Maple Ridge News, October 09, 2015

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Bylaws: ’Justice for Buttons’ in Pitt. 12

Election 2015: Countd down for candidates in local ridiing. 3 Looking Back: History of our dikes. 18

Fr i d ay, O c to b e r 9, 2 015 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del iver y ) 60 4- 4 66 - 63 97

Shymkiw new Ridge deputy mayor Other councillors wanted more information By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com

After creating a new deputy mayor position, council named Coun. Tyler Shymkiw on Monday as the first to fill the job. But Coun. Corisa Bell wasn’t happy with how Shymkiw the change was made. She wanted a full report on it and said council previously wanted a description of what the deputy mayor’s job would be, as well as the extra pay a councillor could earn for that position. “In the spirit of open government and transparency, and everything this council represents, I feel it would be inappropriate for us to vote on this,” said Bell. “That’s what we requested prior to making this decision. It’s unfortunate that all the information isn’t here.” Mayor Nicole Read said later that there was political will to make the change. “And so we moved fairly quickly on it when we knew we had the political will to do it.” One full-time deputy mayor will replace the system of acting mayors, in which each councillor served for two months of the year. A full-time deputy mayor can assist the mayor more and deal with issues quickly, and head meetings, if necessary, she added. See Deputy, 5

Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS

The majority people at the homeless camp on Cliff Avenue have left. About 10 tents remained Thursday morning.

Relief for Cliff Avenue Number of tents at camp down to 10 B y P h i l M e l nychuk pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com

Cliff Avenue was looking more like a regular road Thursday as the number of homeless tents dropped almost to the single digits. “We went from 27 tents down to 10 in one week,” said Kelly Swift, general manager of parks and recreation services. “We are keeping a full-court

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press on supporting people moving into the shelter.” Once the temporary homeless shelter on Lougheed Highway and 222nd Street opened on Oct. 1, street outreach workers and bylaws were able to offer homeless campers a place to go and continue a process of voluntary dispersal from Cliff Avenue. The homeless camp sprung up in May and continued growing to the point where tents lined both sides of the street in mid summer. The gradual process, involving bylaws, parks staff, police and

outreach workers, will continue hopefully until the last tent is gone, Swift said. While there’s no timeline for clearing the street, the intent is to keep the pressure on. “We would like to see the last tent off the street today, if possible. We’re working to keep it as peaceful a process as we can to support people moving to a safer place.” Most, but not all of the campers are moving to the temporary shelter, operated by Rain City Housing until April. See Camp, 5

Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS

A camper leaves Cliff Avenue and rides down Lougheed Highway.

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