West Van man organizes family reunion Marsie Good Contributing Writer SINCE his early teens when he discovered a family connection to Colonel William Cody, Chris Funston has been fascinated with the Western legend. He has visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Centre in Cody, Wyoming, written a history of the Canadian branch of the family, wears a gold ning in the shape of a butlalo head, and even named his nine-year-old sor, Cody. Now he is organizing a fam- ily reunion in North Vancouver on Aug. 24-27, and expects about 100 people. While Buffalo Bill was a man of many talents — a Pony Express rider, Civil War soldier, amy scout, frontiesman, mas- ter showman and movie star —- Funston thinks his memory lives on also because he was simply a nice guy. “He was truly a legend in his own time,” Funston said. “But how he went about it BUFFALO Bill poses with Sitting Bull. “There are so many stories like that ~~ ie wasn’t uncommon,” Funston said. The closest relative that will be attending the reunion is Kit Carson, president: of the International Cody Family Assoxiation and great grand- son of Buffalo Bill, The assoxi- ation folds a reunion every two years, and while few mem- bers actually live in the Lower Mainland, Funston offered ta organize the event. He has written about the Canadian branch of che family, beginning with Philip, who moved to Upper Canada, fol- lowing his brother Joseph, near the end of the 18th cen- tury. They both took advan- tage of tree land grants in the new settlement of York. Philip owned Cody's tavern, where the first public meeting of the village of Dixie was held, and became its first constable. Joseph Cody died in a typhoid outbreak in the Newmarket area in 1809. He was survived by a wife and six children, and many of his descendants live in southern Ontario, photo submitted Philip, however, moved with his family back to and how he neated people was his greatest legacy.” His feeling about Buffalo Bill — whose great uncle Joseph was Funston’s great great great great grandfather — was confirmed a few years ago when he met a new neighbour in West Vancouver, He told Funston that his father had written about the time in 1913 when he rode his pony to the fairgrounds in Vancouver to see Butfalo Bill's Wild West Show. He went early so that he could look around. - Poking around the tents, he was surprised to see the fanious cowboy himself. Buffalo Bill asked the young boy ifhe wanted to ride along in the parade. Cleveland. His son Isaac and his wife moved west to Jowa, and fater to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Their son, born in 1846, was William Frederick Cody. Buffalo Bill was first a scout and Later a soldier in many skirmishes with the Indians and in the Civil War. He recreated his experiences in the Wild West Show, which travelled all over North America and Europe for 30 years, reflecting the world’s fscination with the American West. For many of his descendents, that passion continues. “Lam a history buff,” said Funston, trying to explain his interest in his famous relative. “I'm onc who believes that to ignore the past is to rob the future.” ee ao NEWS photo Miko Wakefieid CHRIS Funston holds a land deed and a picture of Buffalo Bill, whose relatives settled in Upper Canada. : j NEWS photo Julie Iverson “JONATHAN Miller will be one of the Grade 9 students with laptops at Mulgrave Schoo! next month. Back, teft to right, Mulgrave’s Nick Miller, Linda Hamer and - James Robertson. ° $25M school From page 1 When Mulgrave's Grade 9 students go to school next month, they'll take their IBM ThinkPads out of their backpacks and simply turn them on for access to the school network and the Internet. Net access will be filtered by teachers working with an Internet. filtering software pro- gram called Cyber Patrol. Parents, teachers and students will have access to a school Web site. The scheol will employ a full- time network administrator. The school's 40 teachers will be computer savvy, “If you want to make a program Eke this work, you've got to spend dollar one on the fac- ulty,” satd Miller. For the pilot program, students will rent the $3,000 laptops from the school. As the program becomes more fully imple- mented, and is broadened to include other grade levels, parents will have the option to lease the laptops or purchase them. Without factoring in the cost of a lap- top, tuition for a Grade 9 student at Mulgrave stands at about $9,000 a year. Construction of a new $25-million, 160,000 sq. ft. school for Mulgrave began in March. The school is being built on 9 13.6 acre (5.5 hectare) site located north of Cypress Bowl Road and west of Rogers Creek and is expected to open in spring, 2001. The school is presently operating at the North Shore Winter Club in North Vancouver. Mulgrave was founded in 1993 and is expected to have a school population of about 450 students in September. An interim 10,000 sq. ft. facility has been set up on one of the playing fields at RCMP set for truck stops Police van Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter adangclo@nsnews.com CHARLIE 12 is on the road. The large police van has been outfitted with ali the commer- cial vehicle inspection equipment used by the North Vancouver ~*.RCMP. . ~ Sgt. Bob Beaudoin, head of the traffic section, said Charlie 12 ~ = has made the weekly commercial vehicle inspections easy. ‘The van contains commercial vehicle scales, air brake gauges and other tools. _..“It is mostly for the commercial vehicle scales so that we can > weigh an overweight vehicle anywhere any time,” said Beaudoin. *. Police used to dump the equipment into a couple of patrol cars before setting out to do a commercial vehicle road check. Beaudoin said that 12 to 50 commercial vehicles, from deliv- ery vans to tractor-trailer units, can be inspected in a day. Police spend about 30 minutes checking cach commercial vehicle. * Also on hand for commercial vehicle inspections are bylaw officers. and provincial moter ‘vehicle: inspectors. In North . Nancouver, nine Mounties are certified to do commercial vehicle inspections. outfitted for easier commercial vehicle inspections Beaudoin acknowledged that the recent horrific 11-vehicle construction proceeds Cypress. It will house about 120 students — Grades 5 through 9 — who will be transferred from the existing North Shore Winter Club facility in September. The new school will have the capacity ta serve a population of 700 students from kindergarten to Grade 12. ‘The ubiquity of the Internet and online educational resources has some pundits predicting the eventual demise of bricks and mortar schools. Miller disagrees. “I think there is no substitute for a talented teacher standing at the head of a class- room. There are some things that com- puters are really good at and there are _ Some things that f-sman beings are much better at. Teaching is one of those things.” - Mulgrave schoo! receives 35% of its oper- ating finds from the provincial Ministry of Education. — pile up in Richmond involving a dump truck could happen “any- where.” Three people died in the crash that occurred near the Massey Tunnel on Highway 99. Beaudoin said that commercial vehicle inspections checks four years ago resulted in “every second vehicle was taken off the road for major defects.” Now he estimates that one in 10 vehi- cles inspected are taken off the road on a tow truck hook. He estimares three-quarters of the vehicles inspected receive tickets for infractions such as defective mufflers, no lights or one brake not adjusted properly. He said trucking companies have small profit. margins and some cut corners on maintenance to save money. The police sergeant said the inspections are set up on com- mercial trucking routes. Beaudoin said a lot of inspections are done near the garbage transfer station on Riverside Drive. - “There are a lot of people doing roofing work and a variety of things and they will be carrying way too much garbage to the landfill,” said Beaudoin. “It’s not unusual to see someone carry- ing three times as much as they are supposed to be carrying.” _ . : t NEWS photo tike Woketieid NORTH Vancouver RCMP Sot. Bob Beaudoin checks -. gut the commercial vehicle inspection gea