NORTH VANCOUVER City’s cemetery is filling up but the site slat- ed for future burial plots won’t be ready to use for another 10 to 15 years. NORTH VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL By Martin Millerchip City engineering staff told council Monday night that when burial plots at the cemetery at the north end of Purcell Way are filled early in the new millennium long-term cemetery maintenance costs will require an annual subsidy of around $60,000. Maintenance costs are currently offset somewhat by a cemetery operating surplus. To minimize the long-term subsidy for maintaining grave sites, council agreed Monday to raise Pe: Care Fund contri- butions by 37% to $350 for adult grave sites, the Car: Fund contributions for cremation plots and infant plots by the same percentage and all other fees by 5%. Only Coun. Stella Jo Dean expressed reservations about the size of the increase and asked if it could have been eased in earlier. “Now we're taxing the dead. Who’s there to defend them?” asked Dean. Ten years ago, city staff foresaw the cur- rent cemetery site filling up by 2001 and set aside an adjoining site for future burial use. However, the site is currently the only place where the city can dump “surplus municipality excavation and engineering staff ‘say it is important to minimize the rate at which the site is filled. The cost to dump the material elsewhere » would be around $140, 00 per year, based on current tonnage. At the present fill rate, the city has anoth- er 10 to 15 years of fill space available. But because the cemetery will run out of space for bodies in about five years, a cemetery space crunch looms at the turn of the century, with all existing burial spaces full and no new plots available for another four to nine ycars. Only a small percentage of North ‘Vancouver residents who die each year are -. buried at the city cemetery. In 1994 there were 727 recorded deaths in North Vancouver of whom 97 (or 13%) were buried in the cemetery. City staff say that even though the trend is - that fewer North Vancouver residents will be buried in the cemetery there are many North Vancouver families with close ties to it. NEWS photo Brad Lodwidge NORTH VANCOUVER City Coun. Stella Jo Dean stood against her council counterparts on Jan. 29 as council voted to increase city cemetery fees. ridge decision gridilocked LIONS GATE Crossing project man- . ager David Ferguson does not expect a ’ final decision on 9 new or improved First Narrows crossing during the _ NDP’s current term of office. By lan Noble A TT A, a a a aE : News Reporter Ferguson anticipates that a much-delayed short list of options for the crossing will be available by the end of February. “After the short list, a year to 15 months later, I think we could be in a position to make a final recommendation,” he said on Thursday. That, he acknowledged, would put a decision weil past the NDP’s mandate, which expires in the fall. The timing doesn’t sit well with local oppo- sition politicians, who say the delay shows the NDP goverment doesn't consider the crossing a priority. But North Vancouver-Lonsdale MLA David Schreck said a decision will be made if a new premier holds off on an election call until the fall. If it’s called in the spring, a decision will not be made during this NDP term, he said. North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce president Frid Lederer said he is disappointed but not surprised that the current NDP regime likely won't decide the crossing’s future. .“We expected a decision some time ago.” he said. “Our collective opinion is that there is no reason it has been delayed for so long.” Studies, committees and mectings dealing with the issue of the Lions Gate Bridge and an adequate third crossing of Burrard fnlet have been ongoing since March 1993. West Vancouver-Guaribaldi Independent MLA David Mitchel! expects the NDP will offer a short list as part of its election platform. Mitchell and West Vancouver Capilano MLA Jeremy Dalton point out that an NDP pamphlet tiled Feeling Congested?, released Jan. 31, dis- cusses many Lower Mainland transportation ini- tiatives but ignores possible improvenients or additions to the Lions Gate Crossing to 199% and See Short list Page 3 Weather Monday: Periods of rain, High 7°C, low 2°C. A YEAR-LONG Vancouver City Police vice-squad investi- gation has implicated a rental condominium in the Lonsdale aren as a place where young girls were forced to work as prostitutes. By Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter Christopher Michael Carroll, 36, of North Vancouver, has subsequently been charged with procuring a prosti- tute, exercising control for the purpose of prostitution, assault and two charges of living off the avails of prostitution. He was arrested in North Vancouver during a two-day roundup of suspects that began on Wednesday. Vancouver City Police (VCP) Const. Anne Drennan declined to give a more specific location of the condo- minium. The provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act prohibits municipal police from naming private residences. In addition to Carroll, four youths (under age 18) and four adults from Surrey. Richmond, Edmonton and Vancouver were charged with 38 pimp- ing-related offences. The suspects, police say, were members of an informal network of pimps. The alleged pimps, underage 18, recruited and forced teenage girls to work the streets in Vancouver. According to police, the alleged adult pimps forced girls as young as 13 to work as prostitutes in bawdy houses set up at the North Vancouver condo- minium and at a rental house in Surrey. “They were working the girls in the various locations. It was kind of a cir- cuit thing,” said Drennan. She said three of the prostitutes, two aged 17, and a 13-year-old, are cooper- ating in the prosecutions. Drennan said police know of at least 15 other prosti- tutes who are involved. She said none of the prostitutes is from North Vancouver. MAIDLAND WALWYN BLUE CHIP THINKING” NO FEE RRSP SAVER Call for a Free Consultation 925-9210 West Vancouver Office