Along the Fraser October: a month for scary stories. p6
‘Increase speed limit on Lougheed.’ p3
THE NEws
Sports new minor hockey director teaching skill. p39
www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, October 11, 2013 · serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · Delivery: 604-466-6397
school rent hike burns Brownies higher fees discouraging group registration by Ne i l Cor be tt staff reporter
Colleen Flanagan/the news
Ella Darlington, 9, with riding instructor Kaitlyn Harbour, left, and Dianne Stoesz, president of the Haney Horsemen Association, are concerned about losing horse trails in Maple Ridge.
Girl Guides of Canada has traditionally been an affordable organization for parents to have their children involved with, but there was a big inflationary increase this year, due to the hiked cost of renting gymnasiums and other school facilities in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. Brownies, Guides, Sparks and their parents and leaders filled the gallery Wednesday at the local school board meeting to protest the increased fees. Darlene Kent, area commissioner for the Guides from Mission to Coquitlam, noted that gymnasium rental has gone from $5 to $33.75 an hour, and a multipurpose room from $1 to $13.75 an hour. “This overwhelming increase is already having an impact on Guiding in these communities,” Kent told trustees. see Brownies, p13
Unhappy trails for Horsemen Group that built them fears loss to suburban expansion by Phil M elnyc h u k staff reporter
T
he trails were carved into Maple Ridge’s mountainsides and rainforests over decades, the result of hundreds of hours of labour, out of love, by the Haney Horsemen. Those quiet pathways now total more than 300 kilometres, wind-
ing throughout the hills and suburbs, blending an ancient world with the new and differentiating Maple Ridge from the rest of hectic Metro Vancouver. Dianne Stoesz wants it to stay that way, but she’s worried. Steady suburban expansion and a procession of newcomers to Maple Ridge is threatening its equine heritage. “We want the community to know, like the new people – that this is a horse community,” she said Wednesday. “It just seems that the new people in the community don’t realize
that these new trails, these lovely new trails that they have in their back yard, are because of the last 25 years of the Haney Horsemen.” Stoesz said some people don’t want horses in their area, and don’t like dealing with the droppings, and don’t know how to get around a horse to avoid spooking it. And previously, if a horse trail had to be removed to allow for housing or roads, developers would have to put up a deposit that only would be refunded by the District of Maple Ridge if an alternate trail was built.
“Well, that’s not happening so much anymore.” Stoez said trails, or portions thereof that have been lost recently, include Larch Trail, near 136th Avenue, Maple Ridge Trail, Abernethy Trail, Shull, Toilet Trail, Neilson, Molly Buckerfields, the sidepass from Ravine Trail to Kanaka Creek Regional Park, Wildlife Trail, “and all of Blue Mountain-McNutt [Avenue] area.” A recent parks and recreation trail guide of Maple Ridge also riled the riders. see Trails, p4
Community: Much-loved local doctor passes away. see story, p5
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