Corrections: Fire at provincial prison was put out quickly. 3
Business: Changes at top of chamber. 11
Sports: Hitter heading south. 25 Fr i d ay, J a n u a r y 2 9, 2 016 · mapleridgenews.com · est. 1978 · (office) 604-467-1122 · (del iver y) 6 0 4 - 4 6 6 - 6 3 9 7
‘She died in front of me’ James McCluskey did everything he could to help fallen woman By Colleen Flanagan cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
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he was face down in the mud, wearing a red baseball cap and purple jacket with a fur lined hood. Her cellphone was in front of her, but just out of reach. Two grocery bags were by her side, the contents strewn across the ground. This was the scene James McCluskey came upon as he took his dog for a walk around 10 p.m. Saturday night. Rain was falling steadily as he walked along the front path to his house. When he glanced to the left, he noticed the woman. She was lying by a telephone pole along 121st Avenue, in front of a vacant yellow house with a board over the door and tarps across the windows. See Death, 10
Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS
James McCluskey moves flowers to where he found a woman who died on Saturday.
‘Council decided to build new pool’ Expectations are now clearly set: CAO Swabey By Phil M elnyc h u k pmelnychuk@mapleridgenews.com
The process to build a new pool in Maple Ridge is underway, council heard Monday. It started Dec. 10 when council decided not to go ahead with costly renovations to the Maple Ridge Leisure Centre pool, said chief administrator Ted Swabey.
“Council then made a decision, in my opinion, to build a new pool. And I think there’s some confusion on whether that’s actually what we did. But I believe we made that decision.” The decision happened after council, in November, weighed the $110-million borrowing proposal included in the budget, to pay for a raft of recreation and cultural projects. Council also decided to have a parallel process on what to build for that money.
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That, in itself, raises public expectations, Swabey said. However, “you have passed a motion to build a new pool.” It’s like adopting a neighbourhood plan – you get input and raise expectations,” he said. “But then we have a motion to build a pool … bring back a report on how we can build a pool. “So the expectations now are clearly set.” Revisiting that could affect public confidence, he added. Mayor Nicole Read agreed that
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the public’s expectations have been raised. “I feel our CAO is correct, that there is a public expectation now around that.” But there hasn’t been an official decision to build a new pool, she said later. The topic came up as audit committee chair Coun. Bob Masse raised questions about the minutes from a previous meeting dealing with the borrowing. See Pool, 3
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Expectations were set when council delayed renovations to the Leisure Centre pool.
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