| ft ‘ ee eee en rr Ret wet tee et Business ......... Classifieds Ads......55 Entertainment....... 49 Lifestyles.......... Wailbox .......... Weather: Wednesday, cloudy with suany periods. Highs, -3°. Thursday, mostly cloudy, Ore. difestyles: 45 Hew school hefps faurdicapped lead a fuller life. What's Going On.....53 EPEE REAR sees RRL peer Fe TER OES es om ARSON CHARGES eets court date ‘FD FLANKED by two lawyers, CKNW Sports Director Al “Big Ai’ Davidson appeared in North Vancouver pro- vincial court Monday on the opening day of a preliminary inquiry in- to arson charges against him. Davidson elected at the inquiry to be tried by a judge without jury on three ar- son-releated charges inthe event provincial court Judge J.B. Paradis deems a trial to be necessary following evidence given at the prelim- inary inquiry. A court. ban has been placed on the publication of any evidence given at the in- quiry. ' The 59-year-old Davidson, in his 27th year with CKNW, faces the charges in connec- tion with a March 21 inci- dent in which three power boats were damaged ‘by fire at North Vancouver’s Mos- quito Creek Marina at ap- proximately 3 p.m. Two 37- foot boats, the Sea Watch and the Top Dog 1, were ex- tensively damaged in the fire while a third boat, the Sea Esta, suffered minor dam- age. : The Sea Watch and the Top Dog I, both owned by Davidson and used in his charter boat business, had been placed under arrest be- fore the fire by an order fil- ed in the Federal Court of Canada March 12. The federal order, filed for Calgary businessman William Andrew Linzmayer by Vancouver lawyer Doug Schmidt, charged that Davidson’s agreement to transfer. one half of the boats’ ownership to Linz- mayer in return for $150,000 had been neglected. Lawyers for Davidson had attempted to have the date of his trial heard-in July when they discovered that Crown prosecutor Kerr Clark planned to call ap- proximately 25 witnesses in the Crown’s case. Davidson faces one count of wilfully setting fire to the Sea Watch, one count of wilfully setting a fire likely to cause other vessels to catch fire, and one count of wilful damage. The inquiry is expected to take approximately one week to complete. NEWS photo Terry Paters SANDWICHED between lawyers Bill Berardino (close feft) and Murray Teviin (right), sportscaster Al Davidson makes his way into North Vancouver provincial court Monday sur- rounded by members of various media. Davidson was appearing for tne opening day of a preliminary inquiry stemming from a fire earlier this year. Three boats, including two owned by Davidson, were damaged by the fire at North Vancouver’s Mosquito Creek Marina. Taxpayer smoulders over council’s actions COLIN BRADBURY is astonished at West Van- couver Council’s lack of sympathy regarding his request to refund his 1985 property taxes. Bradbury's home. which burnt down just before it was completed Oct. 26, 1984, was assessed for 1985 taxes before Sept. 31, 1984, But Bradbury said it is only fair that the $449.38 that he paid in taxes be refunded. But West ' Vancouver council members disagreed, saying the building existed at the time of assessment, and rules must be followed. Bradbury went through numerous provincial gov- ernment departments to readjust his claim and West Vancouver council was his last resort. Bradbury- said one pro- blem that he encountered, which was published in Sun- day’s North Shore News, was that West Vancouver Fire Department had no re- cord of the fire in its files, which he said complicated his refunding process. But Chief Colin Evans of the West Van fire depart- ment refuted Bradbury’s comment. “The statement (in the Nov. 24 article) that because of a bureaucratic bungle the fire department had no re- cord of the fire is incorrect,” Evans said Monday. ‘*The case was investigated im- mediately and because the fire was so large, we even have it recorded on video tape. “Both the fire department and the Fire Commission in- vestigated the fire at the same time,"’ he said. At Monday’s council meeting, Bradbury stated that his case was similar to the Lions Bay disaster in 1983 when a number of homes were destroyed by heavy rains and landslides, and taxes were written-off for that year. At the time, Lions Bay Council approved the write-off by resolution and requested the Ministry of Municipal Affairs in Vic- toria write-off the municipal taxes. According to George Horwood, director of fi- nance for the West Van municipality, ‘this write-off was granted by the ministry in Victoria and my understanding from the Municipal Affairs staff is it See Burned Page 12 3 - Wednesday, November 27, 1985 - North Shore News NV City blacked out APPROXIMATELY 1,000 North Vancouver residents were treated to unexpected candlelight dinners Sunday night as the result of a three-hour power outage. The lights went out. in an area bounded by the Capilano River and Princess Avenue north of Marine Drive at approx- imately 5:40 p.m. Power was restored three hours later. Cause of the outage, according to B.C. Hydro spokesman Ron Monk, was ‘‘a technical malfunction in the Capilano sub-station.”” dies in house fire ONE MAN is dead after” fire engulfed a residence on Kings Road Monday. Richard James Bready, 30, was pronounced dead on arrival at Lions Gate Hospital after being removed from the burn- ing house by North Van- couver’ District firefighters. Bready was in the basement suite of the house at 122 West Kings Party Reed when the fire out. The occupants of the main floor of the house, aman, woman and baby girl, escaped the fire unharmed. Cause of the fire, which occurred just after 10 p.m. Sunday, is unknown and fire of- ficials continue to in- vestigate. Fire officials say they basement suite was ex- tensively damaged. hosts fined $75 RICHARD JOHN Davies was slapped with a $75 fine after his house party mobilized the North Vancouver RCMP tac- tical squad. The 23-year-old resi- dent of Mount Seymour Boulevard pled guilty to violating the North Van- couver District noise bylaw during a summer’s end bash Sept. 28 that at- tracted 400 people and featured four live bands. The party was dispers- ed without incident but not before the North Vancouver RCMP re- quested the Burnaby tac- tical squad also be put on alert. Fire injures homeowner A WEST Vancouver homeowner suffered a burnt hand during a small house fire over the weekend. Ata Rahani was slightly injured while ying to extinguish a fire in the basement of his home at 1444 Sandhurst Road. Friend Vancouver fire the fire West officials say started around 6 p.m. Friday in a wall in the basement and the cause remains under investiga- tion. Fire fighters extin- guished the fire before it could spread to the rest of the house. pulled from hot tub A DEEP COVE resident was saved from drowning recently after he fell asleep in a hot tub. At 11:20 p.m. Nov. 16, two fellow. residents noticed the man submerged in the hot tub. While one dragged the man from the tub and gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation the other phoned for an am- bulance. After being taken to Lions Gate Hospital the man recovered.