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Neighbourhood Watch

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A selected image from the Spacing Vancouver Flickr pool. Image courtesy of Stephen Rees.

A weekly roundup of noteworthy news in municipalities across B.C.

Quesnel Council is hearing some backlash after voting to increase their pay cheques by 2.4 per cent, some members are speaking out.

The University of Victoria has hired a consulting firm to help neighbour’s deal with concerns over a planned sports complex and seven-level parkade.
H.B. Lanarc will meet with community associations to discuss the role they want to play in the next round of public consultations on the Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities.

Another interesting TransLink discussion brews as CEO Ian Jarvis is defending the need to keep the Transit Police service even though a big part of the force’s job — enforcing fare payment — should all but vanish when fare gates and smart cards come to the transit system.

TransLink is finally looking at the accessibility at bus stops throughout the region – that is making them able to accommodate wheelchairs, power chairs and walkers, with a proper ramp and landing pad. For a bus route to be deemed accessible, 25 per cent of the stops on that route must be wheelchair-friendly, as well as the corresponding stop in the return direction. Pretty slim numbers, but it’s a start!

BC Ferries’ board of directors has appointed senior executive Michael Corrigan to replace outgoing CEO David Hahn, who is leaving at the end of the year.
A Trail mural that highlights how vital the Columbia River is to the community’s history is now further depicted in an interpretive display in East Trail. The 200-foot-wide painting on the Trail Memorial Centre offers symbolic images like a bald eagle with a maple leaf wing – representing the trans-boundary of the Columbia as two nations, one river.

ARTISTS interested in showing their work at CityScape Community Art Space next summer can now start submitting their exhibition proposals to the North Vancouver Community Arts Council.

Christmas has come early for Port Alberni’s McLean Mill national historic site. According to a press release, the mill is receiving $48,000 for conservation work from the Parks Canada’s National Historic Sites Cost-Sharing Program.

About two-dozen residents gathered at BC Hydro offices on McGill Road in Kamloops to protest the installation of smart meters. The protest took place on Saturday, Dec. 10.

Disappointment over Canada’s stance during the climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa was severe enough for UNBC students and professors to hold a candlelight vigil.

Surrey has signed a new $9-million garbage contract with BFI Canada to provide a “sustainable” trash collection service that will eventually see its trucks fuelled with kitchen scraps, yard waste and other organics.

A Surrey Fleetwood-Port Kells MP Nina Grewal is among the top three biggest spenders in B.C. for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, according to the latest members’ expenditures report – spending $543,563.53 on items such as travel, employees’ salaries and service contracts, hospitality and events, advertising, printing and (constituency) offices.

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