FOUR NORTH Shore univer-
sity students didn't think
they'd be boning up on local
creative writing when they
got hired as West Vancouver
bylaw officers.

By Anna Marie D'Angelo

News Reporter

Bul pearls of wisdom from
errant drivers, classifiable in the
stretched excuses genre, are often
tucked under windshield wipers of
iHegally parked cars. especially
near the Horseshoe Bay ferry ter-
minal.

“E got one guy saying, ‘I realize
I'm not supposed to park here, but
I've never gotten a ticket before so
why should | have one now?" “
said Rob Goehring, one of the
summer bylaw officers hired in
May.

Another insight: “We're just
taking the ferry and we are drop-
ping off some kids. We'll be late,
but you shouldn't give us a ticket
because we are really not parked
here.”

But the fact is that no matter
what is written, drivers of illegally
parked cars get their submissions
rejected.

If a driver thinks a unique note
will stop the reader from issuing a
ticket, bylaw officer Mike Darling
emphatically states: “wrong!”

The News caught up with
Darling and the summer bylaw
officers recently during a hot
afternoon at Ambleside Beach.

As the group got together to
talk to the News, three brazen
youngsters (they probably didn’t
recognize the summer uniforms)

The sur

West Van summer bylaw officers face the

mer

a

peat

heat in more

at

NEWS photo Nell Lucente

WEST VANCOUVER bylaw enforcement officers Mike Darling and Amy Eggleton assist a
motorist at Ambleside Park. Eggleton is one of four university students hired this summer for

the bylaw enforcement beat.

promptly drove their two-wheeled
bikes through the half-dozen
bylaw and police officers talking
near the grass area south of
Ambleside’s west parking lot.

An amazed Darling took a half
minute before uttering, “Hey! No
riding bikes. You walk your bikes
in the park.”

The boys promptly dismounted
and were last seen walking east-

ward, which happened to be in the
opposite direction of the bylaw
officers,

The summer bylaw enforce-
ment officers, al] university stu-
dents, played down the perception
that they were going to have a
great summer wrecking other peo-
ple’s days with tickets.

“Occasionally we get yelled
at.” Goehring admitted.

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“It goes with the territory. It’s
part of the job,”, Darling said of
the verbal abuse he has been tak-
ing for the past six summers.

He is still puzzled by the way
some drivers get irate about $15
parking tickets yet passively

Sunday. July ‘7, 1994 - North Shore N

ews - 23

1 Hath tty Uke

ways than one

accept $125 speeding tickets.

The summer bylaw enforce-
ment officers include Goehring,
20, and fellow West Vancouver
resident Amy Eggleton, 21. along
with North Vancouver's Nicole
Riha, 23, and Mark Braithwaite,
21.

The students declined to talk
about the pay, except lo say their
wages were “good” and the money
would take care of university
tuition in the fall.

Two of the summer bylaw offi-
cers concentrate their work in the
Horseshoe Bay area while the
other two patrol the seawall from
Ambleside Park to the 25th Street
Pier.

Bylaw fines range from S15 to
$500. A high range fine involves
“repeat offenders” who let dogs
run around in public areas.

The summer bylaw officers
usually deal with parking infrac-
tions, dogs in the park, in-line
skating and cycling on the seawall.

Darling said bylaw officers use
discretion when deciding whether
to warn or ticket for a bylaw
infraction. Prerequisites for a
bylaw job are good people and
communication skills, he added.

The students are enrolled in
urban studies, criminology, social
geography, business and psycholo-
gy classes in university.

Has being a West Vancouver
bylaw officer changed any of
them?

“I definitely take note of park-
ing signs when f go out now,” said
Goehring. “Honestly, | go ‘Oh,
guys we can't park here’.”

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