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THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
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LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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CRIME
Scooters stolen from seniors Cornelia Naylor cnaylor@newwestrecord.ca
Two local seniors have been grounded after two separate thefts of mobility scooters in New Westminster this month. “My independence is gone,”West End resident Peet Parrest told the Record. “It’s like stealing somebody’s crutch or cane. It’s hard to imagine that someone would take your mobile chair, that they would be that heartless.” His chair had been secured to a post in the carport of his Hamilton Street home with a “substantial chain,” Parrest said, but thieves used bolt cutters and made off with the mobility device last Tuesday, leaving only a single link of the chain. On Sept. 1, a 76-year-old Brow of the Hill resident’s black $4,000 Shoprider Trailblazer scooter was stolen from a parking garage in the 900 block of Fifth Avenue, according to Sgt. Jeff Scott.
“If you see an ad for these scooters online or throughout the city, please let us know,” Scott said. “The owners of these mobility scooters need them to get around and run errands. To think of someone stealing these for personal gain, which limits another person’s sense of freedom, is sad.” Parrest’s Pride Go-Chair was black with pink accents on the base and worth about $3,400. It might be dead by now, though, since the thief failed to take the electrical charger that goes with it. Swapping stories with other disabled people, Parrest said he gets the impression people with disabilities are being targeted. “It’s very easy for someone to follow me in that chair from midtown to my house and know that the chair is there and then take it,” he said. Anyone with information about these thefts is asked to call New Westminster police at 604-525-5411.
Stolen: Peet Parrest has been unable to get out and about since his electric wheelchair was stolen . PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
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WET AND WONDERFUL: The rain came, but so did lots of people for the annual New Westminster Terry Fox Run, which started at River Market. Organizer Kathy Jones said the event drew 210 walkers, runners and wheelers with 40 volunteers, including one participant who participated in her 36th (out of 38) Terry Fox Run. The local event has raised over $18,000 this year to date and more donations are still coming in online, including two people who raised $5,000 each. “I think Terry would be well pleased with the remarkable support shown by the New West participants who showed up on a very wet Sunday morning at the Quay,” Jones said. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Two more join the race for mayor Theresa McManus tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
And now there are four. When the nomination deadline closed on Friday, New West residents Jimmie Bell, Nikki Binns and Harm Woldring had all thrown their name into the ring to run against incumbent mayor Jonathan Cote in the Oct. 20 civic election. “I feel that I can get more people interested in council,” Bell said, when asked why he’s running for mayor. “That’s our big problem. We don’t have enough participation by the folks that own property here and rent property here.” If Bell’s name sounds fa-
miliar that’s because he has ran for mayor, councillor and school trustee in the past, under the name James Bell. In 2011 and 2014 Bell ran for both city council and school board and in 1996 he ran for mayor. While the mayors’ council on regional transportation supports the construction of a new Pattullo Bridge, Bell isn’t keen on the idea because he fears wider travel lanes mean more traffic will come speeding into New Westminster. Instead, he’d prefer that work be done to extend the life of the existing bridge and large trucks be banned from using the Pattullo.
“That bridge is quite suitable for pickups and cars, not tractor-trailers.They can go on two big bridges on either side, but they are not going to do it,” he said. “As soon as the new bridge is in, they are going to swarm it.” If elected mayor, Bell would like to find a way of moving city hall elsewhere and redeveloping the existing site.When told the city no longer owns the Anvil Centre office tower, he said “it’s a shame” because it would have been an ideal location for city hall. “We should be thinking about developing that site where the present city hall is,” he said. “I’d like to see
city hall become a research centre, anything but what it is, so it would employ people. I just want to see it utilized to generate tax dollars.” Binns, who grew up in New West and has raised her seven children in the city, said someone suggested she run for mayor and she decided to go for it. “I am becoming more and more concerned with the way we are building things around our city,” she said. “We used to care about our livability, and it just seems that we are not anymore.We have got huge traffic issues.We have minimal access to amenities.” Continued on page 7
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