Thursday October 16, 2014 (Vol. 39 No. 83)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
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S O U T H
S U R R E Y
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Sharing the light: White Rock’s first Diwali Multicultural Festival of Lights comes to the West Beach waterfront this Saturday – complete with vendors, live music, henna, traditional dancing and a fireworks display. i see page 11
142 officers now to be ordered over the next three years
Surrey set for 47 more police officers Kevin Diakiw Black Press
Surrey will be adding 47 more cops on top of the 95 additional officers already promised by the city over the next three years. The move – endorsed by the city’s police committee Tuesday afternoon – is based on two recent studies of Surrey RCMP services commissioned by the city this year. It will bring to 142 the number of police on
order for Surrey over the next three years. How those extra Mounties will be funded is yet to be determined. If the money was to come by way of taxes only, it would represent a property tax increase of 8.52 per cent, or $128 on the average home worth $640,000. Black Press first revealed in August that the number of general-duty officers on any given shift in Surrey is about 36. The news prompted an angry reaction from the public
that insisted the city hire more police officers to patrol the streets. Most mayoral platforms are now calling for marked increases in the number of police. The ruling civic party, Surrey First, initially called for an additional 95 officers within the next three years. Now, the Mounties are requesting an extra 47 officers on top of that, based on the results of the two reports, which also talked about the number of
general-duty officers on the street and their response times. The first item in Dr. Irwin Cohen’s report on the Surrey RCMP is titled “Additional Members Are Required for General Duty.” Cohen, a professor of criminology for the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), was commissioned by the city to look at policing earlier this year. i see page 4
Congestion cited
White Rock ‘no place for big buses’ Tracy Holmes Staff Reporter
If it was up to Coun. Louise Hutchinson, a plan to upgrade the uptown Johnston Road corridor would include removing full-size transit buses from all White Rock streets. “My goal one day is not to have the 351s here at all,” Hutchinson said last week, at an Oct. 9 meeting of the Johnston Road Reconstruction and Beautification Task Force. “We don’t need great, big, long buses in White Rock.” Hutchinson, who is not running for re-election, made the comment amid discussion of the latest concept plan for the two-block stretch of Johnston Road – between North Bluff Road and Thrift Avenue – which includes a bus stop immediately south of North Bluff, abutting the entrance to Central Plaza. The location, often congested, is “bad,” Hutchinson said, suggesting the stop be moved further south. But merchants – who have been vocal in their opposition of engineers’ calls to eliminate a left-turn lane into Central Plaza for northbound traffic and shifting the
Tracy Holmes photo
Coun. Louise Hutchinson says buses like the 351 are too big for city streets, but uptown merchants say moving them away would be ‘bad for business.’ crosswalk connecting to the mall south – described the suggestion as “another thing against business.” “When you moved the (bus loop)… off North Bluff, it was a huge impact on my business,” said Shelly O’Brien, owner of Pelican Rouge Coffee Co. Task-force chair Coun. Al Campbell said at the time of that move, about three years ago, plans were in the works to redevelop Semiahmoo Shopping Centre “to be a Metrotown.” If that had gone ahead, “we wouldn’t be having this (discussion),” he said. Answering a question about the possibility of re-directing buses
through the Central Plaza parking lot, city manager Dan Bottrill said a similar proposal for the Centre for Active Living fell through due to lack of maneuverability. The meeting also covered findings of an independent arborist hired for a second opinion on mature trees that line the thoroughfare – a move promised by the mayor at the last public meeting on July 16. Campbell – who earlier described the mayor’s promise as “almost a slap in the face” to the city’s arborist – told Peace Arch News Tuesday that the $3,100 report gave the task force little additional information. City engineer Bob Ambardar told
task-force members that Bill Wilde of Arbor Vitae Tree Consultants recommended removing about 17 of 32 trees – all but one between North Bluff Road and Russell Avenue. He was “a little more aggressive than we first were, in terms of saving trees,” Ambardar said. According to the report, the majority of the trees were not planted correctly; 28 have root defects; a dozen more require further inspection and analysis. Ambardar said a 40-page trafficsafety report supports eliminating the northbound left-turn lane into Central Plaza and shifting the mid-
block crosswalk south. The intersection of North Bluff and Johnston is “the worst one” for accidents in White Rock, Ambardar said, noting 40 crashes have occurred over the past three years. Landscape architect Daryl Tyacke of ETA Landscape Architects told the task force he can offer an unbiased take on things. “This is really your gateway into the community. It really should be spectacular and it really can be,” he said. Campbell told PAN he expects the next draft of the concept plan will be ready for public consumption in the new year.
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