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Loading up on river rocks ‘not allowed.’ p3B.C. Views
Were the Winter Olympics worth it? p6
In an effort to keep a major employer in town, the District of Maple Ridge lowered its industry property tax this year and bumped up residential rates a fraction to compensate for the change.
The reduced tax rate applies to Major In-dustry, Class 4. International Forest Products Ltd.’s Hammond cedar mill is the only prop-erty within that classifi cation in Maple Ridge. About 130 people work at the operation, locat-ed on the banks of the Fraser River.
In 2010, the municipality’s major industry tax rate was 32 per cent – now the fi fth highest in the region, according to a report discussed at Monday’s council workshop.
That rate is down more than 10 per cent from
2007, when Maple Ridge’s 56 per cent industry tax rate was second only to Coquitlam.
Council praised the smaller tax rate. “I think we’ve been very responsible in that,
to encourage that company not to relocate, like has happened in other communities,” said Coun. Craig Spiers.
“You gotta show some kind of sympathy and encouragement for these major employers and we’ve done that,” he added.
Tax burden transferred to residents
THE NEWS
Lower taxes for Hammond mill
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Dancing in the streetMembers of the Afro-Caribbean dance troupe dance towards the bandstand in Memorial Peace Park during the annual Caribbean Festival costume parade in downtown Maple Ridge on Sunday. See video @ www.mapleridgenews.com.
Embattleddoctor suesgov. body
A Maple Ridge doctor is taking the provincial governing body for doc-tors to B.C. Supreme Court, claim-ing it has exceeded its jurisdiction in its attempts to discipline him.
In a writ fi led June 30, Dr. Patrick Nesbitt is seeking to quash a deci-sion by the College of Physician and Surgeons of B.C.’s disciplinary panel, accusing him of substandard care, and to stop the college’s pro-ceedings against him.
Nesbitt and the College of Physi-cians and Surgeons B.C. have had a long relationship, with the pro-vincial governing body suspending him from practicing medicine three times in the past 10 years.
In 2000, Nesbitt admitted he was guilty of engaging in the sexual touching and fondling of a female patient, as well making inappropri-ate sexual comments to a female patient on two separate occasions. The college suspended Nesbitt from his practice for one year, and was fi ned $5,000.
In 2004, Nesbitt was back before the college’s disciplinary panel, where he again admitted that he was guilty of unprofessional con-duct by making inappropriate sexual remarks to a patient during the course of an examination. Nes-bitt was suspended from practicing medicine for three months and re-quired to attend counselling by the college.
In 2005, Nesbitt received a six-month suspension from the college and was fi ned $2,500 for failing to meet required professional stan-dards of care by using inappropriate language in front of a patient, and for failing to act professionally and respectfully to another patient.
See Doctor, p10See Taxes, p8
Opinion 6
Tom Fletcher 6
Looking Back 18
Community Calendar 31
Arts&life 33
Sports 37
Classifi eds 41
Index
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢www.mapleridgenews.com
Arts&life
The Tempest ready to storm parks.p33
Patrick Nesbitt accused of substandard care
b y C h r i s t i n e Ly o ncontributor
b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter
Rocks and gravel are being ille-gally hauled from the North Alou-ette River in Maple Ridge just as the salmon spawning season draws near.
Over the weekend, a couple with a wheelbarrow made repeated trips into the riverbed to remove smooth, rounded rocks – perfect for landscaping or decorating fl ower beds.
The pair fi lled a white pickup truck for several hours on Satur-day and Sunday.
The activity was documented by a Maple Ridge resident who called police, snapped photographs, took down a license plate and complained to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
“It is totally inappropriate,” said Geoff Clayton, with the Alou-ette River Management Society, which was also advised of the complaint.
“Taking rocks from a river is against the law. We have to get it clearly enunciated to the public, but we also have to get conser-vation offi cers down there to nip them in the butt.”
Rocks provide important habi-
tat for underwater organisms and otherwise enrich the aquatic ecosystem. Clayton said they are home to invertebrates like stone-fl ies and nymphs.
“This is a garden for the fi sh and
these are the seeds. By disturb-ing the rocks, it’s just like going into somebody’s garden after it’s been seeded and tearing it up,” he added.
“It is usually borne out of igno-
rance.”Clayton wants provincial, feder-
al or municipal authorities to put a stop to the illegal harvest, which is damaging precious fi sh habitat.
“I want all levels to get together
and take up the responsibility that we the taxpayers pay them for. It’s got to be stopped.”
The DFO, Ministry of Environ-ment and District of Maple Ridge were unavailable for comment.
Loading up on river rocks ‘not allowed’
Alouette River Management Society spokesman Geoff Clayton doesn’t like to be ignored.
So after writing his MP in June and not getting an immediate response, Clayton is airing his complaint publicly about Fisheries and Oceans Canada understaffi ng.
“Over the last 10 years or so, the DFO habitat [enhancement] division on the West Coast has been cut back to the point that they are hanging by a thread,” Clayton said in a June 22 e-mail to Randy Kamp.
Clayton said that was illustrated at a meet-ing in late June of the Stave Lake monitoring committee. The group, composed of consul-tants, Ministry of Environment, B.C. Hydro, Fisheries and Kwantlen First Nation assess-es the health of stocks in the Stave River, as well as the reservoir behind the B.C. Hydro
dam.Clayton points out a salmon run was re-es-
tablished in the 1990s, to the point the river now supports a run of 250,000 chum salmon in the short distance of the Stave from the Fraser River to the base of the Hydro dam.
And he says Fisheries has played a key role in doing that – with stock coming from Fish-eries’ Inch Creek hatchery in Mission and Fisheries biologist Matt Foy working closely with B.C. Hydro.
But at the June meeting in Stave Falls in Mission, Fisheries sent only a civil engineer when a biologist should have represented Fisheries. The engineer was out of his ele-ment and didn’t contribute to the meeting, Clayton said.
Clayton tells Kamp, who’s parliament sec-retary to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, that it’s “uplifting” to see the improved salmon runs in both the Alouette and Stave Rivers, however Fisheries has been cut back “be-yond functionality.”
“You don’t need a Cohen inquiry to tell you that biological gumboots on the ground will rebuild some of these local runs. Just com-mon sense should prevail, but it’s not,” Clay-
ton wrote. The Cohen Inquiry, un-
der Justice Bruce Cohen, is studying the plunging stocks of Fraser River sockeye salmon.
But after waiting weeks for a reply, Clayton has yet to get any response from Kamp, by phone or e-mail.
That fi ts with Fish-eries’ usual approach, Clayton said Friday.
“They’re all apathetic and slow to come up to the mark.”
While Fisheries has increased the number of offi cers in the Lower Mainland, salmon runs “are not being rebuilt by fi sheries offi -cers fi ghting with Indians out in the river,” Clayton said.
He said such groups as the Stave monitor-ing committee are key to restoring salmon runs because of their high level of expertise. He said even the provincial Ministry of Envi-ronment showed up at the meeting.
The few kilometres of the Stave River that
lead up to the base of the dam support three times what the South Alouette River does, Clayton said, because of the greater water fl ow and greater number of side channels in the Stave system.
Kamp said DFO is involved in a number of activities with B.C. Hydro and that creates a signifi cant workload. “Because of that, they fi nd it necessary to focus on priority items, especially during June, which is one of their busiest months.”
Although a habitat specialist wasn’t able to attend the meeting, Kamp said a DFO engi-neer was there.
Kamp, who has since talked to Clayton, agrees it would have been better if a habitat manager could have been at the meeting, but electronic reports from it have been forward-ed to one.
“I think there will always be more work to be done than resources available to do it,” Kamp added.
He’ll continue to press for more resources. “We also plan to make some systemic chang-es, which you’ll see in a new Fisheries Act, that will allow DFO to focus on the most im-portant fi sh habitat issues.”
Contributed
(Above) What appears to be a young woman loads rocks taken from the North Alouette River from a wheelbarrow into the back of a truck on the weekend. A local resident reports seeing the truck loaded with rocks, then returning for another load several times on Saturday and Sunday (bottom right) a man stands in the river, loading rocks into a wheelbarrow.
Fisheries dept. sends stand-in to Stave Lake meeting
They provide important habitat for underwater organisms
Kamp
b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter
MP says it wasn’t a priority because of workload during busy time
b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter
Medical marijuana growers and distribu-tors that break federal rules will have to answer to municipal police, not Health Canada, said MP Randy Kamp.
That’s because the federal medical canna-bis program does not include a means of en-forcement, according to Kamp, Conservative MP for Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission.
“They don’t have a strong compliance mech-anism built into their program. They lay out the regulations,” Kamp told municipal council at a workshop on Monday.
“If somebody’s oper-ating outside of those regulations, then they expect law enforcement agencies to take it from there.”
But councillors say the federal government should do more to ensure medical marijuana grow-
ops and distributors are playing by the rules.
Public safety concerns arose in May when a medical marijuana dis-pensary popped up in Maple Ridge on 224th Street, south of Lougheed Highway.
Opponents of Taggs Medical Cannabis Dis-pensary said it could encourage theft, noise problems or abuse of li-censed cannabis cultiva-tors.
“We need to have some-thing here to address the safety issue of it and the policing issue of it,” said Coun. Michael Morden.
Health Canada is cur-rently reviewing the medical marijuana pro-gram.
Health Canada, how-ever, for privacy reasons, cannot warn local RCMP whenever a producer licence is issued. That makes it diffi cult for po-lice to distinguish legal grow-ops from criminal ones.
If there is a violation of federal regulations, law
enforcers in that juris-diction are expected to respond.
“They don’t have the power to go in and shut something down,” Kamp said of Health Canada.
Ridge Meadows RCMP Supt. Dave Walsh said that police will obtain a search warrant only if they can establish that a person who holds a li-cense is exceeding their allowed limit , is traf-fi cking in marijuana or in violation of any sec-tion of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
“Once we determine something illegal is go-ing on, then we can ap-ply for a search warrant and carry out a criminal investigation.”
Cannabis compassion clubs like Taggs are not legal in Canada and are not part of the federal medical cannabis pro-gram. Law enforcers often turn a blind eye to their services as long as they serve patients who have documentation.
The only way to pos-sess or grow cannabis le-gally for medical purpos-es is with a licence from Health Canada. Patients can get the drug from Health Canada, grow it themselves, or pick it up from a designated grower.
After more than seven years of the program’s operation, 4,869 people in Canada have been authorized to possess the narcotic plant under Marijuana Medical Ac-cess Regulations.
Of those, 1,137 hold a Personal Use Production Licence, or Designat-ed-Person Production Licence, from Health Canada.
Coun. Craig Speirs hopes Health Canada comes up with a more rational approach to cultivation so patients can get what they need quickly and legal grow-ers are not lumped into the same category as criminals.
“The economy of scale has got to be there, so large-scale manufacture is the way to go,” he said.
Kamp said Health Can-ada will propose amend-ments to cabinet in the fall.
Police have to check on medical potb y C h r i s t i n e Ly o ncontributor
Police are looking for a Hispanic man who stole a portable air condition-er from Rona on Thurs-day, then rode off on his bike after threatening a staff member with a ma-chete.
The man entered the building supply store on Lougheed Highway, by Laity Street in Maple Ridge, around 5 p.m.
He picked up a por-table air conditioner and walked out of the store without paying for it.
He got onto a red bi-cycle, and started to ride off. A loss prevention of-fi cer tried to stop him, but he pulled out a ma-chete, then rode away.
Police said the man was Hispanic, about 5-10 and 160 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and dark skin. He was wearing a black hat, a black hooded sweatshirt with white writing on it, a plastic vest (type worn
by BMX stunt riders), a white sleeveless T-shirt, black shorts, and white shoes.
He was last seen rid-ing his bike west along the Lougheed Highway, towards 210th Street.
Man hit with fi re extinguisher
One man was arrested Friday after another was struck in the face with a fi re extinguisher at the Salvation Army shelter.
Police said the two men got into an argument at The Caring Place, in the 22100-block of Lougheed Highway in downtown Maple Ridge, at about 10 p.m. A 36-year-old Ma-ple Ridge man was hit in the head with the fi re extinguisher, knocking him unconscious, break-ing his jaw and knocking out several teeth.
A 21-year-old man from Ontario was ar-rested a short distance away and held in police custody for a court ap-pearance on Monday.
The injured man was taken to Ridge Meadows Hospital.
Couple arrested after grow bust
Police arrested a man and his wife Saturday after fi nding a mari-juana grow operation while responding to a call about a domestic disturbance.
Police were called to a house in the 11700-block of 208th Street in Maple Ridge around 5 p.m. on Saturday.
“While ensuring the safety of all occupants, police observed packag-es of marijuana in plain view, along with what appears to be a recently harvested marijuana growing operation. “
A 27-year-old Maple Ridge man and his 25-year-old wife were arrested. Police are seeking charges of pos-session for the purpose of traffi cking and pro-duction of a controlled substance.
Pulls machete, rides away on bike
Man steals air conditioner
THE NEWS/opinion
VICTORIA – By now you may have seen the updated version of the B.C. government’s “You Gotta Be Here” ad-vertising campaign.
Created to promote visits to the Olym-pics and aimed main-ly at the U.S. audi-ence, the first round of TV ads featured actors Michael J. Fox and Kim Cattrall as well as basketball star Steve Nash and other high-profile B.C. products.
The post-Olympic TV ads are now running around North America as well, but they have a more domestic flavour. Speed skater Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, skier Ashleigh McIvor of Pemberton and Paralympic skier Lau-ren Woolstencroft of North Vancouver won’t ring too many bells in New York or Los Angeles.
Cranbrook’s favourite hockey player Scott Niedermayer holds up his gold medal and then a golden glass of B.C. wine, his face recognizable for U.S. hockey fans but possibly not as heart-warming as it is for us. And once again, the world is advised of the location of The Best Place On Earth.
Now that the books have closed on the 2010 Olympics, the question remains whether B.C. got its money’s worth. The answer still depends to a large extent on what will come of the ads and the rest of the exposure B.C. generated with its two weeks in the global spotlight, but at least the cost
side is in.The direct cost to B.C. taxpayers
is $925 million. That includes the province’s initial $600 million budget to stage the Olympics and an extra $165 million to top up the ballooning security budget once the RCMP took control of it.
The last chapter was revealed Friday. It’s an accounting of $160 million to cover the bureaucracy known as the “Games Secretariat,” cocktail parties for VIPs at Vancouver’s posh Terminal City Club, community torch celebra-tions, “live sites” around the province and millions that the B.C. Liberal gov-ernment pitched in to add dazzle to the opening ceremonies.
Debate about the costs has raged for years, not just about the marketing efforts but the costly decisions to ramp up the SkyTrain, highway and conven-tion centre upgrades to get them ready in time.
“This chump-change cost estimate is an insult to the taxpayers of British Columbia because it doesn’t include the Olympic-sized spending blowout on projects promised in the original bid,” said Maureen Bader of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.
“We know the convention centre, the Canada Line and the Sea-to-Sky highway upgrade together cost almost $4 billion – it’s time the government admitted these were Olympic costs and give taxpayers a full account of the Games.”
Finance Minister Colin Hansen insisted last week that the highway and convention centre were committed to before Vancouver was awarded the Games. As usual, he sidestepped the
extra cost of accelerating these proj-ects, which in the case of the conven-tion centre ended up doubling the bill to almost $900 million.
Hansen makes a point that is often overlooked, in provincial budgets as well as the Olympic project. There’s a difference between money spent on a shiny new transit line that fills with passengers each morning and money spent on a VIP reception.
Most of the Olympic cost went to build tangible things, including a waterfront athlete’s village that will eventually pay off handsomely for the Vancouver taxpayers who bailed it out.
The crucial measure can’t be made yet, but there are hints. Not long after Beijing handed the torch off to Vancou-ver, Canada finally got approved travel destination status with China. And soon after that, Air Canada and Air China began adding flights between the countries.
This is just the beginning.
Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press
and BCLocalnews.com (tfl [email protected]).
Were the Winter Olympics worth it?
Bitter tasteIngrid RiceNews Views
Published and printed by Black Press at 22328 – 119th Avenue, Maple Ridge, B.C., V2X 2Z3
@ Online poll: cast your vote at www.mapleridgenews.com, or e-mail your vote and comments to [email protected]
This week’s question: Is the service provided by the Maple Ridge fi re department worth its $7 million budget?
B.C. Views Tom Fletcher
We were unaware such bitterness exists between some paramedics and fi refi ghters, until the salaries of the latter were published.
A full-time, fi rst class Maple Ridge fi refi ghter earns about $75,000 a year.
The equivalent B.C. paramedic makes about $68,000 a year.
A prolonged paramedics strike over salaries ended last November, when the provincial govern-ment mandated a three-per-cent salary increase for them. Paramedics had initially sought a 31 per cent increase over eight years.
A letter last week criticizing the perceived cushy role fi refi ghters in Maple Ridge play in emergency services and the money they make sparked a debate that continues to rage on these opinion pages.
We support fi refi ghters and paramedics, the role both play and how vital they are to saving lives and maintaining public safety.
We don’t begrudge local fi refi ghters the money they make. But we understand their salaries are paid solely by the taxpayers of Maple Ridge, and a hefty price it is – the overall department budget is $7 million a year. Most are happy to pay it.
Paramedics, on the other hand, are paid by the province, which is still in a mode of restraint.
By no means do we think paramedics deserve less than fi refi ghters. For everything they are trained to deal with – from treating gun shot wounds to bear bites, to administering CPR to a person trapped in a car or to a person who overdosed on drugs, to keep-ing someone alive long enough to get to a hospital – it is mind-boggling they are paid as little as they are. But, like nurses, or teachers, their beef is with the provincial government, not fi refi ghters, who they work alongside, like brothers and sisters. In Maple Ridge, for the most part, they get along better than family. Let’s hope, in everyone’s best interest, it re-mains that way.
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Ser ving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows since 1978
THE NEWS
“Not long after Beijing handed the torch off to Vancouver, Canada finally got approved travel destination status with China.”
Letters to the editor should be exclusive to The News and address topics of interest to residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Include full name and address, as well as daytime phone number for verification. Keep letters to 500 words or less. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
@ E-mail letters to [email protected].
Letters welcome
EDITOR, THE NEWS, Re: Firefi ghters defi nitely worth it
(Letters, July 9).First off, I am a strong supporter of our
fi refi ghters and always have been.I am also a strong supporter of Nancy
Cole.Our local fi refi ghters provide a valu-
able service, but the days of “running into a fi re” are long over. The tactics for fi ghting fi res have changed and im-proved over the years, as have the pre-vention of these fi res.
What has not changed is the public image of these fi refi ghters. The Inter-national Association of Firefi ghters is a large and powerful association and, with that, comes an amazing public relation and education department.
Most people I meet have no real idea of what skill set a fi refi ghter has when it comes to the fi rst-aid component of their job.
Most people think that fi refi ghters are trained as paramedics. This is not true.
The fi rst responder program is a frac-tion of what the primary care paramedic program is, both in classroom time and practical instruction. This is not an opin-ion, simply the truth.
As for some of the assertions by Le-anne Dean, I am sure your husband is an excellent fi refi ghter. But it is not his job to “clean up” after a fatality.
The fi refi ghters are long gone by the time the police and the coroner have at-tended the scene of an out-of-hospital death. The odd exception being when that fatality is from a motor vehicle in-cident.
As for the other letters, all I can say is that Mrs. Cole has done more than ei-ther of you will ever know to serve the citizens of this province.
I am proud to work alongside the fi refi ghters of this province, but please do not confuse what they do with what others do with such little public admira-tion.
Police, fi re and ambulance personnel have an amazingly diffi cult job. Each profession has its merits; let’s not con-fuse them.
STEPHEN SHIPMAN
MAPLE RIDGE
Still worth itEDITOR, THE NEWS:
Re: Fire department worth our tax dol-lars (Letters, July 7).
Nancy Cole implies that fi refi ghters are indolent. She bases her argument on the low frequency of fi res that they attend.
She should understand that people providing emergency (eg. fi re and am-bulance) services are employed for their
availability and preparedness, not for the daily production of goods or ser-vices. Preparedness requires regular physical and academic training to en-sure that they can perform profi ciently under often very diffi cult and danger-ous circumstances.
History has shown that fi re services save lives as well as property.
In British Columbia, most houses and many low-rise buildings are wood frame with no fi re suppression system. More-over, many houses have no fi re alarm system.
Whatever the economic arguments, prudence in a civilized society dictates that some precautions be taken to miti-gate the risks of fatalities and property damage due to fi res.
Regarding economic arguments, per-haps Mrs. Cole should investigate the difference in her home fi re insurance premium with and without the avail-ability of a fi re service and compare that to the amount of taxes she pays towards the service.
BOB DE LEEUW
PITT MEADOWS
Never knowEDITOR, THE NEWS:
Re: Fire department worth our tax dol-lars (Letters, July 7).
Nancy Cole, will you still be singing the same tune if your house burns down? Or you’re in a car accident?
I can’t believe someone would actually say this about fi refi ghters.
So are you going to come to my aid if my house burns down, or someone I love has a heart attack and needs the para-medics?
Be thankful these fi refi ghters are not out 24 hours a day, seven days a week dealing with the situations they are trained to deal with. It’s not like the fi res are scheduled and car accidents planned.
They are on call simply for the fact that you never know when they will be needed to come to your aid.
JOIE PARE
MAPLE RIDGE
Value of lifeEDITOR, THE NEWS:
Re: Fire department worth our tax dol-lars (Letters, July 7).
What is the value of human life? I didn’t know that there was a price at-tached.
Personally, I have four kids and my share of tragedy in life. I have had to call 911 on many occasions.
I can personally say that each and ev-ery time, the fi re department was the
fi rst to respond. They have and continue to provide, as you say, basic fi rst-aid, un-til the ambulance gets there.
A couple months ago, I looked outside and saw lights fl ashing across the street – two fi re trucks and two ambulances were there. An individual was in a criti-cal situation. I watched as the fi re men helped the paramedics carry the person outside. I watched as they all took turns working on this person for well over half an hour. The fi remen were running back and forth to their trucks, getting more equipment as it was need.
For most, there is no limit on the value of human life.
Why, of all the useless things our tax dollars are spent on, would you com-plain about an absolutely needed and respected service?
LISA LEE SINCLAIR-WALL
MAPLE RIDGE
Proving ignoranceEDITOR, THE NEWS:
Re: Fire department worth our tax dol-lars (Letters, July 7).
I take great offence to Nancy Cole’s comments about the Maple Ridge fi re department.
I am a fi re captain in a big city in the Lower Mainland and I take my hat off to the men and woman who have vol-unteered their time over the years in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. But it has come to the point where a paid de-partment is inevitable due to growth and population.
Mrs. Cole makes reference to the num-ber of fi res in a career or year. Obviously she has no idea the manpower or coordi-nation it takes to run a fi re call.
As to sweeping up debris at MVAs, we respond for fi re purposes, as well we carry all the extrication equipment to free people from the wreckage.
About “basic” fi rst aid, the fi re depart-ment performs CPR, and carries AEDs for cardiac arrest, glucose gel for dia-betics. The list goes on.
About cleaning the hall, this is done at shift change in order to keep our sec-ond home clean.
It’s clear Mrs. Cole has never been in need of any emergency service or she would never have make such remarks.
One more thing, about lunch and din-ner, yes, we eat. Don’t you get breaks at work? I guess the only difference is you don’t get interrupted on your lunch.
One last comment: it only takes one bad call in your career in any emer-gency service to last a lifetime, and one letter to the editor to prove your igno-rance
DARRELL DUNN
PITT MEADOWS
EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: Fight to protect horse trails (Letters, July 9).Kudos to Roberta Clare regarding housing development
in areas where there are horse trails. And I agree that if Dean Barbour wants to talk the talk he
should take a walk through the horse trails on the north end of 232nd Street. The entrance to the horse trails is treated as a loading dock by the construction workers. The trails in that area, once pristine and peaceful, are now littered with nails, plywood, scrap wood and other construction debris.
I guess it’s easy to brag about the trails, and they are something we should cherish and be proud of.
I think the municipality should supervise construction around the horse trails and take responsibility, with the developers, for ensuring the trails are maintained and not jeopardized by the nearby construction.
During a number of my rides through this area, I’ve seen municipal vehicles inspecting the work site, but they seem to take no heed of the horse trails.
In fact, in my experience, the municipal vehicles are some of the worst for speeding by a horseback rider without giv-ing them enough room.
I encourage Mr. Barbour and a representative from the municipality to take a walk through these horse trails and update their knowledge base as to the present status of our trails.
LYNN BLATTA
PITT MEADOWS
Horses, dogs share a parkEDITOR, THE NEWS:
Re: Fight to protect horse trails (Letters, July 9).As development increases in Maple Ridge, more and
more people are losing respect for the horse community.One thing that I would really like to bring to everyone’s
attention is the issue of off-leash dogs in Horsemen’s Park. I ride through Horsemen’s quite frequently, and have
many a time encountered an off-leash dog who feels the need to chase and bark at my horse.
Every year when the weather gets warm, understand-ably, people want to go down to the river and cool off, and, of course, take their dogs, too. I have found that most peo-ple who bring their dogs down to Horsemen’s Park and al-low them to run around off-leash are completely unaware of the fact that this is a park used by horses and their rid-ers, and do not even consider the fact that horses do come through there.
I would like to see people be more conscious of the fact that horses and their riders do indeed use this park, and we all have to share our parks, but Horsemen’s is the only park that is designed for the equestrian community. There are plenty other places that are dog-friendly, so if you are going to bring your dog down to Horsemen’s Park, please be respectful of the fact that people do ride their horses there, too. Try to keep your dogs on a leash, and it can be a safe and enjoyable place for everyone.
SHANA-LEE VIRGIN MAPLE RIDGE
District, take a walk along horse trails
Don’t forget merits of ’medics
THE NEWS/letters
God blessFrom: cb, posted on www.mapleridgenews.com.Re: Firefighters definitely worth it (Letters, July 9).God bless the firefighters and all emergency person-nel and their families.
Don’t cryFrom: Albackeast, posted on www.mapleridge-news.com.Re: Firefighters definitely worth it (Letters, July 9). You must be a paramedic. I see you have the usual misconception about our job. I have been on both
sides of the fence. Don’t cry, apply if you think it is so cushy. We have ‘medics here who make that kind of money and enjoy a very similar work environment.
Well doneFrom: irsqyu, posted on www.mapleridgenews.com.Re: Firefighters definitely worth it (Letters, July 9).Wow, unbelievable.I just retired after 40 years in the fire service. I can’t believe what I am reading. How many fires in a career? Hundreds, maybe thousands. Very basic first aid? Do you count defibrillation, CPR etc. basic? I have been involved with or seen many
saves in my career. Vehicle extrication, again I have been involved with many saves due to quick actions.How much do you think one should be paid to run into your burning house, which is over 1,000 degrees, to rescue you.A little respect for this job would be nice. Would you do it? I doubt it. Maybe you will understand someday should you require the services of the fire department.And now after retiring, I have the cancer cloud hanging over my head for the rest of my life. Was I subjected to carcinogens in my early years? I will always wonder.I have family in Maple Ridge, so thank you broth-ers for a job well done.
Boycott Pitt MeadowsFrom: concerned_MMJ_patient, posted on www.mapleridgenews.com.Re: Pitt bylaw to prevent growing legal pot (The News, July 9).Boycott Pitt Meadows. How insanely evil do you have to be to pass a bylaw that makes it harder for sick people to get their medicine? They are breaking no laws and are no danger to the citizens of Pitt Meadows. To everyone on Pitt Meadows city council, give your heads a shake.
But a lower industry tax rate won’t necessar-ily attract new employ-ers.
“It’s not as if a mill is going to locate here be-cause of what our tax
rate is. From my per-spective, I don’t see that in the cards—it’s not a growth industry,” said Paul Gill, general man-ager of corporate and fi -nancial services for the District of Maple Ridge.
The reduction in ma-jor industry rates meant the 2010 residential tax rate – approved last month – went up a sixth of a percentage point, to 3.9 per cent.
Maple Ridge ranked
ninth in the region for resident tax rates.
The 3.9 fi gure seems high compared to Van-couver’s 2.1 per cent or West Vancouver’s 2.3 per cent residential tax rates, but Gill reminded council that there are two aspects to taxa-tion: rates and assessed value.
Applying a 2.3 per cent rate to a multi-million-dollar West Vancouver property will yield a higher dollar amount than applying Maple Ridge’s 3.9 per cent rate to a cheaper home.
“I would suggest that as you move east from Vancouver, tax rates should be higher be-cause the values are lower,” said Gill.
“From my perspective, our residential taxes are very well positioned considering we’re a growing community,” he added.
That left councillors to brainstorm ways to encourage commercial growth downtown.
“We want to have something happen in taxation there. In order to encourage things to happen in that area, we need to include that as part of our plan,” said Coun. Michael Morden.
He suggested staff re-view development cost charges (DCC), which determine the price of construction. Morden said builders are not taking advantage of the current DCC program.
Although councillors noted commercial and retail building has been diffi cult to encourage across the country, the mayor remained confi -dent.
“A lot of it is timing. It’s going to happen,” said Mayor Ernie Daykin.
“Anybody can sell on price. I think we have more than just price to sell for our commu-nity.”
The 12 per cent Har-monized Sales Tax is here and according to the local chamber, busi-nesses survived the new levy when it was slapped on July 1.
Not that everyone was happy about it.
The B.C. Chamber of Commerce’s call for a judicial review of the Fight HST petition, riled up at least two people enough that they called the Maple Ridge cham-ber offi ce, saying they’d boycott member busi-
nesses because of that.“It caught me off
guard,” said chamber spokesman Dean Bar-bour.
But Barbour defend-ed the B.C. chamber’s action saying it has “nothing to do with the petition at all,” saying it only questions the validity of the HST Ex-tinguishment Act that accompanies the anti-HST petition that was delivered to Victoria last week.
The B.C. chamber and fi ve business associa-tions fi led for a judicial review of the act on June 29, in an attempt to
clarify B.C.’s tax policy, the B.C. chamber said in a news release.
Barbour said if he gets calls from the public threatening boycotts, “to me, that’s a huge concern.”
The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows chamber fa-vours the HST. But in the year before its im-plementation, there has been little interest from members, Barbour said.
“From our perspective and our members’ per-spective, there hasn’t been a lot of discus-sion.”
Even a luncheon planned in June with
Finance Minister Colin Hansen as guest speak-er drew only seven reg-istrants – so the cham-ber cancelled that.
“We can only react to what the business com-munity is looking at.”
Barbour said the new tax has had little impact on business.
“I talked to a lot of different people and no one seems to have no-ticed any change.”
He visited about 30 businesses in the week following the HST im-plementation. “At this point in time, there’s been no impact in peo-ple not shopping.”
New tax, no impact, says chamber
Tax from front
‘Maple Ridge has more than just price to sell’
b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter
Nesbitt voluntarily stopped practicing medicine in February 2005 while under in-vestigation for those charges, and upon his return to his practice
in June 2007 was lim-ited to adult male pa-tients.
The college began investigating Nesbitt again in 2007 for al-legedly treating fe-male patients, and in
October of that year, he again voluntarily stopped practicing.
More than two years later, the college is-sued a citation alleg-ing he breached his restrictions by provid-ing prescriptions to 41 female patients.
Nesbitt said Tuesday that he had his offi ce staff give the women in question a detailed medical history ques-
tionnaire and looked up their pharmaceu-tical histories on the provincial database to ensure there would be no complications, and that he never dealt with them in person.
“Many of them were former patients of mine, so I had charts for some of them,” he said.
Many of the patients were elderly, he said,
and given that it was summer, and a num-ber of other doctors in town were away on va-cation, he felt he need-ed to help them.
“They were in an acute crisis,” he said.
A decision by the col-lege’s disciplinary pan-el issued last month, a portion of which was included in the writ fi led by Nesbitt and his lawyers, states that Nesbitt’s treatment of the 41 women was sub-standard, and that “the poor quality of care he provided underscores the seriousness of the breach of Practice Re-striction.”
However, Nesbitt claims he was never given a chance to de-fend himself to the panel on the question of the quality of his care.
In the writ, Nesbitt is seeking to have the college’s decisions de-clared null and void. Nesbitt is also seeking to have the college re-imburse him for legal costs, and “such fur-ther relief as this hon-ourable court consid-ers just.”
Nesbitt was ‘not allowed to defend himself ’Doctor from front
The proposed new Great Canadian Gaming Centre is back at council, but don’t expect to see a new green building on the corner of Lougheed Highway and 227th Street anytime soon.
The company sought fourth reading for the rezoning bylaw at coun-cil’s Tuesday meeting, after receiving third reading two years ago.
According to a staff report from earlier this year, Great Canadian and B.C. Lottery Corp. want to reduce the scale of the building and take longer to build it.
Soil conditions will re-quire preloading the site for about a year, followed by a construction period that could take up to two years – meaning doors would open some time in 2013.
Once fi nal reading is
granted, the company can apply for a develop-ment permit.
Once that’s issued, work can start on the site.
When rezoning for the project got third reading in July 2008, a conference room was in-cluded with a capacity of 450, and the project cost about $24 million, boast-ing such features such as a green roof and en-ergy effi ciency.
That proposal was for a 43,000-sq.-feet building, housing a 500-seat bingo parlour, 150 electronic slot machines, 30 seats for Racebook activities and a 150-seat cafe.
What exactly will change in the fi nal pro-posal remains to be seen.
The company hasn’t made an announcement about that or when it will start building, said spokesman Howard Blank.
The building still will
be a Leadership in En-ergy and Environmental Design building.
Maple Ridge council recently OK’d the tem-porary installation of 100 slot machines in the ex-isting Haney Bingo Plex.
Ten per cent of the rev-enues they raise will go to the district.
One of the district’s re-quirements for the proj-ect is for Great Canadian to complete the connec-tion of 227th Street south at Lougheed Highway.
The existing Haney Bingo Plex is 17,000 sq. feet. with 501 bingo seats and a 54-seat cof-fee shop.
Details of new gambling building on 227th St. not fi nalized yet
Step forward for gaming centre
b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter
Great Canadian and B.C. Lottery Corp. want to reduce the scale of the building and take longer to build it.
After raising concerns about the fate of Morse Creek when the 224th Street intersection is built at Abernethy Way, conservationist Jack Emberly has now turned his attention to McKen-ney Creek – and a dan-gerous pile of muck at the start of the North Alouette River dike.
“It’s the same issue really. It’s the need to maintain and protect the waterways that nurture our two main rivers, the Alouette and Kanaka Creek,” Emberly said Thursday.
“So it shouldn’t have a bunch of garbage in it.”
Emberly says McKen-ney Creek, which cross-es Dewdney Trunk Road around 207th Street, is often full of debris that chokes the water that fl ows into the Alouette.
And even though the district says it maintains the streams, Emberly points to the trash he often fi nds.
Fish are just wait-ing for the slightest improvements in their habitat and they’ll re-generate, he says.
“That’s the attitude – if we want to bring fi sh back into our world here.”
McKenney Creek is large enough to sustain fi sh, he said, adding rainbow and cutthroat trout used to be in the stream.
“There’s everything you need in there for fi sh.”
He also wants the district to consider an adopt-a-stream pro-gram, in which the dis-trict would encourage local neighbours to take care of streams.
He also wants the City of Pitt Meadows to clean up its act where the North Alouette River crosses Neaves Road.
That’s a starting point for dike pathways, but also the site for dump-ing the debris the city cleans out of its drain-age ditches.
The piles of muck and deep ponds are danger-ous if anyone fell in, he
said.“You could be riding
your bike, fl ip over the edge, and never come out. I’d hate to see a kid fall in.”
Pitt Meadows Mayor Don MacLean, though, said the piles have been there for years. He con-tacted public works, which said it would put up a fence around the piles.
He said an adjoining area that’s now proper-ly landscaped were also once piles of mud and debris scooped from the city’s drainage ditches.
Jack Emberly wants Maple Ridge to consider an adopt-a-stream program
‘District not maintaining streams’
Contributed
Parks of an old fence and bags of garbage litter part of McKenney Creek by 216th Street in Maple Ridge.
b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter
“There’s everything you need in there for fish.” Jack Emberly
Ridge Meadows RCMP are looking for a mo-torbike that was stolen from a storage locker on a residential property in Hammond.
Thieves cut a padlock off the storage container and stole a green 2004 Kawasaki 85 cc motor-cycle, as well as an air compressor and assort-ed air tools, and a black Cannondale mountain bike from the property, located in the 20300-block of Hammond Road in Maple Ridge between Thursday and Sunday.
Going away?Police are reminding
local residents to let neighbours know when
they are away on vaca-tion after a break-in last week.
The owners of a home in the 123oo-block of 224th Street were away on vacation when a break-in occurred late last Wednesday or early Thursday.
The thieves gained en-try by opening a front living room window, and climbing in. The house sitter does not know what is missing, police said.
“You should also in-form the neighbours of who is going to look after the home,” police said.
RCMP asks that if you see anyone who does not appear to belong on a property to call them at 604 463-6251.
Don’t do itA 41-year-old Pitt
Meadows woman fac-es impaired driving changes and another for refusing to supply suitable breath sam-ples after two off-duty offi cers observed her driving erratically on Dewdney Trunk Road in Maple Ridge early Thursday.
The offi cers, with the RCMP Lower Mainland District’s Emergency Response Team, got the woman to stop in the 21400-block of Dewdney and called a member of the Ridge Meadows RCMP Traffi c Services unit to complete the in-vestigation.
Motorbike stolen from shed
Hospitals around the Fraser Health region are closing more oper-ating rooms than usual this summer as a cost-cutting measure.
Fraser Health spokes-man Roy Thorpe con-fi rmed the normal 25-per-cent summer re-duction in OR time – be-cause of surgeons, staff and patients booking holidays – will be 35 per cent this year.
“The closures are a lit-tle bit more than would be done in a usual sum-mer,” he said.
Fraser Health still expects to perform the usual 80,000 surgeries in total in 2010, he said, by catching up on any backlog over the fall and winter.
“We’re not expect-ing any reductions in the number of surger-ies performed,” Thorpe said. “We’re hoping to
gain some effi ciencies by doing more or the same number of surger-ies with slightly less OR time.”
The health authority hopes to wring $7 mil-lion in savings this year from the surgical budget through the combina-tion of OR closures and other changes.
Patient-focused fund-ing is also expected to play a role, providing fi -nancial incentives to en-courage hospitals to fi nd more ways to perform day surgery, rather than keeping patients over-night.
Langley Memorial Hospital is one of the hardest hit sites, losing almost half its OR time this summer.
Dr. Mitra Maharaj, an ear nose and throat surgeon at Langley, said he’s concerned about the hospital running only two ORs, adding it typi-cally drops from a nor-mal four ORs to three during the summer.
“It’s certainly going to be challenging and it’s going to be something we’re going to have to
monitor closely through-out the summer,” he said.
“I don’t remember the last time we ran with two operating theatres – we’ll have to see how it goes.”
Fraser Health will monitor wait times at each hospital through the summer and into the fall and add OR time where needed, Thorpe said.
“There is room to change and modify in response to needs,” he said.
Emergency surgeries won’t be affected by the slowdown.
Only elective and scheduled surgeries could end up getting bumped back if there’s not enough funded op-erating room time at a given hospital.
How much OR time is cut varies from hospi-tal to hospital, because medical staff at some sites preferred to spread the reductions out over other parts of the year to maintain more summer service.
Operating rooms close for summer
Open roomsHospital operating rooms open:• AbbotsfordJune – 5.6July – 4.6August – 3.7• Eagle RidgeJune – 4.5July – 4.4August – 4• LangleyJune – 3.7July – 2August – 2
• Royal ColumbianJune – 5July – 4.5August – 3(no reduction to maternity or cardiac ORs)• Ridge MeadowsJune – 2.8July – 2.4August – 2• SurreyJune – 7.8July – 5.6August – 5.6(no reduction of maternity OR)
b y J e f f N a g e lBlack Press
Hospitals aim to save $7 million
Being at the right place was the fi rst step for the
rapid development of Whonnock, from a quiet backwater to a vibrant community.
The building contract for the transcontinen-tal railroad stipulated that a station had to be constructed every 16 kilometres, and it just so happened that the distance from Port Hammond to Whon-nock was 16 kilometres.
Consequently, when trains started rolling across Canada in 1886, Whonnock and Port Hammond had railway stations, but Port Haney was out of luck.
There was little else that would have brought a station to Whonnock. A small group of people lived on the Indian reserve from which Whonnock took its name, and close to the new station was the home of one white settler, a Scot from the Shetlands, Robert Rob-
ertson, who had lived there with his wife and children since the early 1860s.
Their peace was disturbed by the ar-rival of crews – mainly Chinese – who carved a track through their land and laid the rails on which plucky little locomotives moved men and material to the head of the line under construction.
Even before the arrival of the fi rst transcontinental train, local services became available for passengers and freight, but steam-ers moving up and down the Fraser River, offered transportation at a lower cost, as well as amenities such as a good time, a talk, a drink or two and a card game – if you liked that.
To get to Port Haney the best way was to hop
on a paddle wheeler, row your own boat, or avail yourself of the strong arms of Robbie Rob-ertson to row you there.
Every one of the new rail stations on the line promised to attract settlers with their needs.
Entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to open shop.
Noble Oliver came to Whonnock all the way from Ontario, and already in 1884 he had ready for business a general store “adjoining Whonnock station.”
In the fall of that year, the post offi ce inspector recommended to the postmaster general in Ottawa that a post offi ce be established in Oli-ver’s store for the grow-ing community and its surroundings, including the settlers across the
Fraser River and in the Stave River area.
The inspector thought that the post offi ce could be “…served with mail from the railway from once to three times a week as may be found most convenient.”
And so it happened that starting Aug. 1, 1885, Noble Oliver became the fi rst of a continuous line of a dozen or so Whonnock postmasters.
Today, Sue Schulze continues the tradition of providing an excel-lent and essential ser-vice, as offered by the Whonnock Post Offi ce
for 125 years. To emphasize the
uniqueness of this longest surviving post offi ce in Maple Ridge, note that Schulze is the only person in the Lower Mainland of-fi cially carrying the title “postmaster.”
You are invited to stop by Whonnock’s post offi ce on Friday, July 30th, any time between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., to celebrate this 125th birthday with Schulze and her friends.
Fred Braches is a local historian who lives in
Whonnock.
Whonnock post office turning 125 years old
Looking Back Fred Braches
Contributed
Harry Blackwell’s rendition of the Whonnock post of-fice, as shown on the Community Heritage Commission heritage plaque granted in 2000.
TransLink’s nine-member board of directors collected $545,000 in combined pay and expenses last year.
That’s about $30,000 less than the previous year, fi nancial disclo-sures indicate.
The province eliminated the old board of mayors and councillors who oversaw TransLink until late 2007 and replaced them with a set of appointed, unelected directors, most of whom are business-orient-ed professionals or academics.
The switch was intended to depoliticize TransLink decision-making.
Board chair Dale Parker received a fl at $100,000 stipend and claimed an additional $1,241 in expenses.
Directors each get an annual base fee of $25,000, plus another $1,200 for every meeting they at-tend, plus up to $8,000 for chairing committees.
Director Bruce Garnett, who at-tended the most meetings, collect-ed the biggest pay packet – $58,050 in 2009. Others received between $46,650 and $56,800. Only two direc-tors claimed any expenses – Nan-cy Olewiler ($54.45) and Garnett ($100).
TransLink also released details of its salary and expense payouts to employees for 2009.
They show 115 employees were paid more than $100,000 last year.
Fifty of the employees listed as earning six fi gures plus were Transit Police offi cers, and the gross earnings listed for them in many cases included banked time payouts.
Former CEO Tom Prendergast, who resigned last November, took home $332,000 in pay plus another $136,000 in expenses.
Sheri-Lyn Plewes, a senior vice-president who was among the executives terminated late last year under a cost-cutting drive, was paid $339,000 plus $16,500 in expenses. Counted in her pay was $100,000 in banked time payouts.
Ian Jarvis, then chief fi nancial offi cer and now CEO, was paid $275,000 plus $16,000 in expenses.
115 employees made six fi gure salaries
TransLink staff , board payouts released
b y J e f f N a g e lBlack Press
An international body has held back on certify-ing Fraser River sockeye salmon as a sustainable seafood source in light of objections from environ-mental groups.
The Marine Steward-ship Council did give its green stamp of eco-approval this month to sockeye from the Skeena and Nass rivers and Bar-kley Sound.
But a fi nal decision on Fraser sockeye will wait until an adjudica-tor considers opposing arguments from the Wa-tershed Watch Salmon Society, David Suzuki Foundation and Skee-naWild Conservation Trust.
Watershed Watch ecologist Aaron Hill said there’s still a real dan-ger the Fraser sockeye could be certifi ed as well,
which he said would wrongly send the signal to international buyers that fi sheries here are well run.
No fi shery has ever been denied certifi cation after completing the MSC assessment process.
“It’s meaningless if you certify a fi shery like the Fraser that is in absolute ruin,” Hill said. “It be-comes fraud.”
Eco-certifi cation is po-tentially a valuable tool to reward fi shermen, he said, but granting it too early takes away much of the incentive to improve fi shery management.
The Cohen Commis-sion will begin months of formal hearings this fall into the collapse of Fraser sockeye in recent years.
More than 10 million Fraser sockeye were expected to return last year, but just 1.4 million materialized.
Some specifi c runs
of Fraser sockeye are counted as endangered species.
The environmental groups didn’t object to the Skeena, Nass and Barkley certifi cations, al-though they say they had some grounds.
Overfi shing in those ar-eas is a serious concern, SkeenaWild’s Greg Knox said, but added the situa-tion isn’t as dire as on the Fraser.
MSC says its eco-label tells buyers of certifi ed B.C. salmon that it’s com-mercially harvested and sold only if caught in a way that preserves stock health and does not harm the marine ecosystem.
B.C. harvesters have found themselves in-creasingly at a disad-vantage compared to producers in Alaska, where salmon has been MSC-certifi ed for several years. Buyers increas-ingly insist on buying only certifi ed salmon.
Eco-label for Fraser sockeye on holdb y J e f f N a g e lBlack Press
Drivers on the Oka-nagan Connector got a reminder Monday of how volatile summer weather conditions can be in B.C.
At the connector summit, the highest point of the Coquihal-la Highway system, windshield wipers were clogged with wet snow that can sweep down on the mountain pass at any time of the year.
Descending to the junction with High-way 97, they found the route south to Peach-land was closed due to a fast-spreading forest fi re that was forcing evacuations of some residents.
“I could feel the heat through the wind-shield,” said Environ-ment Minister Barry Penner, who was driv-ing to Kelowna for meetings Monday.
Highway 97 was shut down in both directions a few minutes after Penner drove through, and an evacuation order was issued for homes in the Seclusion Bay neighbourhood on Okanagan Lake.
A stretch of hot weather after a cool, wet spring has pushed much of central and western B.C. into the “high” or “extreme” forest fi re hazard range, with pockets of the same dry condi-tions in the Kootenays and Rockies in the east
of the province.Four of the largest
fi res are in northeast B.C., near the Stikine, Teslin and Sheslay Rivers.
A fi re near Buckley Lake in the same re-gion was estimated Monday at 2,300 hect-ares.
It was being moni-tored and allowed to burn within limits set by forests ministry staff to allow natural benefi ts of burning to be maximized.
A fi re discovered Sunday at Tsacha Lake, 140 km west of Quesnel, and soon spread to 350 hectares with hot temperatures and high wind.
Rain showers over-night slowed it down, allowing the 60 fi re-fi ghters and four heli-copters to make prog-ress in containing it.
Last year saw a re-cord total of 3,049 separate fi res, battled at a record cost of $409 million.
On Aug. 1, 2009 the forest service recorded 154 new fi res, the big-gest single-day total ever, and at the peak last summer there were 700 fi res being fought at once and thousands of people evacuated.
A total of 242,170 hectares were burned last year, about three times the average for recent years, but still lower than the 2003 fi re season where many homes were lost in the Thompson and Okana-gan regions.
Wildfires flare up around B.C.Highway 97 shut down in both directions
B.C. Forest Service
Flames spread quickly Sunday at the Kluskus Fire near Tsacha Lake, 140 km west of Quesnel.
b y To m F l e t c h e rBlack Press
Community Calendar lists events in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Notices are
free to local non-profi t groups courtesy of The News. Drop off details to 22328 119 Ave., fax to 604-463-4741 or e-mail [email protected] at least a week before the event. Include a contact name and number. (No submissions by phone.) Listings appear as space permits. For guaranteed publication, ask our classifi ed department at 604-467-1122 about non-profi t rates.
Thursday, July 15• The 15th annual Heri-
tage Thursdays Children’s Program has begun at the Pitt Meadows Museum. This year’s theme is “Through the Decades” and this week the program focusses on the 1970s. Each session, the kids will learn groovy dance moves, make nifty crafts and have an overall far out time. For more information on this program, or to learn about others, contact Morgan at the Pitt Meadows Museum at 604-465-4322 or by email at [email protected].
Friday, July 16• Emerald Pig Theatrical
Society proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Mead-ows at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.
• Parade of the Stuffed Animals. Bring your stuffed animal to hear pet stories, songs and rhymes at the Pitt Meadows Library. Each animal will receive a special prize ribbon.
Saturday, July 17• Emerald Pig Theatrical
Society proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Meadows at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertain-ment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.
• Celebrate berries at the Haney Farmers’ Market with a cooking demonstra-tion on blueberries. Lots of fabulous raspberries still in season and late cherries are arriving along with nectar-ines, apricots, gooseberries and currants. More and more vegetables every week. Market takes place every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Memo-rial Peace Park on 224th Street. www.haneyfarmersmarket.org
• Community Garage Sale at St. George’s Village, 23580 Dewdney Trunk Road
at 236th Street, from 9 a.m. to noon. 10 units participating, lots of good stuff .
Monday, July 19• St. George’s Vacation
Bible School presents Galactic Blast day camp. Games, music, Bible stories, crafts etc. Runs through Wednesday, July 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registra-tion is $25, snack and lunch included. Register by phone at 604-463-9622, or email [email protected]. 23500 Dewdney Trunk Road.
Thursday, July 22• Emerald Pig Theatrical
Society proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Maple Ridge at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertain-ment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.
Friday, July 23• Emerald Pig Theatrical
Society proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Maple Ridge at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.
Saturday, July 24• Emerald Pig Theatrical
Society proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Meadows at 7:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.
• Do you have a friend who has never been to the Haney Farmers’ Market? Bring them to the market’s information booth and you both will receive a gift. Introduce your friends to your favourite vendors and show them around. Okanagan vendors are bring-ing in apricots and nectarines, don’t miss out, it’s a short season. Memorial Peace Park on 224th Street in downtown Maple Ridge. Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Come to the Downtown Maple Ridge Summer Mar-ket from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Memorial Peace Park on 224th Street next to the Haney Farmers’ Market. Enjoy live entertainment, kids’ activities and local vendors in a fun street market atmosphere. Future Markets will occur on August 28 and September 25. Call the DMRBIA at 604-467-2420 for more information.
Sunday, July 25• Emerald Pig Theatrical
Society proudly presents The
Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Meadows at 1:30 p.m. Pre-show entertain-ment 12:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.
Ongoing• The Canadian Cancer
Society is looking for a volun-teer driver dispatcher in Maple Ridge. Work from the comfort of you home coordinating rides with volunteer drivers to transport cancer patients to and from treatment related appointments. Volunteers need to be well organized with good record keeping skills. Must have excellent people skills and telephone manner and the ability to communicate clearly and solve problems eff ectively. Time commitment is approximately 4 to 6 hours per week over a minimum one year term. To fi nd out more, please contact Vinyse Barber at [email protected] or 604-215-5209.
• Debtor’s Anonymous meets Tuesdays, 8 to 9 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church, 22165 Dewdney Trunk Road. Park and enter from the back of the building. Hope and recovery for debtors, compulsive spenders and under-earners. For more information, e-mail ma-pleridge@ debtorsanonymous.ca or call John 604-928-9697.
Community Calendar
THE NEWS/arts&lifeSection coordinator:Monisha Martins 604-467-1122 ext. [email protected]
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
(From left) David Boder plays Prospero in the Emerald Pig Theatrical Society’s production of The Tempest; Kyler Banks as Ferdinand and Laura Cairn as Miranda in The Tempest, which plays Friday and Satur-day at Pitt Meadows Spirit Square and July 22 to 24 at Memorial Peace Park in Maple Ridge, with a matinee on July 25.
The Tempest ready to storm parks
Tucked away in a garage, amongst pails of paint, coils of rope, a bar and chairs, is Prospero’s rock.
It’s craggy, mottled and ominous – a perfect stage to cast a spell.
“It always seems like it never will come together,” director Sharon Malone said as she prepared to spend an afternoon painting props for The Tempest.
In paint-splattered jeans, Malone conjures the image of The Tempest’s fi rst scene, set on a ship tossed about a storm, as the magician Prospero shakes the sky with claps of thun-der .
Transforming two outdoor sets – one at Maple Ridge’s Peace Park and a second at Pitt Meadows Spirit Square – is a challenge.
It requires ingenuity and imagination to drum up a deluge
and fl y fairies without pyrotechnics or a zipline.“At least I’ve got my rock,” says Malone.Boasting a cast and crew of more than 50, this year’s Bard
on the Bandstand production is ready to enchant audiences with Shakespeare’s tale of sorcery and young love.
The Tempest tells of a banished duke who uses his magical powers to wreck a ship bearing all his past enemies on the island where he has lived with his daughter, a slave and a sprite for 12 years.
It is a tale of revenge, compassion and destiny – told in a unique Bard on the Bandstand way that combines tradition-al Shakespearean prose with modern themes and music.
“It helps the audience understand what is going on on-stage,” says Malone.
“When you see it come to life, it’s completely different from reading it.”
Making Shakespeare accessible to the masses is just what the Emerald Pig Theatrical Society wanted to do when it de-cided to stage the Bard’s tales in the park for free fi ve years ago.
Since 2005, audiences have enjoyed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet.
It takes countless hours, a year of planning and almost $10,000 to bring each production to stage. This year’s pro-ductions will once again feature Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin, as a sailor on the doomed ship.
“It’s all about community,” says Malone.“Theatre is the ultimate in inclusiveness because it allows
people from different walks of life to come together. We have fantastic actors but we also have the diversity of the commu-nity with people who have never been on stage before.”
Bard on the Bandstand will play Pitt Meadows for the fi rst time this year
b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter
Bard on the BandstandEmerald Pig Theatrical Society presents Bard on the Bandstand - The
Tempest Friday and Saturday in Pitt Meadows at Spirit Square. The show starts 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment begins at 6:30 p.m.The Tempest plays Maple Ridge’s Memorial Peace Park July 22 - 24. The
show starts at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment begins at 6:30 p.m.There is a matinee in Maple Ridge on July 25 at 1:30 p.m. Pre-show
entertainment begins at 12:30 p.m.Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends
in Need Food Bank. For more visit, www.emeraldpig.ca.
Do you want to go back in time? To 1969?
Perhaps just for two days on a weekend in July?
Take in “Woodstock Amongst the Livestock” at this year’s CountryFest.
The Department of Cana-dian Heritage stage will be jam-packed with tribute art-ists and feature the likes of Credence Clearwater Revival (Willie and the Poor Boys), The Who (Generation Who), Jimi Hendrix (Midnight Light-ning), Neil Young (Live Rust) and Janis Joplin (Tracy Bell).
March Hare, Newhouse and
Void Space 2 will also join the tributes to play a selection of memorable songs.
Watch out for theatri-cal group, Millennium Play-ers who will be roving the grounds in groups, dressed in hippie attire.
Even the home Arts and Gar-dening Building has a “flower power” theme. Special prizes will be awarded to exhibitors who create an item that best depict the theme.
• The Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows CountryFest is at the Albion Fairgrounds July 24 and 25.
Arts&Life
Have you got a unique talent?
If you can sing, dance, juggle, play the flute, or burp the alphabet, the Maple Ridge–Pitt Mead-ows CountryFest wants you to be a part of its talent contest.
The more unique your performance, the bet-ter.
All contestants must send a video audition or YouTube link to [email protected] by July 20.
Judges will be selecting 10 finalists from the video auditions received by that date. Success-ful contestants will be notified on July 21 and will be invited to compete in the finals on July 25 from 5-6 p.m.
Various donated prizes and cash will be award-ed to top contestants.
Canadian Idol finalists Matt Kennedy and Sam Romijn will perform and emcee at the tal-ent show, which begins at 5 p.m. July 25.
DonateBusinesses who would like to donate cash or gift prizes for the talent show are asked to contact Sam Romijn at [email protected].
Woodstock at Country Festival
Contributed
March Hare performs July 24-25.
A wood carving created by more than 1,000 people was in-stalled in the lobby of Maple Ridge’s municipal offi ce tower on Canada Day.
It is the third Spirit of Wood Community Carving project, hosted by the Maple Ridge Mountain Festival Society.
For 2010, two separate wood carvings were created – four panels each for Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
Designed by Pitt Meadows artist Brad Dinwoodie, the four panels installed in Maple Ridge refl ect community pride, spirit and legacy projects leading up to the 2010 Olympic and Para-lympic Winter Games.
In particular, the panels are a tribute to the district’s many sport and recreation initiatives, its diverse festivals and the strength of its community volun-teers, the unique partnerships between its youth and seniors, its multicultural and literacy
programs, the leading edge Leg-acy Forest and the rich history and traditions of the Katzie First Nation.
The red cedar carving was produced by more than 1,060 residents of both Maple Ridge
and Pitt Meadows through a se-ries of community carving ses-sions held last fall, held under the direction of master carver Doug Morrison, with help from carving mentors Ian Horwood, Harvey Gigun and Phil Hewko.
Arts&Life
Wood carving installed at district hallThird annual project for Mountain Festival
Contributed
(From left) Mountain Festival Society director Ingrid Kraus, carving mentor Phil Hewko, master carver Doug Morrison, Coun. Cheryl Ashlie, MLA Marc Dalton, carving mentor Harvey Gigun and Mountain Festival directors Peter Tam and Chum Richardson.
The 15th annual Heritage Thursdays children’s program has begun at the Pitt Meadows Museum.
This year’s theme is ‘Through the De-cades’ and this week participants will be learning about the ’70s.
Each session, the kids will learn groovy
dance moves, make nifty crafts and have an overall “far out time.” The weekly program will run every Thursday until August 19, from 1 to 3 p.m. for children ages fi ve to 10. Youth volunteers 11 and up are also welcome. Call the museum at 604-465-4322 to register.
Heritage days start at museum
THE NEWS/sportsSection coordinator:Robert Mangelsdorf 604-467-1122 ext. [email protected]
The Maple Ridge Burrards were able to take their season series against the New Westminster Salmonbellies with a 9-7 win at home Sunday night, but it might not be enough to ensure a trip to the post-season for the local senior men’s lacrosse squad.
The Burrards currently sit tied for third place in the Western Lacrosse Association standings with a record of 7-9, good for 14 points. However, the Coquitlam Adanacs, also with 14 points, hold a game in hand, while the
Nanaimo Timbermen, with 12 points, hold two games in hand.
Should the Burrards end up tied with Nanaimo for the fourth and fi nal play-off berth, the Burrards will ad-vance by way of winning their three-game season series.
Sunday’s win has hopefully brought an end to the team’s recent slump, which has seen the Burrards go 1-5 in their six previous games after a 5-4 start to the season.
“This was an inspirational win for the team,” said Burrards coach Daren Fridge. “I told the guys to focus on the game at hand and not worry about any of that other stuff, and the results will come.”
The strategy seemed to work as the Burrards fi red 53 shots on New West netminder Matt Rolk en route to the
win. The Burrards’ balanced attack proved too much for the Salmonbel-lies, as eight different players regis-tered goals.
Leading the Burrards’ offence was Joel Dalgarno, who chipped in a goal and three assists, while Aaron Pascas scored two goals and an assist. Peter Tel-lis, Curtis Dickson, Brad Rennie, Jarret Davis, Nate Tarrant, and Andrew Murphy were the other Bur-rards’ scorers.
With 28 points so far this year, Mur-phy has nearly doubled his point total this season over his 2009 rookie cam-paign, and has become a consistent contributor on the Burrards’ power play. In 13 games this season, Murphy
has been held off the scoresheet only three times. In that span, he’s racked up 11 goals, good for fourth on the team in scoring.
“He’s a hard-working player ... and he’s got a great outside shot,” said Fridge. “Last season we were playing in
more a transition role ... but he’s been getting
good minutes and has been a regular part of our offence.”
Fridge said he was happy with team’s defensive performance Sun-day, with Rennie, Tyler Codron and Sam Cook all having strong games. Cook was all over Salmonbellies for-ward Illja Gajic, holding him to just a single assist all night.
Maple Ridge’s Mike Heath-fi eld is strapping on the gloves once again, and this
time he’s hoping to do some good for someone in need.
Heathfi eld is facing Jeremy Wil-son this Saturday at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre,
and partial proceeds from the event are being donated to the family of Joshua Ismirioglu, a 12-year-old boy from Abbotsford battling leuke-mia. Heathfi eld himself is donating his entire purse to the family.
The loquacious local fi ghter met with Ismirioglu, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy, ear-lier this month and said the expe-rience left him both humbled, and inspired.
“I fi ght for maybe 15 minutes in the ring,” said Heathfeild. “[Josh-ua] is fi ghting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Heathfi eld gave the young boy two gifts during the visit. The fi rst was a pair of autographed boxing gloves he won the Canadian Toughman championships with two years.
The other gift was a guarantee that he would win his fi ght, for him, this Saturday.
“There’s no way in the world I’m going to lose,” says Heathfi eld, with absolute confi dence. “I’m going to take Joshua’s spirit into the ring, and that’s the one thing I think I have over my opponent.”
It won’t be easy. Wilson is 28 years old and coming into the fi ght weighing in at 245 pounds. Heath-fi eld, meanwhile, is 220 pounds, and 52 years old.
Burrards take series vs. New WestBut Nanaimo hot on heels for last play-off spot
b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter
Maple Ridge’s Heathfield fighting for a causeb y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter
See Burrards, p38
See Heathfield, p39
The Ridge Meadows Royals fi nished a suc-cessful homestand last week, going 3-1 at Al-bion Sports Complex and improving to 24-11 in league play.
That’s good enough for third place in the B.C. Minor Midget AAA League as the local baseball team prepares for the provincial cham-pionships at the end of the month.
Last Tuesday, the Royals hosted the Clo-verdale Spurs, with Cole Ross taking to the mound. Ross complete-ly shut down the Spur bats, allowing only an unearned run on four hits while striking out 10 batters.
Offensively, fi rst base-man Jarad Beckett went 3-4 with an RBI and a run scored, while centre fi elder Lucas Tillotson had a pair of hits after missing over a week, and left fi elder Keegan Head had a pair of RBIs.
On Thursday, the Roy-als hosted the Tri-City Indians for their fourth and fi nal meeting of the season.
Starter Brandon Sound held the Indians to only three hits, and the Roy-als shut them out for the fourth time this season, outscoring them by a combined 29-0.
Ross and Beckett each drove in a pair of runs, while Tillotson, catcher Nathan Kitamura, and second baseman Dylan MacDermid each scored a pair of runs.
Saturday saw the Roy-als split their double-header with the second-place Victoria Mariners. The Royals earned their second straight shut-out, blanking the Mariners in their fi rst contest 3-0. However, the Mariners bats awoke to beat the Royals 7-6 in the second game.
The Royals have just a pair of home games left before they travel to Norbrock Stadium in Kamloops for the B.C. fi nals, the fi rst step to-wards the Western Ca-nadian Championships. The Royals are defend-ing champions, and have won the Western title fi ve times since 1998.
Royals in 3rd after home stand
Pride slideEmily Morley of the Ridge Meadows Pride 99 team slides into second base as Taylore Jones of the Ridge Meadows Pride 98 team tries to tag her out during the squirt A provincial championships at Albion Sports Complex Sunday morning.
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Sports
“I think it turned a lot of heads when he got picked for the all-star game last year, but he’s proven he’s legit,” Fridge said of Cook.
Meanwhile, Ron Schibild stopped 42 of 49 shots he faced to improve to an 8.16 goal-against-average, the best in the league.
The Burrards have taken two out of three meetings with New West this season, falling 9-7 on Thursday on the road to the pe-rennial lacrosse powerhouse, before following up with Sun-day’s win.
Thursday’s loss not only cost the Burrards two points, but two players as well, as Jeff Sauve
and Rand Daly joined Greg Hin-man on the team’s injured list.
The game was delayed for 30 minutes after Sauve broke his leg and dislocated his ankle after a collision with a Salmonbellies player, ending his season. Daly, mean-while, took a hard hit that left him with c o n c u s s i o n - l i k e symptoms.
With two games left to play in the regular season, the Bur-rards will have to solider on without them in the line-up, as they chase after an ever elusive play-off berth. Should the Bur-rards win their remaining two
games, Nanaimo would have to win all four of its remain-ing games in order to overtake
them.Standing in the
Burrards way, how-ever, are the Victo-ria Shamrocks, who come to town this Sunday. Although the Burrards have dropped both meet-ings with the Sham-rocks this season,
Fridge is hoping for a positive result at home.
“We have to be aggressive and set the tone early,” he said. “We’ve played them pretty well on the Island, but they’re in our arena now.”
Burrards have sights set on Shamrocks
Game timeThe Maple Ridge Bur-rards host the Victoria Shamrocks at home at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge on Sunday, July 18. Game time is 6:45 p.m.
Burrards from p37
Yang takes top spot at B.C. junior golf finalsJennifer Yang of the Pitt
Meadows Golf Course rallied in the fi nal round of the B.C. Ju-nior Girls’ Golf Championship at Gorge Vale Golf Club in Vic-toria on Friday to take the top prize, overcoming third-round leader Amanda Baker to win by four strokes.
Heading into the fi nal round, Yang trailed Baker by a single stroke, and was able to make up the ground by shooting an even-par 72 that included 16 holes for par.
Baker, meanwhile, dropped to fi fth with a round of 78.
Yang fi nished with a fi nal three-over 291, four shots ahead of defending champion A Ram Choi of Surrey, 2009 B.C. Ban-tam champion Alix Kong of West Vancouver, and Soo Bin Kim, who is based out of the Swan-E-Set Bay Resort and Country Club in Pitt Meadows, who all tied for second at 7-over 295.
With the win Yang earned herself a spot on the provincial
junior girls’ team representing B.C. at the Royale Cup Junior Girls’ Championship at Sawmill Creek Golf Resort in Camlachie, Ontario, August 2-6.
At the B.C. Junior Boys’ Golf Championship at Crown Isle Golf Club in Comox, Swan-E-Set’s Kevin Ko fi nished tied for sixth on Friday at one-over par, while Pitt Meadows’ own Kevin Kwon was fi ve-over-par to fi n-ish tied for tenth. Brian Jung, based out of the Pitt Meadows Golf Club, fi nished ninth.
It’s a familiar posi-tion for Heathfield, who won his last pro boxing fight in April 2009 by unanimous decision over Devon Garnon, a fighter 50 pounds heavier and 30 years younger than
him.Heathfield hopes
once again his experi-ence will trump his op-ponents youth.
With a combined record of 63-8, Heath-field knows his away around a ring.
“I’m going to out last
him,” said Heathfield. “He’s bigger, he’s younger and he wants to make a name for himself. But I’m going to make the most of my
jabs and use my speed to my advantage.
“Speed kills.” • For more informa-
tion, visit www.gerry-gionco.com
Sports
Heathfield from p37
Heathfield guarantees win Saturday night
Maple Ridge
boxer Mike Heathfield
promised Josh
Ismirioglu a win this
weekend in Abbotsford
against Jeremy Wilson
Contributed
