MILA, islanders fuming over plan for eight-week upgrade Katharine Hamer News Reporter BOWEN Islanders are getting hot under the collar at the prospect of eight weeks of dock closures at Snug Cove. The first they heard of BC Ferries plans to revamp the wingwalls of the ferry dock was ata ferry task force meeting on the island ove weeks ago. It’s.a move West Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA Ted Nebheling says has been made on “an arbitrary basis. It’s totally unac- ceptable. BC Ferries think that because they’re a Crown Corporation, they're net bound by what towns or municipali- ties. think. How are the school kids going to get to the mainland? How are they going to get supplies?” “Tt comes as a shock that they would suggest this community can function for eight weeks without a dock or with a modified o1 make-do dock,” Richard Goth of Ferry CURE (Coalition of Users for Re-establishing Equity) said Thursday. “[’ve lived on this island for 21 anda half years. Fifteen years ago they did a grati ioom Deana Lancaster News Reporter deana@usnews.com complete rebuild of the whele deck, and there was only a 10-day closure. Ten days is not so bad, we can camp out for awhile --- it’s nor such a ridiculous thing (as the cight weeks proposed ).~ Goth thinks that BC Ferries has an ulterior motive in its revamp -— to pre pare the dock for the larger Skeena Queen terry, a boat he says is “shaking itself apart. It’s got cracking hulls and the engine is falling into the sea.” But Deborah Dykes, BC Ferries” communications co-ordinator, said the corporation bas no plans to replace the Queen of Capiiana, which currently ser- vices Bowen, “There's no conspiracy theory,” she said. “Those wingwalls are 35 vears old. They're in poor condition and they need to be replaced.” Said Dykes, “We've working with the Bowen Island ferry cask farce to come up wich alternaté.es. We're not going ta Jeave them high and dry for cight weeks.” One of those alternatives may be a temporary floating dock, which, accord- ing to Rickard Goth, would be a disaster tor islanders. “fe would mean a smaller ferry,” he land’s war iude to * CANADIANS will receive a special message when , spring arrives in West ‘Vancouver next year. --The municipality was cne of 120 across the country to be chosen as a recipient for the Thankyou Canada program origi- nazing in The Netherlands. At the end of October, 1,000 “Hoilandia” tulip bulbs, whichiare dark red, and 1,000 “Tres Chic” wilip bulbs, which ‘are ivory white with green veins — arrived in West Vancouver - by. mail) They came as a gift from the town of Diemer, in Holland. -Inda letter that arrived in September advising the municipal- ’ ity of the gift, the Thankyou Canada committee said, “The res- idenis of this town wish to express their gratitude to the veter- ans, the people of your town and indeed to Canada — for tak- ing: part in the liberation of Holland in 1945, together with . troops from U.S.A., Great Britain and Poland.” '. “Ee.was really an honour for us to be chosen out of all the towns across Canada,” said Bill Reid, manager of West “Vancouver Parks, He said he didn’t know what criteria the Thankyou Canada . committee was looking for in choosing Canadian recipients. . =2On. Tuesday, the mayor and councillors, parks department “staf¥, West. Vancouver school children and several’ veterans -< planted the bulbs at Cenotaph Memorial Park. “The children were from Westcot elementary school, winner of the municipality’s Schools in Bloom Contest which took place earlicr this year. “One of the vetcrans who came out served in Holland. And a,woman whose husband was killed there during the war came _ to plant some of the bulbs,” said Reid. -He said they mixed the colours and packed them into the flower beds: “They're in there bulb to bulb. We expect them to bloom in April. Ic should be quite spectacular.” Contributing Writer gro said. “All heavy trattic would be banned, and they might only be able to carry 30 cars ata time.” The Queen of Capilano has a capacity of around 90 vehisles. ‘the downsizing of the ferry service for an cight-week period would have a severe impact on the Bowen Island con- struction industry, said Goth, as well as the pharmacists, grocers, and other busi- nesses who have “a hard enough tine storing Iwo weeks? worth of product ~- what are they going to do for eight weeks?” Geth runs a small trucking firm, and uses both a one-ton truck and a five-ton truck. He said a BC Ferries representative told him to “do more with the smaller van” “Yeah, right,” he snorted, “Pm going to take business advice from a BC Ferries bureaucrat. Let's close the Sea to Sky highway for cight weeks and see what people say.” “Pm getting a little bit dred of spending time on the docks protesting with the people of Bowen,” Nebbeling said, “TE think there’s going to be anoth- er war.” NEWS ohoto Mike Wakslield MURKY waters: the PacifiCat Discovery sets sail on its first voyage. It was out of service three days later. NEWS photo hitke Wakaflest WESTCOT elementary student Lisanns Voiken and World War (I vet Harold Jenvik helped plant 2,000 tulips given to West Van by a town in Holland. - nore since 1982, with 34.9%. ‘Thar translates to 16,097 votes, Out of .\ possible 46,142. MAYBE it was the full moon, or the unseasonably warm weather, or the two moaths of begging and pleading by elec- tion candidates and newspaper editors. “.’ Or just maybe, people are taking more ofa stake in ‘their communities. Whatever the reason, voters turned up in uncharacteristically high numbers in all three North Shore municipalities to cast their bal- lots in the civic election on Saturday. In North Vancouver City, where voting percent- ages can sometimes be counted on ovo hands, oe ion 1999 25.9% of eligible voters turned out. That’s more than any clection in the past 25 years, and consider- ably better chan the 18% who showed up to vote in 1996. ; Of a possible 23,193 registered voters in the city, 6,029 heard about the election and turned up at the ballot box. North Vancouver district saw the best turnout West Vancouver, which has an active but volatile electorate, boasted a 43.4% voter turnout for tie school board election and 41.1% turnout for mayor and council. ; The difference was accounted for by Lions Bay and Bowen Island voters, who cast ballots for school board but vored in their own civic elections. Of 26,605 cligible voters, 13,018 exercised their tight. In the past 25 years, West Vancouver has zvecorded turnouts as high as 50.4% (1990) and as low as 19:5% (1983). This year’s turnout, however, also impraves over 1996 — that year 33.9% of cligi- _ ble voters did their job. PacifiCat null worn From page t Band, repairs to the coating of the inter ducts (the stainless steel lining of the water jet propulsion system). The work is mostly under warranty, Dykes said. The hull itself has been “wuarantced for the quality of workma- ship” by shipbuilders. No figure was available for the cost of overhauling it. She said that BC Ferries was not concerned chat_a boat in’ servive for ony tour month: needed such exten- sive repats. “Actually, it's been ins the water since last November,” Dykes pointed out. “We were doing sea trials and crew training.” She could nor remember whether there had been any problems on a sim- ilar seale following the launch of vessels in BC Ferries’ conventional fleet because, “it was so long age.” The News has learned that the cor- rosion on the Explerer’s hull is so bad, particularly around the rear shalt of the ferry, that the aluminum exterior has rubbed off when brushed by divers assessing the extent of the problem. The vessel's hull appears to have been shedding 2 mim in thickne:s per month, -.. and may have lost ap to halt of its den- sity since first entering the water last... fall. The width of the hull ranges from. 10 min at midsection to 20 mm fore and aft of the vessel. There is 2 passibil: ° ity that dry dock workers may have to -./ cut and replace an entire section of the hull. Unlike its sister ships, the Explorer. was not fitted with the impressed cur-: rent anti-corrosion system when it was built. As a result, the steel housing of: the water jets has reacted with the beat’s aluminum hull, causing the cor- rosion, . Meanwhile, the second fast ferry, the PacifiCat Discovery, was removed from service Wednesday after a crack’ appeared in the casing of an engine tur-" bocharger. It had been in regular ser-. vice for just three days. Some sailings on. Wednesday were cancelled as a result, leaving passengers strandéd at Horseshoe Bay for several hours.” ; West .Vancouver-Garibaldi MLA Ted Nebbeling said precise information ~ about fast terry problems was difficult to obrain because BC Ferries was no longer logging fast ferry failures on 4 daily basis for ternal use. The Discovery is expected to be out of action for ovo days. Both it and the Explorer — duc to return to service Dec. 20 — will be replaced by conven-. i | tional vessels on the Horseshoe Bay- ° Departure Bay run, Dykes said. nS