ij NORTH SHORE 293) Classified 986-6222 Distribution 9X6-1337 86 pages Se " NEWS photo Stuart Davis A FATHER tries to keep his two youngsters from going for a dip in the water foun- tain at Lonsdale Quay. The ‘Quay is attracting an increasing number of residents and visitors with the recent warm weather spell. heating bills PAGE 13 $40m DEAL FIRMS OFFER | TO BUY VERSATILE A NEW shipbuilding company comprising three local part- ners has offered close to $40 million to buy North Van- couver’s Versatile Pacific Shipyards Inc. in a bid to secure the $450 million Polar Class 8 icebreaker contract for West Coast shipyards. Buta union spokesman for local shipbuilding trades wants assurances that the new company will be a long-term venture that will be around after the Polar 8 has been built. Made up of Fenco Lavalin Corp., Wartsila Arctic Ine, and Rivtow Shipyards Ine., and possibly Vancouver's First City in- vestment group, Western Ship- yards Ltd. made the bid late Wed- nesday afternoon, Western president Cec Cosulich, who is also president of Rivtow, said plans to form the new com- pany began about three months ago. Its first project, he said, is to br- ing the Polar 8 icebreaker to B.C., “because we need it desperately."” Wartsila vice-president John Stubbs said the expertise of the new company, which has taken over the Polar 8 design proposed by Fenco Lavalin and Wartsila, offered the technical, managerial and financial capabilities to do the project. Combined with the massive Ver- satile facility, Stubbs said Western could have workers cutting steel for the icebreaker by early 1988 if the contract is awarded to the company now. Previously, the shipbuilding in- dustry has estimated it would take at feast [8 months from the time the contract is awarded to the time any accual construction work begins on .he icebreaker. Marine Workers and makers Industrial Boiler- Union (MWBIU) president John Fitz- patrick caid Thursday he viewed the offer as ‘tanother hurdle’’ that might further delay awarding the contract to Versatile. He said his union would be in favor of Western buying Versatile if there were guarantees from Western that the North Vancouver shipyard’s future would be secure after the Polar 8 was built. The federal government, Fitz- patrick said, had invested $56 mil- lion in new cranes and drydock fa- cilities for Versatile in 1982 and owed it to North Shore taxpayers and Versatile workers to protect that investment. Cosulich said all three Western partners were committed to main- taining Versatile as a viable ship- yard long after the Polar 8 was built. He added that Western had yet to receive any response from Ver- satile on its offer, Versatile Pacific's financially- troubled corporate parent Versatile Corp. sold its Eastern Canadian shipyards and a naval design firm for an estimated $60 million in January and its farm equipment company for an estimated $180 million earlier this month. Versatile Corp. spokesman George Morris said Thursday the corporation had no comment on the Western offer. “ari PERE PP a DENTIN Es SOS.