tumbler ridge

Week

Volume Ill Issue No. 27

TUMBLER RIDGE
LIBRARY |

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July 20, 1988

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the floor of Room 5 at the Community Centre was covered
with more than 30 youngsters with their sleeping bags. It
as a Sun Fun sleep over and everyone was very much

RTC approves cable application

Vy Nancy Perkins

On June 15 the Canadi-
nn Radio-television and
Telecommunications
Commission approved the
application by North East
fable for a license to
carry on a_ broadcasting
feceiving undertaking to
ve Tumbler Ridge. The
license will expire August

Two applications were
made for the service at the
March 7, 1988, public
hearing. One application
was made for North East
Cable by John Blades with
Amelia Blades making a
competing application.

At the Victoria hearing,
North East indicated that
in addition to the signals

Page 2
Swim club news
Page5
Teen Job Mart
Page 10

The weather this week

Wednesday: Afternoon clouds. Probability of show-

ers 30%.

Thursday: Sunny with cloudy periods. Highs to 21.

| Lows near 10.

7 | Friday: Mostly sunny. Highs to 24. Lows near 10.
Warmest Day: July 14 at 20.1

| Coldest Day: July 15 at 3.6

_ Precipitation: A trace of rain
| Sunshine Hours: 10 hours of sunshine on July 14

enjoying the movie and popcorn before they settled down
for the night.

already provided, it pro-
posed to provide the ABC
network service as well as
a community channel by
September, 1988. The a-
mount of community pro-
gramming would depend
upon community interest
and volunteer support.

In making a decision
for North East the Com-
mission had no concerns

with respect to the finan-.

cial viability of the North
East proposal. However,
they noted that the Amelia
Blades application offered
unrealistic penetration
projections. The Commis-
sion was also concerned
about the financial viabili-
ty of the Amelia Blades
proposal.

Despite the intervention
of the District of Tumbler
Ridge, regarding the class
of license, North East was
granted a Part I and III
license that makes no
restriction on rate changes
or demands for a com-
munity channel.

In making this decision
the Commission noted

North East’s firm com-
mitment to develop a
community channel and
its commitment not to
raise rates in the forecast
period of three years, and
includes putting on an
extra four channels.
Presently North East
provides services from
NBC, PBS, and CBS from
Detroit, Michigan, the
Sports Network, Much
Music, CBE North,
CITV, CHCH, the French
channel, the Knowledge
Network, and the Super
channel. North East of-
fers radio services, includ-
ing a local rebroadcaster
of CBU Vancouver,
CFMI, VOCM St. Johns

~ and CKRW-Whitehorse.

John Blades said he is
most pleased with the
decision, adding the ABC
will be added along with
the Community channel.
YTV, a new Youth chan-
nel, will be added in
September. However, he
does not yet know what
the fourth channel will be.

plan

by Nancy Perkins

Consultant Brian John-
son returned to Tumbler
Ridge for the June 23
public meeting to discuss
the draft report for the
Parks, Recreation and
Culture Five Year Master
Plan and the Pool Feasi-
bility Study. ;

Johnson spoke to ap-
proximately 50 residents,
saying that both reports
are in draft form and at
this stage, Council has
neither rejected or accept-
ed the reports. The reports
are simply consultants’
ideas. and recommenda-
tions.

The Master Plan is writ-

- ten in two parts, the first

consists of the decision-
making framework for the
next five to 10 years. It
includes goals, objectives
and guidelines to help
evaluate, structure and or-
ganize what may be done.

The facility area of the
report stated a cultural
centre serves the interests

_ of performing arts, exhib-

iting arts, and social func-
tions. However, it was felt
that it is not feasible
financially for the com-
munity to build a separate
building such as a cultural
centre. The major recom-
mendation made was to
renovate the Community
Centre. A theatre is ex-
pensive to build and oper-
ate and it was felt there
wasn’t as high a priority
for a theatre as a pool.
However, the report add-
ed that a portable stage
and riser facilities could
be useful and more cost
effective.

Some of the recommen-
dations made included e-
liminating the parking lot
beside the Community
Centre and take the walls
of rooms 4 and 5 out 40
feet. This would make
available a large hall for
community purposes. The
cost would be consider-
able, $450,000. However,
the net operating cost
would be nil.

Regarding the indoor
pool, the report said the
public supports it and sees

Five year
master

it as the highest priority.
Ninety-three. percent of
those questioned wanted
an indoor pool.

The report recommend-
ed a leisure pool. This
usually consists of a fairly
small water tank, no div-
ing area, and four 25
meter swimming lanes. A-
round the pool deck
would be a sauna, whirl-
pool, play pieces for in
water, waterslides, rope
swings, games area, sun
tanning area, food and
beverage service, and ac-
cess to the weight room.

The report noted this is

a high quality project and

is expensive to construct.
It was further recom-
mended there be added to
the leisure pool, two rac-
quet ball courts, an en-
larged weight room and
additional storage. The
major viewing area would
be glassed where the exist-
ing lounge is. The lounge
would include _ seating
area, food and beverage.
In the lounge viewing area
of the pool there would be
games and the art gallery.
The size of the pool would
be a maximum 5 feet and
the shallow end 6 inches.
The facility would accom-
modate 325 patrons.

The cost of this project
would cost $2.5 million to
construct and it would
have a net vuperating
shortfall of $170,000 per
year. With suggested fi-
nancing, the cost would
work out to an increase in
community taxes of 10.14
percent. This works out to
approximately 66 cents
per each $1,000 of individ-
ual property assessments.

The reports said the
benefits would be signifi-
cant. The user number
would increase in the com-
munity with an estimated
75 percent of all house-
holds using the centre.

It was recommended
that the hours of the pool
‘be 80 hours per week. The
jracquet courts could be on
'a 24 hour automated ac-
cess system which would

best serve the 24 hour shift
Continued on page 14