UPFRONT 3
Mayor talks the urban walk COMMUNITY 31
Students make FAT Paint doc SPORTS 33
THURSDAY MARCH 23, 2017
Douglas rides rollercoaster
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND
There’s more online at
SEE PAGE 15
NewWestRecord.ca
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
Y O U R
6
H O M E T O W N
N E W S P A P E R
BY THE BOOK: LitFest New West chair Janice Bannister, left, joins planning committee members Anne Uebbing, Gayle Mavor, Stephen O’Shea (with four-year-old daughter Vera) and Gulshan Josan at the Gallery at Queen’s Park to help promote this year’s festival. The 2017 edition of the festival, on the theme of Readers, Writers, Community, is coming to venues around town March 31 to April 2. This year’s festival includes new programming for children, as well as a number of new locations – including eateries where attendees can enjoy food and beverages while taking part in events. Check out pages 11 and 13 for the scoop on this year’s festival. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
THE CHANGING CITY
Arenex input ‘broke’ the city’s survey Should services be offered at an expanded Canada Games site or continue to be in a standalone facility? By Theresa McManus
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
To say Royal City residents are interested in the fate of the Arenex in Queen’s Park is an understatement. In response to the de-
struction of the Arenex, the City of New Westminster has been offering an online survey about whether its services should be relocated to an expanded facility at the Canada Games Pool/ Centennial Centre site or continue to be offered in a
standalone facility. “We didn’t realize there was a limit to the number of surveys we could receive during the survey program. For the first time in the city’s history we essentially broke the survey by having too many responses.We had
to upgrade our subscription to allow more people to fill out the survey,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “To us, that’s excellent news because that means that people are really interested in the topic.” While the city has re-
Games Pool. “We really want to get that project so it is grantready.We are anticipating there are going to be some significant federal grant opportunities for facilities like Continued on page 9
Mar 23-31, 2017
Order Take-Out. Call 310-SPOT (7768) or order online at www.whitespot.ca
ceived a “huge volume” of feedback, Cote said he hadn’t heard what those responses have indicated. He said the city would like to make a preliminary decision early this year about whether Arenex services should be offered at a new Canada
IPPOLITA CORCIONE 778.838.7069 | www.ippolita.ca Call for a complimentary home evaluation
810 Quayside Dr. New Westminster at the River Market @wildricebc www.wildricebc.ca 778.397.0028