News Leader News for June 5, 2007
PRINCETON LOSES ANOTHER HISTORIC BUILDING
No one knew Friday night, June 1st, that the meals being prepared and enjoyed at the Belaire Restaurant that evening would be the final ones served at the historic building.
Nor was anyone aware of the fact that a fire early the next morning would not only destroy the building - and very popular local family-owned business - but also bring an end to a significant 76 year old downtown building.
The Belaire Restaurant was in the historic Mine Rescue Building, originally built on Vermilion Avenue in 1931. At the time, the lot where the Provincial Government Building and Princeton Pentecostal Church sit once contained the famous Similkameen Hotel (a facade of it is on the back of the grandstand at Princeton Fairgrounds) and the original Princeton Court House.
The Newmont Mines Rescue Team competed in regular competitions and one team won the Provincial Finals in Kelowna on June 14, 1975.
Princeton Community Services operated a restaurant (The Mini Chef) from the site beginning in 1980. Dave and Lol Anderson brought the Belaire Restaurant to life years later, operated in recent years by Anderson's daughter Debbie Willis and her family.
The early morning fire continues to be under investigation.
WHAT DOES ACCESSIBLE REALLY MEAN?
Imagine you are in a public building and you need to use the washroom. You can get to the door, but you can't get through it or you can't enter a stall. Maybe you can't reach the sink to wash your hands.
Imagine shopping one day and the items on your list are out of reach.
Either they are too high or too far back on a shelf.
Imagine you are traveling downtown and need to enter a building but you can't get over the step at the front door.
These are just a few of the challenges facing persons with limited mobility in Princeton today.
Ken Carlson and Laurie Quick organized an interesting exercise May 31st to share with members of Town Council some of the challenges they face in their day-to-day travels in and around downtown. It was called Accessibility Awareness Day and a total of five teams followed a series of tasks designed to educate and inform participants.
The teams included Councillor Jim Manion in a wheelchair joined by Ken Carlson and the News Leader's George Elliott; Mayor Randy McLean (wheelchair) with Torry Small; Councillor Ray Jarvis (wheelchair) with Brian Liberatore, Gordon Comeau and Debbie Schwarz; Councillor Pam Jones (wheelchair) with Lynn Pelly and Town of Princeton CAO Patrick Robins (wheelchair) with Laurie Quick and Joann Gabriel.
Each team had a list of downtown locations to visit with a series of tasks to perform or sites to inspect while at each place.
Carlson told the News Leader the exercise was not to specifically target any business to point out any problems but to trace the average day for someone in a wheelchair, which often means a trip to the post office, the bank, and a couple other chore-related stops in town.
Of the places visited on the downtown tour it became obvious that there is a lot of buildings and facilities within local buildings that are not wheelchair accessible. This was originally brought to light a couple years ago by Brian Liberatore who surveyed the entire downtown and submitted his findings to Town Council.
"The ultimate goal is to say this is an accessible community for everyone," Carlson says.
One may argue that point saying that on the surface the Town has ramps at the end of each downtown sidewalk and there are a lot of ramps leading into local buildings, however, negotiating some of those ramps are just downright dangerous. The paving blocks that make up the downtown sidewalks are pretty, but the sand below them shifts with time making some of the sidewalks a pretty rough ride and the odd ramp into a crosswalk a speed bump hazard.
Then there's the ramps into public buildings. Aside from being pretty steep at more than one location, they do the job they were meant to do. Automatic doors are helpful in other locations but counter tops designed for people standing upright become a problem.
Calling Accessibility Awareness Day a 'small step' Carlson says it was important for Town Council members to be part of the process.
"They got to see it from a different prospective and I've been impressed with their response to this."
What were Carlson and Quick hoping to achieve?
"This is an awareness raising activity," Carlson says.
"Businesses will now be a little more aware of where they are falling short and where they are meeting accessibility requirements."
Each participant carried a questionnaire on their route which asked for comments ranging from whether or not there was accessible parking nearby and level entry with easy to open doors to whether or not the facility was 'wheelchair friendly' for shopping and was there a customer washroom available that was wheelchair accessible.
All data will be put into a final report to be presented to Town Council at a future date.
You may ask yourself why put able-bodied members of Town Council in wheelchairs and send them on a field trip around town.
Carlson says it was a simple decision.
"They are the political voice of the community. They are our elected officials and they create the bylaws."
Accessibility Awareness Day was built on three very simple points. First, 'Get to the building.' Second, 'Get into the building' and Third, 'Be able to move around inside the building.'
Town Hall, for example, has automatic doors and a sidewalk that rolls right up to the main door, which makes entry quite easy. The foyer can be crowded, but for a single wheelchair it's simple to use and access to staff is also good. The public washroom located there is a whole different story. Not only is it hard to get into with a wheelchair, but also the stall is virtually impossible to use.
There are other locations downtown that would increase accessibility to their front doors with changes to outdoor sidewalks similar to what has been done outside the Legion building.
Then there's other facilities downtown that would require a serious upgrading which would be costly.
And although the downtown core is not exactly 100 percent wheelchair accessible, local residents continue to show their character by offering to help with everything from opening a door to stopping at an intersection to let a wheelchair user use the crosswalk.
So there is a form of awareness present.
Carlson and Quick hope the exercise of Accessibility Awareness Day builds on that and makes Princeton easier for them to move around in along with others in wheelchairs, those who use walkers and the elderly.
SCHOOL DISTRICT 58 BOARD MEETING NEWS
SCHOOL BOARD LOOKS INTO FAMILY PROGRAM
A program for children living in families dealing with parental addiction problems is being considered for the coming year in School District #58. At the May 30 School Board meeting in Princeton, Superintendent Byron Robbie outlined the program, called Families Growing Together. It has been used effectively in other areas.
Children in the program may be referred by child and family service workers.
"The program is run with the best interests of the family in mind," Superintendent Robbie told the Board.
He stated he would like to run the program in this school district, adding that school principals support the program.
The Board approved looking into it further.
BOARD LOOKS AT KIDS' CONDUCT
The Board of School Trustees is reviewing school codes of conduct. These are the rules governing what is acceptable student behaviour and what is not.
Each school must have a code that meets the policy of "safe, caring" school environment.
A new policy on dealing with bullying is being circulated in draft form. It will include provisions for suspending students.
DISTRICT EXPANDS TRADES TRAINING
Opportunities in trades are expanding rapidly at this time, and School District #58 is offering trades training through apprenticeship programs offered in secondary school.
Princeton Secondary School has had 10 students involved in apprenticeship programs in 2006-07.
The schools are maintaining links with Thompson and Okanagan Colleges trades training divisions to pave the way for students on apprenticeship programs.
