Home advantage VIU Mariners teams
sweep visiting competition in games this weekend. PAGE 27
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2015
VOL. 26, NO. 77
Third option discussed for Colliery dams
Nanaimo trustees delay elementary schools’ closure BY KARL YU THE NEWS BULLETIN
With Cedar school conversion work halted, the Nanaimo school board voted to delay closing Woodbank Elementary and North Cedar Intermediate schools during a meeting Wednesday. The Cedar Community Secondary closure, and its subsequent conversion to an elementary school, were part of the district’s 10-year facilities plan. Displaced students would have populated the new school come September. However, in mid-January, the newly elected board voted to stop work at the school for 90 days (beginning Feb. 9) to allow for further facilities plan consultation, necessitating a motion to keep the schools open for another year. “When we decided to enter into this 90-day consultation, it meant that the school, however it turns out, won’t be ready for 2015, so we need a place for those kids to go to school and so that is why we rescinded the bylaw for another year and then we will at that time, depending on what decision we come up with, deal with that appropriately at the time,” said Steve Rae, school board chairman. There have been changes since the plan was introduced in June 2013, according to Rae. South Wellington Elementary closed, with many of its students going to Chase River Elementary, and North Oyster remained open and became a French immersion school. “So that just leaves roughly about 270-plus kids that are left, that are between North Oyster and Woodbank, so we need to keep them open for this year so that the kids in those schools have somewhere to go,” said Rae. See ‘TRUSTEES’ /7
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ADVOCACY GROUP disagrees that any remediation needs to be done on park structures. BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Misty morning
Emma Skuce, 3, and her dad, Joe, take a ride on the Harbourside Walkway near the Nanaimo Yacht Club Friday as fog rolls in from the Strait of Georgia and shrouds downtown highrises. Fast-moving fog creates beautiful backdrops to sunny days, but plays havoc with local air carriers that can’t rely on clear views for safe takeoffs and landings.
Nanaimo city staff is endorsing a new multimillion-dollar fix for the Colliery dams as a cheaper and more viable option, but it’s not winning any points with a citizen advocacy group. The City of Nanaimo has wrapped up a threestage review of the dams, which not only confirms the spillway is “substantially undersized” and won’t meet provincial regulations in a severe storm, but also offers a potential third solution to meet dam safety standards. City staff members are proposing to re-route any flood waters from the lower Colliery dam with a five- to six-metre deep alternative spillway into Harewood Creek. It’s estimated to cost $3.4 million but could soar as high as $5.1 million. The concept, still in early stages, also requires more research, a city report shows. Council considered next steps for the dams, including spending $250,000 for detailed design work on an alternate drainage course, after press time Monday. According to Toby Seward, the city’s acting general manager of community development and protective services, the latest option is viable because of its cost – less than the $8.1-million spillway expansion and a $7.3-million overtopping solution that the city and Colliery Dam Park Preservation Society have been at odds over. Mayor Bill McKay told the News Bulletin the drainage course is worth looking into but he wants to ensure the city chooses the least intrusive option, while Jeff Solomon, spokesman for the preservation society considers the new option unacceptable. See ‘DAM’ /3
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