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Volume 57 No. 47
Sentinel
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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Skeena transit gets reviewed Cameron Orr A service review of the Skeena public transit system has brought out a number of recommendations, among them increased routes on the Connector bus to Terrace, with the possibility of servicing the airport more frequently. The draft transit review is currently available for viewing on the District of Kitimat’s website (www.kitimat.ca) and shows a number of possible changes to the transit system, both short term and long term. Any action on the report would have to come from the Regional District of Kitimat Stikine, which manages the Skeena transit system which services runs beetween Terrace and Kitimat, as well as nearby communities along Highway 16. The Terrace-Kitimat Connector, the report notes, is often packed full, meaning many passengers need to stand. “Providing more frequent service would ensure these routes, which are long and involve travelling on roads with many curves, are safe and comfortable for passengers,” the report states. The report estimates that adding three roundtrips to the Connector route in a day would cost an additional $225,000 a year, with the local government sharing $82,000 of that. An extra bus would also be required. Upping the round-trips by three would allow for two more trips to the airport during the day. As it is now, a bus is scheduled to leave the airport only once, at 4:18 p.m. More frequent stops at the airport was just one idea. Another would be to stop airport service entirely and have all trips serve the Jack Pine community. The report said that plan would be cost neutral. While plans for more Connector runs is a long-term goal, a more short-term suggestion was to add about 10 minutes to each one-way trip on the Connector from Kitimat to Terrace. That suggestion, the report says, will help keep the trip on time throughout the year and will also prevent delays on other bus routes that rely on connections with the Connector. With suggestions in the report to restructure routes within Terrace, it was recommended that changes to the Connector schedule coincide with changes in Terrace. More weekend service is another area that Skeena transit could change, but the recommendation didn’t specify the Connector. BC Transit’s senior regional manager for the North Central zone, Todd Dupuis, said that the Connector was mainly designed to serve people’s medical transportation needs. Continued on page 2
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
1.34 INCLUDES TAX
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Joseph Pauloski holds the sick eagle he found at the Kitimat Landfill while working. Staff at the dump called the local animal shelter and the eagle was taken to Prince Rupert where it’s making great progress. Photo submitted
Kitimatian’s kind heart gives a sick eagle a new lease on life Cameron Orr Joseph Pauloski was sitting in his excavator at the Kitimat landfill when he caught sight of something falling into the quarry. When he went in for a closer look he found an eagle on the ground, its wings extended. He thought that could mean only a couple of things; it was protecting some food from other birds, or something was wrong. He gave the eagle five minutes before moving in. “He flew away once but he couldn’t really get off the ground,” said Pauloski. “I went up to him with my jacket, took my jacket off and threw it around him... he didn’t even struggle.” He walked the eagle back to the shed and they called the Kitimat Humane Society.
The local shelter manager made the drive to Prince Rupert to get the bird help at the Prince Rupert Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. Since finding the eagle last Wednesday, Nov. 14, and since the eagle was delivered to Prince Rupert the day after, it has been making great progress back to health. “He must have ate something bad,” said Gunther Golinia, who runs Prince Rupert’s wildlife shelter with wife Nancy. “We treated him with charcoal and electrolytes. He’s really perking up.” He added that nothing appeared to be broken on the eagle. He said they receive eagles as far away as Burns Lake and they release them from Prince Rupert once they’re back to health. Eagles are great navigators and know how to travel. He said they get birds coming in
from the Prince Rupert landfill at times too, where they had eaten something bad, such as cleaning chemicals mixed with the trash. “It’s awful hard on the birds,” he said. Their shelter has seen about 40 eagles throughout the year, with eight still in their shelter. As for Pauloski, he said he wasn’t nervous at all approaching the eagle. The fact the eagle didn’t look nervous about him being there helped. But Pauloski also has experience with bird rescue. When he was about 12-or-13-years-old on Masset he said he was walking to school and found a trumpeter swan flailing in the snow. He did then what he did last week; wrapped it up in his jacket and took it to their animal shelter. “That made front page news,” he said.
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Kitimat remembers ... page 8