Thursday December 13, 2012 (Vol. 37 No. 100)
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Aiming to impress: Jenna Richardson hopes to be at the top of her game this week, as she looks to impress the coaching staff of Canada’s national women’s soccer team at an assessment camp this week. › see page A35
Neighbours appeal for help dealing with rats, noise and smell
Residents fume over works-yard vermin Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Residents living adjacent to White Rock’s works yard are finding rats in their yards and kitchen waste on their decks – and say they can’t open their windows if the weather’s warm. Concerns have grown since the city implemented, then boosted, recycling and com-
posting programs, neighbours of the Keil Street facility say. And, they’ve had enough. “There’s got to be a better way to handle it,” said Diane Bradley, whose living room window vista is the works yard and all it entails. Bradley was among about a half dozen Kent and Keil street residents who turned out to city hall Monday night, with an appeal
that some relief to the problem be included in the 2013-2017 financial plan – a bylaw that is expected to be adopted next month. “We’re full of rats, vermin everywhere, (and) diesel fumes are killing us,” she told council members meeting as the finance committee. “It’s an assault on our neighbourhood.” Director of finance Sandra Kurylo, in sharing updates to the draft plan, recommended
the committee direct staff to review the residents’ concerns and report back in January. “It raises a number of items and some of them really are quite complex,” she said of a Dec. 3 email received by the city. Kurylo also noted $35,000 included in the 2012 budget to improve operations-yard fencing is expected to be carried over to 2013. › see page A4
Minibus struck
Students get scare
Sarah Massah photo
Emergency crews respond to a crash at 152 Street and 60 Avenue Wednesday morning, after a vehicle struck a school bus carrying two children.
An eight-year-old girl was taken to hospital as a precaution after a crossover vehicle crashed into her school bus Wednesday morning. The crash occurred around 8 a.m. at 152 Street and 60 Avenue, across from Sullivan Elementary. Surrey RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said it unfolded when a Dodge Durango westbound on 60 Avenue struck a Mitsubishi Outlander heading north, sending it into the bus, which was stopped at the light. Paquet said the girl – one of two children on the bus – was taken to hospital after complaining of head pain. Her fellow traveller, an eightyear-old boy, was unhurt. The Durango driver, a 57-yearold Surrey resident, was also taken to hospital for head pain. – Tracy Holmes
Opposition eclipsed as supporters outnumber residents at Surrey’s land-use meeting
years of Gateway brings10 casino support by the busload Cleanliness. Kevin Diakiw Black Press
A sea of blue T-shirts – each with a large, white “YES” printed on the back – filled council chambers Monday, as supporters of a South Surrey casino complex showed the city that an upcoming public hearing will be long and contentious. At least two busloads of staff and supporters of Gateway Casinos and Entertainment attended the land-use meeting at Surrey City Hall. Their attention was fixed on Item 9 – a
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plan to build a $100-million casino, hotel, Asked where she was from, one young convention and entertainment complex on woman said “Starlight,” referring to Gatean 18-acre parcel of land at 10 Avenue and way’s Starlight Casino in New Westmin168 Street, just east of Highway 99. ster. Gateway also owns Gateway Casino in A few dozen residents from that area who Langley and Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby, Get a FREE Year asWarranty oppose the development showed up10 wearing well as Newton Square Bingo Country, buttons with the word “casino” circled in red of where with the purchase anythe City of Surrey this fall approved with a line through it. But they were over- temporary slot machines while the South Miele vacuum before shadowed by the hundreds of young people Surrey project is under consideration. sporting the shirts with the Gateway December 30,Casino 2012. Council voted 8-1 to forward the South Surlogo on the front and text that stated: “More rey proposal to a Jan. 14 public meeting. Entertainment=Strong Surrey.” › see page A4
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Kevin Diakiw photo
Attendees sport ‘yes’ and Gateway logos.