Looking Back: Culturee Days creating a shared identtity.
Artts: The ACT has soomething for all. 15
Sports: WCAGFC kicks off. 18 We d n es d ay, S e p te m b e r 2, 2015 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1 97 8 · (of fice) 60 4-4 67 -11 22 · (d e li ve r y) 6 0 4 - 4 6 6 - 6 3 9 7
Second overdose death in two days One at Sally Ann, other at Cliff Avenue camp By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
A second man died last week from a suspected drug overdose in Maple Ridge. Fire, ambulance and police responded to a call at the Salvation Army’s Caring Place Friday morning. A 24-year-old man from the Kootenay area in eastern B.C. was found unconscious at about 7 a.m. in the shelter. “They apparently worked on him for quite some time,” said Ridge Meadows RCMP civilian media spokesman Dan Herbranson. The coroner is investigating the death and could conduct a toxicology report. See OD, 8
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
Cleaning up Crews clear braches along 240th Street, north of Dewdney Trunk Road, in Maple Ridge on Monday after a weekend wind storm. See story, page 3.
‘Had to move on Sally Ann’ RainCity Housing advertising for job By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
Council requested that funding for the Salvation Army’s emergency shelter be cut without waiting for a review of how social services are provided in Maple Ridge. But time was of the essence, according to one councillor.
“Matters have basically overtaken us and we need to deal with them. It wouldn’t be good to sit around and wait for however long it takes to come to some solutions that way when some of the challenges are so pressing,” said Coun. Bob Masse. “The community’s extremely upset because people are dying,” he said, citing the overdose death on Thursday at the Cliff Avenue homeless camp, near the Salvation Army. A 42-year-old man from Surrey
died late that evening from a suspected fentanyl overdose. “It’s pretty hard to take a whole bunch of time and do what you normally do,” Masse said. “It has been an extraordinary situation.” In April, council approved spending up to Masse $75,000 to study how social services are delivered in Maple Ridge, with another goal of developing measuring tools
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to ensure programs are helping people. On Aug. 24, the city announced it was going to ask B.C. Housing to cut the $1 million a year it gives the Salvation Army to run the 25-bed emergency shelter. A few days later, it announced the opening of a temporary shelter in the old Sleep Shop building on Lougheed Highway. See Shelter, 5
Tim Fitzgerald/THE NEWS
The former Sleep Shop building will house the city shelter.
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