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Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • F R I D AY, J A N U A R Y 2 3 , 2 0 1 5
Door-to-door delivery ends in mid-November, Posties say Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
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Audrey Phare holds a photo of her dog, Sus, and one of her dog’s parkas beside Sus’ grave on her property as cat, Macco, stands beside her. Sus was killed after a driver from Chilliwack Taxi ran over her in Phare’s driveway on Monday afternoon. Macco and Sus were close friends, and Phare says her two cats and her other two dogs miss Sus. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Grieving dog owner looks for closure Jessica Peters The Progress Audrey Phare has been wracked with grief all week, after a Chilliwack Taxi cab driver ran over her dog in her driveway. And while Phare has now heard from the apologetic cab company’s manager, it hasn’t been enough to take away the pain of losing her ‘fur baby.’ Phare had just let her 11-yearold dog Sus out into the yard for a bit of fresh air and sunshine. The yard is large, and Sus’ hip dysplasia meant she wasn’t moving very fast lately. Sus headed to her favourite sun spot in the driveway, and Phare turned on the noon hour news. Moments
later, the peaceful afternoon was interrupted by screaming outside, and frantic barking. “I could hear screaming and I went running outside and I looked toward the road and I saw my boyfriend running down the road,” she told The Progress. “I couldn’t understand why he would be running down the road, and he was screaming.” Phare threw on some slippers, ran down the driveway to investigate, only to learn that Sus had been hit by a cab as she lay in the sun. “That’s when I saw the cab driver, he was freaking out,” she said. “He did seem remorseful, to a point.” But as Phare and her boy-
friend tended to their dying dog, the cab driver got on the phone with his dispatcher. The dispatcher then called the RCMP, who were told that the cab driver hit an unleashed dog in a driveway. The RCMP were also told that the dog was one of “four or five dogs” that were running loose. The family has three dogs, Phare clarified, and Sus was the only one not on a wire lead. “She was an indoor dog,” Phare said. “I had just let her out.” The next few minutes were devastating for Phare. “By the time I got there they said ‘her eyes are turning grey,’ liquid was coming from her pri-
vates, and her chest looked like it was caved in,” Phare said. “She died within 20 minutes.” Chilliwack Taxi manager Kuldeep Singh said the driver left because the RCMP said the accident was not his fault and that he didn’t have to stay. The driver wasn’t even called to Phare’s house — he had the wrong address and must have realized it once he drove the long driveway. It was the driver’s quick departure and refusal to drive them to a vet’s office that has Phare upset. “I feel like we need some acknowledgement here,” she said. “He said ‘I’ll be right back Continued: CAB/ p5
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Postal workers found out last week precisely when door-to-door delivery of the mail is set to end in Chilliwack. The end date Nov. 16, 2015 for 12,200 Chilliwack households. That’s when they will pick up their mail from community mailboxes, in a process known as CMB conversion, instead of retrieving it from their doorsteps. “We now have an end date in sight,” said Peter Butcher, president of the Upper Valley local of Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Canada Post announced last month that Chilliwack would be among the first communities to see home delivery axed in 2015 in a cost-saving measure. Butcher represents 63 CUPW workers in Chilliwack, including letter carriers and rural route carriers, who got the news about the conversion date this week. “Morale at the station is not that good,” he admitted. About 23 mail carrier routes could go down to 13 mobile routes in Chilliwack, he said. The local Posties are not sure yet how it will impact local workers in the coming months as November looms. “Canada Post is transforming to secure its future to meet the changing needs of Canadians and succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” wrote a Canada Post official in a memo to depot staff. “We recognize that these changes may create a great deal of uncertainty among our employees. We want to assure you that a primary consideration of our planning is the effect on our employees.” Attrition is expected to account for some of the staffing adjustments by way of retirements, resignations and transfers, according to correspondence. Early in the new year, residents received input forms from Canada Post, asking for feedback about the coming changes, and the phasing out of door-to-