September 12, 2012

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SKATERS CARVING UP PIER PARK

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TIME FOR CHRISTY CLARK TO GO?

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POLICE WATCHDOG page READY TO GO

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WEDNESDAY

SEPTEMBER 12 2012 www.newwestnewsleader.com

Mayor Wayne Wright makes the case for the Downtown office tower. See Page A6

Marijuana dispensary eyed for 12th Street Not open yet Mario Bartel

photo@newwestnewsleader.com

GRANT GRANGER/NEWSLEADER

Kathy Jones says despite Queen’s Park’s beautiful setting, some have complained about the hills at past Terry Fox runs. This year, it should be smooth sailing.

Annual Fox run finds home on the flats Annual event being switched to riverfront from Queen’s Park Grant Granger

ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com

As it was being built Kathy Jones kept her eye on Westminster Pier Park (WPP). It wasn’t for its spectacular views of the Fraser River or its idyllic setting, although both were highly desirable to her as well. The family physician coveted its topography or, to be more precise, lack of topography. The park is long

and flat which, she thought, just might be what the doctor ordered for the annual Terry Fox Run in New Westminster—an event she has been organizing since 2009. The event has always been held in Queen’s Park, on the 2.5-kilometre Millennium Trail that meanders through the iconic and picturesque park. That length was perfect because it provided participants the options of doing one, two, three or four laps. But its biggest drawback, according to the feedback Jones received, was the hills. “For as long as I’ve been in New

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Westminster the run has been in Queen’s Park which has been a great and easy location. But to do 10 kilometres means four loops of the Millennium Trail which is tough because of the hills,” says Jones, who even tried changing the direction of the run to see if that would help. “It doesn’t matter. If you go down a hill you still have to go up a hill.” At first, Jones thought of the boardwalk at the Westminster Quay because it’s flat as well as scenic. But a 2.5-km route would have required shutting down a street and that

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would have cost too much. But as soon as WPP opened, Jones and her family were down there with their running shoes on and toting a GPS gizmo. They started walking from the far end of the pier park all the way to the western end of the boardwalk (near the Third Avenue overpass). It was 2.5 km exactly. No hills. “I was thrilled to bits. It was exactly the length I needed,” says Jones, clapping her hands. “It’s got the potential to be the perfect location.”

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A group called the West Coast Green Light Society hopes to open the New Innovations in Cannabis Education (N.I.C.E.) Dispensary at 907 12th St. in the near future. In a Sept. 1 email to the West End Residents Association, Justin Cleveland, president of the society, said he welcomes members of the community to drop by the location with “questions and concerns they may have regarding the dispensary.” But on Monday, the front door to the squat brick and wood-siding building—which once housed a music studio and then a flower shop for a brief spell—was locked tight, the lights inside off. Other than the dispensary’s name stenciled in small green lettering on the door, there was no signage. Calls to Cleveland and the dispensary weren’t returned. The group hasn’t yet applied for a business licence to operate in New Westminster yet, said city licensing manager Keith Coueffin, so the dispensary can’t open. see DISPENSARY, A5


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