K
I
T
I
M
A
Sentinel
T
Northern
Years est. 1954
www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 60 No. 07
People needed for emergency shelter Cameron Orr For at least one day the Emergency Cold Weather Shelter in Kitimat couldn’t open because of a lack of volunteers. In the midst of an arctic outflow warning, that could prove dangerous for those without a place to go. To make sure the shelter, located at the Public Safety Building at the corner of Kingfisher and Haisla Boulevard, keeps going the volunteers through the Kitimat Housing Committee are looking for a larger bank of volunteers. Trish Parsons, with the housing committee, says that the challenge is finding people to do the overnight shifts since many of their existing volunteers have jobs during the day. An overnight shift followed by a job in the morning is hard on people, she realizes. “When you don’t have lots of volunteers you can burn out quickly,” she said. As of right now they have a list of approximately 15 people. “We’re still trying to find volunteers to keep it open because the weather has been so bad,” she said. The shelter was activated on the February 1 weekend, but was closed on February 3 due to lack of available volunteers that day, but it was re-actived on February 4. The shelter is available to those who need it from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. days it is active. If you want to volunteer — Parsons said people can offer just to do as little as one shift per month — they can either call her at her work at the Chamber of Commerce at 250-632-6294, or call Warren Waycheshen at the District of Kitimat at 250-632-8900. Meanwhile Waycheshen says the shelter has had to be activated seven times so far since its inception. On January 31 it was used by three people, and it was used by one person on each February 1 and February 2. The shelter was made possible in part by a $15,000 grant from BC Housing. Last week as the cold weather continued the shelter continued to be open leading into the long weekend. As of press time today’s forecast was for -10C as a low. The weekend itself was expected to dip as much as -15C. Tomorrow’s low dips to -7C, comparatively warm compared to the rest of the week.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
1.30 INCLUDES TAX
$
“When you don’t have lots of volunteers you can burn out quickly.”
Supporters of the Kitimat Rotary Club were seeing red, and white (and even some scotch) at the Rotary Club’s Wine Tasting Festival at the Riverlodge on February 1. The sold out event was a fundraiser for the local club. That’s Rotarian Edwin Empinado pouring a red wine sample.
Action being taken on Radley Park $800,000 to fix up both of Kitimat’s municipal campgrounds Cameron Orr Councillors have approved the expenditure of $800,000 out of the Radley Park reserve fund to upgrade the municipal park, as well as put work into Hirsch Creek Park. The $800,000 has sat in a reserve fund since 2012 for riverbank armouring but trouble with Radley Park’s septic system has put extra impetus on the staff to see other work get done at the park. From that $800,000, $150,000 will be for installing either a new lift station or septic field to replace the current failed system, $200,000 to install a new road along the dike to make more room in the park for campsites. Staff also plans to spend $170,000 to construct new showers and washroom area. Relatively smaller costs include $80,000 for installing 10 new campsites with electrical hook-ups, convert eight
existing sites to electrical, and install a wheelchair accessible trail at Hirsch Creek Park. Radley Park in particular has had a long history of studies and lots of options for spending over the past several years. Staff’s report to council pointed to a hydraulic consultants report from 2007 on the Kitimat River’s migration, then in 2011 consultants were hired to prepare “conceptual ideas for the retrofit of Radley Park,” followed by a follow-up review on the river’s migration in 2012, and then a survey was done of the park in 2013. Kitimat had contemplated armouring the riverbank at Radley Park to fight erosion but concerns from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Haisla deterred the town from pursuing that route, but log jams on the river were removed, which did reduce the flow of
the river past the park. The report also notes that since 2005, 15 campsites at Radley have been lost due to erosion. None have been lost in the last two years though. Councillor Corinne Scott did note that the money being spent with the preapproval does not include any erosion protection, which is what the original money was set aside for. She wasn’t against the work being done but she did have issue with preapproval and was not convinced such action was needed. “I do understand there is a project that needs to get a request for proposal out…but I’m not convinced that $800,000 has to be pre-approved out of our budget,” she said. All councillors save for Scott voted in favour of allowing the pre-approval of the money.
PM477761
Complaint filed over spying...page 6