InteriorNEWS THE
108th Year - Week 34
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Wednesday, August 26, 2015
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www.interior-news.com
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Peter Pettigrew put $7,000 into his Ski-Doo Mach Z 809 Proline Skid before joining trucks, cars and motorcycles at the Houston Drag Races held at the Houston airport Sunday. See more photos of the event on page A13. Xuyun Zeng photo
Serial burglar guilty NW resource alliance meets By Cecile Favron Smithers/Interior News
The suspect in a break-in spree that unnerved Smithers and Telkwa residents last year entered a guilty plea in B.C. Supreme Court last week. Shane Vangrootheest, 27, pleaded guilty last Tuesday in Smithers to 21 charges of break and enter which occurred in November and December 2014; 30 other charges were stayed by the Crown. His arrest came after 25 households in the area reported that their residences had been broken in to and cash stolen
at many of the homes. Two months prior to the crime spree, Vangrootheest had completed parole for 17 break and enter charges dating back to 2010. He was arrested in Moricetown on Dec. 13 and has been held in custody in the Prince George correctional center since. In court last week, Judge J. Watchuk heard that Vangrootheest’s first confession was obtained by officers shortly after he was detained on Dec. 16. Court heard he suggested officers take him for a drive so that he could show them how and where the break and enters happened. See VANGROOTHEEST on A5
By Cecile Favron Smithers/Interior News
Gathering to form an alliance to negotiate a revenue sharing deal with the provincial government, local government representatives held their first official meeting in Terrace Aug. 15. The meeting of the Northwest B.C. Resource Benefit Alliance (RBA) included 21 municipal and regional governments from Vanderhoof to the coast and set forth an action plan to secure an agreement with the B.C. government. “It’s important that we speak as one voice as an entire region, we are stronger together than we are as individual communities,” noted Smithers mayor Taylor Bachrach. “The overall purpose of the RBA is to work towards some type of revenue-sharing agreement
TWO OFFICERS ASSAULTED Smithers RCMP officers were allegedly assaulted in two incidents.
LIBERALs choose layton Telkwa councillor Brad Layton jumps into the pool of candidates.
HAZELTON ARENA TURNS OUTDOOR Roof comes down on Hazelton’s arena, where skating is outside this winter.
NEWS/A2 and A8
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with the province so that local communities have the resources to meet their infrastructure needs.” Municipal and regional governments have been struggling to get on top of the issue of deteriorating infrastructure in the region and are worried a liquefied natural gas or other resource industry boom could put more pressures on the system. “It’s not even about needing more infrastructure. Our consultants [found] — on a conservative basis — that we have a $500 million deficit in our RBA area. So that means that is how far behind we are at maintaining the infrastructure that we already have, let alone actually moving forward,” said RBA chair and Terrace councillor Stacey Tyres, citing that the area is just coming out of a 15-year recession. “I mean roads are crumbling, buildings in the city of Terrace are being fixed one wall at a time.” See MINERALS on A8
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