Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Kids are counting bugs as part of a scientific research project.
Page A6 • LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS, AND ENTERTAINMENT • mrtimes.com • 604-463-2281 • 24 PAGES Health care
Parking boosts hospital budget A former council candidate doesn’t want District to give up its fight on paid parking.
TIMES files
Maple Ridge resident Grover Telford wants to keep the pressure on council to lobby against parking fees. Maria Rantanen/TIMES
by Maria Rantanen
21 INCREDIBLE
Accident
A mother who lives at the corner where a longboarder struck a car on June 8, will meet with District planners Tuesday. by Sylver McLaren smclaren@mrtimes.com
fees in the 2011/12 fiscal year, of which about $6.33 million went into maintenance, including security, lighting, snow removal, maintenance and repair of the lot, and management fees, which at Ridge Meadows Hospital is Impark. The rest went to the health authorities’ operating budgets. In the fiscal year 2012/13, they collected about $14 million, of which about $9.5 million went into “health care for our community,” said Faser Health spokesperson Tasleem Juma. For Ridge Meadows Hospital, parking fees for 2012/13 amounted $620,000. The fees are set by the consolidated Lower Mainland Parking Services, which is administered by Fraser Health. At Ridge Meadows Hospital, parking is $3.50 for the first hour, $3 for each additional hour; the day rate is $8.25, and evening rates are $5.25 from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Juma said to determine the fees for parking, parking services looks at what the going rate is and then the hospital parking fee is set slightly lower. “We look at all pay parking sites around and adjacent according to the hospital,” Juma said. Parking at the West Coast Express pay and ride station at Maple Meadows Station is $3 per day. Other pay parking in Maple Ridge is under the leisure centre and civic square, where parking is free for the first hour and 75 cents per hour after that. To get monthly parking rates at the hospital, Juma said it’s advisable to go through a social worker or patient care coordinator at the hospital, who can advocate on behalf of a family spending a lot of time at the hospital. The Fraser Health spokesperson said it’s an “accepted practise” across the country to have paid parking at hospitals.
Erika Inzunza has been invited to meet with Maple Ridge’s transportation engineer today to discuss road safety in the neighbourhood where 12-year-old Tyler Galloway was hit on while riding his longboard. Tyler, struck on June 8, is still in a coma from the collision. Inzunza’s main goal is to discuss prevention to avoid future accidents, and to have a safer neighbourhood for children and for any driver passing by McClure and Kimola Drives. “I totally understand that this accident was caused by a ‘pedestrian’ error. Fortunately, the driver was not in fault. I can’t even imagine the shock that the driver got. However, the story would have been different if a ‘slow traffic measure’ was in place,” the mom of a six-year-old and a daycare provider said in an email to the District of Maple Ridge. “Having consulted with RCMP and our fire department we are advised that this unfortunate incident was determined as pedestrian error,” wrote Michael Eng, transportation technologist in the reply to Inzunza’s email. “Having a child going down a steep hill on a longboard with limited stopping abilities and limited steering is very dangerous,” said Eng. “The child could have easily hit a parked car similar to that of an incident that occurred in West Vancouver.”
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An air ambulance lifted off from Samuel Robertson Technical’s Rotary Field on June 8 with 12-year-old longboarder Tyler Galloway inside.
Longboarder sparks action
mrantanen@mrtimes.com
A Maple Ridge resident is starting a group to keep the issue of hospital parking fees on the table. Grover Telford, who has previously run for Maple Ridge council, said he wants to hold council’s feet to the fire on the hospital parking fee issues. He is starting a group, Perturbed over Paid Parking – POPP – to “keep this [issue] on the table,” as he doesn’t want to see council just accept a staff report on the issue. “I’m saying don’t just take the first opinion – show some leadership,” Telford said. People who access the hospital are usually elderly, on fixed incomes, or poor, he said. “I think there might be a legal basis to challenge the amount of money they’re charging,” Telford said. He said he’s not against parking rates completely, but he thinks they should at least be reduced. Residents already pay taxes, and Telford said there must be other ways for the hospital to cover its costs than parking fees. Telford said he wants to keep the “pedal to the metal” on this issues, adding that Maple Ridge council takes everything staff puts before them as “gospel.” Two weeks ago, Maple Ridge council received an opinion from their legal counsel Young Anderson, which stated that because the hospital isn’t a Crown corporation, it’s not subject to municipal bylaws. In order to force a hospital to get rid of its parking fees or reduce them, it would need intervention from the Minister of Health, according to the legal opinion. One-third of hospital parking fees go into maintaining the lots including paying the management company while two-thirds goes into operating budgets, according to the Fraser Health Authority. Fraser Health is in charge of consolidated parking services for four health authorities in the Lower Mainland – itself, Vancouver-Coastal Health, Providence Health, and Provincial Health Services (which includes BC Children’s Hospital). They collected $19 million from the
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