ST. ALICE HOTEL orth Vancouver landmark to face the wrecker’s bal NORTH VANCOUVER City Council voted four to two Mcnday night to allow demolition of the 76-year-old St. Alice Hotel in Lower Lonsdale despite the hotel’s designa- tion as a building of primary heritage importance. The city began negotiating with Cressey Development Corp. to maintain the building at its 120 West Second St. location after the St. Alice site developer beat the early December building permit deadline set by the city to limit further highrise development in Lower Lonsdale high-density av: s until highrise view impact studies have been completed in March. In voting against the demolition, Aid. Bill Bell calied Cressey “much too greedy’’ in its negotia- tions with the city. By CORINNE BJORGE Contributing Writer Bell said the hotel could have been used for market or social housing in that area, but that Cressey wanted density bonuses or trades for city-owned land in ex- change for preserving the St. Alice Hotel. Other council members sup- ported tne demolition, quoting costs of up to $1 milion to main- tain the hotel. “*I'm all for the wrecking ball,”’ said Ald. Rod Clark, adding that the city could not afford to pump millions into maintaining the site. Ald. Frank Morris said further use of the St. Alice was limited because of the costs involved. “The consultant’s figures on the cost of restoration negated any possibility of social housing unless we were to underwrite it to some extent,’’ he said. Ald. Barbara Sharp, who also voted against the St. Alice demoli- tion, said council would not have any heritage buildings left if it only looked at the price tags. “The St. Alice is considered primary (heritage) importance,” she said. 3 - Wednesday, December 14, 1988 - North Shore News NEWS photo Terry Peters THE ST. Alice Hotel in the City of North Vancouver will be torn down in the New Year. NEWS photo Neil Lucente WEST VANCOUVER resident Michaet Lange inspects the oil-soaked beach outside his home in the 1500-block of Argyle Avenue. The source of the oil, which contaminated the waterfront area between Ambleside and Dundarave Fri- day evening, remains undetermined. See story, Page 1. Christmas News Classified Ads... Lifestyles......... North Shore Now Sports ..... TV Listings...... What's Going On WEATHER | Wednesday, sunny with cloudy periods. Thursday, mainly cleudy. Highs near 8°C. Second Class Registration Namber an | N. SHORE RESIDENTS HELP EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS Armenian relief underway EFFORTS ARE underway on the North Shore to provide support for Armenians working to restore order to those areas of the Soviet republic devastated by a powerful ear- thquake last week. The death toll from the quake stands at approximately 60,000, and an estimated one million peo- ple have been left homeless as a result of the disaster. As part of a national Red Cross campaign, Red Cross and local Armenian community volunteers will be accepting tax-deductible donations at Park Royal today through to Saturday. The Red Cross is also accepting relief funds through the Bank of Montreal, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the Toronto Dominion Bank, the Royal Bank and the Bank of Nova Scotia. In Horseshoe Bay, residents are manning a depot that will accept By MICHAEL BEC! News Reporter relief fund donations as well as winter clothing and blankets. The depot, operating from the old Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce building located at the corner Roya! Avenue and Bruce Street, will be open noon to 4 p.m. through to Monday. Money and goods collected will be turned over to the local Armenian community. Said Horseshoe Bay relief orga- nizer Liz Sheridan, ‘‘There are people in the world who might freeze to death over Christmas. We're all a part of this world. We should be doing something to help.’’ isis Cultural Outreach Interna- tional Society, a West Van- couver-based non-profit society working to promote global good- will, is also collecting donations for the Armenian relief fund. For more information about the socie- ty call 926-9700. The Armenian community cen- tres of Vancouver are accepting contributions directly. Contributions, payable to the Relief Fund For Armenia, may be sent to the Armenian Community Centre at 13780 Westminster Highway, Richmond, 8.C., V6V 1A2, or the Armenian Community Centre at 1260 West 67th Ave., Vancouver, B.C., V6P 2T2. For more information contact the Armenian community centre in Vancouver at 261-7411, or the Richmond centre at 276-9627. Engineers plead not guilty to Save-On root collapse charges FOUR ENGINEERS, cluding two from the North in- Shore, have pleaded not guilty to charges of profes- sional misconduct laid against them in a disciplinary inquiry by the Association of Professional Engineers of B.C. in con- nection with the April 23 Metrotown Save-On-Foods roof collapse. Ian Tacy, president of North Vancouver’s Tamm Tacy and Associates Ltd., and Joe Harrison, vice-president of the company, face the charges along with Tom London and Eric Man of Van- couver’s MSS Engineering (Struc- tural) Ltd. in a disciplinary inquiry being conducted this week. Tamm Tacy and MSS were the structural engineers on the Save- On project. The charges against the engineers follow release of the report from the inquiry into the roof collapse. In that report, inquiry commis- sioner Dan Closkey documented 16 “assumptions, decisions, judg- ments or miscalculations’’ by the two engineering firms that had each reduced the safety margin of the structure, and collectively had represented the prime cause of the collapse. The roof of the 100,000 square- foot megastore caved in April 23 minutes after official 9 a.m. open- ing ceremonies. Twenty people were injured when cars on the roof’s parking lot plunged into the store after steel roof beams buckled and gave way. ‘