B.C. Views ‘Social justice’ as indoctrination. p6
Ghost Ridge offers ‘Timeline of Terror.’ p4
THE NEws
Sports Cross country runners place in washington. p21
www.mapleridgenews.com wednesday, October 16, 2013 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · Delivery: 604-466-6397
Trustees want fouryear terms UBCM already supported extending length by Nei l Corbe tt staff reporter
Trustees should serve four years terms, according to elected officials of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board. The present term is three years, but this has been brought up for reconsideration with the recent release of a provincial study on local government election reform. School boards and municipal councils are elected at the same time every three years. The Union of B.C. Municipalities held its annual convention in Vancouver on Sept. 16-20, and decided to support the move to four-year terms. That overturned a 2010 UBCM decision to stay with three-year terms. School board vice-chair Eleanor Palis said the municipal elections for school board and municipal council should still be on the same day. See Trustees, p3
Colleen Flanagan/The newS
Clowning around Lisa Marie Marrelli plays Clown Angel in Janet Feindel’s A Particular Class of Women. See story, p17.
A focus on homelessness Subsidizing housing is helping, more needed
could be years. “If it weren’t for places like this, people would be starving or dying on the street,” says McLellan. “The community doesn’t underby Moni s ha M a r tin s stand who were are and what we staff reporter are. Try living in our shoes for a week to see what we are talking s a student nurse tightens a about.” blood pressure cuff around He counts himself among the his arm, Sean McLellan lucky few who have a roof over relaxes and watches the bustle their heads. around him in the dining room of “I’ve come a long way from being The Caring Place. homeless,” he adds with a smile. He can’t quite remember when McLellan is a resident of AlouheRun got his pressure checked last. It ette Heights, the newest and one of Date: Oct 16, 2013 Maple Ridge News (3.9156" x 1.4167") Colour EOR#5976
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the few subsidized housing developments in Maple Ridge. The building on Brown Avenue opened a year ago and houses 45 cosy bachelor suites. It is staffed 24 hours a day by a support worker who helps residents stay focused on their plans for coping with past addictions or mental health illnesses. Residents can stay up to two years and, if employed, pay a percentage of their income in rent. For McLellan, who estimates he’s spent almost 20 years on the streets, living in Edmonton,
Kelowna and Maple Ridge, the housing has been invaluable. It’s provided him with stability. “It’s also been very different for me having an address and stuff,” he says with a grin. “I wish there were more places like it. It’s a stepping stone.” Maple Ridge was the only municipality in Metro Vancouver where the number of homeless people increased in a span of three years, according to a homelessness Colleen Flanagan/The newS count conducted by Metro VanSean McLellan has his blood glucose levels couver. See Homeless, p10 checked by BCIT student nurse Andrea Green.
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