Health Care Sometimes best laid plans just that. p6
Youth Unlimited feeding students. p3
THE NEws
Gardening Lucky to enjoy Christmas harvest. p27
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, December 21, 2012 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢
District looking at hospital parking by Ne i l Cor be tt staff reporter
Mayor Ernie Daykin is investigating whether the District of Maple Ridge can pass a bylaw to make hospital parking free. The issue came up after the members of a local band, the Rx Rockers, were all given $60 parking tickets at Baillie House, after doing a charity concert there. They were ticketed despite having parking passes issued by the Fraser Health facility. Russ Curnew, a band member, forwarded the view that hospital parking should be free here, as it is in Delta and Mission, or a nominal fee be charged with limited enforcement. The issue has received considerable public attention, and the band has since been the subject of a CBC Television report.
Red noses Jaida Ellis (middle) and fellow Grade 1 students in Mrs. Griffis class sing Rudolph Santa’s Reindeer during a Christmas concert at Edith McDermott elementary in Pitt Meadows on Thursday.
See Parking, p12
No falling ice on Golden Ears by Phil M elnyc h u k staff reporter
It is unlikely the Golden Ears Bridge will rain down bombs of ice and snow on to motorists, as happened Wednesday on the new Port Mann Bridge, closing it for hours and freezing traffic. “I’ve heard of no reports in the last three years of that occur-
ring,” engineer Bob Moore said Wednesday. Moore, in charge of bridges for TransLink, says the Golden Ears and Port Mann, both cable-stayed bridges that cross the Fraser River, don’t have the same architecture and geometry. “The fundamental difference is there is a single, central pier on the Port Mann so all the cables actually splay out from that, actually across the traffic, across the deck, whereas all the cables on the Golden Ears, they just run up and down, lengthwise,” as they do on the new Pitt
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River Bridge. Any clumps of snow or ice that fall off Golden Ears cables will land to the side, possibly on the sidewalk, which wouldn’t be good for pedestrians, he pointed out. But so far, that hasn’t happened and the bridge is working like it should. Moore compared the cables on the Port Mann Bridge to the strings of a harp. “There are so many more cables on the Port Mann Bridge. “There are relatively few on the Golden Ears Bridge.” Wednesday’s debacle on the
new Port Mann Bridge, part of the Hwy. 1 improvement project, snarled rush hour traffic after the bridge closed for five hours after ice fell on to vehicles below, injuring at least one and damaging about 100 vehicles. “There was no way to get around it, there was no way to move – it looked like a meteor shower of snow,” said Jared Angell, who got stuck on the bridge. His work truck now has a spider web of cracks in the windshield and dents to the roof. See Bridge, p5
Index Opinion Health Care As We Age Acts of Faith Community Calendar Gardening Scoreboard
Letters: Another hospital performer gets parking ticket. See p7
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$ 65
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‘Up to contractor’ to fix troubles on new Port Mann
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3 LOCATIONS 20468 Lougheed Hwy. • Haney Place Mall • 22805 Lougheed Hwy.