Bylaws: Senior told that five dogs is too many for Maple Ridge condo. 3
Homes: Get your mower ready. 17
City: No booze for grocery stores in Pitt. 9 Friday, Februar y 5, 2016 ¡ mapleridgenews.com ¡ est. 1978 ¡ (office) 604-467-1122 ¡ (del iver y) 6 0 4 - 4 6 6 - 6 3 9 7
Fire destroys seniors lodge Second blaze there in several weeks By Neil Corbett ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
A seniors home in east Maple Ridge was incinerated early Thursday. It was the second fire in as many months at Kanaka Creek Seniors Lodge, located at 11581 256th St., by 116th Avenue. A fire on Jan. 9 had displaced 10 seniors living at the facility, so it was vacant during the second fire, said assistant fire chief Mike Van Dop. The building provided 18 independent living housing units for seniors. See Fire, 11
Firefighters put out hot spots at Kanaka Creek Seniors Lodge Thursday morning.
Robsons opening doors to Syrians B y Phi l M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
I
t felt like a bit of a waste for Gordy and Mary Robson, to have the bottom floor of their east Maple Ridge home unused. Meanwhile, they had heard of the plight of Syrian families, eager to start a new life in Canada, yet languishing in hotels in Vancou-
ver, waiting for permanent places to live so they could start rebuilding their lives after escaping a bloody civil war. So the Robsons registered the ground floor of their house with the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. as a possible place for a refugee family. Recently, they were in Vancouver and were driving by the immigrant services society’s offices and decided to stop in. The other house on their farm property had become vacant and they just fixed
it up. “I said, ‘Why not,’ “ Mary said. They registered that house, as well, as a possible new home for families fleeing war and trauma. Now, 19 Syrian refugees could be living on their farm, using it as a refuge to get adjusted to a new land – if the paperwork gets done. Contracts have yet to be signed and there’s no confirmed arrival date, but a family of six – mother and father and four children – are set to move into the ground floor of the Robson’s home, while an-
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other family of 13 – a mother and father and 11 kids – could fit into the other vacant house. The latter family left Syria five years ago, just as the civil war grew in intensity. The large family had a son in university in Jordan and the father was able to find work there, avoiding a stay in the refugee camps. “It’s going to be quite an exciting time, I think,� said Mary, executive-director of the Friends in Need Food Bank. See Refugees, 8
THE NEWS/files
Gordy and Mary Robson at their rural property in east Maple Ridge.
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SPECIAL It’s got Canada talking — with their mouths full.
cense.
Have applied to take two refugee families
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