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NEWS photo Tetry Peters

THE NORTH Vancouver City Fire Department is ready for the challenge of this year’s North Shore Garden Contest. Last year the department received an honorable mention in the contest and hopes to do better this year with this flower bed at the front of the firehall. Standing in front is Chief Doug Cairns; in the back, left, Bob Hanon and, right, Dan Hilton. See Friday’s paper for more garden contest details.

Ambleside revitalization was merchants’ initiative - Lanskail

AMBLESIDE MERCHANTS with businesses fronting a portion of Marine Drive included for upgrading as part of the $3.3 million Ambleside revitalization program are feel- ing the fiscal pinch with the recent closure of the busy

through-street.

The street, curbs and sidewalks between 15th and 19th streets have been removed to make way for a complete rebuilding of Marine Drive. Work began July 4 and will continue through July. The stretch between {5th and 13th streets will be tackled in August.

Said digruntled Ambleside mer- chant Saed Beshr, owner of Axel’s Cycle located in the 1800-block of Marine Drive: ‘It’s disgusting, disappointing and frustrating.”

Beshr said the timing has spelt disaster for his seasonal business, “Pye lasted and outsmarted the bad years and the bad weather, but this one is a hard one. I’m caught.”’ Beshr said his business is one-third of the usual volume. “Pm losing my edge, my hair and my sleep. I'm 51, and | don't want to have a heart attack.”

Rob Harrington, owner of West Van Florist, also located in the 1800-block cf Marine Drive, said he was among the approximately 200 area merchants who signed a petition in December favoring the revitalization project. But he said the way the construction is being handled came as a complete sur- prise.

He said the stores were notified June 30 that the strect would be totally closed to traffic, ‘it was quite a shock. 1 thought they'd do one half at a time. It’s insanity to shut down the whole village,” Harrington said.

He said his

walk-in trade is

By MICHAEL BE

Reporter

happens.”’

The construction work has been contracted to North Vancouver- based B A Blacktop Ltd. Said pro- ject manager John Kewley: ‘‘The

q

AMBLESIDE

Saed Beshr... “I'm fosing my edge, my hair and my sleep."’

inconvenience to merchants is less this way rather than paving one half at a time.”

merchant

The decision to choose the closure option was made by a committee of municipal and mer- chant representatives, chaired by Ald. Mark Sager.

Said Kewley: ‘‘The committee decided this was the best, quickest and least painful way of doing it.”

Kewley said the road being replaced had been in place for de-

AMBLESIDE REVITALIZATION EDITORIAL: SEE PAGE 6

down by at least 50 per cent since construction began. ‘‘We still have a phone business, but it's up and down like a yo-yo.”’

But said West Vancouver Mayor Don Lanskail: ‘It’s a merchant iniliative that the municipality is cooperating in. The Ambleside merchants came to us and we're supporting it. The leaders of the merchants agreed to this. The engineering advice was ihat the work could be done faster with a complete closure. Some pople don’t bother going to some meetings and aren't informed, and then start bitching when something

cades and was in need of replace- ment. The 1500 block of Marine was in particularly bad shape because it was built on swamp land covered with poor filler material. Geotechnical engineers who took core samples at the locatian hit solid ground only after drilling down 25 feet.

The cost of the project is being shared 75 per cent by the mer- chants and 25 per cent by the municipality. West Vancouver- Hawe Sound MLA John Reynolds successfully lobbied for the $1.2 million in provincial loan money allocated to the project.