CADDYING FOR HISTORIC CHAMP
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NW CUPE DEAL COULD AFFECT BURNABY
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SCRAMBLING TO AVOID EMBARRASSMENT
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FRIDAY
AUGUST 31 2012 www.burnabynewsleader.com Former Burnaby Selects soccer star Dylan Myers, who has plans to eventually be a firefighter, is the captain the Douglas College Royals, hosts of the 2012 Canadian championship. See Page A23
MP helps cops nab tagger in N. Bby
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Burnaby artist Todd Polich created a new mural for Dean Kotopski’s new gym, Nova Health and Fitness, which now occupies a building along Kingsway with a notorious history.
Helping a community get healthy Mario Bartel
photo@burnabynewsleader.com
The first time Dean Kotopski was in the low cinderblock and wood building on Kingsway, just west of Gilley, he was a guitarist for a local blues band called The Boys. The building was then a rough nightclub known as Studebakers. There were eight people in the audience, “and seven of them were on the floor
drunk,” says Kotopski. In May he returned, putting the final touches on six months of work to transform the once notorious windowless bunker into a health and fitness facility called Nova. The transformation has been more than physical. Besides gutting the interior and installing a new sprung floor, gym equipment and a yoga studio, he’s also had to change
the neighborhood’s perception of the building as a kind of black hole that attracted all kinds of trouble. In its various incarnations as Coconuts, then Studebakers and Big Star, a country-western cabaret, it had been the scene of constant police attention for violent bar fights, stabbings, drug dealing and vandalism. Prostitutes prowled the sidewalk out front, pimps lurked in
the alleys. It was, says Diane Gillis, the president of the Kingsway Imperial Neighbourhood Association (KINA), “a blight on our city.” Sometimes the mayhem touched neighbouring businesses including Kotopski’s Performax physiotherapy and rehabilitation clinic two doors west, which was broken into and ransacked one night. Please see GOOD, A8
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Burnaby-Douglas NDP MP Kennedy Stewart added “crimefighter” to his resume Monday after he and his wife spotted a man tagging the side of a building in North Burnaby. They called Burnaby RCMP who responded immediately, locating and arresting a suspect. “I was only doing what I think any other citizen would do under those circumstances and I’m glad it worked out that the police were able to apprehend this man,” said Stewart. “I think it’s important for people to get involved and know when it’s appropriate to call the police. I would also like to say that I was very impressed with the quick police response and with the professionalism of the RCMP officers who attended.” Police have recommended charges against a 27-year-old man of mischief to property under $5,000.00 and two counts of breaching probation. His name was not released pending his being formally charged.