THE FRIDAY
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Eliminate letter grades?
Art, skating and pizza
SEE FACE TO FACE, PAGE 11
SEE THINGS-TO-DO GUIDE, PAGE 16
JAN. 17, 2014 www.tricitynews.com
INSIDE
Letters/12 Tri-City Spotlight/22 Elaine Golds/23 Sports/31
Board votes to sell lands Coronation and Parkland for sale By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Residents of Burke Mountain in Coquitlam are closer to getting a local elementary school after the board of education voted to proceed with land sales and property swaps to free up cash for new buildings. If School District 43 gets necessary approvals, as much as $30 million could be raised from the disposal of three school properties. On Tuesday, the board decided to put up for sale 8.3 acres at the empty Coronation Park elementary school and 1.3 acres of property at Parkland elementary. It also plans to swap eight district-owned lots at Victoria Park for land the city of Coquitlam owns in Burke Mountain to get Smiling Creek elementary built and will move Moody elementary school to the site of the current Moody middle, which will also be rebuilt, and sell or redevelop the 3.16-acre elementary school property. see PROVINCE WANTS, pg. 3
Sasha Ceperkovic of Port Coquitlam’s Riverside secondary will have her acrylic painting “The Hero” on display at Emerging Talent 17, which opens tomorrow (Saturday) at Coquitlam’s Evergreen Cultural Centre. PoCo hometown hero Terry Fox “has always inspired me so I decided I would honour him with something bold,” she wrote in her artist statement. “It all started when I would read his biography at the library every time I arrived early waiting for my tutor. Each time, I would leave the library inspired to change the world.” Emerging Talent is an annual juried show that features the artwork of Grade 12 students in School District 43. The opening reception for the exhibit, which runs until Feb. 27, is on Sunday, Jan. 26 and coincides with the Emerging Talent Festival. For more on events happening this weekend, read the Things-to-do Guide on page 16.
Time to speak up about R’view Year-long process to decide future By Janis Warren THE TRI-CITY NEWS
FOR SALE The province of B.C. is selling 584 acres on Burke Mountain in Coquitlam Story, page 6
Tri-City residents, businesses and groups will have their first chance to give their views on the future of the Riverview Hospital lands in February or March. And the results of the year-long visioning process will be a blueprint for the redevelopment of the 244 acres in Coquitlam, officials told a
city committee this week. O n Tu e s d a y a t Coquitlam’s Riverview Lands Advisory Committee, BC Housing and other representatives talked about how the process will play out with open houses: • February or March: introduce the visioning process and give an overview of BC Housing’s role in the management of the property; • May or June: create goals for the land; • September: present ideas for a vision; • December: reveal the
visioning document. Before the first open house, BC Housing will have a dedicated website for the Riverview visioning that will include past studies plus opportunities to provide feedback, the agency said. As well, it has promised to compile previous reports on Riverview building heritage values and environmental aspects, copies of which will be made available at Coquitlam city hall and Coquitlam Public Library. see ‘NOT EVERYBODY’, pg. 15
JANIS WARREN/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
The transportation services building on Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital grounds is expected to come down this spring due to the leaking of hazardous materials from it.