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The largest soccer group in Maple Ridge is scrambling to react to RCMP rules that require fi ngerprinting of any volunteers who happen to have birth dates that match those of par-doned sexual offenders.
But so far, none of the 190 teams in the Golden Ears United Soccer Club have had to cancel the upcoming sea-son, says their league vice-president, Kim Reading.
“Our season starts in September. Some of these coaches, it’s going to take them four months to get their criminal record checks done and our season’s half done. So we’re having to make changes.
“If they are returning coaches and they passed the criminal record check every single year, we are giving a little bit of a benefi t of the doubt.”
Usually, every team has at least two volunteer parents who’ve passed criminal record checks.
Vandals targeting Burger King? p13Radio Haney
Food fi ght headed for Maple Ridge? p6
Pitt Meadows council wants a casino and convention centre in the city, perhaps built on an un-used swath of commercial land along Lougheed Highway origi-nally slated for a mall.
Coun. John Becker asked the city to send a letter to the prov-ince on Tuesday expressing its interest in a gaming complex and requesting that a feasibility study be done.
Council supported him.“It’s not necessarily a singular
vision of council that there be a Las Vegas North here in Pitt Meadows, but certainly the eco-nomic benefi ts to the community are very signifi cant,” said Beck-er, adding that the city has been “on record” as being receptive to a gaming facility for several
years.A represen-
tative from the B.C. Lottery Corporation even spoke to council six years ago dur-ing its annual retreat.
At that time, council told the corpora-tion it was interested in a casino. But the province reserved comment un-
til transportation routes to Pitt Meadows improved or the Pitt River and Golden Ears bridges were built.
Becker is eyeing the North Lougheed commercial strip as a site for the casino-convention centre.
Smart!Centres, whose tenants include Walmart and Home De-pot, owns a large chunk of land stretching from Harris Road to Meadows Gardens Golf Course along the highway and wants to build a mall on the site.
Council interested in gaming facility with convention centre
THE NEWS
Pitt Meadows wants casino
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Getting connectedTony Phan of Maple Ridge participates in a fundraising event at the Greg Moore Youth Centre Tuesday evening to send Maple Ridge residents Jen Baillie and Mirae Campbell to Rwanda with the organization called Developing World Connections.
Some volunteers now have to befingerprinted
See Casino, p3
Friday, September 3, 2010 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢www.mapleridgenews.com
Gardening
What would we do without Alliums?p25
Becker
Opinion 6
Radio Haney 6
Parenting 21
Acts of Faith 23
Home&gardening 25
Community Calendar 41
Scoreboard 46
Index
If birthday matches that of sex off ender, another check required
Kindergarten expands, enrolment shrinks Black Press legislative reporter Tom Fletcher sat down with Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid to discuss the beginning of the 2010-11 school year. Read
an edited transcript, p39
See Volunteers, p14
b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter
b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter
Walmart, however, will not be the mall’s anchor tenant as originally expected, as the retail giant is set to open across the Pitt River in Port Coquitlam.
As a result, Becker said, the city needs to have a clear understanding of what its op-tions are now.
“The shopping centre thing may not be viable,” he added, noting the casino could help pay for a much-needed overpass at Lougheed Hwy. and Harris Road, as well as provide high-paying jobs.
“The jobs in there are certainly better than the standard retail service sector. Bet-ter than Walmart.”
Becker said Pitt Meadows isn’t interested in a “gaming centre”, a facility proposed to replace the Haney Bingo Plex in Maple Ridge that would house bingo, dining as well as electronic table and slot machine games.
“We are thinking on a somewhat grander scale,” he said. “It will come with issues. Some people are just philosophically op-posed to the whole notion of gaming, but I am not one of them.”
Mayor Don MacLean supports the casino plan, especially if it includes a hotel and convention centre that could hold between 300 and 500 people.
“I don’t think it would be a very good use of land unless we could combine it with a convention centre,” MacLean said.
The idea is also drawing praise from the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Chamber of Commerce, which has been calling for a conference centre in the area to siphon off some of the business from Vancouver.
The chamber has been working on a plan that looks at the vision, management and economic impact of such a project.
“Our data shows it’s needed,” said cham-ber president Jeremy Bekar.
“We need one on the north side of the river with easy access. We have the airport, which is an easy in-out for conventions and meetings.”
The whole idea, though, is contingent on the North Lougheed Connector, a yet-to-be road through farmland for which approval has been languishing with the Agricultural Land Commission since last year.
Environmentalists don’t like the city’s plan for a casino paving over green space.
The charm of Pitt Meadows is that it hasn’t bought into big city life, said Pitt Pol-der Preservation Society president Diana
Williams.“I would prefer to see smaller, local busi-
nesses going in rather than a casino and convention centre,” she added.
“There is already a casino in Coquitlam and one in Langley. I don’t know why we would want this kind of thing in our com-munity. It will bring all kinds of other prob-lems along with it.”
Pitt Meadows’ interest in a casino sur-prised Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin, as the district is waiting for Great Canadian Gaming Corp. to start its new gaming cen-tre on 227th Street and Lougheed Highway. That project is supposed to be built by 2013 and is to replace the Haney Bingo Plex.
“There are only so many casino licences
to go around,” Daykin said.“What are the chances of success that
close to Boulevard [casino]?” Great Canadian owns that casino in Co-
quitlam on United Boulevard.Daykin, though, said it’s possible Great
Canadian could change its mind and pull out of the downtown Maple Ridge location in favour of a casino in Pitt Meadows.
“They have been upfront and open with us around this whole process,” he said.
“I’d be incredibly disappointed if they made that change.
Coun. Craig Speirs had similar thoughts.“I don’t see them getting a licence, quite
frankly. North side of Lougheed – I think that’s goofy.”
But Great Canadian Gaming has no plans to build in Pitt Meadows and is committed to Maple Ridge, spokesman Howard Blank said Thursday.
“Our gaming centre is being built in Ma-ple Ridge.”
It’s up to BCLC to determine where casino licences are issued, he said.
The B.C. Lottery Corporations said its role is to assess the gaming marketplace and develop gaming facilities based on market-place demand. At this time, it has no plans to develop a casino in the City of Pitt Mead-ows. There are currently 17 casinos and 15 community gaming centres in B.C.
– with fi les from Phil Melnychuk
Walmart is going to Port Coquitlam
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Coun. John Becker stands by property where a casino could go, off Harris Road on north side of Lougheed Highway.
Casino from front
The City of Pitt Meadows has decided it will grace Facebook.Council directed staff Tuesday to create a page on the website, but it won’t be live until late fall or the end of the year, as the city cautiously navigates the online phenomena that draws more than 540 million unique visitors per month or 35.2 percent of the Internet
population.“One of the commitments of council is to engage citizens and Facebook and other social media have become tools in the communication package for local government to connect,” said city director of human resources and com-munications Lorna Jones.“We have been kind of cautious and slow out of the gates.”Pitt Meadows has been watching what other municipali-ties are doing, namely Port Coquitlam, a city which has more than 2,000 followers on its Facebook page.
An unoffi cial “District of Pitt Meadows” page that uses the city’s crest is already on Facebook and the city is now trying to get the creator to take it down.If you don’t have a presence on social media, someone will create one for you, says Jones, who had to deal with a fake Twitter account for the city created last year.To make sure there aren’t any online gaff es, Pitt Mead-ows also created a social media policy which guides staff and council on just what information or comments to post.Jones said the Facebook page will complement the city’s web page and include information on road closures, garbage policy, bylaws and events.“We realize that social media is a way that people communicate and we certainly want to be part of that
communications,” she added.Most city councillors, including Pitt Meadows Mayor Don MacLean, already have personal Facebook pages to keep in touch with friends and family.MacLean says the city’s page will allow for immediate feedback from its residents.“I support anything that would give the opportunity for the public to have more contact with us,” he added.“Communications should be a two-way street and we believe that social media seems to be eff ective. It’s so over-eff ective you want to shut it down sometimes.”Although he’s on Facebook, MacLean says he won’t be tweeting just yet.“I still haven’t fi gured out why they don’t call the people on Twitter – Twits.”
Pitt City to get on Facebookb y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter
Walmart, however, will not be the mall’s anchor tenant as originally expected, as the retail giant is set to open across the Pitt River in Port Coquitlam.
As a result, Becker said, the city needs to have a clear understanding of what its op-tions are now.
“The shopping centre thing may not be viable,” he added, noting the casino could help pay for a much-needed overpass at Lougheed Hwy. and Harris Road, as well as provide high-paying jobs.
“The jobs in there are certainly better than the standard retail service sector. Bet-ter than Walmart.”
Becker said Pitt Meadows isn’t interested in a “gaming centre”, a facility proposed to replace the Haney Bingo Plex in Maple Ridge that would house bingo, dining as well as electronic table and slot machine games.
“We are thinking on a somewhat grander scale,” he said. “It will come with issues. Some people are just philosophically op-posed to the whole notion of gaming, but I am not one of them.”
Mayor Don MacLean supports the casino plan, especially if it includes a hotel and convention centre that could hold between 300 and 500 people.
“I don’t think it would be a very good use of land unless we could combine it with a convention centre,” MacLean said.
The idea is also drawing praise from the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Chamber of Commerce, which has been calling for a conference centre in the area to siphon off some of the business from Vancouver.
The chamber has been working on a plan that looks at the vision, management and economic impact of such a project.
“Our data shows it’s needed,” said cham-ber president Jeremy Bekar.
“We need one on the north side of the river with easy access. We have the airport, which is an easy in-out for conventions and meetings.”
The whole idea, though, is contingent on the North Lougheed Connector, a yet-to-be road through farmland for which approval has been languishing with the Agricultural Land Commission since last year.
Environmentalists don’t like the city’s plan for a casino paving over green space.
The charm of Pitt Meadows is that it hasn’t bought into big city life, said Pitt Pol-der Preservation Society president Diana
Williams.“I would prefer to see smaller, local busi-
nesses going in rather than a casino and convention centre,” she added.
“There is already a casino in Coquitlam and one in Langley. I don’t know why we would want this kind of thing in our com-munity. It will bring all kinds of other prob-lems along with it.”
Pitt Meadows’ interest in a casino sur-prised Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin, as the district is waiting for Great Canadian Gaming Corp. to start its new gaming cen-tre on 227th Street and Lougheed Highway. That project is supposed to be built by 2013 and is to replace the Haney Bingo Plex.
“There are only so many casino licences
to go around,” Daykin said.“What are the chances of success that
close to Boulevard [casino]?” Great Canadian owns that casino in Co-
quitlam on United Boulevard.Coun. Craig Speirs had similar thoughts.“It would water down the market. Can’t
blame them for trying though,” he said of Great Canadian.
“It seems to me they’re invested in Maple Ridge and I don’t see that changing.
“I don’t see them getting a licence, quite frankly. North side of Lougheed – I think that’s goofy.”
Daykin, though, said it’s possible Great Canadian could change its mind and pull out of the downtown Maple Ridge location
in favour of a casino in Pitt Meadows.“They have been upfront and open with us
around this whole process,” he said.“I’d be incredibly disappointed if they
made that change.The company has already put down a
$2.1-million deposit with the district to ex-tend 227th Street to Lougheed Highway, part of the agreement for building on that location. If it decided to change locations, it would lose that deposit.
Daykin, though, agreed Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows need a convention centre of some kind, although he’d like to see that in Maple Ridge. “But the area does need one.”
– with fi les from Phil Melnychuk
Walmart is going to Port Coquitlam
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Coun. John Becker stands by property where a casino could go, off Harris Road on north side of Lougheed Highway.
Casino from front
The City of Pitt Meadows has decided it will grace Facebook.Council directed staff Tuesday to create a page on the website, but it won’t be live until late fall or the end of the year, as the city cautiously navigates the online phenomena that draws more than 540 million unique visitors per month or 35.2 percent of the Internet
population.“One of the commitments of council is to engage citizens and Facebook and other social media have become tools in the communication package for local government to connect,” said city director of human resources and com-munications Lorna Jones.“We have been kind of cautious and slow out of the gates.”Pitt Meadows has been watching what other municipali-ties are doing, namely Port Coquitlam, a city which has more than 2,000 followers on its Facebook page.
An unoffi cial “District of Pitt Meadows” page that uses the city’s crest is already on Facebook and the city is now trying to get the creator to take it down.If you don’t have a presence on social media, someone will create one for you, says Jones, who had to deal with a fake Twitter account for the city created last year.To make sure there aren’t any online gaff es, Pitt Mead-ows also created a social media policy which guides staff and council on just what information or comments to post.Jones said the Facebook page will complement the city’s web page and include information on road closures, garbage policy, bylaws and events.“We realize that social media is a way that people communicate and we certainly want to be part of that
communications,” she added.Most city councillors, including Pitt Meadows Mayor Don MacLean, already have personal Facebook pages to keep in touch with friends and family.MacLean says the city’s page will allow for immediate feedback from its residents.“I support anything that would give the opportunity for the public to have more contact with us,” he added.“Communications should be a two-way street and we believe that social media seems to be eff ective. It’s so over-eff ective you want to shut it down sometimes.”Although he’s on Facebook, MacLean says he won’t be tweeting just yet.“I still haven’t fi gured out why they don’t call the people on Twitter – Twits.”
Pitt City to get on Facebookb y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter
No Facebook page for Ridge, but tweets for Albion fl ats
Unlike its smaller city to the west, Maple Ridge doesn’t have Facebook page, though it is work-ing on a Twitter account for feedback on Albion flats.
While Pitt Meadows city said it is creating a Fa-cebook page, Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin said the district’s website is already busy.
“Our website gets such huge usage, in the thousands and thousands of hits,” he said.
Actually, that’s about 50,000 to 60,000 hits in a month, he added.
“It’s huge hits.”While it doesn’t have a Facebook page, the dis-
trict is creating a Twitter account dedicated to the Albion flats public consultation process so people can exchange views about what they’d like to see in the area.
Background reports on Albion flats will also be posted on the district’s website to provide more information to the public.
For the last year or so, Pitt Meadows also has had video archives of all council meetings on its website, a feature that Maple Ridge has yet to add.
But that will happen within months, Daykin said.
Daykin said so many people check out the dis-trict’s website, he sometimes wonders what they find so interesting there.
The district’s Albion flats consultation process will involve public meetings and a brainstorm-ing session involving key interest groups.
Some of the groups expected to be part of the session, called a charette, include the recreation department, Albion Community Association, the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Agricultural Associ-ation, Golden Ears Winter Club, the Downtown Maple Ridge Business Improvement Association and Kanaka Education and Environmental Part-nership Society.
The goal is to have a concept plan written by December, ready for council review and possible referral to the Agricultural Land Commission.
The majority of Albion flats land, at Lougheed Highway and 105th Avenue, lies within the Ag-ricultural Land Reserve and would require the commission’s consent before development takes place.
b y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter
It may not look pretty now, but big changes are in store for Pitt Meadows Arena.
Work has begun in earnest on a $6.1 million facelift to the three-rink complex, one that will see a completely reno-vated interior, complete with new concession, offi ce, and skate shop, as well as washroom and dressing room up-grades.
The new rink will hardly be recognizable, says Kelly Swift, gen-eral manager for Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Parks and Leisure Ser-vices.
“In a few weeks, we’ll really be able to see it take shape,” she said. “Long term, we’re going to have a good future for this facility in Pitt Meadows.”
Much of the work be-ing performed, however, won’t be apparent. The piles the facility sits on need to be upgraded to provide better protec-tion from earthquakes. Like much of lower Pitt Meadows, the land the arena sits on is made up of unstable river sand.
The arena’s heating and air conditioning system will also be up-
dated, as will the ice-making equipment.
And the ever-leaking roof? That will be fi xed, too.
Making the renova-tions all the more diffi -cult is the fact that the arena will be open and operating throughout the entire process.
Bleachers in the Gold and Blue Rinks have already been removed, and with the facility’s natural gas disconnect-ed, there will be no heat-ing through the winter.
“We are trying to minimize the impact, but there will be disrup-tions,” said Swift.
Arena users will also have to deal with brief rink closures to accom-modate some of the work that is being done, while portables will be brought in to temporar-ily house the arena’s dressing rooms while sewer work is being done. Much of the park-ing lot adjacent to the arena will be used for construction purposes.
The work should be completed by March or April of next year, said Swift.
A new, renovated con-cession will be located downstairs. The future of the upstairs viewing area will be determined by the arena’s new long-term private operator.
The parks and leisure services department is currently searching for an operator to take over the day-to-day opera-tions of the rink.
“We are evaluating proposals,” said Swift. “We’re looking for [an agreement] that’s fi nan-cially sustainable ... and provide community ac-cess.”
The arena was built in 1992 under a partner-ship with CDI Enter-prises, which built and initially ran the facility, leasing the land from the city for $1 dollar a year.
After CDI went into receivership in the late 1990s, the Ridge Mead-ows Arena Society, a non-profi t group, took over the facility and its mortgage.
In 2007, however, the City of Pitt Mead-ows cancelled its lease agreement with the society and effectively took over operation of the rink, hiring man-agement fi rm Canadian Recreation Excellence to run the rink on an in-terim basis.
Citizen’s Bank, which backed the society, sued the city for more than $2 million in dam-ages resulting from the
city’s cancellation of the lease, while the city counter-sued.
In 2009, a mediated settlement was reached, which saw the City of Pitt Meadows pay Citi-zen’s Bank $1.35 million.
The city has already spent more than $150,000 on a new Zamboni and roof repairs.
Construction updates will be posted regularly on the City of Pitt Mead-ows’ website.
Power outage forces arena patrons out in rain
Hundreds of parents and hockey players were forced out into the rain Tuesday afternoon after the power went out at the Pitt Meadows Arena during the Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey Association’s rep team try-outs.
The outage occurred just before 3 p.m. after contractors hired by Maple Ridge-Pitt Mead-ows Parks and Leisure Services cut down a tree that fell across power lines behind the arena, said facility coordinator Deb Tucker.
New, improved Pitt arena taking shape b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter
See Power, p8
THE NEWS/opinion
Is it safe to make this outrageous statement: There
are a lot of loonie stores and thrift outlets in downtown Maple Ridge.
Well, there just are, aren’t there? And there is nothing wrong with that.
Maple Ridge is the ‘go to’ place when it comes to getting stuff cheap. You can buy a home here for less than almost anywhere in the Lower Mainland. Lots are inexpensive. Labour is inexpensive. We are told by the district that business taxes and residential taxes are lower than average. A hobby farm awaits you in Whonnock for less than a million bucks. In a manner of speaking, we live in a fi scal nirvana. Cheap ‘R Us.
You name it and we have it, and at a de-cent discount. With a penchant for renam-ing things, why not then rename Maple Ridge, Value Village? OK, so we already have one of those and may run smack into a copyright infringement.
In common with our cousins across the continent, we love to buy stuff, lots of stuff, at any price that ends in .99 – 99 is an appar-ent clue that we are getting a deal. We fall for it every day.
Given the above, it comes as no wonder that Smart!Centres continues to rub its corporate hands over the possibility of providing a safe and profi table harbour for its biggest and best buddy, Walmart, on what is arguably land worthy of agriculture or some similarly less-toxic endeavour, like sports fi elds or a college. Well, less toxic
than Walmart anyhow, some people say. But, hang on a moment. There is another
game afoot of which we should be aware. Some of us probably are.
Maple Ridge already has a Walmart. It is called Zellers.
And Zellers, we hear, has made a sea change in its retail strategy that now includes expanding its offerings to fresh produce and groceries.
Walmart Canada, Shoppers Drug Mart and even, weirdly, Canadian Tire have been testing this new marketing ploy for some time. And a dastardly scheme it is, too. These retail giants want to become food magnates. J. Pattison step aside.
The Globe & Mail, Friday, Aug. 27, reported in its business pages that Zellers in no less than fi ve stores in Winnipeg is of-fering ’shelves of fresh peaches, pineapples and peppers as it begins a campaign to take on Walmart Canada Corp. and Loblaw Cos. Ltd., joining a growing number of retailers that are bulking up on groceries to steal away customers.’
In time – of course, I think the time is now – it would be a happy moment if a bright spark in the Zellers corporate development department noticed a place called Maple Ridge on the long company register of stores. It may notice that the population, for a variety reasons is headed swiftly to that magic 100,000 number so often bandied about by statisticians.
The number at which point a whole new world unfolds for any municipality when it comes to attitudes and demographics and economic development. Developers and investors will be miraculously awakened to opportunities starting to emerge from the long asleep burg of a Value Village, wher-ever it may be from Tofi no to Toronto.
That same bright spark might even look
up from the boardroom table at a meeting with his colleagues in Florida, or wherever these people meet, and say, hey what we do know about Maple Ridge?
It is probably time they found out. The stakes are high for Walmart, high for Zellers, and above all, high for the Albion fl oodplain north of the Lougheed Highway. Not the least, the stakes are high for this community.
Consider this. Safeway left Haney Place Mall years ago. Extra Foods, unless I am mistaken, will not again do business in Maple Ridge. Our ever-growing elderly population in the downtown core needs to be better served. They know and have grown up with Zellers for decades.
Hopefully, this town is in the sights of this discount retailer when it comes to presenting its customers with a fresh look and a new approach. In an era where fresh produce – locally grown if possible – is nudging processed food off the shelves, the potential for adding a large fresh food outlet in the downtown is high; right now.
If Zellers fails to see this opportunity in Maple Ridge, Walmart is poised to fi ll the gap.
As to the future of the Albion, all bets are off. Council and the mayor, for the mo-ment, have elected to remove themselves from the public and community delibera-tions.
Could it have fi nally dawned on our poli-ticians that it pays to listen to the voter?
I’m not holding my breath.
Claus Andrup is a former member at large of the Maple Ridge Community Heritage Commission, the Maple Ridge Economic Advisory Commission, and former Presi-
dent of the Maple Ridge Historical Society. He has lived in Maple Ridge since 1994.
Food fight headed for Maple Ridge
Roll the diceNews Views
Published and printed by Black Press at 22328 – 119th Avenue, Maple Ridge, B.C., V2X 2Z3
Question of theweek:
Are you now feeling more optimistic about the
future of Fraser River sockeye?
Yes: 30% – No: 70%
This week’s question: Is Pitt Meadows a good location for a casino and
convention centre?
@ Online poll: cast your vote at www.mapleridgenews.com, or e-mail your vote and comments to [email protected]
Pitt Meadows isn’t getting a Walmart, so now council wants a casino. One with a hotel and convention centre on the north side of Lougheed Highway, close to the Golden Ears Bridge inter-change.
Once again the little city is trying to outdo its bigger neighbour, the District of Maple Ridge, which is still waiting for its new expanding gam-ing facility. It likely won’t open until 2013.
Meanwhile, Pitt Meadows council is writing to the province, expressing interest in having a ca-sino and convention centre built in the city and requesting a feasibility study be done for it.
While some might not see how such a facility fi ts the character of Pitt Meadows, consider how much it has changed in the past 25 years.
Back then fi elds line both sides of Lougheed Highway. New subdivisions sprouted up, as did the container yard, then one mall, then another. The West Coast Express came to town, then bus-es. Now there are high-rises on Harris Road, not to mention two new bridges.
Pitt Meadows is offi cially a city and it wants to continue growing its tax base.
Coun. John Becker has suggested revenue from a casino and convention centre could help build a much-desired overpass on Harris Road.
One would improve access to a new business park in south Bonson, where a waterfront vil-lage and park have replaced an old mill.
We don’t know if the B.C. Lottery Corporation would grant the city a gaming license, consider-ing casinos nearby in Langley and Coquitlam, and given Maple Ridge’s plans for gaming on a smaller scale.
But if there is private interest in constructing a casino and convention centre in Pitt Meadows, at the foot of the Golden Ears Bridge, then that at least should be explored.
– The News
Tell us what you think @ www.mapleridgenews.com
Jim Coulter, [email protected]
Michael Hall, [email protected]
Carly Ferguson, advertising, creative services [email protected]
Kathy Blore, circulation [email protected]
Editorial
Reporters: Phil Melnychuk, Monisha Martins,Robert Mangelsdorf
Photographer: Colleen Flanagan
Advertising
Sales representatives: Karen Derosia, Glenda Dressler, Rina Varley, Michelle Baniulis
Ad control: Mel OnodiCreative services: Kristine Pierlot, Cary Blackburn
Annette WaterBeek, Chris HusseyClassifi ed: Vicki Milne
22328 – 119th Avenue, Maple Ridge, B.C.,
V2X 2Z3Offi ce: 604-467-1122
Fax: 604-463-4741Delivery: 604-466-6397
Website: www.mapleridgenews.comEmail: [email protected]
The News is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province's newspaper industry. The coun-cil considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. Directors oversee the mediation of complaints, with input from both the newspaper and the complaint holder. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.
CCAB audited circulation: (as of September 2009): Wednesday - 30,221; Friday – 30,197.
Ser ving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows since 1978
THE NEWS Radio Haney Claus Andrup
THE NEWS/opinion
Is it safe to make this outrageous statement: There
are a lot of loonie stores and thrift outlets in downtown Maple Ridge.
Well, there just are, aren’t there? And there is nothing wrong with that.
Maple Ridge is the ‘go to’ place when it comes to getting stuff cheap. You can buy a home here for less than almost anywhere in the Lower Mainland. Lots are inexpensive. Labour is inexpensive. We are told by the district that business taxes and residential taxes are lower than average. A hobby farm awaits you in Whonnock for less than a million bucks. In a manner of speaking, we live in a fi scal nirvana. Cheap ‘R Us.
You name it and we have it, and at a de-cent discount. With a penchant for renam-ing things, why not then rename Maple Ridge, Value Village? OK, so we already have one of those and may run smack into a copyright infringement.
In common with our cousins across the continent, we love to buy stuff, lots of stuff, at any price that ends in .99 – 99 is an appar-ent clue that we are getting a deal. We fall for it every day.
Given the above, it comes as no wonder that Smart!Centres continues to rub its corporate hands over the possibility of providing a safe and profi table harbour for its biggest and best buddy, Walmart, on what is arguably land worthy of agriculture or some similarly less-toxic endeavour, like sports fi elds or a college. Well, less toxic
than Walmart anyhow, some people say. But, hang on a moment. There is another
game afoot of which we should be aware. Some of us probably are.
Maple Ridge already has a Walmart. It is called Zellers.
And Zellers, we hear, has made a sea change in its retail strategy that now includes expanding its offerings to fresh produce and groceries.
Walmart Canada, Shoppers Drug Mart and even, weirdly, Canadian Tire have been testing this new marketing ploy for some time. And a dastardly scheme it is, too. These retail giants want to become food magnates. J. Pattison step aside.
The Globe & Mail, Friday, Aug. 27, reported in its business pages that Zellers in no less than fi ve stores in Winnipeg is of-fering ’shelves of fresh peaches, pineapples and peppers as it begins a campaign to take on Walmart Canada Corp. and Loblaw Cos. Ltd., joining a growing number of retailers that are bulking up on groceries to steal away customers.’
In time – of course, I think the time is now – it would be a happy moment if a bright spark in the Zellers corporate development department noticed a place called Maple Ridge on the long company register of stores. It may notice that the population, for a variety reasons is headed swiftly to that magic 100,000 number so often bandied about by statisticians.
The number at which point a whole new world unfolds for any municipality when it comes to attitudes and demographics and economic development. Developers and investors will be miraculously awakened to opportunities starting to emerge from the long asleep burg of a Value Village, wher-ever it may be from Tofi no to Toronto.
That same bright spark might even look
up from the boardroom table at a meeting with his colleagues in Florida, or wherever these people meet, and say, hey what we do know about Maple Ridge?
It is probably time they found out. The stakes are high for Walmart, high for Zellers, and above all, high for the Albion fl oodplain north of the Lougheed Highway. Not the least, the stakes are high for this community.
Consider this. Safeway left Haney Place Mall years ago. Extra Foods, unless I am mistaken, will not again do business in Maple Ridge. Our ever-growing elderly population in the downtown core needs to be better served. They know and have grown up with Zellers for decades.
Hopefully, this town is in the sights of this discount retailer when it comes to presenting its customers with a fresh look and a new approach. In an era where fresh produce – locally grown if possible – is nudging processed food off the shelves, the potential for adding a large fresh food outlet in the downtown is high; right now.
If Zellers fails to see this opportunity in Maple Ridge, Walmart is poised to fi ll the gap.
As to the future of the Albion, all bets are off. Council and the mayor, for the mo-ment, have elected to remove themselves from the public and community delibera-tions.
Could it have fi nally dawned on our poli-ticians that it pays to listen to the voter?
I’m not holding my breath.
Claus Andrup is a former member at large of the Maple Ridge Community Heritage Commission, the Maple Ridge Economic Advisory Commission, and former Presi-
dent of the Maple Ridge Historical Society. He has lived in Maple Ridge since 1994.
Food fight headed for Maple Ridge
Roll the diceNews Views
Published and printed by Black Press at 22328 – 119th Avenue, Maple Ridge, B.C., V2X 2Z3
Question of theweek:
Are you now feeling more optimistic about the
future of Fraser River sockeye?
Yes: 30% – No: 70%
This week’s question: Is Pitt Meadows a good location for a casino and
convention centre?
@ Online poll: cast your vote at www.mapleridgenews.com, or e-mail your vote and comments to [email protected]
Pitt Meadows isn’t getting a Walmart, so now council wants a casino. One with a hotel and convention centre on the north side of Lougheed Highway, close to the Golden Ears Bridge inter-change.
Once again the little city is trying to outdo its bigger neighbour, the District of Maple Ridge, which is still waiting for its new expanding gam-ing facility. It likely won’t open until 2013.
Meanwhile, Pitt Meadows council is writing to the province, expressing interest in having a ca-sino and convention centre built in the city and requesting a feasibility study be done for it.
While some might not see how such a facility fi ts the character of Pitt Meadows, consider how much it has changed in the past 25 years.
Back then fi elds line both sides of Lougheed Highway. New subdivisions sprouted up, as did the container yard, then one mall, then another. The West Coast Express came to town, then bus-es. Now there are high-rises on Harris Road, not to mention two new bridges.
Pitt Meadows is offi cially a city and it wants to continuing growing its tax base.
Coun. John Becker has suggested revenue from a casino and convention centre could help build a much-desired overpass on Harris Road.
One would improve access to a new business park in south Bonson, where a waterfront vil-lage and park have replaced an old mill.
We don’t know if the B.C. Lottery Corporation would grant the city a gaming license, consider-ing casinos nearby in Langley and Coquitlam, and given Maple Ridge’s plans for gaming on a smaller scale.
But if there is private interest in constructing a casino and convention centre in Pitt Meadows, at the foot of the Golden Ears Bridge, then that at least should be explored.
– The News
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Ser ving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows since 1978
THE NEWS Radio Haney Claus Andrup
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: Golden Ears close to paying its
way (The News, Aug. 27).I read the article by Andrew Bucholtz
and had to point out a couple things.The fi rst thing I noticed was the
statement that if 398,000 cars cross the bridge in July, that would add “an-other $398,000 from the $1 monthly fee for transponder rental” to the month’s revenue.
This would only be correct if every transponder-carrying car was unique. Even the most die-hard supporter would have to disagree with that as-sumption.
A commuter crossing the bridge twice a day for 20 days in the month would count as 40 “vehicles,” but would only contribute $1 to the rental fees.
The second thing was Harry Bains doubting TransLink’s stats without any stats of his own. This is especial-ly troubling because the raw data is available to everyone who receives a monthly Quickpass statement.
Each crossing is given a “transac-tion number,” which is nothing more than a crossing count since the bridge opened.
Mr. Bains would have crossed the bridge on July 1, then again on July 30, he would’ve known exactly how many cars crossed between those two dates.
So I did just that. I’ve gathered my crossing data since the bridge’s open-ing and the data speaks for itself. In a nutshell, it supports TransLink’s num-bers.
The three-crossing averages are the most accurate ones since they allow
some time between crossings to get a good average, but they’re still small enough to show month-to-month vari-ations.
The time between June 28 and July 24 had 799,800 crossings (26,300 per day), close enough to TransLink’s ac-tual count of 796,000 (25,700 per day) for July.
It also agrees with TransLink’s num-bers for its fi rst month of operation and for April 2010.
Mr. Bains needs to fi nd a better method of measuring car volumes.
Just because a route is not congested doesn’t mean it’s not carrying a lot of vehicles.
Maybe he should consider trusting the numbers for a change.
STEVE CURRIE SURREY
EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: A later apology can be
avoided (Radio Haney, Aug. 20).
I must say that Claus An-drup’s article was way over the top. To compare what happened to the First Nations in the past or the Japanese citizens of the Lower Main-land during the war with the so-called refugees from Sri Lanka is complete nonsense and misses the whole prob-lem with the present situa-tion.
Using his biased, one-sided, unexplained comparisons of “genocide” to suggest the less than compassionate nature of Canadians now or in the past is beyond contemptuous.
Although the Sri Lankan’s have come from a dreadful situation, what they have done, if successful, has seri-ous, worldwide consequenc-es.
To even refer to them as refugees is an insult to the
millions of true refugees who have been living in abject poverty in UN sanctioned camps waiting, for years in some cases, to be relocated to better lives.
What makes the passen-gers of the MV Sun Sea more deserving than the thou-sands of people displaced in the Sudan, Darfur, Haiti, and now Pakistan, to name just of few?
Canada accepts tens of thousands of these refugees annually through the proper process.
The people who have ar-rived here aboard the MV Sun Sea have apparently paid $50,000 each to human smug-glers to reach our shores; for those who have come as fami-lies, more than $200,000.
How many Canadian fami-lies have this amount of cash available to them?
Fifty thousand dollars in Sri Lanka is like a million to us.
Where do real refugees get
that kind of money? The human traffi ckers have
been paid over $20 million to allow the Sri Lankan’s to jump the queue, to bypass the system that ensures equity and that the most deserving get dealt with fi rst.
They are thumbing their noses at our legal system, to our compassion and to the world’s accepted refugee process.
They have the money to cheat the system and appar-ently some people believe that this deserves our bless-ing.
Sorry, I don’t.If they succeed, the gates
will be opened for those who don’t care about process and only care about themselves; people who can afford to pay whatever it takes to get here, and there will be tens of thou-sands of people to deal with, not fi ve hundred.
The real refugee will be left alone with nothing and
countries will be turned off of allowing refugees into their countries.
Is this the kind of citizens we want?
Is this the process we want to encourage?
I say no. Put the captain and crew in
jail for 20 years and send back all but the most deserving.
Send a clear message to those low-lifes who would make a profi t from the hor-rors being experienced around the world, that our compassion will not be taken advantaged of.
Canada will not allow them to profi t from the suffering of the disadvantaged.
On the other hand, open the gates, let them all in.
What kind of country will we have to pass onto our chil-dren and what kind of apol-ogy do you think they will be demanding?
GRAHAM MOWATT
MAPLE RIDGE
EDITOR, THE NEWS:I must apologize for my previous remarks about the
recent Tamil refugees. Having just read Ezra Levant’s article in the Toronto Sun (Aug. 22), I have become more enlightened to the facts of Tamil Refugees in Canada.
A QMI investigation has confi rmed that 71 per cent of all the Tamil refugees currently living in Canada have ac-tually returned to Sri Lanka for a vacation. This certainly does not seem to be a place to be feared, to me.
Can you imagine Jews living in Canada in the Second World War vacationing in Berlin?
Also, Canada Immigration has conducted a survey of 50 Tamils who have agreed to sponsor new refugees and found that 31 of them are actual refugees themselves, and of those 31 – 22 have returned to this nation (that has persecuted them and threatened them and there families with death), for vacations.
If it were up to me, given this new information, I would ask our people in the Canadian Embassy in Sri Lanka to look up these “vacationers” when they arrive back home in Sri Lanka and give them a letter. It would be a demand for payment of costs associated with processing them as refugees, revoking that status, as well as Canadian citi-zenship and seizure and sale of any Canadian assets in lieu of payment.
For all these “bogus refugees,” our Canadian generos-ity has run out.
MIKE BOILEAU
MAPLE RIDGE
EDITOR, THE NEWS: While all the writers to your page get on their high
horses over the HST, a tax that you don’t have to pay if you really don’t want to buy some things, the Carbon Tax again shoves up the cost of fuel.
On a quick trip into Alberta, where we paid as low as 86 cents a litre, and return home to $1.17, I fi nd the HST decriers are wasting their indignant breaths.
If you are going to complain, get after something that is really important.
I haven’t heard anyone say they don’t like the HST, they just don’t like the method of implementation.
As that issue receives all the attention, a real issue goes unchallenged.
LORNE RIDING
MAPLE RIDGE
Canadian generosity has run out
TLink bridge numbers close
Carbon Tax unchallenged
To refer to them as refugees is an insult
It may not look like it, but the Golden Ears Bridge is car-rying a lot of vehicles.
THE NEWS/files
THE NEWS/letters
Looking like a foolFrom: funny bone, posted on www.mapleridgenews.com.Re: Pitt city to get on Facebook (www.mapleridgenews.com, Sept. 1).lol.... about 3-4 years late. way to keep on top of social networking. and never point out your ignorance to it by calling Twitter users “twits”, make you look foolish to the millions who use it everyday.
“A QMI investigation has confirmed that 71 per cent of all the Tamil refugees currently living in Canada have actually returned to Sri Lanka for a vacation.”
The City of Pitt Mead-ows is ready to take over the lease of prime waterfront land at Saw-yer’s Landing.
The lease agreement with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is currently held by Mo-saic Homes, which built the waterfront commu-nity.
Mosaic and the city
worked together to cre-ate the riverfront park, with two viewing plat-forms that overlook the Fraser River.
City director of legis-lative services Laurie Darcus said if the city doesn’t take over the lease, the port authority could give to anybody.
“We are looking to take it over so we can keep it a park and some-day maybe even have a dock down there,” she added.
The port authority is offering a 20-year lease with options to cancel at anytime, by either
party, with a 60-day no-tice.
The lease will cost the city $776 per year, plus HST, for the fi rst three years, with rent reviews set for every three years.
In the meantime, the city is working to fi x the wharf at foot of Bonson Road that was destroyed in an arson fi re a year ago.
An engineering com-pany has been selected to oversee the rebuild and tenders are expect-ed to go out this month.
“We do really appreci-ate the patience of the
residents of Sawyer’s Landing,” said city di-rector of fi nance Dean Rear.
“It was a challenging situation to deal with. There were leases in-volved with the port authority and envi-ronmental consider-ations.”
The city has yet to get a fi rm estimate of how much it will cost to replace the wharf, but Rear said it could be anywhere between $150,000 to $250,000, with the insurance company footing most of the bill.
City looks to take over waterfront lease
The crew was thinning trees as part of work to build a trail con-necting the new artifi cial turf fi eld at Pitt Meadows secondary to the athletic fi elds adjacent to the arena.
“The tree caused a short cir-cuit and that blew out fuses and sparked a Hydro pole on Bonson Road,” said Pitt Mead-ows Fire Chief Don Jolley. “The outage had nothing to do with the construction going on at the arena.”
Players and parents were es-corted outside by arena staff af-
ter the lights and power went off inside the arena. Many waited in their cars until the power was restored by B.C. Hydro workers just before 6:30 p.m.
Four workers from B.C. Hydro attended the scene, and shut off power to the area to safely remove the tree and repair the power line, which carried 25,000 volts of electricity, according to B.C. Hydro spokesperson Dag Sharman.
Some Hydro line crew mem-bers, following a busy day, rushed from Coquitlam to fi x the problem in Pitt Meadows, in-
cluding Josh Wahl, a Pitt Mead-ows resident whose son is in-volved in the atom rep tryouts.
“We got the power back on for good at 6:30 p.m. after multiple is-sues due to the tree on the line,” Wahl said, “then we continued to work through the night due to the heavy rain,” and the prob-lems it caused during the day.
Close to 5,000 households were without power as a result of the accident, with the blackout area stretching from Ford Road to 216th Street in Maple Ridge, south of Old Dewdney Trunk Road.
Power from p5
‘Outage had nothing to do with work on arena’
b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter
Also workingto fi x Bonson wharf
Maple Ridge has se-lected who will be the point person for the South Haney Change Project.
Michelle Ninow, who has a master’s degree in community planning and who worked on the regional committee
on homelessness, will shepherd the process over the next year as co-ordinator.
The main goal of the $25,000 project, will be to bring together resi-dents of the area south of Lougheed Highway in the downtown, cre-ate a vision, then a plan that will set out how to realize that vision, said Christine DiGiamberar-
dine, neighbourhood development coordina-tor with the District of Maple Ridge.
A steering committee is expected to be formed by year-end.
The whole process will take about a year with a fi nal report ready by next summer.
“We really believe this will be a very successful project,” DiGiamberar-
dine said.She noted the histori-
cal nature of the com-munity – Haney House is on 224th Street – gives it lots of potential. It’s one that’s also changing with new condo resi-dences proposed, one of which is in the former location of Northumber-land Court.
Issues previously iden-tifi ed by residents there
include addictions, pov-erty and the intended use of vacant lots, ab-sentee land owners, se-niors and renters.
A similar consulta-tion process under the Building Community Solutions program, was used in several areas in 2003 and resulted in such things as walking school buses and the Haney Farmers’ Mar-ket.
Ninow will get $15,000 of the $25,000, for the 10 hour-a-week position.
South Haney starts looking to futureb y P h i l M e l n y c h u kstaff repor ter
Students dread it, and parents can’t wait for it, but it’s here again, and the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows School District is ready.
Tuesday is the first day back at school for elementary and sec-ondary students in the district, and the 2010/11 school year promises to be one of changes.
Most notably, the district will be rolling out the provincially-mandated all-day kin-dergarten program at 13 elementary schools: Blue Mountain, Davie Jones, Edith McDer-mott, Eric Langton (English program only), Fairview, Glen-wood, Golden Ear,
Hammond (not Mon-tessori), Harry Hooge, Highland Park, Maple Ridge Elementary, Webster’s Corner and Whonnock.
All-day kindergar-ten will expand to all elementary schools in the district in 2011/12 school year.
Laurie Meston, the district’s director of instruction, said the new kindergarten curriculum is both play-based and proj-ect-based, and will encourage children to work collaboratively, to share and commu-nicate.
“It fits with the min-istry’s goal of giving children 21st century skills,” said Meston. “There’s a bit of ap-prehension [about in-troducing a new cur-riculum], but overall the teachers are ex-cited,” said Meston.
Another major change for School Dis-trict No. 42 will be the
absence of Riverside and Mount Crescent elementary schools, both of which were closed at the end of the school year in June as a cost-savings mea-sure resulting from declining enrollment.
P r o v i n c e - w i d e , 544,223 estimated full-time students are ex-pected to attend pub-lic schools in 2010/11, a decrease of about 60,000 students since 2000-01.
In School District No. 42, enrollment is ex-pected to drop by 250 students from close to 16,000 last school year.
Jefferson said an-ecdotal reports from some schools indicate an increase in stu-dents. However, the final number won’t be known until the butts are in the seats.
“We are hopeful we can see less of a decrease,” he said. “Students are money, so that effects budget and planning.”
Superintendent Jan Unwin said some sec-ondary schools have reported increased numbers of students
from out of district.“That’s music to our
ears, because that means we’re doing something right” she said. “Whenever you get kids from out of district, that’s a bo-nus.”
Ministry mum on new Albion school
B.C. education min-ister Margaret Mac-Diarmid would not reveal if a new elemen-tary school was in the works for east Maple Ridge, but senior staff at School District No. 42 remain optimistic capital funding will be approved.
MacDiarmid, speak-ing on a media con-ference call Tuesday morning, wouldn’t comment specifi cally on the likelihood of School District No. 42 receiving capital fund-ing for a new school on 104th Avenue, but mentioned the minis-try would be releasing its capital plan shortly.
The district saved the province close to $3 million by using its existing portables to
house full-day kin-dergarten students, instead of semi-per-manent modular units, and secretary trea-surer Wayne Jefferson said the move should weigh in the district’s favour.
However, a new school would likely cost $12-14 million. That means the prov-ince would still have to come up with at least $9 million more to fund the school.
“I’m confi dent they will see that we’ve brought something to the table,” said Jef-ferson. “This school is much-needed, so we are proceeding with optimism.”
The district already has a site in mind for the new school, on 104th Avenue, east of 240th Street, which it acquired more than two years ago.
The new school, if built, would be roughly one kilometre from the already overcrowded Albion Elementary School, and would add much needed capac-ity if the Albion neigh-bourhood is further developed.
Schools prepare for return of students
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Joanna Williams puts up the “Shape of the Day” for her Grade 1/2 split class at Edith McDermott Elementary Wednesday afternoon as she prepares for the upcoming school year.
b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter
District expecting enrolment decline
The owners of a Burg-er King franchise in Ma-ple Ridge are growing increasingly frustrated by vandals whose most recent blitz targeted three windows of their restaurant.
The fast-food chain on Lougheed Highway, off 203rd Street, had its large glass windows pummelled with a baseball bat overnight Wednesday.
Irene Smith, one of the owners, said the damage is the latest in a string of incidents, ranging from graffi ti to broken windows and doors.
Last week, someone smashed the restau-rant’s menu board.
“Nothing’s being done for us,” said Smith, who has complained to both the Ridge Mead-ows RCMP and Maple Ridge’s mayor.
She claims she has requested more police
patrols, to no avail.At $750 a pop, the win-
dows are a big dent in their budget.
“It’s a big loss,” said Smith. “It’s affecting our income.”
But Ridge Meadows RCMP wonder if Burger King is reporting all in-cidents, even those that are seemingly petty, to police.
Since 2006, the police database shows only nine fi les involving mischief, four of which were reported in 2009.
In the past year, Insp. Derren Lench said, there have been no com-plaints from the busi-ness, until Wednesday.
“”If you are a victim of crime, you have to let your police force know.
It doesn’t matter how small the crime,” said Lench.
“Otherwise we have no way of tracking it. We may not solve that par-ticular complaint but all of a sudden, it identifi es where crime is happen-ing in an area.”
• Ridge Meadows RCMP can be contacted at 604-463-6251.
Vandals break three BK windows
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Maple Ridge Burger King owner Irene Smith (right) and 20 year-employee Lynn Speer sit behind one of three broken windows.
A man struck by a pickup truck Friday in Maple Ridge has died from his injuries.
Riccy Charles MacKay was crossing Lougheed Highway between 216th and 218th streets when he was hit by a Nissan
truck traveling east around 9:10 p.m.
RCMP Insp. Derren Lench said the 38-year-old was taken by B.C. Ambulance’s helicop-ter to Royal Columbian Hospital in New West-minster, where he sur-
vived until Saturday.At the time of the
crash, the Lougheed Highway was dimly lit. Lench said traffi c at the time was moderate.
“The driver of the pickup truck had not been drinking, and it
does not appear that speed is an issue,” he added.
Investigators are now asking any witnesses to come forward.
• Call RCMP at 604-463-6251 if you have any information.
Man struck by truck on Lougheed Hwy. dies
b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter
So if one has to stand aside while awaiting the fi ngerprinting clearance, the other can take over, Reading explained.
New volunteer screen-ing rules introduced in July now require volun-teers whose birth dates match those of pardoned sexual offenders to get a further check – fi nger-printing.
That requires the coach or volunteer to go to the Ridge Meadows detachment to get their fi ngerprints taken. The marks are then sent to Ottawa for manual com-parison of a fi ngerprint data base.
If no match is found, a volunteer can be cleared within a month. If a match is found, the process could take four months.
Volunteers with recog-nized groups have the $25 processing fee waived by the RCMP.
Ridge Meadows Insp. Darren Lench explained the change to Maple Ridge council Monday.
“It is a change in pro-cess. I know there’s some frustration out there about what this is all about,” he said.
But it is for the greater
good, he added.The policy requires
anybody who volunteers with kids, seniors or the handicapped to have their date of births com-pared with those on the sexual offenders data-base. By checking prints, police can rule out vol-unteers who’ve changed their name, to escape detection.
Some volunteers take the request for fi nger-printing personally, said Reading.
But police have told her to pass on the messages to the coaches that it’s nothing personal.
“Please make sure they know that we’re not tar-geting them,” she said.
Lench said if the prints don’t match, they’re de-stroyed in Ottawa. He said later that so far 58 sets of prints have been sent in from the detach-ment.
So far, fi ve coaches Golden Ears United Soc-cer have been told to sub-mit their prints. While other parents step into help with the teams, “It’s hard on us,” Reading said.
She said any adult helping out with a team – managers, coaches, as-sistant coaches – all have
to go do a basic criminal record check.
The association has about 190 teams and more than 2,000 players from fi ve to 17.
The policy change, though, hasn’t reached the Ridge Meadows Mi-nor Hockey Association, which has about 1,000 kids playing hockey, su-pervised by about 300 coaches and managers.
“I haven’t heard about any of this,” said Glen Mund, president of the association.
The group requires all coaches and managers to have a criminal record check every two years and to take abuse pre-vention course.
Mund said he would have expected to hear from Hockey Canada about any changes.
“I like the idea. It makes sense,” he said.
It’s another check and balance to make sure kids are protected, Mund added.
So far, no coaches have been come forward to say they have to be fi n-gerprinted.
The new rules, though, so far, are not affecting the people managing the 1,200 volunteers who help run the swimming, se-
nior or youth programs in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
Kathryn Baird, recre-ation coordinator, special events and volunteers, with the District of Maple Ridge, said no volunteers have yet been told they need to be fi ngerprinted.
“We haven’t had any yet come forward yet.”
Discussion of new rules, though, will be at the top of the list when municipal volunteer coordinators meet in Burnaby this month. Baird said the general approach will be to try to increase lead time in screening volunteers to allow for the fi ngerprint-ing process.
“We will support the new system,” and work with the RCMP, Baird said.
She added standard criminal record checks are now an accepted part of volunteer screening and required of everyone, in addition to ongoing su-pervision of volunteers.
People appreciate that because it makes a safe work place. “That’s part of having a safe volun-teer program.”
“Our goal is to make sure our programs are safe.”
The Volunteer Centre operated out of commu-nity services will also discuss the issue.
‘Another check and balance’Volunteers from front
A Maple Ridge man was arrested by police Thursday during a raid on a suspected marijua-na grow operation.
Ridge Meadows RCMP entered the house on Rothsay Street just after 8 a.m. after obtaining a search warrant for theft of electricity.
Offi cers found 320 plants in varying stages of growth inside.
The 47-year-old man was held in custody for a hearing before a justice of peace.
Drunk driverA young Maple Ridge
woman is facing charg-es of impaired driving after she hit a concrete curb in a mall early Thursday.
Ridge Meadows RCMP said the impact set off airbags inside the 2000 Volkswagen Beetle.
The driver was kept
on scene by passerbys and offi cers with the Integrated Gang Task Force who saw the ac-cident, which took place at Meadowvale Mall around 2:30 a.m.
When RCMP arrived, the woman showed signs of being impaired by alcohol and was tak-en to Coquitlam RCMP Detachment, where samples of her breath were analysed at more than twice the legal limit.
The 19-year-old was later released from cus-tody, but will have face charges in Port Coquit-lam Provincial Court.
Stolen stereoRidge Meadows RCMP
are looking for a man who stole a portable stereo from the Real Canadian Superstore on Wednesday.
Just after 10 a.m., an
employee of the store saw a man leaving the store at Meadowtown Centre on Lougheed Highway, with a stereo in his arms.
He was seen riding a bicycle east through the back of the mall park-ing lot. He is described as a man in his 30s, who weighed around 180 pounds. He was wearing a baseball hat.
Employee attackedA employee at a Shop-
per’s Drug Mart in Ma-ple Ridge was assaulted by two thieves on Mon-day during a robbery.
Ridge Meadows RCMP said the men entered the store’s West Gate Cen-tre location at 9:40 p.m and attempted to steal a debit card machine.
An employee caught them in the act and managed to apprehend one of the men.
Insp. Derren Lench said the man’s partner in crime struck the em-ployee and both man-aged to run out of the store.
They were last seen fl eeing south through the parking lot, toward Lougheed Highway.
The suspects are de-scribed as white men who were clean shaven.
The man who assault-ed the employee was 5-8, weighed 140 pounds, was bald and had two tattoos. He was wearing a black, sleeveless T-shirt and dark jeans.
His partner is six feet tall, weighed 185 pounds and also had tattoos. He was wearing a white tank top, dark pants and a black hat.
• Anyone with any in-formation is asked to call RCMP at 604-463-6251. To remain anonymous call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
One arrested in Ridge growop bust
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
A-mazingPaige Sallstrom, 22 months old, pets a goat at the Meadows Maze petting zoo Wednesday afternoon.
Fishery managers have again upped their count of the Fraser River sockeye run, this time to 34 million.
Tuesday’s increase of an estimated four million addi-tional salmon was the third revision of the count in a week by the Pacifi c Salmon Commission.
The stunning run is now three times what had been projected in advance and more than 20 times as many fi sh as returned in the last two catastrophic years,
which sparked a federal in-quiry that soon gets under-way.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Glen Browning, a former commercial fi sher-man.
He was angling for sockeye on the Fraser near Agassiz Monday evening with fi ve other friends.
“We caught 12 fi sh in about two hours,” he said. “You could feel them going by your legs.”
The record return – the largest since 1913 – was up-graded because the number of late-running sockeye des-tined for Shuswap Lake area
of the watershed continues to climb.
Another 12-hour opening for Fraser River gillnetters was announced for Thurs-day.
Fish processors continue to struggle to keep up.
“We’re right at the break-ing point,” said Mike Denike of Sundance Seafood Ltd.
“Everything’s full. All the totes are being used. The ice houses are pumping out the ice as fast as they can. It’s tense.”
One fi sherman he works with caught 5,000 sockeye in a single 24-hour opening, Denike said.
Sockeye run now up to 34 millionb y J e f f N a g e lBlack Press
VICTORIA – A brief-ing document was written for Finance Minister Colin Hansen exactly two months be-fore the 2009 B.C. elec-tion to prepare him for questions on Ontario’s decision to sign on to the harmonized sales tax.
That briefi ng note and other government documents obtained under freedom of infor-mation legislation de-tail what would emerge a few months later as B.C.’s own HST: an exemption for lower priced new homes and low-income earners, and a 12 per cent com-bined sales tax rate that could make it “rev-enue neutral” to the province.
Hansen said in an in-terview Wednesday he doesn’t remember get-ting the briefi ng paper from an assistant dep-uty fi nance minister. Hansen reiterated that the sweetened terms of Ontario’s HST deal only became clear to him in late May, when he read a similar brief-
ing paper on a plane to Ottawa for a fi nance ministers’ conference.
“To be honest, I don’t have any recollection of it,” Hansen said. “I know that it would have come to my desk about March 24. I would have taken a cursory look at it, but in the context of where we were at right then, which was basically the eve of the election, and we were at the end of the leg-
islative session. And quite frankly if it is something we had been contemplating, I would have paid a lot more at-tention to that briefi ng note than I did.”
That briefi ng note, and another prepared for Premier Gordon Campbell in January 2009, warns of the shift in tax burden from businesses to individu-als. B.C. offi cials also cited a report from the
C.D. Howe Institute that says imposing the HST could reduce eco-nomic output and em-ployment for fi ve years or more before showing improvement.
Hansen said that study was based on pre-vious provincial deals for the HST, without the transition funding or the fl exibility to low-er the rate and adjust it after two years.
Minister briefed on HST before election
Tom Fletcher/Black Press
Finance Minister Colin Hansen responds to questions at his legislature offi ce Wednesday.
b y To m F l e t c h e rBlack Press
See HST, p20
HST was not on‘our radar’
NDP leader Carole James said Campbell and Hansen repeatedly told the public the HST was “not on our radar” before the election, but the documents show ongoing interest at the staff level as Ontario moved ahead in early 2009.
“It’s ridiculous, it’s worse than ‘the dog ate my homework’,” James said. “He didn’t read his documents, he wasn’t paying attention to them, he wasn’t thor-ough about looking at the documents on the HST?”
James added that Hansen and Campbell were asked repeatedly in the legislature if there were staff discussions or briefi ng notes on the HST before the election, and they replied that there were none.
Hansen said he and Campbell met with deputy fi nance minister Graham Whitmarsh on May 14, two days after the election, and it was then they were told pro-vincial revenues were down an additional $1.5 billion.
Told to review options for meeting the pre-election budget targets, ministry staff came back with proposed tax hikes, spending cuts and the federal offer to pay $1.6 billion in tran-sition funds for adopt-ing the HST, Hansen said.
HST from p19
There are things that happen in
late August and early September that are as pre-dictable as the sun rising and setting.
While many of them include ‘stuff,’ like new shoes, jeans, tops, paper, binders, pencils and maybe a new cell phone skin, there’s one that’s a little more fl uid – the inevitable
shedding of tears as school begins.For the moment, let me ignore the
fact that the teachers are shedding the biggest tears (tears of joy, I’m sure) and focus on the moms and dads of the world. I’ve been around schools and my wife for a long time, so I’ve learned a little bit about weeping and wailing.
My initiation came on the fi rst morning that our eldest son went to preschool for a half day. I thought my wife would be delighted, especially since she still had two younger siblings perched on her hips.
No such luck.
Goodbyes are always diffi cult
Parenting Graham Hookey
See Hookey, p22
She cried all morning and just about squeezed the innards out of him with a hug when he got out on parole at 11:30.
If that set the stage, you can imagine the waterworks of three little ones going to preschool, then kindergarten, then high school, then university.
I’m surprised she hasn’t de-hydrated completely and blown away with the wind. There can’t be any water left in her.
But wait, after a summer of having all three 20-somethings home between school sessions, the time came for them to depart last week, and sure enough, the fl oodgates opened and there was enough water available to irrigate most of the Sahara, if there was a
way to get it there. Despite several moments this
summer when she commented that she was looking forward to them being gone, the reality of packing them up created a whole new set of clingy emotions.
I could generalize and say that this kind of response is a motherly thing, but I’ve seen enough dads complaining about the dust in the air on the fi rst day of school to know that leaving our children in the care of others is not sim-ple. There is an incredibly strong instinct to hold our children close and protect them, and while it wanes a bit when they begin to perspire at age 12, it’s never too far from the surface.
Goodbyes, even for a few hours of preschool, seem ridiculously
diffi cult.It passes, of course, as parents
learn to trust the teacher and kids return home excited about what they’re doing and anxious to go back the next day.
We accept the new routines as part of the process of growing up and growing separate, something we know is the right thing for our children, even if it seems prema-ture at each stage we experience it.
In our case, I’m pretty sure that we have just spent our last lengthy time together as a family and, perhaps, the next goodbye will be a little drier as a result.
I’m not laying any bets on that, just the same.
I’ve noticed the older I get, the dustier the air is, the more prone I am to eye irritation.
Graham Hookey is an educator and writer ([email protected]).
Our instinct is to hold onHookey from p21
We live in a world where few things
last. The summer didn’t
last. It is Labour Day weekend already. School starts in a few days.
Maybe you are just as frustrated as I am about all the things you buy that just don’t last.
Sometimes we are painfully reminded of our fragile nature and that we shouldn’t take our health for granted.
Nor should we take our relationships for granted. People make vows: “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness, and in health; till death do us part.”
But it doesn’t always work that way.Family and friends in South Africa
reminisce about the World Cup, the excite-ment of the games, and the unexpected, month-long calm in the storm of crime. But the afterglow didn’t last long. Barely two months later, the country is facing strikes of teachers and civil servants, and crime rates are spiking again. One of them puts it this way: “The guests went home and we’ve put the fancy tea cups away.”
Steadfastness has become a strange concept in our time.
There is one thing that does last
Acts of Faith Gerard Booy
See Acts, p38
Imagine a world without onions.
If you’re like me, the first thing that comes to mind are the culinary implications – no fresh-chopped onions to go with the horseradish mustard on the hotdog, no gar-lic Naan to dip in the curry, no French onion soup, no garlic cheese bread, no purple onion in the Greek salad, no chives and sour cream on the baked potato.
Come to think of it, I don’t really want to imagine a world without onions.
That being said, Alliums are so much more than just ingredients for cooking.
In fact, the majority of them are beauti-ful ornamental plants worthy of any garden.
They come in sizes (five to 150 cm tall) to suit any landscape, and the genus offers an impressive colour range that includes blue, hot pink, mauve, yellow, purple and white.
The only problem with Alliums is that you guys can never figure out when to buy them because the ornamentals are rarely offered as started plants.
Instead, most are available as fall bulbs, along with the crocus, daffodils and tulips – but due to their summer bloom-ing season, few of us seem to associate them with the aforementioned spring-flowering bulbs.
So I’m giving you fair warning now. Next June (possibly late May) and July, when you see those beautiful onion-leaved flowers blooming their hearts out, don’t go looking for them at your local garden centre.
Now is the time to seek them out and for the next month and a half, fresh ship-ments of different species and cultivars will be arriving weekly at your local nursery.
So whether you are looking for bulbs that naturalize, cut flowers that last for-ever in the vase, or blooms that mature into perfect spherical seedheads for dry arranging – there’s an Allium out there for you.
To get you started, here’s the who’s who of the Top 10 ornamental onions:
• Allium oreophilum (syn. ostrowski-anum) – early summer blooms of bright rose pink on 5-15cm tall stems. Great for naturalizing. Zone 4.
• Allium christophii (syn. albopilosum) – the 20-cm-wide, pinkish-purple blooms have a metallic sheen and much resemble an exploding fireworks display. The flow-erheads also work well in dried arrange-ments. Zone 5.
• Allium moly – with a common name of Golden Garlic, it’s not surprising that it bears bright yellow blooms on relatively short (15 cm) stems. This species toler-
ates light shade and also naturalizes well. Zone 3.
• Allium ‘Purple Sensation’ – one of the best perennial Alliums with spherical umbels of deep violet averaging eight cm wide. The seedheads persist well into the winter and look great with a frost. Zone 4.
• Allium neapolitanum (syn. cowanii) – pure white umbels set this Allium species apart, but the leaves often wither before flowering. The fresh flowers are great for floral arrangements and it also naturalizes well. Zone 6.
• Allium caeruleum (syn. azureum) – early summer blooms of bright blue spherical umbels are borne on 60-cm-tall stems. The foliage also dies back before flowering. Zone 4.
• Allium giganteum – this is the ‘Big Onion’ with 10-cm-wide, lilac-pink blooms on stems that often reach 1.5 metres tall. Zone 6.
• Allium ‘Globemaster’ – the large, perfectly spherical deep purple flowers usually get 15-20cm wide. It looks best when planted in groups of five or more.
Zone 6.• Allium sphaerocephalon – the Drum-
stick Allium bears reddish-brown Q-Tip shaped blooms in July, on 60-cm-tall stems. This is one of the best species for naturalizing. Zone 4.
• Allium karataviense – broad grayish-green foliage sets off spherical pale pink (almost appearing white) flowers which get about 8 cm wide. Zone 5.
As a general rule, Alliums should be grown in a part to full sun exposure in well-drained soil.
If you are planning to naturalize the bulbs, be sure to add some bone meal to the bottom of the planting hole and always allow the leaves to yellow before removing them.
The only other quirk you need to know about ornamental onions is that some people get skin rashes when they handle the bulbs, so wear gloves when planting, just in case.
Mike Lascelle is a local nursery manager and gardening author
Mike Lascelle photos
(From left) Allium christophii; Allium moly; Allium ‘Globemaster.’
THE NEWS/home&gardening
What would we do without Alliums?
Gardening Mike Lascelle
“The only problem with Alliums is that you guys can never figure out when to buy them because the ornamentals are rarely offered as started plants.”
His love is durable and dependableActs from p23
We struggle to keep our promises. Friend-ships form and wane. Love is conditional, quite often driven by selfish motives. We are consum-ers of food, services, and fuel; in our relation-ships and in our faith, as well.
Is there such a thing as steadfast love?Not if we look at it from our side. But when
you read the Scriptures, you see time and again how God’s people rely on God’s faithfulness.
Hesed (the Hebrew term that we translate steadfast love, unfailing love, or loving kind-ness) is one of the main characteristics of God.
Jeremiah sits among the ruins of Jerusalem, witnessing the destruction of the city. While he remembers the bitter affliction of his people, he also recalls this: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-24).
A servant of the Lord is afflicted by what people say to him. Their words hurt and leave deep wounds on his soul. People are making fun of him. They ridicule his faith, scoff at his devo-tion, and taunt him mercilessly. He prays: “May your steadfast love come to me, your salvation according to your promise” (Psalm 119:41).
Steadfast love describes the nature of God that prompts God to commit himself to his people and to keep his promises. God’s being is essentially self-giving love. It is a compas-sionate love in which God suffers with and for his creatures out of love for them. God’s people experience this is countless acts of mercy, heal-ing, and salvation.
This love has a story, written in the lives of God’s people through the ages. But the main character is Jesus Christ, who pitched his tent among us (John 1:14) and “journeyed into the far country of human brokenness and misery” (Daniel Migliore).
In Christ, God entered into vulnerable interac-tion with the world.
His love is durable and dependable. It is stead-fast. It shapes our lives with truth, mercy, kind-ness, forgiveness, peace, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, joy, and love.
That is why Christians pray and worship. That is why Christians, after all these years, con-tinue to study their Bibles. That is why you find so many of them serving the poor and needy in our community.
Gerard Booy is pastor at Haney Presbyterian Church.
TF: There’s a lot of interest in the full-day kindergarten program starting this year. Is it more popular than you expected?
MM: It’s very popular. We’ve had incred-ibly positive feedback from parents, teach-ers are very excited, principals are excited. I think people are aware that full-day play-based learning can enrich their kids’ experi-ence, for a better start for school, so they’re more likely to graduate from high school and go on to university or college.
TF: Is demand exceeding supply?MM: I’ve heard it’s oversubscribed gener-
ally around the province. We’re offering it to about 21,000 students this year, and next year it will be available for all students. One of the things we have to do is develop some new space, and that will happen over the course of this year.
TF: Is the half-day option for kindergarten still available?
MM: The half-day option is still available this year. Next year the plan is to only offer full-day kindergarten. We have heard from a few parents some uneasiness about that, and even for this year, some parents are wondering if their child’s ready for a full day. So we’ve asked parents to consult with their teacher, and there will be some fl exibility al-lowed.
TF: Is the B.C. Teacher’s Federation still fi l-
ing thousands of grievances about class size and special needs support?
MM: My understanding is that they are. One of the disappointing things about that is that it ties up superintendents and principals in many, many grievances, and of course fi -nancial resources, and I would obviously rather have those principals and superinten-dents working with the teachers to help our education system get better.
TF: Are these grievances forcing change in class size or composition?
MM: Thinking of the arbitration award last year, there was a very small number of classes that were found to be in violation of class size and composition [rules]. In most of the cases it was a technicality ... some-thing like there were two teachers teaching a class, and one wasn’t consulted with and the other one was. Overall, the legislation is being followed.
TF: A pilot program for combining school administrative functions such as payroll, va-cation and substitute teacher scheduling gets underway this year in Kamloops-Thompson, Surrey, Vancouver and North Vancouver. Is that proceeding according to plan?
MM: Yes. There are a lot of things that have to be worked through and that’s why we’re starting with those four districts, but we’re absolutely committed to it where it makes sense. We’re not going to be doing 60 of the same things in different places. We’re going to try to streamline that.
TF: That involves buying new computer systems?
MM: No question. We’re aiming to have a common payroll system, common busi-ness functions. Government did this and it certainly accrued considerable savings. [Payroll] can be anywhere because it gets deposited in people’s bank accounts elec-
tronically.TF: B.C.’s Auditor
General says you should extend this to school district banking and in-vestments, so cash isn’t sitting in bank accounts. Are you following up on that?
MM: Absolutely. In fact just this past July we had already begun to do a ‘just-in-time’ fl ow of funds. Previously money for things like payroll was going earlier than it needed to.
TF: Everyone imagines a future where there’s a teacher on a TV screen and every-one in the province is taking classes, to take an extreme example. Can amalgamation come to the classroom?
MM: In fact it already has. Learning online has expanded, I think it’s about tripled in the last couple of years. We have more than 70,000 students who are taking at least one course online. When you look at the rural and remote areas, I spoke with a teacher in Fort St. John who is involved with this, and
he believes the expansion will be just astro-nomical.
Students are choosing to graduate earlier, or they’re choosing to work full-time while they go to high school. We also have in Oka-nagan-Similkameen, an English literature class where the teacher is in one school and some of the students are in another school about an hour down the road.
TF: Enrolment province-wide is estimated to be down by about 6,000 this year. Is that the expected decline?
MM: Yes. We’ll know the actual number by the end of September, so we’re expect-ing about 544,000 students in classrooms starting next week. And Surrey continues to exceed expectations in terms of growth. It’s astonishing.
TF: Are facilities keeping up with that?MM: We are behind in Surrey. We’re do-
ing better over time. Back in 1998 there were 363 portables in Surrey. We now have pro-jected about 232, so it’s better. We’re build-ing new space for full-day kindergartens. We’re working on that but we have not kept up with growth in Surrey. They’ve got about 9,000 more students today than they did 10 years ago. There’s growth elsewhere, but no-where is it like that.
TF: Has Vancouver sorted out its budget issues?
MM: Vancouver certainly submitted a bal-anced budget. They are embarking on con-sultation with the public about school clo-sures. They’ve got a list of about 12 schools that they say they’re considering closing. I expect there will probably be a small num-ber of schools closed, because they’ve got at least two schools that are 60-70 per cent emp-ty, and it’s very expensive to maintain those schools. Other districts have made very dif-ferent decisions than Vancouver.
Kindergarten expands, enrolment shrinksBlack Press legislative reporter Tom Fletcher sat down with Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid to discuss the beginning of the 2010-11 school year. Following is an edited transcript:
Macdiarmid
“Learning online has expanded, I think it’s about tripled in the last couple of years. We have more than 70,000 students who are taking at least one course online.” Margaret Macdiarmid, education minsiter
Community Calendar
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.
Saturday, Sept. 4• Do you have Maple
Ridge’s Tallest Sunfl ower? Or one with the biggest head? Bring it to the Haney Farmers’ Market at 10:30 a.m. Two categories, two prizes. Children and adult divisions. Garibaldi Art Club has painting demonstrations all morning. Rob Kroeker, Graham and Carly entertain. Memorial Peace Park in downtown Maple Ridge on 224th Street from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. www.haneyfarmersmarket.org
Sunday, Sept. 5
• There is a sunfl ower con-test at the Osprey Village Farmers Market. Do you have the tallest sunfl ower plant in Pitt Meadows, or the one with the biggest head? Children
and adult categories, prizes in each. Judging on the grassy knoll at 1 p.m. Take in a fl oral demonstration by Verde Flower and Plant Design at 1:30 p.m. Osprey Village is at the south end of Bonson Road in Pitt Meadows. www.haneyfarmer-smarket.org
Tuesday, Sept. 7• Join the retired teachers
of School District No. 42 who will be celebrating the fi rst day of school at the Hell With The Bell buff et breakfast at the Maple Ridge Seniors’ Activity Centre, 12150 224th
Street, at 10 a.m. Cost is $10. Newly retired teachers can attend for free. Please RSVP to Don Sears at 604 464-3886 or [email protected].
• Maple Ridge Choral Society begins a new season of song. Registration is 6 to 7 p.m. at Haney Presbyterian Church, 11858 216th Street, Maple Ridge, with a practice to follow from 7 to 9:30 p.m. All voices welcome. Contact Dennis at 604-465-8038 or Jerry at 604-463-0760 for more information.
• The Maple Ridge Skating Club is hosting a par-
ent info night at 7 p.m. at the Golden Ears Winter Club. Come out and meet the coaches, get important club information, and learn about the benefi ts of our new team coaching model. For more info visit www.MapleRidgeSkating.com.
• Garibaldi Art Club has its fi rst meeting of its artist year on at 7 p.m. at the Craft Studio at the ACT. All artists welcome, beginner to professional for a discussion on upcoming workshops and the Members’ Fall Show in November. For more information, visit www.garibaldiartclub.com
The Titans of Samuel Robertson Technical Sec-ondary School hit the field for their inaugural high school football season this year, in what the school hopes will be the first of many for the fledgling pro-gram.
The school will field just one team this season, a ju-nior varsity squad, just as Pitt Meadows secondary did four years ago in their i n a u g u r a l year.
“We were t h i n k i n g about having a football team here when we were still building the school, but there were oth-er priorities, obviously,” said SRT principal Mike Keenan. “It’s pretty amaz-ing to see it finally come together.”
At the helm of the pro-gram team is head coach Tom Levesque, a special education teacher at the school with a long history in football.
Levesque grew up out-side of Boston, and was the captain of his high school football team, before go-ing on to play for the Uni-
versity of Massachusetts Dartmouth Corsairs of the NCAA’s third division, playing fullback and line-backer.
In addition to Levesque, coaches Steve Halfnights and James White are also teachers at the school.
“For us, to make this pro-gram work, we had to have teachers in-
volved,” said Keenan. “Community coaches have a role to play, but there needs to
be school involvement, and teach-
ers have a commit-
ment to the school.”That said,
the program has built a strong connection with the Meadow Ridge Knights community football pro-gram, who play some of their games at the school.
Assistant coach Mark Ogloff comes from the Knights’ organization, and in exchange for using the Knights’ field equipment, the Titans allow them use of their change room and storage facilities.
“From day one we knew this wasn’t going to work without a positive relation-ship with the community football program,” said
Levesque. “We rely heav-ily on the great work they do to prepare these guys.”
Levesque said he tries to schedule practices so they don’t interfere with the Knights’ commitments.
“We want them playing for both,” he said. “But we don’t want to burn them out.”
Keenan said he sees the program expanding to in-clude a senior team in the program’s third year, and hopefully add a Grade 8 team by year five.
He would like to expand the program sooner, but football is an expensive sport.
“A football program is a huge financial commit-
ment,” said Keenan. “It would not be possible with-out the financial support of parents.”
The program costs close
to $20,000 per year to run, all of which comes from parent fundraising, and fees.
“There are no tax dollars going towards the team,” said Keenan.
The Titans will have their work cut out for them in a competitive AA junior var-sity Eastern Conference that features perennial
powerhouses like Mission and Langley, not to men-tion cross-town rivals, the Pitt Meadows Marauders.
“We have a lot of catching up to do,” said Levesque. “We have some kids with
tons of experience and some with none at all, so it’s a matter of getting ev-eryone on the same page and finding out who fits where.”
The priorities for the program this season, says Levesque, are player devel-opment, player retention, and growing the football culture at the school.
“At the end of the year, if we don’t have a great record, but the kids are having fun and come back next season, then that’s a successful season for me,” said Levesque. “We want to be here years from now, so this year is about laying that foundation.”
THE NEWS/sportsSection coordinator:Robert Mangelsdorf 604-467-1122 ext. [email protected]
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Josh Penner tries to get by Conner Henry during a Samuel Robertson Technical Secondary School Titans football practise Tuesday afternoon.
SRT Titans suit up for first seasonCoach Tom Levesque and principal Mike Keenan hope to build football culture at Samuel Robertson
b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter
“We want to be here years from now, so this year is about laying that foundation.” Tom Levesque,SRT Titans head coach
See SRT, p45
The Titans make their home debut Wednesday, Septem-ber 22, at 3 p.m. on the school’s artificial turf field, which has been repainted for Ameri-can football rules.
Members of 2010 ju-nior varsity Titans are Kurt Blaine, Nik Buac, Kyle Cameron,
Matt Chichka, Colton Davies, Chris Draper, Marc Dupperron, Tan-ner Hartley, Noah Hayes, Kyle Heiling, Conner Henry, An-drew Hernandez, Jor-dan Howe, Andy Kim, Brock Lowen, Mitch McDole, Donovan McNee, Cody Moffat, Mike Moore, Robert Munnich, Austin Mur-
ray, Tyrel Ogloff, Josh Penner, Nico Roy, Matt Tremblay, Kyle
Watkins, Brody Watts, Josh Wiggins, and Kylar Wright.
Sports
Takahara scores gold at nationals
Outfi elder Sheridan Takahara of Maple Ridge took home a gold medal for her efforts as part of Team B.C. at the 2010 Bantam Girls’ Canadian Championships in Richmond last weekend.
The team was coached by Greg Bodnarchuk of the Ridge Meadows Minor Baseball As-sociation, who Takahara was instrumental was key to the team’s success.
“She’s quite a player,” he said. “She made a number of great catches in centre fi eld that took away doubles.”
Team B.C. went undefeated at the tournament, posting a perfect 4-0 record in the round robin, followed by a 7-2 win over
Quebec in the semi-fi nal and 5-4 nail-biter over Ontario in the fi nal.
When it mattered most, Taka-hara delivered, said Bodnar-chuk.
She went 3-for-4 at the plate, with three RBIs against Que-bec, contributing a number of clutch catches on defense. In the fi nal against Ontario, she went 2-for-3.
“She was instrumental in those wins,” said Bodnarchuk. “She’s the kind of player that would run through a fence after a ball.”
Team B.C. was up 5-1 going into the fi nal inning against Ontario and looked to have a lock on the championship when the B.C. pitcher threw three straight walks to load the bases with zero outs.
Team B.C. was able to mitigate the damage, however, catching a fl y-out and ground out after having let three runs score. Pitcher Faythe Lou of Surrey retired the fi nal batter to send B.C. home as the champions.
Takahara, like most of the girls at the tournament, plays for a boys’ team, because there is no girls’ baseball league in B.C.
“Most girls play softball at this level,” said Bodnarchuk. “It’s a big difference [for pitchers] having to throw from 60 feet.”
Takahara played for the Ridge Meadows Royals bantam single-A team last season
“These teams are very skilled,” said Bodnarchuk. “They could beat some boys teams their age, that’s for sure.”
b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter
Get your sports results in
SRT Titans home debut Sept. 22SRT from p44
THE NEWS/scoreboard
• The Ridge Meadows Flames junior B hockey club face the Grandview Steelers in their home opener for the PIJHL regular season Friday, Sept. 10 at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
• The Maple Ridge Skating Club is hosting a parent info night Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Golden Ears Winter Club. Come out and meet the coaches, get important club information, and learn about the benefits of our new team coaching model. For more info please visit our website www.mapleridgeskat-ing.com.
• The Pitt Meadows Senior Snooker Club is a
non profit group of seniors ages 55 and up who play daily at the Pitt Meadows Family Recreation Centre. Contact Collin at 604-465-2391.
• Westview Secondary School is holding a dinner for potential sports volunteers at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 15The school is looking for dedicated parents and volunteers to help expand the school’s sports programs this coming school year. No experience necessary. Call 604-465-7468 for more information, or email [email protected].
• Happy Wanderers singles walking group for people aged 45 and up meets every Saturday at 9:15
a.m. at the Pitt Meadows Heritage Hall, Harris Road and Lougheed Highway. Walks take place in various areas on both sides of the Fraser River. For more information call 604-463-8874.
• Golden Ears United Soccer Club women’s teams are now accepting players for the fall season. There is space in Divisions 1, 3, and 4, as well as the 30-plus Division. Division 1 is best suited to former gold and Metro players. Ages 17 and up. Season runs from September to March, with registration underway. For more information please contact Susan Carr at 604-467-8447 or via email at [email protected].
Sports Calendar
Lower Mainland Baseball AssociationFinal standings
Bob Bunnett DivisionTeams GP W L T Pts F AMaple Ridge Js 15 14 1 0 28 103 43Coquitlam Cardinals 14 10 3 1 21 88 47Vancouver Mounties 15 9 6 0 18 113 78Burnaby Yankees 15 8 6 1 17 104 95South Delta Padres 16 8 8 0 16 64 64Richmond Athletics 15 7 8 0 14 109 100New Westminster Red Sox 14 4 10 0 8 44 68Burnaby Brewers 15 3 12 0 6 44 123Tri City Indians 15 1 14 0 2 27 102
Bill Mathers DivisionTeams GP W L T Pts F ADelta Dodgers 14 11 2 1 23 117 40Aldergrove Giants 16 10 5 1 21 99 91Delta Tigers 15 10 5 0 20 87 62Langley Knights 16 10 6 0 20 79 59Langley Expos 14 7 7 0 14 82 68Newton Royals 16 7 8 1 15 100 95Chilliwack Cubs 15 6 8 1 13 90 100Ridge Meadows Twins 15 5 8 2 12 99 95North Delta Fighting Irish 15 1 14 0 2 25 144
Baseball
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Puck rustlin’ Jakob Mainhout (left) and Kenny Conroy go for the puck during the second game of the Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey Association’s atom rep tryouts Sunday at Pitt Meadows Arena.
Flora Aasen Memorial11th Annual Alzheimer’s Pro-am
Aug. 23, 2010Pitt Meadows Golf Club
Pos Name Score 1 Dave Zibrik 65 2 Doug Morgan 66 T3 Bryn Parry 67 T3 Kyle German 67 T5 John Aasen 68 T5 Clark MacPherson 68 T7 Dan Swanson 69 T7 Kendal Yonemoto 69 T9 Dave Bolton 70 T9 Mark Strong 70 T9 Phil Jonas 70 T12 Lance Antanenko 71 T12 Mike Haraguchi 71 T12 John Shin 71 T12 Scott Minni 71 T16 Jay Balloch 72 T16 Fraser Mulholland 72 T16 Greg McClure 72 T16 Roy Abbenbroek 72 T16 Jeff Dagg 72
Golf
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