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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
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Risky road work BY ALFIE LAU REPORTER alau@royalcityrecord.com
They wear a safety vest and hard hat and their only tool is a hand-held stop sign. And for traffic control persons, also known as flaggers, their job may be the most dangerous on any construction road project. On July 15, 49-year-old Donald Cain was killed in Mission while on duty as a flagger. In the past five years, 70 flag persons have been injured in B.C., with five injured this year alone. Also in the past five years, three flag persons have died on the job. And that’s three too ◗Flaggers Page 3
Jason Lang/THE RECORD
At risk? A traffic controller directs drivers on 10th Avenue, near Cumberland Street. Concerns are being raised about the safety of flag persons in the wake of a number of accidents – including an Aug. 29 incident in which a Burnaby driver hit a flag person in a Coquitlam construction zone.
Developer couldn’t save historic columns BY THERESA MCMANUS REPORTER tmcmanus@royalcityrecord.com
Removal of some columns and windows in the historic Mc & Mc Building on Columbia Street created quite a stir in the community. Plaza 88 Developments is currently working on its multiuse development near the New Westminster SkyTrain station. The project, which includes residential and commercial components, includes the Mc & Mc
Building that formerly housed the Salvation Army. As part of the development, Plaza 88 Developments agreed to protect the façade of the building at 811 Columbia St. In 2008, the developer indicated that the interior columns with their capitals would be removed. Coun. Betty McIntosh said the developer attended a meeting of the city’s community heritage commission in the spring and stated that the columns could be retained by lowering the build-
Lost: Heritage columns could not be saved.
ing. She said the columns were removed from the building’s interior without notification, which prompted an outcry. Julie Schueck, the city’s heritage planner, said the heritage protection is for the building’s façade, not its interior. She said some confusion came about after the developer indicated he would be able to save the Art Deco columns with capitals on top. “I think the developer would have loved to have been able to retain them,” she said.
The developer’s intention to retain the columns and capitals by lowering the building was included in a revised heritage conservation plan that was done in March 2010. By May, further investigation indicated that it wouldn’t be feasible to lower the building. The city learned that the columns couldn’t be retained around the same time that city hall received calls from concerned citizens inquiring why all the ◗Columns Page 3
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