drivers — taxis, and police cars. Season’s Greetings from the Staff HOLIDAY HOURS Dec. 24th — 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Closed Christmas Day & Boxing Day Dec. 27th, 28th and 30th Regular Hours 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Dec. 31st — 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. CLOSED NEW YEAR’S DAY oip. ^ORYHAWKE % MEDICAL CENTRE A 7780 Hart Highway 962-9207 Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. VANCOUVER (CP) - The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the jurisdiction of the Labor Relations Board to deal with disputes between management and workers, even where there is no collective agreement. The Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers appealed to the court from an interlocutory injunction granted earlier this year in B.C. Supreme Court by Mr. Justice Gordon MacKinnon to Maz Tudor Inn Ltd. and Calypso Dining Room, both of Kitimat. The dispute arose when a restaurant manager fired a waitress in September 1984, and three other employees quit work in protest. They had no collective agreement with their employer but took their complaint to the association, which represents workers at the Kitimat smelter. In late October 1984, the union executive recommended that organized workers boycott the hotel and restaurant, and on Dec. 6, the union’s president and business agent joined the restaurant workers on an information picket line. Management filed a court action claiming the picketing resulted in a $26,000 loss due to cancelled functions. MacKinnon granted an injunction against further picketing after holding that the court had jurisdiction in the case because there was no collective agreement between the companies and their employees, the association does not have status as a certified bargaining agent, no complaints were made under the Labor Code, and the claim for damages could be resolved independent of a finding of a breach of the code. I