Ww* Wednesday, July 29, 1992 - North Shore News - 3 Options limited for 19th Street waterfront site, mayor says ALTHOUGH THE idea of testing a temporary teahouse facility at the Wells property at the foot of 19th Street in West Vancouver died at West Vancouver Council’s July 27 meeting, a more permanent teahouse, as originally pro- posed, may get another hearing. The matter has been deferred for further study over the summer council break, but West Van- couver Mayor Mark Sager said the municipality has just two options for the property: @ continue with the plan; @ seli the property and recoup the investment. Some residents have said they will raise money to rebuild the lot as a park; others want the old Wells home preservec for viewing. Bur the land is not included in the municipal waterfront parcels intended for seawalk and park use, West Vancouver purchased the Wells property this year for over $700,000 because of its waterfront location and because of the large home a prospective new owner had proposed for the site. “Council does not want to maintain the property unless there is some type of revenue from it,” Sager said Monday night. While all council members are teahouse By Maureen Curtis Contributing Writer concerned about the opposition to the teahouse that has been raised by area apartment dwellers, Sager said the majority of West Van- couverites would appreciate such a facility. He argued that selling the land for development as a single-family home might prove more disruptive to the neighborhood and be harder to control than the teahouse, which would be located in the Wells home, with seating inside and out in its garden. ‘‘Before we dispose of the property, perhaps we should re- examine the proposal,’’ said Sager. The mayor suggested staff research two operations similar to the teahouse proposal that are located at Sooke and Saanich on Vancouver Island. Coun. Andy Danyliu said staff Adams show noi cricket, | league president charges Labor Day event will ‘dig up’ fields WHILE NORTH Shore rocker Bryan Adams will be waking up the neighbors during a free Labor Day concert at Stanley Park’s Brockton Oval, a West Vancouver cricket official fears Adams’ fans will be breaking up the sod on two park cricket wickets. ; By Surj Rattan News Reporter Rod Hesp, president of the B.C. — Mainland Cricket League, has also criticized the Vancouver Park Board for allowing Adams to use Brockton Oval for his con- cert. . : The concert, said Hesp, will be held on top of two cricket wickets at Brockton Oval. “Pm not opposed to the con- cert, but I’m opposed to where they will be holding it. They're going to bring 42,000 people onto those two cricket wickets, and if the crowd did what they did at Thunderbird Stadium (during a recent concert), they'll just dig up the field. “If it rains, they will totally destroy the wickets,’’ said Hesp. He added that he has a permit to use the two cricket. wickets on the day of Adams’ concert. On Monday night, th: Van- couver Park Board voted unani- mously to allow Adams to hold a free concert at Brockton Oval on Sept. 7. The concert will run for ADAMS... free Sept. 7 BRYAN show at Erockton Oval gets go ahead. nine hours and will include three other bands. But Hesp charged that the park board had decided to allow the concert to go ahead before it held last night’s public hearing on the issue, where other groups also voiced objection to the event. ‘It was a done deal from the start. They (park board) made a lot of excuses, but their mind was already made up about it,’’ said Hesp. “We're not just talking about a baseball field here where you can move things around. Those cricket wickets have been there for years."’ STE Ee OS Index Wi Budget Beaters......... 33 @ Business i Classified @ Comics 1 Frugal Gourmet & Lifestyles @ North Shore Now ° Weather Thursday and Friday, sunny. Highs 26°C. Lows 14°C. Canadian Pubiications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 0087238 64 We could end up subsidizing coffee on the beach. 99 should prepare a report that in- cludes a study of the local parking and traffic situation, a property value appraisal and an estimate of the likely revenue from a teahouse facility. “The last would eliminate the worst-case scenario: that we could end up subsidizing coffee on the beach,”’ said Danyliu. A similar motion was floated by Coun. Diana Hutchinson and ~ Coun. Andy Danyliu passed by council. it included continuing discus- sions with the owners of Peppi’s restaurant, the peeple chosen to develop the teahouse concept. Coun. Don Griffiths said that even those who can’t afford to live in the neighborhood should have an opportunity to enjoy a coffee and the seaview at 19th Street, Coun, Pat Boname said she defers controversial teahouse issue ES WEST VANCOUVER DISTRICT COUNCIL would hate to see the fot return to private hands. But Coun. Danyliu was more convinced that the proposed facil- ity would be unfair to the neighbors and suggested that another property, such as The Silk Purse on Argyle Avenuc, be turn- ed over from its current use as a cultural facility to a revenue- generating teahouse. He said the threat over what kind of house could be built at the Wells site was a ‘‘red herring.” But Sager noted that the municipality had also purchased the Wells property to avoid having any possible private property in- trusion onto the municipality’s seawalk. NEWS photo Paul McGrath LEO RIMANIC says he and other business operators on Riverside Drive in North Vancouver are fed up with an odor coming from the nearby International Bio Waste recycling plant. Stink raised over recycler A BIG stink is being raised between two industrial operators on Riverside Drive in North Vancouver District. A North Vancouver manu- facturer has charged that a neighboring recycling operation is causing such a bad smell in the area that he has been forc- ed to close shop several times and send his employees home after they became ill. But the president of the recycling plant said he doesn’t know what all the fuss is about. Leo Rimanic, general man- ager of technical sales for Ver- satech Products Inc., located at 60 Riverside Dr., said the neighboring operations of In- ternational’ Bio Waste Corp. have cost him lost production days because a foul odor com- ing from Bio Waste has made his employees ill. Bio Waste recycles waste into fertilizer. Rimanic said the problem has existed for six months. He said he has asked Bio Waste, the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) and the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) to do something to solve the problem. But Rimanic said his pleas have fallen on deaf ears. ‘He (Bio Waste) gave us his food By Surj Rattan News Reporter word that he would be install- ing all of this equipment, scrubbers, filters and everything else to get rid of the ‘problem, and six months tater we're still waiting. *“We’ve been shut down sev- eral times where basically there was no way you could work in here. People were getting sick and going to the bathroom and throwing up,”* said Rimanic. He also charged that the GVRD is in a conflict of inter- est position, because, while it is tesponsible for issuing Bio Waste its air quality permit, the GVRD is also the landlord of the 52 Riverside Dr. build- ing that houses Bio Waste. He added that the WCB told him it was the employer’s re- sponsibility to look after the health concerns of employees. “Their stance is that you have to protect your own workers. | agree that we should protect our own workers, but I can’t ask my people to walk around wearing respirators all day long. We’ve had people quit because of the smell."’ But Bio Waste president Aris Morfopouios said he has spent over $100,000 on pollution- control equipment at his plant and that a second scrubber systern has now been added. Morfopoulos also said that the smell Rimanic and _ his employees are complaining about is likely coming from the GVRD-operated North Shore Transfer Station, which is Iccated next to Bio Waste. ‘We're right next door to a garbage dump. They get, I think, between 300 and 600 trucks a day of garbage. The most we have ever had is four. We have been making constant investments in pollution-con- trol equipment from the day- we moved in, and that’s still going on today. “Pm only aware of two times where he (Rimanic) said that he had to send his people home in the last six months,’ said Morfopoulos. He added that the GVRD keeps a logged record of com- plaints and that the GVRD has only contacted him about three times because of complaints the regional district received from Versatech. , “So these are fairly isolated incidents,’’ Morfopouios said.