Black belt Twenty students from Shima
Karate will be testing for the top level.
PAGE 24 C&S TRANSMISSION SPECIALTIES LTD.
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VOL. 27, NO. 16
City, Snuneymuxw look at access solutions for park
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FERRY OPERATING on temporary contract to Newcastle Island. BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Hazardous crossing
Paramedics, firefighters and a bystander tend to a woman who was struck by a minivan at the Meredith and Boundary roads intersection shortly before 1 p.m. Monday. The woman was taken to hospital to be treated for injuries. Police said conflicting witness accounts made it difficult to determine if the male driver of the vehicle or the victim were at fault, but the investigation is continuing.
Council debates rolling out new garbage plan BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
City of Nanaimo refuse collector Brian Fairbrother will have lifted 700 bins of hot, stinking, seeping kitchen scraps by the time he finished his Tuesday route. If he’s on the road with one of the city’s split-packer trucks, handling a mix of garbage and kitchen waste, those repetitive movements go up. Maggots and rats, dirt, dust, glass and needles are also a risk. Fairbrother had a near miss last week with a needle with a broken safety tip.
Start to finish at
Don’t get Fairbrother wrong, he likes his job, but a garbage fleet with automated arms would just be a lot safer. “It’s a lot less stress on the body, a lot less chance of being injured, a lot less exposure to the dust, needles, sharps, other bad stuff, right,” Fairbrother said. The City of Nanaimo is purchasing two automated-ready garbage trucks that will come into service next year, while politicians consider automating the fleet as part of budget talks. Nanaimo city council agreed to spend an estimated
$800,000 on the two trucks and on Monday (July 6), Charlotte Davis, the city’s manager of sanitation, recycling and public works administration, will re-introduce the idea of swapping out Nanaimo’s 10-truck fleet for eight new automated garbage trucks and 90,000 curbside bins. The $6.8-million plan was previously proposed in April. It’s critical to consider automation, according to Davis, who says the system is stretched with a mix of staff injuries and downtime with the fleet. See ‘AUTOMATED’ /3
Nanaimo Harbour Ferry will no longer zip across the harbour bound for Newcastle, but the loss could herald new opportunities for shuttle service and a stronger working relationship between the City of Nanaimo and Snuneymuxw First Nation. Nanaimo Harbour Ferr y stopped shuttling Newcastle Island passengers June 19, after failing to come to a service agreement with the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the operators of the provincial marine park. Protection Island Ferries will temporarily pick up Newcastle Island passengers at a slightly higher $10 round-trip cost. The Nanaimo Harbour Ferry would not speak to News Bulletin and the Snuneymuxw First Nation was unavailable for comment, but Mayor Bill McKay told the News Bulletin access options for the Island are being looked at, including the Snuneymuxw buying equipment that it would either provide the service with itself, or hire an operator to crew and maintain. He sees it as a chance for the city and park operator to partner, potentially through subsidization or the co-purchase of equipment.
The City of Nanaimo has also agreed during a recent protocol agreement working group with the Snuneymuxw to take a more active role in Newcastle and search for resources like government grants to help the First Nation. “Even though it was a dark day when I learned the ferry operator had left, when I learned a little bit more about it I realized, OK, there’s an opportunity here,” said McKay. “They’re anxious for our help and they appreciate our help and we need to take a more active role. It’s just even little things like really getting the tourism operators together so they promote Newcastle better.” According to McKay, the Snuneymuxw are talking to potential ferry operators and while Protection Island Ferries has interim capacity, he notes the need to bring other resources into play and said it could mean the purchase of the existing boats that run to Newcastle. McKay doesn’t believe a pedestrian bridge is on the table, but would like to see an aerial tramway, or gondola from Georgia Park to the Island. “The chief and I have had lots of things on our plate, some of them not so pretty, but if we can start freeing up and our council and Snuneymuxw can actually start having some time to sit down and start spitballing some of these ideas, there’s a lot of great ideas out there,” he said. news@nanaimobulletin.com
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