Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 26, 2004, Winnipeg, Manitoba B2 City / District Winnipeg free press saturday june 26, 2004 first Day continued from Page b1 but to the Best of my ability i am going to try and change that. If people Call me i am still going to try and get Back to them even if its driving Home on my Katz has already hired his first staffer and plans to add More people in the coming weeks. His new chief of staff is Ryan Craig who moved Back to Winnipeg after working with the Ontario conserva Tives. He was part of Katz a Campaign team. Its Likely the executive policy secretariat will be shaken up but there Are no plans to replace Stenning the City a chief administrative officer. Mondays meeting with Stenning will Likely include talk about the Public use facilities study puts report on the future of Winnipeg a aging libraries recreation centres and pools. The $500,000 study by a Chicago based consultant which outlines a 10-year business plan for the City a recreational infrastructure was completed weeks ago but is being held Back by City administrators until the fall. Its believed As Many As 300 facilities could be affected and rumours have been circulating for months about what might stay open and what May close. Katz said yesterday he would prefer the report in councillors hands before september. Marlene Amell executive director of the general Council of Winnipeg Community centres said staff and volunteers around the City Are anxious to find out what the future holds for their clubs. We definitely Are very interested to see what the contents of the study suggest Amell said. There Are always rumours and that a feeding a lot of fear. Id like Katz to meet with us. We re intent on setting up something a pair of City councillors Russ Wyatt and Harvey Smith recently voiced their displeasure publicly Sug Gesting the report should have been a civic election Issue. Yesterday Smith urged the new mayor to release the study soon. ? Katz has promised open government and i Hope he carries through with it Smith said. It needs to be released a lot earlier than september so Community mayor Katz was sworn into office thursday but the reality of the Job did to hit until yesterday. Clubs can discuss it. Some May close and some May be i be heard from some people that they were big sup expanded. Its an important Issue for porters of it and they were very positive about it. I will Katz and Stenning will Likely also discuss the family have to get briefed on that As Well he said. Violence intervention program which runs out of fund coun. Jenny Gerbasi said she cares about the pro ing at the end of the month. Grams future but added it should be the provinces the Manitoba government recently turned Down a responsibility. Request from the City to take Over funding of the pro i think the City and the province need to keep talk Gram which paired two police officers with two social ing with each other and figure out what we can do in the workers to respond to family violence Calls to police in future she said. Which no arrests were made. Katz says he needs More information about the pro Gram before he can comment on its future. operator continued from Page b1 i can to imagine working with any other group of people she said. Each Day is Swatski said police have done much to improve the police 911 Centre since the feb. 16, 2000, murders of two Sisters in the City a North end. Doreen Leclair and Corrine Mckeown called police five times the night they died but cars were Only sent after the first and last Calls. Last year police communications operator Debbie Johnson was recognized by the association of Public safety communication Canada for her work aiding in the May 1, 2002, arrest of Michael David Syrnyk the yuletide ban Dit. Syrnyk High on cocaine and acting irrationally had just fired at two police officers and was holding a woman hostage at gunpoint. For More than 40 minutes Johnson kept him on the phone calming him Down. Syrnyk was arrested several hours later after he fell asleep. smoking continued from Page b1 Beggs a plumbing and heating sales Man teamed up with two other businessmen to buy the distribution rights to the device. It was developed in Germany Origi Nally to allow patients to inhale medical marijuana without creating smoke. Beggs Hopes it will sell in Winnipeg. Beggs plugged in a Volcano at the Sil ver Heights restaurant yesterday to show How it works. Restaurant owners Jim and Maureen Siwicki say they May be the first to invest in the device. Sagging sales in hotels and bars Are just now bouncing Back from the hit they took Over the ban. The sales pitch is a place like us is supposed to buy one so people can say lets go to Silver Heights because they have it Jim Siwicki said. The Volcano is a Small stainless steel Cone mounted on a mini hot plate that literally roasts cigarette tobacco. It feeds the Vapour into a cellophane bag the size of a bread bag and smokers inhale the Vapour through a mouthpiece. Sucking Back cigarette Vapour instead of smoking tobacco is Legal ? at least for now. But nothing prevents the City from passing changes to the butt ban to outlaw the Volcano a City spokeswoman said. City coun. Mark Lubosch North Kil Dona who led the City Campaign to out Law Public smoking indicated he a be first to head off Volcano sales. Lubosch said he does to care How the Volcano lets off steam he does to like the sound of it. Any time you re talking about putting your lips on a machine called a Volcano i become concerned Lubosch said. Beggs said the device May be health Ier than smoking because one study ? that tested marijuana ? found the resulting Vapour was pure the the Active ingredient in pot without any component additives in it. If that a True of cigarettes then carcinogenic additives released by burning tobacco May not be released in tobacco Vapour. Beggs a non smoker said he wants to bring smokers in from the cold. ;