14 - North Shore News — _ November 8, 2000 ACIP increases ce Karen Robbins NORTH Vancouver Contributing Writer City councillors fearned at a finance committee meeting on AD BEAA Advantage i Aiuto B Approved Vendor Levett Auto body isa comprehensive collision repair facility. We repait all makes of fe foreign and domestic. cars & trucks. a Reade ype oe tie ear oeieamiatal _ ARA cortified body shop dq 83 Pemberton Ave. North Van. 985- 71 95 “TALKING YELLOW #; aes. Special Includes: ¢ Lube, ity budget debate Oct. 18 that the North Vancouver RCMP will require a $1.5-million budget increase for this years’ budget. Terry Christie, city diree- tor of finance, said part of the reason for the increased costs is that the regional E Division of the RCMP have approved salary and wage increases and are requiring the regions to invest in upgraded vehicles and E- Comm, which is a new + SHORPE” ©. CUISINE: oit and filter ¢ Complete vehicle inspection ¢ Full brake inspection ¢ Tire rctation ¢ Block heater test ° Battery blanket continuity test * MIDTRONICS™ battery test ¢ Check and top up fiuids CARTER CHEVROLET - OLDSMOBILE 987-5231 regional radio system. This increase will take the detachment’s budget from approximately $5 million to $6.5 million. Christie said that this is without even changing the number of offi- cers, which currently stands at 62. Coun. John Braithwaite pointed out that the city had given the RCMP a 2.3% Increase in their budget last year, “I thought we were bringing them up to par then,” he said. Coun. Darrell Mussatte wondered if the detachment was planning to propose another increase next: vear. “We should stop giving them bullets for their guns if that is the case.” he said. Christie said other munic- ipalities in the area thar deal with the RCMP are facing similar costs. He also reas- sured the council that these proposed numbers could change throughout the vear. “The RCMP are not always consistent in their numbers,” he said. “We don’t always have confidence in the infor- LOF includes up to SL of GM premium motor oii, offer valid on most GM vehicles, REGENCY PONTIAC - BUICK - CADILLAC - GMC 985-6333 At your participating cM Dealership. waw.goodwrench.emcanada.com 1-B60-G) *Applicable to most GM vehicles. LOF includes up to 5 liters of oil. Excludes synthetic oil and diese? engines. Applicable taxes extra. Offer available at participating dealers only to November 27, 2000, white quantities last. Dealer may sell for less. See Gealer for details. mation they give us.” Meanwhile, the council- lors met to discuss their financial plan schedule for the vear, to try to maximize their efficiency in dealing with the budget. There was some contre- versy last summer when city council and staff held a nwe- day retreat at Harrison Hot Springs. Coun. Bob Fearnley said too much time was spent talking about projects on the books instead of prioritizing some expensive projects they Were facing. Christie met with the councillors Wednesday to try and get a clear picture of how the councillors wanted to proceed this vear. Some councillors expressed an interest in get- ting more information from the departments and a line- by-line assessment of their budgets. Coun. | Craig Keating said they also need more time to discuss the information. “We need to have some discussion based on some educated reading of the issues,” he said. Several councillors also expressed concern about the departments spending their budgets wisely. Fearnley said last ‘vear several departments that had not spent their bud- gets yer still asked for an increase. The next pre-budget workshop -is scheduled for Noy, 6. arkness Strands hikers NORTH Shore Rescue tracked down a num- ber of hikers over the weekend who were caught out in the dark. Friday night, an NSR vol- unteer on a mountain bike located a woman who had taken her dog out for a walk and was stranded on the East Seymour trail. The woman’ went past Twin Bridges and ended up on Powerline Road. She was not carrying a flash- lig! hic. On Saturday, a male and female hiker got lost on the Dog Mountain trail. They had found their way into the creek drainage system, where they were rescued by field teams. At the same time, another couple called on a cell phone to say they were stranded in the Lynn Creek area. : NSR’s Tim Jones points out that sunset is now at 4:45 p.m. — but the tree cover means it gets dark in the for- est by about 4 p.m. “The North Shore is crawling with hikers right now,” says Tim Jones of NSR. He says everyone going. out hiking. should carry. a powerful flashlight with extra batteries and a bulb. If they . © have a cell phone, they should have extra batteries for that too, and remember that cov- erage drops out in certain areas, —_ especially. - near Seymour/Lynn Headwaters.’ Jones says sturdy hiking “boots and. waterproof cloth- ing are also essential to keep warm. a — Katharine Hamer