The Chilliwack
Progress Tuesday
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Worm compost part of Greendale Sampler
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Chamber has questions for pipeline prez Robert Freeman The Progress Kinder Morgan president Ian Anderson may find some pointed questions on his plate at this week’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon, after members heard from pipeline opponents last Thursday. Realtor Mark Andersen said he wants to ask Anderson what the company will do if a pipeline leak spills into the Fraser River and destroys the lucrative tourist and sport fishing trade that pumps millions of dollars into the Chilliwack If we don’t economy. “If that happens, pose the the Fraser and Vedder River multi-million difficult tourism industr y questions, would dry up pretty fast,” Andersen said, who will? after the noon-hour meeting. “I’m not saying I’m ~ Mark opposed to the pipeAndersen line twinning,” he added. “I just want to make sure our natural resources are well looked after.” “If we don’t pose the difficult questions, who will?” he asked. Mike Hale and Sheila Muxlow, Pipe Up Network members who spoke at the Chamber meeting, clearly hope the people of Chilliwack will ask as well. Hale said pipeline companies Kinder Morgan and Enbridge have the “raw economic power” to push their plans through the approval process, but, “what we have is people power.” “If the people of B.C. stand up and say ‘No’ ... that will send a huge message,” he said, to governments and to the National Energy Board. And if no one is listening there, Hale said he’s heard talk of “massive civil disobedience” should the pipeline projects be approved. “I think that’s quite true,” he said.
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Friends of the Chilliwack Paramount will hear the fate of the old downtown building at a city council meeting on Aug. 21. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS FILE
City may opt to restore Paramount Staff report calls for a business plan Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Friends of the Chilliwack Paramount Theatre were elated Friday afternoon — even though their business plan for a repertory theatre in downtown Chilliwack looks like it might get rejected. City council could decide Tuesday to reject the group’s proposal, and explore instead the idea of restoring the old Paramount Theatre building for long-term use as a “civic facility,” according to the Aug.
21 council meeting agenda. “This is better. We’re very excited,” said Friends of the Paramount spokesperson Laura Reid. “We’re not talking about demolition at least. We’re talking about the reality that the building has years of life left in it.” This new development, in the form of a staff recommendation in the agenda, is a 180-degree turn from the direction taken this winter. Council was then exploring the possibility of demolishing the historic building, in tan-
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dem with a CEPCO plan to demolish one it owns next door. The rationale for looking at demolition was the cost-prohibitive price-tag for repairs of the building built in 1949, estimated then to be between $250,000 and $300,000. Then the Paramount group was given a chance to devise an alternative proposal in June, which it did, coming up with a not-for-profit model of running a non-mainstream film society in the old theatre building. Now the staff recommendation is that the city itself take over the mandate to develop a business plan for “the remediation, restoration and operation”
of the historic building. “This is even better than we could have imagined,” said Reid. Friends of the Paramount member Kim Mallory agreed on that point. “It’s a complete reversal, but it’s a better outcome than what we could have imagined,” she said. “It’s what the city should have done in the first place. I feel our voices have been heard.” It might have been the combination of the group’s perseverance, the wave of public support and the ample media coverage, Mallory added. Continued: THEATRE/ p14
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