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MARCH 23-27, 2016
Fr i d ay, M a rc h 1 1, 2 016 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del iver y ) 6 0 4 - 4 6 6 - 6 3 97 97
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Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Trees and wires were down along 123rd Avenue at 208th Street in Maple Ridge after a wind storm early Thursday.
Storm leaves thousands in dark Winds of 90 km/h knock out power By Neil Corbett ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
A powerful wind storm left 122,000 B.C. Hydro customers in southwestern B.C. without power Thursday morning, including many in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge. Most of Pitt Meadows south of the Lougheed Highway was in the dark, some 6,000 customers, and there were about a dozen outages in Maple Ridge, the largest affecting 3,100 customers north of Dewdney Trunk Road to Silver Valley, between 232nd and 216th Streets. There were also significant outages in eastern Maple Ridge, but power was on in the downtown core. The power was also out at 17 schools, which remained open, although parents were asked to make other arrangements. City crews and firefighters removed downed trees from roadways or blocked streets where power lines were down, waiting for Hydro crews to arrive. See Power, 5
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read reassured the remaining residents of the temporary shelter that they will have a place to go.
Homeless shelter extended Province to buy Quality Inn for new housing B y P h i l M e l nychuk pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
The B.C. government is providing $270,000 to allow the 40bed temporary shelter in Maple Ridge to remain open until the end of June. The province has also made an offer to purchase the Quality Inn, on Lougheed Highway, for approximately $5.5 million. The building is to provide 61 units
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of long-term supportive housing for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, including people currently at the temporary shelter. The purchase will be finalized in early May and it is to open in June, following renovations, the province announced Thursday. B.C. Housing will hold a public meeting later this month, prior to the close of the sale, for local residents who have questions about the project. “We have put in place a longterm housing solution in Maple Ridge that will address the im-
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mediate need for new affordable housing for 61 men and women in the community,” said Rich Coleman, Minister of Natural Gas Development and Minister Responsible for Housing. “This will allow us to get them off the street and connect them with Coleman services that can help to stabilize their lives.” Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read said in a release that council believes mental health and addiction services must under-
pin the operations of the supportive housing complex in order to adequately meet the needs of its future residents. The province provided more than $5 million last year for subsidized housing and rent supplements to help more than 1,100 households in Maple Ridge. In 2015, close to 170 homeless people in Maple Ridge were housed through rent supplements and shelter services.
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See Shelter, 4