Education: MRSS senior class stages another Epic Project. t. 5
DST: Set your clocks ahead one hour for Sunday.
Sports: Former Bruin key for Canada. 16 Fr i d ay, M a rc h 6, 2 015 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del iver y) 60 4- 4 66 - 63 97
Ridge is paying for Pitt rec services Mayor Read wants to rework sharing agreement By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
Maple Ridge wants to even out its recreation services partnership with Pitt Meadows. According to the latest review of the joint parks and leisure services agreement, Pitt Meadows saves $1 million a year by combining resources with Maple Ridge in order to maintain parks and trails, offer programs and run facilities such as Family Recreation Centre and seniors centre. “Pitt Meadows achieved a zero-percent tax increase for their residents,” Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read said Tuesday. “We have to be accountable to our residents.” See Rec, 4
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
Bricks and mortar Grade 12 student Cole Gunderson works on his masonry skills as part of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University apprentice program at Thomas Haney secondary. Story, 3
New gravel mine riles residents Quarry would drop Sheridan Hill by 30 m By Neil Corbett ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
Pitt Meadows city hall is working against a new rock quarry that could make a mole hill out of a mountain. The proposed quarry would take the top off of Sheridan Hill, blasting and excavating 240,000 tonnes of rock per year for the five years it
would operate. The quarry would remove the southern peak of Sheridan Hill, reducing its elevation about 30 metres, to 45 from 75 m. “In my estimation, it would be an open scar on the face of this community,” said Mayor John Becker. At Tuesday’s council meeting, Becker noted that provincial regulations give municipalities little control over mineral extraction within their borders. But the city will use what authority and influence it has to try
to stop the project. “It is the intention of this council to make every possible use of every possible tool we have at our disposal to oppose this project,” Becker said. He lives in the area, but the firstterm mayor said that does not give him a particular bias, nor put him in a conflict. “It is no secret that my family has lived at the bottom of Sheridan Drive for almost 25 years,” he said. “I take anything that happens in Pitt Meadows very personally, and
my strong opposition to this proposal has nothing to do with my proximity to it. There is no conflict of interest.” The new quarry would be on the south side of Sheridan Hill, fronting McNeil Road, and involve four properties totaling 26.4 hectares. The working site itself will cover 7.2 hectares. “It is anticipated that this operation will be highly visible from all directions,” according to city report by planner Dana Parr. See Quarry, 10
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The new quarry covers 26.4 hectares and fronts McNeil Road.
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