Along the Fraser Price of doing business in Ridge. p6
Bombing crews getting their due. p3
THE NEWS
Sports Burrards trade top scorer. p49
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, June 29, 2012 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢
Teachers vote on new deal Local union welcomes improved benefits by R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r f staff reporter B.C. teachers and the Liberal government have reached a tentative deal to end their ongoing contract dispute after weeks of intense negotiations with a mediator. The deal, which still needs to be voted on by teachers, offers modest gains in benefits for teachers and avoids changes to seniority and professional development sought by the B.C. Public School Employers Association, the government’s bargaining agent. “We didn’t hit a home run,” said Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association president George Serra. “But we managed to avoid a lot of the concessions BCPSEA was asking for.” If approved, the deal will mean an end to the ongoing job action by teachers. See Teachers, p12
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
Im-Mo-talized in wood Lisa Herman of Pitt Meadows Arenas drapes a wooden sculpture of former Vancouver Canuck Brendan Morrison to be unveiled Saturday. See story, p47.
Watching out for each other BIA, RCMP launch a program to tackle crime by M o n i s h a M a r t i n s staff reporter
T
racey Nahachewsky would rather not think about the morning she was attacked while taking the trash to a dumpster behind her store. Eight months later, she still bears the scars. “I guess I startled a homeless
guy,” said Nahachewsky, recalling the day in October when she was wrestled to the ground in an alley behind her tattoo store on Lougheed Highway. The ensuing struggle cracked a bone in her thumb, damaged her knee and shoulder. “It was fight or flight at that point,” she said. With no surveillance footage of the attack or witnesses, police were unable to locate her assailant. The incident, however, prompted police to step up foot patrols.
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It also made everyone who owns a business in the 22300 block of Lougheed Highway more vigilant. “Nobody wants it to happen again,” said Nahachewsky, who owns Authentic Ink. Vigilance and more eyes on the streets and alleys have, in turn, made the area safer. “With the police walking around a lot more, it’s helped,” said Nahachewsky. “We are now watching out for each other.” The Downtown Business Im-
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provement Association and Ridge Meadows RCMP hope to spread similar neighbourliness throughout the downtown with a program designed to bring people together. “It’s very similar to a Block Watch program, where we are just encouraging business to be neighbourly,” said Special Const. Steve Terrillon, who launched Maple Ridge Business Watch in conjunction with the business improvement association Thursday. The year-long pilot project will See Patrol, p5
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Authentic Ink Tattoo owner Tracey Nahachewsky displays the Business Watch sticker as part of a new initiative between the BIA and the RCMP to curb downtown crime.
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