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Scaling the heights

A TWO-WEEK training program for Lower Mainland firefighters, taught by experts from Loui-
siana, wrapped up last Friday evening at Woodcroft. During an exercise North Vancouver
District firefighter Malcolm Dickie pauses for a photograph as he descends thirteen storeys.

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New $10-miullion NVD
hali raises rancor

PLANS FOR the construction of

a new $10-million

municipal hall in North Vancouver District have come
under heavy fire during recent budget debate.

District council is expected to
introduce a new municipal budget
on May 6, and a larger municipal
hall is one of the major items up
for funding.

Council is considering the
allocation of $4.3 million to cover
the project this year; a further
$4.8 million is being considered
for inclusion in next year's
budget.

But some aldermen are ques-
tioning the need to spend the mil-
lions.

EnSting
Gul DING

PROPOSES
Th stare taances

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

— 1 mean he’s a good card-carry-
ing union member — if he went to
his brothers and sisters in the
teaching movement and said,
‘Well listen gang, we're going to
work July and August and we're
going to work Saturdays and
we're going to work until mid-
night.’ Is that a reasonable thing

SITE OF proposed changes to NVD Municipal! Hall.

Said Ald. Paul Turner, ‘‘Given
our track record on bidding, we'll
be fucky if it’s $10 milion —
given our experience with the
wave pool,”’ he said.

Turner argues that rather than
spending the money to build a
new hall, existing assets might be
better utilized.

Said Turner, ‘‘One approach
would be to increase the hours.
You can either do that by putting
in longer hours during the day, or
by working the Saturday. The se-
cond way is to put some functions
to satellite offices and link them
by computer.

Turner said another option is to
bank the $10 million and use the
interest to pay for increased ser-
vices.

But said Ald. Rick Buchols, ‘If
the left-wing loonies on council
want to talk about cutting services
and reducing the number of staff
we have, then I’m quite prepared
to go along and say we don’t need
an expanded hall. But council
seems to be hell-bent to provide
more and more services. The hal!
is currently under-standard with
respect to earthquakes, with
respect to square footage per
worker, and on and on.”

And increasing operating hours
at municipal hall, he said, will not
sit well with union staff.

“As 1 suggested to Mr. Turner

to do?"

Buchols argued that satellite
municipal offices are impractical.

“Could you imagine the
frustration of the taxpayer coming
into the office and being told they
have to pay their water bil] at an
office out in Seymour? The citi-
zens would go nuts,’ he said.

He also dismissed the notion of
banking $10 million to pay for in-
creased services: *‘By buying the
asset (a new hall), you've fixed
your cost. Renting is a mug's
game.”’

Meanwhile Ald. Joan Gadsby
maintains that providing new rec-
teational facilities for Seymour-
area residents should top the
municipal capital spending list.

But said Ald. Ernie Crist, who
supports the construction of a new
municipal hall, ‘The hall needs
upgrading to meet the municipal
standards. To fix that we would
have a $2-million expenditure. But
when we're finished we have a
municipal hall which is too small.
It's like taking your kid’s shoes to
the shoemaker to get them fixed
when you know that they are 100
small. The reason these aldermen
are against it is that they do not
understand that it does not cost
the taxpayer a penny. All the
money is coming from = land

See Process page 2

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