Thursday March 8, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 20))
V O I C E
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W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
S U R R E Y
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Fit for office: The Healthy Community Challenge iss off and running province-wide this weekend, and four Lower Mainland mayors – all encouraging raging their communities to take part – havee waged a friendly battle for the fitness crown. see e page A41
Officers pepper sprayed
Business request to allow more signs inspires debate
Jail time for repeat offender Dan Ferguson
‘Ban the banners’
Staff Reporter
Tracy Holmes
An 18-year-old has been sentenced on four unrelated criminal incidents that occurred over a six-month period in Langley, Surrey and White Rock, including an assault on two officers, obstructing police and a suspicious vehicle incident that ended with a policedog pursuit. On Friday, March 2, Dallas Wayne Ball, of Langley, was sentenced by a Surrey Provincial Court judge to a combined term of more than two months in jail, plus 18 months of probation for all four offences. The judge also imposed a 10-year ban against owning firearms. Court records indicate Ball had already been held in custody for 31 days awaiting trial. Ball pleaded guilty Jan. 27 to one count of assaulting a police officer in connection with a Nov. 2 incident in the City of Langley. It occurred after two RCMP Street Enforcement Unit officers spotted two men walking through an alley, one of them, Ball, who was wanted on an outstanding warrant. When the plainclothes Mounties identified themselves, the suspects ran and the officers gave chase. During the foot pursuit, RCMP said, Ball turned and sprayed the officers with pepper spray. Both officers were treated at the scene by paramedics. Ball was arrested a short time later. Police said they were able to identify the second suspect in the pepper-spray incident, but no charges were laid. Ball also pleaded guilty to unrelated charges of taking or occupying a “vehicle or vessel” without consent of the owner and possession of stolen property in connection with a July 15 incident in White Rock. Shortly after 1 a.m., White Rock RCMP were dispatched to the 15900-block of Thrift Avenue for a suspicious vehicle. see page A4
Staff Reporter
By air, by sea
oceanpacificlighting.com
Gord Goble photo
A kite-surfer, backdropped by the snow-dusted mountains of the North Shore, takes advantage of afternoon winds and waves on waters off Crescent Beach. The enthusiast was one of a pair spotted enjoying the sport Monday afternoon.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON TO THIS AD SPACE
A proposal this week to amend White Rock’s sign bylaw to loosen restrictions for businesses wanting to hang banner signs has received the cold shoulder from one councillor. Larry Robinson said the signs should simply be prohibited from the city altogether. “Frankly, I think they’re trashy,” Robinson told council Monday, following a city staff report suggesting amendments that would enable businesses to hang more banners in a year, at less cost to them. While Robinson planned to move that the bylaw be amended to ban the signs, the matter was deferred after Coun. Helen Fathers asked to table it until all of council was present for the discussion. Couns. Al Campbell and Grant Meyer were both absent Monday. Robinson’s suggestion, however, did not go ❝Frankly, unopposed. I think they’re Coun. Louise Hutchintrashy. ❞ son said she would be Larry Robinson “much more in favour” of eliminating sandwich boards, which she said pose a greater hazard than banners. “I just don’t think they have a place in our city,” Hutchinson said. “If Coun. Robinson is looking for a ceaseand-desist on banners, I would be doing the same for sandwich boards.” A review of the sign bylaw was triggered by complaints last fall from Marine Drive business owners and the Business Improvement Association (BIA), after a restaurateur was told a banner hanging on his business’s railing violated city rules. While the report by Paul Stanton, director of planning and development services, said flexibility could be added to the bylaw to increase the number of banners allowed per year, Robinson spoke against incorporating any leeway. He pressed his point further to Peace Arch News Tuesday, after noticing a loose-hanging banner outside a different Marine Drive restaurant that was tied with Christmas ribbon to a flexible lighting strip. see page A4
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