Complex care facility update
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) officials say they are on track with the replacement for Olive Devaud Residence.
The facility project management team provided a project update at a Powell River Regional District committee-of-the-whole meeting recently.
The $24-million project will provide 102 complex care beds in a facility that will be constructed on land adjacent to Powell River General Hospital.
Powell River Regional Hospital District (PRRHD) and VCH signed a memorandum of understanding on March 24, 2011. PRRHD is providing 100 per cent of the capital to build the facility, as well as owning the land. VCH will lease the building for 20 years through an operating lease. The VCH lease payments will equal 50 per cent of project costs.
PRRHD is financing the project through the Municipal Finance Authority. VCH is managing the project from concept through construction and commissioning. It will be accountable to a project board, made up by representatives from VCH, PRRHD and the ministry of health. The board will be responsible for key decisions throughout the design, tendering and construction phases.
Don Jenion, senior project manager, said the project team is determining project delivery method and has conducted a review of patient and staff needs. “We’re hoping that design will begin the first of November,” he said.
VCH will organize a project governance committee and a steering committee. Representatives from the regional hospital district will sit on the governance committee.
The new facility is tentatively scheduled to open in December 2013.
Dangerous drivers cause concern
A local mother is asking residents of Powell River to slow down and look twice at intersections after various close calls when crossing the street.
Shanna Holler said she has witnessed or been involved in six or seven near miss incidents at intersections with solid green left-hand turn lights. Numerous times, as she crossed the street with a baby stroller, she has had to yell at drivers to get their attention and has come within inches from being struck, Holler said. She’s had enough.
The incidents took place at two intersections on Joyce Avenue when drivers, who were not paying enough attention, turned left on a green light before making sure the crosswalk was clear. The specific intersections Holler is concerned about are those where Joyce meets Barnet Street and Alberni Street.
“It infuriates me, because I know that there’s going to be an accident where you can’t change it, it’s done,” said Holler. “And I don’t want a child to get killed.”
Holler said she has been to Powell River RCMP with her concerns but that short of being provided with a license plate number, which in each instance Holler has been too flustered to record, there is little they can do. The issue is also just as much the intersections themselves at times as it is driver error, said Holler.
“Those are just two of a number of intersections where there are issues, like the one down on Alberni and Marine [Avenue] is terrible,” said Holler. “Everybody knows that one. But these are the two that I think that the solid green needs to be addressed as solid green, not as a left-hand [turn] arrow.”
RCMP Constable Chris Bakker said there have been no reported incidents at intersections lately. However, the RCMP wishes to remind motorists to be aware of other road users when driving, especially in intersections, school zones and park zones.
