S TANDARD TERRACE
1.30
$
$1.24 PLUS 6¢ GST
VOL. 26 NO. 28
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Survey says clean it up By JOSH MASSEY A SURVEY of Terrace residents released by the Terrace Downtown Improvement Area (TDIA) society shows that the main gripes about the downtown core are public drunkenness and buildings in disrepair. The survey, conducted during the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce’s April Business Expo held at the Sportsplex and released last week, focussed on challenges and assets of the downtown core. Forty per cent of the 133 people surveyed cited intoxicated people as their main issue and 26 per cent said buildings being rundown. Another 12 per cent indicated they felt there was a problem with parking, including lack of spots and theft/vandalism. The survey included residents from several age categories, with 8 per cent representing people 10-18 years of age, 15 per cent 19-30, 21 per cent 31-45, 44 per cent 46-65 and 12 per cent 65 years and up. The comments included reference to “unfriendly (inebriated) pedestrian loiterers at night”, with “fighting, drunks, garbage from them.” As for the rundown appearance, specific comments included “The [former Terrace] Co-op lot, Inn of the West” which “looks barren and awful”; “colours of buildings are horrible, state of streets in poor repair”. The survey shows that 81 per cent of Terrace residents will take out of town visitors on outdoor JOSH MASSEY PHOTO activities as opposed to a minority who would most likely take visitors shopping or to local pubs and TDIA COORDINATOR Dennis Lissimore, hired this summer, shows off the raw data pages that he assembled from the survey information collected earlier this year. He has also put together a newsletter that will be available free around restaurants. town. Cont’d Page A17
Dog owner nips at district in court By MARGARET SPEIRS THE OWNER of a dog, which spent nearly a year in an animal shelter here after biting a child while a court order was sought for its destruction, is suing to recover some of his legal costs. Paul MacNeil has named the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine and several of its employees in seeking $25,000 spent in successfully preventing the regional district from obtaining the order to destroy Cane, a German shepherd. “At this point, this is a small claims court matter to recover some of Paul’s costs but there are
issues involved which are troubling as far as [the regional district’s] actions and lack of action,” said Ken Anderson, lawyer for MacNeil. In April 2012, police seized Cane from MacNeil’s home after receiving a call that he had bit a child. Cane was first placed in the Terrace shelter as the Thornhill Animal Shelter wasn’t open and later moved to the Thornhill shelter. It took nearly a year for the destruction order attempt to get to trial, culminating Feb. 28 of this year when, after two days of testimony, the judge determined that none of the conditions to declare the dog
dangerous had been satisfied. MacNeil’s notice of claim indicates he “is seeking compensation for his legal costs, including the fees and disbursements billed by Ken Anderson, plus the cost of Dr. Rebecca Ledger, the animal behaviour specialist retained to assist him.” It alleges that when the dog was released from the shelter “Cane was disoriented, having difficulty standing and swallowing and had been injected with a drug in anticipation of a destruction order [the regional district] had been pursuing in court.” The notice of civil claim also
alleges that the regional district “filed the application for a destruction order out of time, acted in bad faith in seeking the destruction order instead of a remedy under the bylaw, chose to ‘expert shop’ to obtain an expert opinion that Cane was ‘dangerous,’ as defined in the Community Charter, choosing to obtain the opinion of a local veterinarian instead of obtaining the opinion of a local dog trainer once [the regional district] determined that the opinion of that trainer might be favourable to Cane.” It alleges that regional district staff member “Angela Vanderboon, on the day the court decision came
down, before the decision was given, injected Cane with a drug to sedate him in preparation for the destruction order [the regional district] anticipated obtaining. That injection [the regional district] had no authority to administer and could have had – and may yet have – serious consequences for Cane.” The action also alleges regional district administrator Bob Marcellin said MacNeil was entitled to compensation but that there was no follow up and that a promised written report on the whole matter was never provided. As of late last week, the regional district had yet to file a response.
Growing places
LNG prep needed
Winter is coming
The Green Thumb Garden society is harvesting this year’s produce \COMMUNITY A11
Skeena NDP MLA Robin Austin discusses his tour of northeastern B.C. \NEWS A29
And the Shames Mountain Ski and Snowboard Club is getting geared up \SPORTS A27