WEST END GETS ART DECO TOUCH
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NOT-SO-GENTLE JOHN CUMMINS
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WEDNESDAY
APRIL 4 2012
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FEES AIMED AT page MATTRESS DUMPING
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Canucks fans gathered for a ‘tweetup’ at Boston Pizza recently. See Page A14
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Church fights to stay alive Takes battle with national organization to court Grant Granger newwestnewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Workers install metal panels etched with historic photographs in a seating terrace at the new Westminster Pier Park.
Taking a peek at Pier Park New Fraser River playground nears completion Grant Granger ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
Mayor Wayne Wright gleefully points out a couple of sea lions playfully swimming in the Fraser River. “It’s good luck,” he says. “It’s good luck.” Wright and several senior city staff are taking the media on a tour of the city’s newest pride and joy, Westminster Pier Park, expected to
open to the public in about a month. It isn’t clear whether the mayor’s “good luck” statement is an attempt to convince the media, the public or himself that the $25-million project budget was money well spent. “There’s something happening here [on the Fraser River] all the time when people come down here,” says Wright. As visitors enter the park from the west end one of the ¿rst things they will see is a weathered steel strip that lines one edge of the boardwalk. It’s a memory band that runs the length of the park with names and events that
have shaped New Westminster, from Woodlands to Salmonbellies to city neighbourhoods. To the right of the entrance is a short pier, a grassy, undulating area with several timber piles jutting up. It’s an area for kids to play, but it’s left up to them to create the games and activity. “It’s sort of the whimsical area,” says parks director Dean Gibson. “I remember going to Expo 86 and at the B.C. pavilion they had Àag poles, which are still there, and kids were zigzagging in and out of them. There was lots of imaginative play.”
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On the land side of the short pier is a small playground, one of two in the new park. And as visitors head east there is a wide boardwalk with several park benches with views of the Fraser. Beyond the sturdy steel railings, the riverbank below is piled with large boulders, the rip-rap that prevents erosion, and up the bank is a large planting of shrubbery native to the area. Although B.C.’s snowpack has been building this spring, the city isn’t worried about the park being Àooded because it was built above any Àoodplain levels. Please see LYTTON SQUARE, A3
April 12-14, 2012
A congregation’s ¿ght to keep its church went to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in New Westminster last week. Parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Saints Peter and Paul are trying to block the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC) from taking possession of the church at 304 Eighth St. and the rectory at 302 Eighth St., built in 1892. The rectory was ¿rst owned by former Mayor Thomas Ovens, the originator of the Hyack anvil battery. The dispute dates to 2005 when membership had declined to 24. At a Dec. 19 meeting, according to a court document ¿led by UOCC, 13 voting members decided in a secret ballot 10-3 to dissolve the congregation. But congregation president Anatoly Ciacka says there was confusion at that meeting and many thought they were voting to keep it open when they actually voted to close it. see CONGREGATION, A4