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Council cancels plywood mill site lease
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Wednesday, September 16, 2015
» Murder investigation
Port authority fails to meet conditions for development
MARTIN WISSMATH ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
City council voted to cancel a lease to the port authority for the former Alberni Plywood mill site next to Canal Beach at Monday’s regular meeting. The brownfield site has been in the city’s possession for 25 years with no development. The city entered a lease agreement with the Port Alberni Port Authority on July 1, 2014 that stipulated at least $500,000 of industrial development would begin within one year from the lease date. Council delayed the cancellation for a few extra months to see whether anything would materialize over the summer. Seeing as that didn’t happen, the motion to cancel the lease this week carried unanimously, with a 90-day notice of termination beginning on Sept. 15. A petition started by Port Alberni resident Sandra Gentleman to cancel the lease started on the website change.org, gathering over 300 names in support of public space on the waterfront. “I support a waterfront green space beside Canal Beach on cityowned land,” reads the petition’s statement. The goal is to reach 500 names in support. PAPA had leased the property, which had only been used to sort logs in the Alberni Inlet for decades, for $1,200 a month. The port authority planned to sublease the lots to Canadian Alberni Engineering for expanded shipping operations that could have created 100 additional jobs. Plans fell through when CAE lost a bid to retrofit a Canadian Coast Guard hovercraft, according to Coun. Jack McLeman. Mayor Mike Ruttan said the city hasn’t decided what to do with the land and will bring it back up for discussion at a council meeting later this month.
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Jaclyn Koning, cousin of Kristy Morrey, speaks on behalf of the murdered Port Alberni resident’s family during a press conference in the city’s RCMP detachment Tuesday. Seated is Chuck McDonald, Officer in Charge of the RCMP’s E Division Serious Crime Unit. [ERIC PLUMMER, TIMES]
Arrest announced in homicide First-degree murder charge laid for Kristy Morrey death in 2006 ERIC PLUMMER ALBERNI VALLEY TIMES
An arrest has been made for the murder of Kristy Morrey, nine years after the 28-year-old was found dead in her Beaver Creek home. Larry Darling has been charged with first degree murder for Morrey’s death, an incident that has been a mystery haunting the community since the Alberni Valley resident was discovered on Aug. 20, 2006. Darling, 51, was taken into police custody Friday in Surrey “without incident,” said Insp. Chuck McDonald of the RCMP’s E Division Serious Crime Unit at a Tuesday press conference in Port Alberni. The Abbotsford resident is scheduled to appear in Port Alberni Laws Courts today for the charge. As an ex-boyfriend of four years who had split with Morrey one month before her death, Darling was previously a suspect in the murder
MORREY
case, but no charges were laid until last week. McDonald said more information about the cold case investigation will come forward in court proceedings, but he admitted recent developments in forensic evidence were a factor as police worked to piece together the case. “We have the last piece of a puzzle that has taken nine
years to solve,” said McDonald, adding that the Serious Crime Unit joined the investigation two years ago. “A homicide investigation is complicated, with the amount to time that elapses sometimes new forensic tools become available to us and new information became available to us as the investigation continued.” After nine years of uncertainty, the recent arrest offers some relief for Morrey’s loved ones, said cousin Jaclyn Koning. Before tearful friends and relatives sitting in the front row, Koning gave a statement on behalf of the family at the press conference. “Today we stand before you strong knowing that someone has been arrested. Our initial reaction was shock, relief and with a heavy heart betrayal,” she said. “It has been nine long years since Kristy was taken from us, and not a day goes by that we don’t think about it.” A number of other cold cases
Meals on Wheels nourishes lives
A look back into the history of Hunter’s Store
A group of community partners is working together to feed those who are unable to put food on their table.
Before it was Hunter’s Store, it was McConachie’s General Store, and before that, it was Freethy’s Store.
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still hang over the Port Alberni community, but the recent development does provide some closure for the nine-year mystery of Morrey’s death, said Insp. Mac Richards of the city’s detachment. “From a community perspective it’s a positive step,” he said. “The community’s been hurting for a long time.” Morrey’s body was found in bed under a blanket by a friend at 12:02 p.m. Aug. 20, 2006 in a house the 28-yearold rented on Lugrin Road in Beaver Creek. The young woman was expected to attend a friend’s wedding gift-opening ceremony that morning, leading others to send several unanswered telephone calls to Morrey’s home. She had been drinking with five friends the previous night at the Lugrin Road residence, who left Morrey’s home at 3:10 a.m. Darling was among this group. Eric.Plummer@avtimes.net
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