6 — Friday, January 29, 1999 - North Shore News
north shure news

TTEWPOINT

Land lessoi

EGARDLESS of where you

sit on the issue of North

hore school district manage-

ment, the more extreme twists of

events on the West and North

Vancouver fronts have everything to

do with cheapskate funding from
Victoria.

West Vancouver School District
and North Vancouver School
District rank 54th and 52nd respec-
tively from the top of a funding pile
of 60 British Columbian school dis-
tricts.

That fact inspires both boards to
be creative in their quests to ensure
that North Shore students continue
ic receive the best educations possi-

le.

In West Vancouver, where a busi-

S

partnerships are standard mantra.
International students provide
much-needed sources of income.

Residentially zoned school prop-
erty was another wild card in the
board’s hand to supplement educa-
tion revenues.

The trustees’ fight to defend the
status quo is all but lost with West
Vancouver council poised to adopt a
bylaw this Monday to change the
zoning to public assembly zones.

In North Vancouver, meanwhile,
the sale of school land deemed sur-
plus has saved the school district’s
bacon by wiping out a burdensome
accumulated deficit of $5.5 million.

The spectacle of two school
boards having to contemplate the
sale of valuable land as a means of
maintaining education standards is a

PERFORMANCE
ENHANCERS
FOR ATHLETE?

ness-like philosophy drives the edu-

cational enterprise, private-public sad one.

mathbox

Keep development
out of Telegraph Hill

Dear Editor:
Open letter to West Vancouver council and BC Tel:

Further to former Alderman Don McAlister’s recent
comments to West Vancouver council (BC Te! urged to
donate land to West Van: Jan. 20 News), I wish to encour-
age both council and BC Tel to do all within their powers to
censure protection of Telegraph Hill for the benefit of pre-
sent and future Lower Maintand residents and visitors.

Telegraph Hill, in its current near-pristine state, provides
a sense of “Super Natural B.C.” to those who enter or leave
Horseshoe Bay by ferry. Development of the hill would
degrade the visual impact of this picturesque Lower
Mainland gateway.

In 1992, Telegraph Hill was listed by the Federation of
B.C. Naturalists as one of 143 environmentally important
Lower Mainlaad sites because of its locally rare plants, such
as manzanita. Most of the few “Gulf Island-like” habitats in
the Lower Mainland have been developed, and many plants
in protected sites, like Lighthouse Park, suffer from visitor
over-use,

By working together with other organizations, such as
the Greater Vancouver Regional District and conservation
groups, council and BC Tel can surely devise a win-win strat-
cgy to protect Telegraph Hill for the benefit of all. Future
generations will appreciate their foresight.

Katharine Steig
West Vancouver

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ost Shere Hees. founded in 196% as an
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aye
foe)

Jonathan Bel
Creative Services Manager
905-2131 (127)

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PERFORMANCE
ENHANCERS
FOR 1.0.C. MEMBERS

DiRT

Fraser's ferry plan is good politics

I met my very first, and probably
very snootiest, West Vancouver
snob just weeks after moving to
Vancouver 36 years ago.

What were she and her
somewhat meck husband
snobby about?

“We're B.B.,” she told
ane — a prole living ir a
$50-a-month shared-bath-
room suite in Kit ilane —
icity.

Betore | could be puz-
zled, she decoded the let-
ters: “That's Before
Bridge.” Which meant that
they had resided on these
shores before the Guinness family opened
Lions Gate Bridge in November 1938.

1 didn’t ask if they had arrived by canoe,
barge, or had just been washed up by a
high tide while dipping in Spanish Banks.
Anyway, everything old is new again.

West Vancouver Councillor Russ Fraser

roposes a temporary ferry service — a

ind of Son of ScaBus — from Ambleside
and Dundarave to downtown Vancouver
while Lions Gate Bridge gets a facelift.
Anyone give a toot toot toot for this idea?

Fraser modestly — or perhaps self-pro-

tectively — alleges parentage for this pro-
saf is shared with other council mem-
ers, shaped in a shooting-the-breeze ses-
sion.

The limited service would begin about
two months before the start of the provin-
cial government's $70 million bridge
upgrading, which many North Shoreans
consider too little and probably too fare.

The 60-year-old bridge will remain,
awkwardly, a three-laner with wider lanes.

PETER ‘SPECK
Publisher
985-2131 (101)

Human Resoutces Manages
965-2131 (177)

‘Terry Poters
Photography Manager
995-2131 (165)

Stepbexsoa
Classified Manages
986-6222 (202)

Entire contents © 1997 North Shore Free Press Ltd, All rights reserved.

To say that the renovation will cause
chaos and heartbreak, perhaps hunger riots
and entertainment deprivation, is under-
statement. John Clark of the West
Vancouver Chamber of Cormmerce and

others say the interrup-
tions will savage North
Shore business. The plaa
is that during repairs the
bridge traffic will be halt-
ed § p.m. — 6 a.m.
Sundays to Thursdays,
and 10 p.m. —- 6 a.m.
Fridays and Saturdays.
And there will be four
total weekend closures.
So Russ Fraser is blue-sky-
ing the idea of a morning
and evening, user-pay ferry service between
downtown and West Van. Like, let’s run it
up the mast and sce who salutes. Weil, this
litle mind is boggled. The logical ferry
points would be the Dundarave and
Ambleside piers, right?

And think how happy nearby residents,
restaurants, beachgoers etc. would be with
rush-hour incursions into already quite
congested arcas, largely by the 4X4 set
picking up and decanting their spouses.
Bur — no fear. How do you rate the
chances of the infrastructure mecting staa-
dards — for only a. temporary service?

Or thar the political, neighborhood,
bureaucratic, safety, trade union ete. etc.
approvals could be tweaked together before
the bridge renovations — not yet sched-
uled — begin?

My prediction is chat the bridge work
would be finished ycars before the paper
work. Fraser also offers the excellent and
more realistic suggestions of stepped-up
ScaBus service and Blue Bus service to

Lions Gate Hospital during the work (see
next item).

Mission impossible? Fraser, once a
Social Credit attorney-general, wickedly
says: “Glen (Premier Clark) has his toy
speedboats and Joy (Finance Minister
MacPhail) has got a train set'and Dan
(Deputy Premier Miiler) has his antique
pulp mill and Liz (former finance minister
Elizabeth Cull) had a pretend balanced
budget ... that’s why we can’t afford to
have a decent bridge.”

Anyway, the suggestion makes a good
story. And good politics — especially if, like
Russ Fraser, you’re rumored to have an eye
on the mayor's office.

00g

If, as Wally Fawkes, chairman of the bus
unions’ joint council, claimed in a letter to
the News editor that the mad lack of West
Van Blue Bus service to the SeaBus and
Lions Gate Hospital has “absolutely noth-
ing to do with the unions involved,” what
are we waiting for?

Fawkes has put it on the record that the
separate North Shore bus unions would be
“pleased” to discuss an integrated service
with the new Greater Vancouver Transit
Authoriz,, which starts April 1. The GVTA
should make that top priority.

Provided, of course, that the highlv
praised and even inved Blue Bus system
wouldn’t be a bargaining chip. Right, Mr.
Fawkes?

aaa

And regarding my suspicion that nefari-
ous pressures were put on lowest-priced ©
Vaughan-Jones gin, Leslie Myers, commu-
nications manager for B.C.’s Liquor
Distribution Branch, politely writes to say
that British supplier Bass Exports has sim-
ply discontinued this product.

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