Index
News Editorial Letters Just Landed The Beat Sports Classified
3 8 9 13 19 21 27
Kindness of strangers
Small town boy goes glitz
Fire victim and single mom rises from the ashes of her burned out town home thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the community.
Aaron Brown from Craik, Sask. is now Iona Whip from Glam-land. The drag queen will star in the Shooting Stars Foundation’s fundraiser.
W
E
D
5 N
19
E
S
D
A
Y
,
J
U
N
E
9 ,
No luck for Wildcats
McMath Wildcats posted their first-ever unbeaten season but still could only manage a fifth place finish at the provincial “AAA” girls soccer championships.
21
2 0 1 0
a Canwest newspaper
YOUR
SOURCE
FOR
LOCAL
SPORTS
,
NEWS
,
W E AT H E R
AND
E N T E RTA I N M E N T
!
WWW
.RICHMOND-NEWS.COM CITY
Financial forecast looks bright Housing starts up BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
BYLAWS
Spa caught with pants down BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
“We’ve been caught with our pants down.” So said the lawyer representing yet another massage parlour in Richmond to have fallen foul of the authorities. Wallace Wong, on behalf of Blue Sea Health Spa owner De Qun Yang, made his frank admission to city council after police officers discovered naked customers in compromising positions with partially clothed employees. The massage parlour, or body-rub studio as it’s officially classified, on No. 3 Road and Capstan Way is the third such premises in less than 10 months to be hauled in
Third massage parlour suspended in less than 10 months
front of council for repeatedly flouting city bylaws governing how they operate. During a random inspection last fall, RCMP officers caught a pant-less masseuse with a naked customer in a darkened room at the Blue Sea. And a couple of months later in winter, a similar inspection found a masseuse wearing clothes, but this time with no underwear, on the floor on top of a naked customer. Each time, the masseuse and the customer claimed not to speak English, but managed to claim that no “boom boom” was taking place, according the officers’ reports. As a result, Blue Sea Spa — which has
11 bylaw infractions to its name since it had its license pulled for 30 days in 2004 — was before council once more, with another month-long suspension recommended by city staff. But when it became clear that councillors were of a mind to hammer the business with a longer suspension or even pull its license permanently, Wong did his best to defend the massage parlour. “It does have a number of violations, but the bulk of these are smoking violations,” he said. “I believe 30 days is the proper penalty and I don’t believe it would be fair to revisit see Masseuse page 4
8171 Westminster Hwy.
PERSONAL POWER WITHIN
(at Buswell, one block east of No. 3 Rd.) Walkway access also from Save-On Foods parking lot
2 hr. Introduction W/S $20. Satisfaction guaranteed.
AM, PM, Evening, W/E - Call NOW 604-780-4959 To Register #138-7900 Westminster Hwy. (@ No. 3Rd. next to CIBC)
It's worth
it.
Mon-Sat 8:45-6:30 Sun 10-5 (604) 780-4959
05210037
CHUNG CHOW/RICHMOND NEWS
Students hold CPR dummies that have been donated in support of a high school CPR program which Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid announced funding for at Richmond secondary Tuesday. The program will see 48,000 students in B.C. trained in CPR this year.
The local economy is rebounding in a big way — if the City of Richmond’s latest financial report is to be believed. The figures from the city’s first quarter of business for 2010 were published this week, with “promising signs” that Richmond is well into a sustained recovery. One of the primary indicators, according to report author and the city’s budget accounts manager Hari Suvarna, is the hive of activity in the construction industry. Housing starts indicators also show a “substantial increase” in comparison to the corresponding period in 2009. However, there was a cautionary tale in the form of a suggestion that the current mini-boom was due to people rushing to avoid the effects of the HST on July 1. Even taking that possibility into account, Suvarna pointed out that city revenues from building permits, development applications and business licenses have all shown “significant increases.” Suvarna reported that, in the first quarter, the city issued 348 building permits — 50 per cent higher than during the same period last year. Building permit revenues also increased markedly, from $620,000 in 2009 to $1.1 million this year. Development applications received by the city in the first quarter of 2010 exploded by 119 per cent from last year, while business licenses issued totaled 13,004, compared to 11,598 in 2009. With so much activity in the construction industry in Richmond, development cost charges spiked by 346 per cent compared to last year’s first quarter.