A big land deal & the future of Ioco tricitynews.coM eXtras >>
TC SPORTS: PAGE A15
Field lacrosse, hockey & more BURKE MOUNTAIN
City pays $11M for Burke site Land seen as an investment GAry MCKennA
The Tri-CiTy News
The city of Coquitlam bought 160 acres of land in the northeast section of Burke Mountain, an investment staff said will benefit future taxpayers. The deal with the provincial government, which put the Crown land up for sale last year in an effort to balance its budget, closed in December. But the information came up publicly for the first time during budget consultations Monday. Perry Staniscia, Coquitlam’s general manager of strategic initia-
tives, said the land, which sits outside of the development reserve, cost approximately $11 million to $12 million and is located in the eastern portion of Burke Mountain. “These lands were not bid on by the private sector,” he said. “We came in after the fact. Since there were no other buyers, we decided to purchase it.” He told council he believes the purchase was a good investment for the city and will benefit future taxpayers as the rest of the area develops. Money for the purchase came from the city’s land sale reserve fund, which still holds approximately $25 million to $30 million. see prov. selling, page A4
PRESENTS
The Ioco townsite in Port Moody was once a bustling community. And the architect for the land’s new owner says it could be again — depending on what the city and community have to say about it. See story on page A3
TC
Cities should pay for transit plan, says No side / No info on Kinder emergency plan
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21, 2015 Your community. Your stories
TRI-CITY
NEWS
EMERGING TALENT ON DISPLAY: PAGE A12
JANIS WARREN/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Gleneagle secondary school’s Justin Yoon painted this acrylic and multimedia work of Beethoven last summer while listening to the German composer’s Symphony No. 5. The piece is one of three Yoon had accepted for the juried Emerging Talent 18 show for Grade 12 art students in School District 43. The exhibit, which opened Monday at Coquitlam’s Evergreen Cultural Centre, has its official reception on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. in conjunction with the Emerging Talent Festival 4 that showcases short films by Grade 12 students. For the full story, see TC Arts/Ent. on page A12.
UNSOLVED MYSTERY
Mounties seek help solving 21-year-old fatal arson SArAh PAyne
The Tri-CiTy News
The Bel-Air Manor apartment fire killed two people and left 38 homeless 21 years ago but investigators
are hoping the passage of time will encourage witnesses to come forward with new information. “Some of those witnesses may be more willing to talk to police now, or at
least [to] Crime Stoppers,” said Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung. It was just before 4 a.m. on Oct. 31, 1993 when the first 911 call reported a fire at the Bel-Air apartment
building at 2191 Tyner St. in Port Coquitlam. As the blaze raged throughout the building, residents barely escaped, mostly with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Some got out through
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exits and windows while others were rescued by firefighters from top-floor windows and even the rooftop. “It was black, black, black smoke,” Bel-Air resident manager Christine Quiding
told The Tri-City News at the time. She got out with her two children despite the thick smoke that made it impossible to see even the door across the hall. Resident Ron Nagy said
at the time he woke up choking and escaped his second-floor suite by clambering down a firefighter’s ladder.
see 2 WoMen, page A5
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