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Theft after a night’s rescue Search team member has her purse stolen B y T i m Fi t z g e r a l d tim.fitzgerald@mapleridgenews.com
Maple Ridge doesn’t have a needle exchange service. The Purpose Society provides clean needles to drug users, but the driver of its health van quit at the beginning of this month. The society has not yet found a replacement. Read supports the harm reduction program, but said the city needs support cleaning up needles.
Members of Ridge Meadows Search and Rescue were kept busy on the water Sunday and Monday, and for their efforts, one of them was the victim of theft. The search team was called around 10:30 p.m. Sunday to retrieve six people whose boat had lost power on Pitt Lake. Rick Laing of RMSR said conflicting information about the location of the stranded boaters delayed their rescue. “Once we got that sorted out, it was fairly quick going out, locating them and towing them back.” On Monday, RMSR responded to a call on Alouette Lake just after sunset, dealing with an overdue swimmer who had not returned to shore. Laing said two men headed out to cross Alouette Lake at 6:30 p.m., each on an inflatable pool chairs. One of the men turned back about halfway across the lake, while the other continued on, said Laing. “He had actually made it to the other side and had located a jacket and some shoes and actually an air horn that he used to help signal,” said Laing. “It was a very good ending. The best possible ending for that kind of search.” However, the search team advises that inflatable chairs, air mattresses and such are not suitable flotation devices for large bodies of water and swimming alone over such distances is not safe.
See Needles, 4
See Rescue, 11
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
Maple Ridge’s Jesse Stretch displays one of the three needles he came across Tuesday morning in Horseman’s Park. Stretch said in the two months he’s been out picking up dirty needles, he’s found about 300.
In need of collecting needles By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
F
or Jesse Stretch, picking up needles has become a parttime duty. For the past two months, he’s been making regular patrols of areas where needles are found after encountering some in a park one day with his step children. “For awhile there, it was getting
ridiculous.” Recently, he’s found fewer needles, although he picked up three on Tuesday in Horsemen’s Park. Stretch, who recently organized a community safety rally in downtown Maple Ridge, estimates he’s picked up 300 needles in the past few months. Hot spots of needle locations seem to move around the city. Nokai Park on 222nd Street and near Harry Hooge elementary are other locations where he’s found needles. “It’s all over.”
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He uses a pair of pincers and a dust pan and wears steal-toe boots so he doesn’t touch the needles. In one week, he picked up 180 needles. “I was just astounded.” He’s not alone. Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read doesn’t like the Read number of needles that are ending up on the streets. “The issue for us, there’s a reality that those end up on the ground,” she said.
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