GREAT CAPILANO River Duck Race ticket-holders _ Upset that their rubber ducks likely did not leave the start- ing gate targeted their wrath at race organizers on - Monday. By lan Noble News Reporter London and Pi Vancouver, :. More than 25,000 ducks car- ° ying the numbers of ticket pur- ‘chasers were supposed ‘to be feleased in the Capilano River near the Upper Levels Highway ' ’ for the Sunday charity event. But organizers, saying a rain- © swollen river made collecting the: ducks at race’s end dangerous, released only about 2,500 ducks in a shortened event. “© The’ ducks raced were selected randomly after they were loaded into a large container and stirred up with a high-pressure ¢ Shirley Chan, of North $1,100. fire hose. Approximately 25,000 of the 30,000 ducks available for the race were sold. Former: Rotarian Patrick Murray told the News that not - releasing 90% of the $5-a-ticket ducks was scandalous. “T bought five tickets,” he said. “I expect five ducks with my name on them to be put in the river.” ~ He said the race stiould have been cancelled and run ‘again. ‘The Rotary Club, Murray said, did not have the right to pick * which of the 25,000 ducks would get to race. « : /, He said he understood that the race is for charity, but added if Rotary wanted @ donation; the club should have asked for one. 1- North Vancouver resident Brian Gardner agreed. He said he -did not simply make a donation to the club, but bought a chance fo. win prizes such as trips, a computer and golf clubs. » He'said the Rotary Club tipped off the public. , LUCKY DUCK WINNERS THE BIG winner of the North Shore's Eighth Annual Great Capilano River Duck Race was Janice Ewart, of Vancouver, who picked up a luxurious trip to s valued at $23,000. Second prize went to Derek Puiuimore, of Surrey, who won a trip to London worth an estimated $7,250. Third prize, a $4,950 trip to Hong Kong, went to L. Antoniazzi, of North The fourth-place prize of a seven-day wip for four to Disneyland, valued at $2.60, went to Yuko Tokunoh, of Burnaby. Other winners included: ; 7 . * Janine Carlson, of North Vancouver, $2,500 worth of grocery vouchers: fancouver, a $2,000 computer system; ¢ Kyle Main, of Vancouver, a $2,000 set of golf clubs: * Donna Green, of Langley, an $1,800 Okanagan vacation; : * Silas and Angus Borsos, of North Vancouver, a $1,200 pair of mountain bikes; * A. Paton, of West Vancouver, a a Rocky Mountaineer rail tour to Calgary worth a fast-running river made putting booms across the tiver too dangerous. Booms ‘keep the: ducks from floating into Vancouver harbor and on into the Pacific Ocean. McKilligan said organizers had two choices: | postpone the race or shorten it. The logistics of postponing the race were not feasible, said McKilligan. “IC's an incredible undertaking,” he said. Other’ considerations’ included the -§.000-plus spectators who anticipated a duck race and costs to rerun the race. Those costs would have taken a “huge bite” out of the more than $90,000 in profits to charity generated by the race, McKilligan said. There was also no guarantee the same conditions wouldn’ { exist on a rescheduled date. _ “Rotarians felt we made the right decision and it was done fairly,” he said. On duck race tickets, the Rotary Club reserves the right to NEWS photo Brad Leda tiga i VOLUNTEERS LINE the banks ‘of the Capitano River Sunday as -, they collect ducks reaching the end of their jundraising journey. | But Murray said a big difference exists between rescheduling ’ the event und not putting all the ducks in the river.” - Sunday’s abbreviated edition took four minutes instead of the “ usual 12 to 15 minutes, said McKilligan. ~ yA i But the race results will stand, McKilligan sais “This. over” : The Ratary Club said it would lear from this year" s race, ‘the : eighth run by the club. In future races, Rotarians nay use: UB But race organizers said the race was decided fairly. North Vancouver Rotary Club president F Bob McKilligan a N TE R N E T. - ALERT: the North Shore. News . is: electric and avail- able on, ..: the “WorldWide Web. By Michael Becker ” News Editor North’ Shore ‘News — readers ‘equipped with a per- ‘sonal computer and a. “modem ‘can visit the “ Mlewspaper’s site for “provocative opinions, reviews, fea- tures and news coverage. The News Web site can be found at: www.nsnews.com/News and is ‘hosted by Internet Direct. For best results, visit the News _ with a Web browser such as Mosaic or Netscape. Said Internet Direct president David Schulz, 25, “With something _like the North Shore News going “on-line as one of the first communi- “ty papers to do'so, f think they'll teally have a good readership out of. 8 ge _/ Internet Direct has witnessed phenomena! growth as an Internet access provider over recent months. “We've gone from about 200 NEWS ‘operations manager — Johnson .... Net is the future. _ Chris Johnson, an said clients in January to 3,000 clients today,” said Schulz. He said that com- puter industry pundits . are speculating that 1995 will be the “biggest year ever” for _ the sale of personal computers (PC). i “Pve seen an inde- pendent study that said that the on-line’ busi- ness will be larger than cable (TV) and the PC business. combined. This means that there is a huge revolution going on in our society,’ Schulz said. i Said News operations manager “Jt seems that the Net is the future of publishing. I think everyone is going to have some sort of access to it.” Escalating global Chris newsprint prices and depletion of the raw, material necessary to produce paper are some of the factors making an electronic presence an appealing option for media players. “We have committed to a six- month trial on the Web. We would like to look at developing new sources of revenue and new ways of presenting our product,” Jolinson said. jr amend the race and decide the winner in a different manner, he said. boats to place booms, McKilligan said. Trucker loses load ALBERTAN TIMOTHY Skiba’'s wallet was $325 lighter after an accident led to charges of having an insecure load and failing to maintain a proper log Monday. His truck fost its wheels in frent of North Vancouver RCMP headquarters at 13th Street and St. Georges Avenue because pins used to lock the wheels in place were not secured. Other than scratches on the pavement, no damage occurred, said the RCMP. n