106th Year - Week 18
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
www.interior-news.com
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Town ices arena bids
PM 40007014
WINNING STREAK Gryphon golfers win second zone playday.
SPORTS/A14
WINE AND LANTERNS Big names set to serenade at Telkwa BBQ.
COMMUNITY/A17
NEW ROOTS Amanda Dorscht takes over Creative Roots.
OUR TOWN/A19
INSIDE LETTERS A7 SPORTS A12 COMMUNITY A17 OUR TOWN A19 THREE RIVERS B1 CLASSIFIEDS B5
By Ryan Jensen
Smithers/Interior News
The second sheet of ice took a cross-check at the April 23 Town of Smithers council meeting. After lengthy discussion, Smithers council voted in favour of the staff recommendation to reject the tender submissions and not award the new arena design-build contract to any of the four companies participating in the process. The lowest bid, a $3.95 million submission from Venture Pacific Construction Management from Kelowna, failed to qualify because they did not include the proper tender security. Of the other three, only one, the highest at $6,855, 894 million, met all the criteria council set out in the design-build tender. The Town of Smithers, at this point, has $3,663,786 million of funding in place. Councillors Adomeit and Goodacre were opposed to the motion. Goodacre said he was concerned if the bids were rejected the momentum the project has been building would disappear. “We owe it to people in the community to give this thing a shot,” he said. “If we fail, we fail together.” Earlier Adomeit proposed a motion to accept the second lowest bid tendered, $4,877,000 submitted by C&M Development Inc. from Nanaimo. To temporarily cover the shortfall, Adomeit proposed using surplus money from other areas of the budget, including the town’s $1.1 million general operating surplus, saying he is convinced members of the public and business community would step up to help bridge the difference. “It’s not if, it’s when,” Adomeit said repeatedly throughout the discussion. In the end, council decided to reject the bids and go back to the drawing board, considering scaling the project back a bit, aiming to have it built within the funds available. “I appreciate Councillor Adomeit trying to move this forward,” Councillor Mark Bandstra said. “I’m on side, I’m just trying to figure out the right process.” Northrup also said he didn’t believe it was financially prudent to use the town’s emergency funds to do so. “We want this arena to happen,” Northrup said. “I think we have to figure out how we’re going to make it happen without using more of our own funds. “I believe we’re short probably $2.5 million to do it right.” See ARENA on p. A2
OPEN SEASON Travis Rosger takes a corner at the Smithers Motocross Association track on Saturday. For more on the SMXA see A12. Ryan Jensen photo
Leuenberger launches appeal By Jerome Turner Smithers/Interior News
Susan Gail Leuenberger has avoided jail for the time being by appealing a threeyear sentence handed down by B.C. provincial court judge Calvin Struyk for a conviction on charges of theft and fraud of Kyah Industries Ltd, a logging company owned by the Moricetown Band. “I wasn’t very happy to
hear about the appeal,” Lucy Gagnon, Moricetown band manager, said. “We felt justice was served with the three-year sentence. “To hear she’s out is pretty disheartening.” Leuenberger was also found guilty in a civil trial and owes more than $600,000 to Kyah. Leuenberger was contracted by Kyah to conduct accounting duties through her company Pleasant Valley Accounting.
In 2004 PVA became the subject of investigation after Revenue Canada found Kyah hadn’t filed proper income tax forms, a task Leuenberger was supposed to complete. The investigation revealed Leuenberger had made more than 60 cheques payable to PVA between 1999 and 2004 totalling more than $600,000. See the March 13, 2013 issue of the Interior News for more background information.
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