B.C. Views Nuggets from Barlee’s gold pan. p6
SPCA wants money to take on feral cats. p3
THE NEWS
Sports Ridge goalie invited to pro mentorship camp. p29
www.mapleridgenews.com Wednesday, July 11, 2012 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢
Council cool on garbage collection Rejects study to look at switch to municipal service by R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r f staff reporter
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Point of contact Tyler Wotherspoon practises contact juggling, a craft he has been perfecting for five years, during Adstock on Sunday in Memorial Peace Park. See slideshow @ mapleridgenews.com.
Private garbage collection in Maple Ridge is likely here to stay after district councillors shot holes in a proposal to look at switching to a municipal service. Maple Ridge is the only municipality in the Lower Mainland that doesn’t offer municipal garbage collection. Couns. Judy Dueck, Cheryl Ashlie, Mike Morden, and Al Hogarth expressed opposition at Monday’s council workshop meeting to a request to spend $85,000 on consultant services to review the District of Maple Ridge’s solid waste options, including municipal curbside garbage collection. Hogarth said a municipal garbage service would not be in the best interest of taxpayers. See Garbage, p3
Residents sign tax petition by M o n i s h a M a r t i n s staff reporter
S
hakespearean steam punk romance in the park. See story, p23
A petition calling for no tax increase in the City of Pitt Meadows next year is gathering steam after more than 300 residents signed their names to it in the span of three days. Tom Murray spent much of that time outside the IGA Supermar-
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ket, pitching his protest to shoppers who are tired with annual increases on their tax bills. In addition to the signatures on the petition, 97 letters were delivered to city hall. “They’ve heard some complaints now and they are going to hear a lot more,” said Murray. “People are fed up, and when I get fed up, I try to do something.” Murray started the petition last week after hearing that councillors were getting ready to plan next year’s budget with a forecast of an annual general tax increase of four
Index Opinion Tom Fletcher Looking Back Seniority Community Calendar Arts&life Sports
6 6 17 20 22 23 29
per cent for the next five years. Some councillors, however, want Murray to “get the facts straight” before he winds up the populace to revolt. Murray “ Eve r yo n e has the right to their own opinion,” said Mayor Deb Walters, who ran into Murray
SUMMER WEEKEND
300 in city so far call for zero per cent tax increase
on the weekend and told him to remind people that residents of Pitt Meadows pay the third lowest tax in Metro Vancouver and that factors out of council’s control influence the annual increase. “They should have all the information before they sign their name to any petition,” Walters said. Last week, Walters and three other councillors – Doug Bing, Gwen O’Connell and Tracy Miyashita – voted against a proposal by Coun. Bruce Bell to plan the budget on a three per cent increase. See Petition, p10
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