The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 17

THE VANCOUVER SUN. TUESDAY, JULY 28, ll8 B5 REGIONAL ROUNDUP LOWER MAINLAND 195 cats euthanized last month by Chilliwack SPCA officials Most of the problem stems from the large number of farm cats used to catch mice that were never spayed or neutered and the fact that people can get a farm kitten for free. ABBOTSFORD Matsqui Institution remained locked down Monday after a chef's knife went missing from the prison kitchen on Sunday. Prisoners will remain confined to their cells while a search for the knife continues. BURNABY Burnaby Mayor Doug Drum-mond says more sister-city relationships between western Canadian cities and their Quebec counterparts could help quash the separatist movement.

"If municipalities and cities sister up with municipalities and cities in Quebec and create closer relationships, the number of problems related to the level of knowledge and the level of familiarity will be solved," Drummond said recently. PORT COQUITLAM In a bid to save money, Port Coquitlam council has approved new purchasing procedures, including buying new and used "old stock" items at cheaper rates and even going to auctions. The city's deputy treasurer Bill Wiseman said companies that participate in the existing tendering process may consider the new way of buying is unfair. "The city has considered such concerns and wishes to assure that this procedure does not replace our normal tendering process," he told council in a report. "It provides a means whereby the city can act where opportunities for special value arise." PORT MOODY Thrift Shop Days at loco United Church will be held Wednesday from 7 p.m.

to 9 p.m. and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. RICHMOND Police are investigating a drive-by shooting Sunday on Mellis Drive in the north side of Richmond. RCMP said no one was injured in the 8:45 p.m.

shooting in which several shots were fired. The suspects fled the scene in a blue older-model sedan. SURREY Mi, A EL (1 IAN SMITHVancouver Sun Chilliwack SPCA executive director Eileen Drever with kitten in need branch had to destroy 195 cats that hadn't been spayed or neutered. CHILLIWACK Record numbers of cats mainly kittens are being put down in Chilliwack because owners aren't spaying or neutering their pets. Chilliwack SPCA executive-director Eileen Drever reports that 195 cats were euthanized last month and only five were saved from lethal injection and adopted.

"We're going backwards now," remarked Drever, who said people in Chilliwack and nearby communities were becoming more responsible with their pets for years, but that things are now changing for the worse. Most of the problem in Chilliwack stems from the large number of farm cats used to catch mice that were never spayed or neutered. Combine that with the fact that people can pick up a pet kitten for free from farmers and you've got the recipe for a major problem. "The problem is the farmers need cats to keep the mice population down," added Drever, who has never seen the problem this bad in her 17 years with the SPCA. "Unfortunately, they aren't being spayed or neutered and they're just multiplying.

On Tuesday, we had to euthanize 50 cats." Langley Township's fleet of vehicles has received an ICBC rebate for safe driving. "Our township employees continue to make us proud," said Mayor John Scholtens at a ceremony Friday at which ICBC officials presented the $40,000 rebate to the township. Langley Township has 200 vehicles, including fire department and public works vehicles, which log about 1.6 million kilometers a year. Township drivers also get a 62-per-cent discount on insurance rates for the official vehicles and are trained by the RCMP for a Township Watch anti-crime initiative. MAPLE RIDGE Information on the effects of smoking, as well as comments from bar owners, are being studied by district staff for a report to council.

Representatives from 14 bars lobbied council recently for a relaxation of the smoking bylaw aimed at outlawing smoking by the year 2000. The bar owners said sufficient technology exists to extract smoke from the air without banning smoking. The bar owners said a ban Drummond and other city representatives will visit the city of Gatineau, Que. later this year, as part of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' community leaders partnership program. A delegation of Gatineau city officials is expected to visit Burnaby in early 1999.

COQUITLAM People living in the Lower Lougheed area are not the only ones unhappy about possible Sky Train routes through the city. Claudette Frieson of the Town Centre Community Association is calling for a general transportation study and a look at alternative routes. The group made a presentation to Coquitlam council last week and vowed to join the Lower Lougheed residents and others to pressure the province to consider alternative routes. The Town Centre residents are unhappy Guildford Way is still being considered for the northern arm of the Sky Train route. The corridor was built in 1988 with an eye to using it for such a link, Frieson conceded, but said the three schools built there means it would be too dangerous.

The Town Centre residents are suggesting the Barnet Highway be used for the Sky Train route. DELTA The Delta police department is accepting applications for a new chaplaincy program until Friday. Detective John Van Hove is a member of a six-person committee seeking a local member of the clergy to volunteer as a police chaplain. He said the police chaplain would fill a spiritual need in the municipal force. The role of chaplains started in the U.S.

military and has expanded throughout most U.S. police departments, including some Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg. LANGLEY For the fourth year in a row, Barber said the new four-lane road that connects First and Third streets by crossing a new bridge over Mosquito Creek is badly needed. Marine Drive has become one of the busiest arterial roads in North America, with up to 75,000 vehicles using.it every day, Barber said. Barber said the new road will divert much of the city's waterfront industrial traffic to the Low Level Road, freeing up Marine Drive for general-purpose drivers.

PITT MEADOWS Pitt Meadows recorded the lowest rate for total break-and-enters in 1997 in the Lower Mainland. According to a provincial crime report, Pitt Meadows had a total break and enter rate including residences and businesses of 8.7 per 1,000 people in 1997, down from 10.9 in 1996. The total number of break-ins dropped from 152 in 1996 to 124 in 1997. The average rate for Greater Vancouver was 21.7 break-ins per 1,000 people, with Vancouver recording the highest rate of 34.8 break-ins per 1,000. Surrey council has approved the development of a 12-bed mental health residence on 98th Avenue near King George Highway in spite of residents' opposition.

Several residents told council at a recent public hearing they are concerned the transient nature of the provincial housing facility will disrupt the stability of their neighbourhood. But Mayor Doug McCallum said the residents should recognize that these types of facilities are necessary and co-exist with their neighbours in other areas of Surrey WHITE ROCKSOUTH SURREY The Crescent Beach Life-guarding Corp. is holding its second annual family waterfront festival Wednesday from noon to 4 p.m. There will be kayaking, boat rides and fun for the family. IN TOUCH Is there a news item or event happening in your community we should know about? Please let us know.

You can reach us at In Touch: E-mail: intouchpacpress.southam.ca Post: In Touch, The Vancouver Sun, Suite 1 200 Granville Vancouver, V6C 3N3 The eagle has landed After a particularly bumpy flight on a particularly windy day, an American Airlines flight attendant made this announcement following a particularly hard landing: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo. Please remain in your seats with your seat belt fastened while the captain taxies what's left of our airplane to the gate!" Courtesy of City Limits contributor Robert Boyne. CARING PERSON SOUGHT: of a home; last month the SPCA would likely cost them a lot of business. MISSION A new fire hall centre on Seventh Avenue will be completed by the early spring of 1999. The new station will be built on the site of the former fire-hall west of Murray Street.

The old building needed replacement because it was deteriorating. The new building will also include a permanent location for the emergency planning and response committee. NEW WESTMINSTER Truck traffic in downtown New Westminster should be banned, says Business Improvement Association executive director Netty Tam. Noting that the Official Community Plan and the Downtown Action Plan call for more residential development downtown, Tam said residential development by Columbia Street and trucks "do not go hand-in-hand." She said trucks should also be limited on Front Street be torget no hard she tries. cause increased traffic has become too disruptive for businesses.

The city has identified Front Street as a major truck route to direct traffic away from residential neighbourhoods. "Right now, New Westminster and Front Street especially is a major truck route, so we're looking for some creative solutions that would minimize the traffic in the downtown area," noted Tam. The city recently banned trucks from a number of streets including 20th Street, used by 1,700 trucks daily, at the request of residents. NORTH VANCOUVER After years of planning, study and construction, a new $5-mil-lion connector road to alleviate traffic congestion along Marine Drive has opened. North Vancouver city Mayor Jack Loucks said the new Low Level Connector Road is the city's largest capital project in the past decade.

Loucks said the road will remove up to 15 per cent of the congestion from the city's main east-west thoroughfare. Assistant city engineer Tony MARIKEN VAN NIMWEGEN Vancouver Sun Things appeared to be looking up, though, when a cou ple of days later she ac City limits Jamie Hall 605-2946 Fax 605-2323 citylimitspacpress.southam.ca E-TltiluHAiiul I Nancy Richardson's daughter Tracey, 17, wanted her mom to have the trip of a lifetime when she gave her a two-week holiday to Hawaii for Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives. How does Teflon stick to the pan? All those who believe in psychokinesis, raise my hand. There's an exception to every rule, except this one. A good pun is its own reword.

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name? Wear short sleeves! Support your right to bare arms! To err is human, to moo bovine. Our thanks to contributor Dr. Fiorenza A her 38th birthday in 1984. Certainly, Nancy said, it was a trip 45 years ago today she 11 never matter how A brush with greatness "Mayor Fred Hume announced today he will call a meeting shortly to discuss with communities surrounding Vancouver the question of obtaining a second fireboat for Burrard Inlet." "Vancouver police have launched a crackdown on election posters and will prosecute anyone caught posting campaign placards or literature on poles or fences." "Granville Bridge opened for 17 minutes at 8:08 a.m today and made an estimated 15,000 persons late for work. Seventy buses were among the hundreds of automobiles in the tie-up after the bridge opened for a derrick working on the new Granville Bridge.

It was the longest opening for the bridge in a year." Queen Charlotte Airlines offered flights between Vancouver and Nanaimo for $3.45 each way. "A United Airlines pilot laughingly suggested actress Marilyn Monroe deliver his coffee to the cockpit during a flight to Vancouver from Seattle. Much to his surprise, she did. No sooner did she disappear up front than the whole aircraft bounced twice, then settled back to an even course. None of the passengers believed that they happened to nit an air bump." Al Swanson worked for George Brewster in Banff driving a Cadillac during the time the movie Northwest Stampede was being filmed in Alberta in 1947.

When the Eagle-Lion movie company of L.A. hired Brewster's company to provide transportation between the Palliser Hotel and the Stampede grounds for the crew, including stars James Craig (right), Jack Oakie and Chill Wills, Al was temporarily reassigned to Calgary. "It certainly provided an insight into the mystique of movie-making," Al writes. "I remember one day when the director and James Craig were in my car and Mr. Craig protested about not being able to actually drive the chuckwagon in a particular segment.

After all, he said, he was from Texas and had spent much of his young life amongst horses. The director refused to yield to Mr. Craig's entreaties, however, and a stand-in actually drove the chuckwagon once the race started." cepted an invitation to go snorkelling at Hanama Bay with a couple of newly made friends. Unfortunately, she was soon struck with a bad case of sunstroke and spent most of the day throwing up over the side of the jeep. On her final day in this island paradise, Nancy practically tripped over herself in her haste to leave.

Arriving at the airport, she was informed her ticket had been made out incorrectly, and that her flight didn't leave until the next day. Aaargh! Back to the hotel Nancy went, begging for her room back for one more night, then off to the bank machine for some cash. It may not surprise you to know that the machine ate her card. The piece de resistance, she said, came later that night when she was hit on by a 75-year-old man in the hotel bar. "What a perfect ending," says Nancy, "to a hellacious vacation." A day or so after she arrived, she awoke to a smoke-filled room and the blaring of fire alarms.

A cocka-mamie explanation by the desk clerk that the fire was in the hotel across the street and smoke was being forced into their rooms because the street was so narrow did little to ease her fears. The next day, just as she was about to step on the elevator to go up to her room, the power went out all over the island, thanks to an explosion at a power station, forcing Nancy to grope her way up the stairwell to her llth-floor room..