The Chilliwack
Progress Thursday
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Opera
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The Pirates of Penzance is a comic opera
Keith Wilson Bridge reno brings peace
Rapids and CFC join in soccer alliance
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FVRD agrees to ‘play nice’ with Metro Vancouver Robert Freeman The Progress
been prevented. “There should have been a clown to the right, but they were all to the left,” she said. “It was just tragic and in front of so many people. My heart goes out to the boy and his family.” The event was immediately halted. Fire and rescue personnel were called out as was a medevac helicopter. Horses and other animals were relocated from the infield at Heritage Park where the medevac landed. St. John’s Ambulance stabilized the child for “10 to 15 minutes” inside the arena while awaiting the air ambulance. The rodeo resumed after the boy was airlifted. Chilliwack Fair coordinator Nancy Spratt said the incident didn’t put a damper on the event. “It was handled quickly and quietly,” she
Fraser Valley Regional District directors voted to play nice with Metro Vancouver at a special board meeting Tuesday and take part in consultations on possible waste-to-energy facilities. But that doesn’t mean the fight is over to stop Metro Vancouver’s plan to burn garbage. “We’ve lost round one, but the fight isn’t over,” Abbotsford director John Smith said at the board meeting. “We also lost round one in the fight against SE2,” he added, but eventually defeated the proposed gas-powered electricity plant in Sumas, Washington in 2006 after a groundswell of opposition by Fraser Valley residents. He called Metro Vancouver’s plan to burn garbage using WTE technology “a financial disaster waiting to happen,” and predicted that in the end no incineration plants will be built in the Lower Mainland. Abbotsford Mayor George Peary brought the issue to the board in a letter to FVRD chair Patricia Ross following her reaction in media reports to B.C. environment minister Terry Lake’s approval last week of Metro Vancouver’s solid waste management plan. Ross had told reporters that no matter what technology is used, the Fraser Valley airshed cannot afford another point source of pollution, and she urged residents to “bombard” the minister with emails of opposition. But Peary said that “accusatory approach” won’t help the FVRD achieve its goals, and could have a negative impact on the region’s economy. “I do not advocate an approach which
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Denton Spiers from Quesnel was injured after coming away with the only solid run in the junior steer riding class during Saturday’s rodeo at the Chilliwack Fair at Heritage Park. Below, Denton is tended to by a bullfighter. JUSTIN KEITCH/ PROGRESS
Boy injured while steer riding at the fair Katie Bartel The Progress An eleven-year-old boy was airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Vancouver following a steer-riding accident at Chilliwack Fair Saturday night. Fair organizers said it was not clear whether the boy, who was riding in the under-15 event, was trapped between the steer and the metal fence, or whether the steer trampled on him after he fell off. His femur was broken just below the hip and was operated on Sunday morning. The child, who lives in Quesnel, was released from hospital and flew home Wednesday. A concerned spectator, who didn’t want her name published, was sitting in the grandstand when the accident occurred. She said the steer came out of the gates and instead of veering left towards the rodeo clowns (also
known as bullfighters) like the others had, it veered right. “There was nobody to the right of the gates,” she told The Progress. “The bull came out and hit the fence. The kid was between the bucking bull and the metal fence.” The woman said the accident could have
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