The Tri-City News, March 19, 2014

Page 1

THE WEDNESDAY

CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012

TRI-CITY NEWS

MARCH 19, 2014 www.tricitynews.com

CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012

End of a musical era

Hoops and hockey

SEE ARTS, PAGE A20

SEE SPORTS, PAGE A23

Volunteers inspired by ‘a beautiful effort’

INSIDE

Tom Fletcher/A10 Letters/A11 A Good Read/A16 Community Calendar/A17

MOSSOM CREEK HATCHERY PROJECT

By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS

G

eorge Assaf considers himself more of a science geek than a sensitive guy but even he understood why his wife cried when she watched the spectacle of the coho returning to Mossom Creek one autumn. “It was such a beautiful effort,”he said, recalling the experience of seeing the fish jump, push and wriggle their way upstream over rocks and other obstacles to spawn in the gravel shoals of the Port Moody creek. Today, Assaf has more prosaic concerns as he ponders the future of the hatchery as it rebounds from December’s devastating fire. The blaze wiped out an entire year of chum, coho and pink stocks, when 120,000 chum eggs, 54,000 pink eggs and 4,500 coho eggs packed in their heath trays were destroyed. What should have been a good base for salmon returns went up in smoke. What’s more, about 1,300 coho smolts from 2012 that would have helped to stock the creek for 2016 were killed as

GEORGE ASSAF

■ More stories on page A3 ■ Editorial on page A10 well. The second blow occurred in January, when sediment blocked a pipe carrying water from the creek into one of two coho tanks. It was quickly fixed by a dedicated team of hatchery volunteers and Fisheries and Oceans Canada workers, and 4,400 smolts were saved, but the destruction could result in fewer coho returning in the future. The question now is: What’s next? see CHECKING, page A4

We’re number... 29, 34 or 26 – depending Small and mid-sized towns — including the Tri-Cities — may just have it over large cities, according to a ranking by personal finance magazine MoneySense. The online magazine just released its annual ranking of the best places to live in Canada. Using 34 categories and assigning points to each, the rankings put Port Moody, Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam in the top 100 out of 201 cities — and even higher when the size of the city was taken into consideration. see RANKS, page A9

TRI-CITY NEWS FILE PHOTO

Mossom Creek Hatchery volunteers take part in an chum salmon egg take at the mouth of the creek into Burrard Inlet in this photo from 2011. The hatchery’s stock of young salmon was decimated when a fire destroyed the hatchery in December.

Como is open, for now Another closure will be needed to move guideway By Gary McKenna THE TRI-CITY NEWS

A section of Como Lake Avenue re-opened in both directions Sunday after it was

closed last Friday when a massive concrete guideway for the Evergreen Line unexpectedly shifted above the intersection at Clarke Road. But the road will be closed again for further work, although the project boss promises less disruption next time. The incident that caused the initial closure

occurred overnight last Friday when a spacer at the top of the column on the southwest side of the intersection failed, causing the beam to drop and rotate. Crews installed additional iron braces and supports to secure the guideway, according to Amanda Farrell, the Evergreen Line project

director. “The engineers completed a thorough examination over the weekend,” she said. “As a further precaution, additional bracing and supports have been installed.” Engineers still do not know why the concrete holding up the beam failed but Farrell said crews will no longer use

the spacers in Evergreen Line construction. As for potential danger to people travelling near the line, she said that because the guideway was supported by the concrete columns, it is unlikely the piece would have fallen on the road below. see NO DELAY, page A13


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