Page 4 December Cassiar Courier ospital appernings On Friday, November 4th, the hospital staff gathered together to bid farewell to Paul and Katie Sevier, who are leaving Cassiar this month to return home to Australia. Dr. Sevier practiced medicine here for over 4 years, coming in July of 1978, but left for 9 months in 1979 to tour: Central and South America. During these years, Paul has earned a great deal of respect from his many patients for his patience, and his quiet kind- ly manner. Following a Beef Wellington dinner, Dr. Tony delaMare presented to Paul and Katie on behalf of the staff several gifts—a jade prospector figurine, a commemorative plaque and an album, ‘Five Years in Cassiar’’ Paul ably responded, thanking all of the staff for their support over the years. After an enjoyable evening, everyone joined in wishing them well and singing “For They are Jol- ly Good Fellows’”’. ; Paul and Katie will be greatly missed by all of their friends and Paul will be missed by his many patients for his concern for and insight into their many medical problems. Smooth Sailing Paul and Katie! Roberta Hynick is away on her annual holi- days to Vancouver and area. Hope you have a re- laxing time Roberta! Peter and Pauline, Tony and Marjorie spent several days in Whitehorse recently. Tony and Marjorie were 3 or 4 hours longer getting back than Peter and Pauline. We can only think that they must have been that much more tired! What is this mysterious activity and attraction in Yukon’s capital? Judy is away for a week’s holiday in Edmon- ton, Christmas shopping or so she tells us. Enjoy yourself Judy! Trene will be away for Christmas holidays to - her home in Alberta. Hope Santa Claus brings you lots of good things Irene, like a tall, dark hana- some boyfriend. Darlene has a rather large bruise on her neck. She says it was caused by a hockey puck, but we aren't quite sure. The funny thing is that Irene was also hit by the same hockey puck. There - must be an epidemic going around! Nirmal is hop- ing to get hit by the same hockey puck. Good Luck, Nirmal. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! orn to: Larry and Tamara Perry are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Kala Danielle. Born October 27th, 1983 at Whitehorse General Hos- pital, 8lb. 8 oz. A sister for RAN GT, Garret and Ashley. Darlene and Ken Larden are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter, Courtney Georgina, Slbs. 10 oz., on October 21st, at the Whitehorse General Hospital. Lillian Quash and Eldon Burns are pleased to an- nounce the birth of their daughter, Natasha, 7ib. loz., born at the Cassiar Hospital. PEF IUAE Gail O)N|S ener Teacher’s on strike! One could hear the gasps of shock, surprise and anger whispering through our cold Northern air. The angry comments from parents | find to be some- what disconcerting. For instance, one attractive lady in booming downtown Atlin informed me she felt we should ‘go and run over the b***t*rds”, Another comment from a vocal anonymous parent in Cassiar informed the CBC radio audience that she had no idea what was going on. She was, of course, very angry. She did feel, however, that she might make an effort to listen to the radio in order that she might be more well informed about the issues. Teachers, | suppose, have learned to endure the snide and disrespectful comments of some community members. Understandably, some teachers do deserve criticism. Not all are superb teachers; some may even have personal faults that don’t meet every parents standards. Another criticism directed towards teachers is that they make too much money. Granted, they do make a fairly decent wage. Often forgotten, however, is the fact that teachers have attended our expensive university sys- tems for five years or more. Some give up their unpaid summer holidays to take extra courses in order that your children might benefit from the new teaching techniques. /t seems to me in retrospect that in the remote com- munities of the North that very often teachers take on many responsibilities within the community framework, How do | know? | too was a school teacher, having taught for 15 rewarding years throughout the province of B.C. Three of the best years of my career were spent in the community of Cassiar. Now | see the other side of the two-faced coin. Par- ents now tell me of their long-felt con tempt for my form- er colleagues. They tell me, | Suppose, since | have now left my teaching career behind to pursue a writing career. !t seems to me much of my time is spent writing art- icles such as this; articles that will hopefully make people more aware of the issues and concerns in the North and elsewhere; articles that will no doubt bring me the same type of criticism directed towards the teachers. But it appears to me the more | travel around the pro- vince, how keenly aware I’ve become of the negative com- plaining attitude of some citizens. Thanktully, there are still many who see the true beauty of this land and many too that see there are issues worth fighting for and people who are willing to fight. FOI IOI OO Ott TOWN COUNCIL The executive for 1983/84 are: Chairman - Mike Ryan Vice-Chairman - Keith Kroeker Treasurer - Ida Walters Secretary - Dave Brocklebank We now have “AGAIN” a new dog catcher. | trust everyone in town will be responsible enough to allow the person to do the job they were hired for. If we lose yet another dog catcher—the Courier headline might read—“Town Councillor Bites Dog in Frustration!” Again this year there will be a prize for the best decorated house at Christmas, but, because of the close competition between the best and quite a few others—there will now be a second prize. The judging evening will be the 18th of De- cember, so make sure your lights are on. pee first prize—$50 second prize. -A thank you to the parting councillors for their time and efforts in 1982/83. They were, Bob Bliss, Mary Ryan and Norm Vickery. TOWN COUNCIL CHAIRMAN’S REPORT FOR 1982/83 R.D. Bliss This year has been a full and most interesting one for the Town Council, and one that has- touched on a good number of subjects. Earlier on in the year we started taking an in- terest in the Arts & Crafts Society and asked Wal- ter Comper, its president at the time, to attend one of our meetings to tell us about the problems they had been experiencing. We have continued our interest and support and I would like to feel that this has been largely responsible for the Arts & Crafts Centre currently being close to opening its doors to the public. Dogs, I imagine, will always be a problem in Cassiar and accordingly we have spent time on this topic. We rewrote the dog catcher’s job des- cription, put a heater in the pound, and designed a box which, when attached to a truck’s exhaust, would put a dog to sleep. We experience a high turnover of people in the dog catchers’ position Dave Brocklebank and this is due to a large degree to the harassment they receive from some of the other town’s folk. It is a shame that this should be the case, as in- deed it is regrettable that we should need a dog ~ catcher at all. We gave some thought to Block Parents and Neighbourhood Watch schemes and in order to find out more, we invited Mr. Wayne Connolly of the R.C.M.P. to a meeting. On the Neighbour- hood Watch we decided to limit our involvement to ensuring that the public were aware of how they could keep their homes more secure, and this was done with an R.C.M.P. bulletin that. ap- peared in the Courier just before the summer shutdown. The idea of Block Parents was passed on to the school and at present the Parents Ad- visory Board is showing a strong interest in this. This summer we spent a good deal of time planning a park to go in at the end of Connell Drive where the old gun range is. We were consid- ering a three year plan to eventually include pic- nic tables and barbecue pits, an adventure play- ground, a grassed area, a jogging track, outhouses and a bandstand/rain shelter, and even places to park campers. We went ahead and built the picnic tables but, before we could present our plans to the Company, we learned that approval had been given for a golf course to be built in the same lo- cation. We turned our attention instead to the area beside the creek behind the recreation centre which the Environmental Department has now grassed for us. To go with the picnic tables we have ordered barbecue pits, swings, teeter-totters, and a slide to make the park an attractive place for family gatherings. Maybe next year an adven- ture playground could be added too. There are a great number of smaller projects that we discussed and taken action on such as get- ting snow cleared from sidewalks and street inter- sections, awarding a prize to the best decorated house at Christmas, getting junk cars removed from town and trying to get quotes to repair side- walks, I have enjoyed my year as chairman, having appreciated the enthusiasm. shown by the other members, and I wish the new Council every suc- cess for the 1983/84 year. ) {>< < ) CLR ¢ )-{ ><> () GREED () <> ( ) EC)