ss jee . NEWS photo Neil Lu SANFORD WILSON shows off his entry in Dunn's Tailors’ ‘Ugly Tie'’ contest. The Park Royal South store is holding the event on Sunday at 2 p.m. Wiison bought the tie at the original Dunn's in Vancouver many years ago. The winner of the Father's Day contest will get a $1,000 shopping spree in the store. Friday, June 19, 1992 ~ North Shore News - 3 Outdoor watering ban looms as dry weather continues GVRD cuts water use by 10% WITH LESS than two weeks before the Lower Mainland’s two hottest months, the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s (GVRD) water committee decided Thursday that a total outdoor watering ban was not necessary at this time. But if weather conditions don't change, the GVRD- member municipalities will consider impos- ing a watering ban at the July 3 GVRD board meeting. At. Thurday'’s meeting, the walter committee approved a 10% cut in water use by each of its 18 member municipalities, targeting the elimination of street and watermain flushing and other non-essential water use. In addition, the GVRD is stepp- ing up its media campaign to urge residents to conserve water. Outdoor watering is by far the biggest and most wasteful water use, and the GVRD is urging resi- dents to sprinkle gardens by hand to conserve water. The two most recent Lower Mainland droughts occurred in 1990 and 1987. Before that the Lower Mainland experienced the same conditions in the 1940s and before. During the water committee meeting, current conditions were compared with the 1987 drought. The current water Jevcls and con- ditions are worse than they. were in 1987, “Holy cow, what are we going io do now?’ said North Van- couver District Mayor Murray Dykeman after looking at the fig- ures during the water committee meeting. Capilano Lake reservoir is down 10 feet and Seymour Lake reser- voir is down six feet at a time when both facilities are normally full and spilling excess water, The two reservoirs provide 80% of the Lower Mainland's water. Water is being diverted from the Coquitlam Lake reservoir, but Coquidam Lake’s primary func- tion is to generate hydroelectric energy. The current GVRD system is not set up to allow significant amounts of filtered water to be By Anna Marie D’Angelo and Cheryl Ziola diverted from Coquitlam Lake west to the Capilano and Seymour systems. GVRD water officials estimate that at least five to six days of heavy rain are needed to fill the North Shore reservoirs. The GVRD does not have the power to impose a total outdoor watering ban on its member municipalities, but it has been try- ing for the past two years to con- vince the provincial government to amend water act regulations to give the GVRD that power. Coinciding with widespread concerns about low local water levels is an American Water Works Association conference this weekend in Vancouver. GVRD_ watershed consultant and West Vancouver resident Kim Stephens will be a co-presenter at the conference of a paper on the need for local drought manage- ment strategies for the 1990s. Stephens will discuss the Lower Mainiand’s drought history, and GVRD water planning and opera- tions administrator Tom Heath will discuss the GVRD’s Water Shortage Response Pian. The response plan was set up last year and involves three stages that include voluntary conserva- tion, sprinkling restrictions and an outdoor water-use ban. Stephens’ paper states that the first (wo stages will forewarn the public to the possibility of a com- plete outdoor watering ban. Stephens noted that the Lower Mainiand has experienced drought conditions in three of the past five years. “What the 1987 drought really demonstrated is that we have four months’ (water) storage in the lakes," said Stephens. Edgemont villagers fighting for traffic control Residents debate results of neighborhood program to improve traffic patterns EDGEMONT VILLAGE residents packed the North Van- couver District Council gallery on Monday night to hear the results of a nine-month experiment in traffic planning that one counci] member described as ‘‘reclaiming the livability of the neighborhood.”’ Residents of Cclwood Drive, Fairmont Road, Thorncliffe Drive and Glenview Crescent par- ticipated in the district’s first Neighborhood Traffic Control Program (NTCP) last year after complaining to district staff about traffic volume and speed on their streets created by drivers avoiding the busy intersection of Queens Road and Edgemont Boulevard. NTCPs are a recent develop- ment in urban planning in several North American cities and gener- ally involve the active participa- tion of neighborhood residents in determining optimum local traffic patterns. District engineering staff sup- port pro-active traffic control for a neighborhood rather than reac- ting to complaints one street at a time and perhaps only moving a By Martin Milierchip Contributing Writer problem one block away. After meeting with the residents last September, district staff stud- ied vehicle volumes and speeds over a three-month period to determine the extent of the prob- lem. Public meetings were also heid in January and in April of this year before potential traffic con- trol options were sent to all resi- dents for their input. The results of the survey were summarized for council's standing committee of operational services last week with staff recommending that: @ a speed hump be installed be- tween 3181 and 3189 Colwood; @ a speed hump be installed on NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL Fairmont: adjacent to Fairmont Park; @ a traffic island be installed at the intersection of Forest Hills and Glenview; @ the NTCP area participate in a Neighborhood Speed Watch Pro- gram and a neighborhood educa- tional campaign. The speed watch program would involve displaying the speed of approaching vehicles on a large electronic message board mounted in the rear window of a parked van. The speeds would be recorded, and, if required, the RCMP will provide enforcement. The pro- gram has been successfully used in Bellevue, Washington and Surrey, B.C. The speed humps differ from the bumps typically found in mall parking lots in that they are much longer: at least 12 feet long as opposed to one or two feet in length for regular speed bumps. Vehicles can drive over speed humps at the posted limit but ex- perience discomfort at higher speeds, Staff did not recommend any traffic restrictions on Thorncliffe, pointing out that most residents surveyed had opted to maintain the existing traffic control measures. But David Rippon of 2845 Colwood Dr. and Karen Hopkin- son of 2801 Woodbine Dr. ap- peared before the standing com- mittee last week to plead for some method of slowing or restricting traffic on Thorncliffe. Rippon told the committee that there were well over 40 children living in the area and chidren’s safety should be considered a pri- ority. Hopkinson agreed, noting that in the absence of sidewalks, children must walk on the street. She suggested that many of the people opposed to change were older residents who no longer had any children. Their presentations convinced the committee to add the recom- mendation that ‘‘a choker be in- stalled as a traffic control measure at Edgemont Boulevard and Thorncliffe for a six-month trial period.’”’ A choker would permit only a right-hand turn from Thorncliffe onto Edgemont. Similar controls are used throughout Vancouver's West End. But on Monday night a large contingent of neighbors came to support a delegation appearance by Corrie Kost of 2851 Colwood. Kost strongly opposed the con- cept of a choker and produced over 50 signatures of focal resi- dents in support of his position. “The large majority of local residents feel that the proposed action will make things worse,’’ said Kost to applause. Council then amended the committee recommendations by deleting the choker proposal, al- though Ald. Joan Gadsby suc- cessfully argued for a staff report on the implications of council’s actions.