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NEWS: US-bound plane diverted to YVR after threats uttered 3
Board looks at schools in high-rises Graeme Wood
Staff Reporter gwood@richmond-news.com
T
he Richmond School Board is exploring the idea of sending students to school in a high-rise building. The idea comes as student enrollment continues to decline in outlying neighbourhoods of the city, while increasing in the downtown core. “As property values go up and parcels of land become unavailable, the board has to think creatively about it, and for City Centre (neighbourhood), there is a lack of space,” said recently appointed board chair Debbie Tablotney. The Richmond School District is looking to acquire land north of Westminster Highway and west of Garden City Road, said Tablotney. “We’re working against time to find properties because they’re disappearing. We’re under a time crunch,” added Tablotney. Although the City of Richmond has encouraged densification of the downtown core, which in turn creates a need for schools in that area, it hasn’t secured enough funds from developers, who pay into a facilities fee, to help the district purchase land to build a school. As such, Tablotney said the board is looking at how it can get optimal school space in a small parcel of land that uses other resources, particularly those of the city. For example, in Vancouver’s Yaletown neighbourhood, Elsie Roy elementary school is situated in a mixed-use building, adjacent to the 10-acre David Lam Park and a community centre. The city is seeking to build a 28-acre waterfront park, between the Dinsmore Bridge and Aberdeen Station. Whether building a school next to that future park is a possibility, Tablotney wouldn’t say. See Planned page 3
STEVESTON: Kajak’s Icebreaker starts year off on the right foot 12 ! Local businessman, James Spack, says he has just the thing to snuff out Richmond’s smelly reputation.
Smell killer tested Alan Campbell Staff Reporter
acampbell@richmond-news.com
I
t may be a little premature, but a Richmond-based company may have a weapon able to kill “that” smell wafting for miles across the city from time to time. The blight of scores of residents, the foul stench emanating from Harvest Power’s composting facility in East Richmond could soon be a thing of the past. EcoSolve Natural Products may have the answer to the years-old problem with a special banana tree extract, primarily designed to organically disinfect food manufacturing facilities. The product, according to its vice-president Mahmoud Aziz, is already being used to successfully curb the often nauseous odours from
similarly large composting centres in the Philippines. And, although EcoSolve has only had preliminary discussions with Harvest Power, they can’t think of any reason why it won’t work in Richmond. “It’s derived from a very specific species of banana bark from the Philippines,” said Aziz, from the company’s River Road headquarters in north Richmond. “We import the banana bark concentrate and dilute it here in Richmond. Banana trees have special ingredients, which protect them from disease; they have natural anti-bacterial, anti-biotic, anti-fungal and anti-viral qualities.” The product, explained Aziz, is effective at as low as two to three-per cent concentrate.
“They are using it in the Philippines at garbage dumps, at about three to six per cent concentrate, because it removes the odour and accelerates the composting,” he added. “At Harvest Power, they could simply add it to the misting process that they have.” As the volume of organic (food scraps) and green (garden refuse) waste being processed at Harvest Power has burgeoned over the last few years, the smell has increased to a level that the composting company, near No. 7 and Blundell roads, has had to retroactively apply to Metro Vancouver for permission to increase some emission limits by upwards of 1,000 per cent. See Harvest page 3
COMMUNITY Friends COMMUNITY: aim to get line cook back in the kitchen 16
SPORTS Mik SPORTS: Mike St Stoneburgh’s Sharks are showing their teeth 18
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