June saw the highest number of crossings of the Golden Ears Bridge since January of this year.

Around 755,600 vehicles drove over the bridge last month, or 25,200 per day. That’s up from 735,800 trips in May and 688,200 in April.

It is, however, still short of the 2004 projected estimate of 29,000 daily crossings.

“Admittedly, this is still below that,” said TransLink spokesman Drew Snider. “When we opened it up, we were in the middle of that economic downturn which none of us really predicted in 2004, when we did those projections.”

Snider noted that crossings on June 30 – the busiest day in 2010 – exceeded the 2004 estimate by more than a thousand.

Busy summer for capital works. p8Health Care

To improve the world, start at home. p6

Two people who grow medi-cal marijuana in a house in Pitt Meadows are vowing

to fi ght the city as it amends a by-law to shut their operation down.

In a cul-de-sac at the end of a quiet residential street, the pair have just harvested a third crop of 98 plants for a woman who suf-fers from leukemia.

She uses marijuana to control pain by turning it into a tea and blending it with spaghetti sauce.

“We are willing to fi ght,” said Shannon Rowe, who has a Desig-nated-Person Production Licence

from Health Canada – a permit that allows her to grow legal pot.

She is growing for her uncle Gerald, who has a spinal injury.

“This is a fi ght for people who are ill, who don’t have the energy to fi ght,” she added.

The man who owns the Pitt Meadows house, who wishes to remain anonymous, is behind Le-gal Grow Canada – a non-profi t society that facilitates medical marijuana grow-ops.

He has houses with medical grow operations in Vancouver, Mission, Maple Ridge and Co-quitlam – all functioning without any problems from city offi cials,

he said.The Pitt Meadows house cur-

rently has four people licensed to grow for others – the maximum allowed by Health Canada.

Rowe said they informed the city and police about the medical grow-op before they set up last year.

They passed an electrical in-spection and had a city building offi cial look at the house.

Three crops and eight months later, city offi cials sent them a letter saying they had 24 hours to shut down.

The threat was extended to 30 days – a deadline which has since

passed.In the meantime, Pitt Meadows

council gave two readings to an amendment to the city’s land use bylaw to prohibit growing mari-juana for medicinal use in resi-dential and agricultural zones.

If the amendment passes, the city will be one of the fi rst in Can-ada to use a municipal bylaw to restrict an activity that’s allowed under federal regulations.

Growing medical marijuana for personal use will still be permit-ted in the city, but growing for others as a home-based business will not be allowed.

THE NEWS

Pot growers taking on cityColleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Shannon Rowe and a Pitt Meadows house owner have licences to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes, but the city is trying to stop them.

Golden Ears Bridge traffic up

See Bridge, p13

See Marijuana, p5

Friday, July 16, 2010 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢www.mapleridgenews.com

Gardening

Summer fl owers that can take the heat.p25

Opinion 6

Health Care 6

River tales 21

Parenting 24

Home&gardening 25

Acts of Faith 40

Scoreboard 45

Index

Still below original projections

S t o r y b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n s

After 125 years, old post office

still the heart of Whonnock.

See story, p3

b y C h r i s t i n e Ly o ncontributor

Tucked away next to the old Whonnock Red-and-White gen-eral store, down on River Road at the foot of 272nd Street, sits a tiny wooden building, barely

bigger than a typical one-car garage. Half-obscured by rhododendrons, with ample parking for two, maybe three vehicles on the paved shoulder, the Whonnock Post Of-fi ce services some 2,000 addresses between 240th Street and the Mission border, and has linked the rural communities of Whon-nock, Albion, Ruskin, and Stave Falls with the outside world for more than a century.

A small red sign that simply reads “Whonnock” is attached to the side of the store next door, betraying the post offi ce’s location. There is little else to distinguish it from a garden shed on the side of the road.

Business is unhurried this summer after-noon, as most things are in Whonnock. Ev-ery few minutes another car pulls up, and another customer walks up the concrete steps into the post offi ce. There’s room for maybe four or fi ve customers at a time, and come Christmas there’s often a line out the door, says postmaster Sue Schulze.

But despite its size, the post offi ce offers every service the much larger outlets do.

“Hallo, Sue,” an elderly gentleman calls out upon entering the post offi ce. He’s here to pick up his mail from one of the 180 post offi ce boxes on site, as many Whonnockians opt to do, rather than have it delivered to their homes.

“It cuts down on fraud,” says Britta Ced-erberg, who’s been coming to the post offi ce since she moved to Whonnock in the 1970s. “It’s here, its secure and Sue knows us. We don’t have to worry about it being stolen.”

In rural Whonnock, where many homes are built on acreages set far back from the main roads, some mailboxes are 100 metres from front doors – easy pickings for some-one looking to steal mail.

“Sue takes care of us,” says Cederberg.For some, picking up their mail them-

selves is just an excuse to trundle down and have a chat.

“You come down here every day and you get to run into people and see what they’re up to,” says Holly Long, who was born and raised in nearby Stave Falls. “It’s the centre of life around here.”

So it has been since the post offi ce fi rst opened for business in 1885.

On Friday, July 30, the post offi ce is cele-brating its 125th anniversary with a birthday party complete with cake and refreshments from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Canada Post has issued a limited edition commemorative stamp to celebrate the post offi ce’s anniversary, and Schulze has had a series of postcards printed for the occasion.

She is just the 13th postmaster at the Whonnock Post Offi ce since it opened 125 years ago.

“I love my job,” says Schulze. “It’s very social. I know everyone by name. It’s pretty

strange to get someone in here who I don’t know, actually.”

The personal service isn’t lost on her cus-tomers.

“If this wasn’t here, I’d have to go into town, and there you’re just a faceless num-ber,” says Kelly Pieterse, a school teacher at Harry Hooge elementary who’s lived in Whonnock for close to 10 years now. “Sue knows everyone by name. It really is the cen-tre of town.”

The post offi ce was originally housed in the Whonnock General Store, a few metres from where it sits today. When the store burned down in 1916, the post offi ce was given its own building on the site it occupies today. The building was rebuilt in the 1932, and save for the addition of a sorting room out

the back, it remains largely as it has for the past 80 years.

In the early days, the mail came by train, but the community of Whonnock was so small, the train didn’t even slow down. In-coming mail was hurled from the train in a heavy canvas bag, while outgoing mail was hoisted atop a wooden post close to the tracks so the bag could be snagged with a hook and hauled on board as the train whizzed by.

At least, that’s how it was supposed to hap-pen.

According local historian Fred Braches, on the occasions when the hook would miss its mark, the mail bag would be gutted like a pig, its contents spilling out over a quarter mile of track behind the train, letters litter-ing the ground.

Any mail bound for Langley was rowed across the Fraser River, or, in winter, dragged across the frozen river on a sled.

Regular delivery service began in 1938, and today three rural routes operate out of the post offi ce.

A few modern touches have been added. A computer cash register and parcel scanner sit in one corner of Schulze’s offi ce.

And while technological innovations like email have cut down on the volume of let-ters, Internet sites like eBay have increased the number of parcels coming through the post offi ce.

At the heart of Whonnock

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Sue Schulze is the 13th postmaster at the Whonnock post office, a social hub for residents in east Maple Ridge.

Post offi ce celebrates 125 years with party next Friday

b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Schulze bought the post office building, rebuilt 80 years ago, in 1994, when she became postmaster.

See Post office, p4

“You come down here every day and you get to run into people and see what they’re up to.” Holly Long, Stave Falls resident

“During Christmas, we have them stacked high to the ceiling,” she says.

But for the most part, nothing much has changed. The work is still done by hand, and Schulze still sorts all the mail herself when she gets to work at 8:30 a.m. every morning.

“I have a pretty good commute,” she says, pointing to a window on the side of the feed shop, several metres away. “That’s my bedroom window.”

Schulze says she fell in love with Whonnock immediately when she moved there from Van-couver Island in the ear-ly 1980s. Originally from Bournemouth, England, she says she was at-tracted to the post offi ce because it reminded her of the quaint postal out-lets of the English coun-tryside of her youth.

“There’s hardly any of them left anymore,” she says.

Rural outlets like the Whonnock Post Offi ce are becoming a thing of

the past as well, with just handful remaining in the Fraser Valley.

In the 1980s, Canada Post tried to close many of the smaller post offi ces in a bid to centralize ser-vices and save money. The Whonnock Post Of-fi ce managed to escape the axe only because the community rallied to-gether to save it.

“It’s sort of like city hall, it’s the heart of downtown Whonnock,” says Schulze, who took over as postmaster in 1994. “If someone’s lost

their keys, or if they have a horse to sell, they’ll phone me.”

She once got a phone call from a woman in On-tario, inquiring as to the location of her grand-mother’s grave at the nearby Whonnock Cem-etery, which she was able to help her locate.

Schulze owns the post offi ce building, as well as the Red-and-White store next door, which is now a feed shop, both of which she has immaculately maintained. Keeping that history alive is a role

she takes seriously.“It’s part of Whon-

nock’s connection to the past,” she says. “If I ever have to sell it, I’m going to make sure it goes to the right person, some-one who will look after it and take care of it.

“It’s a living part of his-tory.”

That history, it would appear, is in good hands.

The City of Pitt Mead-ow was awarded more than $3 million in fund-ing Thursday for the construction of a green community centre.

President of the Trea-sury Board of Canada and Minister for the Asia-Pacifi c Gateway, Stockwell Day an-nounced the Green

Municipal Fund grant at the South Bonson Community Centre, which is already being built in a waterfront village near the Fraser River.

“The Government of Canada is assist-ing municipalities across the country in achieving their goal of

a cleaner and health-ier environment for Canadians through the Green Municipal Fund,” said Day. “To-day’s announcement is another example of how the government is helping Pitt Meadows build a greener future for its citizens.”

The city is using

$302,357 in grant fund-ing and $3,023,568 in low interest loan fund-ing to construct the centre, which will ob-tain its Leadership in Energy and Environ-mental Design certifi -cation once complete.

“The City of Pitt Meadows appreciates the support of the Green Municipal Fund for the construction of the South Bonson

Community Centre,” said Mayor Don Ma-cLean. “This is a build-ing that the whole com-munity can be proud of and it certainly dem-onstrates our commit-ment to keep our city green while meeting the recreational and cultural needs of our residents.”

The Government of Canada endowed the Federation of Canadi-an Municipalities with $550 million to estab-lish the Green Munici-pal Fund.

Pitt Meadows gets $3M for Bonson centre

Post office from p3

‘Rural post offices becoming thing of the past’

OnlineFor video, visit

www.mapleridgenews.com

MRNEWS

“During Christmas, we have them stacked high to the ceiling,” she says.

But for the most part, nothing much has changed. The work is still done by hand, and Schulze still sorts all

the mail herself when she gets to work at 8:30 a.m. every morning.

“I have a pretty good commute,” she says, pointing to a window on the side of the feed shop, several metres away. “That’s my bed-room window.”

Schulze says she fell in love with Whonnock immediately when she moved there from Van-couver Island in the early 1980s. Originally from Bournemouth, England, she says she was attracted to the post offi ce because it

reminded her of the quaint postal outlets of the English countryside of her youth.

“There’s hardly any of them left anymore,” she says.

Rural outlets like the Whonnock Post Offi ce are becoming a thing of the past as well, with just handful remaining in the Fraser Valley.

In the 1980s, Canada Post tried to close many of the smaller post of-fi ces in a bid to central-ize services and save money. The Whonnock Post Offi ce managed to escape the axe only because the community rallied together to save it.

“It’s sort of like city hall, it’s the heart of downtown Whonnock,” says Schulze, who took over as postmaster in 1994. “If someone’s lost their keys, or if they have a horse to sell, they’ll phone me.”

She once got a phone call from a woman in Ontario, inquiring as

to the location of her grandmother’s grave at the nearby Whon-nock Cemetery, which she was able to help her locate.

Schulze owns the post offi ce building, as well as the Red-and-White store next door, which is now a feed shop, both of which she has im-maculately maintained. Keeping that history alive is a role she takes seriously.

“It’s part of Whon-nock’s connection to the past,” she says. “If I ever have to sell it, I’m going to make sure it goes to the right person, some-one who will look after it and take care of it.

“It’s a living part of history.”

That history, it would appear, is in good hands.

The City of Pitt Meadow was awarded more than $3 million in funding Thurs-day for the construction of a green community centre.

President of the Treasury Board of Canada and Min-ister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, Stockwell Day an-nounced the Green Munici-pal Fund grant at the South Bonson Community Centre, which is already being built in a waterfront village near the Fraser River.

“The Government of Cana-da is assisting municipalities across the country in achiev-ing their goal of a cleaner and healthier environment for Canadians through the Green Municipal Fund,” said Day. “Today’s announce-ment is another example of how the government is helping Pitt Meadows build

a greener future for its citi-zens.”

The city is using $302,357 in grant funding and $3,023,568 in low interest loan fund-

ing to construct the centre, which will obtain its Leader-ship in Energy and Environ-mental Design certification once complete.

“The City of Pitt Meadows appreciates the support of the Green Municipal Fund for the construction of the South Bonson Community Centre,” said Mayor Don MacLean. “This is a build-ing that the whole commu-nity can be proud of and it certainly demonstrates our commitment to keep our city green while meeting the rec-reational and cultural needs of our residents.”

The Government of Cana-da endowed the Federation of Canadian Municipalities with $550 million to establish the Green Municipal Fund.

The fund supports part-nerships and leveraging of both public and private sec-tor funding to reach higher standards of air, water and soil quality, and climate pro-tection.

Pitt Meadows gets $3M for Bonson centre

Post office from p3

‘Rural post offices becoming thing of the past’

OnlineFor video, visit

www.mapleridgenews.com

MRNEWS

THE NEWS/files

Construction has already started on the South Bonson centre.

“Now we want to stay underground,” said Rowe.

“We don’t want to deal with this. We’ve got nothing to hide. Go after the people with guns.”

But city offi cials point out there were two il-legal grow operations found at the house be-fore the residents set up their medical enter-prise.

In nearby Maple Ridge, police seized 1,744 pot plants from a medicinal marijuana grow-op last month that was licensed to grow a maximum of 73. There was a shoot-ing at another medical grow-op, while a com-passion club has set up in downtown Maple Ridge.

The city has also re-ceived complaints from neighbours.

“We just don’t want to see these set up in residential zones,” said city building offi cial Dave Bruce.

“If this was a license for an individual to grow marijuana for personal use, I don’t think it is an issue we would pursue, but when a person does this for commercial purposes, that seems to suggest it should be occurring in more appropriately zoned locations.”

A medicinal canna-bis advocate, however, thinks the city should be talking to the grow-ers instead of sending them underground.

Michelle Rainey, a Maple Ridge resident and vice-president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, said everyone in-volved – city, growers, activists and Health Canada – need to open a dialogue.

“I don’t believe the way the city is going about doing things is right. It’s more of a

witch hunt than any-thing else, which is rather sad,” she said.

“They are targeting someone who is ill and has a medical condi-tion.”

A former banker and currently director of marketing for an alter-native medicine jour-nal, Treating Yourself Magazine, Rainey said getting a Heath Can-ada permit isn’t easy. The exemption form is 33 pages and patients must satisfy legal and medical conditions

set by Ottawa before a permit to possess mari-juana is issued. If the person wants to grow their own marijuana and purchase seeds from Prairie Plant Sys-tems (PPS) — the only government-approved supplier – they must complete another ap-plication.

If they can’t grow their own crop, a “des-ignated person” who clears a criminal re-cord check must apply for a licence.

“This falls under fed-

eral jurisdiction. This is not municipal, and until Health Canada or the government de-cides to change that, the only obligation that the growers have is to meet safety standards and keep within their limits,” said Rainey, who also grows mari-juana to treat Stage 3 melanoma and Crohn’s disease.

• A public hearing on the amendment is scheduled at Pitt Mead-ows city hall for July 20 at 7 p.m.

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

The medical grow consists of 98 marijuana plants.

‘More a witch hunt than anything’Marijuana from front

THE NEWS/opinion

I must say that committing an extra $1.1 billion of

our taxes on top of the already promised $1.75 billion for maternal and child health as a result of the G8 and G20 meetings appears a lot more palatable than spending a nearly equal amount on providing security for the participants of the meetings.

I fi nd it amazing how a relatively small group of expert anarchists can force the government to turn parts of Toronto into a very expensive besieged fortress.

Yet, I suspect that the benefi ts of the money spent on security will have a more benefi cial impact on Canadian taxpayers than the roughly same amount will benefi t the pregnant women and newborn infants in underdeveloped countries.

The contractors for the security fences, the fake lake and much of the infrastruc-ture improvements in Huntsville will be happy.

The fees and salaries for all the agencies and personnel providing the security will end up in the pockets of fellow Canadians, who in turn will spend the money on goods and services provided by other Canadians.

Small consolation for us taxpayers when considering the obscene amounts spent to protect and pamper world leaders.

Noble as the idea of the maternal health initiative may be, it is like trying to solve

the issue of homelessness with manufac-turing lots of front doors and windows, but no walls and roofs. Even if the initiative would manage to save the lives of some 33 million babies over the next fi ve years, as is the plan, what are all these poor children and their mothers going to do to stay alive, let alone lead happy healthy lives?

Yes, I am aware that every 3.6 seconds a child dies somewhere on the planet. That realization pulls on the heart strings, all the more so if one realizes that most of these deaths could be prevented with rela-tively simple measures. We have known this for years, and instead of taking posi-tive, effective action, we just keep talking and only provide some minuscule tokens of assistance.

As Ted Turner, founder of CNN and phi-lanthropist stated at the centennial Rotary conference in 2005, that one year’s worth of the Middle Eastern war effort of the west-ern world would solve most of the troubles that plague humanity once and for all.

Few of us realize that half the world’s population has to get by on less than $2 a day, has no chance to eat an adequate diet nor have safe drinking water or has anywhere to go to get an education or health care.

That abject poverty, coupled with a pro-found lack of education, is a perfect set of circumstances for bellicose leaders to wage war and get lots of support from those who have nothing to lose and are spurred on by the false hope of better times to follow an elusive victory.

All this is profoundly troubling, but with our focus on Africa, we forget that in our own country we tolerate similar Third

World conditions. The Inuit infant mortal-ity is more than three times the Canadian standard. With a fertility rate of more than double the Canadian average, there is an acute shortage of housing. Igloos are OK as temporary shelters, when caught out on the tundra in a blizzard. But many young Inuit do not even know how to build one any more, and I know fi rst hand that they are no substitute for modern housing.

The Nunavut government needs to build 273 new houses every year just to keep up with the population growth. Yet, less than a 100 are built annually. The result is serious overcrowding. That combined with poverty, it is little wonder that drug and alcohol abuse, violence and poor living conditions abound.

A recent survey revealed that 70 per cent of the preschoolers are living in homes where there is a shortage of food and at times no food at all. Those factors result in poor overall health of children and many cannot do well in school. Nearly half never get beyond grade nine.

Poorly educated, often living in a violent home environment, it is no wonder that the suicide rate of Inuit children is 11 times the national average.

Having worked there off and on for the past seven years, I am often dismayed with the lack of progress to better the lives of these unique, fellow Canadians, and when reading about our focus on the plight of the African nations, I wonder what hap-pened to the advice that if you want to improve the world, start at home.

Dr. Marco Terwiel is a retired family physician who lives in Maple Ridge.

To improve the world, start at home

Keeping coolIngrid RiceNews Views

Published and printed by Black Press at 22328 – 119th Avenue, Maple Ridge, B.C., V2X 2Z3

Question of theweek:

Is the service provided by the Maple Ridge fi re

department worth its $7 million budget?

Yes: 95% – No: 5% (273 votes)

This week’s question: Are paramedics paid adequately for

the services they provide?

@ Online poll: cast your vote at www.mapleridgenews.com, or e-mail your vote and comments to editor@mapleridgenews.com

After endless weeks of grey skies, rain showers and March-like temperatures, summer has arrived.

While this is great for sun-worshippers and beach-goers, higher-than-average temperatures can spell trouble for those vulnerable to the heat, such as se-niors and infants.

Health offi cials advise people to stay out of the sun in such weather, and to keep their homes as cool as possible by closing the blinds and using fans. How-ever, even with such precautions, it can be diffi cult to stay cool. Exposure to extreme heat can lead to exhaustion, fainting, cramps, and in some cases, heat stroke.

According to Health Canada, heat stroke is a po-tentially fatal medical emergency, and anybody exhibiting its symptoms – throbbing headache, diz-ziness, confusion, nausea or red, hot skin – should dial 911 immediately.

In addition to staying indoors where it’s coolest, offi cials say you should drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and limit your physical activity, especially during the day when it’s hottest.

If your home is too hot, spend a few hours some-where with air conditioning, like a mall, or cool off by taking a cold shower or bath.

Most importantly, residents should look out for one another – a quick visit or phone call to an el-derly neighbour is all it takes to make sure the heat isn’t taking its toll.

And be sure to leave dogs in a cool place during the day with plenty of water, and watch for signs of heat stroke, which include excessive panting, sali-vating, diffi culty breathing and vomiting. If you sus-pect your pet might be suffering from heat stroke, hose them down with cool water and seek veteri-nary care if the symptoms persist.

We’ve been waiting patiently for summer to arrive on the West Coast, and now that it’s here and hotter than ever, let’s make sure it’s a safe and enjoyable one.

– Black Press

Jim Coulter, publisherpublisher@mapleridgenews.com

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Editorial

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CCAB audited circulation: (as of September 2009): Wednesday - 30,221; Friday – 30,197.

Ser ving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows since 1978

THE NEWSHealth CareMarco Terwiel

Letters to the editor should be exclusive to The News and address topics of interest to residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Include full name and address, as well as daytime phone number for verification. Keep letters to 500 words or less. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

@ E-mail letters to editor@mapleridgenews.com.

Letters welcome

EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: Firefighters definitely worth it

(Letters, July 9).My husband is a retired Maple

Ridge firefighter, and would still be with the department, but due to health reasons can no longer provide the level of service that is needed from these selfless human beings.

Up until a few years ago, the local fire department was all run on a vol-unteer basis; they received the same training and interview process that the full-time departments across the country receive.

I can not count the number times his pager would go off and he would have to respond to the hall to put his own life in danger to save someone else’s.

He worked full-time and when he arrived home from work, would turn on his pager so he would not miss a call out.

I also can not count the number of times that family outings, date nights, children’s plays or recitals, meals, or just plain sleep he missed, without complaint.

The selfless courage, and passion to keep his community safe was in-surmountable.

Do you think you could perform CPR on a person you know is dead, but try to bring his life back for the sake of his family, all the way to the hospital, or clean up body parts at the scene of a horrific accident – not just car parts.

I am proud of my husband and ev-ery other emergency service person-nel, including ambulance drivers and police officers.

Keep doing the wonderful job that you all do, and god bless you.

BARBARA MUNZ

MAPLE RIDGE

Wasted breathEDITOR, THE NEWS:

Re: Firefighters worth our tax dol-lars? (Letters, July 7).

In response to Nancy Cole’s com-ments about the Maple Ridge fire-fighters and the amount of money that they make, a little education here.

Without a fire department at all, most people would not be able to ac-quire basic house insurance.

Also, by having a professional fire department, the cost of house in-surance (at least the fire portion) is much less.

However, to be commenting on the economics of having a professional fire department is a waste of time and more than a little short-sighted on Mrs. Cole’s part.

To belittle the firefighters’ service as merely putting out the occasional fire, or that occasionally they sweep the road after a car accident and pro-vide very basic first aid, you can’t be serious.

Ask the people whose lives have been saved after being cut out of a mangled car.

Or the guy on the motorcycle whose leg was amputated in the accident who received professional care with-in minutes of his wreck.

How about the numerous “Joe or Jane” who calls 911 when their mom, dad, husband or wife is in the midst of a heart attack?

Or something like the occasionally fire that threatened the local saw mill, or the apartment complex for which damage was contained to a very few units.

How did the folks in Kelowna feel about the virtual army of profession-al fire service folks who showed up to the save the homes and forests dur-ing that summer of 2004?

I could carry on, but I fear my breath would be wasted.

TODD ROGERS

MAPLE RIDGE

Concrete evidenceEDITOR, THE NEWS:

Re: Firefighters definitely worth it (Letters, July 9).

Perhaps I am just being silly, but I think many of the comments regard-ing our fire department are inflam-matory.

I have lived and worked on three continents over 40 years. During that time I had never lived in a coun-try other than Canada, to be more specific, British Columbia, where a building somewhere seemed to go up in flames every five minutes.

Wood is great for burning, but makes a poor construction material.

Continuing to favour wood for con-struction will mean we are forever at the mercy of fire.

Wood is also a key economic com-ponent of this province. Think of it as a circle of fire. We sell the wood to pay the firemen to extinguish the fires that are made all the easier for burning by using wood as the chief component in our buildings.

There is concrete evidence that this can be avoided.

CLAUS ANDRUP

MAPLE RIDGE

With loveEDITOR, THE NEWS:

Re: Firefi ghters defi nitely worth it (Letters, July 9).

Yes, the fi re department is worth our tax dollars.

Please be wise and learn more about what our hero fi refi ghters do in our community before you go on like that.

Drop by and ask them what else they do?

Yes, they exercise to stay fi t. Do you have any idea how heavy a fi re hose actually is, or the uniform itself, and the race with time they have to do in emergencies?

Yes, they must be at the fi re hall and available, as every split second counts.

Yes, they may sleep every now and then, but they do not hit the snooze button when that alarm rings.

Being available at all times in the fi re hall means the difference between life or death or a serious life-changing in-jury.

“Spending hard-working taxpayer money so fi refi ghters can occasionally sweep up debris from car accidents,

perform very basic fi rst-aid on the sick or injured is a complete and utter waste of tax dollars?”

That comment made my jaw drop. I have attended an accident once and watched the hundred upon hundreds of drivers slowing down just out of curiosity and drive away. Who needs those fi refi ghters, right?

I tell you, once the fi refi ghters arrived and reached out their strong arms to save that life, that just shook me to the core, remembering that scene.

Reading one person’s opinion, saying that what they do is not worth it, I pray to the Lord that none of us end up in a mangled car, barely alive and wait-ing for the ‘not-worth-our-tax-dollars’ fi refi ghters, or something as simple as waiting for them to come like then did when my two-and-a-half-year-old son stuck his little hand in the broken dry-wall and was screaming in panic and pain until they arrived and released his hand.

I cannot see us limiting a split second from what our fi refi ghters contribute in our community.

It is with sincere thanks I send my utmost respect and admiration to our brave fi refi ghters. Keep up the good work, you guys. We love you.

LAUSANNE HAM

MAPLE RIDGE

Worth every centEDITOR, THE NEWS:

Re: Firefighters worth our tax dol-lars? (Letters, July 7).

The physical condition of our fire-men dictates their ability to perform their duty, such as carrying a 200- to 300-pound person down stairs and our of a burning building.

Life-saving skills such as CPR need to be constantly practiced.

Having equipment in excellent working order is essential to the job.

Relaxation balances the stress and pressure under which they perform.

I sleep better knowing we have dedicated men and women with life-saving abilities at our beck and call.

I think they are worth every cent they earn.

BLANCHE SLAUGHTER

MAPLE RIDGE

EDITOR, THE NEWS:Re: Pitt farmers against Pelton application (The News,

July 9). Everyone these days seems to stick their noses in every

one else’s business.What exactly is it that bothers Pitt Meadows farmers?Is it possible competition? Or are they hoping to pur-

chase farmland for less than $100,000 per acre?I think the Peltons’ proposals should be answered by the

pertaining municipal council and the Agricultural Land Commissions, not every Tom, Dick and Harry farmer.

Don’t these guys have enough on their plates? I don’t even know the Peltons. All I know is that they

kept B.C. green for many years with their tree seedlings.On the other hand, why does no one seem to care about

all pre-loading of large parcels of so-called farm land on the east side of Harris Road, between Dewdney Trunk Road and the Alouette River Bridge? It seems this side is starting to look like an industrial park.

How many more large metal buildings do we require, and for what purpose?

I don’t consider this preserving good old farmland. Most the pre-load materials looks like junk (gravel,

boulders, low-quality materials ).To me it looks more like contaminating existing farm-

land.There are many other properties I can mention (bro-

ken down green houses on 210th Street, black-topped fi ve acres, fi lled with piles of gravel on Harris Road north).

If we are so concerned about preserving farmland, tell these owners to clean up their messy properties.

LANCE FELGNAR

PITT MEADOWS

Protect Pelton propertyEDITOR, THE NEWS:

Re: Pitt farmers against Pelton application (The News, July 9).

I wish to express my outrage over the proposal to ex-clude the Pelton property from the ALR. It is incompre-hensible to me that this is even being considered.

Not only should this property be protected for its his-torical signifi cance, this 152-acre property has some of the richest and most fertile growing soil left in the entire Lower Mainland. It is needed to sustain not only present, but more importantly future generations.

The environmental destruction alone would be devas-tating to the large number of wildlife in the area.

The owner of this property plans to sell almost all of it to developers for the creation of an industrial park. Hav-ing grown up in Richmond, I have seen fi rst hand, the loss of the richest farmland in the world to industrial develop-ment, most of which remain empty and still up for lease.

I am not only saddened, but in total disbelief that this type of irresponsible ignorance still exists in 2010.

Furthermore, it is not lost on me that there is a very large fi nancial gain to be made if this goes through.

The mayor and council have forwarded the application to the Agricultural Land Commission without any public consultation. I would like to see an investigation into the entire matter.

SUSAN WEBB

MAPLE RIDGE

Concerned about farmland, really?

Firefighters selfless beings

THE NEWS/letters

chat@www.mapleridgenews.com

Money worksFrom: lujnut, posted on www.mapleridge-news.com.Re: Don’t cry (Chat@, July 14).It is great to see the community support our local fire department, and it is hard to read articles that cause animosity between paramedics and firefighters. I am a paramedic and I like firefight-ers. But in all honesty, it is a sad fact that para-medics are paid far less and that the community does not perceive us as “heroes” or “life-savers” as firefighters are. Take a step back and look at the community outcry from this one person’s com-ments, yet the ambulance service is being down sized and forced to work even harder and not a peep in the paper from our citizens. We walk into danger every day and are not recognized like you. Jealous? Yes. I would like a little respect for all my volunteer hours and time away from my family, too. Money works great (then I could afford a gym pass).

“Continuing to favour wood for construction will mean we are forever at the mercy of fire.”

“I don’t even know the Peltons. All I know is that they kept B.C. green for many years with their tree seedlings.”

Get ready for a few detours and traffi c jams as summer capi-tal works programs begin in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.

Pitt Meadows capital works pro-gram for 2010 has a budget of $16.7 million and includes the construc-tion of the South Bonson Com-munity Centre, artifi cial turf fi eld, upgrades to the hockey arena and replacement of the Kennedy Road bridge.

For summer, engineering ser-vices coordinator Ike De Boer said staff will be tackling $750,000 in road work and $800,000 in water main upgrades.

The road work includes more traffi c calming at Bonson, Wild-wood and Ford Roads and paving on two rural roads.

The utility work like sewer and water main upgrades has already begun and is set to fi nish mid-Sep-tember, while road work in the city will likely last until Oct. 14.

De Boer wants motorists to watch out for road crews.

“Don’t be impatient,” he said.In Maple Ridge, the capital

works program for 2010 totals $118,879,946.

This includes projects that were approved in 2009 or earlier of which around $13 million has al-ready been.

Some of the projects are contin-

gent on external funding or agree-ments and will not proceed unless funding is secured.

Highways and roads projects ac-count for $34.8 million, sewer up-grades and installations are going to cost $12 million, while the bud-get for water main improvements is $5.3 million.

The program is so full that the district may have had to hire con-sultants to inspect the projects as they get underway.

Manager of design and con-struction Richard Wong said the biggest disruption for pedestrians and motorists will be the down-town enhancement project.

A section of 224th Street be-tween Lougheed Highway and 119th Street will be closed from 6

p.m. to 11 p.m. from July 25 to 30 – weather permitting.

“It’s quite a busy summer,” Wong said.

For merchants along 224th Street, who had a taste of con-struction chaos last summer, the planned disruptions are not wel-come.

Dawn Illerbrun of Bell Lock-smiths wishes the district would rip up 224th Street at night.

“We are worried about it for sure,” she said.

“Last time, it really affected our business. There are a lot of new businesses along the street who are just getting started. To be dealing with constant interrup-tions, the noise and not being able to get into your store, it’s tough.”

Busy summer for capital works

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Construction continues downtown on the north side of Lougheed Highway.

b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter

Capital projectsPitt Meadows:• Advent Road - paving and sidewalk, sanitary sewer upgrade;• Harris and Ford Road - intersection rehabilitation, watermain upgrade;• 190 A and Ford Road - curb bulges;• Park Road and Bonson Road - curb bulges;• Blakely Road - paving;• Hammond Road - paving;• Bonson Road and 116 A Avenue - traffi c calming;• McNeil Road, Neaves Road - paving;• 119 B Avenue - watermain upgrade;• Baynes Road - pump station trash rack replacement;• Southgate Road - culvert replacement;• Wooldridge Road - watermain upgrade;

• McKechnie Road - pump station upgrade;• McNeil Road will be closed July 19 - 23 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday for a culvert replacement.

Maple Ridge:• River Road - drainage improvement project from Derby to Carshill Street;• 216th and 128th Avenue - Intersection improvements, instal-lation of signals;• Abernethy Way realignment at 224th Street; • Sanitary sewer extension to correctional centre from Fern Crescent along 128th Avenue to 256th Street;• Detours and closures for the downtown enhancement project on 224th Street between Lougheed to 119th Street, July 25 to July 30, weather permitting between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. There will be detour routes to access the mall.

Raining buckets(Right) Kole Seiden, 13, Jacob Daum,

10, and Aidan Daum, 7, along with Angelo Chalmers, 6, Matteo Gall-

ovich, 7, and Emilee Roman, 10, wait under a bucket for water to splash down on them at the Maple Ridge

spray park Tuesday afternoon.

Colleen Flanagan/

THE NEWS

Jacob Daum braces for cool relief.

The owner of a rust-ing barge docked in the South Alouette River is working on a proposal with Metro Vancouver to dismantle the sink-ing hulk.

Ralph Reitel said the barge will be towed to a different site, most probably on the Fraser River, where it will be taken apart.

“It is looking good,” said Reitel, who is cur-rently waiting on word from private contrac-tors who will do the dis-mantling.

The barge, west of Harris Road, on which Rietel had been trying to build a house, hit the river bed after a winter storm in January 2009.

It has since been par-tially fl oating upright, but an old Volkswagen van, a shed, piles of wood and a container still remain on its deck.

It’s been docked in the same spot for nearly fi ve years.

While Rietel owns the foreshore, or water side, of the dike for several hundred metres along the river, the barge is moored on Crown land, which is below the high-water mark.

Thus, the city cannot

enforce any clean-up or removal.

Pitt Meadows, the land management branch, the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the Ministry of Environment, Trans-port Canada and Envi-ronment Canada have been trying to resolve jurisdictional and en-vironmental issues for years.

Reitel said there is no way he can get all the stuff off the barge at its current location.

“There is no way to get material off. Why do it here?” he added.

“It has to be accessible by truck and crane.”

Barge owner working on solution

THE NEWS/files

The barge has been moored along the South Alouette River for five years.

b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter

The owner of a rust-ing barge docked in the South Alouette River is working on a proposal with Metro Vancouver to dismantle the sink-ing hulk.

Ralph Reitel said the barge will be towed to a different site, most probably on the Fraser River, where it will be taken apart.

“It is looking good,” said Reitel, who is cur-rently waiting on word from private contrac-tors who will do the dis-mantling.

The barge, west of Harris Road, on which Rietel had been trying to build a house, hit the river bed after a winter storm in January 2009.

It has since been par-tially fl oating upright, but an old Volkswagen van, a shed, piles of wood and a container still remain on its deck.

It’s been docked in the same spot for nearly fi ve years.

While Rietel owns the foreshore, or water side, of the dike for several hundred metres along the river, the barge is moored on Crown land, which is below the high-water mark.

Thus, the city cannot

enforce any clean-up or removal.

Pitt Meadows, the land management branch, the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the Ministry of Environment, Trans-port Canada and Envi-ronment Canada have been trying to resolve jurisdictional and en-vironmental issues for years.

Reitel said there is no way he can get all the stuff off the barge at its current location.

“There is no way to get material off. Why do it here?” he added.

“It has to be accessible by truck and crane.”

Barge owner working on solution

THE NEWS/files

The partially sunken barge has been moored along the Pitt River for five years.

b y M o n i s h a M a r t i n sstaff repor ter

The fate of a nine-hole golf course owned by the former mayor of Maple Ridge is now in the hands of the Agri-cultural Land Commis-sion.

The ALC has to decide whether the pitch-and-putt course on 117th Av-enue and 254th Street – which consumes about half of Gordy Robson’s nine-hectare property – is a permissible use of Agricultural Land Re-serve property.

The land formerly had farm status and the golf course oper-ated as agri-tourism. But due to a property status change this year, the land lost its farm status and Robson was advised by the ALC to apply for non-farm use.

Maple Ridge council voted on Tuesday to forward Robson’s ap-plication to the ALC.

“Since it’s a previous mayor on this, it’s very diffi cult to separate the personalities from the situation, so it’s nice that we have the ALC to perform this function for us and to give us some leadership,” said Coun. Craig Speirs.

“I have no problem with sending it to the commission and let them make their deci-sions on it. It’s within their jurisdiction and

that’s what they’re there for,” said Coun. Judy Dueck.

Robson has been op-erating the golf course for fi ve years as part of the non-profi t Heather Hills Farm Society,

which raises money for agencies such as the Ridge Meadows Youth and Justice Advocacy Association in Maple Ridge.

In 2010, the B.C. As-sessment Authority

reclassifi ed the land as “outdoor recreation, non-profi t.” That means the course no longer qualifi es as agri-tourism.

If the ALC grants non-farm status, the proper-ty may be used for rural residential, agricultural or personal use only.

Outdoor commercial recreation would not be allowed, so Robson would need to go back to council to keep the golf course open.

“We may have to deal with a rezone,” said Coun. Al Hogarth. “That will be another day, unless they can resolve these issues outside of these cham-bers.”

Future of golf course lies with ALC

THE NEWS/files

Robson may still have to apply for rezoning.

b y C h r i s t i n e Ly o ncontributor

He attributes the traffi c in-crease to a gradual “ramping up of the bridge.”

“People are realizing the Golden Ears Bridge is there. It’s a great option in that area and more and more people are using it.”

Construction on the Port Mann Bridge and other factors could be pushing traffi c to Gold-en Ears, but Snider expects the growth trend to continue after summer.

As people look to develop land or relocate, they will see the bridge as an option, Snider said.

“They’re not going to get stuck necessarily going around Cape Horn or going on the Port Mann Bridge.”

A June TransLink report showed that after one year of op-eration, the Golden Ears Bridge was off budget, earning $2.1 mil-lion instead of $2.6 million.

But toll revenue for the fi rst half of the year was $13.83 mil-

lion, slightly higher than the $13.75 million forecast in the 2010 budget.

Meanwhile, tolls went up a nickel Wednesday for most stan-dard vehicles.

Those with transponders now pay $2.80 to cross, those who are registered but detected by video pay $3.35 and unregistered users billed by mail pay $3.95. Trucks have to pay 10 to 15 cents more.

Just under half of the vehicles that made trips in 2010 were equipped with transponders.

‘People realizing the bridge is there’

Construction on the Port Mann

Bridge could be pushing commuters

to the Golden Ears Bridge.

THE NEWS/files

Bridge from front

A few hours running through the sprinkler followed by an evening bonfi re may sound like a fun summer’s day, but be warned: those warm-weather pastimes could violate municipal by-laws.

Lawn sprinkling regu-lations took effect June 1 and continue until Sept. 30. Residents caught wa-tering outside designat-ed hours may get a visit from bylaw enforcers.

“The fi rst time they won’t get a fi ne,” said Maple Ridge waterworks superintended Ed Mitch-ell.

Instead, those residents will receive education about the regulations.

“Once it’s brought to their attention, we nor-mally have compliance,” Mitchell said.

Maple Ridge is facing Stage 1 water restric-tions, which automati-cally go into effect each summer. That means the Coquitlam Lake reser-voir – which serves the municipality – is storing

a normal amount of wa-ter for this time of year.

“Stages above Level 1 are activated based on reservoir levels, the abil-ity to transfer from Co-quitlam Lake, weather forecasts and demand,” said Mitchell.

During Stage 1, most bylaw inspections come in response to a neigh-bour’s complaint.

The district encourages residents with automatic

sprinklers to turn them on early in the morning, to minimize peak de-mand on water supply.

It’s still OK to water fl owers, shrubs and vegetable gardens. Car washing using a hose with a spring-loaded shutoff device is also al-lowed.

Newly turfed or seeded lawns may be irrigated more frequently with a permit.

East of Maple Ridge, water restrictions are more severe. Abbotsford and Mission, which get water primarily from Norrish Creek, are both facing Phase 3 restric-tions. Lawn sprinkling is completely prohibited for July and August.

Warm, dry weather not only puts stress on the water supply, it also makes outdoor fi res more hazardous.

Backyard burning is prohibited year-round in most residential ar-eas. The area bordered by Pitt Meadows on the west, 240th Street on the east, the Fraser River on the south and 126th and 128th avenues on the north, is closed to burn-ing.

No wood fi res, includ-ing campfi res or store-bought fi re places, are allowed within those boundaries.

Similar to lawn-sprin-kling enforcement, most fi re department inspec-tions come as the result of a complaint.

“When we arrive, we would assess the situa-tion and if they’re not al-lowed to have a fi re, then the fi ne could be issued,” said Maple Ridge Fire Department assistant chief Mark Smitton.

The fi ne is $100.Camp fi res are allowed

outside the no-burn zone, but they must adhere to the municipal bylaw.

“It’s very important to note that a campfi re is a certain size,” said Smit-ton.

It can be no larger than half a metre by half a metre.

The fi re must be at-tended at all times and a water hose and shovel must be on site until it is extinguished.

In the event of extreme weather conditions, all fi res will be banned.

Summer restrictions now in effectBylaws limit water use, camp fi res

Contributed

Residential sprinkler use is limited to two days a week.

b y C h r i s t i n e Ly o ncontributor

Sprinkling regulations:• even numbered premises on Saturdays and Wednes-days;• odd numbered premises on Sundays and Thursdays;• 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. on permitted days;• 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on permitted days.

Three men were ar-rested by police Tues-day after they tried to steal marijuana from an illegal grow operation in Maple Ridge.

The trio were spot-ted around 4:20 a.m. in the 12200 block of 244th Street trying to enter a shed on the property.

Police were called and discovered a marijuana grow operation inside.

A police dog tracked down the trio, who were taken into custody.

Police then arrested the owner of house where the grow-op was found.

A search warrant was granted and police seized 265 marijuana plants, along with sev-eral pounds of pack-aged marijuana that had been harvested.

Coquitlam residents Hyun Shin, 21 and Yona-tan Kassa, 25 and Han-kil Lee, a 21-year-old from Port Moody, have all been charged with break and enter with the intent to commit an indictable offence and assault.

Peter Martin, 37, has been charged with pro-duction of a controlled substance.

All four were remand-ed in police custody until their fi rst court ap-pearance Wednesday.

Martin and Lee have since been released.

“This fi le illustrates how the police and the community can come together and combat the illegal growing of marijuana,” said Staff Sgt. Andrew Martin. “With our integrated

policing services, such as our police service dog section, assisting our uniformed general duty and street enforce-

ment unit offi cers, we were able to present a solid case to our Crown Counsel. Situations in-volving the illegal pro-

duction of marijuana threatens our citizens safety, so we will con-tinue to enforce all drug laws.”

A dead body that was unearthed by a po-lice dog in east Maple Ridge three weeks ago has been identifi ed.

Police believe that Robert Trouton, 52, most likely died of nat-ural causes, but foul play has not been en-tirely ruled out.

Staff Sgt. Andrew Martin said police and the B.C. Coroner’s Ser-vice are still awaiting fi nal autopsy results.

The RCMP’s serious crime unit continues to investigate the death.

Trouton was found on June 24 in a shallow grave on the heavily treed property, located at 28035 – 112 Avenue, near Whonnock Lake while police were con-ducting a search for a

marijuana grow-op. He was living on the prop-erty.

Police found 1,000 marijuana plants in-side a run-down ranch-er house.

Stuart Ernest Gard-ner, 55, was arrested

at the property. He was renting the property.

Gardner has since been charged with in-terfering with a dead body, as well as pro-ducing marijuana for the purpose of traffi ck-ing.

Gardner remains in custody because he was sentenced to 30 days in jail earlier this month after pleading guilty to one count of driving while prohibited.

He also received a three-year driving ban.

Body found in Whonnock identifi edMan most likely died of natural causes

THE NEWS/FILES

Police found Robert Trouton buried a shallow grave at 28035 – 112th Avenue while investigating a marijuana grow operation.

Four men charged after rip attempt

Ridge Meadows RCMP are investigat-ing a complaint of gun shots fired Monday night in downtown Maple Ridge.

Police were called to the 12000-block of 223rd Street just after 9:30 p.m. after resi-dents reported hearing five or six gun shots.

Although officers ar-rived quickly, they did not find anyone hurt.

A police service dog located a spent bul-let’s casing.

“Anytime the safety of our citizens is jeop-ardized, police take that file extremely seriously,” said Supt. Dave Walsh. “We are actively investigating

this incident, but have few leads to follow up on. We’re asking for both victims and wit-nesses to come for-ward, so we can solve this incident expedi-ently.”

• Anyone with any information is asked to call RCMP at 604-463-6251. To remain anonymous call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477. CrimeStoppers will pay a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Sweepers stolenTwo industrial

sweepers and other equipment was sto-len Tuesday during a break-in at a business in Pitt Meadows.

The theft happened just after midnight in the 17900-block of Ken-nedy Road.

Thieves cut through chain link fencing to steal the sweepers, two gas-powered lawn rakes and two long-step ladders.

A dark coloured pickup truck, possi-bly a Dodge Ram, was seen in the area.

• Anyone with any information is asked to call RCMP at 604-463-6251.

Cable theftThieves stole 45 me-

tres of telephone cable early Monday in Maple Ridge, leaving almost 700 homes without a phone service.

The theft happened between 4:30 a.m. and

4:45 a.m. in the area of 11400-block of 256th Street in Maple Ridge.

Staff Sgt. Andrew Martins said police were notified approxi-mately an hour after the theft and have few to leads to follow at this time.

Stolen truckRidge Meadows

RCMP are looking for a white pickup truck stolen from Maple Ridge this week.

The 1995 Ford F150 with British Columbia licence plates 7764 HP was taken from a drive-way in the 12400-block of Davenport Drive.

The theft happened between 10 p.m. Mon-day and 9 a.m. Tues-day.

Counter AttackAs part of the Sum-

mer Counter Attack and ‘Light Up the High-way’ program, Ridge Meadows RCMP’s traffic services unit will be out Friday and Saturday, enforcing all traffic laws.

There will be a series of road checks, as well as speed enforcement projects on roads throughout Pitt Mead-ows and Maple Ridge.

“This is a reminder for all drivers to op-erate their vehicles in a safe manner and not to drive after con-suming any alcohol,” said Staff Sgt. Andrew Martin.

Police also want to remind all occupants of motor vehicles that seat belts save lives and reduce the sever-ity of injuries in crash-es.

“Together we can make our roads the safest in the world,” Martin added.

Police investigate gun shots in RidgeNo victim found, just a bullet casing

Metro Vancouver’s two biggest cities are coming down on op-posite ends of the con-tentious debate over stepped-up garbage in-cineration.

Vancouver city coun-cil opposes burning more garbage and vot-ed last week to table an amendment to Metro’s proposed solid waste plan that would elimi-

nate incineration or combustion from the menu of allowed waste-to-energy technologies. That would exclude a new mass burn plant like the existing one in Burnaby, but may leave the door open to other less proven alternatives like gasifi cation.

Vancouver also wants Metro to set new tar-gets to reduce the av-erage amount of waste each resident gener-ates and to ban all wood and organic waste from

both landfi lls and incin-erators.

“The priority is to have less garbage at the end of the day,” Vancou-ver Coun. Heather Deal said, adding all of the proposed amendments “push us in that direc-tion.”

Surrey city admin-istrators, meanwhile, have concluded waste-to-energy is a “viable in-region solution,” but caution it has stoked much public opposition.

Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt says he has no concerns about emis-sions from an incinera-tor and will be trying to determine whether Vancouver has scientif-ic evidence for opposing combustion or whether that council is simply “playing politics” to fi t its green image.

Port Moody council also wants to block com-bustion or incineration and tighten the targets for improved recycling.

Surrey, Vancouver, Coquitlam and some other cities agree that any move towards waste-to-energy should be subject to an open market call for bids to determine the costs and viability of building a new waste-fi red plant or plants at specifi c sites – as well as alternatives like landfi lling.

Maple Ridge council-lors are opposed to the possibility of a mass burn incineration facil-ity.

“If we did one in-region, it would be the largest single source of pollution in the region,” Coun. Craig Speirs said at a council workshop on Monday.

Even if an incinerator is built out-of-region, the pollution would still drift our way, eventu-ally, Speirs added.

“The folks down in Chilliwack and going down through the Val-ley there, they’ve got a poor enough air quality situation on the go,” said Coun. Michael Morden. “Why would we take the risk of adding some-thing to that?”

Wednesday, July 14 was the last day for the public and councils to comment on the draft plan.

Metro Vancouver will consider the input and present it to the waste management commit-tee July 21. A fi nal plan will be put forward to the Metro Van board on July 30.

In addition to oppos-ing a mass burn incin-eration facility, Maple Ridge municipal council is forwarding two other recommendations to Metro Vancouver.

Council hopes Metro Vancouver will investi-gating multi-drop recy-cling centres and fund the expansion of suc-cessful operations be-fore building new ones.

It also wants the solid waste plan to allow mu-nicipalities enough time to deal with any other implications.

A Vancouver report says there’s “consider-able risk” Metro con-sultants may have over-estimated the revenues from a district heating system that led Metro to conclude a new waste-to-energy could oper-ate at a small net profi t. That calculation under-pins what Metro claims is a $1.5-billion differ-ence over 35 years in the costs of landfi lling versus an in-region pub-licly owned incinerator.

Metro also assumes that by sending heat from the plant to the dis-trict heating network, other nearby buildings or industries won’t have to burn fuel and as a re-sult there will be no net increase in most air pol-lutants.

The Fraser Valley Regional District has already voted unani-mously to oppose waste incineration, raising concerns over air quali-ty, airborne toxins, costs and possible impacts on recycling.

The construction of a $470-million new waste-to-energy plant in the region is Metro’s pre-ferred option to deal with up to 500,000 tonnes of additional garbage per year that can’t oth-erwise be recycled.

If that option is blocked, the draft plan would be to pursue an out-of-region incin-erator, possibly one al-ready proposed on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

If neither is possible, Metro would keep land-fi lling the additional waste – presumably at the Cache Creek region-al landfi ll, which recent-ly got approval from the province to expand.

The draft plan would commit the region to boost its recycling rate from 55 per cent to 70 per cent by 2015.

Once a plan is passed, it must still be approved by environment minis-ter Barry Penner. If he objects, Penner could send the plan back for changes or he could simply amend the plan himself.

If a plan allowing in-creased incineration is approved, a specifi c new plant would still need environmental approval and could be rejected by Penner at that point.

Cities split on burning garbageMaple Ridge council opposes incineration

b y J e f f N a g e lBlack Press

Construction indus-try insiders say the Harmonized Sales Tax is likely already driv-ing more of the home repair and renovation business underground, fuelling an increase in under-regulated and potentially dangerous workmanship.

Business ads have already popped up on craigslist promis-ing ways to skirt the 12-per-cent HST.

Port Coquitlam-based renovator Jeff Bain, of JKB Construc-tion Ltd., said he’s already had one big project put on hold because of a custom-er’s reluctance to pay HST.

“There’s a good por-tion of the population that isn’t educated on the pitfalls who are going to go in that di-rection,” he said of the black market.

GST previously ap-

plied on construction work, but the HST gave cash-only operators another seven-per-cent advantage over legitimate contractors as of July 1.

Bain said his illicit competitors typically don’t take out city business licences or building permits, pay WorkSafeBC insur-ance premiums or pay income tax on their cash deals – adding up to a big cost differen-tial.

“It’s hardly a fair playing field when somebody can under-cut you 40 per cent or better,” he said.

Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Asso-ciation president and CEO Peter Simpson warns customers run multiple risks if they hire under-the-table operators.

Besides the potential to get ripped off – it’s hard to sue someone if there’s no written con-tract – a renovation done without permits or inspections leaves no protection against shoddy electrical work, for example.

“They’re putting themselves at tremen-

dous risk if things go dreadfully wrong,” Simpson said.

A cheap deal can backfire years later.

Unpermitted reno-vations can come to light when a hom-eowner tries to sell or have new work done – at which point city inspectors can order walls ripped up to prove a past renova-tion or addition was done safely.

A less obvious dan-ger is liability, Simp-son said, noting that if there is no written agreement, the hom-eowner is deemed to be the contractor and legally responsible for things like worker safety.

“If somebody falls off a ladder or drops something on their foot on the property, they’ll look to you to get compensated.”

The home builders’ organization is lobby-ing the federal and pro-vincial governments to create a permanent tax rebate for home renovations, along the lines of the temporary home renovation tax credit that was briefly offered as a recession-

fighting measure.One of the advan-

tages of such a mecha-nism, Simpson said, is that homeowners would have to have re-ceipts to qualify.

That paper trail would disqualify the cash-only operators and help narrow the disadvantage legiti-mate contractors are now under as a result of the HST.

“Government has to find ways to make it easier for homeown-ers to resist the lure of the cash deal,” Simp-son said.

Finance minister Co-lin Hansen has said the provincial government is continuing to study the impact of the HST on home renovations.

Home renovations are a big business in Metro Vancouver, ac-counting for 31,000 jobs here and $1.6 billion in wages annually.

The total value of all home renovations performed last year in Metro Vancouver was estimated at $3.7 bil-lion.

Simpson said at least 30 per cent of that is believed to be under-ground.

HST spurs home reno black marketCash-only deals dodge tax, but bring big risks

b y J e f f N a g e lBlack Press

The ancient Alouette watershed extends from its headwaters in Golden

Ears Provincial Park and the Malcolm Knapp UBC Research Forest, through the communi-ties of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, meandering across woodlands and blueberry fi elds, fi nally slipping into the Pitt River.

Walking along the north and south rivers or by Alouette Lake, you enter a magical and mystical world where everything has its place and relies on each species for survival.

Ferns and grasses grow down to the water’s edge, creating homes for the water rat and vole. Wild fl owers draw bees and butterfl ies, and occasionally you might fi nd the shy trillium grow-ing in the shade by the forest edge.

Mink and otter roam the wa-terways and tall cedar, pine and hemlock make dark places for deer, black bears, cougars and bobcats.

The open waterway is also home for many birds, There is an old heronry along the northern arm of the river, and eagles,

osprey, red tailed hawks, grossbills and other birds live and hunt along its banks.

Occasion-ally there will be a visitor blown off course and the river becomes a resting place for an unusual bird.

Down in the water there is a secret, silent world, from micro-scopic creatures to the mighty salmon.

If you scoop up a glass full from the river or lake you will see tiny creatures swimming about. These are zooplankton.

The green slime that occasion-ally fl oats around the Lake’s edge or is tucked into the stalks of the Reeds along the River’s bank is Phytoplankton.

These words come from the Greek. Zoo is animal, phyto is plant and planktos means wan-derer or drifter.

Such organisms can be as large as jellyfi sh or krill in the oceans, or so small they cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Phytoplankton grows in the sunlight and its cells absorb chlorophyll, which makes it ap-pear green. It has been proved that this plankton accounts for fully half of the photosynthetic activity on Earth, which means it is responsible for much of the oxygen in our atmosphere.

The fi sh that live in Alouette Lake and surrounding waterways rely heavily on these plankton, and their continued growth is an indication of the water’s health.

The plankton in the lake gets a little help from a fertilization pro-gram, which puts both phospho-rus and nitrogen into the water to assist their growth so, the more plankton, the better the fi sh.

• ARMS is hosting two summer camps: Cute but not so Cuddly Creatures, July 19-23; and Wild Things, Aug. 3-6.

For more information see www.alouetteriver.org.

Liz Hancock is a member of the Alouette River

Management Society.

A walk through the Alouette watershed

River tales Liz Hancock

The ancient Alouette watershed extends from its headwaters in Golden

Ears Provincial Park and the Malcolm Knapp UBC Research Forest, through the communi-ties of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, meandering across woodlands and blueberry fi elds, fi nally slipping into the Pitt River.

Walking along the north and south rivers or by Alouette Lake, you enter a magical and mystical world where everything has its place and relies on each species for survival.

Ferns and grasses grow down to the water’s edge, creating homes for the water rat and vole. Wild fl owers draw bees and butterfl ies, and occasionally you might fi nd the shy trillium grow-ing in the shade by the forest edge.

Mink and otter roam the wa-terways and tall cedar, pine and hemlock make dark places for deer, black bears, cougars and bobcats.

The open waterway is also home for many birds, There is an old heronry along the northern arm of the river, and eagles,

osprey, red tailed hawks, grossbills and other birds live and hunt along its banks.

Occasion-ally there will be a visitor blown off course and the river becomes a resting place for an unusual bird.

Down in the water there is a secret, silent world, from micro-scopic creatures to the mighty salmon.

If you scoop up a glass full from the river or lake you will see tiny creatures swimming about. These are zooplankton.

The green slime that occasion-ally fl oats around the Lake’s edge or is tucked into the stalks of the Reeds along the River’s bank is Phytoplankton.

These words come form the Greek. Zoo is animal, phyto is plant and planktos means wan-derer or drifter.

Such organisms can be as large as jellyfi sh or krill in the oceans, or so small they cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Phytoplankton grows in the sunlight and its cells absorb chlorophyll, which makes it ap-pear green. It has been proved that this plankton accounts for fully half of the photosynthetic activity on Earth, which means it is responsible for much of the oxygen in our atmosphere.

The fi sh that live in Alouette Lake and surrounding waterways rely heavily on these plankton, and their continued growth is an indication of the water’s health.

The plankton in the lake gets a little help from a fertilization pro-gram, which puts both phospho-rus and nitrogen into the water to assist their growth so, the more plankton, the better the fi sh.

• ARMS is hosting two summer camps: Cute but not so Cuddly Creatures, July 19-23; and Wild Things, Aug. 3-6.

For more information see www.alouetteriver.org.

Liz Hancock is a member of the Alouette River

Management Society.

A walk through the Alouette watershed

River tales Liz Hancock

I had a strange experience last week in a confl uence of timing. Some time ago I men-

tioned that my three sons, aged 22, 21 and 20, would all be coming home this summer to work together in producing and per-forming a summer play. Knowing the history of sibling rivalry, I expected some fi reworks, and while July 1st and July 4th had some pretty good ones, they were dimmed by the fi reworks around my place last week.

I may not be the Oracle at Delphi, but I got this call right. In the ensuing family conference called by my wife, who should be working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, I sat patiently and listened to the concerns of those too young and too rigid to understand much about what’s truly important in life, love and family. My wife had warned me, prior to the meeting, that one son, in particular, was concerned that any actions he took or things he said might permanently dam-age his relationship with us. He was, of course, faltering on his own limited understanding of the term unconditional love. I do be-lieve, once he has his own family, that he will come to understand that term much more than he can right now.

It was this term, unconditional love, which led to the confl uence of timing. Just a couple of hours after our meeting ended, I happened to notice an article on the internet about the best advice Warren Buffett ever got. Since Warren and I have a lot in common (we’re both old; we both get asked for advice regularly; we both live in humble homes compared to most of our friends; neither of us is a professional athlete) and just one signifi cantly different quality (he’s worth $60 billion and I’m worth ... less), I was curious to know what advice he’d been given. Turns out we had another common experience: His dad had told him the most important thing a parent could do for a child was to give him or her unconditional love.

As he explained it, uncondi-tional love is not uncritical love. Rather, it is the provision of a safe haven and a ready accep-tance of a child for who she or he is, regardless of what phases he or she may go through. Un-conditionally loving a child does not mean liking him or her all the time, but it does mean being

there to support a child through all of life’s struggles.

I copied the link to the article and sent it on to my sons. None of them have commented on the article nor did I expect them to do so. It’s just another seed I have planted in the hopes that they may achieve some elements of wisdom without having to go through as many bad experiences as I did. But I doubt it. While I have given, and will continue to give them uncondi-

tional love, I have also given them a certain strength of conviction (my wife prefers the term stub-bornness) that may well blind them from the most obvious les-sons until they get tired of hitting their heads against a wall. They may continue to think that love is about what you get, not what you give, until the point when they have their own child in their arms and they have no option but to give all they have to another human who cannot possibly understand what that means.

Graham Hookey is an educator

and writer and can be contacted at ghookey@yahoo.com.

Unconditional love, not uncritical love

Parenting Graham Hookey

I had a strange experience last week in a confl uence of timing.

Some time ago I mentioned that my three sons, aged 22, 21 and 20, would all be coming home this summer to work together in producing and per-forming a summer play.

Knowing the history of sibling rivalry, I expected some fi re-works, and while July 1st and July 4th had some pretty good ones, they were dimmed by the fi reworks around my place last week.

I may not be the Oracle at Del-phi, but I got this call right.

In the ensuing family confer-ence called by my wife, who should be working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, I sat patiently and listened to the concerns of those too young and too rigid to understand much about what’s truly important in life, love and family.

Let me be clear, I don’t blame them, as I can certainly attest to the fact that I was there and did that at their age. You don’t learn wisdom until you make enough mistakes and suffer enough consequences to realize that there are a lot of shades of grey in the world and there’s nothing more important than the love of friends and family.

My wife had warned me, prior to the meeting, that one son, in particular, was concerned that any actions he took or things he said might permanently dam-

age his relationship with us. He was, of course, faltering on his own limited understanding of the term unconditional love. I do believe, once he has his own family, that he will come to understand that term much more than he can right now.

It was this term, un-conditional love, which led to the confl uence of timing. Just a couple of hours after our meeting ended, I happened to notice an article on the internet about the best advice Warren Buffett ever got. Since Warren and I have a lot in common (we’re both old; we both get asked for advice regularly; we both live in humble homes compared to most of our friends; neither of us is a professional athlete) and just one signifi cantly different quality (he’s worth $60 billion and I’m worth ... less), I was cu-rious to know what advice he’d been given. Turns out we had another common experience: His dad had told him the most important thing a parent could do for a child was to give him or her unconditional love.

As he explained it, uncondi-tional love is not uncritical love. Rather, it is the provision of a safe haven and a ready accep-tance of a child for who she or he is, regardless of what phases he or she may go through. Un-

conditionally loving a child does not mean liking him or her all the time, but it does mean

being there to support a child through all of life’s struggles.

I copied the link to the article and sent it on to my sons. None of them have commented on the article nor did I expect them to do so. It’s just another seed I have planted in the hopes that they may achieve some elements of wisdom without having to go through as many

bad experiences as I did. But I doubt it. While I have given, and will continue to give them unconditional love, I have also given them a certain strength of conviction (my wife prefers the term stubbornness) that may well blind them from the most obvious lessons until they get tired of hitting their heads against a wall.

They may continue to think that love is about what you get, not what you give, until the point when they have their own child in their arms and they have no option but to give all they have to another human who cannot possibly under-stand what that means.

Graham Hookey is an educator

and writer and can be contacted at ghookey@yahoo.com.

Parents, give unconditional love

Parenting Graham Hookey

We have a unique fam-ily tradition

that much resembles a summer solstice cel-ebration, except that it has no fixed date.

I like to call it ‘Furnace to Fan’ day and it occurs once the torrents of cool spring rains have subsided and that first bottle of SPF 60 sunscreen gets the life squeezed out of it.

At that precise moment, the four fe-males that I live with (my wife and three daughters) decide they are no longer cold and are, in fact, warm – meaning they are free to abandon all sweaters, hot water bottles and furnace dials in favour of a small army of fans, strategically placed at every screen door and window.

Not surprisingly, plants can be as fickle as the women in my household (please note that I am not making any general gender stereotypes, but rather, I am sticking to the facts as I know them) and those of you who rushed your heat-loving basil, peppers and cucurbits (squash, cucumbers, pumpkins) into the chilly em-brace of what we called last spring, have the dead plants to prove it.

But rather than sit back and complain about the scorched hydrangeas, mil-dewed petunias and failed zucchini, I thought we’d look at a group of annuals or summer flowers that thrive in the heat and provide a consistent display of blooms or foliar interest throughout the July to August swelter.

Those of you (like me) who put your Coleus out too early this year may have noticed that didn’t grow at all, or worse yet, just rotted at the base and fell over.

Let me suggest that you give it another try in the heat, because few plants will grow as quickly and provide such a long lasting blaze of foliar colour as it does. Just be sure to pinch those new shoots (to cause it to bush out), remove the ugly blue flowers and keep it well watered during dry periods.

Although many new varieties are sun tolerant and it is often grown in full shade, a part sun exposure seems to pro-duce the best specimens.

One of the best plants to use as filler

in an annual border suffering from heat exhaustion is Celosia, as it doesn’t really bloom at lot until the warm weather hits and it is usually readily available late in the season.

There are two forms of Celosia argentea available, the Cristata or cockscomb types (which look like brain coral) and the feathery Plumosa form.

The usual flower range includes red, yellow, orange, deep pink, salmon, purple, and occasionally you will see them with red or golden foliage. Place in full sun and don’t even think about planting them in heavy soil, as they will quickly rot.

Portulaca grandifl ora or moss rose is the perfect plant for those people who don’t fertilize or actually expect their distant relatives or neighbors to water their planters consistently while they’re away on vacation.

They are also a great option for those shallow planters or bowls that always seem to dry out no matter how often they are watered. This low-growing South American species thrives in the heat with its miniscule succulent foliage topped with relatively large one-inch wide blooms of brilliant carmine, tangerine, canary, purple and rose. Just be careful not to over-water these plants.

I have always been a big fan of pe-rennial black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’), but there is another coneflower which merits attention for its generous display of late summer blooms.

Rudbeckia hirta or Gloriosa Daisies are a group of biennials or short-lived perennials that are often grown as summer fl owers. They will occasionally survive the winter or self-seed around themselves, although they frequently rot-out in our rains.

That said, few plants provide such plenti-ful fl owers in a diverse range of colours,

and many of the individual blooms are huge.

Some of your better choices include ‘Cherry Brandy’ (deep maroon), ‘Sonora’ (gold with chocolate eye), ‘Maya’ (fully double yellow), ‘Rustic Dwarfs’ (yellow, orange, bronze mix), ‘Irish Eyes’ (gold with a green cone) and ‘Toto’ (compact with golden fl owers).

With fl owers that close up on dark overcast days and nights, it’s not too hard to fi gure out that Gazanias like their sun. These natives of Africa feature compact, leathery basal leaves topped with brightly tinted daisy-like blooms of yellow, orange, red and pink – many of which are bicolor with a dark central ring.

Again, these are plants that hate heavy soils, so only use them in areas with good drainage or better yet, in those south or west-facing containers.

That fi nishes my whirlwind tour of heat-loving summer fl owers – now I have to get back to our national pastime – complaining about the weather.

Mike Lascelle is a local nursery manager and gardening author

(hebe_acer@hotmail.com).

Mike Lascelle photos

(From left) Coleus; Celosia argentea ‘Plumosa’ form; Rudbeckia hirta ‘Maya’.

THE NEWS/home&gardeningSummer flowers that can take the heat

Gardening Mike Lascelle

Those of you who put your Coleus out too early this year may have noticed that didn’t grow at all, or worse yet, just rotted at the base and fell over.

What was he thinking?

We have all heard or stated the ques-tion in shock ourselves, as we refl ect on the irresponsible actions of someone who clearly wasn’t thinking.

But the reality is that when we’re conscious and awake, we are always thinking.

In fact, there is nothing easier than thinking, is there?

But there is nothing more diffi cult than thinking well.

You’re not what you think you are. What you think, you are.

In other words, what you are is what you spend the most time thinking about.

What is that? For some it may be

pretty scary. You may

not want to admit it. But sorry, that’s what you are all about.

It may be as innocent as dreaming about the hot car you’d like to get someday, or maybe it’s as illicit as something else that’s hot.

The apostle Paul wrote, “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, what-ever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable or excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.”

Everybody thinks and thinking has nothing to do with your age. The largest segment of our population today is boomers like me, over 50. That is signifi cant because there is no point in your life when God is fi nished with you. If you’re still breathing,

God has some-thing for you to do for Him.

Thinking has nothing to do with your age, but everything to do with your attitude.

Earlier this year my wife and I were watching the Tony Bennett special. I don’t know much about Tony Bennett, but apparently his earlier life was pretty rough. But one thing is clear, he’s making the most of the latter years of his life.

He just turned 80 years old and has one of the smoothest and highest range jazz vocals in the business.

He’s defi nitely not slid-

ing towards home.

He seems like an intel-ligent man enjoying life.

Some of the greatest minds in the world are people well into their senior years.

Everyone has a contribution to make.

We need thinkers.

We need great ideas. God doesn’t bypass the

mind. Jesus said to love the

Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

And your mind is like a muscle: it develops with use.

But it atrophies when you fail to use it.

And like the old com-puter adage: garbage in, garbage out.

So we have to be care-ful what we expose our minds to. Because what you expose you mind to will have the great-est impact on how you think.

Some of you may need to reprogram your minds – if there has been some old ways and old habits creeping back into your life.

Authentic reprogram-ming of the mind only comes from one source.

The apostle Paul wrote this to the church in Rome: “Do not conform any longer to the pat-tern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

That’s the greatest need of every man, woman and child.

It only happens through a dynamic en-counter with the living God.

Les Warriner is pastor at Living Way

Foursquare Church.

You are what you’re thinking about

Acts of Faith Les Warriner

Here come Hot Summer NightsThe Maple Ridge Fire Department continues to cool Hot Summer Nights, visiting neighbourhoods on Thursday evenings throughout the summer:• July 22 – Alouette elementary (west side on 220A St.), 6:30 p.m.;• July 24 – Whonnock Lake from 1– 4 p.m.;• July 29 – Jordan Park, 21010 – 21092 117 Ave., 6:30 p.m.;• Aug. 5 – Docksteader Loop/Foreman Drive, 6:30 p.m.;

What was he thinking?

We have all heard or stated the question in shock our-selves, as we reflect on the irresponsible actions of someone who clearly wasn’t thinking.

But the reality is that when we’re conscious and awake, we are always think-ing.

In fact, there is nothing easier than thinking, is there?

But there is nothing more diffi cult than thinking well.

You’re not what you think you are. What you think, you are.

In other words, what you are is what you spend the most time thinking about.

What is that? For some it may be

pretty scary. You may not want to admit it. But sorry, that’s what you are all about.

It may be as innocent as dreaming about the hot car you’d like to get someday, or maybe it’s

as illicit as something else that’s hot.

The apostle Paul wrote, “…whatever is true, whatever is

noble, what-ever is right, whatever is pure, what-ever is lovely, whatever is admirable or excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.”

Everybody thinks and thinking has nothing to do with your age. The largest

segment of our popula-tion today is boomers like me, over 50. That is signifi cant because there is no point in your life when God is fi nished with you. If you’re still breathing, God has something for you to do for Him.

Thinking has nothing to do with your age, but everything to do with your attitude.

Earlier this year my wife and I were watch-ing the Tony Bennett special. I don’t know much about Tony Ben-nett, but apparently his earlier life was pretty

rough. But one thing is clear, he’s making the most of the latter years of his life.

He just turned 80 years old and has one of the smoothest and highest range jazz vo-cals in the business.

He’s defi nitely not sliding towards home.

He seems like an intelligent man enjoy-ing life.

Some of the greatest minds in the world are people well into their senior years.

Everyone has a con-tribution to make.

We need thinkers. We need great ideas. God doesn’t bypass

the mind. Jesus said to love the

Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

And your mind is like a muscle: it develops with use.

But it atrophies when you fail to use it.

And like the old com-puter adage: garbage in, garbage out.

So we have to be careful what we expose our minds to. Because what you expose you mind to will have the greatest impact on how you think.

Some of you may need to reprogram your minds – if there has been some old ways and old habits creeping back into your life.

Authentic reprogram-ming of the mind only comes from one source.

The apostle Paul wrote this to the church in Rome: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be trans-formed by the renew-ing of your mind.”

That’s the greatest need of every man, woman and child.

It only happens through a dynamic encounter with the living God.

Les Warriner is pastor at Living Way

Foursquare Church.

You are what you’re thinking about

Acts of Faith Les Warriner

“If you’re still breathing, God has something for you to do for Him.”

Here come

Hot Summer

NightsThe Maple Ridge Fire Department continues to cool Hot Summer Nights, On Thursday evenings throughout the summer, fi re trucks are visiting pre-announced locations, then neighbourhoods at random after 6:30 p.m.People will be able to ask the crew questions, get advice on fi re safety, check out the fi re trucks and get soaked if they so choose.Up next: • July 22 – Alouette elementary (west side on 220A St.), 6:30 p.m.;• July 24 – Whonnock Lake from 1– 4 p.m.;• July 29 – Jordan Park, 21010 – 21092 117 Ave., 6:30 p.m.;• Aug. 5 – Docksteader Loop/Foreman Drive, 6:30 p.m.;• Aug. 7 – Whonnock Lake, 1-4 p.m.;• Aug. 12 – Hammond Park, 11555 207 Street• Aug. 19 – Country Lane, Estates North, 24300 –101A Avenue, 6:30 p.m.;• Aug. 21 –Whonnock Lake, 1-4 p.m.

Community Calendar

Community Calendar lists events in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. No-tices are free to local non-profi t groups

courtesy of The News. Drop off details to 22328 119 Ave., fax to 604-463-4741 or e-mail newsroom@mapleridgenews.com at least a week before the event. Include a contact name and number. (No submissions by phone.) Listings appear as space permits. For guaranteed publication, ask our clas-sifi ed department at 604-467-1122 about non-profi t rates.

Friday, July 16• Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Meadows at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.

• Parade of the Stuff ed Animals. Bring your stuff ed animal to hear pet stories, songs and rhymes at the Pitt Meadows Library. Each animal will receive a special prize ribbon.

Saturday, July 17• Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Meadows at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.

• Celebrate berries at the Haney Farmers’ Market with a cooking demonstration on blueberries. Lots of fabulous raspberries still in season and

late cherries are arriving along with nectarines, apricots, gooseberries and currants. More and more vegetables every week. Market takes place every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Memo-rial Peace Park on 224th Street. www.haneyfarmersmarket.org

• Community Garage Sale at St. George’s Village, 23580 Dewdney Trunk Road at 236th Street, from 9 a.m. to noon. 10 units participating, lots of good stuff .

Monday, July 19• St. George’s Vacation Bible School

presents Galactic Blast day camp. Games, music, Bible stories, crafts etc. Runs through Wednesday, July 21, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Registration is $25, snack and lunch included. register by phone at 604-463-9622, or email offi ce@stgeorgemr.org. 23500 Dewdney Trunk Road.

Thursday, July 22• Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Maple Ridge at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.

Friday, July 23• Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Maple Ridge at 7:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment 6:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.

Saturday, July 24• Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Meadows at 7:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.

• Do you have a friend who has never been to the Haney Farmers’ Market? Bring them to the market’s information booth and you both will receive a gift. Introduce your friends to your favourite vendors and show them around. Okanagan vendors are bringing in apricots and nectarines, don’t miss out, it’s a short season. Memorial Peace Park on 224th Street in downtown Maple Ridge. Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• Come to the Downtown Maple Ridge Summer Market on July 24 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Memorial Peace Park on 224th Street next to the Haney Farmers’ Market. Enjoy live entertainment, kids’ activities and local vendors in a fun street market atmosphere. Future Markets will occur on August 28 and September 25. Call the DMRBIA at 604-467-2420 for more information.

Sunday, July 25• Emerald Pig Theatrical Society

proudly presents The Tempest as part of Bard on the Bandstand in Pitt Meadows at 1:30 p.m. Pre-show entertainment 12:30 p.m. Free event. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket, your family and a donation for the Friends in Need Food Bank. For more information, visit www.emeraldpig.ca.

THE NEWS/sportsSection coordinator:Robert Mangelsdorf 604-467-1122 ext. 216newsroom@mapleridgenews.com

The Ridge Mead-ows Burrards bantam girls’ lacrosse squad returned from the pro-vincial championships in Port Moody last weekend with bronze medals around their neck, going 3-2 at the tournament.

The Burrards drew Coquitlam in their fi rst game of the weekend, falling 4-2 in a physical match after getting into penalty trouble. The Burrards bounced back from their opening loss to blank Nanaimo 16-0 just three hours later, thanks in part to the team’s effective power play. Next up for Ridge Meadows was Burnaby, a team the Burrards had not beaten this year. The Burrards got a quick fi rst goal and never trailed en route to a 4-1 win that guar-anteed them a berth in the medal round with a second place fi nish in round robin play.

The Burrards drew Coquitlam again in the fi rst round of the play-offs, but unfortunately the result was the same, with a 5-1 loss to knock them out of gold medal contention.

That put the Burrards in the bronze medal game against Burn-aby, who they easily dispatched in another physical game, 8-3, to take the medal.

The team consisted of Regan Eaton, Leah Burnell, Arissa David, Amber McKeeman, Jenna DiFrancesco, Sierra Laforge, McKen-zie Rippon, Sam Shaw, Julianna Won, Autumn Meredith, Stepha-nie Richards Britany Irvine,Ellen Harrison, Megan Michaud, Marlo Bellamy, Leah Burnett, Rachel Phillips, Jania Banns, Kiana Henry and Brianna Magnu-son.

Eaton, Meredith, Har-rison, and Laforge were all named game MVPs over the course of the tournament, while Meredith received the fair play award, and Eaton was named to the provincial all-star team.

The Fraser Valley Zone 3 canoe and kayak squad will have plenty of local repre-sentation at the B.C. Sum-mer Games this month in Langley, as a total of seven athletes and three coaches from the Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club, and the Pitt

Meadows Paddling Club have been chosen to partici-pate.

Competing will be Clay Lake, Greg Van Meel, Ol-ivia Cavasinni, and Tarryn MacPherson of the Ridge Canoe and Kayak Club, as well as Dylan Bridgman,

Hank Wang, Ryan Patience of the Pitt Meadows Pad-dling Club.

PMPC coach Emma Visser, along with RCKC coaches Clara VanMeel and Amanda Sublett, were selected by the provincial sport organi-zation to fi ll coaching roles

at the games. Visser will act as the assistant coach to the Zone 5 team under Olympic medalist Dr. Hugh Fisher. Clara VanMeel will be the head coach for the Thompson-Okanagan Zone 2 team and Amanda Sublett will fi ll the role as assistant

coach with the Fraser River-Delta Zone 4 team.

This year’s Games marks the return of canoe and kay-ak events for the fi rst time in 12 years.

The B.C. Summer Games take place July 22 to 25 in the Langley.

Bantam Burrards take bronze

Local paddlers headed to B.C. Summer Games in Langley

Up and AdamAdam Tupper of the Ridge Meadows Twins easily makes it safe to second as Cale Reining of the Maple Ridge Jerks stretches for the ball during a Lower Mainland Base-ball Association game at Larry Walker field Sunday afternoon. The Jerks won 8-3.

Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

Lacrosse community helps one of its own

The Ridge Meadows la-crosse community is com-ing together to support one if its own after Jeff Sauve of the Maple Ridge Burrards seriously injured his leg in a game against the New West-minster Salmonbellies last week. Sauve had his leg bro-ken and ankle dislocated af-ter getting checked hard by a pair of Salmonbellie players, forcing him to undergo sur-gery to repair the injury.

“It was pretty bad,” said Burrards head coach Daren Fridge. “His foot was facing the wrong way.”

The injury means Sauve, a carpenter by trade, will be off work for months, and it could be weeks before his dis-

ability benefi ts kick in, so the team is helping to organize a fundraising drive to help out Sauve until he is back on his feet again.

“If he can’t work, he’s not getting paid, and he’s got rent to pay,” said Fridge. “If you blow an ACL [knee] and you have a desk job, it’s not too big a deal, but he makes his living on his feet.”

Burrards owner Bill Hicks said in the 10 years he’s owned the team, he’s never seen a player get injured as bad as Sauve.

“All of our players, they all have jobs, some of them have families and kids,” said Hicks. “They’re amateur athletes, and when something like this happens, we need to help out anyway we can.”

Hicks organized the dona-tion drive at the last moment before the Burrards home game last Sunday. Despite the lack of preparation, the organization was able to raise

more than $300 for Sauve. This Sunday, Hicks said there will be more of a coor-dinated effort, and he hopes to raise more funds to lessen the fi nancial hardship Sauve is facing. The Ridge Meadows Minor Lacrosse Association has also posted a reminder on their website, urging its members to donate.

Hicks said he was blown away the support the local la-crosse community has shown for Sauve.

“There’s a lot of great people involved in the sport here,” said Hicks. “We’re pretty lucky.”

Sauve, who is now couch-bound with a cast on his leg, was surprised to hear of the efforts to help him out.

“I’m totally humbled by this,” he said. “It feels good to have that kind of support.”

Fridge said that he would like to see the league make provisions for athletes who get injured, so they won’t

have to face similar hard-ships.

“What it comes down to, is that we are benefi tting from these athletes,” he said. “They’re war-riors going to battle, and they do it for the love of the game.

“There should be some support for them.”

Fridge described Sauve, who has 11 points in 14 games with the Burrards this season, as “a coaches dream.”

“He really gives his all, ev-ery shift,” he said. “He always does what’s asked of him, and he doesn’t complain.

“It was pretty defl ating for us to lose him.”

Fridge hung Sauve’s No. 19 jersey behind the bench to remind the Burrards of their fallen teammate last Sunday during their rematch with New West. The tactic seemed

to work, as the Burrards were able to pull off a 9-7 win to keep their play-off hopes alive.

Sauve said he hopes to make it down to Planet Ice this Sunday to cheer on his team-mates as they host the Victoria Sham-rocks in their fi nal home game of the Western Lacrosse Association regular season.

“The support’s really been great,”

said Sauve. “Fridgey and the guys came and visited me when I was in hospital. Hope-fully I’ll be able to come down and support them too.”

• The Maple Ridge Burrards host the Victoria Shamrocks in their fi nal home game of the Western Lacrosse As-sociation regular season at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge. Game time is 6:45 p.m.

Sauve

Jeff Sauve injured last week against New West

b y R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r fstaff repor ter

Keeping your body cool and hydrated during

the hot days of summer is a challenge for most of us, but it’s even more important for people exercising.

Sports and energy drinks are potential methods to do this, but with the wide range of drinks available today, which ones are best? And are there pitfalls to some forms of bever-ages?

Sports drinks origi-nated in 1965, when the

Florida Gators football coaches wanted a way to counteract the team’s tendency to wilt in the second half Florida heat. The team doctors conducted research which showed that the water, electrolytes and carbohydrates the players lost dur-ing play was not being adequately replenished and performance was suffering. These fi nd-ings led to the creation of a carbohydrate-elec-trolyte beverage which they named “Gatorade”

after their team name. The Gators went 9-2 and won the Orange Bowl the following year. We now know that a loss of two per cent body weight from sweat-ing (that’s equal to a four-pound loss during exercise for a 200-pound person) the body’s per-formance is adversely affected. A four per cent loss of body weight can reduce performance by as much as 20 per cent.

In the years following the discovery, many other sports hoping for

similar results soon began or-dering batches of Gatorade and the rest is history. But it’s only in the last decade that the sports drink industry has really boomed.

The drinks available today include ones containing mainly carbo-hydrate and electrolytes that are at various con-centrations (properly

called “sports drinks” or “fl uid replace-ment drinks”).

Those containing caffeine (along with glucose, vitamins and other ingre-dients such as Taurine, which has not been proven to be energy en-hancing) are

called “energy drinks.” The major difference between the two is that

energy drinks contain caffeine and sports drinks don’t.

In the last few years there has been more research on the benefi ts of caffeine on athletic performance and on mental alertness, enhanced fat utilization and increased levels of weight loss. However, it is the amount of caffeine contained in energy drinks and the adverse effects that has cre-ated controversy. Since caffeine is a stimulant it can cause insomnia, nervousness, headache, and tachycardia in suf-fi cient concentrations. One study done in 2008 showed adverse effects on endothelial function and blood coagulation which temporarily raised the cardiovas-cular risk similar to a person with coronary artery disease. This and other adverse reports documented in medical journals have caused red fl ags to be raised over the use of energy drinks, especially when used in sports and fi t-ness activities and when used in conjunction with alcohol and other stimulants like ephedra (found in many weight loss products). In fact, Health Canada does not authorize the use of ephedra either alone or with caffeine because of the extreme health risks.

While it’s true that one typical energy drink contains about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee (80 to 100 mg per can or cup), there are new energy drinks that can contain as much as 250 mg per

can. Since caffeine is a diuretic and can cause dehydration for those who are not regular caffeine drinkers, it has been recommended that energy drinks be used with caution and not as a fl uid replace-ment strategy. However, one very recent study has shown that low to moderate concentra-tions of caffeine had no detrimental effect on rehydration over a 24-hour period. Habitual users of caffeine don’t seem to suffer from de-hydration. There needs to be more studies done on energy drinks in athletics, especially with higher concentrations of caffeine.

Sports drinks should contain low sodium (0.3 to 0.7 grams per litre) and no more than six to eight per cent concen-tration of carbohydrate, otherwise hydration will be slowed and cramping may result. If you add protein to the drink in a 1:4 ratio (protein to car-bohydrate) you can even enhance fl uid retention about 15 per cent more than traditional sports drinks or water alone.

The position state-ments of most major medical and physiology bodies still state that the best fl uid replacement strategy is water, or sports drinks in some situations where the duration of the sport is at least 45 to 60 minutes or more and where and high sweat rates and electrolyte loss is prob-able.

Kerry Senchyna holds a bachelor of science

degree in kinesiology.

Sports

Nothing beats water for fluid replacement

Kinected Kerry Senchyna

THE NEWS/scoreboardWestern Lacrosse Association

Regular season standings

Teams GP W L T Pts GF GANew Westminster 15 11 4 0 22 151 132Victoria 14 10 4 0 20 156 130Maple Ridge 16 7 9 0 14 145 146Coquitlam 15 7 8 0 14 167 170Nanaimo 14 6 8 0 12 149 159Langley 14 5 9 0 10 145 156Burnaby 12 4 8 0 8 92 112

Maple Ridge Burrards scoring leaders

Players GP G A Pts PIM S S%Davis, Jarrett 16 24 43 67 6 112 .214Dalgarno, Joel 10 19 21 40 8 83 .229Dickson, Curtis 10 15 14 29 6 97 .155Murphy, Andrew 13 11 17 28 4 49 .224Lowe, Derek 14 11 15 26 27 74 .149Tellis, Peter 12 12 11 23 2 45 .267Pascas, Aaron 15 14 6 20 0 59 .237Daly, Randy 12 7 9 16 7 58 .121Davis, Aaron 14 6 7 13 15 29 .207Sauve, Jeff 14 3 8 11 16 11 .273Michaud, Dayne 16 5 5 10 34 16 .313Cook, Sam 16 1 6 7 12 8 .125Reid, Kevin 14 2 4 6 71 4 .500Steedsman, Curtis 4 4 1 5 0 15 .267Davies, Ben 14 1 4 5 6 11 .091Nichol, Mark 6 2 2 4 2 17 .118Miotto, Tyler 2 2 2 4 22 6 .333Munk, Jonathan 16 1 3 4 32 4 .250Schibild, Ron 13 0 4 4 0 0 .000Reid, Creighton 15 1 2 3 11 6 .167Codron, Tyler 10 1 2 3 24 2 .500 Galbraith, Brennan 4 1 1 2 0 2 .500Rennie, Brad 15 1 0 1 24 4 .250Tarrant, Nate 12 1 0 1 32 5 .200Hinman, Greg 12 0 1 1 15 5 .000

WLA goalie leaders

Players Team GP W L T GAA SV%Schibild, Ron Maple Ridge 13 7 6 0 8.16 .803Roik, Matt New West 9 5 4 0 8.28 .811Lowe, Scott Burnaby 6 3 3 0 8.63 .796Richards, Tyler New West 6 5 0 0 9.34 .802Dickie, Drew Burnaby 6 1 4 0 9.40 .789Croswell, Kevin Langley 13 5 7 0 9.60 .791Patterson, Nick Victoria 9 7 1 0 9.65 .788

• Maple Ridge’s Andrew Ladd is bringing the Stanley Cup to Planet Ice this Sunday, July 18 from noon to 2 p.m. Free event.

• The Maple Ridge Burrards host the Victoria Shamrocks at Planet Ice Sunday, July 18 in their final home game of the Western Lacrosse Association regular season. Game time is 6:45 p.m.

• Drop-in summer touch rugby from now until September. The Ridge Meadows Bruins are hosting weekly drop-in touch rugby on Thursdays at Maple Ridge secondary (Merkley Park). Mini rugby (ages five to 12) goes from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and U-14, U-16, men and women are on the field from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. www.bruinsrugbyclub.com

• Golden Ears United women’s soccer teams are now taking players for the fall season. There is currently space available in Divisions 1, 3, 4 and 30+. Ages 17 and up. For more info please contact Susan Carr at 604-467-8447 or clascarr@shaw.ca.

Lacrosse

Get your sports results in THE NEWSSubmit scores and standings to sports@mapleridgenews.com

WLA scoring leaders

Players Team GP G A PtsRatcliff, Lewis Nanaimo 13 30 49 79 Dobbie, Dane Coquitlam 15 38 39 77 Conway, Cory Coquitlam 15 30 47 77 Ranger, Scott Nanaimo 14 33 35 68 Davis, Jarrett Maple Ridge 16 24 43 67 Billings, Garrett Langley 12 23 36 59 Shattler, Jeff Victoria 14 18 36 54 Jones, Jason Coquitlam 15 21 31 52 Veltman, Daryl Coquitlam 12 22 29 51 Duch, Rhys Victoria 11 27 23 50 Turner, Alex Langley 14 21 27 48 Hill, Dean Victoria 14 15 33 48 Henry, Joel Nanaimo 14 16 31 47 Crawford, Callum Nanaimo 12 21 25 46 Benesch, Ryan Victoria 9 21 21 42 Smith, Cliff New West 13 17 25 42 McCready, Joel Langley 13 26 14 40 Dalgarno, Joel Maple Ridge 10 19 21 40

B.C. Minor Baseball Standings

Junior Men’s Division 1Teams GP W L T F A PtsR. Meadows Mudhens 11 6 5 0 50 65 12 Port Coquitlam Brewers 11 5 6 0 38 75 10 Newton Red Sox 10 4 6 0 38 58 8 Vancouver Capilanos 10 4 6 0 53 94 8 New Westminster Twins 9 3 5 1 39 40 7 Gibsons Dodgers 8 3 5 0 48 40 6

Junior Men’s Division 2Teams GP W L T F A PtsNewton Nationals 11 11 0 0 92 18 22 R. Meadows Royals 10 7 3 0 74 23 14 Aldergrove Cubs 11 5 5 1 69 72 11 Richmond Chuckers 11 5 6 0 51 52 10 North Delta D-Backs 11 4 6 1 63 71 9 Cloverdale Rays 11 3 7 1 44 51 7

Midget AAATeams GP W L T F A PtsVancouver 31 26 4 1 190 71 53 Victoria 31 25 6 0 204 105 50 Ridge Meadows 35 24 11 0 196 95 48 South Okanagan 32 21 11 0 169 121 42 Richmond 32 18 14 0 121 90 36 Cloverdale 35 17 18 0 157 146 34 Kamloops 30 13 17 0 152 146 26 Chilliwack 29 8 21 0 103 216 16 Tri City 29 8 21 0 111 205 16 Mid Island 31 7 23 1 101 171 15 Abbotsford 35 7 28 0 90 228 14

Midget AA Summer All-Star Teams GP W L T F A PtsGibsons 4 4 0 0 53 11 8 Ridge Meadows 4 4 0 0 34 16 8 Vancouver 5 3 2 0 22 21 6 Cloverdale 4 2 2 0 24 15 4 Ladner 6 3 3 0 36 45 6 Mission 3 1 2 0 15 24 2 Newton 3 1 2 0 26 25 2 Burnaby 7 2 5 0 35 73 4 Surrey 1 4 1 3 0 30 37 2 Richmond 4 1 3 0 26 34 2

Bantam AA Summer All-Star WestTeams GP W L T F A PtsNewton Twins 3 2 1 0 19 16 4 Van. Community 3 2 1 0 42 20 4 Tsawwassen Titans 4 2 1 1 12 17 5 Surrey Astros 4 1 1 2 22 36 4 White Rock 4 2 2 0 33 17 4 Vancouver Minor 3 1 2 0 22 33 2 Burnaby Minor 3 0 2 1 4 15 1

Bantam AA Summer All-Star EastTeams GP W L T F A PtsAldergrove 4 4 0 0 31 14 8 Chilliwack 5 4 0 1 55 34 9 Cloverdale Spurs 5 2 3 0 26 28 4 Coq-Moody Reds 4 1 3 0 16 39 2 Abbotsford Angels 4 0 3 1 20 26 1 Ridge Meadows 2 0 2 0 14 21 0

Bantam A Summer All-Star Coastal Division Teams GP W L T F A PtsLadner 1 Red Sox 5 5 0 0 65 13 10 Richmond Chuckers 3 2 1 0 34 23 4 Vancouver Mounties 4 2 2 0 25 38 4 Ladner 2 Red Sox 3 1 2 0 16 12 2 White Rock All-Stars 5 0 5 0 20 74 0

Bantam A Summer All-Star Metro DivisionTeams GP W L T F A PtsPoCo Cardinals 4 4 0 0 51 18 8 Newton Red Sox 3 2 0 1 44 28 5 Surrey Blue Jays 4 1 2 1 31 36 3 R. Meadows Royals 3 1 2 0 17 26 2 Burnaby Braves 4 0 4 0 32 67 0

Bantam A Summer All-Star Valley Division Teams GP W L T F A PtsAldergrove Twins 2 2 0 0 20 1 4 Mission Twins 2 2 0 0 16 13 4 Abbotsford Angels 4 3 1 0 46 22 6 Cloverdale Spurs 4 1 3 0 16 36 2 Chilliwack Cougars 4 0 4 0 19 45 0

Mosquito AAA Summer All-Star Tier 1Teams GP W L T F A PtsCloverdale Spurs T1 2 2 0 0 18 4 4 Ladner Red Sox 3 2 1 0 30 27 4 Richmond Chuckers 2 1 1 0 19 21 2 Abbotsford Angels T1 2 1 1 0 14 9 2 R. Meadows Royals 2 0 2 0 16 26 0 Coquitlam Reds 1 0 1 0 5 15 0

Peewee AAA Summer All-StarTeams GP W L T F A PtsCloverdale Colts 5 5 0 0 48 13 10 White Rock 5 5 0 0 54 15 10 R. Meadows Royals 5 4 1 0 48 27 8 Abbotsford Angels 4 3 1 0 33 6 6 Coquitlam Reds 4 2 2 0 33 32 4 Ladner Red Sox 5 2 3 0 18 38 4 Vancouver Monarchs 3 1 2 0 19 15 2 Victoria Eagles Red 3 1 2 0 11 25 2 Richmond Chuckers 4 1 3 0 17 43 2 Chilliwack 4 1 3 0 19 41 2 Kamloops 3 0 3 0 19 36 0 Victoria Eagles Black 1 0 1 0 5 11 0 Nanaimo Pirates 4 0 4 0 10 32 0

Lower Mainland Baseball AssociationRegular Season Standings

Bob Bunnett DivisionTeams GP W L T Pts F AMaple Ridge Jerks 11 10 1 0 20 74 31Coquitlam Cardinals 10 7 2 1 15 69 35South Delta Padres 10 7 3 0 14 43 29Burnaby Yankees 10 6 3 1 13 74 61Vancouver Mounties 10 5 5 0 10 60 53New West Red Sox 9 3 6 0 6 36 44Richmond Athletics 9 3 6 0 6 51 62Burnaby Brewers 9 1 8 0 2 23 70Tri City Indians 10 0 10 0 0 15 73

Bob Bunnett DivisionTeams GP W L T Pts F ADelta Dodgers 8 8 0 0 16 75 10Aldergrove Giants 9 7 2 0 14 51 47Delta Tigers 9 7 2 0 14 59 31Langley Knights 10 7 3 0 14 62 38Newton Royals 11 5 6 0 10 62 67Chilliwack Cubs 10 4 6 0 8 51 62Langley Expos 10 3 7 0 6 49 57R. Meadows Twins 10 3 7 0 6 54 66N. Delta Fighting Irish 11 1 10 0 2 14 86

Baseball

Sports Calendar

Slo-Pitch

Ruskin Slo-Pitch League

A DivisionTeams GP W L T PtsPosse 20 18 2 0 36 Gamblers 21 17 4 0 34 Master Batters 21 17 4 0 34 Marlies 18 10 8 0 20 Longnecks 20 9 10 1 19 Brewers 21 7 14 0 14 Outkasts 20 7 13 0 14 Ball Busters 22 7 15 0 14 Renegades 17 4 12 1 9 Outlaws 18 2 16 0 4

B DivisionTeams GP W L T PtsThe Moose 24 21 3 0 42 Maniacs 24 14 10 0 28 Krackers 23 13 9 1 27 Blue Balls 23 11 12 0 22 Falcons 22 10 12 0 20 Ridge Pigs 24 9 15 0 18 Uncoachables 22 9 13 0 18 Hawks 21 9 12 0 18 Full Tilt 22 8 13 1 17 Zig Zags 21 7 12 0 14

C DivisionTeams GP W L T PtsRebels 22 19 3 0 38 Slammers 22 18 4 0 36 Big Ballers 24 17 7 0 34 Vandals 23 14 9 0 28 Big Doggs 20 11 9 0 22 Hangovers 21 9 11 1 19 Base Invaders 23 9 14 0 18 Bombers 21 8 12 1 17 Alchoballics 22 4 18 0 8 Shake ‘N Bake 24 1 23 0 2

Community Calendar lists events in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Notices are free to local non-profi t groups courtesy of

the News. Drop off details to 22328 119 Ave., fax to 604-463-4741 or e-mail newsroom@mapleridgenews.com at least a week before the event. Include a contact name and number. No submissions by phone. Listings appear as space permits. For guaranteed publication, ask

our classifi ed department at 604-467-1122 about non-profi t rates.

Ongoing• The Canadian Cancer Society is looking

for a volunteer driver dispatcher in Maple Ridge. Work from the comfort of you home coordinat-ing rides with volunteer drivers to transport cancer patients to and from treatment related

appointments. Volunteers need to be well organized with good record keeping skills. Must have excellent people skills and telephone manner and the ability to communicate clearly and solve problems eff ectively. Time commit-ment is approximately 4 to 6 hours per week over a minimum one year term. To fi nd out more, please contact Vinyse Barberat vbarber@bc.cancer.ca or 604-215-5209.

• Debtor’s Anonymous meets Tuesdays, 8 to 9 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church, 22165 Dew-dney Trunk Road. Park and enter from the back of the building. Hope and recovery for debtors, compulsive spenders and under-earners. For more information, e-mail mapleridge@ debtor-sanonymous.ca or call John 604-928-9697

• Come to the Maple Ridge Public Library and enjoy stories, songs and fi ngerplays that will

entertain and delight you. All ages are welcome. Storytimes begin at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays through July. For more information, please call the Maple Ridge Public Library at 604-467-7417.

• Singles dance, at various locations, every Saturday night. Includes dinner and a live band. For more information call Doris at 604-465-4412.

Community Calendar