Prince George Free Press, September 27, 2013

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FRIDAYSEPTEMBER 27

CITY: Pay parking plan shelved by city council

www.pgfreepress.com | newsline: 250.564.0005

Bringing Blaine home

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New sports

Teresa Mallam arts@pgfreepress.com

centre for P.G.

He was a kind-hearted musician who loved life. Blaine Magowan died tragically in Boston, MA on Sept. 18 at age 30. His friends quickly gathered to try to find a way to bring him home to B.C. and help the family pay for funeral related expenses. They set up a memorial fund to arrange for his final journey home. On Tuesday, Taylor Pottle spoke with the Free Press about the loss of the young man who always had a ready smile for everyone. “I’ve known Blaine since I was 14 years old,” said Pottle. “We went to Kelly Road school together and we both graduated from there. He was two years older than me, so he was always a couple of grades ahead of me. Blaine was a journeyman electrician by trade but he was also an artist and he wanted to own his own tattoo place.” His talent didn’t stop there, says Pottle. “Blaine was a great musician. He played bass guitar and drums and he was in two local heavy metal bands. He was very athletic, he played hockey, rugby – he loved sports and even did parachuting.” Above all, Magowan was a really great human being, says Pottle. “He was the kind of guy that would literally give you the shirt off his back. I remember walking with him once and he stopped to talk to this homeless man. I told him, ‘Come on, let’s go’ but he wanted to stay and finish talking with this guy. He was like that with everybody. He didn’t judge anybody.” Magowan grew up in Prince George and in addition to Kelly Road, attended Ron Brent Elementary and Duchess Park Secondary schools. He was on his travels across the U.S. when on Sept. 18 he was found unresponsive at a downtown Boston pub said to be popular with tourists. Boston police are still gathering information and investigating the circumstances surrounding his death. In the meantime, Magowan’s family members set about trying to arrange for his body to be brought home to Prince George. However it has been an expensive time for them and that is why Magowan’s friends stepped in to help.

New rules for MLA office expenses MLAs’ constituency assistants from across B.C. crowded into the idle B.C. legislative chamber Wednesday to get up to speed on new financial reporting requirements for their office expenses. Provincial politicians have been working to open up their expense reporting since a 2012 report by former Auditor General John Doyle exposed “pervasive deficiencies” in that and other areas of the legislature’s $70 million operating budget. The first steps after that report were to begin disclosing MLA expense totals on a quarterly basis, and to begin holding meetings of the long-secret Legislative Assembly Management Committee in public. That committee met Tuesday and agreed to extend the deadline to begin detailed expense disclosure from constituency offices from Jan. 1 to April 1. In addition to base pay of more than $101,000 a year and an expense account for travel and accommodation, MLAs receive a constituency allowance of $119,000 a year, mainly for staff and office space.

Blaine Magowan was found dead in a Boston nightclub Pottle said friends rallied around the family to help them cope with their sudden and tragic loss. “We just want to support the family, his family members are actually spread out all over, Fort McMurray, Vancouver, etc. We’re just trying to help them with emotional support and their financial burden. They told us today they feeling really loved and cared for.”

The Blaine Mogawan Memorial Fund will give financial gifts to his family to help them deal financially with Blaine’s passing. For more information visit the Blaine Magowan Memorial Fund Page on Facebook. Also a website has been set up where people can donate at www.blainemagowanmemorialfund. blog.ca.

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