Your Number One Suburban Newspaper THE VOICE OF NORTH AND W ty January 12 Bo a , es “ a4 mf ER Pers lation 986-1337 48 pages 25¢ J “BEING ON the farm is just ducky for Nathan Graham. Nathan and his friends spend a a é pleasant day at Maplewood Farm in North Vancauver. room rates NORTH SHORE hotels will be upping their room rates for Expo. But estimated hikes are conservative compared to their downtown counter- parts. In comparing standard or ‘rack’ room rates from summer 1985 to those pro- jected for summer 1986, local increases will run from 10 to 15 per cent versus some Vancouver hotels planning to increase their rates by up to 40 per cent. Some North Shore hotels are already pre-booked with regulars, and therefore will not be chasing Expo business. MODERATE INCREASES International Plaza Hotel general manager Gordon Chow said rates for @ single room in the 152-room North Vancouver hotel, which were $78 in the summer 1985, will be raised by approximately 13 per cent to $88 in the summer 1986. [In West Vancouver, the Park Royal Hotel’s 30 rooms are already 85 per cent booked with regular customers in 1986, according to inanager Mario Corsi. Though the hotel has spent approximately $200,000 on renovations in the past year, room rates will be raised a nomimal five per cent, Corsi said. Ken Hutchinson, owner of both the Avalon and Lynn- wood Hotels, said room rates in his hotels will be in- creased by 15 and 10 per cent respectively for 1986; or from $43 single to $50 single at the 52-room Avalon and from $32 single to $36 single at the 32-room Lynnwood. ALREADY BOOKED The Avalon is already vir- tually booked for Expo, he said, while the Lynnwood is being reserved for its regular clientele of long-haul truck drivers, In Lower Lonsdale, North Vancouver’s two grand old low-rent hotel veterans, the St. Alice and the Olympic, will be increasing rates anywhere from 11] to 28 per cent. Singles at the 3t-room Alice, according to owner Ernest Tan, will go from $22 to $25. Olympic manager Don McFarland said the hotel's bottom-scale single price of $17.50 will not increase for 1986. The top-scale rooms, however, will go up 28 per cent, from $28.50 to $36.50. RENOVATIONS The increase, McFarland said, is due mainly to recent renovations and replacement of televisions in a percentage of the hotel’s 44 rooms. On the North Vancouver waterfront, the new Hiker acquitted after blizzard A VANCOUVER engineer was acquitted Tuesday of failing to obey a sign restricting hiking in Mount Seymour Park. Doug Dean, 31, was orig- inally charged under B.C, Park Act regulations follow- ing a night spent with Van- couver police Cst. Dave Watts, 30, and paramedic By TIMOTHY RENSHAW Frank Wieler, 26, trapped in blizzard conditions on the mountain. North Vancouver provin- cial court Judge J.B. Paradis acquitted Dean after che engineer testified that he had seen a sign warning hikers, but had not seen the part of the sign that indicated hiking on the trail was prohibited. Dean, Wieler and Watts, all experienced climbers, set out at 8 a.m. on Feb. 9 to climb Seymour, but poor weather conditions and ap- proaching darkness forced them to camp 100 metres from the summit. The trio had completed a climb on the east face of Mount Seymour’s second peak before a heavy snowfall increased the danger of avalanche. They subsequently dug caves in the snow and spent the night on the mountain. A search, involving 284 search and rescue man-hours and costing thousands of dollars, ensued. Confusion as to which area the climbers were in and a search for alternate routes to that area hampered rescue Lonsdale Quay Hotel, scheduled to open in mid- March, will be charging be- tween $85 and $120 for its 57 rooms. The recent recession has affected most Lower Mainland hotels, said execu- tive vice-president of the British Columbia Hotels’ . Association (BCHA) Rick.” Higgs. mys “Since 1982, most hotels have been charging rates well below their rack rates,’’ Higgs said. “ EXPO UPGRADING He added that 1985 was the first year,that rates had been increased in most hotels since 1981. Approximately $32 million had thus far been invested by Vancouver-area hotels in renovation and upgrading for-Expo, Higgs said, ‘‘and that figure will be close to $40 million by the time the fair opens." Higgs emphasized that of the two million room nights available for Expo visitors from the 114 Vancouver- area BCHA member hotels, 5S per cent have yet to be sold. Higgs said rate increases of between 10 and 15 per cent for 1986 would be con- sidered acceptable by the BCHA, depending on renovations. . “Where we would be get- ting concerned is if rates were being raised over 20 per cent without the correspon- ding renovations to justify the increase,”* ordeal efforts. On Feb, 10 at 11:15 a.m., the trio appeared at the Mt. Seymour ski area. All were in good condition. The charge against Dean was the first ever laid under the B.C. Park Act's Sec. 77. No appeal of Tuesday's decision is planned by the Crown at this time.