FRIDAY JULY 27, 2012
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ST. MARK’S FAIR FUN
NO TICKETS FOR THESE SPEEDERS
B1
A5
You won’t want to miss this year’s edition
Railway fans come from all over the continent for adventure
Board balks at bottle ban
Regional District of Nanaimo will continue to sell bottled water at its facilities NEIL HORNER
news@pqbnews.com
The Regional District of Nanaimo gave only half-hearted support to a request for the RDN to become a blue community this week. At their committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, directors opted to fulfill only one of the three requirements needed to get that designation. The request called for the district to declare access to clean water as a human right, to support public ownership of water facilities and to ban the sale of bottled
water at RDN facilities and events. Chief administrative officer Carol Mason said the recognition of water as a human right is not within the purvew of the RDN’s mandate, suggesting it would be more appropriate for the federal government to do so. As well, she said the RDN already supports public ownership of water utilities. Those two aspects received no dissent from the board, but the third aspect, the banning of bottled water, sparked considerable debate. See BOTTLED, page A7
Report taggers — cops NEIL HORNER
news@pqbnews.com
A rash of graffiti in Parksville’s downtown core has police urging business owners to clean it up quickly, but take photos of it before they do. Oceanside RCMP Corporal Jesse Foreman said he has heard numerous complaints from downtown business owners about the so-called tagging incidents over the past few weeks. “I did a bike patrol the other night and was aghast at all the tagging I saw,” he said. “It’s un-
sightly and costs far too much money.” “We catalogue every tag and make files of them, so if we catch an offender in the act, every tag is a separate count of mischief. If there is a tag on your business, call us before you get rid of it. Take photos of it,” he said. “A specialist could link that person to each one of those tags.” He said it’s important to clean up the grafitti quickly, as others are more likely to put their tag beside an existing one, making a bad situation worse.
AUREN RUVINSKY PHOTO
HELP IN HARD TIMES: Dave King and Spot, one of the nine St. Bernard puppies he’s looking for good homes for. See page A9.
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