1139 Lonsdale Avenue Korth Vanscuver, 8.C. V7M 2H4 PETER SPECK Publisher 985-2131 (101) Doug Fsot Comptrolter 985-2131 (133) Linda Steait. Managing Editor. 885-2431 (778) Sales & Varkating Director 800-0511 (315) Oistrihutios Manager Bet (iz) weoaisl Gs) Disp) & Rad Cette Fax hewreroom Fax Cirssifled, Accounting & Main Office Fax Morth Shore Nows, founded in [909 as an independznt suburban vewspaper and qualified under Scheduie 161, Paragrapl: LEE of the Eavise Tax Act, is published cach Wednesday, Fridsy and Sunday by North Shore free Press Ltd. and distributed w every door un (he Norh Shore, Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product’ Agreement Nu. 0087238, Mailing rates availabie on sequest 963-3227 SDA DIVISION S; Entire contents © 1996 North Stiore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. Chris Jobrson Operations Manager _ 985-2131 (166) MRE R A ARB at PRAMS PS SENT TNE ORL, Bp ee BA Le ep Wiewpeoirt eficit debacle CHOOL TRUSTEES and the NDP government are both vying for public support in the debacle sur- rounding North Vaiucouver School District 44’s looming $5-million deficit, but swallowing the spin-doctored stories from either side is a recipe for acute indigestion because both sides have con- tributed to the district’s fiscal lunacy. The district might be underfunded as trustees claim, but that only makes deci- sions to provide perks such as leased vehicles and sick-pay benefits to admir- istrators that much more indefensible. The district’s $500,000 loss on its con- tinuing education program last year fur- ther underscores the dearth of market- ing and administrative savvy at District 44 offices. And the decision by District 44 trustees to reject government orders to retire $500,000 in debt this year is inexcusable. But the province’s bid to stake out the higher ground is a transparent failure. Its decision to push the complicated school board amalgamation process in the last year of its mandate is a ploy to make people forget the NDP’s previous fiscal follies. it’s too late for that, and the tsunami surrounding amalgamation locally only adds uncertainty to District 44’s budgeting process. Victoria’s orders to bridge teaching contracts while it slowly works toward a province-wide teaching contract removes an option for trustees to cut expenses. The district acknowledges it - can’t afford some clauses in its contract, but negotiations are closed thanks to the NDP’s edict. By submitting an unbalanced budget to Victoria, the trustees have put their heads on the chopping block. The blade is in the Education Ministry’s hands. If the trustees’ are incompetent, prove it. If not, fix the funding conundrum. But end the cur-, rent tit-for-tat stupidity now. | BENEATH ITS placid sur- face, urgent matters are stir- ring in Greater Tiddlycove. Start here: This is election year. Expect waves. And next Tuesday evening at 7:30 West Vancouverites —- and especially West West Vancouverites — should toddic down to Eagle Harbor school tu soak up informa- tion on the proposed western recre- ation centre. Our muscular mayor, Mark Sager, recreation director Kevin Pike, and new recreation manager Josie Chuback are meeting in the school at the behest cf the Western Community Services Society, chaired by John Clarke. (It’s shed the skin of being called the Eagle Harbor Community Services Society, which sounded too local.) The present centre at Eagle Harbor, a tiny but doughty facility housed in portable buildings next to Eagle Harbor schoo! and led by energetic Wendi Lacusta, is sched- uled to disappear Dec. 31, 1997. It's on West Vancouver Scheol Board property and, barring an extension of the present arrangement, the board will take it back for its own growing necds. The area schoo! population is exploding. And that’s only talking about three families — the Tom and Tina Bhineys, the Garry and Mary Fawleys, and the shy Lautens family, which have possibly taken YKNOW..I'VE GOT A HANKERING TO AUN FOR God's order to go forth and mullti- ply a shade too seriously. Closure of the little ree centre will make some “western” resi- dents, like Michelle Iclet, very unhappy. Unless something replaces it. Michelle, a gusto lady and member of the EHCSS, worries that the municipality won't have the dough to do much more than take the existing Eagle Harbor facilities — portables including an excellent weight room, good pot- tery-making equipment, a couple of meeting rooms and offices — and plunk them down a couple of miles away on the former British Columbia Railway property across from Gleneagles Golf Course. Our town acquired that property in 1994, But cash on hand for the THE LEADERSHIP OF THE B.C. NOP PARTY! new centre is ; another matter, Michelle said she’s been told that municipal services to the property would cost $250,000 alone. She has been lobbying and but- tonholing residents mightily to get a new centre. Which sounds like a motherhood issue. Who could resist ic? But my sense is that not all councillors, in these days of thin government wallets, are privately cnthusiastic about the project. There's a reasonable sentiment that, after all, no one in our long, thin community is more than 15 minutes away from the full-fledged recreation centre at 22nd and Marine. (Already bursting in some areas like gymnastics, says Kevin Pike.) Personally 1 love the present setup at Eagle Harbor, with an excellent grassy playing field, small but neat rooms, use of the adjoining school gym and (rebuilt. finally) play area, and Gwyneth Jones's day care centre — school, rec centre and day care amiably complementing each other on a convenient. one-stop site. What gives the BCR-site pro- posal some political heft is that it could be packaged with a seniors housing centre and much-needed renovations to municipally owned Gleneagles Golf Course, across the road. A project that benefits the young, the old, and golfers can’t be all bad. Michelle — wife of Vancouver mailbox Dear Editor: : It's obvious that the person | ho: wrote the, Dec. 20 North Shore News editorial doesn’t live: ‘on Panorama Drive in Deep Cov Where did he/she get the: idéa that Deep Cove was neighborly? If he/she would fike. te ‘ph me, I could tell him/her about some of the unneighborly things that occurred on Panorama Drive i in the past few years. For example, remember" Burrardview housing co-op? -Some people were oppo that development because it wou bring in welfare recipients to. Deep Cove. . Now the same people are unhap- py that “yuppies” might come here," which just proves the old sayi ing about pleasing people. Joan Elliot : North Vancouver - Sun auto writer Tony Whitney, inc! dentally — is realistic in'her “wish list.” She doesn't expect to see a swimming pool. Or an ice surface. Not right away. . -“We're not asking for that,’ me because personally! think it's too much right now. There's not that ~ money.” On the other hand, she - wants (o sce a master plan “so that, three or four years from now it's ° not still going to be those little portables sitting there and all the big trucks fiom Horseshoe Bay parking around it.” Fair enough. And remember — it's election year. ; eee What's economic decline? Here's a down-your-street defini- tion: It's when communities like |; Narth Vancouver City and North;: Van District can't come up with ;° $105,000 for school-crossing per- °. sonnel till June 30. Folks, my city could afford one of those nice old gentlemen when [ started school — and that was after: years of Depression, in September "8 1939, a ese Lloyd Wream and Dr. Roff Johannson merit a nod of support for their appeal Monday to West Vancouver Council for a conflict- of-interest bylaw with “a higher standard of behavior and expecta- tion ... than exists in the provincial legislation.” , Let's hope so.