Thursday April 4, 2013 (Vol. 38 No. 28)
V O I C E
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W H I T E
R O C K
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Clean sweep: The Surrey Eagles will battle for the BCHL championship title for the first time in nine seasons, after defeating the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in four straight games. › see page 21
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
Boaters steer clear of White Rock due to lack of moorage: councillor
City eyes buoys for summer Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
Contributed photo
Beth Hutchinson was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour.
Treatment sought
City of White Rock staff are weighing the costs and feasibility of making it easier for visiting boaters to moor overnight in Semiahmoo Bay. Council last week unanimously endorsed a recommendation by the city’s environment committee to investigate installing six mooring buoys south of the breakwater. It’s simply the right thing to do, committee vice-chair Gary Saunders said. “It really is a no-brainer,” Saunders told Peace Arch News Tuesday. “It’s a safety issue, it’s being
environmentally responsible – it’s a good thing.” The buoys enable boaters to “park” their vessel off-shore without weighing anchor. They typically have a weight that sits on the ocean floor that’s attached by a chain to a rubber ball that floats on the surface, said Saunders, who is also president of the White Rock Harbour Board. Boaters simply tie up to loops or eyes that are connected to the buoy. Eliminating the need to weigh anchor is not only more convenient for boaters, it protects the ocean floor from damage that can occur from anchors ripping up the sensitive eel grass.
“I guess technically, you’ll disturb the ocean floor once, while you lay that mooring block down, but after that, that’s it,” Saunders said. “As opposed to boats coming and going, anchors up and down, up and down, dragging across the floor. “Even in a light breeze, a boat will drift. We’re trying to get away from that.” Coun. Grant Meyer – the council representative on the environment committee and a boater himself – said the buoys “just make sense.” › see page 10
A father’s hope Sarah Massah Staff Reporter
It’s a hard story to comprehend: a loving father and husband loses his wife to cancer, only to find out soon after that his 16-year-old daughter has been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. At this point in the conversation, many would want to tune out and switch to a lighter topic. But for David Hutchinson, this is no story; this is his life for the past four years. Since receiving David Hutchinson news that the father eldest of his two daughters, Beth, was fighting for her life, the father has spent countless hours scouring the Internet, books and other resources to find a way to help her. “Conventional medicine, for Beth, has drawn a blank. There is no cure they can offer her at the hospital,” Hutchinson, 52, said. “So we began to look outside of conventional medicine.” During his search, Hutchinson came across Dr. Gurdev Parmar of Fort Langley’s Integrated Health clinic, which offers loco-regional hyperthermia treatment. The promising therapy seemed like the next step for Beth, now 20. › see page 4
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts addresses her vision to a crowd of 500 Wednesday afternoon in her annual state-of-the-city address.
Boaz Joseph photo
State-of-city address targets education, public transit and health care
Surrey pools resources for new school Kevin Diakiw Black Press
More schools, effective transit and accessible health care were some of the highlights of the mayor’s State of the City address delivered on Wednesday afternoon. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts spoke to a crowd of 500 at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel, where she announced some initiatives to help with health care, transit and education. The city will be partnering with the Surrey School District to create a “Campus of
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Learning-Active Living and Sport Excellence” in South Surrey’s Grandview area. The plan is to create a new high school right next to where the city is building a recreation and aquatic centre at 24 Avenue and 168 Street. Both Surrey and the school district own land there, and will be lobbying the provincial government for capital funding to build the school. “This new model, we are pleased to say, can be replicated anywhere in the city,” Watts told the crowd. “This campus includes an aquatic centre/new secondary school/community campus
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of support services and shared infrastructure.” The new high school would take pressure off overcrowded Earl Marriott Secondary School at 16 Avenue and 157 Street. She also said more capacity for post-secondary education must be a top priority for the provincial government. “Almost a quarter of all B.C. students come from Surrey/south of the Fraser. In Surrey we have 13 spaces for every 100 students,” Watts said. “That simply isn’t good enough.” › see page 10
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