INSIDE: Upper Fraser Valley RCMP annual year in review Pg. B1 T H U R S D A Y
May 23, 2013
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Drummin‘ for change at Sardis
N E W S , S P O R T S , W E A T H E R & E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Teenager facing murder charges
Council not sure about one-way on Mill
Friends say goodbye on social media to Chilliwack man killed in Alberta town
Merchants say parking spots need to stay BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
A
n 18-year-old woman is facing murder charges following the death of a Chilliwack man in a small Alberta town last weekend. Twenty-six-year-old Tak Tai Lawrence Leung, who police say was from Chilliwack, died Saturday from injuries sustained in an altercation. A 20-year-old woman was also injured but has since been released from hospital. The incident took place in Gleichen, Alta., a tiny community 100 kilometres east of Calgary. On Tuesday, Gleichen RCMP arrested Kristy Noel Redgun, who they said was from the nearby Siksika First Nation, and charged her with first-degree murder in Leung’s death. The charge of first-degree murder means police think the killing was premeditated. Mounties say an autopsy conducted Tuesday confirmed Leung’s identity and the fact that his killing was a homicide. On his Facebook page, friends remembered Leung as a “guy who always treated everyone with respect” and someone who loved cars. “Thanks for making my life a little more fun,” one friend posted. The page said Leung was living in Calgary.
available. “The stocking rate is at least two (bees) per acre—I have my best growers stocked at five per acre,” Awram said. “It just doesn’t add up. What happens is there are hundreds of acres that are insufficiently pollinated and the crops suffer as a result.” As a response, Awram said pollination fees have gone up. Over time, he believes it’s possible that the price of crops such as blueberries will also increase, creating a more competitive market that could attract other beekeepers to the region. “There isn’t a reasonable solution. I don’t see what the growers, especially the growers of blueberries, will do in a few years,” Awram See BEES, Page 21
See MILL STREET, Page 7
Jason Payne/PNG
Chilliwack beekeeper Peter Awram, holding a queen bee, tends hives at a blueberry farm in Pitt Meadows last Friday. A shortage of honeybees this year could hurt local blueberry crops.
To bee or not to be BY STEPHANIE IP The Province
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ocal farmers are feeling the sting as a shortage of honeybee hives seems poised to hurt their crops this coming season. The availability of honeybee hives, used by farmers to pollinate large crops, has been in slow decline since border regulations implemented in the late ‘80s stopped the import of honeybees. Paired with the recent closures of two honeybee suppliers in Alberta, Chilliwack beekeeper Jerry Awram says the demand this year far outweighs what he’s able to supply. “We normally set our numbers at about 4,000 hives . . . but we can’t really boost our number significantly from year to year,” said
the owner of the family-run Honeyview Farm in Rosedale. Awram explained it’s not easy to increase a stock of bees—there’s no predicting how the hives will fare throughout the winter and survive into the spring. “It’s very difficult,” he said. “From year to year, we really have no idea how good the survival of hives will be in the winter.” The longtime beekeeper said it’s tough to juggle all of those challenges but said this year’s been even more difficult since the demand has been higher than usual. According to Awram, there are 20,000 acres of blueberry crops in the area that rely on honeybees to help with pollination. Awram’s bee farm is the largest in B.C., and even they only have about 20,000 bees
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hether it’s parking or driving, there will be fewer vehicles on Mill Street if merchants have their say in the planned reconfiguration of the short stretch of downtown. Business owners on Mill favour a design that maintains parking spots while making the street one-way, but at least two city councillors at Tuesday’s meeting questioned if that’s the best plan. The Mill Street upgrade project scheduled for spring 2014 would see the addition of street trees and the widening of the west sidewalk for outdoor cafe space. In late 2012, a design was created—based on one first conceptualized in 2007—that imagined two travel lanes on Mill with the elimination of parking on one side to make way for the wider sidewalk. This plan, which would have reduced the number of parking spaces from 16 to 10, was universally opposed by merchants along Mill. Five more designs were then created—three with one-side parking and two with one-way traffic—and presented to merchants. Of those designs, 11 out of 13 merchants
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