THE NORTH Vancouver RCMP may create a bicycle police patrol squad as one way of becoming more visible on local streets. Store-front policing offices are also being considered for North Vancouver. Both ideas are contained in a report called The Need for Store Front Policing In North Van- couver. It was prepared for the North Vancouver Joint Police Li- aison Committee by consultant Simon Trevelyan and has been submitted to North Vancouver District and City councils. North Vancouver RCMP Insp. Peter Wlodarczak supports the establishment of a police bike patrol unit in North Vancouver. “Pm certainly a proponent of bicycle patrols. The bike patrols in other detachments and in the United States have been received well. It improves the visibility of our officers and allows them to go where vehicles cannot,’’ said Wlodarczak. By Surj Rattan News Reporter He added that police bike patrols were formed several years ago by the Seattle police. “It is something that we are seriously considering.’” He also said he favors the idea of setting up store-front policing offices in North Vancouver. But he added that funding could be a probiem. “We favor store-front policing from a community policing point of view. But ... it’s not cheap,” said Wlodarczak. Trevelyan’s report suggested there should be a store-front police office in the Lower Lons- dale area and one in the Lynn Valley area. Each office would be run by one RCMP member and would re- ly heavily on the services of vol- Hydro tree-topping policy rejected as acceptable practice NV District to have more say in assessing potential tree hazards TREES NEAR power lines are often accidents waiting to happen, but when the power goes out in the mid- die of the neighborhood Grey Cup party do you: a) Blame BC Hydro?; b) Blame Murray Pezim?; c) Steal the chip dip and blame the dog (or Murray - Pezim)? .. By Martin Millerchip Contributing Writer BC Hydro fears that many North Shore residents would choose ‘‘a’? despite the Lions’ woefully inept season. But a BC Hydro vegetation management program, in place since 1990, has in turn come under criticism. Locals report see- ing apparently healthy trees being felled or are being warned of “hazard trees’’ on their own property. North Vancouver District Council has been meeting with Hydro representatives in an at- tempt to record council's desire to maintain the forested nature of the district. And despite sharpiy divergent initial positions, district en- vironmental protection officer Mel Kotyk says that ‘tat this early stage, it appears that a new level of cooperation is developing.”’ Kotyk reports that a meeting between the district forestry technologist and Hydro staff resulted in a commitment to avoid tree-topping as an acceptable practice. BC Hydro also agreed to work more ciosely with the forest- ry technologist when assessing potentially hazardous trees on both private and district lands. A further meeting between NORTH VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL Kotyk and the district and Hydro’s communications officers addressed several areas of con- cern: a standard letrer from Hydro to a@ resident who has opted not to allow Hydro to remove a trec from private land will be re-ex- amined for any ‘‘threatening tone in the wording;”’ jit was suggested that Hydro allow residents more than one week between any request for tree removal and the actual work in order to allow time for reconsid- eration; ® it was requested that acceptable service targets for the North Shore be determined. Maintaining ser- vice in North Vancouver may be more difficult than in Richmond given the relative steep terrain and forested character of the district and that 100% service 100% of the time is unrealistic; © notification of pruning activity should precede the work and allow time for BC Hydro and the district to receive comments; © BC Hydro will examine the fea- sibility of having a district staff person present when contacting residents and the feasibility of maintaining a photographic log of all trees deemed to require signifi- cant pruning or removal. The photographic log of ‘‘be- fore and after’? pictures was sug- gested by Coun. Paul Turner who suggested that in the event of dispute a pile of logs offers no ev- idence as to the ‘thazard’’ of a tree, Council’s Operational Services Standing Committee will review the situation in six months to en- sure that district goals and objec- tives are being met. unteers. Trevelyan suggested the capital cost of an office would be be- tween $15,000 and $30,000. The operating costs would be about $30,600, not including the salary of a police constable. He added that the salaries should be covered by North Van- couver District and City through an increase to the local RCMP detachment budget. Trevelyan said the operating costs should be paid by the B.C. attorney general’s office. North Vancouver City Coun. Stella Jo Dean, chairman of the Joint Police Liaison Committee, said both district and city councils have been asked to ask the pro- vincial government that $30,000 in seed money be made available under the province’s law-and- order initiative program. Unused money from the pro- gram could help pay for a police bike patrol squad in North Van- couver. “The operational costs (of Friday, Nov. 13, 1992 - North Shore News - 3 Report favors higher RCMP visibility Bike squads, store-front offices suggested in Lower Lonsdale, Lynn Valley areas store-front policing offices) would be quite high, about $125,000. We have $9,000 left over from our law-and-order initiative program and we would like to see if that can be used for a bike patrol pro- gram,”’ said Dean. But she also admitted the cost of setting up a police bike patrol unit would exceed $9,000. She added that opening store- front policing offices in North Vancouver would be one way to cut down on crime, especially in the Lower Lonsdale area. “It wou.d be good visibility for the police because there is a prob- lem in Lower Lonsdale. I don’t think there would be a problem in getting volunteers.”’ Dean also said she favors the creation of a police bike patrol unit. “‘They can get into places where cars can’t go. “We're very excited about it. Every little bit helps,’’ said Dean. In his report, Trevelyan notes that the North Vancouver RCMP the 132 currently serves city with detachment district and members. In the city, there is a police of- ficer to resident ratio of 1 to 600, In the disirict the ratio is { to 1,000. Wrote Trevelyan: ‘‘Police visibility tends to be much greater in the City of North Vancouver, the compact urban core of North Vancouver. Visibility is more of a problem in the extensive suburban and forested areas of the district.’’ He added that according to the police officers he interviewed, the most challenging areas to police are the Lower Lonsdale and Lynn Valley areas. It was felt that Lower Lonsdale has the highest rate of criminal code infractions, while Lynn Valiey has a greater problem with “low level” crime such as van- dalism, thefts, noise complaints and disturbances. Much of this category of crime was attributed to youth, NEWS photo Paul McGrath VETERANS OF wars fought met at Victoria Park in North Vancouver on Wednesday to semember friends and comrades killed in battle. Hurricane devastation ‘dramatic, says relief worker on returning from Kauai A MEMBER of the North and West Vancouver Emergency Program (NWVEP), who travelled to assist Americens left homeless in the wake of Hurricane Iniki in September, said devastation caused by the storm in Hawaii could take years to repair. Laurie Bean, NWVEP assistant coordinator, arrived in Kauai Sept. 27. She joined a group of Cana- dian Red Cross volunteers and workers for a three-week stint to support American Red Cross relief efforts. Bean worked in “‘R and R”’ at a Red Cross service centre. ‘It wasn’t rest and relaxation,’’? Bean said. ‘‘In each service centre, there’s a lot of paperwork (re- cords and report) associated with the work the Red Cross does. They like to keep very good statistics of what they do,’’ she added. As of Oct. 2, the American Red Cross, which is one of a number of relief agencies in Hawaii to aid the hurricane victims, had sheltered 16,990 people and served By Michael Becker News Reporter meals to more than 200,000. Approximately 8,000 assistance cases were opened through Amer- ican Red Cross centres by the time the Canadians left the island on Oct. 11. Unofficially, the Red Cross could be assisting the people of Kauai for some time to come. Said Bean, ‘‘] spoke to a Red Cross worker from California and she told me that they had actually just finished with the Red Cross effort there (following the 1989 earthquake).”’ Bean believes the need for hous- ing will continue to be a pressing issue in the immediate future. “There is no housing and there are a lot of people without places to live in and yet there is no alternate accommodation for them. I think over the next six months that would be quite a problem. A lot of people are just living in tents on their proper- ties,’’ she said. Some people are on a six- month waiting list for repair work on their houses. The storm flattened homes, destroyed the island’s power supp- ly network, damaged sugar cane fields and macadamia nut groves. Said Bean, ‘‘It was quite dramatic. 1 don’t know if I had any expectations, but it was quite disconcerting to see houses com- pletely gone with just the founda- tions left. Every telephone pole and every power pole is seriously damaged or completely gone. There were still spots in the road where you were driving over the wires.””