Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 17

'SECTION I Cheedeading team wins just by attending championships B3 Births and Obituaries B7 EDITOR: BOB COX, 429-5399; citythejournal.southam.ca EDMONTON JOURNAL SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2000 INSIDE CITY Epcor pays neighbours a visit Top executives knock on doors to discuss Rossdale CHARLES MAN DEL Journal Staff Writer EDMONTON Epcor did what any good citizen would do on a Saturday afternoon and that's pay its neighbours a friendly visit Epcor's CEO, two company presidents, a vice-president, and several other utility staff spent Saturday going door-to-door, visiting surprised Rossdale residents. The utility executives handed out leaflets and talked to concerned about this whole pow-1 er-plant thing." Epcor is likely trying to balance, information from ConCerv McBain said. "Certainly, we've had an awful lot of information) down here from ConCerv." McBain said she's concerned; i about the power plant restruc- turing. But Epcor executives tolct i her they're planning to beautify the utility grounds and open up some of the area and make it. more park-like.

McCune said media weren't in-, vited to follow the corporation as; it met the neighbours "because we didn't want to disturb or intrude, and make any neighbours uncomfortablewimunnecessar attention." plant. ConCerv maintains the addition of the $50-million gas turbine represents the first of three phases planned for the plant. However, McCune said only one phase is planned and that Epcor has not applied for any additional development Williams said when Epcor expanded its Aqualta site in the late 1980s, the company billed it as the area's last major construction. "Then they announce more. It keeps going on and on." Louise McBain, a Rossdale resident, said she was very surprised to see the executives corning door-to-door.

"I don't know, maybe they're ninning scared. My reaction was they must be McCune said. "We sit down and talk to our neighbours." McCune said Epcor's visit reassured their neighbours, particularly when they learned the utility isn't increasing in size. Don Williams, a Rossdale resident and president of Concerned Citizens for Edmonton's River Valley (ConCerv), viewed the visit a bit differently. "They came down en masse.

They came ina van. It was almost like the truth squads hitting the neighbourhood." Williams said the work on the Rossdale site qualifies as much more than a renovation. He wanted to know if Epcor was telling residents about the three phases planned for the power v. V- y. yf c-v, i f--- Edmonton Inside Out When Kosovar refugee Vezire Rexhepi first came to Edmonton, all she knew about Canada was ite and snow.

Now, what stands out are the warm hearts and kindness. B2 Western Canada's last hatter turns 85 John Kitsco, the last hatter in Western Canada, enjoyed his 85th birthday and 63rd year in business Saturday surrounded by dozens of well wishers and long-time customers. The proprietor of Mr. John's Hat Shop Men's Wear has been a fixture in Edmonton, first on Jasper Avenue, and now on Whyte Avenue, for decades and is now serving the children and grandchildren of some of his earliest customers. B2 A taste of home, Finnish-style Cafe Orleans owner Bruce Wells and wine agent Harry Salimaki thought Oiler de- fenceman Janne Ni-inimaa might be a little homesick.

I So they dosed the restaurant this week and helped Niinimaa organize a party for 40 friends, where Arctic char, moose, elk and venison were served. And Journal columnist Nick Lees was there. B3 BRIEFLY Motorists beware of disruptions Expect some disruptions on city streets this week. On Monday there will only be one lane of traffic in each direction on 100th Street from Jasper Avenue to 101A Avenue between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Yellowhead Trail, from Victoria Trail to 17th Street, will be reduced to one lane of east-bound traffic Monday. This disruption will continue until Friday. In your community This is the final day of the 2000 Canadian Closed Amateur and Professional American Dancesport Championships. The event runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

at the Shaw Conference Centre. Tickets are $10 at the door. Did you know? Edmonton opened the first MAX film theatre in Western Canada. Source: City of Edmonton urn i folks about changes to the power plant adjacent to the river valley community. "We certainly looked at it as a neighbourhood visit," said Gerry McCune, Epcor's director of corporate affairs.

"What do people do when they're renovating? Theyvisit the neighbours and talk to them about it." The "renovations" in this instance are the $115-million re-powering of Rossdale Plant, a project that has attracted controversy over the last year. Many groups have called for the utility to shut down the plant and leave the river valley entirely. "A number of neighbours are unaware of what we'redoing and some have different concerns," Several hundred people crowded the smoky food court to watch as members of the Elite Taekwondo club kicked boards and chopped concrete blocks for charity. The 350-memberclub raised $13,500 for the Strathcona Women's Shelter. While seven-year-old Cody leaped over six children to split a pine board with his foot, his mother described how her family all came to take up taekwondo.

Deb Hjelmeland said their 13-year-old son introduced them to the sport six years ago. Now all three sons and bom parents prac DATS riders rally; to support? drivers ii.i. DON THOMAS Journal Staff Writer EDMONTON Edmonton may have the country's cheapest disabled persons transportation system but only by exploiting its drivers, says cere-. bral palsy victim Kim Laza ruk 7 Lazaruk, on Edmonton Transit's advisory board, was among sev; era! motorized wheelchair users at a Saturday rally at City Hall in. support of stalled contract talks for 150 Disabled Adult Transit System drivers.

"Sure, they can commend1 themselves for running the most cost-effective system in all of Canada," said Lazaruk. "But at what cost? At the cost of the independent operator anot they should be paid according, to the level of service they pro-, vide." Most of the 83 owner-drivers and 70 casual drivers are Sikh, re- fleeting a willingness of new Canadians to work long hours at low pay, he said. Sixteen months after being cav" ganized by the Amalgamated Transit Union and after thej Labour Relations Board recog- nized them as employees, contract talks are stalled. Unless the city makes signifv cant movement in mediation talks March 8, the process will start for a possible strike vote, said, union spokesperson Amarjeet Sohi. Edmonton Transit negotiators insist they must continue to be paid on a piece-workbasis, by th trip, he says.

That means working up to 12 hours a day, six days a week with no benefits. Users book rides ahead of time but frequently cancel at no cost to themselves. See DATS I B8 'r. ft LARRY WONG, THE JOURNAL Green belt Daniel Wolver-Hore, 8, of the Elite Taekwondo Club attempts to break a board with a flying side kick during a fund-raising exhibtion at the Sherwood Park Mall Saturday for the Strathcona Women's Shelter. Breaking bricks and boards a community affair "When you've broken a board, you know you have alot of inner strength." The 40-year-old computer consultant stressed taekwondo is a non-violentsport It's about control, not aggression." Jean Cremer, the fund-raising co-ordinator for the women's shelter, said that the sport takes courage and strength.

"Our women and children face those things on a daily basis. This is about respect, not violence." The Elite club has raised $50,000 over six years for the shelter. Alien plants, animals upsetting local ecologies UPSETTING NATURE'S BALANCE tice taekwondo. The 39-year-old mother has a black belt and on more than one occasion has stretched across a pair of chairs, balancing concrete blocks on her stomach while an-other member has smashed them with a sledge hammer. Sure, it hurts, Hjelmeland said "But you just suck it up." Why do it? "I think it's kind of cool.

I like the challenge. I want to keep young by doing this." Judy Forest, co-owner of Elite Taekwondo with her husband Adam, said members break boards to build confidence. widespread ecological and economic damage. I Further reading: Alien Invasion: America's Battle with Non-native Animals and Plants, by Robert S. Oevine, National Geographic Society, March 1999.

acres of south Florida. It has become a dense monoculture in some areas, replacing native plants and causing water loss and an increase in wUdfires. In the American southwest, Asian salt cedars, originally brought in by government agencies in the eariy 1900s for erosion control, have spread along nearly every river, stream and wash. It's a water hog that adds large amounts of salt to the soil and water, eradicating cottonwoods, other native plants and the animals that used to live among them. The list goes on.

The chestnut tree used to represent one-quarter of the forest canopy in the eastern United States. See INVASION I B8 Martial arts club raises thousands for women's shelter CHARLES MANDEL Journal Staff Writer SHERWOOD PARK The family that breaks boards together, stays together. That's certainly true in the case of the Hjelmeland family. At least one member of their family was out cracking boards Saturday at the Sherwood Park Matt. Studies Centre seminar series, reeled off one example after an-otherof species introduced either deliberately or inadvertently that have taken over their new habitat, displacing native plants and animals.

One of the most devastating examples is the brown tree snake, native to northern Australia, Indonesia and New Guinea. It likely arrived on the Pacific Island of Guam after the Second World War as stowaways on cargo Free of natural enemies, and with a readily available food supply, they multiplied to the point that some areas are now infested with as many as 12,000 snakes per square mile. And in the process, they've wiped out all of Guam's birds, Simberioff said. Seven of the tree snakes thought to have been carried in aircraft wheel wells or in air cargo have been spotted and destroyed in Hawaii and one even made it to Corpus Christi, Tex. In 1966 a small boy visiting Hawaii with his family carried three giant African snails in his pocket back to his home in Mia- I 1 St if -4 I Problem worse than global warming, U.S.

professor warns ANDY OGLE Journal Staff Writer EDMONTON Alien invaders that wipe out native plants and animals are a bigger threat to biodiversity than global warming, says an American expert in a relatively new branch of ecology called invasion biology. What's more, said Dan Sim-berloff, a professor of ecology at the University of Tennessee, the greatest impediment to keeping out non-native species is the World Trade Organization and multilateral treaties governing trade. "But I didn't hear anything about told aserninar at the University of Alberta this week. "Yet as a global threat to the en-vironment, this is far greater than artything people were complaining about at the WTO talks." Simberioff, who spoke at the of AEnvironmentalResearch and I Since North America was first colonized, several thousand foreign plants, animals and insects have established themselves here. I Some, such as crop plants, have been beneficial.

Many, such as pets and ornamental plants have been harmless. But an estimated 15 per cent have become invaders causing mi. He gave them to his grandmother who put them out in her back garden. A serious agricultural pest that is about seven cm long, it multiplied and soon infestations of several thousand snails were found in different parts of Miami and 40 km north in Hollywood. The snails were eventually eradicated but it took seven years and 1 million to do it Eurasian zebra mussels have clogged water intakes throughout the Great Lakes regions and in waterways down the Mississippi They arrived in the ballast water of ships.

Australian melaleuca, also called the Australian pine introduced for roadside planting in Florida, now covers 400,000 BRIAN GAVRIL0FF, THE JOURNAL University of Tennessee ecology professor Dan Simberioff..