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Volume 58 No. 30
Sentinel
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Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Bridging the divide Cameron Orr District of Kitimat staff will gather statistics on how well used Haisla Bridge is. Councillor Mary Murphy put forward the motion, in the hopes the information gathered could be brought to higher levels of government for future discussions on whether Kitimat should build a second river crossing. The talk of needing a second Kitimat River crossing has been rising over the past several months, after the issue went quiet following a 1991 report saying the town didn’t need one. But with construction and proposed more construction coming for across the river, the “The traffic topic has been coming in 1981 when up again. Murphy said she’s Ocelot ... was been seeing, especially a much larger through social media, effect on our many people talking about a bridge. community.” Not everyone was in favour of rushing into an investigation into a bridge. Mario Feldhoff said council should hold off for the time being. “What we’re doing is putting staff resources into this,” he said. “Is this more important than some other things we’ve discussed?” He noted an upcoming strategic planning meeting with councillors regarding LNG impacts, and said they should talk about the issue further there, before committing staff time to the study. “We don’t have the money to paint the existing bridge right now,” he added. “We need to engage the province and put in our prioritization list.” Murphy noted that while the bridge has handled heavy loads of traffic for years, she’d still rather see a study for its current use. Director of Engineering Tim Gleig told councillors that there had been two studies for a second bridge, one in 1970 and another in 1991 for the Ministry of Transportation. That 1991 study concluded the town did not need a second crossing. The last study followed heavy construction in Kitimat during the 1980s. “The traffic in 1981 when Ocelot was being constructed was a much larger effect on our community than with the construction so far today,” he said, noting that traffic could have been backed up from the Service Centre to Haisla Hill. An attempt to refer the motion to following the council’s strategic planning meeting failed, and the motion to do the study passed, with Mario Feldhoff and Phil Germuth opposed.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
$
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
Dave Roy was among a handful of other kids enjoying the Kildala neighbourhood wading pool last Thursday, as the town marked down another super hot day, which reached closed to 30C. The public wading pools are open Tuesdays through Sundays, from noon to 5 p.m. on nice days. Cameron Orr photo
Victory leads Ben to Worlds in Moscow Cameron Orr Placing third in the Men’s 10,000 metre race walk championship event at the 2013 Canadian Track & Field Championships was Kitimat’s Ben Thorne. His time of 41:07 came just behind Evan Dunfee’s 40:19 and Inaki Gomez’s 40:01, all three from the Racewalk West team. His strong showing means that he has made the Canadian Team that will be heading to Moscow for the IAAF World Championship in track and field. Thorne said the competition was quite good at the championships in New Brunswick. “In Canada, usually we don’t have that much competition, there’s not that many people that do it,” he said. “This was probably one of the deepest years for men in awhile.” He calls his own performance “the bare minium of what I needed to be,” but that is attributed to a case of food poisoning which was lingering up to the race. He had
“Ultimately we’re looking for the Olympics in 2016.”
medicine to keep it under control for the event. “All I needed to do in this race was come in the top three so I could qualify for the worlds,” he added. The Worlds in Moscow takes place August 10 to 18. “I feel more prepared than I’ve ever been but I still have a month and a half of training I need to get through,” he said. Immediately after the Worlds he said he anticipates going to the Francophone Games in France. “Ultimately we’re looking for the Olympics in 2016.” The manager of sports information for the UBC Thunderbirds Wilson Wong said that Thorne was on their track and field team last year but he took this year off to focus on the Worlds.
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