A6 TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011 CHILLIWACK TIMES
News Keith Wilson Bridge closure The Keith Wilson Bridge will be closed for the month of August for maintenance repairs. The abutment rehabilitation work begins Aug. 2 and runs to Aug. 30, which requires full closure of the 13-year-old Vedder Canal crossing. The city had hired an engineering firm to examine ongoing cracking and settlement issue at the east and west abutments of the bridge, according to a staff report presented to city council at its last meeting. “Major cracks have appeared in the concrete bridge deck, the approach roadway asphalt and the concrete ballast wall,” the report said. Coquitlam Ridge Constructors Ltd. won the tender to do the work for the price of $234,364. The bridge is scheduled to re-open in time for the school year in September. Ditches and hoops Fish protection and flood protection often come into conflict and city staff are seeing this more than ever as plans are laid out for the annual ditch cleaning projects. “Unfortunately things have gotten a bit more complicated,” city assistant operations manager Neil Calver told city
Council briefs council at the July 19 meeting. “There are more hoops to go through than ever before.” In 2010, the city completed 32 kilometres of ditch cleaning as part of the annual open drainage and watercourse maintenance program. This year, an additional requirement by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is that the work planned in the fish-bearing waterways also triggers a screening process through the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA). “The city has complied with this additional screening process as part of the city’s ongoing commitment to effective and environmentally responsible drainage maintenance,” a staff report said. Despite the added regulatory requirements, this year the plan is to clean approximately 58 kilometres of watercourses for flood protection purposes. Sardis library Approximately 120 people attended a July 6 open house at Twin Rinks looking at plans for the southside library slated for construction in 2012.
At its last meeting, council heard from staff that there was generally positive feedback about the plans, but Mayor Sharon Gaetz said that she learned that you can’t please all the people all the time. “Some wanted more washrooms, some wanted less,” she said. “Some wanted a bigger library, some wanted a smaller library. But we do our best to please all the people all the time.” The city also applied to itself to rezone the land on Tyson Road from public use reserve to civic assembly. A public hearing has been called to consider the rezoning for Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. Olympian honoured Ryan Kuester was in attendance at the last meeting of council to be recognized for his two gold medals at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens held earlier this year. “I just want to say how excited we are,” Mayor Sharon Gaetz told Kuester. “It’s not that often we get an Olympian and someone who has competed in Greece.” Kuester told council the experience was “amazing” and that while he was “shaking like a leaf” before the final, he was really happy with his result. - Compiled by Paul J. Henderson
Paul J. Henderson/TIMES
Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz welcomes Jason Campbell back to the city after his long bike ride.
Long ride almost over BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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hilliwack’s Jason Campbell has just finished riding 150 kilometres a day since June 1 and he’s got the legs, the weight loss and the tan lines to prove it. Campbell, 37, is raising money in honour of his mother for the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in Abbotsford with a bike ride from St. John’s, N.L. to Vancouver. His goal was to raise $10,000 before Aug. 22, which will be donated in the name of his mother, Paulette, who died of cancer in 2005. Campbell was at Chilliwack city hall Monday morning before taking off on the final of
52 legs of his cross-Canada journey. Mayor Sharon Gaetz presented Campbell with a pin from the city and a stainless steel water bottle. When asked what the hardest leg of the journey was, Campbell said the hills in Ontario. And what kept him going up those daunting and seemingly endless hills was the thought of little kids battling cancer. “If they could do it, I’m sure I can just keep pedalling,” he said. Campbell said he had raised about $5,000 so far. ◗ To donate, visit www.canuckplace.org, click on Precious Pages under the Make a Donation header, and search for Jason Campbell.
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Chilliwack Minor Fastpitch Association would like to thank the following community business sponsors for assisting us to host a successful Provincial Bantam Girls Minor Fastpitch Championship July 8-10