THE WEDNESDAY
2010 WINNER
JULY 13, 2011 www.tricitynews.com
TRI-CITY NEWS Sowing the seeds
Life, death & art
SEE LIFE, PAGE 16
SEE ARTS, PAGE 30
INSIDE Letters/11 Good Read/22 Blue Mountain Festival/24 Sports/34
JENNIFER GAUTHIER/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
JENNIFER GAUTHIERE/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Brian Hubbard of the Port Coquitlam Heritage and Cultural Society poses with some of the many documents that will be scanned for a website that will make it easier for people to research PoCo history. For story, see page 6.
Garbage g catch-up By Gary McKenna THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Luigi Sella thought he had been paying his property tax bill in full since he moved into his Port Coquitlam home back in 2000. So he was understandably surprised when he received a letter from the municipality last month explaining that, because of a city hall record keeping snafu, he had not paid his garbage levy in five years. And Sella is not alone. see PAYBACK, page 4
A pair of Coquitlam Adanacs celebrate a goal in Sunday’s B.C. Bantam provincial female box lacrosse championship game at PoCo Rec Centre. The Adanacs dropped a tough 3-2 decision to the New Westminster Salmonbellies and settled for the silver medal. In the Peewee division, New West No. 1 tackled New West No. 2 in the final, with Coquitlam winning bronze. New West No. 1 also captured Midget gold, with Coquitlam netting silver and New West No. 2 bronze. In the Junior division, Nanaimo, Burnaby and New West finished 1-2-3. For more information, see Sports page 34.
No to Murray-Clarke Project costs would have to drop by 65% to be viable — TransLink By Todd Coyne THE TRI-CITY NEWS
TransLink dealt a heavy blow to Port Moody city council Tuesday night when the transit authority officially tabled its assessment of the Murray-Clarke Connector project. TransLink has rejected funding for the proposed overpass connecting Murray and Clarke streets, saying in its report that the estimated $69-million capital cost of the connector and its attendant maintenance costs would have to drop by at least 65% before the project would be viable.
Murray-Clarke has been on successive Port Moody city councils’ to-do lists since 1983 and the city has put up funding to help build the connector, but the explicit support of the province and now of TransLink have twice proven shortlived. NUTTALL The sitting Por t Moody council has made the Murray-Clarke Connector a linchpin in its bargaining with TransLink and Metro Vancouver while hashing out agreements on the Evergreen Line and Metro’s regional growth strategy. Port Moody council maintains a “no-growth” policy, refusing any new development in the city and, until now, refusing to allow the Evergreen Line rapid transit
system to go ahead without a commitment from TransLink to build MurrayClarke. But with a mayors’ council agreement reached on covering the remaining funding for Evergreen Line with a regional gas tax, Port Moody council may be divided on whether to continue digging in their heels on Murray-Clarke. Coun. Gerry Nuttall says it’s a lost cause. “Our position has always been that the [Evergreen Line and Murray-Clarke Connector] are one project and that they should build them both,” Nuttall told The Tri-City News. “But I think we’ve tried as hard as we can to get the Murray-Clarke Connector and
we’re not getting any response so it’s time to move on.” Coun. Meghan Lahti called TransLink’s rejection of the Murray-Clarke overpass “mindboggling,” and said the connector is imperative not only to Port Moody commuters but to the whole Metro Vancouver region to alleviate traffic congestion in the city caused by regional east-west traffic. “Considering that they’ve already put the funding forward for it twice — the province did it and TransLink did it — for them to say now that there is no business case, I’m flabbergasted.” Coun. Lahti called it “imperative” that council not roll over on Murray-Clarke and continue to fight TransLink over it. see EVERGREEN EVERGREEN,, page 8