Puck stops here
COMMUNITY: Drop Zone raises $140K /A3 The Greater Victoria hockey scene ARTS: Victoria Choir charts new waters /A18 is highlighted in a 12-page section Inside SPORTS: Royals get Russian sniper /A25
SAANICHNEWS Wednesday, September 19, 2012
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Third try for vilified UVic parkade Kyle Slavin News staff
The University of Victoria, for the third time in 14 months, attempted Monday to garner Saanich council’s support to build a parkade on campus. Councillors tabled the plans twice before, in August and October of last year, because they felt the community wasn’t properly consulted. Both meetings lasted several hours and drew streams of angered residents voicing concerns about the parkade’s height, location and expected traffic impacts. “It’s been a good lesson for helping UVic understand that with such a substantial development, it effects the greater community,” said Coun. Paul Gerrard. A third meeting was held Monday night, after the News’ press deadline. “I think UVic should’ve heard the first time (council tabled the project) that the consultation process was not seen to be transparent. My impression is that they were rushing the process, and there’s never a good resolution when that happens.” A more thorough consultation process that spanned this winter and spring, conducted by H.B. Lanarc, resulted in UVic submitting a parkade design to Saanich that looks drastically different than anything council’s seen before. While the initial parking garage was planned to be 503 stalls over seven levels, the new plan proposes 332 stalls over five levels, one of which will be buried. The estimated $13.4-million parkade is part of a larger project, a new athletics centre slated for the corner of McKenzie Avenue and Gabriola Road. PLEASE SEE: Neighbours, Page A4
Natalie North/News staff
Maisie Riddle, centre, reads from her life story, as compiled by Braeden and Abbey Timms, who sit on either side of 95-yearold resident of Abbeyfield St. Peter’s House. The teens have been volunteering with the residents since late last year.
Volunteering a family affair Seniors, teens connect at Abbeyfield house Natalie North News staff
Maisie Riddle holds a flowercovered folder bearing her name on her lap. Inside the front cover: a photo of the 95-year-old woman’s smiling face and a series of her personal stories as compiled by Abbey and Braeden
Timms, two Reynolds secondary school students who began volunteering at Abbeyfield St. Peter’s House last March. “I found it so easy to talk to you. I didn’t know when to shut up,” says Riddle, a resident of Abbeyfield, a non-profit facility aimed at low-income seniors. Across from Riddle sits Abbey, 15, and Braeden, 17, along with their 10-year-old sister Katie, who began volunteering at the house this winter after their mother Tammy Timms read a story in the
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Saanich News about the society’s need for more volunteers. While the teens created life histories, Katie worked in the garden alongside Tammy, a nurse. “In North America in general, we don’t value elderly people, as opposed to other cultures who have a bit more reverence or respect for the elderly,” Tammy says. “There’s just so much to learn from them. In my lifetime, I won’t see the changes they’ve seen: automobiles, planes, man on the moon, Internet, world wars
– they’ve lived in such diverse times and they have so much to share.” Tammy was surprised by the insight her kids put into their interviews, despite having gained far more than they’ve given to residents, she says. “How cool is it to be reading about World War Two and then meet someone who was in the trenches?” Tammy says. “It’s almost hard for them to absorb.” PLEASE SEE: Teens, Page A17
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