Parking needs downtown change
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Might be tiMe for a ‘retail diet’
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beef recall widesPread
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friday
September 21 2012 www.newwestnewsleader.com
Port Mann bridge drivers are flocking to get their TReO decal, officials say. See page A15
Deficit hits $2.8M Trustees caught off guard: Cook Chris bryan
editor@newwestnewsleader.com
mArIO bArteL/NeWSLeADer
susan hogarth and tanis Maurice are putting on their sleuthing hats to root out the clues at the westminster house community day scavenger hunt on sept. 29.
Hunting with history to help recovery mario bartel
photo@newwestnewsleader.com
For three years the women from Westminster House cleaned up the city. Now they want to show it off. This year’s Westminster House Recovery Centre for Women fourth annual Community Day, to be held Saturday, Sept. 29, will feature a scavenger hunt throughout New Westminster’s Downtown. Participants will receive 15 clues that will lead them to various historical spots from the waterfront to Irving House where they’ll have to answer riddles to score points, explains Susan Hogarth of Westminster House. The winner will
receive $500. All the locations are within walking distance of Hyack Square, where the hunt begins. A highly motivated team should be able to complete the course in about an hour. Along the way they’ll learn all sorts of interesting facts and trivia about the city, like the importance of riverboats to New Westminster’s economy during its formative years, or that until 1873 the city’s police were all volunteers. “We’re showing off the history of New Westminster,” says Hogarth. “When you discover the city it makes you proud.” That sense of pride and
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community are important It helps them overcome some of touchstones for women recovering the social awkwardness that often from addiction and their families. accompanies addiction as well “When people arrive in our as breaks down the stigma that’s program they don’t feel they belong attached to addiction. anywhere, they don’t fit in,” says “It can happen to anyone,” says Hogarth. “They have to believe Hogarth. in something, find a sense of In addition to the scavenger hunt, belonging.” the community day will also feature Westminster House helps foster a kids’ colouring contest, a piethat self-esteem with a variety of eating competition, and a raffle for programs that focus on lifestyle and a Vespa scooter. wellness, as well as help build family Registration for the scavenger support. About 90 women and their hunt begins at 10 a.m., or families are helped every year, says can be done online at www. Hogarth. westminsterhouse.ca. Cost is $20 Many of4x1.25_small_appliances_ad_final.pdf those women will be and includes lunch provided 1 12-03-05 1:20 PM by volunteering at the community day. Chronic Tacos.
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The New Westminster School District has a $2.8 million deficit from the 2011/12 school year, and the school board chair says much of the problem stems from a failure to properly track spending. It’s a very disappointing circumstance to find ourselves in,” said James Janzen on Wednesday. “We’re given a budget from the provincial government and it’s our duty to live within that, and now we’re going to have to deal with it.” The board already had a deficit of about $500,000 from the previous year that it had hoped to retire this year. Not only was this not achieved, this year the deficit grew another $2.2 million to reach the current grand total. Key drivers for the deficit’s growth, Janzen said, were overspending of about $500,000 each on the district’s online schools, general teaching costs, and maintenance and renovations on school district facilities respectively. Please see ‘HAD tO’, A4