day night at the Horseshoe

Bay ferry terminal over the

B.C. Ferry Corp.’s (BCFC) decision to run 24-hour sail- ings this summer between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo.

The all-night ferry schedule was implemented Thursday night with the introduction of new sailings departing Horseshoe Bay at I! p.m., la.m., 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

BCFC spokesman Bill Bouchard

Golfballs Seymour

A NORTH Vancouver man is up to his eyeballs in golfballs collected from bad golfers who bash balls onto his prop- erty.

By Michael Becker News Reporter

Seymour Parkway resident Bill. Gibbons _ lives across the street from the Seymour Golf and Country Club practice range. He has gathered approximately 1,900 errant golf balls whacked into his neighborhood over the past year.

Gibbons claims that he finds at least one golf ball on his Property every second or third day. His green Jaguar XKE has been hit several times while parked in his driveway..

Cars driving by on Mount Seymour. Parkway have been hit too.

Last year in June, at 2:30

a.m., a golf ball shot through a living room window facirg the practice range. Gibbons, who was in the room working, says the ball missed his head by in- ches. . “T stood up (to stretch myself out; suddenly there was a bang like a bomb dropping on Lon- don,” he said.

Shattered glass sprayed over him.

Gibbons believes the ceye- glasses he was wearing at the time saved, him from being blinded by the glass splinters that covered him. -

Since then the professional photographer has systematical- ly chronicled individual inci- dents of wayward balls.

Gibbons complained to golf club board directors in July.

Said Gibbons in a fetter to the board, ‘‘So far the only near-tragedy has involved myself — a close call with blindness. But it is certain that unless the golfball bombard- ment is discontinued, one of your members’ lethal objects will crash into the windshield of a fast-moving car or a resi- dent’s large window....””

The board subsequently ap- proved the erection of an 80- fect-high net along the Mount Seymour Parkway side of the driving range.

The net would augment a stand of 40- to $0-foot-high trees situated between houses lining the golf course and the driving range.

Although the acquisition of a Net was approved by the golf course board last summer, the ball barrier has yet to be put

Mount

up. Paid Gibbons, ‘We've been collecting balls ever since the incident. Unfortunately we're dealing with a bunch of autocrats who don't give a damn."’

But he questions whether a net will solve the problem.

By Surj Rattan News Reporter

said he was aware of the planned protest but hoped it would not

disrupt any ferry sailings.

“The information we have is that there will be people out to- night (Thursday) at Horseshoe Bay between 9 p.m. and I! p.m. We just hope to get the service started tonight,’ said Bouchard.

“We certainly hope there won't be a major disruption, because we've been getting positive feed- back from people.”*

driving NV Mount to distraction

MOUNT SEYMOUR Parkway resident Bill Gibbons is paying a price for living across the street from the Seymour Golf and Country Club practice range. He has gathered approximately 1,900 errant golf bails over the past year.

“To put a driving range parallel and adjacent to a main highway almost borders on the criminal. It’s the same as some stupid bugger running around with a gun and firing indis- criminately.

“*T want the danger removed. Have the balls shot in a dif- ferent direction. If they’re not prepared to do that then I'm going to take this to court,”’ he said, . Meanwhile, Bruce Jaffary, Seymour Golf and Country Clud general manager, ac- knowledges that wayward balls are « problem in the area where Gibbons lives.

On Tuesday the golf cub received a building permit from North Vancouver District of- ficials to install a $40,000 net. The net will be 250 yards long and 80 feet high.

Said Jaffary, ‘tlt will proba- bly stop 98% of the balls. But if some idiot gets out on the range and is determined to hit a ball over it —- some idiots feel that netting is iust a chailenge to hit over.”

Jaffary said the golf club had gone to council in the fail to apply for permission to in- stall a net.

“Iv’s gone around in merry circles at council. We finally got the thing approved with a great deal of difficulty. We're

going to rush right through on it and get it up in a month providing the weather con- Unues to cooperate,’ he said.

Jaffary said the practice range, which is open tc the general public on Monda3s and Fridays, is becoming increas- ingly popular.

Said Jaffary, “it is a fact of life that the quality of the golfers using the range on Mondays and Fridays is dif- ferent. There are some very good golfers who respect the thing, but there are also some awful yahoos who just hit the ball anywhere and don’t care where it goes. Ninety per cent of our problem is on the Mon- days and Fridays.’’

Said Jaffary of Gibbons’ shattering brush last year with a nocturnal golfball, ‘I tried to convince him that it wasn't our members, amd it's almost im- possible to hit a ball in the middle of the night.

“Not to. belittle his near miss, it could have easily been some punk standing iu the street throwing a ball through his window. It’s very hard to hit balls in the middie of the night. There were definitely a bunch of punks out there that night because a window was broken in oue of our member's houses as well.’’ :

Friday, June 26, 1992 - North Shore News - 3

| All-night sailing opposition heats up

Residents plan protest at Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal

WEST VANCOUVER residents planned to protest Thurs-

Bur Ingrid Fischer, spokesman for the Horseshoe Bay group Stop Overnight Sailings (SOS). said many people are opposed to the 24-hour sailings.

She added that the issue will af- fect more than just Horseshoe Bay residents.

“*This is a problem for everyone. We just want to make people aware that the day line-ups (at Horseshoe Bay terminal) will not be any less longer as a result of the all-night sailings.””

Fischer said she expected both parents and children to turn up in full force Thursday night to pro- test the new ferry schedule. She added that West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager had been named as the protest’s leader.

But Sager said that while he might turn out to lend his sup- port, he was not leading any or- ganized protest.

Fischer said Horseshoe Bay is a community, not a ferry terminal.

She also accused the BCFC of not consulting with Horseshoe Bay residents prior to making the decision to run all-night sailings.

On Wednesday morning several people handed out information sheets to rush-hour motorists on the North Vancouver and West Vancouver approaches to the Lions Gate Bridge informing them about the impact of the 24-hour

- sailings.

The sheets also encouraged the public to write protest letters to Premier Mike Harcourt, Finance Minister Glen Clark, the minister

Dog dirt

44 /t boggles the mind... Why are they (BCFC) insisting on plugging up an area like Horseshoe Bay and not even think about doing it to Tsawwassen... 99

—Ingrid Fischer, $.0.S, Spokesman

responsible for the BCFC, and Bob Williams, the provincial gov- ernment’s secretary to Crown corporations.

“It boggles the mind to wonder what is behind this motive. Why are they (BCFC) insisting on piugging up an area like Horse- shoe Bay and not even think about doing it to ‘Tsawwassen where they have truck routes?’’ said Fischer.

Bouchard said the 24-hour sail- ings will be operated for only a 75-day trial period during the summer months .and will then be reviewed by the BCFC.

Passengers who use the !? a.m. and 3 a.m. sailings will be offered 50% fare discounts.

“The concept of around-the- clock sailings is something new and exciting for B.C. Ferries and has come about as a possible solu- tion to the steadily increasing traffic demands,"’ said Bouchard.

flung in

legislature debate Schreck called gov’t ‘lapdog’

NORTH VANCOUVER-Lonsdale NDP MLA _ David Schreck took the brunt of heated debate on a dog day

Tuesday afternoon in the

Victoria legislature: Surrey-

White Rock Liberal MLA Wilf Hurd called him a ‘‘lap-

dag’’ of government.

Hurd was tossed out of the legislature for his name-calling ef- fort.

The sparks flew during debate on health care and Bill 71.

The Liberals had put an amendment forward to refer the act to the select standing commit- tee on health and social services. Schreck chairs the committee.

But Schreck said that he didn't think the act should be referred back to committee.

“It was just a stalling tactic. Wilf Hurd got up and got off on attacking me. | didn’t give notice to it One way or another but other members of the house felt it was unpartiamentary and rose on points of order.

“*He called me a lapdog of gov- ernment. The other members ask- ed for the offending remarks to be withdrawn, So at that point he stood up and said that on a mat- ter of principle he believed everything he said and refused to withdraw the remark,’’ Schreck said.

Schreck said the remark showed disrepect for speaker Joan Sawicki.

**The issue becomes: does the member obey the speaker? At that point we're talking on a high mat- ter of principle,”’ he said. .

But according to Hurd, Schreck’s position .regarding the bill ‘‘disturbed’* him.

Said Hurd, ‘tHe (Schreck) rose to suggest that the bill wasn’t worthy to be referred to the committee that he chaired. ! found that to be absolutely ridicu- lous.

By Michael Becker News Reporte

vtopa

SURREY-WHITE Rock MLA Wilf Hurd

Liberal

“ft obviously indicates to us that the government has absolute- ly no commitment to the legislative committee process at all, if the most important bill to alfect health care in the last 10 years in the province isn’t fit to be referred then what is?’’

Hurd said that it was not his in- tention to challenge the speaker.

“L certainly wasn’t challenging the chair, and [ fele I hadn't im- pugneéd the integrity of the honor- able member. Things are getting pretty hot over here, and these kinds of things are going to hap- pen I guess,”’ he said.