◆ Rupert rated fifth highest in Crime Severity Index...
PAGE 3
◆ Sun Wave comments on
potential Watson Island sale... PAGE 7
◆ Salvation Army ready to give out backpacks... PAGE 8 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 2012 Proudly serving the North Coast - The eNVy of the North www.thenorthernview.com 250-624-8088 VOL. 7 NO. 32
Feature Property
THE FIRST RESPONDER...
1807 KOOTENAY AVE For Sale:
$
209,500
Pride of ownership is evident both inside and out of this well kept 5 bedroom home. Located in the hear of the Pineridge Elementary School Catchment area and within a very short walking distance of the school, this family oriented property is a perfect choice for your new home. Features of this property include an enormous sun deck in the backyard, a gas fireplace in the living room, wood floors throughout the main floor and a very bright, sunny and private location.Call Gordon @ (250) 624-9298 for the additional details and your appointment today!
Gordon Kobza Broker/Owner
Office and Cell: (250) 624-9298 Email: info@gordonkobza.com • www.gordonkobza.com Suite 6 - 342 3rd Ave W. Prince Rupert, BC V8J 1L5
CHECK OUT OUR SATURDAY DOOR CRASHERS SPECIALS! See our ad inside
PRINCE RUPERT 250-624-4357 250-624-4357 Toll Free 1-855-604-4357
Martina Perry photo
The Prince Rupert branch of the BC Ambulance Service honoured Betsy Smith with the Vital Link Award for her quick action to keep her partner, Robert Milton, alive until paramedics arrived after he had a heart attack in the night. For more on this story, see page 4.
◆ ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
City and WatCo both say Watson Island sale is a good deal despite low price By Alan S. Hale The Northern View The $5.5-million deal for the sale of Watson Island is being heralded as a fair and mutually beneficial one by both the City of Prince Rupert and the Watson Island Development Corporation, who represented the buyers in the negotiation of the deal. While both sides may be satisfied, it is clear that the City is looking to sell the property for much lower than it was expected to be worth when they acquired the property from Sun Wave Forest Products and put it
up in a tax sale in 2009. Back then, the property was estimated to be valued at about $13-million but after revelations about just how badly contaminated over 80 years of heavy industrial use has left Watson Island, people were not lining up to pay that kind of money for it when it might cost several million just to bring it back up to a usable standard. “By the time this island is redeveloped into a sea terminal it will be a very large amount of money will have been spent... The $5.5-million to acquire the properties
from the District and the City is just a small part of what will be required to bring it back into active production,” said Tanner Elton, WatCo’s chief operating officer. In fact, the $5-million that Prince Rupert would receive from the sale is about $1.5-million less than the unpaid taxes on the property that the City was trying to recover by seizing it from Sun Wave Forest Products in the first place. If the deal goes through, the City will simply have to take that unrecovered $1.5 million dollars as a loss. See Watson Island, page 2
HOME OF: * WORK BC Employment Service Centre * Job Options BC * North Coast Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society * AFFNO
Funded in part by:
* Skills Connect for Immigrants * Training * St John Ambulance (training and Àrst aid supplies
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL US AT 250-624-9498