Royal City Record January 24 2014

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014

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Change stirs up fears

Street life: Musician Luciano St. Laurent busks with his accordion at the entrance to Westminster Centre on Sixth Street. Businesses are asking the city to set up an uptown business improvement area to fund projects and programs to benefit the area.

City councillor says changes could put citizens at risk BY THERESA MCMANUS REPORTER tmcmanus@royalcityrecord.com

New Westminster is sounding alarms about changes to the way ambulances will be dispatched in B.C. Council has spoken out against the B.C. Emergency Health Services’ resource allocation plan, fearing it would cause delays in the dispatch of ambulances and increase demand for fire services to attend and remain at calls. Coun. Chuck Puchmayr believes the proposal is an attempt to reduce calls made by the B.C. Ambulance Service by offloading calls to fire departments. He believes the change will increase costs to the city and will put citizens at risk because of delayed response times. Coun. Betty McIntosh opposed council’s recommendation to strongly oppose the B.C. Emergency Health Services board’s resource allocation plan, without getting more information about the proposal from the organization. She said the plan is designed to clean up issues related to the dispatch of ambulances to medical calls. “It’s a different way of dispatching,” she said of the proposal. “It’s a way to make it safer for everyone in the community.” McIntosh, who worked as a registered nurse at Royal ◗Ambulance Page 5

Jason Lang/ THE RECORD

Uptown eyes a new future Group wants to set up a business improvement area to fund activities, beautification BY THERESA MCMANUS REPORTER tmcmanus@royalcityrecord.com

Uptown businesses want what the downtown already has – with a twist. The Uptown New West Business Association has presented the city with a proposal to establish a business improvement area that would help fund street beautification, on-street activity, marketing and promotion, and outreach to some community groups. Its vision is to create a vibrant,

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outreach component to this – we want to partner with other community groups and see if there are ways we can support other groups, but do it in a way that is mutually beneficial.” Slotman cited programs that employ people at risk of homelessness or with mental disabilities to do street cleaning and creating new items from street banners as potential examples of community outreach initiatives. The Uptown Property Group, which owns several buildings in the area, has paid for baskets, banners and street décor in front of its properties. “You can really see the benefit of it. You can really pull an area together and make ◗Uptown Page 8

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pedestrian-oriented commercial district that serves local citizens and attracts visitors from throughout the region. Bart Slotman, a member of the steering committee that considered the idea, said the average retailer, with 20 feet of storefront, would pay $386 annually into the Uptown New Westminster Business Improvement Area. “There’s an awful lot of benefit the average retailer gets for $35 a month,” he told The Record. “There’s three street events, there’s the décor part of it with banners, baskets, Christmas lights and all those things. There’s the common promotion activities we want to do to draw more people to the uptown area, and for advertising the area. There’s also an

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