WEATHER: Mainly cloudy Sunday through Tuesday with a few showers. index Lifestyles Mailbox Sports... Sunshine Girl Food: 28 The Kitchen Ranger explores new vagetable territory and defuses the Blueberry Explosion. ; NEWS photo Stui Davis ANDREW McNAUGHTON, President of the Beacon Hill Lodge stands in the todge’s controversial lobby. The long-term facility has come under fire from an anonymous group complaining that Beacon Hill's lobby is overly cluttered with elderly people in wheelchairs. No room for aged in West Vancouver WHEELCHAIRS are offending the sen- sibilities. of West Van- couverites. By TIMOTHY RENSHAW West Vancouver’s largest long-term care facility, Beacon Hill Lodge at 525 Clyde Avenue, has been notified in writing by an anonymous group of con- cerned citizens that its waiting room is not up to snuff: there are too many wheelchairs and too many elderly people cluttering up the area, sitting around looking morose. John McRae, vice-presi- dent of the Beacon Hill Lodge committee, the 230- member residents association at the lodge, said his com- mittee received the letter shortly after Premier Bill Bennett's visit to West Van- couver and the premier’s subsequent tour of the municipality’s senior citi- zen’s activity centre August 15, The letter, signed by ‘‘a group of concerned West Vancouver residents’, documented what it saw as the dearth of nursing homes in West Vancouver. Beacon Hill Lodge, the group agreed, was situated in a lovely location and its staff provided good care, ‘but whoever planned the facility did a poor job.” The letter went on to complain that the lodge’s lobby, which it said was “full of wheelchairs oc- cupied by unhappy looking old people’, betrayed a scene of people ‘‘waiting for death like so many private nursing homes in the United States.”” SCREEN REQUESTED That situation, the group declared, ‘‘is not in keeping with West Vancouver.’’ The solution to the un- pleasantness, the letter Stated, was to erect a screen in the lodge’s lobby ‘‘pots and plants, perhaps, to screen the impact’’ of the crowded lobby. ‘It is frightening enough to drop relatives off as it is,’* concluded the letter. McRae, who describes himself as ‘‘one of those ob- jectionable people in wheelchairs’? said the criti- cism is totally unfounded: “Tt is just not that bad.”’ DEVASTATING “Perhaps some of the res- idents sitting in the lobby are a little mumbly-pumbly, but the average age here is 80, so you have to make a few allowances. People like to sit in the lobby and watch the traffic. It’s one of their pleasures in life. Besides this is our home and how we treat it is our business." Of the privately-owned, government-funded lodge’s 230 residents, 37 per cent re- ly on wheelchairs to get around. s McRae said that though the percentage is fairly high, it is far from unmanageable. Wynne Ezart, director of nursing at Beacon Hill, said, “It’s devastating to think that somebody wants to screen the residents off from society. They obviously don’t know anything about this facility. If you think people are sitting here just waiting to die, then you're in for a rude awakening. The residents here have more social activities than I do.” When the lodge’s residents heard about the letter, Ezart said they were livid: ‘There is still a terrible stigma at- tached to nursing homes that is totally unfounded. Not everybody in here is elderly or acts elderly. We have res- idents as young as 28 and a 100-year-old man who walks five miles per day.”’ McRae said the residents are appealing to the thus far anonymous group of upset West Vancouverites to come forward so the situation can be discussed. In the mean- time, he said, Beacon Hill Lodge will carry on as it always has. Said Ezart, ‘‘! suspect the person of persons responsi- ble for the letter are closing in on that age where a long term facility might not be too far off in their own future, and they are frightened of that prospect.”’ . cial A police dog's nose cut through the night to sniff out its suspect Monday night, William Hilton was ar- tested an hour and a half after ranger Les Finta spotted a man_ breaking into a cabin on Hollyburn Ridge at 9:30 p.m. Mon- day. Upon seeing the ranger, the man fled west into a nearby gully. Finta ‘called in West Vancouver police who responded with three officers and a tracking dog. The dog tracked the man, in the dark, into the gully where he was found hiding. Alter being taken into Cove vandals strike FOR THE. third -time .in less. thah two.weeks gar- ‘-bage, container. fires have” care been. setand fire: hydrants: : dit “were missing caps the’ { _. Same night. . of. North. Van- ver: firefighters: were: > . “varea’ on’ the nights ~ of “September 4—5 “and*. September Ji--12. ° : Thursday. to: extinguish : al garbage ; container - fire. Three and: a: half hours: later . two ‘fire ° hydrants yo were. reported opened ‘at “Deep ...Cove’ ..Road: -and-- probation — A. 21 YEA R-OLD Van- couver’ man ‘received:'a | sentence of ‘three: months probation Friday after. -pleading guilty. to.“ one’ count of break and enter. Appearing . before North Vancouver. provin-. . Judge | J.B. . court Paradis, Shawn, -Cyril Sawdust — “sparks fire IGNITED. SAWDUST threw a scare into two West Vancouver homeowners Thursday. West. Vancouver firefighters were called to the corner of Anderson and Aubeneau Crescents where two houses are be- ing built, Upon arrival, firefighters extinguished a 3- Sunday, September 18, 1985 - “forth Shore News NI NORTH SHORE S ew IN . ] rie pi Dog squad hunts thief Cove Crescent. ‘are’ asking members of. “the public to report any: ‘Coghian also. faced: ‘one -female. occupant’ of . the “against him was stayed. flame custody the 48-year-old man, of no fixed address, was charged with three counts of break and enter, said Det. Stuart Leishman. He was also charged with “possession of a weapon “fas what he did with a 14-inch -screw driver,’’ said Leishman, Police believe al! three break-ins occurred on the Monday. Nothing was stolen from: two of the cabins, Police have yet to contact the owners of the third cabin involved. There have been a number of complaints about vandalism on Hollyburn Mountain recently. . Badger and at 2020 Deep | Four hydrants, all on. Deep Cove Road, also Similar incidents oc-. curred in the Deep Cove . Fire and police officials. suspicious ‘-behavior «in. that area ta » police.” ; ; count. of assault on: the North ‘Vancouver “house..j that was broken into on August 8,0 fs - - Coghlan: pleaded guilty ” to the break and enter, charge; the assault charge small fire. ; . Fire officials “say* the fire was caused by sawdust bursting into - through spon-- taneous combustion. : No injuries were reported and there was no damage to either new building. sawdust "garbage ;