The Citizen continues its retrospective of the news that made the headlines in 2010 with stories from April to June.
APRIL
Eric's World of Leisure suffered a devastating fire April 16. The blaze was ignited around 9:30 p.m. by sparks from a power saw Eric Moore was using. The business relocated to 197 Quebec St. in the Chee Duck Tong building.
Sufey Chen was named 2010 Youth of the Year. At only 16, Chen completed a year of university and focused a lot of her time on community involvement and helping others.
A Connaught Hill record was set for the park's spring opening. Flavio Viola, supervisor of Parks and Solid Wastes Services, said this was an unprecedented early date for the yardarm to swing open at the bottom of the hill.
"We are, right now, about three weeks ahead of schedule."
The Keg Steakhouse and Bar in Prince George announced it would invest close to $2 million for a major facelift over summer. Staff were given their notice that the downtown restaurant would close as of June 30.
Janine North, CEO of the Northern Development Initiative Trust, won the Influential Women In Business Award bestowed annually by Business In Vancouver magazine. She is one of only five women so named this year, and the first northerner in the award's 10-year history.
One Prince George neighbourhood had three fires in a four-day span, all of them suspicious, all of them dangerous to the people living nearby.
The first was a blaze set amongst a set of closely lined mobile homes in the Lombardi trailer court in the 2100 block of Norwood Street; the second was a few blocks away in the 1400 block of Diefenbaker Drive; the third happened just across Highway 97 and down the street at Wilson Crescent. Other fires were later mentioned as possibly connected, but in the end no clear answer emerged as to what the causes were.
The new Gateway Lodge - Northern Health's long-term care facility on the corner of 20th Avenue and Victoria Street - was a big winner at the sixth annual Wood WORKS! BC Wood Design Awards held in Vancouver. The building won the Institutional Wood Design Award. The honour went to Jerry Doll of Neale Staniszkis Doll Adams Architects.
Anne Martin became the second woman and only the eighth person to be granted the Freedom of the City of Prince George. The award is the highest honour a municipality can bestow. It is reserved, according to city officials, for exceptional merit and community contribution. Martin served as a city councillor, regional district board director, vice chair of the University of Northern BC board of governors, president and director of the Two Rivers Art Gallery, and member of a long list of community organizations and council committees.
A 75-year-old Burns Lake woman slipped in her home and could not get back to her feet or move about for three to four days before an RCMP officer knocked on the door at the urging of a worried friend. The Mountie forced entry when a muffled response was heard inside.
Three young men are lucky to be alive after their canoe capsized in Ness Lake. Nathan Coole, Marcus Hume and Tracey Kaiser are being credited, along with other helpers, for getting to the trio who were fading in their efforts to hold onto their swamped boat in the frigid waters.
A two-week search of a fire site at Northern Thunderbird Air hanger failed to turn up any evidence of missing owner, Vernon Martin.
The softwood lumber tax on exports to the United States is set to be be reduced by one third to 10 per cent on May 1 because lumber prices have increased, the first decrease since the tax was imposed in 2006.
B.C. Interior producers have been paying a 15 per cent export tax, but now that the average price in the past month pegged by the Portland, Ore.-based Random Length's composite lumber index has reached $325, the tax must drop.
The B.C. Ministry of Forests issues 204 layoff notices in the latest round of civil service cuts, needed to reduce budget costs, says the provincial government.
The layoffs include 13 in Prince George.
The B.C. Ministry of Environment and Northern Health issues the second air quality advisory of the year due to high levels of fine particulate air pollution. Road dust, emissions from industry, and transportation sources such as automobiles, trucks and rail traffic, are to blame said agency officials.
The hard-hit forest-based community of Mackenzie took another step towards recovery as its shuttered pulp mill, down for two years, was purchased by Asian-giant Sinarmas in a $20-million deal. The plant is expected to need $30 million to $40 million in maintenance to make it production ready. Another $20 million has been set aside for operational costs before the mill produces its first pulp.
A Prince George man will have to serve 18 months in jail after the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected his attempt to overturn a conviction of assault with a weapon in relation to an incident nearly six years ago in which he drove his truck onto the sidewalk outside a local nightspot and struck a woman.
A registered child sexual offender was apprehended in Dome Creek, 130 kilometres west of Prince George, after leaving a halfway house in Vancouver. McBride RCMP found Gerald McLean, 41, near a camp on an undeveloped property allegedly carrying a rifle. He was taken into custody without incident.
A Prince George drug enforcer was sentenced to almost eight years in jail for his role in kidnapping, confining and torturing a man who owed money to a local cocaine dealer and then putting him through another round of abuse for his "own pleasure and gratification."
While three others involved pleaded guilty for their roles, Madame Justice Catherine Bruce said Steve Marozoff has shown no remorse and forced the victim to testify at a trial, making him relive the events that occurred over roughly five days sometime between March 30 and April 8, 2008.
A B.C. Supreme Court Justice found a Prince George man guilty of breaking into a neighbour's apartment and sexually assaulting her while she slept after taking prescription painkillers following a Christmas Eve celebration with her family and boyfriend.
Justice Selwyn Romilly dismissed the defence of Benjamin Job Nathan McRae that she had invited him into her home. Romilly also dismissed an assertion she had consented to having sex with him under the mistaken belief that McRae was actually her boyfriend.
MAY
Construction began on the technical education centre at the College of New Caledonia after a contract to build the facility was awarded this week to Prince George-based IDL Projects Inc. In all, $19.7 million has been budgeted for the project which is to be substantially completed by March 31, 2011.
To cover 75,067 square feet, large enough to hold 800 student spaces, it will replace CNC's 48-year-old trades training building and accommodate Red Seal trades and other technical programs.
The Tourism Prince George Society released a 28-point plan to develop and promote Prince George as a preferred destination over the next five to 10 years.
Some tasks the plan calls for include conducting a visitor study, developing a new tourism brand identity, increasing advertising in key markets and enhance the visitor guide and website. The plan was paid for through Tourism B.C.'s community tourism foundations program and personnel from the organization worked with local society members to draft the document.
It was a ceremony full of levity when a celebration was held at the University of Northern British Columbia for the latest class of students to graduate from the Northern Medical Program. Each of the 23 students was presented with a physician's white coat, emblematic of the profession, and a plaque made of blue-stained pine, emblematic of the region where they received much of their training.
A truck driver escaped conviction on a charge of dangerous driving causing death in a head-on collision that killed a Prince George woman - but was found guilty of obstructing justice for lying to police about who was driving the vehicle at the time.
Kamran Mohammad's actions did not meet the standard for conviction when his southbound semi crossed into the oncoming lane on Highway 97 South at Holmes Road, about 6.5 kilometres south of Simon Fraser Bridge, and struck a pickup truck at about 7 a.m. on Jan. 9, 2007.
Muriel Johnson, 55, died as a result of injuries suffered in the crash while her husband, Richard, suffered serious injuries. A charge of dangerous driving causing injury was also dismissed.
The three MPs representing northern B.C. turned out to be among the House of Commons' biggest spenders according to publicly-disclosed figures for individual members expenses.
For the year ending March 31, 2009, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen ran up $580,579, the fourth highest total among the 239 MPs who were in parliament before and after the last general election. Prince George-Peace River MP Jay Hill was eighth highest at $549,857 and Prince George-Cariboo MP Dick Harris was ninth at $545,343.
In all three cases, travel took up a significant portion of those totals - $228,602 for Cullen, $185,176 for Hill and $203,002 for Harris.
Initiatives Prince George is going to use a business cost-competitiveness location study - which shows Prince George leading the pack in western Canada and the U.S. - as a marketing tool to try to attract business to the area.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation puts the plight of the Nechako white sturgeon on its agenda, and will be pushing the province to make more conservation efforts for the prehistoric fish.
In particular, they are pushing the province to help obtain financing for an estimated $3.5-million recovery facility in Vanderhoof.
Canfor Corp. announces it will be re-opening its Quesnel sawmill in June to exclusively service markets in China, a move that will put 155 workers back on the job.
British Columbia lumber shipments to China has been increasing steadily over the past several years, more than doubling in 2009 over the previous year to 1.63 billion board feet.
Northgate Minerals Corp. is examining a plan to resurrect its Kemess North gold and copper project in northern B.C. as a high-grade underground mine.
Houston, Tex.-based EOG Resources Inc. has become a partner in a proposed $3-billion liquified natural gas plant in northern B.C. with an agreement to buy the shares of Galveston LNG Inc. Calgary-based Galveston LNG, though it's subsidiary, Kitimat LNG Inc., own 49 per cent of the planned liquified natural gas terminal to be located near Kitimat, 400 kilometres west of Prince George.
Enbridge Inc. filed its much-anticipated regulatory application to the National Energy Board for its proposed 1,170-kilometre pipeline, which officially begins what is expected to be at least a two-year assessment process. The Calgary-based company had put off filing the application - which includes eight volumes and runs thousands of pages - several times since last year.
A prominent pioneer and city architect Des Parker died at age 89.
The new Gateway Lodge in Prince George, a $42 million retirement home, officially opens.
The biggest marijuana grow operation in this region is busted by RCMP. The 18,000 plants, valued at $2.2 million, were discovered in the Eaglet Lake area east of the city.
The Prince George Courthouse was evacuated while police and sheriffs searched for an undisclosed threat made towards the courts. The building was eventually cleared of any dangers and court work continued. Many cases were disrupted, however.
A fire in Pineview brought firefighters to douse the flames, but police were also called when firefighters made a tragic discovery. A 33-year-old Prince George man was found deceased at the scene. Foul play was not suspected and the investigation was concluded.
A delegation from the Board of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, a trade stimulation agency based in Beijing, visited Prince George following on dialogue with Initiatives Prince George about possible partnerships available in northern B.C.
City council picked a tax structure, charging less of the annual municipal bill to heavy industry owners and adding more onto the bills of homeowners, business owners and especially light industrial owners. The option council went with spreads the tax pain out over all sectors of the tax base except one: heavy industrial.
The financial management firm KPMG ranked Prince George the ninth best city in Canada for its overall tax structure. KPMG's report compared more than 90 cities around the world and all of Canada's major centres in its Competitive Alternatives 2010-Focus On Tax document.
The Prince George Exhibition was sued into oblivion by Shooting Star Amusements sued for breech of contract, claiming $200,000. The settlement was for $32,700 along with an official statement by the PGX of non-guilt.
Developers were aghast at a city-commissioned report that said long-term tax abatements would not spur construction in Prince George's downtown. The initial reaction was strong opposition to the report, but as time went on the document came to be more readily accepted as accurate.
The Road To the Roar was such a financial success that organizers gave back a large chunk of taxpayer money as a thank-you to City Hall. The municipality gave them $300,000 to stage the Olympic pre-trial event in Prince George. The local organizing committee gave back $86,475 of it, gifted $25,000 to the Prince George Community Foundation earmarked for future investment in the sport of curling, and estimates were that the $1 million up-front investment in the event generated at least $3 million back to the community.
The Downtown Business Improvement Association hosted a visit by Mike Harcourt, the former B.C. premier and Vancouver mayor, as part of their Let's Get Started...18 Months Later event harkening back to the original rally entitled Let's Get Started held in September 2008. It was a well-attended visioning session that generated much discussion about ways to enhance downtown Prince George and stimulate the economy.
JUNE
An AK47 was fired into a sleeping residential neighbourhood. The city's 911 line lit up with people who heard or saw the incident at 11:23 p.m. near the intersection of 5th Avenue and Tabor Boulevard. A lone gunman opened fire on the driver's side of a dark-coloured pickup which immediately fled the scene northbound on Tabor Boulevard. Police believe the driver of the pickup was the targeted victim. Ties to organized crime were believed highly likely, but the reasons for this were not disclosed.
The BioEnergy and Renewable Energy Conference was held at the Civic Centre and Coast Inn of the North. Representatives attended this conference from 16 countries and all hemispheres - more than 400 delegates in all.
A group of seven boaters, estimated to be aged between late teens to late 20s, had to be rescued from an island in the Nechako River. They were wet and in danger of hypothermia but managed to call 911 at 1:27 a.m.
Work began to remove the canopies that ran along George Street. It was expected to stimulate a new visual personality for historic George Street.
NDP leader Carole James came to Prince George to lend her influence to a group opposed to the Harmonized Sales Tax. The group succeeded in gathering enough signatures to prompt a referendum on the subject.
Quesnel teacher Ronald Norman Ball was suspended from his job and faced sex offence allegations. He was arrested on June 11 pending charges for sexual interference, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation stemming from "an incident involving a student which occurred in his classroom in March of this year," according to RCMP.
It was about June 20 when the Greer Creek Fire got started 30 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof, and uncomfortably close to the west end of the Stony Creek Indian Reserve. It was the first of many volatile forest fires that choked local air and threatened many homes and other property features.
Temple Grandin is one of most celebrated thinkers in the agriculture industry, partially because she has a PhD in animal sciences and teaches it at the university level, partially because her designs and innovations have re-shaped the food and livestock industries taking humane treatment to new levels, and partially because it has all been from an autistic mind. Grandin spent three days in Prince George imparting her knowledge and experience at several public functions.
A partial lunar eclipse gave late-night Prince George viewers a show on the biggest screen available to humanity. This was the first lunar eclipse of 2010. No one in the the eastern time zones of North America got to see it, but it was in good effect for those in western Canada, including Prince George.
Three hikers were rescued by 60 members of search team in Sugarbowl-Grizzly Valley.
Construction begins on the BC Cancer Agency Centre for the North located at the hospital site.
Former Duchess Park secondary school teacher, Roderick Lyle Sauve, is charged with gross indecency and sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old female.
Provincial agreements with Alberta-based AltaGas Income Trust Ltd. has provided $180 million for the construction of the Northwest Transmission Line.
The power line is touted as a catalyst to opening up northwest British Columbia to mining, as well as providing a connection for hydro-power projects.
Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom resigns suddenly from his cabinet post and left caucus over the Harmonized Sales Tax, citing a need to listen to his constituents, thousands of which have signed an anti-HST initiative.
A future Liberal government will formally implement an oil tanker moratorium on B.C.'s west coast, says Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. A move such as that would scuttle Enbridge's proposed $5.5-billion pipeline through northern B.C. which is meant to open up new markets for crude from the Alberta oil sands in Asia, particularly China.
Taseko's proposed $800-million Prosperity gold-copper mine in central B.C. is dealt a blow when a federal panel reviewing the project said it would result in significant adverse environmental effects.
Stressing he still supports the legislation in general, Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad voted against two sections of the Clean Air Act at committee stage in the provincial legislature. Specifically, Rustad has problems with sections that will put the kibosh on new dams on the Peace and Columbia Rivers once Site C is completed and prohibit nuclear power in the province.
A charged against a Prince George man was upgraded to manslaughter after the man he is accused of hitting with his pickup truck died from injuries allegedly suffered in the incident.
Gordon Mayward Kerr, 49, is also facing a charge of criminal negligence causing death. He had originally been charged with attempted murder and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
A grand opening was held for the Beaverly Volunteer Fire Department new hall.
At 10,000 square feet, it's about 2,000 square feet larger than its predecessor on the other side of Highway 16 West, a short distance west of the Petro-Canada gas station, and is large enough to hold most of the department's equipment.
It was a tight squeeze in the old fire hall, which was added onto four times over its 24 years, even though two of the department's trucks were held in storage at another location along the highway.
Castle Mountain Hydro Ltd. secured a purchase agreement from B.C. Hydro for a run-of-river electricity-generating project slated for a tributary of Castle Creek about a 25-kilometre drive southeast of McBride. It was still subject to final permitting and licensing "but we're hoping to have that all looked after this year so that we can actually start doing major construction in the spring," said Castle Mountain president John Wheeler, who added the company is also in discussions with local first nations.
Estimated to cost $15 million, construction should create about 20 jobs and once completed, its capacity will be six megawatts, enough to serve as many as 6,000 homes, and will deliver 2,700 gigawatts of power a year.
The quest to establish an aboriginal choice school in Prince George cleared a major hurdle as the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has granted the school district the right to give preference to first nations when hiring teachers and support staff for the school.
The decision clears the way for hiring a principal, vice principal, up to 12 teachers, two aboriginal education workers, a language teacher, a cultural adviser, a secretary and a custodian.
