PLAYGROUND DOWN BUT NOT OUT
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FINDING A FAMILY PRACTITIONER
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ONE BAD DURANGO page IN A GOOD WAY
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FRIDAY
JANUARY 31 2014 www.newwestnewsleader.com Several Downtown businesses are turning down their thermostats next week. Page A5
Too-tall garage gets go ahead Council green lights request for exception Grant Granger
ggranger@ newwestnewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Besnik Mece of the New Westminster Spartans says he has a plan that would bring the city’s three track and field clubs, along with the schools, together under one association, but getting everyone to agree to the plan has been difficult. The city recently told the clubs to work together or risk losing their funding from its amateur sports grants.
City tells track teams to play nice Clubs told to work together on future funding after drastic cuts made to 2014 grants Mario Bartel
photo@newwestnewsleader.com
New Westminster’s three track and field clubs have been told by the city they’ll have to work together if they’re to expect any amateur sport grant funding in the future. Even then, the $3,000 allocated for 2014 falls short of the $19,249 total requested by the three organizations. The money is to be used to buy
equipment like high jump mats, timepieces and high hurdles, develop coaches or to implement programs that will attract more youth to the sport. Diane Perry, the city’s manager of community development, said she’s been trying to get the three clubs to work together for years. “New Westminster is not that big,” said Perry. “Most cities have one organization for each sport. We shouldn’t be supporting three separate clubs with separate equipment.”
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In fact, last year the amateur sports fund committee that vets requests for funding from registered not-for-profit sports organizations told the three groups to submit their application jointly or they might not get any money at all. Mayor Wayne Wright said at Monday’s city council meeting that it took “a lot of gumption” for the committee to take such a stand. He said the clubs should get together to “do what’s best for the kids.” It’s those young athletes that are foremost in the thoughts of Don
Benson, who formed the Royal City Track and Field Club in 1995 and then championed the creation of a more competitive club, the New West Spartans, in 2007, to ensure athletes of all capabilities could get access to coaching and equipment. The Spartans are led by Tatjana and Besnik Mece, champion athletes in their native Albania. “There was a tug of war there,” said Benson of the split. “There was some hard feelings.” Please see PLEA, A3
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Anna Del Monte met with her contractor a night after convincing New Westminster council to give her an exception to a bylaw it developed less than three years ago. They gave it to her after she accumulated overwhelming support from her neighbours, the Glenbrook North Residents Association and other homeowners in the city. Del Monte wants to tear down the crumbling garage on her property at 901 Second St., and replace it with a two-storey structure with an office on the top floor. She wants to make room for her aging parents to move onto her property. Her first choice was a laneway house but it isn’t allowed in New Westminster.
Please see NEIGHBOURHOOD SUPPORT, A8