MAILBOX Opportunity shouldn’t be lost Dear Editor: I have been reading with inter- est the North Shore News coverage of the proposal to build a middle school on the Caulfeild Plateau. Gnce again your columnists Lautens, Bannerman and Wright have each taken the light-enter- tainment approach to a serious question, abusing elected school board members, deriding the board position and represe::ting the matter as simply a siendoff between a number of self- interested parties. Unfortunately, it is not that trivial. So while waiting for fairer coverage somewhere in the newsprint, I offer a few background facts and my own observations on the question. If the middle school goes down, the western recreation centre will likely go with it. Council could go ahead independently with that, but I doubt it has the political stomach to do so. The awkwardness of having all three high schools within spitting distance of each other is some- thing the district has had to live with for 30-odd years. Throughout those years, thou- sands of students from the west have had to be bussed to and from the central high schools. (Would someone care to look up the bill for that?) The board of the day, in 1968, was far-thinking enough to ac- quire a more rational site for the future to be used when cir- cumstances allowed. Eventual use of this site has been the long tange plan of afl boards since '68 and the three superintendents preceding Doug Player since ’68. The truth is that Hillside has been an albatross for years. Alternative uses for it, as Cap College’s satellite campus, the new home of the Vancouver Police Academy, a private Japanese/ Canadian school or extended care hospital have all been explored and wistfully discarded. Nobody wants it! The ‘‘Facilities for the Future’ report, completed in 1990 (after broad consultation and public in- put), was widely circulated, avail- able to anyone and _ publicly discussed. It clearly set out the options available to the district faced with two aging buildings, West Vancouver Senior Secondary and Hillside, and a growing high school population in the western end of the district. Meanwhile the municipality, faced with capacity use of its cen- tral recreation centre and the seniors activity centre, and the loss of Eagle Harbour, but own- ing no site of its own, made the commitment in principle to a joint undertaking at Caulfeiid with the school board to solve both prob- lems at least cost to the taxpayer. At the time of the last election, November ‘90, all aldermanic candidates answered ‘‘yes’’ to the question ‘are you in favor of establishing a recreation centre in BUILD CONFIDENCE New Hornes & Renovations Consultation Design Estimates the west?"? Assurances to the concerned Eagle Harbour community and western residents in general that their turn had finally come have been made repeatedly by Mayor Sager on down during the last 18 months. The Parks and Recre- ation Advisory Commission sup- ports the concept. Many hours of staff time, of both the municipal and the school board, have been spent independently and jointly working out the details. Difficult as that is to obtain, the Ministry of Education has gives. its tacit approval on the basis of the evidence to datz, in- cidt:2 Une financial pre'estions. Crnics who oppese the proposi- tion on rhe claim that the sale of Hil'side’s iand will not yield enough dollars, should be urging council's examination of the sen- sible suggestion that it can in- crease the value of the property simply by changing the zoning or by variance. : It has been argued thas this site would be appropriate for smaller individual lots (on which monster houses could not be built!) or denser housing of the sort border- ing Hollyburn School and current- ly being built on 22nd opposite the aquatic centre. Heaven knows, everyone agrees West Vancouver needs more of such j:ousing. Perhaps this is yet another social and financial benefit to be had. The alternative to what is pro- posed, no middle school, no western recreation centre and still the unavoidable cost of major rehabilitation to the central school facilities and the existing rec cen- tre, (00, is simply unjustifiable. Unless shown otherwise, it seems to me basically faulty from any point of view, rational, fiscal, social or educational to confirm a bad situation arising from cirz- cumstances of 30 years ago, and to do so at such expense. Think what would be lost! This oppor- tunity for a better solution will not come again in perhaps two decades. K. Lilian Thiersch West Vancouver No L.A.: Canadians can make carpools work here Dear Editor: Regarding J.D. Peirson’s let- ter on carpools, while it is true that carpools and vanpools don’t work for everyone, they do in fact work. There are over 400 successful vanpools running in Washington State and thou- sands in North America. ! find it difficult to believe that Ca- nadians are so different from Americans that we can’t make it work here. With regard to the issue ‘of timeliness, make it a policy that the carpool doesn’t wait more than three minutes for anyone. People quickly learn to get their act together after missing a ride just once. You say it would take too long to collect eight to 12 pas- sengers. When there are no more than three scheduled pick-up and drop-off locations it doesn't take too long. Les White, the executive director of C-Tran, said in a speech to the Washington State Rideshare Organization, ‘tA single occupancy vehicle is like a miracle life-giving drug. When used in moderation it provides wonderful things. It provides mobility and freedom and « whole number of things that we cherish, and when used to excess it becomes addictive, destructive, as any drug will. “That is what we have seen in the past 20 and 30 years, especially in our urban areas. The greatest asset we have had in the Jast century has become our greatest liability — polluted our air, congested our streets, destroyed our urban form and isolated us from cach other.”* Let's not wait until we become another Los Angeles. We can do something about the problem now. Karen M. Halex Vanpool project director The Jack Bell Foundation West Vancouver BREAST PROSTHESES by Airway fitted by caring professionals Mastectomy and f ; Lymphedema ya service 4904-470 Greville (2 bho ks N. of the Bay) 584-3522 LAURSEN CUSTOM DRAPERIES AND VALANCES labour $7.50 per panel unlined, $8.50 lined CUSTOM BEDSPREADS AND COVERS Low, low prices on biinds and tracks For FREE Estimates Call 987-2966 Serving the North Shore for 22 years ar! 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