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MIDLAND WALWYN

 Off-load
delayed

WV finance director
spots a shel! game

By lan Noble

News Reporter

THE provincial govern-
ment’s announcement that it
won’t make municipalities
pay for arterial roads is a
shell game, said a West
Vancouver administrator.

On Wednesday, the cash-strapped
province said it had deferred a Nov, 26 deci-
sion to off-load the cot of arterial roads to

Finance director George Horwood said
the government’s deferral means the
municipality won’t have to pay an estimat-
ed $400,000 a year for maintenance of win-
try Cypress Bow! Road.

But Horwood said the bad news was
buried. He points to the bottom of the lat-
est government press release on the issuc.

The bottom paragraph states that since
the province will continue to fund the arte-
rial highways, a new equalization grant will
be reduced. For West Vancouver, the grant
is $69,000.

Effectively, the government has said
municipalities don't have to pay for the
roads, but the government will increase the
amount taken away in grants by the same
amount it would have saved by off-loading.

“In chose innocuous litte words that are
buried at the bottom of a page, in effect
there is no cost to the province and no ben-
fit to the municipalities,” he said.

North Vancouver District had estimated
it would have to pay $152,000 to maintain
Mouni Seymour Parkway. It won't have to
fork over that cash, but it will be docked
$57,000 of its grant.

Front to back

KAREN Love, director of Presentation House Galtery, fronts a painted background the issue ended up in court.
included in Spectacular Vernacular, a show of studio portraiture running to Feb. 16. The club won the court case,

WEATHER

Monday: Snow or rain

Members
buy wack
their club

By fan Nabi

News Reporter

AFTER rivers of red ink,
lawsuits and struggle, the
menibers of the North
Shore Winter Club own
their club again.

Members decorated the club Friday
afternoon and celebrated the $3.7- million
purchase that night.

Said club president Al Brown: “The
past legal matters were very distracting so
it is a huge step forward to have the issue
settled.”

The purchase comes more than a year
after club executives announced that then-
owners Markseasch Properties and
Cooperators General Insurance had
agreed to a deal to return the club’s facil-
ines and land back to the members.

The purchase wasn't painless for mem-
bers. Family members had to cough up a
total of $3,150 toward the buy-back.
Seniors and singles members paid less. Of
the club’s then 900 memberships, 200
membership holders decided not to pay
and left the club.

The purchase ends a decade-long peri-
od when club members lost control of
their faciliry.

In 1986, the North Shore Credit
Union took over the club, which was then
$3 million in debt due to rising interest
rates and falling membership.

In 1988, the club was sold to
Cooperators Development Corp.

After a controversial rezoning process,
developers built an 18-storey condo com-
plex on what had been club land.

Club members were supposed to get

NEWS photo Terry Peters new facilities under the development deal

and a new lease signed in 1990.
Club members said the landlords did
not make the required improvements and

Chronic care bed squeeze

are taking these patients that have been spread throughout and

By Anna Marie D'Angelo H
——oeewee LGH to designate acute care putting them together on one ward,” said Best.
Acute care hospital beds are used for sick and injured people

News Reporter
beds for long-term care needs who after medical treatment return to their homes. They include

ital i i es-
LIONS Gate Hospital 1s plann ng to d patients who have had heart attacks, broken bones or surgical

ignate part of an acute care hospital ward will net lose any acute care beds with the move. She said the — operations.

for patients, mainly seniors, who ward will remain a medical ward, but its focus will be on gener- xtended care beds are for people, mainly seniors, whe can-
al medicine and long: term care pati not live on their own, are usually in wheelchairs and require help

> : : , cys .
shouldn t be in hospital and are waiting to Up to 26 acute care beds on the Four West area of the hos: from nursing staff daily.
go into long-term carc facilities. pital will be available for these patients in April

Burt Lions Gate Hospital CEO Lynette Best said the hospiral “They are not sick. They are just sort of waiting here ... We See Nurse page 3

ent ee AA Tot ; ‘ i, oa 2H

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