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LOOKING BACK: Stanton wins $63,105 water bill fight with city

by Candace A.McQuatt

40 years ago

Bob Olexin, owner of the Mini-Vegas Arcade reported to RCMP that approximately $170 was stolen from his business, most of it in coin.

The money was a “float” cash used to give change for the pin ball machines in the arcade.

The thief or thieves had gained entry through the back door of the old theatre which was being dismantled.

RCMP at the time had no suspects but were investigating.

On the heels of the break in, Bob Olexin decided to suspend operations at his Mini-Vegas in the Old Capitol Theatre.

He said, the kids are disappointed, but with summer coming on, they will be able to take more advantage of outdoor recreation.

Reason for the closure was Bellanca Development's plan to construct the start of a new tower building on the old theatre site. Mini-Vegas would open later that year in a new location.

30 years ago

The City of Yellowknife had failed in its legal bid to obtain back payments for water use from Stanton hospital.

City lawyer James Power said in the NWT Supreme Court that the hospital owed the city $63,105 because the water meters had been “misread” since 1977, and the hospital had not been billed for proper amounts of water used. The readings omitted a final zero, said Power, resulting in only one-tenth of the water's cost being billed.

But Stanton hospital lawyer Clark Rehn, said the hospital board did not accept the city's revised readings.

“It is the position of the hospital that we are not able to ascertain what quantity of water was used at all,” said Rehn.

The judge dismissed the city's application.

20 years ago

The city's nautical namesake lost power in one of its four engines during a trip up the west coast of British Columbia to Skagway, Alaska.

Soon after that mishap, HMCS Yellowknife experienced trouble with one of the remaining three engines, but the crew was able to get it up and running. The problems came just days after the ship's commissioning in Esquimalt, B.C.

10 years ago

In outlining his schedule, then Mayor Gord Van Tighem informed city councillors of Giller Prize winner Elizabeth Hay's upcoming visit to the capital city.

Van Tighem said he would be giving the author of Late Nights on Air – a novel about a radio reporter's 1975 summer in Yellowknife – a personalized tour of the city, to show her all that had changed since 1975.