Thursday August 23, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 68)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Princess weekend: Princesses gather at a land not-so-far-away this Saturdayy to enjoy a visit with their fairyy godmother at the third annual al White Rock Princess Party. see page 199
Travel guide touched lives
Resignations tendered
Free spirit
Provincial Conservatives try to recover from rift Alex Browne Staff Reporter
Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
When searchers told Tara Trompetter they’d found her son’s body in the depths of Anderson Lake, she knew she had to see him. She had to know how – how did Ben die cliff-jumping, doing something he’d done so many times? And, did he die painfully? Words from the divers who found the 27-year-old Sunday brought some comfort. “They said, ‘your son was the most peaceful we’ve ever pulled up,’” Tara said. “I got to go and hold him and touch him and kiss his face. He had a smile.” The expression, say friends and family who gathered at Tara’s South Surrey home Wednesday, was a familiar one to all who knew the Peninsula man. It appeared often, and touched many who had the good fortune to meet him in many corners of the world. “His smile is like nothing (else) – it was beautiful,” Tara said. Ben died Friday, after jumping from a cliff northeast of Pemberton into the icy waters of Anderson Lake. He had been enjoying the lake with friends – planning to head to Whistler later to watch his cousin compete in the slope-style mountain-biking competition, Crankworx – when he decided to freeclimb the cliff face. The activity is one he had participated in many times before, and skillfully, friends say. see page 10
Contributed photo
Siblings Meghan and Tyler Trompetter visit Ben (centre) on Thailand’s Haad Yuan Beach in 2008.
Dr. Allison Patton, prospective local candidate for the BC Conservative party, is hopeful that internal turmoil in the Surrey-White Rock constituency association will soon be resolved. Patton – who had been president of the association since it was formed in early 2011 – resigned two weeks ago. On Wednesday, she said most of her board had also been in the process of resigning, Allison Patton but that they BC Conservatives had been asked by the party to rescind alreadysubmitted resignations and see if discussion could resolve rifts in the association. “We’re in discussions right now,” she said, adding that the association’s AGM is Sept. 22 at the Langley Events Centre. “The AGM will definitely help – a lot of matters will be dealt with or become a lot clearer after that point.” see page 4
Second thrift-store fire in less than two months in White Rock
Arson not ruled out in blaze at Superfluity shop Dan Ferguson Staff Reporter
Contributed photo
A June 26 fire damaged Worldserve store.
The fire that forced the shutdown of the Peace Arch Hospital Auxiliary’s Superfluity thrift store may have been deliberately set. White Rock RCMP released a statement last week saying the Aug. 9 fire started in a pile of newspapers and magazines piled on a couch left in the back lane behind the shop at 15163 Prospect Ave. “Although, the fire may have been inadvertently set with the ember from a cigarette, the fact that it may have been deliberately set cannot be ruled out,” Const. Janelle
Shoihet said. The exact cause of the fire, which damaged the northeast corner of the Thrift Shop roof and building and forced its indefinite shutdown is undetermined, the statement said. The fire at Superfluity was the second blaze behind a White Rock thrift store in less than two months. On June 26, a fire that started in a couch behind the Worldserve Thrift store, at 1401 Johnston Rd., scorched the walls and melted a plastic sign in the drop-off dock but did not cause structural damage. The fire was reported around 1:30 a.m. Store manager Melody Jobse told Peace Arch
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News this week that the store is planning to put a chain-link fence around the loading dock to keep after-hours drop-offs a safe distance from the store. She said it isn’t known if the fire was deliberately set, but it would help a lot if people stopped dumping furniture and other items when the store is closed. “We can’t recycle something that goes up in flames,” Jobse said, noting many use the drop-off area to dump garbage, to the point where store staff won’t sort through anything left after business hours. “It goes to the dump,” Jobse said. “It’s incredibly frustrating.”
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