INSIDE: Put on your walking shoes and take up the challenge Pg. B1 July 2, 2010
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ready for festival-goers 17 Harrison 1985-
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LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER & ENTERTAINMENT chilliwacktimes.com
Skills deficit for our Gr. 7s
Submitted photo
Police seized this shotgun from a Harrison Hot Spring house on Tuesday.
Gun, drugs & body armour found BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
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Harrison Hot Springs man is facing unlawful confinement and weapons charges after police responded to an assault complaint Tuesday. Mounties arrested Amir Laghai, 30, in connection with the incident. A woman known to Laghai suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the details of which police did not release. After executing a search warrant, police seized a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, body armour and drugs that police believe to be ecstasy and cocaine. Laghai has been charged with unlawful confinement, assault, possession of stolen property, possession of a prohibited firearm with ammunition, and unauthorized possession of a firearm. He is in custody and was due to appear back in court Wednesday. Police are waiting for confirmation that the drugs are ecstasy and cocaine before they recommend that Laghai be charged See FOUND, Page 4
BY CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com
Paul J. Henderson/TIMES
Cultural centre executive director Michael Cade describes some of the state-of-the-art aspects of the 500-plus-seat theatre during a tour of the nearly-completed facility this week.
Centre of attention
Local arts lovers anxious to see what’s behind the curtain BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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hilliwack’s arts community is gearing up for the completion of the $22-million cultural centre downtown. And while the state-of-the-art facility looks complete from the outside, executive director Michael Cade emphasizes it’s “almost” ready. “Part of what we are doing now is finding out what works, what doesn’t work, what do we have to do to make it work,” he said. Members of the local media were given a tour of the centre this week to get a taste of what’s in store for arts lovers in the community. After the tour, Cade said that while he had shown off a lot of the building, “You’ve seen everything but 90 rooms.” “The scope and scale of the building is really quite
significant.” At the front of the building is the gallery that will be managed by the Chilliwack Visual Artists Association. There is a large lobby with an open space that itself can be used for craft shows or cocktail parties. There are 14 studios in the Chilliwack Academy of Music section and three additional studios available for others to rent. There are 21 instruction rooms in total, seven dressing rooms and, Cade pointed out, 28 stalls in the women’s washroom to avoid those pesky intermission lineups. Large rooms have been designated for different artistic endeavours such as clay and ceramics, fabric arts, mixed media, charcoals, and all the rooms have storage, drying racks, sinks and even a set-up for Internet access. Extension cords all come from above in the arts rooms to avoid having too many thing to trip over. “Details have really been thought of here,” marketing manager KellyAnne TeBrinke said. There is also the Rotary Theatre, a 160-seat room available for small productions and rehearsals. But the centrepiece of the facility is the 584-seat main theatre with a 40-foot wide, 28-foot high
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rade 7 students in the Chilliwack school district continue to struggle with basic literacy and math skills according to B.C. Ministry of Education foundation skills assessment (FSA) results released Tuesday. According to the tests, which measure students’ skills in reading, writing and numeracy at the Grade 4 and 7 levels provincewide, the number of Grade 7 students in the Chilliwack district meeting expectations in numeracy was 14 per cent below the provincial EB IRST average. The number meet- First reported on ing reading and chilliwacktimes.com writing expectations was seven and nine per cent lower respectively. Of the students who wrote the tests, a quarter didn’t meet expectations in writing, more than a quarter didn’t meet expectations in reading and a third didn’t meet expectations in numeracy. The results show little change from last year when all of Chilliwack’s Grade 7 figures came in roughly 10 per cent below the provincial average. Chilliwack’s Grade 4 students
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See FSA, Page 6
See CENTRE, Page 4
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