New Westminster Record February 11 2015

Page 1

NEWS 3

Filling the need for speed

FOR THE BEST LOCAL

NEWS 5

Show your love for NewWest CITY BEAT 11

Q and A with Michael Isman WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 11, 2015

LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS

W E E K D A Y

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COVERAGE GO TO PAGE 14

E D I T I O N

Car thieves target Brow of the Hill

Police warn residents to keep valuables out of cars By Cayley Dobie

cdobie@newwestrecord.ca

Police are going on the offensive after seeing a spike in vehicle-related property crime in two of the city’s neighbourhoods. In January, 21 vehicles were reported stolen in New Westminster. Of the 21 vehicles stolen, 60 per cent were reportedly from the Brow of the Hill neighbourhood, according to a media release from the New Westminster Police Department. Also last month, 40 per cent of the 66 reported thefts from vehicles across New Westminster were Downtown – a notable spike, according to police. While, overall, these numbers indicate a drop in vehicle thefts and thefts from vehicles across New Westminster, it does indicate an “unacceptable” concentration in the

FAMILY FUN Visitors check out the Family Day fun at the Anvil Centre on Monday. The city had a host of free activities for the holiday at facilities around the city. Check out more photos at www.newwestrecord.ca. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER

continued on page 9

Parked rail tankers raise concerns Southern Railway promises to look into concerns, but says it typically does not leave dangerous goods on tracks near Quay By Theresa McManus

tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca

A Quayside resident is concerned that explosive goods are sitting for extended times in a residential neighbourhood. In a letter to Southern Railway of B.C., the resident raises concerns about tankers containing oil and chlorine parked on the tracks beside residential buildings on Quayside Drive for extended periods of time. She questioned what will be done to finally get these unsafe living conditions under control and to address “the sleep-depriving noise” associated with coupling of trains that takes

place through the night. “Most days, there are tankers parked on those track for hours at a time, including the whole night,” said the resident’s letter. “This is very unsafe – consider what happened in Quebec last year – and very irresponsible when all that the rail companies have to do is park them at the industrial sites to get ready to move to wherever they need to go.” Singh Biln, director of community relations and chief mechanical officer for Southern Railway, said all railways make every effort to minimize the handling and storage of railcars carrying hazardous prod-

ucts. He said Southern Railway receives cars from CP or CN and stores them in its yard by the Queensborough Bridge until delivered to pulp mills via our barge ramp on Annacis Island. “While we do carry chlorine, SRY does not transport any petroleum products,” he wrote in an email to the resident. “I am not certain of the products in the tank cars in your photos but will follow up with CN and CP to verify contents.We typically do not leave DG (dangerous goods) cars stored in the yard near your building for any length of time, so I will also follow up on that.” According to Biln, all railways have an extensive dangerous goods safety protocols. He said Southern works closely with New Westminster Fire Chief Tim Armstrong and the Delta Fire Department on regular exer-

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cises and reviews of its safety programs. “You can take comfort in the fact that since we commenced handling DG’s in early 2009, there has not been a single incident of accidental or non-accidental release of hazardous products in this area,” he wrote. “On occasion, there may be minor venting of some products, but we enact our emergency response protocol with local fire departments and deal with them. Also, unlike the incident at Lac-Mégantic in Quebec, our trains with (dangerous goods) are not left unattended, do not operate at speeds greater than 10 m.p.h. and do not carry petroleum products.” The resident sent copies of her letter to the mayor, the city’s railway committee and continued on page 4

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New Westminster Record February 11 2015 by New West Record - Issuu