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The once infamous Holiday Court motel at 740 Hillside Ave. was damaged by fire Sunday morning.
Emergency crews were called to the smouldering 22-room building just after 6 a.m.
More than a dozen firefighters, three fire trucks, police and paramedics were on hand, blocking traffic from Douglas to Blanshard streets until mid-morning...See MoreThe once infamous Holiday Court motel at 740 Hillside Ave. was damaged by fire Sunday morning.
Emergency crews were called to the smouldering 22-room building just after 6 a.m.
More than a dozen firefighters, three fire trucks, police and paramedics were on hand, blocking traffic from Douglas to Blanshard streets until mid-morning.
The Victoria Fire Department worked to quell the fire that started in a basement storage space being used by neighbouring business SG Power and spread through the walls to the second floor.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. No one was inside, fire officials said.
Fire department Battalion Chief Bruce Rees said the building sustained at least $110,000 of structural damage.
Bernie Simpson, the owner of SG Power, said Sunday he’s been storing new outboard motors in a room on the motel’s ground floor for the past few years.
He estimated there were about 30 motors in the room when the fire broke out, half of which were destroyed. He pegged the loss at about $40,000.
The boarded-up empty hotel, once famous for attracting drug addicts, dealers and crime, was sold in 2005 for $1.9- million to Andrew Sheret Holdings Ltd., known for its bath and kitchen products.
The sale was heralded as a step in cleaning up the area — one of the capital’s busiest intersections. Before a crackdown on crime at the motel in 2002, police were called there often, including 371 times in 2000. Dealers could be seen tossing drugs out of windows to buyers, who’d toss money back in. Prostitution and robberies were part of the scene.
“It’s the end of an era,” said Victoria fire Capt. Robert Klatt, as firefighters broke through a second-floor room to hose the fire spreading upward through the walls.
Despite high hopes for the motel site, it has sat empty and locked since the 2005 sale — an eyesore with peeling grey paint between the bustling Long and McQuade music store, SG Power and Volvo Victoria.
“As far as we can tell, it’s been abandoned for years,” Victoria police acting Sgt. Brent Robertson said at the scene. “The doors are padlocked.”
Simpson said street people sometimes hang around the building at night, but noted there have not been problems since Sheret took over as owner.
No one from Andrew Sheret Holdings Ltd. could not be reached for comment.
However, a custodian did arrive to secure the hotel.
by Curtis G. Simpson Sr.
Aug 4, 2009
do you any of you teachers use Teachers' Insurance Plan????????????????????????????????????
by Weeky Lee
Sep 13, 2009
Trial Island lighthouse, three others, to lose keepers
By Robert Barron Canwest News Service September 3, 2009
A Lighthouse at Trial Island, off Oak Bay, is to lose its keeper soon as the federal government looks for ways to save money.
The fully automated lighthouse is one of four along B.C.’s coast that the federal go...See MoreTrial Island lighthouse, three others, to lose keepers
By Robert Barron Canwest News Service September 3, 2009
A Lighthouse at Trial Island, off Oak Bay, is to lose its keeper soon as the federal government looks for ways to save money.
The fully automated lighthouse is one of four along B.C.’s coast that the federal government is looking to destaff in the near future, with more expected in a second phase. The others are Entrance Island off the tip of Gabriola Island, Dryad Point near Bella Bella and Cape Mudge on Quadra Island.
As automated technology advances, the need for lighthouse staffing is diminishing, Coast Guard officials say, and removing staff members will reduce costs. Advocates of lighthouse staffing, who have fought automation for years, disagree and note that lighthouse keepers have saved hundreds of lives and offered maritime assistance thousands of times over the years.
The controversial issue of the destaffing of lighthouses on all of Canada’s coasts has been ongoing since 1985, when officials in Ottawa began questioning the need to have staff members and automated technology in lighthouses. In the face of strong opposition from lighthouse supporters, the federal government halted the destaffing program in 1998.
Nine of B.C.’s 27 lighthouses are fully automated and staffed.
Jim Abram, a longtime keeper of the lighthouse at Cape Mudge, said it was “only a matter of time” before the government turned again to destaffing lighthouses again as a cost-saving measure.
“It’s absolutely essential that our lighthouses remain staffed for many reasons, including the fact that our lighthouse keepers have saved hundreds of lives over the years that wouldn’t have been saved if they weren’t there,” Abram said.
“Providing regular marine weather reports from lighthouse locations, which is very important information for mariners, is one of the keepers’ main jobs, but now there are many times when reports from fully automated lighthouses aren’t readily available and this wouldn’t happen if they were staffed 24/7.”
Susan Steele, regional director of maritime services for the Canadian Coast Guard, visited staff members at the four lighthouses this week. The schedule for their removal has not been established.
Steele said Canada is the only developed country in the world that still staffs fully automated lighthouses. Other jurisdictions that rely on automated and unmanned lighthouses are not experiencing the problems that the critics claim, she added.
“We need to recognize what technology can do these days and we’re looking to use our resources and people more productively in other roles,” she said.
by Teachers.Net
Oct 13, 2009
You might be surprised to read what Justin Goodman has to say about animal dissection in classrooms, one of two dozen articles in the October issue of Teachers.Net Gazette. Click below to access the article.
by Amelia Suhayda
Oct 24, 2009
Teaching in today's schools is very difficult. I recently graduated from High School. I decided four years ago that I wanted to teach. I am in a teacher program in Nevada and am a Practicum student at two schools in the Reno area.
I expected that getting and keeping the student's attention would be difficult, but I had no idea how difficu...See MoreTeaching in today's schools is very difficult. I recently graduated from High School. I decided four years ago that I wanted to teach. I am in a teacher program in Nevada and am a Practicum student at two schools in the Reno area.
I expected that getting and keeping the student's attention would be difficult, but I had no idea how difficult it would be. The student's do not offer answers or opinions when I ask for them and aren't even cooperative when I give them incentive to volunteer (extra credit points, etc). Cell phones and other technology is making my job harder. All the students seem to want to do is text message each other. They can’t write me a simple essay about how they feel about anything because they don’t even use real words anymore. It is only casual chat speak (u for you, ittul for I will talk to you later etc.) The students are basically illiterate.
The students I teach are middle and high school special education students. I value class participation and do not often use the Pedagogy of strict memorization. I want the students to appreciate what education and teachers can give them. I also want them know what they are learning and how it effects them.
How do I do all this, without it being boring?
The drop out rate is way too high; teachers need to come up with new ways if they expect students to take interest because they aren’t interested now.
McMorran's Beach House in Cordova Bay closing next year, property to be sold
McMorran’s Beach House is for sale and will close in April, putting prime waterfront property on the market.
The municipality of Saanich already has a conditionally accepted offer on part of the Cordova Bay Road property which they will use as a park, b...See MoreMcMorran's Beach House in Cordova Bay closing next year, property to be sold
McMorran’s Beach House is for sale and will close in April, putting prime waterfront property on the market.
The municipality of Saanich already has a conditionally accepted offer on part of the Cordova Bay Road property which they will use as a park, but the remaining three lots — two waterfront — are for sale.
The McMorran family property is an institution in Greater Victoria, the site of thousands of weddings, celebrations and meals since it opened in 1921. It has been family-owned and operated by the McMorrans for the past 88 years.
But Wallace McMorran, the general manager of McMorran’s and the grandson of founders George and Ida McMorran, said it is too difficult to make the business profitable. The family put in “millions” in the 1990s, he said, improving the building and seismographically upgrading it. That increased business but not enough.
“The return on the investment has been meager,” McMorran said. “There was tremendous effort and support from the community, but to be blunt, the restaurant industry is very low in profitability, particularly given the expenses we put in.”
Saanich has a conditional offer to buy the grassy lot at 5099 Cordova Bay Rd., essentially all the land south of the existing legal beach access. The municipality paid $869,000 for the 566-square-metre lot that looks over Haro Strait and will rezone it as parkland.
The offer came to the municipality on Thursday. They dealt with it in-camera on Monday night and voted unanimously in favour of buying the lot.
“This is a decision council can feel proud of turning around so quickly. This type of opportunity — a vacant, accessible, open waterfront lot — doesn’t come up very often and it would have easily been snapped up by someone wanting to build a huge house, or subdivide to two lots,” Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard said.
The municipality has until Dec. 15 to take off its conditions, which are another appraisal and checking for environmental contamination. Lots with tear-down houses along the waterfront side of Cordova Bay Road can sell for over $1 million.
The final operating day for McMorran’s Beach House will be Easter Sunday, which falls on April 4.
Charter’s Restaurant will close for the month of December to provide service for the busy holiday season in the Lookout Room banquet room. The restaurant will re-open in January and will close permanently along with the Lookout Room in April.
McMorran had hoped Saanich would buy the entire property and use the renovated banquet area as a community centre. But Leonard said there is “no rationale for the municipality to own a restaurant or whatever the building would be used for.”
The three properties will be publicly listed “in the low $3- millions,” McMorran said.
McMorran would like to sell the waterfront lots together, preferably as a package for redevelopment. He hopes that will be a “contributing factor to the village core in the community.”
It could be one of the biggest redevelopments the Cordova Bay area has seen.
The land is zoned residential and commercial. Any redevelopment would be carefully watched by the Cordova Bay Community Association and council.
“Anyone wanting to change the land use or wanting more mass there would require rezoning. It’s an incredibly sensitive site that the community feels quite passionate about,” Leonard said.
Roger Stonebanks of the Cordova Bay Residents Association said the closure comes as a surprise to many “and with more than a little sadness. Its history goes back to the 1920s when the McMorran family started their beachfront Tea Rooms. In the years since then it has been a prominent feature of community life in Cordova Bay — the scene of many wedding receptions, ballroom dances and community meetings — as well as a restaurant and patio.”
Area residents will keep a close eye on redevelopment plans.
“Residents will look forward to a thorough community consultation and input process including public meetings for whatever will be proposed in its place. Whatever is proposed will be examined closely by residents and it will need to 'fit into' the neighbourhood,” Stonebanks said.
Has any tried this site for current events? [link removed]
Now available at Wal-Mart. I strongly advise against buying them due to their low quality in comparison to top quality Howard-Miller and Ridgeway Manufactured clocks but anyhow here's the link: [link removed]
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