The Chilliwack
Progress Tuesday
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Research
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Forensic anthropologist gives a voice to the murdered and missing.
First Nations leaders to meet with PM.
Twin terrors lead Grizzly attack.
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Designs sought for Rail Trail expansion Plan would double existing trail and extend it over the highway to Airport Rd. Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
They call it the Sardis Rail Trail. It’s a city-built cycling and pedestrian path that follows alongside the Southern Rail tracks in Chilliwack, spanning from Webb to Luckakuck way. So far. But the call has now gone out from officials at City Hall in a formal request for expressions of interest, for a 2013 expansion of the Sardis Rail Trail, to as far north as Airport Road, which would more than double the length. It would also mean the expansion would cross over Highway 1 and Chilliwack Creek. The RFEI closes Jan. 16, and they’re looking for qualified engineering consulting firms to provide preliminary designs. The first part of the trail was built in the early 90s, from Webb to Knight Road. Then they added on to it, going as far as Luckakuck Way in the late 90s, said staff. But since then staff have fielded numerous requests from the public to extend the trail north, across the Trans Canada Highway. In fact, many want it to run right into Chilliwack proper, as well requests to have it extend to the south, into Greendale, across the Vedder River and even into Yarrow. The concept of expanding the Sardis Rail Trail was initiated by Parks, Recreation and Culture Continued: TRAIL/ p4
Patti MacAhonic announces Monday that she will be running for nomination for the NDP candidacy of the Chilliwack constituency during a press conference at the Best Western. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
MacAhonic makes NDP bid official But if she wins, she’ll have to give up Chamber of Commerce job Robert Freeman The Progress
Patti MacAhonic may be a political novelty as the first Chamber of Commerce official in B.C. to run for nomination as an NDP election candidate. But she won’t be the Chilliwack chamber’s executive director long, if she wins the party’s nomination Jan. 19. MacAhonic will take a leave of absence until that time, but
she is asking the chamber board to “reconsider” the denial of her request to extend the leave until the May provincial election, if she wins the nomination. “I’m not trying to be unreasonable,” she said, but it’s a “matter of principle” since past chamber employees and directors have run for office or worked on political campaigns. Without the board’s approval of an extended leave, MacAhonic will be without a paycheque for at
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least four months. Chamber president Kevin Gemmell said it was “simple math,” not politics, that determined the board’s decision, and that MacAhonic would be asked to resign no matter which political party she represented. “We can’t live without somebody in the big chair for a period of four months,” he said Monday. “It’s not a political issue, it never got to that point.” City councillor Sue Attrill, who was the chamber’s executive director when she ran for election in 2008, said a policy was introduced after she won her
council seat that prevents chamber employees and directors from running for public office or working for a political candidate. “I worked (as executive director) for several months before I decided on my own to resign,” Attrill said, because she felt pressured “to vote in certain ways” on matters that came to city council. “Sometimes you can’t have two masters,” she said. “Integrity is everything.” But she declined comment on MacAhonic’s request for an extension because she didn’t know all the details.
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Continued: NDP/ p10