The Chilliwack
Progress Tuesday
13
3
19
Life
News
Sports
Tea Time Our love affair with tea is
Love Bus Reviving the ‘Summer
Boating Retiring after decade
enjoying a new surge.
of Love’.
120 YEARS YOUR COMMUNITY
NEWSPAPER
1891-2011
of dragon-boating.
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T U E S D AY, A U G U S T 1 6 , 2 0 1 1
Sockeye brings anglers to river Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Hundreds of anglers staked out a spot on the lower Fraser River over the weekend to take advantage of a recreational opening for sockeye. Test fishing numbers are being monitored closely to see if additional sockeye fisheries can be justified, said Barry Rosenberger, chair of the Fraser River Panel. The pre-season estimate for this year’s total sockeye run on the Fraser is three million, and rose to four million Friday. “Things could change,” Rosenberger told The Progress. “But the decision was made to open it up for the three days ending Monday.” They’ve since decided the sport fishery will remain open indefinitely, instead of going with weekend-only fisheries, he said. “We’ve been trying to give some stability to the recreational fishery,” Rosenberger added. Even though the Fraser sockeye numbers are no where near as strong as last summer, there’s still anticipation about more fishing opportunities opening up. First Nations have been in the river fishing for food, social and ceremonial purposes, but sales agreements have not been reached by DFO and Sto:lo bands this year. (See story, page 3.) A local tackle shop employee said last week that staff were answering up to 20 calls an hour about the prospect of the first recreational opening of the summer Continued: SOCKEYE/ p6
Crews with Eagle West Cranes move Kevin Stone’s hand-made 8,000-pound steel dragon from his front lawn Monday morning to be transported to the PNE. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Steely nerves needed for dragon transport Katie Bartel The Progress The dragon has left the station. Early Monday morning, Eagle West Cranes was on metal sculptor Kevin Stone’s front lawn preparing to transport his 8,000pound steel dragon to the Pacific National Exhibition grounds in Vancouver. The experience had Stone a flutter of nerves. “I don’t want nothing to go wrong,” he said, swiping his hand nervously through his hair. “A
million things could go wrong.” The top-heavy dragon could flip during lift off, or get damaged from flying debris on the highway, or if measurements weren’t accurate, the 12-foot tall dragon could meet its demise in the underbelly of an overpass. “A lot of unforeseen events could happen,” said Stone, sure his nerves wouldn’t settle until the dragon was on-site, unharmed. The stress, he said, comes with the territory. “This is the whole point of making these [sculptures] – for them to be on public display.”
The PNE commissioned the The mirror-polished, stainlessImperial Water Dragon as a show- steel dragon, built in 2009, is case piece for its container art 12-feet tall, 35-feet long coiled – program, a fortress of stacked 85-feet uncoiled. shipping containers A route had where local multito be designed disciplinary art is and approved by video-online] the Ministr y of featured. Laura Ballance, Transportation, and PNE spokesperson, www.theprogress.com pre-driven to ensure told The Progress earthere would be no lier this month that mishaps with power as soon as organizers saw the lines or bridges. It couldn’t go dragon, they knew it would be a straight down Highway 1, as the show stopper. load was too wide to clear the Getting it to the PNE grounds, construction zones. Instead, it however, was the challenge. Continued: DRAGON/ p8
$1.25 5-11T JA17