The Prince George Citizen SATURDAY, MAY 19,1990 50 CENTS Feeding athletes no small task — help needed by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff Hermann Wuest needs help — lots and lots of help — to prepare and serve meals to 5,000 people, three times a day, for four days during the 1990 B.C. Summer Games. Wuest is the Prince George summer games director responsible for food, and the job is mind-boggling. Consider the barbecue on July 12 just prior to opening ceremonies. It calls for preparation of about 800 kilograms (1,700 pounds) of potato salad, cooking of 11,000 pieces of chicken and providing 5,200 diners an assortment of salads, fresh vegetable trays, coleslaw and pies, cakes and fresh fruit for dessert. Wuest is well organized with a lot of preparation already done, like arranging for construction of 14 large barbecues by the College of New Caledonia welding department and having 48,000 packages of disposable cutlery ready to go. But he admits he’s “ a little worried” about getting enough volunteers. So far he has 250, but he needs at least 1,800 more to prepare meals in five different locations. Participants will have breakfast and dinners at Prince George senior secondary school and CNC, while boxed lunches will be delivered to games sites and sports venues scattered throughout the city. Lunches will be prepared ai the Yellowhead Inn, Inn of the North and Holiday Inn hotels during late night hours and stored in special cooling containers. Hotels are even arranging for babysitting services for volunteers who wish to bring the children along. Volunteers don’t need to worry about slicing meats, tomatoes or ‘‘any of the fiddly work. “Their main job will be putting the lunches together, assembly line style. We just need lots of hands,” Wuest said. Participants will enjoy such lunches as smoked turkey breast on rye, roast beef on a Kaiser bun, bagels with cream cheese and sprouts, as well as granola bars, fruit, cookies, yogurt and beverages. Volunteers for breakfasts and dinners don’t have to worry about actual cooking or working at the stoves. “There’ll be a number of trained cooks at each site. Volunteers will tray-out the food, refill the dishes and help with clean-up.” he explained. Wuest hopes to hear from people in the local hospitality industry to assist at the two cooking sites. But they’ll have to come early to help serve breakfast from 6 ajn. to mid-moming. Breakfast buffets will be a feast with bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, cereals, yogurt, juice, Danish pastry, Belgian waffles with fresh berries, pancakes and lots of coffee, tea or milk. Dinners will be different each night with Mexican tacos, veal steak with mushrooms, Italian lasagna and porkchops with apple sauce. Volunteers are asked to call the Games office at 564-1990 to get involved. Training sessions for food service volunteers start the first week in June. Citizen photo by Brock Gable Hermann Wuest Is dwarfed by the pile of potatoes needed for potato salad at the B.C. Summer Games barbecue. POLICE REPORT Accident kills youth A 16-year-old youth is dead after the vehicle he was operating went out of control on Johnson Road near the Prince George airport early this morning. Dead is Shane Wylie, 16, of Prince George. Shortly after 11 pjn. Wylie and his five passengers were travelling on Pooley Road when the car failed to negotiate a curve on Johnson Road. The vehicle left the highway, striking an open field and rolling several times. The occupants were thrown from the vehicle. Wylie was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency personnel. The five other occupants were treated for minor injuries at the Prince George Regional Hospital No paper The Citizen will not publish Monday as its employees join the rest of the country in observing Victoria Day. Publication and regular office hours resume Tuesday. and later released. Police said no charges have been laid in connection with the accident. ★ ★ ★ A four-day preliminary hearing in provincial court here ended Friday with both men ordered to stand trial for the murder of 21-year-old Joey Hamilton Tom. Charged with first-degree murder are Ronald Larabie, 20, and Robert Colluney, 19. Colluney also faces charges of forcible confinement, robbery and committing indignities to a human body. A Supreme Court trial date has not yet been set. The remains of the 21-year-old Tom were discovered at a local landfill on February 20, almost a year after his disappearance in February, 1989. ★ ★ ★ A trailer in the Beaverly area was destroyed by fire early this morning. The Beaverly volunteer fire department attended the fire at 3:20 a.m. today, but the trailer burned to the ground. CHAMBER CALLS FOR BUDGET HERMAN* iPLUHPMaj 58307 001 ■111 'We're looking for a non-stick bathtub.1 13 i"CLdl-=:,9 Wncluded Wjjnru)$ Business IlSilfflo Careers----------16 JUL. fPUUTClUU! City, B.C.-.... 3 * * Classified_______17-22 oS£S=s==d Our trivia winners Crossword_________—19 Entertainment ~.~...~~..6 An old grey hare Family Wimp rap unfair Religion.- .8 1^ K i Sports...—....—.—13-15 P PLUS’ Magazine TELEPHONE: CIRCULATION PLUS. Magazine 562-2441 562-3301 School tax hike good and bad by BERNICE TRICK Citizen Staff Paying this year’s school taxes can be good or bad news for Prince George property owners, depending on the value of their homes. Those with homes valued higher than $53,500 will pay less than last year while those with homes valued lower $53,500 will pay slightly more. The big difference this year is the government paying a supplemental home owner grant in addition to the basic home owner grant. The supplement covers 25 per cent of taxes which are above the basic home owner grant of $430. The government’s tax rate, per $1,000 of assessed value, for Prince George School District 57 is set at $11.52, an eight-per-cent increase over last year’s rate of $10.67. Here’s what it means to the majority of taxpayers. A home assessed at $50,000 will pay school taxes ($11.52 X 50) of $576. BILL REID AFFAIR After deducting the basic homeowner grant ($576 - $430) your tax is $146. Now deduct the supplemental homeowner grant (25 per cent of $146) of $36 for a total tax of $110. At last year’s rates the total would have been $104. A home assesed at $100,000 will pay $542 or $95 less than last year, while a home assessed at $150,000 will pay $974 or $197 less than last year. Next year, the government’s supplement home owner grant will be designed to cover 50 per cent of taxes above the basic home owner grant. This increased provincial financing means tax payers will pay a smaller share of the cost of education. The changes to the home owner grant mean that by next year, the share of public school expenditure paid by residential property ow-neres will be only 10 per cent, said Finance Minister Mel Couvelier, in making the announcement. Tax rates differ throughout school districts in B.C., depending on budgets submitted to the government by individual school boards. The highest rate in the province is $19.43 in the North Thompson school district while the lowest rate at $3.42, per $1,000 assessed value, is in the West Vancouver school district. Prince George city hall collects school, municipal, regional district, hospital district and debt taxes, which are due July 6. Bills are expected to be distributed by the end of May. The residential property tax rate set by the city earlier this month is $12.27 per $1,000 assessed value. Thus, total taxes for that $50,000 home will include $683.50 for municipal, regional district, hospital and debt plus $110 school taxes for a total of $793.50. Taxes on a home assessed at $100,000 will include $1,367 municipal taxes plus $542 school taxes for a total bill of $1,909. Taxes on a home assessed at $150,000 will include $2,050 municipal taxes plus $974 school taxes for a total of $3,024. Breach of trust alleged OTTAWA (CP) — Canada’s economy is in so much trouble Finance Minister Michael Wilson must immediately bring in a new federal budget, the president of Canada’s largest business group said Friday. “Daily, there are disturbing economic signals that the economy is getting deeper and deeper into trouble — that we may be heading for our first quarter of negative economic growth since 1982,” Tim Reid, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said in a speech in Guelph, Ont. “The federal government should bring in a revised federal budget immediately to get the Canadian economy back on track,” Reid said in a summary of his comments released in Ottawa. Economists consider two consecutive quarters of negative growth — where the economy shrinks rather than grows — a recession. The last was in 1982. Reid said Canada’s economic situation has worsened dramatically since Wilson’s budget. In his Feb. 20 budget, Wilson announced $3 billion in spending cuts and no new taxes — a package he forecast would mean a slight cut in the federal deficit in 1990-91 to $285 billion from $30.5 billion the year before. He predicted the budget and other government moves would result in a $ 10-billion deficit reduction by 1993-94. But recent interest-rate hikes mean the finance minister won’t be able to meet his forecasts for deficit reduction, said Reid. Since January, interest rates have risen 1.5 percentage points to an eight-year high. The prime lending rate banks charge their best customers is currently 14.75 per cent. VANCOUVER (CP) — The Bill Reid lottery funds affair reached the courthouse Friday when NDP justice critic Moe Sihota swore out an information against the former provincial secretary, alleging breach of trust. Sihota handed Phillip Lim, a justice of the peace, a thick binder containing evidence he says proves that Reid broke the public trust. In a solemn courtroom ceremony, Sihota told Lim he has “reasonable and probable grounds” to believe Reid broke rules governing his conduct as a minister of the Crown. Sihota alleged that trust was breached when Reid diverted $277,000 in lottery money to a company controlled by George Doonan, his former campaign manager and Bill Sullivan, a friend. Not only did the former minister overstep the lottery fund guidelines, Sihota said, but he also did not publicly disclose his close relationship with the principals of Eco-Clean Waste Systems Ltd. Lim, who convened a courtroom hearing to hear the allegations, adjourned the case until May 28 to consider the evidence. No charge has been laid, but Lim will be expected to rule on whether the information provided by Sihota is sufficient to warrant the breach-of-trust charge. Reid resigned from cabinet last fall after disclosures that he had funnelled money from a growth and opportunities lottery fund to Eco-Clean. A subsequent investigation by the provincial comptroller-general concluded his actions were “improper and irregular.” The RCMP recommended charges be laid, but were overruled by the Attorney General’s Ministry. However, amid public criticism following the decision. Attorney General Bud Smith appointed ombudsman Stephen Owen to conduct a public inquiry into his ministry’s actions in the affair. Sihota’s case is based on public information, including the comptroller-general’s report, legal opinions, case precedents dealing with the breach-of-trust provision of the Criminal Code and evidence given by a forensic accountant during the provincial auditor-gcneral’s investigation into lottery grants. No new evidence was provided to Lim, and Sihota admitted he wasn’t able to get copies of RCMP investigation reports in the case. “Needless to say, we’re handicapped because the police reports aren’t available to us,” he said. In Victoria, Attorney-General Bud Smith declined to comment on the “specifics” of the case and said any further action will be up to Lim. Fire suspects nabbed Thanks to an anonymous phone call to Crime Stoppers in Prince George, four suspects have been arrested and charged in connection with the McGill Shopping Centre fire 18 months ago. Two adults aged 17 and 18 and two young offenders, all of Prince George, are expected to appear in provincial court in June to each face charges of arson and five counts of mischief. The College Heights area shopping centre was destroyed Nov. 25, 1988, by an early morning fire of suspicious origin. The fire began in a trash container located next to the concrete block and wood building, with burning trash igniting a false ceiling and then spreading throughout the centre. Destroyed in the blaze was Ken’s Home Hardware and the China Sail Restaurant. The same evening other fires were discovered at the 7-Eleven on Central, McDonald’s restaurant at Spruceland, Malaspina and Gladstone elementary schools in College Heights and in a large container at the Munro St. dumping station. Meanwhile, the investigation into the Sunday morning fire causing more than $1 million damage to an Ospika Avenue complex here is continuing. There were 49 local calls and one long distance call made to Prince George Crime Stoppers in April. Nine persons were arrested, with 33 charges laid and a total of 12 criminal cases were solved. Crime Stoppers awards up to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for a crime. If you see a crime being committed, call the TIPS line at 564-8477. LAYOFFS PROTESTED Blockade closes sawmill KITWANGA, B.C. (CP) — A blockade by Git-wangak Indians concerned about layoffs at a lumber mill here shut down the operation Friday, about 90 kilometres northeast of Terrace. The mill, run by Westar Timber Ltd. on land leased from the Gitwangak band, is located on the north shore of the Skeena River about 790 kilometres north of Vancouver. Don Ryan, president of the Gitksan Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, said he was called in as a strategist and media contact by the band council after it decided to throw up the blockade at 5 ajn. on Friday. Band members are upset by 35 layoffs from the mill since Christmas and the company’s refusal to clarify plans for the plant, which is running only one shift per day in its planer mill, said Ryan. “The majority of the workforce are native people, with a lot of them from this community,” he said. “People have to have some assurance that there will be employment.” Workers were turned back without confrontation when they arrived for their shift in the morning, he said. The blockade, built with logs dragged across the road and several vehicles, will remain until the band receives an answer to a list of demands given the company Friday, Ryan said. The union at the mill supports the band’s efforts, said Surinder Malhotra, a Terrace-based business agent for the International Woodworkers of Ameri-ca-Canada. Meanwhile, in Williams Lak\ a judge is to hear an application today by Department of National Defence for an injunction to remove a roadblock set up by Toosey Indian band members around a central B.C. military training area. The blockade halted exercises Friday on a Canadian Forces training area that surrounds one of the band’s reserve properties near Riske Creek. Lawyer Donna Kydd, representing the Toosey band, said the application was filed Friday, and a B.C. Supreme Court judge would hear this morning in Prince George. The natives, who claim Canadian Forces Camp Chilcotin is on their land, set up a roadblock to stop 60 troops and 13 vehicles from getting to the camp, located west of Williams Lake. A North Vancouver militia regiment was to stage war games this weekend. Low tonight: 4 High Sunday: 15 058307001008