SUNDAY January 5, 1997 s a : SL MA Cait Today for your Kit on “The Best RRSP ideas for 1997" “quanies Laird to frit 25 caters” West Vancouver office: 925-9210 Wi BLUE CAEP TeNRUNG 4 4 Daren ot Reales Uy wayr Coabeus i Meriter - Coe ea benerttar Pr tect. Fares hase rescue sougnt By tan Noble News Reporter LAST week’s snow- storms led to renewed requests from the North and West Vancouver Emergency Program to reconsider the clo- sure of CFB Chilliwack. But there is no chance the 1998 closure will be overturned, said the Chilliwack base adminis- tration officer. Emergency program coordi- nator Ross Peterson said Lower Mainland emergency planners have been dismayed by the base closure because it means reduced rescue capability in the region. The North Shore, said Peterson, has reservists who can help our in times of dis But without the equipment and plies at the Fraser Valley b. local reservists won't be tive. In case of disaster, said Peterson, “We would not be as weil ed as we would be wi a fully functioning operational base in Chilliwack.” He pointed to the arny's presence in helping after floods thar devastated the Saguenay region of Quebee last year. “We would not see that kind of federal presence heiping us in) British = Columbia,” added = army reservists, Who are part-time diers, called in to help in the Fraser Valley disaster did as best they could under the circum: stan The federal Liberals announced in 1995) that CFB Chilliwack would be closed in June 1998 as part of the deficit reduction program. Before the cuts, the base had 1,500 army personnel. According to Chilliwack base administration officer Gordon Zenert, the cutbacks at the army See Force pase 3 ‘Tales of Evita Monday: Mainly clondy High 7C, low 3'C, Kvetch TREVOR White (left), Mary McDonald and Michael Wener kvetch their way through London playwright Steven Berkoff's comedy of the same name. A hit at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, the Way Off Broadway Theatre Co.'s production runs to Feb. 9 at Presentation House. Storm pushed NSRT members ha By Michae! Becker News Editor NORTH Shore rescue personnel played a critical role in bringing to safety many motorists left snow- bound last weekend in the Abbotsford area. Twelve members of the North Shore Rescue Team (NSRT), supported by staff from the Cypress Bowl recreation area, responded to the Sumas Prairie. Search managers were first paged on Dec. 28 shortly before midnight. Drivers were trapped in their cars on the Trans-Canada Highway and elsewhere in the vicinity as winds gusting to 100 kilumetres per hour whipped snow into impassable drifts and caused white cut conditions. The Provincial Emergency Prograin emergency coordinanon centre in Victoria put the call out for mutu- alan. * NSRT leader Tim Jones and NSRT truck officer Stan Sovdat made the icy trip out to Abbotstord itt a 4X4 equipped with chains. They pulled in te a fire hall command centre by 2 a.m. fast Sunday. The neat 30 hours were spent hard agit by the aen Said Jones of the situation as they first met it: “In became qui pparens shat this was strictly a survival situation. There was no rescue taking place. Any See Snow page 3 Mary Kay consultants in the pink on | Pnoto submitted NORTH Shore Rescue Team leader Tim Jones stands by the truck in which two eiderly men were stranded at Abbotsford. North Shore weddings and anniversaries fashion p12 neni ee mock Ceipbrations 018