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January 7, 2010
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Parking lot to replace hotel
Mark Nielsen Citizen staff
The Prince George Hotel will have a date with the wrecking ball after a deal to sell the building to a joint venture, made up of the Ra-mada Hotel and Commonwealth Realty Corporation, was closed Wednesday.
The building will be levelled and the site converted into a parking lot for guests of the hotel which is going through a $7-million renovation, Commonwealth president Dan McLaren said. The move will help improve the downtown, he contended.
“We need an anchor hotel on George Street and we need it to thrive and it’s important, I believe, for downtown revitalization that the Ramada get good parking,” he said.
Neither Ted Coole, who coowned the hotel with brother Robert up until the transaction, nor McLaren would say how much
A parking lot will soon sit where the Prince George Hotel currently stands.
Citizen file photo by David Mah
the sale price was.
“It certainly was something that was satisfactory to both sides, let’s put it that way,” said Coole.
Even so, Coole said the sale came with a mix of feelings given the family’s long history in the business.
The hotel, which was built in 1914, was purchased by parents Gerry and Doreen in l982. They also owned the old Columbus and
McDonald hotels for many years.
“My parents were in the hotel business when we were kids,” Coole said. “We literally lived in these hotels growing up, we played in them on Sundays, the hotels were in our blood.
“I don’t think we ever actually thought of it as just a business, it was our life. That’s who in fact we were, hotels, so it’s not just about business at all.”
Rather than retire, Coole said his next step will be to “reinvent.”
“We’ve lived in Prince George since 1960 and we intend to stay here so we hope that we can find other business ventures in this community,” he said.
In addition to a barbershop, liquor store and pub, the building holds 67 rooms and some people had lived in the hotel for more than 20 years.
With help from the Prince George Native Friendship Centre and B.C. Housing new homes have been found for all the residents, McLaren said.
“Commonwealth has long been in the business of housing. We are pleased to know that this important urban development was advanced without anyone losing a roof over their head,” he added.
McLaren hopes to see the building demolished within 120 days, but that process could be de-layedO, depending on what’s found in the building.
An air advisory was issued Wednesday for Prince George. A haze blanketed the city as seen from the cutbanks Wednesday morning.
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
Filthy air sparks warning
Gordon Hoekstra Citizen staff
The first air quality advisory of 2010 was issued Wednesday by the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Northern Health due to high levels of fine particulate air pollution.
The high levels are mainly due to combustion emissions including wood smoke, as well as emissions from industry and transportation sources such as automobiles, trucks and rail traffic, said the agencies.
The agencies advised the public to avoid strenuous outdoor activities.
Tips to reduce your personal health risk include avoiding roads with heavy vehicle traffic, staying inside and running an air cleaner in your home.
Residents were also reminded that the city’s clean air bylaw prohibits the use of wood-burning appliances, except where they are the sole source of heat.
Backyard burning and land-clearing burning is also banned in the city during air quality advisories.
The 24-hour provincial air quality objectives for fine particulates 2.5 micrograms are smaller
Free bus fare until clean air
Citizen staff
Due to the Ministry of the Environment issuing an air advisory for Prince George, the city is offering free transit from today until 11:59 p.m. of the day the advisory ends.
All transit buses have switched their digital signs to display stating “Free Fare for Clean Air” and will cover the fare boxes so passen-
gers will not be able to deposit money.
This is the seventh air advisory day in Prince George since the city has offered Free Fare for Clean Air.
Information on when free transit will be in affect is available at www.busonline.ca or at 250-563-0011, The City of Prince George at 250-561-7600 or Prince George Transit at 250-563-6665.
- about 1/20 the width of a human hair, and more commonly known as PM2.5 — were exceeded Wednesday morning downtown and in College Heights. The provincial objective continued to be exceeded in Colleges in the afternoon, and was just below the objective downtown.
Larger fine particulates, known as PM10, were also high, but did not exceed provincial health objectives.
The agencies noted that an upper high-pressure ridge has brought stagnant conditions over the region, resulting in pollutants accumulating
in the air shed. The ridge is expected to move slowly eastward in the next 24 hours.
The air quality advisory was expected to remain in place until at least this morning.
The city normally experiences several air quality advisories a year.
Six advisories were issued in 2009, including a six-day advisory in February.
Fine particulates — dry or liquid microscopic particles — are considered a health risk because they can penetrate deep into the lungs. The fine particulates have been linked to heart and lung disease, and conditions like asthma.
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