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Surrey mom may be first Canuck to be Mrs. World 13 TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010
CRESCENT BEACH
‘WE WOULD BE SITTING DUCKS’
Without third way into village, residents wonder where they would be in face of an emergency SURREY – City staff have rejected a plan to build an emergency road into Crescent Beach via the marina and Blackie Spit Park, but Mayor Dianne Watts said it’s got to happen, if not there, then somewhere else. “The Crescent Beach area is – especially in summer – a destination and we really have to deal with this,” the mayor said Monday afternoon. “There has to be an alternate access. We have to get it done.” She promised to explore all options with city staff at Monday’s council meeting, long after the Now’s deadline. Residents in the small seaside community have been DIANNE pushing for a third way into their village since 2007 when WATTS/ a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train broke down on its way “There has to through town and blocked the two existing roads into the be an altervillage – they’re only 500 metres apart – for several hours. nate access. That got Crescent Beachers wondering where they’d be We have to in an emergency – a fire, a medical situation or even a tsuget it done.” nami – and the roads were blocked by a train again. They want a road running under the BNSF trestle next to the Crescent Beach marina that would connect to the singlelane roadway running past the Dunsmuir community garden on the south side of Blackie Spit Park. City staff concluded a repetition of the 2007 incident is very unlikely, while the cost is too great to make the proposal viable. Single-lane access would cost about $550,000 and a wider road allowing two-way traffic would run an estimated $1.1 million. Insurance costs would be a one-time premium of $20,000 during construction and a minimum of $40,000 to $50,000 per year afterward. Insurance against environmental liabilities would be additional, but the city hasn’t been able to confirm cost and coverage for that. All of these factors, the report’s authors say, argue against building the road. Instead, they propose a Stopped Train Protocol that would stop trains outside the village during emergencies and create strategies to deal with broken down trains. Margot Thomson is the Crescent Beach Property Owners Association’s point person on the train issue. Not surprisingly, she disagrees with the report’s findings. “There could be great cost to us in loss of life and damage to property,” she said. “We’re really sitting ducks.”
see SURREY COULD BE LIABLE, page 4