NEWS photo Terry Petars

WEST VANCOUVER Police searched Lions Gate Bridge traffic Friday morning on Marine Drive
following an armed robbery at a West Vancouver bank. The Dundarave branch of the Bank of
Montreal was hit about 9:30 a.m. by a lane suspect who indicated that he was armed. The man

made off with $2,800 in cash.

Chamber wants causeway overhaul

Plan calls for land bridges and
five traffic lanes through park

A CALL to widen and ‘“‘beautify’® the Stanley Park
causeway has been renewed by the North Vancouver

Chamber of Commerce Board.

In a motion passed earlier this
month, local chamber directors
are recommending to the Van-
couver perk board that ‘‘either in
connection with, or independently
of the proposed Study for the
Future of Stanley Park,

beautification of the Stanley Park

causeway be undertaken by the
reconstruction of the roadway, to
include a landscaped median, and
to include two tand bridges, to in-
tegrate both visually and func-
tionally the east and west halves
of the park.”’

Zoltan Kuun, a North Van-
couver engineer and chairman of
the chamber’s transportation
committee, has been lobbying on
behalf of the chamber to upgrade
the causeway for the better part of
a decade.

Ideally, he supports the con-
struction of a third crossing of
Burrard Inlet.

“The only way to really reduce
traffic through Stanley Park is to
build a third crossing,’”? Kuun
said.

But because that idea ‘tis
dead,"’ he's put his energy into
pushing for the Vancouver Board
of Parks and Recreation to
upgrade the park causeway.

Kuun said the park board has
jurisdiction over the road that
slices through the park.

“‘They are very jealous of that
and are guarding that,’’ he said.

The latest causeway modifica-
tion proposal supported by the
local business group incorporates
a landscaped median and five
traffic lanes. The five-lane layout
includes a northbound bus and
emergency traffic lane.

The plan also has the causeway

m,

Big Nate is here!

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

going underground in two areas.
Land bridges, where landscaping
would ‘connect the park at two
points along the causeway, are
seen by Kuun as a compromise to
an option of taking the causeway

ceatg att

a tunnel through the park, arguing
that a tunnel would be expensive
and would ‘‘punish”’ motorists.

In 1988, Lions Gate Bridge car-
ried 67,633 vehicles daily. Every
car travelling across the bridge
carries 1.3 people on average; the
Coquihalla Highway handled
7,113. vehicles daily during the
same year.

Kuun compares the two because
they tell a story of political will.
There is no urgency to alleviate
traffic congestion along the Lions
Gate Bridge corridor, he says,
because there are no ‘‘political
points” to be scored.

Kuun estimates that widening
the causeway to five lanes would

mA

- CONTOALES FF vs Dent

RANCEWAV DRODOSA
wore: | it Se OT

om eee

two areas.

totally underground with a tunnel.

But said Vancouver park board
chairman Art Cowie, ‘‘Our stand
is that if highways wants to ex-
pand the causeway, they have to
cover the whole thing — that
means going underground. Our
stand is that simple.’’

Cowie speculates that once con-
struction of the Cassiar connector
is completed at the south end of
the Second Narrows Bridge, the
department of highways will urn
its attention to resolving the Lions
Gate Bridge traffic bottleneck.

Meanwhile the park board has
yet to officially respond to the
latest proposal.

Kuun dismisses consideration of

HEY, DUDES. it’s Big Nate com-
ing at you from the Sunday com-
ics page of the News starting to-
day (see page 43).

Nate is currently doodling his
way through school, and will
doodle his way onto the pages of
the soon-to-be-launched News
youth section.

So stay tuned.

The regular Pet Corner feature
that is normally published below
the comics in Sunday’s News will
now move to the same position iv
Wednesday’s News.

cost about $5 million. With two
land bridges the cost would rise to
over $10 million.

Widening the causeway to four
lanes would avoid the need to
remove any park trees; an expan-
sion to five lanes would mean a
loss of trees within 15 feet on ei-
ther side of the road.

In the past, the park board has
rejected proposals on the grounds
that more cars travelling along the
route would have an adverse im-
pact on the park.

But vowed Kuun, “‘! will fight
this as long as [’m with the
chamber. [’m quite convinced that
this would be a_ tremendous
asset.”

@ High Profiles .......... 36

®@ Cocktails & Caviar ..... 35
@ Fashion. .............. 13
MB High Tech ............ 34
M@ Lifestvies.............. 39

Sunday, March 24, 1991 - North Shore News - 3

N. Van firm lands
$11 million deal

Dilcon Construction
to build dock for
defence department

NORTH Vancouver’s
Dilcon Constructors Ltd.
has won an_ $t1-million
contract to build a new
concrete dock for the fed-
eral defence department at
Ranch Point on Vancouver
Island’s Nanoose Bay.

A Dilcon spokesman said the
company, which has been based
on the North Vancouver water-
front for about 30 years, will also
build power supply, lighting,
communications, fire protection,
utility and dockside monitoring
systems as part of the contract.

The work, expected to be com-
pleted in July 1992, will employ
between 15 and 18 subcontractors
at Dilcon’s North Vancouver
yard, which is located on the cor-
ner of Main Street and
Brooksbank Avenue, and a fur-
ther 20 to 25 people at Ranch
Point.

The dock will be used to tie up
loading vessels and submarines.

Dilcon senior vice-president of
operations Ted Osborne said Fri-
day that his company is a general
contractor that works on industri-
al and marine projects.

North Vancouver MP Chuck
Cook said he was happy the fed-
eral government awarded the
$11,177,956 contract to a North
Vancouver firm.

“This project represents an im-
portant part of the Nanoose train-
ing area, and I am pleased that

CHUCK COOK... pleased the
production expertise was
found locally.

the expertise to produce these fa-
cilities was found locally,’’ Cook
said.

He added that the construction
work on the new dock will meet
current environmental standards.

NV City Council approves
meeting conduct ruies

FOLLOWING recent heated ex-
changes at North Vancouver City
Council meetings, a subdued city
council approved a motion Mon-
day night outlining proper con-
duct at council meetings.

By Anna Marie D’ Angelo
Contributing Writer

Submitted by Ald. Barbara
Sharp, the ‘Proper Conduct at
Council Meetings’? motion was
unanimously approved by all
seven council members.

‘I think that it is important to
pass this. | think we should, if we
are going to respect each other. If
that’s what we want to do,” said
Sharp.

The motion caps off a couple of
heated meetings that began after
councii voted to deprivatize gar-
bage collection Feb. 18 and return
the work to civic employees
belonging to CUPE (Canadian
Union of Public Employees.)

Allegations of conflict of inter-
est were levelled at CUPE-backed
aldermen who supported
deprivatization without tendering
the cost and approved the pur-
chase March 15 of three garbage
trucks costing $410,000.

The CUPE-backed aldermen,
Sharp and Bill Bell, in turn sought
legal advice after claiming
fellow-alderman Rod Clark had
defamed them with inaccurate ac-
eusations. Clark did not apologize

index

M@ Miss Manners ......... 40

B® Spiritually Speaking ..... 21

W Sports .... 0.2. 38
M Travel........0....... 23
@ What's Going On ...... 31

Secona Class Registration Number 3885

SEKI

NORTH VANCOUVER
CITY COUNCIL

about his accusations at u subse-
quent council meeting.

At Monday’s meeting, the
apology was not mentioned, and
Clark and Bell were courteous to
each other.

Sharp’s motion, to be added to
the current Procedure Bylaw,
states ‘‘...any member of council
must avoid reference to per-
sonalities, and under no cir-
cumstances can he or she attack
or question the motives of another
member.”’

Bell said the motion would help
decorum in council chambers and
“*get us away from name calling.’’

Ald. Rod Clark said he had
respect for procedure.

And Ald. John Braithwaite said
he would continue to question the
motives of people presenting
issues to council.

In a related move, council voted
to seek endorsement from the
Union of B.C. Municipalities for
the establishment of campaign-
funds disclosure at the municipal
evel.

The provincial ministry of
municipal affairs must ultimately
legislate full campaign-funds
disclosure through the Municipal
Act.

Weather

Monday and Tuesday,
mostly sunny. Highs of
11°C, lows near 2°C.

oe