Thursday March 29, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. o. 26))
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
In the house: More than 200 would-be curlers – many more than expected – stopped by the Peace Arch Curling Centre’s open house Saturday afternoon to tour the facility and learn the game from club members. see page A39
Aquatics groups say their advice was sought and ignored, as city process comes to a close
Public pool consultation criticized Nick Greenizan Staff Reporter
❝There is no question that this pool can accommodate competitions.❞ Coun. Tom Gill
Flight of fancy
When it comes to re-jigging plans for the proposed Grandview Heights aquatic centre, the City of Surrey has been asking for suggestions. But what members of the aquatic community want to know is, are they actually being heard?
Local user groups of swimmers and divers – amateurs and world champions among them – have formed a unified group to present to the city their concerns that the 50-metre pool proposed for Grandview Heights will be too small to host all the groups wishing to use it, and will not be sufficiently large enough to host national or international meets.
Since November, the group has been corresponding with city staff members and councillors, in an attempt to sway the city into building something larger. They appeared as a delegation during a parks committee meeting last week. “They have all these open houses where they ask people to come and talk, but nobody seems to really be listening,” said
Aart Looye, a masters swimmer who is heading up the groups’ combined effort. “It was a pretty frosty reception. They’ve got their minds made up already.” White Rock Divers founder Bev Boys – a three-time Olympian – echoed Looye’s statement, saying “they just don’t learn, it’s very frustrating. see page A4
Gord Goble photo
The past weekend’s clear skies provided the perfect backdrop for the pilot of an ultralight airplane, who blew in to Crescent Beach last Saturday afternoon. The propeller-driven, single-passenger plane landed just off of Blackie Spit Park, sitting on the water for a few moments before revving its engine and demonstrating some fly-bys. The light-weight plane then made a quick escape towards the west to continue its flight before the clouds rolled in to cover the sun.
U.S. road trip by Canadian councillors to lobby for passenger-train stop in Blaine
They think they can, they think they can… Dan Ferguson Staff Reporter
The campaign to save an old passenger-train station in Blaine, Wash. gained a little steam this week, thanks in part to visiting Canadians. Councillors from Surrey and White Rock crossed the U.S. border to back a plan that would revive the station as a stop on the Vancouverto-Seattle Amtrak service.
BNSF Railway, owner of the border town’s dilapidated station, has applied for permission to demolish the century-old wooden building – located just south of the Peace Arch – but the City of Blaine has delayed a final decision on the teardown to allow time for a review of its historical significance. At a Monday night meeting of Blaine council, Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt and White Rock Coun.
Grant Meyer told their U.S. counterparts that a reopened passengertrain station could draw on a potentially huge customer base from their cities, in addition to neighbouring Delta and both Langleys. Currently, local residents who want to board the southbound Cascades run must head north to Vancouver’s Pacific Central Station. “We have 870,000 people lying on the other side of the border, who
right now have to spend an hour to go into Vancouver and then take an hour to come back out on the train, wasting two hours,” Hunt said. Meyer, who has fought unsuccessfully for an Amtrak stop in his community, said the U.S. option would be a logical substitute. “I think it can be the stop that we wanted in White Rock, but due to customs issues and parking issues see page A4
Dan Ferguson photo
Couns. Marvin Hunt, Grant Meyer.
.. Join us.Friday, March 30 TRAVEL AND HEALTH FAIR
12:00-5PM, ITHVC Clinic Unit #107 1959, 152nd Street Windsor Square, South Surrey
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