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VOL 118 NO. 43
FALL BACK Set your clocks back one hour this Sunday morning
Selkirk ABE still free for winter session CRAIG LINDSAY
Grand Forks Gazette Gayle Holmes
250.442.7516 gayleholmes1@gmail.com
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Although most provinces are now charging tuition for Adult Basic Education (ABE), Selkirk College is bucking the trend. Tuition for ABE at Selkirk in Grand Forks will remain free throughout the winter session. In 2008, the provincial government mandated that all ABE should be free so they gave additional money to colleges and universities to ensure that would happen. In December 2014, the government had a shift in policy and decided to no longer mandate that institutions provide ABE for free. “So they basically allowed institutions to make their own choice and charging tuition,” said Allison Adler, dean of academic upgrading for Selkirk College. “At the same time they took back that money they gave us in 2008.” Adler did say the money was just a portion of the budget for ABE. “They didn’t take all the money away,” she said. “You don’t have to offer it tuitionfree. How you determine whatever you’re going to do is up to you.” Adler added that the government is offering extra money in grants this year to help those who are disadvantaged to take ABE. “They said we can charge tuition and we’ll help people pay it,” she said. “What we’ve done at Selkirk is that we’ve decided to take this year to find out what the right approach is for our area. That’s why we still don’t have tuition. In Grand Forks we won’t until next year, if at all.” Adler said no matter what they decide, they want to ensure that ABE is accessible to those who need it. “We want people who need to upgrade to be able to upgrade,” she said. “That’s why we’ve decided to use this year to come up with the right plan. So if we do charge tuition we’ll have the things in place to make sure people can come whether or not they can afford it. We still want it to be accessible to those who need it.” Adler said there are a variety of reasons why people take ABE, from a desire to learn to wanting to change careers to get their high school graduation to upgrading to qualify for university. “There are lots of different reasons why people come and some of it is personal, some is professional,” she said. “We’re building a plan to keep it accessible. What we hope is that there won’t be a bump for students and they’ll keep coming. Either they will qualify for a grant if we charge tuition or we’ll have something else in place. We don’t want to create hardships.”
Upgrades at Pacific Abrasives are about 80 per cent complete. The company, which processes the slag from the city’s slag pile, is enlarging the building to make room for new and more efficient equipment. See story page A16. Craig Lindsay photo
Bonfire a Halloween tradition CRAIG LINDSAY
Grand Forks Gazette
It isn’t Halloween in Grand Forks without a trip to the Rotary bonfire at Angus MacDonald Park. The bonfire has long been a tradition in Grand Forks and attracts hundreds of kids, adults and families. There is always plenty to do with a fortune teller, complimentary kettle corn for the kids, fireworks and, of course, the giant bonfire. The big pile of wood for the bonfire is provided courtesy of Boundary Electric and the City of Grand Forks. Rotarian Gord Nichols said he figures the tradition of the Halloween bonfire started about 40 years ago. “It went back to the early days of the Rotary Club in Grand Forks, which began in 1965,” he said. “So it started shortly after that. Part of the impetus at that time was that there was quite a bit of vandalism in the downtown core. The merchants and Rotarians thought that if they had a focal point outside of the downtown core that maybe the youth would congregate there so if there were people wandering around downtown causing mischief, they’d be more visible.” Nichols said the effort proved very success-
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ful in reducing vandalism in downtown Grand Forks. “Over the years it’s become very popular,” he said. “We used to do more traditional things like apple-bobbing, sack races and costume judging. Some time before my time, around 1980, Rotary started with the fireworks. Over the years it’s got way more sophisticated and larger.” Nichols said they even ran a haunted house for a number of years, which was popular but a lot of work to set up and take down. “It was so labour intensive to put that together in one day and tear it down,” he said. “Now we’re doing hot chocolate and music, which is fairly new.” Nichols said the Rotary Halloween bonfire was mentioned in Beautiful B.C. magazine in the 1990s as one of the must do events in the province. He said it remains just as popular today. “We get everyone coming from kids in strollers to geriatrics in wheelchairs,” said Nichols. “It’s open to everyone. It’s very accessible.” Nichols said the bonfire will be lit around 6 p.m. with the hot chocolate and fortune teller setting up around 6:30 p.m. The fireworks will be starting at about 8 p.m.
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