Looking back Fire chief recalls career ahead of retirement this week. Page 21 Wrestling returns First pro show staged in Nanaimo in three years. Page 29 On ice Arena administrator enjoys chance to teach skating. Page 3
Telling her story Page 11
Celebrating
1988
2013
Years
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2014
VOL. 25, NO. 90
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Councillor seeks transit system budget increase
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GeorGe anderson serves notice of motion to Regional District of Nanaimo colleagues. By KarL yu ThE NEwS BULLETiN
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
Trail blazing
david Grey, left, Greater nanaimo Cycling Coalition president, Peter McCaffery of the Mid Island Velo association, Leo Boon, cycling coalition board member, and Gary argyle of the slowspokes cycling club, go on camera for Jocelyn Matwe of shaw TV Friday to promote extending the e&n Trail. The groups are working with the downtown nanaimo Business Improvement association and the city to complete another eight kilometres to connect downtown with trail networks in south nanaimo neighbourhoods.
No used-needle pickup available in city’s north end By Chris Bush ThE NEwS BULLETiN
Residents and business owners in Nanaimo’s north end have to fend for themselves when it comes to picking up discarded drug paraphernalia. The problem came to light recently when staff at Delicado’s North, located at the corner of Aulds Road and Metral Drive, were getting ready to open for the day. Ashley Thorp, a restaurant employee, responded to an anxious knocking on the restaurant’s front door by a woman warning her about
five used syringes and a spoon left near the business’s entrance. “These joggers that came by in the morning, they let us know and thank God they did,” Thorp said. It was the first time anything like this had been found around the area. When staff phoned the city about having the items picked up, they were told to put the syringes in a tin, bucket or other container that couldn’t be pierced by the needles. “They said to put it in there and just throw it in the garbage,” Thorp said. John Horn, the city’s social plan-
ner, said Nanaimo currently does not have anyone on staff to pick up discarded syringes, but there are proper disposal sites downtown. The Harris House Health Clinic at 375 Franklyn St. offers a needle exchange program and will send the items on to the provincial syringe disposal program. “They’re not going to pick them up for you,” Horn said. “You have to bring them to a needle exchange and then they’ll dispose of them properly through a provincial program, so they’ve continued to fund that piece.” u See ‘NEEDLES’ /3
A Nanaimo city councillor is pushing for expanded transit service within the City of Nanaimo. Coun. George Anderson, also a Regional District of Nanaimo director and city transportation advisory committee chairman, will approach the regional district board at tonight’s (Feb. 11) committee of the whole meeting, seeking to increase the city’s 2014 tax requisition by $175,000 for the expansion as well as a report from staff outlining options. Anderson told the News Bulletin that he is essentially looking to add an additional 5,000 transit hours within the city. In his capacity with the transportation committee, he heard from residents about the need for increased bus service. “I spoke to a woman just a couple of months
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There’s just an overall want in our community to see more buses on the road.
ago about how she has to spend roughly $40 to get home on a Sunday because transit doesn’t accommodate her type of schedule because it only goes till about 7 p.m.,” Anderson said. “Students at [Vancouver Island University] get left behind because buses are over capacity and there’s just an overall want in our community to see more buses on the road so that people can use alternative modes of transportation.” u See ‘TRANSIT’ /6
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