VICTORIANEWS VICTORIA VICTORIA NEWS • OAK BAY NEWS • SAANICH NEWS • GOLDSTREAM NEWS GAZETTE • February 29, 2012
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FEBRUARY 2012
Judged the best newspaper in B.C.
On the chopping block
Spring fever
Province mum on which Greater Victoria properties could be sold off. News, Page A3
Time for a little spring cleaning? Check out our new Spring Home guide. Inside today
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Japanese Restaurant
Spring Cleaning 101
Now N ow S Serving
Getting started on your spring cleaning
Restoration Breakdown
Brown Rice Sushi
How to restore your property after a long winter
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Floral 411
Kelli Ellis from HGTV celebrates the sights and scents of spring
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Forever young ‘Leaplings’ have today to celebrate their leap day birthdays Erin McCracken News staff
Arnold Lim/Black Press
Vehicles and cyclists make their way across the Johnson Street Bridge while the rail portion of the bridge is loaded onto a barge to be taken away on Friday.
Crowd bids adieu to rail bridge Roszan Holmen News staff
Some described it as a party – others as a wake. Well over 100 people braved the pouring rain for hours to catch the dismantling of the rail portion of the Johnson Street Bridge Friday. Many arrived as early as 9:30 a.m. for the show, but it wasn’t until after 1 p.m. that a crane lifted the span and lowered it onto a 100-metre barge. For Gary Mullins the day wasn’t as he envi-
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humoured affair. Many came just to see the engineering feat. Others, to say goodbye to a significant piece of city history. “I’m really happy to see so many people down here interested in what’s happening,” said Ron Bartrom, who came to watch with his wife. “We just want to acknowledge her and say goodbye because she served us for so long, basically with no trouble,” he said. Bartrom’s also looking forward to the new bridge. PLEASE SEE: Bridge dismantling, Page A12
PLEASE SEE: 10th birthday, Page A12
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sioned. The senior bridge operator quietly retired after 16 years last spring, despite his deep love for Big Blue. He had hoped for a grand event. He planned to use the bridge sound system to broadcast the opera Lakmé for the crowd, but realized it wasn’t possible. “I think of the bridge as two different entities: The railway and the highway, the lovers,” said Mullins. “Lakmé, if you listen to it … this woman gives her life up for her true love. It’s high opera. It’s wailing and crying, and that’s what I wanted.” Instead, the event was a quiet but good-
Today Emily Bailey is eligible to get her driver’s licence, though at four years old she’ll be the youngest Esquimalt resident to get behind the wheel. Sooke resident Jessica Robinson turns 10 today, making her another year older but still younger than her sons, 17-yearold Zachary and 16-year-old Jacob Humphreys. Robinson and Bailey were born on leap day, an extra day in the Gregorian calendar that rolls around once every four years. The addition of Feb. 29 balances the calendar with the clock and synchronizes the seasons with calendar dates, according to official timekeepers at the National Research Council of Canada. “I kind of want to find more people who are leap year (babies) and actually talk to them and find out if people ask them the same questions,” says Bailey, the only leapling, as leap day babies are known, out of 733 students at Esquimalt High. Even though she is four years old in leap years, she is also celebrating her sweet 16. As her unique birthday approaches, the attention she gets ramps up and the questions start coming.