INSIDE: Chilliwack’s leader in buying and selling grow homes Pg. 3 October 29, 2010
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makes CBC shortlist 31 Songwriter 1985-
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LOCAL NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER & ENTERTAINMENT chilliwacktimes.com
Quality of life has a price . . . and when it comes to local housing costs, affordability is our best draw BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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the summer, they would collect at Cody’s grandparents’ home and swim in the above-ground pool. Cody’s grandfather—his Opa—was a father figure; Cody would see his grandparents two or three times a week, and it was his Opa who taught Cody how to ride a bike and to ski. Ramona remembers a drive back from her parents’, when, out of the blue, a 16-year-old Cody blurted out to no one in particular: “I love
he number one reason new people come to Chilliwack is housing affordability. The average residential home price in Chilliwack was $289,209 in September, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association. T h a t n u m b e r c o m p a re s t o $316,974 in Kamloops, $401,982 in the Okanagan Mainline, $291,587 in the South Okanagan, $319,531 on Vancouver Island (excluding Victoria), $485,459 in Victoria, $444,997 in the rest of the Fraser Valley from Abbotsford to Surrey, and $679,381 in the Greater Vancouver area. Only the Sunshine Coast, the north and the Kootenays are cheaper, so maybe it’s not surprising that 44 per cent of those asked in the 2009 Quality of Life survey responded that housing affordability was the number one reason to move to Chilliwack. The Quality of Life survey data came from 670 questionnaires completed last fall from a random sample of 2,500 Chilliwack households. The Chilliwack Social Research and Planning Council (CSRPC) who initiated the survey is a not-for-profit organization made up of a partnership between the University of the Fraser Valley, the city, Chilliwack Community
See CODY, Page 28
See QUALITY, Page 28
Tyler Olsen/TIMES
Ashley Bartyik stands with a photo of slain cousin Cody Gottschalk beside a memorial at a Cultus Lake basketball court. BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
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o lose a son is devastating, to be a single mother and lose your only child, even more so. But Ramona Gottschalk lost more than that when her son Cody died following a Cultus Lake stabbing in 2008. With Cody’s death, Ramona lost the one person whose humour and compassion would have been able to guide her through such heartbreak. On Monday, the two men charged with killing Cody are scheduled to appear in Chilliwack Supreme Court for the start of the trial. Ramona and the rest of Cody’s family will also be there, as they have been throughout the ordeal. And while the family cannot com-
Remembering Cody
Two men charged in stabbing death in court Monday ment on the case before the trial begins for legal reasons, they want to remind the public of the life lost that spring day at the lake—even if Ramona finds it hard to put her feelings into words. “There are not enough words in my vocabulary to sum him up,” she said. He was funny and ambitious, exuberant and sensitive. But adjectives just scrape the surface. “He had a good heart. Not too many guys his age would talk about
how beautiful a sunset was,” said Ramona. When Journey—the border collie Cody had received for his sixth birthday—died, Cody had Journey’s name, with pawprints, tattooed over his heart. As a single mother, Ramona— who lived in Richmond—received considerable help raising Cody from her small, tight-knit family. The entire family would regularly gather at the home of Ramona’s sister, Diana Den Duyf, for dinners and games of Pictionary. During
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