YOUR COMMUNITY
NEWSPAPER SINCE 1969

PREMIER BILL Vander Zalm was on hand Wednesday to
help dismantle the single-lane Grantham Bridge in North
Vancouver District to make way for a new $600,000 two-

lane version.

But North Vancouver District
Mayor Marilyn Baker says she
questions the province's priorities
in allocating those funds.

The bridge, which is to be built
by North Vancouver company In-
terland and finished by November,
1956, will complete an agreement
between the Squamish Indian Band
and the province.

After 10 years of negotiations,
the Indian band agreed to give up
a chunk of Jand in trade for
another from the municipality to
allow for the building of the four-
lane Seymour Bridge in 1983.

Upon completion of Grantham
Bridge renovations, the Indian
band will take title to its new
parcel of land, and those residents
west of the Seymour River will
have their former access to the
main Seymour crossing cut off and
turned into a cul-de-sac. Com-
muters will then travel the improv-
ed provincially-finaneed Grantham
Bridge.

DISTRICT OF North Vancouver
Mayor Marilyn Baker...more im-
portant repairs needed.

“We gota magnificent four-lane
bridge just to the south of us,”
said North Vancouver-Sevmour
MLA Jack Davis, minister of
Energy, Mines and Petroleum
Resources. ‘But the Indians want
their land back, so that’s the main
reason why a new bridge is being
put in bere.”

But Baker said according to the

By BARRETT

agreement with the Indians, the
Grantham overhaul did not need
to be done until June, 1990,

Baker said) more important
tepairs are needed for the Dollar-
ten Highway, where a numoer of
accidents have oceurred.

Work needed for the project,
which Baker said she has commu-
nicated to Highways Minister Alex
Fraser, includes lane widening,
sidewalk building, curb and gutter
work and asphalt laying.

Total cost for the Dollarton pro-
ject would be $2.5 miilion — $1.47
million from the province and
$1,004,000 from the district, which
the municipality has already
budgeted for.

Said Baker: ‘We are certainly
pleased to have the premier visit
the district. on the first of his
municipal visits, but one of the
main priorities of the municipality
conusues to be funds needed for
the province's share of reconstruc:
tion of the Dollarton Hivlwiy,

“There are particular areas chat
are desperately in need of work,”
she said. ‘Phere are no shoulders,
there are open aitehes mony travel-
ling lunes, vo places for children to
walt, to school.

“My coneern os Vander Zalm
indicated when he puto on his
minister of finanee hat chat monies
are tight, we're not to be lobbying
on the province's doorstep for any
more money. (But) we don't
believe Dollarton should have any
more delays.*

Speaking to about $0 gathered
dignitaries, media and residents
Wednesday, the new premier said:
“It's certainly a pleasure to be in
beautiful North Vancouver, to be
enjoying this scenery — it’s a great
spot."

Speaking about) Grantham
Brid Vander Zalm said, "dl
haven't quite figured out what the
formula (is) with respect to the
bridge. and how it came wbout and
all of the history with it, but as J
walked across it and | felt a bit of
a rock, it’s just as well. .chat we're
replacing it with something a little
more permanent.”’

Profile on Premier Bill Vander Zalm in Sunday’s issue

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PAGE 20

NEWS photo Miko Wakefield
TAKING CHARGE of set another situation, Peemier Bill Vander Zalm gives directions at Wednesday's
announcement of a new Granthan Bridge over the Seymour River in the District of North Vancouver, A
new two-line, steel girder bridge will replace the existing Bailey bridge. The $600,000 project is scheduled
for completion by the end of November, 1986.