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l o v er Va per Your Weekly W ekll y CClover Valley Newspaper December 11, 2014 Y www.CloverdaleReporter.com Y 604-575-2405
Treeland Realty
New council takes helm
Oh what a night
PHOTOS BY BOAZ JOSEPH / BLACK PRESS
Thousands turned out for the 9th annual Surrey’s Santa Parade of Lights Sunday (Dec. 7) in Cloverdale, including volunteers from the B.C. Vintage Truck Museum (clockwise from top left), decorated big rigs, camera-wielding spectator Adi Peter, 7, and members of Cloverdale Minor Fastpitch. The event is presented by the Cloverdale BIA and Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce, along with sponsors.
By Kevin Diakiw Looking confident and surefooted, newly minted Mayor Linda Hepner laid out her priorities on Monday night as she and her Surrey First team were sworn into office. A crowd of about 400 packed council chambers at Surrey’s new city hall when the recently-elected Surrey council was escorted in by an honour guard. Hepner began by thanking outgoing mayor Dianne Watts for her three terms. Watts is now planning to run federally for the Conservatives in South Surrey-White Rock. “Dianne Watts never met a good idea she didn’t like,” Hepner said, adding she looks forward to working with Watts when she is in Ottawa. “And by the way, I’ve got a little light rail project I want to talk to you about.” Hepner listed her priorities in the years to come.
Her first order of business is to promote a “yes” vote in this spring’s transportation referendum. She also plans to make good on her promise to hire another 100 police officers next year. “We will place an emphasis on neighbourhood policing,” Hepner said. “You will see front-line officers build relationships with residents and business owners and become more engrained in the very fabric of our neighbourhoods.” She will create a business advisory council to accelerate growth in the private sector. She also wants to make Surrey one of the nation’s most “agefriendly” cities, starting with a seniors’ summit in 2015. She will create a “social innovation strategy” bringing together the best minds in strengthening the city’s social safety net. Hepner became emotional when See BUSY FOUR YEARS / Page 6
Racetrack legend retires At 84, Ray Gemmill hangs up his stable colours at Fraser Downs By Jennifer Lang Veteran driver, owner and trainer Ray Gemmill, a legend of the Cloverdale Raceway, is calling it a day, stepping away from a career in harness racing that spans six decades. On Sunday (Dec. 7) after the races, colleagues held a retirement pot luck celebration for a man who was instrumental in building the landmark racetrack. Gemmill’s career was well underway when he headed west from Orangeville, ON, with Jim
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Keeling Sr. and other investors to found the Cloverdale Raceway, now known as Fraser Downs Racetrack and Casino, his base for 38 years. On opening day, on Jan. 1, 1976, Gemmill drove the racetrack’s first winner – a horse named Guy Dominion owned by nine members of the Vancouver Canucks. “I don’t remember a whole lot about the race, but I remember the celebration later,” he told Standardbred Canada in 2010 about the group of NHLers.
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“Those boys sure knew how to party.” He retired as a driver in 1991, but over the next quarter of a century, he continued to own and train horses, earning a solid reputation as a respected and wellliked horseman. Gemmill once told horse racing columnist and former jockey Tom Wolski he realized he wasn’t going to be a superstar, but, “I made a living. I was a better trainer See GEMMILL / Page 3
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Five of eight in their 80s training horses at Fraser Downs: Dan Ingram, 84; Bill Young, 87; Ray Gemmill, 84, who retired Sunday; Richard Craig, 80; and Marcel Bouvier, 82.
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