New Skeena Given a F'eprieve Get Money Or Buyer the Monitors Will Also Get Estimates of • Know Where the Parties Stand

. , g a 6 It's spreading Double trouble Seasonal sounds Twin nasties are Find out which former The Terrace Community attacking the pine trees Kermodes are shooting Band performs its first of northwestern hoops for the UNBC indoor Christmas Concert B.C.\NEWS All Timberwolves\SPORTS B4 tomorrow\COMMUNITY B1 $1.00 PLUS 7¢ GST t~ ($1.10 plus 8¢ GST outside of the Terracearea) ....;I," O O rile ~rr¢ ~ i [ TERRAqE.,i u~ ,CO 25 °t~ ANNWERSAI~/ TANDARD i 2003 New Skeena given a f'eprieve Get money or buyer The monitors will also get estimates of • know where the parties stand. The judge It says New Skeena is also in talks how much could be raised through a total [] One mill does sell, seems to be inclined to bring closure to with two other parties aimed at raising a by Jan. 30, judge says liquidation. Page A2. this issue sooner rather than later." further $55 million. The Dec. 9 order keeps New Skeena The first report of the monitor says While the refinancing efforts could By JEFF NAGEL under protection from its creditors under another forest company has formally succeed, the report says "the prospects NEW SKEENA Forest Products has the Companies Creditors Arrangements [] Softwood deal affects indicated serious interest in investing can best be described as speculative." been given two more months to either Act. company plans, $20 million in New Skeena. While some financial details have raise enough money to start up or else If there's no successful sale or Page AlO. That deal would be subject to NWBC emerged from the court proceedings find a buyer to stave off bankruptcy. refinancing, the company faces and the other company raising a further -including the shift in recent months B.C. Supreme Court Justice Donald bankruptcy and liquidation. $30 million to pi'ovide a total $50 million of $4.1 million out of New Skeena to Brenner last week approved a twin- Northwest towns, including Terrace, on it any longer than we have to." to restart the operations. NWBC - Talstra said there are still track strategy to find buyers while must also return mobile equipment they He said the court did confirm the "We understand that NWBC unknowns. simultaneously allowing the owners to seized last month from New Skeena, The towns have first charge over New Skeena and the industry investor have had He noted there's no information on the continue to pursue financing. judge rejected their arguments that the land where property taxes are unpaid. discussions with a financial institution finances of NWBC Timber and Pulp, the The judge set a deadline of equipment could stay in place for now. Talstra said the return date of Feb. who has expressed a strong interest parent company that owns New Skeena Jan. 30 for offers and monitors at "I'm assuming it will go back very 9 was part of an agreement reached by in participating in such funding," the and is its main secured creditor. PricewaterhouseCoopers are to report quickly," Terrace mayor Jack Talstra lawyers for the towns and New Skeena. monitor's report says. Talstm said while the monitors back to the court on Feb. 9. said of equipment that was moved to the "It appears to bring some finality Once a deal is signed it could take an indicate Veniez has taken little salary The sale process allows proposals to city's public works yard. to this issue," Talstra said. "We know extra two to three months to get the $30 from New Skeena, when expenses are buy the company whole or piecemeal. "We don't want to carry the insurance what has to be produced by that date. We million, it says. added to that, "it's a nice chunk." Runway work nudging close to $3 million THE COST of extending the main runway at the airport ..... ~ here is nudging.c!os¢ to.il:te $3 million mark, .up Crom a~ ;~ 0rigina~ estimate of $2.5 million. • Items such as moving fences, hydro-electric poles and i:,, , beefing up the airport's electrical service weren't included :., in original calculations to add 1,500 feet to the main 6,000- "," foot runway, says Northwest Regional Airport manager gii: Laurie Brown. .,~.! Contractors will also clear a longer area than what is needed immediately for the extension in anticipation some day of the need for an even longer runway, he said. , tan Also scheduled to be moved is some of the equipment t ,~pl connected with the instrument landing system installed just ~¢j.~ last year, but that cost was included in the original $2.5 y to million figure, Brown added. A final location for that equipment will be decided by an On ~' engineering firm hired by the airport. The plan is to bq able ~v~. to move the equipment past what is needed for the 1,500 extension and have it in place in anticipation of an even i. longer runway some day. .-~,"e Although the cost has gone up, the society is going forward with its construction plan. m "We've secured financing up to that $3 million level," ,, said Brown. ,' Clearing a route for the longer runway is well on its way "" to being finished and Brown hopes a contractor to prepare and pave the extension will be selected by early February. "We'd like be out first thing in the spring," he said of the = Hark! projected work plan. ANGELS proclaim the birth of Jesus in one of seven vignettes at the Terrace Pentecostal Assembly's drive-through nativity last week- Airport society president Fraser Mackie said it is end. More than 50 actors were involved in portraying the living nativity held here for the first time. Motorists drove through the church's applying for a variety of federal and provincial grants in parking lot to visit each of the carefully crafted scenes. SARAH A. ZlMMERMANPHOTO anticipation of reducing the amount of money that will have to be borrowed. "We've pretty much got our oar in every pond," said Mackie. Youngsters "We continue to look for money wherever we can," he added. There was a possibility of getting a provincial given a chance transportation grant from an amount allocated in this year's provincial budget, but the society has been told that most of that has already been committed. to make history In the meantime, the society has been asking for letters of support from local governments and other organizations YOUNG CHILDREN can issuing a special invitation it can then forward to the federal and provinc;ial get a taste of the future by to young children and their governmen!s. attending the Dec. 21 time parents. • Mackie said the society can handle the expense of capsule event at Heritage "The time capsule is borrowing up to $3 million. Park. an excellent way to take a But it is ,also banking on more revenue from increased Since the time capsule is snapshot of this year in the passenger numbers by attracting new airline companies being placed in the ground city's history," said Davies. because of the longer runway. there with instructions to "Having somebody return The airport was criticized back in the spring, when it open it in 75 years, young in 75 years; with their photo first announced plans for a longer runway, for wanting to children are being invited and with their children or expand to attract WestJet, thereby affecting locally-run to attend the ceremony and grandchildren, becomes part Hawkair. then return to witness the of that history." Officials have said a runway extension could mean digging UP of the historical The time capsule itself attracting flights from overseas in addition to any container in 2078. .Will have been placed and anticipated domestic increase. "And what better way buried by the time of the The search by the airport here for federal and/or to mark both occasions, the Dec. 21 ceremony. Placed provincial money comes at a time when the Prince George one now and in the future, on top of it will be a large airport is making moves to expand. than to have your picture boulder to signify its In early fall it received a federal $1.85 million softwood taken with the capsule," says presence and children can relief grant and two weeks ago was listed as the recipient of 75th committee chairman be photographed with the $4 million from the sale of B.C. Rail to CN, Marylin Davies. boulder. MADE OF steel, the official City of Terrace's 75th anniversary time capsule is Prince George airport officials have their eye on "A picture taken now can The time capsule event is being filled with items prior to its placement in the ground at Heritage Park. Shown more international cargo and passenger traffic and say a go in the family album and taking place in conjunction here are 75th committee members, from left to right, Yvonne Moen, capsule chair renovation and expansion project would cost $15 million. become part of the family's with an old-fashioned Willy Schneider, Brian Downie, Tony Jones, Betty Campbell, 75th committee chair It's that kind of plan that has the airport here clearing historical record as the years Christmas at Heritage Park Marylin Davies and Denise Fisher. land to possibly one day extend the runway to more than go on," she said, ....... beginning at 2:30 p.m. on into it this morning at students will then seal the what will be going on at 8,000 feet. Davies said the 75th Dec.

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