3 - Friday, February 16, 1990 - North Shore News | NEWS pioto Mike Wakatieid NORTH VANCOUVER City street maintenance worker Allan Housons clears snow away from one of the 172 bus stops in the municipality. Transit ridership increased as local drivers left their cars at home to avoid slippery streets and traffic jams on Wednesday and Thursday. SNOW WONDER Looks pretty, but heavy snowfall causes commuter chaos, closes schools FOR THE second consecutive week, cold weather and heavy snow hammered the North Shore and plunged its three municipalities into chaos. An estimated 15 centimetres of snow blanketed the North Shore Wednesday and Thursday resulting in treacherous driving conditions, closed schools and over-loaded B.C. Tel telephone lines. North Vancouver District municipal engineer John Bremner said Thursday that, despite the heavy snowfall, his crews were not having as much of a problem this week keeping the district’s main roads open as they did last week. “It’s a lot less difficult a prob- lem this week than last week,”” he said. ‘‘Last week the problem we had was the ice build-up. The snow is not as heavy as it was last week, plus a lot of people decid- ed not to venture out today. There’s not a lot of cars on the Upper Levels Highway.”’ A North Vancouver City engineering spokesman said all! road-clearing crews were called out early Wednesday afternoon ‘“‘when it (snow) really began.’’ “We've got full forces out there now. The main bus routes are clear, but there’s so much snow falling that we won't be able to get to the secondary routes until later this afternoon.”’ West Vancouver public works yard manager John Pollitt said Thursday it was ‘‘heavy going’’ clearing the municipality’s streets of snow but adaed there were no major problems as of Thursday morning. “We have every available piece of equipment out there,’’ he said. “Tt think we're doing a good job in keeping the main routes open but we won't get to the side streets until tomorrow (Friday).”’ Pollitt added that his crews had problems on some of the hills in West Vancouver during Wednesday night’s rush hour. The snow storm resulted in lengthy delays for commuters in all three North Shore municipalities during rush hour Wednesday evening. Meanwhile snow clearing along the Upper Levels and Squamish highways wasn’t the tough sled- ding the job proved to be last week. “It (the snowfall) was over a longer period so it wasn’t quite as disastrous a shutdown. It was a long night,'’ said Capilano Highway Services president Barry Drummond. ‘‘Rush hour went for hours last night on the bridges.”’ . By noon Thursday, Lions Gate Bridge was almost completely bare and wet while Second Nar- rows Bridge was slushy going. A lane and a half on the Upper Levels ‘Cut’ was blocked by a semi-trailer truck stuck heading west. The truck had spun out, broken its tire chains and the driver had to wait five hours for tow truck assistance. At one point on Thursday morning approximately 200 cars attempting to travel west along the Upper Levels were stuck be- tween Mountain Highway and Main Street, according to North Vancouver RCMP. While it was treacherous going everywhere, West Vancouver Poiice had no major trouble areas to report Thursday. The Squamish Highway re- mained open during the storm. The Squamish area received a foot of snow overnight Wednes- day. Unlike last week’s snowfall, Cove Cliff school past another hurdle The building would be available COVE CLIFF Elementary School moved one step closer to reality Tuesday when North Vancouver School District 44 Board trustees voted to send the architect’s drawings of the school to the Ministry of Education for approval. The $3.5 million project could go to tender as early as next April if the ministry gives its approval, District 44 secretary-treasurer Len Berg told the board as a cheer rose from the dozens of parents packed Parents fear From page 1 Meanwhile, parents and staff, already apprehensive about traffic safety near the school, fear the sit- uation will only deteriorate further during the construction period. Hosein met Wednesday with North Vancouver School District By PATRICK RAYNARD Contributing Writer in the public gallery. But the construction of a school playing field remains undecided, traffic hazard 44 director of buildings and grounds Ed Bodnar, highways rep- resentatives and the road construc- tion contractor. “*We agreed to do everything possible to avoid large problems at three o’clock for instance,’? she said. ‘It’s an already bad traffic situation aggravated by the fact because the ministries of education and environment have not yet agreed on the fate of Myrtle Creek, which presently runs through the 5.2-acre site located at the corner of Banbury Road and Reaburn Street. The 28,000-square-foot school is designed to hold 300 students be- tween Grades | and 7, and 50 pupils in kindergarten, architect Ron Howard told the board. near school that they’re going to be working with heavy equipment in front of the school. People are just getting a little, to put it mildly, fed up.” The narrow access road leading up to the school from Deep Cove Road is categorized by the North Vancouver District Fire Depart- ment as an obstacle. to community groups on evenings and weekends and would be fully accessible to the handicapped, Howard said. Letters from both the provincial Ministry of the Environment and the federal Department of Fish- eries and Oceans pointed out that Myrtle Creek, which contains a significant cutthroat trout popula- tion, would suffer if 90 metres of the creek were culverted. The Myrtle Creek culvert would be necessary if a full-size playing field measuring 50 metres by 90 metres were to be constructed east of the proposed school. Ear! Warnock of the provincial environment ministry suggested the schoo! district buy municipal property on the other side of the creek for the playing field, but the consensus at the meeting was that the option would be unsafe and too expensive. News carriers pull through DESPITE revent — blizzard-like conditions on the North Shore that have caused power and tele- phone outages and brought transportation to a near standstill on two consecutive Wednesdays, the North Shore News has main- tained delivery to virtually all of its readership in the three North Shore municipalities. News Distribution Manager Barb Emo said the heavy snow conditions have caused some problems with delivery. ‘*We are trying to get the paper out to the best of our capabili- ties,’’ she said, adding that regu- lar News surveys of the newspa- per’s delivery have indicated that the thrice-weekly News is getting to a high percentage of its read- ership despite the extremely poor weather conditions. Emo said that News carriers are doing ‘‘a fine job in getting the paper out.’’ But she added that the heavy snow conditions have made delivery difficult in hilly areas and especially to those homes whose driveways and sidewalks have not been cleared of snow. **We are asking for patience and understanding from readers if their paper is not delivered ex- actly how it should be and exact- ly when it should be,’’ Emo said. which resulted in an estimated 8,000 homes from Deep Cove to Lions Bay losing power, B.C. Hydro senior communications coordinator Verne Prior said there were no major power Outages caused by this week’s storm. The snowfall also gave scores of North Shore students an unscheduled holiday from school. All schools in West Vancouver, Lions Bay and Bowen Island were closed Thursday, as were all public schools in North Van- couver, and, for the third time in three weeks, Capilano College was forced to cancel classes. Shaw Cable operations were also disrupted by the snow, which has delayed the installation of cable services. Shaw Cable assistant manager Terry Medd said emergency crews have their hands full in responding to cable outages caused by the snow. Automotives............23 Classified Ads..........30 Editorial Page.......... 6 Home & Garden.........13 Mailbox............... 7 What's Going On........22 WEATHER Friday, cloudy with sunny periods, Saturday, mostly cloudy, chance of showers or flurries both days. Second Class Registration Number 3885