Sidewinder A myopic view of Ridge development. p6
New bridge to Silver Valley being built. p14
THE NEws
Looking Back Meeting and eating at the Panabode. p21
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, July 12, 2013 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · Delivery: 604-466-6397
Public to speak on higher densities by Phil M elnyc h u k staff reporter
Maple Ridge residents will have another chance at kicking around the concept of higher densities in Albion, after council sent a bylaw proposal to a September public hearing Tuesday. Some councillors, though, were still cautious about such a concept, used in most Lower Mainland municipalities, in which developers pay extra contributions in return for minor bumping up of the population density of their projects. “I’m very interested to see what developers and the public say about these, as well, because it’s going to affect housing costs,” said Coun. Michael Morden. He eventually agreed, though, to first and second reading, along with five other councillors, leaving only Coun. Corisa Bell voting against it. See Density, p10
Colleen Flanagan/the NewS
Book worm Maple Ridge library manager Teresa MacLeod explains there’s more going on at libraries than taking out books. See story, p3.
Helping out in High River S tor y by tim Fitzgerald
A
s Sara and Nate Searle rolled into High River, Alta. just after 2:30 a.m. Monday, they first noticed the railroad tracks, twisted like a strand of DNA. They saw boats overturned, covered in muck, lying haphazardly along the streets as if left Contributed Sara and Nate Searle drove donations they by a child in a sandbox. Entire streets collected to High River, Alta. were laid to waste, homes gutted.
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Weary from driving a packed 16-foot cube van on a 13-hour drive that stretched across three mountain passes, the Maple Ridge couple was as informed as possible about the plight of the residents of the flood-ravaged community. Television reports, newspapers, and social media provided them a glimpse of the devastation to the community of more than 12,000. Still, as Sara and Nate approached their destination – a makeshift camp set up to collect donated goods to assist those in the community while cleanup continues – they were overwhelmed with the scope of the destruction. As the sun rose, they toured the area, drop-
Opinion Letters As we Age Looking Back Community Calendar home&gardening Scoreboard
6 7 17 21 23 31 41
ping off supplies. It occurred to Nate, what was once a vibrant community “looked like a war zone. “You drive around town and you see all these homes and they have signs posted on them that say ‘water on, gas on, volunteers needed, fridge removal,’ because everything that they need is written out because there are no phone lines. It’s their only means of communication. “It was street after street after street where people had pulled everything out of their basement. They had gutted everything right down to the studs. It’s just mountains of garbage, insulation, toys, drywall and muck piled in front of every home.”
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