Gateway February 2016

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WEDNESDAY February 17 2016

NEWS AND EVENTS FOR PRINCE GEORGE AND CENTRAL INTERIOR

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Artists Kathryn Rohl, Lynda Anderson, Lynn Box and Catherine Baylis created murals for the bedrooms of AiMHi’s Children’s Residence.

See page 3 for more.

MURALS BRIGHTEN CHILDREN’S LIVES

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‘The process of doing it was wonderful’ Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca

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very child’s room should have a mural in it to brighten the space.

When the idea came to residential care worker Bas Rynsewyn, he quickly approached Wendy Young, executive director at the Prince George and District Community Arts Council, about getting some artists to paint murals at AiMHi’s Children’s Residence that provides respite to caregivers of special needs children.

Four artists came forward to take on the project: Kathryn Rohl, Lynda Anderson, Lynn Box and Catherine Baylis.

The residence has eight rooms and usually there’s seven children being housed at once with one bed set aside for emergency respite needs.

Rohl and Baylis each created two murals while Anderson and Box each created one.

The process began last spring and after some renovations and a fresh coat of paint was put on the walls, the murals were the next step, said Rynsewyn. Cloverdale Paint donated the paint used for the murals.

“We have one young child who is always looking at all the murals and pointing out what he sees,” said Rynsewyn.

Baylis, who has been an artist all her life and usually works with acrylic on canvas and most comfortably uses pencil while mostly doing portraiture and abstracts, took on a happy cartoon character in one of her murals and a gigantic dream catcher in the other.

“I have taken some time in my later adulthood to get more serious about art,” said Baylis.

— see DREAM CATCHER, page 5

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Artist Catherine Baylis stands with one of her murals in the AiMHi’s Children’s Residence.

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Dream catcher has cultural significance for Baylis — from page 3 Baylis recently won a Meritorious Service Medal from Canada’s Governor General for her efforts to start the Fire Pit Cultural Centre when she worked for Positive Living North.

Baylis chose the dream catcher because the symbol is understood by many, she said.

“In my understanding the dream catcher originates with Anishnaabe people, which is part of my ancestry,” said Baylis.

“While many of the children that come through here might not understand what the dream catcher is, the information is written on the wall beside it so the staff can help them become familiar with it.

“The idea that the dream catcher will catch the bad dreams in its web while the good dreams filter through to the dreamer feels kind of nice. ”

In my understanding the dream catcher originates with Anishnaabe people, which is part of my ancestry.

— Catherine Baylis Baylis has never done a mural before and the spackled wall presented some issues.

It’s tough trying to paint straight lines on a bumpy surface.

“It was great and I loved it,” said Baylis.

“The process of doing it was wonderful and I am grateful that I did it. The whole thing was Bas’s idea to make these walls something more than walls for these kids.

Every child should have a mural on their wall.”

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Cooks’ Corner offers the spice of life Christine HINZMANN Citizen staff chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca The best way to introduce new foods to someone is to cook it for them.

That’s what the North Central Seniors Association does once a month during a

lunchtime Cooks’ Corner, held in the basement of the College Heights Baptist Church.

Each month, someone volunteers to cook a meal for all those who attend.

The theme for the dishes is something people may not have tried before.

— see EVENT, page 7

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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Wendy and David Wlasitz volunteered to be chief cooks for Cooks’ Corner on Jan. 8.

Event a chance to showcase exotic flavours — from page 6 On Jan. 8, there were 27 people who took the dare as Wendy and David Wlasitz volunteered to be chief cooks for Cooks’ Corner.

The recipe they made was Rockin’ Moroccan Stew by Janet and Greta Podleski, found in their recipe book The Looneyspoons Collection.

The recipe is not only flavourful, it’s healthy.

There’s chick peas and onions, green peppers, ginger root, cumin, coriander and

curry and just to throw a twist in there add a bit of peanut butter and a smattering of raisins into the mix.

The reaction of the guests was generally one of surprise. There were a lot of spices going into the pot but, while flavourful, the general consensus was the dish was not too spicy for anyone.

North Central Seniors Association has 75 members and groups or couples usually volunteer for the Cooks’ Corner. The association pays for the supplies and people provide the know-how.

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Craft beer maker setting up downtown

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Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

f you go down to the crossroads, fall down on your knees, as the old blues song goes, you’ll be on the doorstep of a new Prince George brewery.

The intersection of Fifth Avenue and George Street will soon be the home of Crossroads craft beer factory. The principal owners of the venture, Daryl Leiski and Bjorn Butow, are giving new life to an old and interesting building that has been locked and abandoned for years. Crossroads Brewery will be the name

on the sign replacing the Tony Roma’s Steakhouse marquee.

Leiski and Butow said their renovations were about to begin but an official opening date has not been set. Leiski vaguely suggested December of this year, but wasn’t firm. The renovation of the building and installation of the manufacturing equipment would be “expensive,” said Leiski.

The investment amount would be “lots,” he added as the only hint.

“Daryl’s been making his own beer on a small scale, and slowly moving towards his dream of opening a brewery, for about 20 years,” said Butow.

— see ‘DOWNTOWN, page 11

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Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Bjorn Butow and Daryl Leiski unveil their plans on for a craft brewery called Crossroads Brewing on Jan. 28.

‘Downtown has really been brought back to life’ — from page 8 Butow, a longtime beer enthusiast, met Leiski about a year ago, during the first edition of the Kiwanis Alefest event he helped organize. They became fast friends and over the year formed a business partnership. Both men were raised in Prince George.

“We looked at a number of options, but Daryl and I really firmly agreed that downtown was where we wanted to be,” said Butow, pointing up and down the adjacent streets at the fine restaurants nearby that their operation will soon complement. They plan to have a tasting room and lounge with tailored food service but not be a competing restaurant.

“Downtown has really been brought back to life, and we wanted to be part of that,” said Butow.

Mayor Lyn Hall agreed, welcoming the new venture to one of the city’s old character buildings that was going to commercial waste on historic George Street.

He loves that this building was originally constructed in 1945 to be an auto dealership by the city’s 11th mayor Gordon Bryant and his wife Trudy.

“It was tough to keep this proposal under wraps,” said Hall, relieved the brewery had finally been announced to the public after months of backroom preparations. “This is a great announcement for the momentum of downtown. It’s such an opportunity for two hometown guys to set an example of what can happen here with a business dream. We (at city hall) are absolutely ecstatic about this announcement.”

— see EIGHT BEER VARIETIES, page 16

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Eight beer varieties planned — from page 16 The chair of Downtown Prince George was equally pleased, especially since his own business, Nancy O’s Restaurant Pub, would be getting a number of new titles to sell on their menu only a few blocks away.

“It’s really an exciting time for downtown

and I’m glad to see these guys get in while the getting is good,” Eoin Foley said.

Crossroads Brewery will produce eight beer varieties on tap (growler containers will also be produced, and discussions are underway about cans and bottles).

— see ‘IT WAS, page 18

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‘It was like a couple choosing a baby name’ — from page 16 Four or five of those labels will be yearround standards, the others would be seasonal and special occasion recipes. The company will offer a kölsch flavour, a pair of Indian pale ale flavours, a red rye ale, and others are still being designed.

As this is Alefest weekend, Crossroads made their announcement to coincide with that annual celebration of beer, and for the upstart entrepreneurs to point grateful fingers at the other independent breweries of the region.

Butow and Leiski said they received overwhelming support from Pacific Western Brewery of Prince George, Barkerville Brewing Company of Quesnel, their fellow crafters in Prince Rupert and Terrace, and Three Ranges Brewing Company in Valemount even used their formative recipe to brew up a test batch that Butow and Leiski could pour for folks starting at a celebratory

launch party on Thursday night at The Keg. One thing they talked extensively about was the selection of the company name.

“It was like a couple choosing a baby name,” Butow laughed.

They settled on Crossroads because of the literal meeting of major highways in this city, the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers, the junction of the region’s rail lines, and all those well-known conjunctive features that define Prince George.

Leiski said it gave the beer world a pinpoint mental image of where their company was located.

Butow added that the Crossroads reference also pertained to arriving at a place in your life where you have to make big choices.

He and Leiski are both professionals with full-time jobs, so opening a small business of any kind was a leap of faith no matter how calculated it was – exciting but scary.

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Prince George population shrinking, says B.C. Stats Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

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he city’s population has decreased, according to the latest estimate from B.C. Stats, leaving Prince George mayor Lyn Hall both surprised and disappointed.

As of July 1, 2015, the city’s population stood at 71,363 people, down 1,958 or 2.7 per cent from the year before, the agency

said in a release this week.

For Hall, the decline is at odds with what he’s seen and experienced.

“When I take a look at what’s occurring in the community – the residential starts in the community, the community announcements that are going to be forthcoming – there is a great deal of activity in the city from an economic perspective “So to hear that we’ve dropped nearly 2,000 is surprising to me.”

Hall

B.C. Northern Real Estate Board reports have shown a steady rise in both sales and the average price for a single family home in the city. Likewise, there was a post-recession record 169 starts on single family homes in and around the city in 2015, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. However, the number and total value of building permits taken out at city hall are down. In all, 485 permits for $88.4 million worth of work were

taken out over 2015, compared to 509 permits for $125.7 million in 2014. And permits for new singlefamily homes stood at 111, worth $32 million in total, down from 126 permits for $35.2 million over 2014. Getting a precise gauge of the city’s population is important, said Hall, because it can play a role in deciding how much funding the city can receive from the federal and provincial governments through various programs.

— see POPULATION, page 21

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Population down across the north — from page 20 “If your population decreases, it could have some impact,” he said.

It only adds to the importance of responding accurately and fully to census takers when they take to the streets this summer for the 2016 count, in Hall’s opinion.

“It’s so important to get out and vote,” he said. “It’s equally important for people to fill out the census because that census document that you’re filling out means you’re being counted for some very important reasons and one of those reasons is to provide for financial opportunity for the city... when you talk about transfer payments from the feds or the province.”

Hall is trying to get more information on how B.C. Stats arrives at its numbers.

According to an emailed statement from B.C. Stats, they take the most recent federal census figures, from 2011, and looks at various indicators – notably BC Hydro connections and B.C. health client registry

numbers in the case of small population communities – to come up with estimates.

For the Prince George census agglomeration, which also covers areas adjacent to city limits, the total is 83,823, a decline of 1,838 people or 2.1 per cent.

Here’s a look at population figures from elsewhere in northern B.C.: • For the Fraser-Fort George Regional District as a whole, the figure was 91,277, down 2,011 people or 0.5 per cent.

Mackenzie’s population was 3,499, down 24 people; Valemount’s was 955 people, down eight people; McBride’s was 577, down seven people; and for the unincorporated areas it was 14,883, down 14 people.

• For the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District as a whole, the figure was 39,997, down 153 people or 0.4 per cent. Vanderhoof’s population was 4,492, down 22 people; Fort St. James’ was 1,776, down 17 people; and Fraser Lake’s was 1,149, down 18 people.

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