3. Fridas. Juty 27, 1990 - Narth Shore News

Walkie-talkies may have saved hikers’ lives

A LAST-minute decision by a Horseshoe Bay businessman
to buy a set of walkie-talkies may have saved the lives of a
Pitt Meadows youth and his West Vancouver grandfather.

On Tuesday night at about 9
p.m., Michael Berry, who owns a
yogurt shop in’ Horseshoe Bay,
was testing a pair of walkie-talkies
he had purchased cartier that
evening when he picked up a call
for help.

The call came from David
James, who was hiking with his
grandfather, Bud Ryckman, 63,
north of Cypress Bowl. The pair
had been hiking along a marked
trail leading to Lions Bay when
they took a wrong turn and
Ryckman fell 200 metres (about
650 feet) down a cliff.

But James, 15, had a walkie-
talkie with him and began issuing
a distress call at about the same
time Berry and a friend were
testing out their walkie-talkies.

“T had been thinking about
buying these walkie-talkies for a
long time, and on Tuesday, 10
minutes before it closed, { just
decided to go to the Radio Shack
at Park Royal and buy a set,”

Berry said. tl) then called oa
friend, who is a vendor of mine,
and we were going to use Utese
wathie-talkies in our business, and
said ‘LH be tn forseshoe Bay at
Nine if you want to fest diese out.”

“Three minutes inte testing
them, this kid's voice comes over,
and at first ] thought he was fool-
ing around. He was very hyper
and owas saying, ‘erandfather,
cliff, hurt’ and we soon realized it
was serious.”

Berry said he told) James to
calm down and asked him for his
phone number.

He then telephoned James's
parents in Pitt Meadows “who by
this time were quite worried."

Berry subsequently contacted
West Vancouver Police, who set
up a command post at Berry's
yogurt shop.

“We tried to keep him (James)

cool and tried te keep hin off the
radio because his battertes would
have worn out.” said Berry.

North Shore Search and Rescue
were called in. and at about 7:30
aan, Wednesdays. James directed a
helicopter to the area in which he
was stranded.

He was airlifted out and treated
for hypothermia, having spent the
entire night in the area.

Rychman was fater rescued and
is now listed in stable condition in
Vancouser General Hospital.

Berry, whe stayed up all night
talking to James, said the youth is
the real hero in the incident.

“He's dike ao friend of mine
now. He was the real hero, he
knew there were people out there
looking for him. He kept real
cool,’ said Berry, who added the
walkic-talkies were ‘the best pur-
chase | ever made."

“The guy at Radio Shack didn’t
want to sell them to me because
he didn’t think they would work
in an area like Hotseshoe Bay,”
said Berry. “Why do we do things
fike this? [ could have gone and
bought those radios any time."’

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

Last respects

FIREFIGHTERS FROM ail over the Greater Var:cuver Regional District turned out for the funeral of
West Vancouver firefighter Kex Neff ‘ast week. The 45-year-old Richmond resident had been missing since
mid-June and was found dead earlier this z2:onth in (hz Hope area. Neff had been described as *‘one of the
top three guys in the department’’ by West Vz ncouver Fire Department Chief Colin Evans.

Course threatets trees — ecologist

From page 1

Hundal has spearheaded a
movement to save old-growth
trees in the proposed golf course
area.

In his petition, Hundal has ask-
ed the court to overturn the
rezoning bylaw making way for
the golf course on the grounds
that the public was unduly influ-
enced by an advertisement placed
by the developer in the North
Shore News the day before the
June if public hearing.

The ad states that the old-
growth area would be saved under
Cypress Ridge Golf's revised golf
course plan.

“In actual fact, only 22 acres of
the approximately 85 acres of old
growth had been set aside by the
new plan,’’ Hundal stated in his
petition.

But West Vancouver Mayor
Don Lanskail! said council disputes
Hundal’s figures.

West Vancouver parks director
Kevin Pike added later that coun-
cil had never said the 22 acres
represented the total old-growth
forest on the 350-acre site.

“It's a compromise, but it's the
finest and densest stand,"’ he told

the News.

West Vancouver municipal
manager Terry Lester added that
“there are about 12,000 acres of
wilderness up there.”’

But Lena Warrington of North
Shore Citizens For Trees argued
that the 22-acre plot is so small
that it could be endangered by the
golf course.

Hundal’s petition, which may
go to court as soon as Aug. 17,
also claims that the municipality
failed to provide notice of the
time of the adjourned June Jt
public hearing and that the hear-
ing was influenced by Mayor Lan-
skail when he restricted speakers
to presenting only new points and
thus ‘“‘deterred the public from
making statements in support of
previous speakers.”*

In a later interview with the
News, Hundal said Dr. Keith
Wade, a forest ecologist and
biogeographer, is preparing a
report that Hundal will present to
council supporting his position
that the 22 acres of old growth the
developer proposes io set aside is
“Sudicrous.”’

Hundal said neither the 22-acre
parcel nor the species living within

its boundaries would survive.

He also plans to obtain an af-
fidavit from a forestry profes-
sional for his petition outlining
the “true size’’ of the old-growth
forest in the area.

David Negrin of Grand Adex
Developments, the Vancouver-
based development company
associated with Victor Li, the son
of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-
shing, repeated Wednesday night
his company’s offer made at
Monday night’s council meeting to
take on the golf course project at
300 per cent of the value of
Cypress Ridge Golf Ltd.'s pro-
posal.

But Ald. Andy Danytiu said
that council was proud to have
found a developer that is ‘‘willing
to forgo profit and take on extra
costs in order to save trees."’

He argued against consideration
of a “Johnny-come fately.""

Danyliu added that the decision
to build a golf course at the site
has already been made.

Ald. Carol Ann Reynolds, while
in favor of the golf course, was
the sole member of council 16 vote
against signing the process agrec-
ment,

NEWS photo by Mike Wakefield
NORTH SHORE Search and Rescue search master George Zilahi talks
to the press Wednesday morning after helping to rescue David James,
15, and his 63-year-old yrandfather Bud Ryckman from the Cypress
Bow] area after Ryckman injured himself in u fall.

W. Van Council axes
seniors housing plan

THE LONG debated proposal to build 40 units of seniors
housing on land belonging to West Vancouver Baptist
Church was turned down Monday night in a unanimous
decision by West Vancouver District Council.

Calling it a ‘‘difficult issue,”’
Mayor Don Lanskail said the
housing project presented ‘‘a
classic conflict where both sides
have logic, merit and morality on
their side.”

Project supporters had argued
eloquently for the church and
Tri-Power, the project’s prospec-
tive developer, in their bid to pro-
vide some badly needed housing
for middle-income seniors.

The cause was recently taken up
by Citizens For Public Justice
(CFPJ), a Christian organization
that predicts that the seniors who
would have been housed in the
West Vancouver project will now
have to compete for scarce hous-
ing throughout the Lower
Mainland.

Although there are over 7,000
senior citizens in the municipality,
CFPJ pointed out that only 163
units of szniors housing have been
approvee in West Vancouver in
the past four years.

But Tri-Power failed to win
aver focal residents who consid-
ered the proposal an intrusion into
their sitgle-family British Proper-
ties neighborhood.

Residents also questioned the
appropriateness of locating a
seniors’ development close to the

from se: sices and amenities.

“T don’t believe that a re-zoning
should be imposed on a
neighborhood unless there is rea-
sonable acceptance,’’ Lanskail
said.

Ald. Alex Brokenshire pointed
out that the area around the Bap-
tist church is ‘tan established
neighborhood,’ something pro-
tected in the Official Community
Plan.

“To make a_change...there
must be a compelling reason, | am
not convinced there is,”* he said.

Lecce ance eeeeee 8
Home & Garden......... 11
Pau! St. Pierre ......... 9

What's Going On........18

[Second Class Registration Number 3885

By MAUREEN CURTIS
Contributing Writer

WEST VANCOUVER
‘DISTRICT COUNCIL.

Lanskail acknowledged that
council has turned down two pro-
posals for seniors housing in the
past 2% years, and emphasized
the need for the municipality to
come up with some bold initiatives
to help seniors secure affordable
housing, ‘‘before we fall further
and further back.’’

“We need to develop a policy
and a strategy, rather than con-
tinue to be reactive,’’ agreed Ald.
Pat Boname.

Ald. Carol Ann Reynolds
wanted the matter put to a long-
range planning task force.

But municipal staff planner
Graham Stallard pointed out in a
report to council that there are no
large, undeveloped parcels of
West Vancouver land, reasonably
priced and well situated to ser-
vices, ‘‘which do not disrupt a
neighborhood.”’

Council praised the church’s
role in trying to meet the need for
seniors housing and acknowledged
some regret in not stopping the
process sooner.

“— accept some _ responsibility
for pitting committed volunteers
against their community,” said
Ald. Boname.

Ald. Andre Danyliu regretted
that the project's developers had,
in some ways, been led on by
West Vancouver.

“As a member of the Policy
and Planning Committee of coun-
cil, Iam one of three people who
could have killed this before it get
started.” Danyliu said.

WEATHER

Friday and Saturday, sunny.
Highs near 28°C.
Air quality: good.

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