This is your final chance for a quick review of the news highlights in the last part of 2016.
October
Four accidents on the Sande Overpass in four days prompt the Ministry of Transportation to place a temporary yield sign on the western approach from Keith Ave. The accidents all involved vehicles turning left onto the overpass from Keith and colliding with vehicles coming straight through the intersection from the east on Keith Ave.
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Northern charitable foundations who raise money for hospitals and health care facilities in their home communities band together to raise money for a wholesale upgrade of medical imaging equipment, starting with an $8.3 million project to purchase a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit for Mills Memorial Hospital, as well as one for Fort St. John and a replacement of the one in Prince George.
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After eight years of welcoming visitors and residents, the “Welcome to Terrace” sign is gone. Located alongside Hwy16 in Thornhill just past the Costa Lessa Motel, its location in Thornhill and not in Terrace, is the prime reason it is removed by the Kitimat-Stikine regional district.
November
City council is planning a meeting to strategize about ways to get the provincial government to pay attention to the need for a new Mills Memorial Hospital. They're organizing to meet with the Northern Health Authority and the North West Regional Hospital District.
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The City of Terrace is asking the provincial government for $50,000 to hire a consultant to define the feasibility of a pedestrian overpass spanning CN’s rail yard to connect the south side of the city with the north side.
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The provincial transportation ministry is looking to increase the efficiency and safety of the Hwy16/Hwy37 South four-way stop on the boundary of Terrace and Thornhill, considering everything from an overpass, to traffic lights, to a traffic circle. Public meetings are planned early next year.
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Work on the Sande Overpass to pour a new concrete stops for the winter after being delayed by structural deficiencies found after workers ground through the old layer of concrete they were working to replace on the two eastern lanes of the overpass. Officials said it was a never a significant safety issue.
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A bridge of 120 metres is planned to be installed over the CN crossing on Hwy16 between Terrace and Prince Rupert, as well as a realignment of 1.9 kilometres of the highway. It’s a $37 million provincial government project set for construction next year, and one of the largest highway projects in this area in years.
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Eva Clayton defeated incumbent Mitchell Stevens in the election Nov. 2 and she is the fourth president of the Nisga’a Lisims Government and the first woman to hold the post. Clayton receives 836 votes to 640 for Stevens.
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The Terrace Aquatic Centre rebuild is being expanded to have a larger 2,000-square-foot fitness room and an expanded leisure pool from 850 square feet to 1,200 square feet, adding a lazy river and a water cannon. It’s estimated to take eight months beginning in early February 2017.
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Organics have been added to the waste collection system in Thornhill and the rural areas, to be picked up weekly beginning Nov. 14.
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A new mammography unit is added at Mills Memorial Hospital, a $1.2 million machine bought by the provincial government through a BC Cancer Agency program aimed at breast health. It will give better images and increase patient comfort.
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Premier Christy Clark approves a business case study for a new Mills Memorial Hospital, which will lay out plans and costs for the project, but does not guarantee that a project will go ahead.
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The downtown parking study is evolving after several public meetings, and the company contracted to do the study is told by the city that the priority is the 4600 block of Lakelse, with the challenge of marking out spots for seniors, expectant mothers and parents with young children.
December
After the suicide of her brother, local resident Carol Sabo challenges the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. to require doctors to prepare a comprehensive treatment plan as they wean people off medications, and to meet with other support groups as part of that process.
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The federal government refuses Enbridge’s Northern Gateway oil pipeline application, effectively ending its chance of ever going ahead, and Northwestern political leaders aren’t surprised.
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McElhanney Consulting and Progressive Ventures start construction of a new trail on Ferry Island, building the first part of the underpass which will enable pedestrians and cyclists to access the island’s trails without jaywalking across Hwy16. The McElhanney legacy project will be completed next spring, with another kilometre of trail, including a section on the north side of the island.
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Regional health care officials are reaching out to northwestern B.C. residents with an online petition to continue the campaign to replace Mills Memorial Hospital. An advocacy committee for the hospital also forms, led by the North West Regional Hospital District, a regional taxation authority headquartered in Terrace.
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There won’t be a BC Transit bus service between Terrace and Prince Rupert, but service will start between Terrace and the Hazeltons. The Prince Rupert route is cancelled after the City of Prince Rupert decides not to help subsidize the route’s costs.