THURSDAY NOVEMBER 22, 2012
EAGLES SOARING
MEI volleyball teams excelled at Fraser Valley championships A22
A B B O T S F O R D
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Online all the time. In print Tuesday & Thursday.
‘A duty to stretch a penny’
LIBERAL TURMOIL
Council blocks new firefighters from budget, but approves other positions
A5 Abbotsford South
riding directors resign over Plecas nod
INDUSTRIAL DEBATE
Vikki HOPES Abbotsford News
A request for five new firefighters has been turned down, although city council did approve the hiring of a bylaw enforcement officer, a plan checker and a senior planner. The decisions were made at Monday afternoon’s council meeting as part of ongoing 2013 budget talks. They bring the preliminary tax increase to 1.34 per cent. Fire Chief Don Beer of Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service (AFRS) presented a proposal to hire five firefighters next year for Hall 7 – located on Old Clayburn Road in the Sandy Hill area. He said the hall currently relies on a large number of auxiliary firefighters, who must be paged during an emergency and are often at home or work at the time. They then must report to the firehall to gear up before heading to a scene. Beer said the average response time for an auxiliary member is seven minutes, compared to one and a half minutes for a career firefighter. He said the cost of five new members would be just over $363,000 for 2013, but the hirings would reduce overtime costs, Continued on A4
A4 Public offers a range of opinion on development plans
BUSINESS EXCELLENCE A12 Awards night Wednesday honours 11 local recipients
Small Headline AX NEIL CORBETT Abbotsford News
The new Abbotsford Community Library opens its doors to the public for the first time on Monday. Hilary Russell, manager of Abbotsford libraries, says the public will notice it is bigger and brighter than the MSA Centennial Library building it replaces. See story page A5.
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