But the coast forest industry wants tax reforms

Michael Kane, with a file from Gordon Hamilton
Sun

Tuesday’s budget commitments were built on the foundation of a strong economy that the provincial government will continue to encourage, Premier Gordon Campbell said Wednesday.

At the same time he called on British Columbians to apply their imaginations to finding new solutions to challenges ahead in areas such as health care, the environment and education.

“Imagine the goals and objectives that you would set for our province and that is how you will help British Columbians to lead Canada into a healthier, brighter future,” Campbell told the Vancouver Board of Trade.

“Together we can lead Canada into the Asia-Pacific century, where British Columbia is recognized as a centre of opportunity and hope and entrepreneurial drive and excitement and learning and opportunity.”

Campbell said the government’s investments in education, health care and opening up the province to the rest of the world are only possible because the economy is strong.

That’s why the budget offered support to the resource sector and small business while applying “long-term thinking” to issues such as housing through the housing endowment fund, the post-secondary education fund for today’s newborns, and the clean energy fund, he said.

“New solutions are the key to success in the province. We can’t continue to do the same old things in the same old way and expect to get something different out of that process,” he said.

Challenged for touting the budget as “a $2 billion housing plan” that was mostly $1.5 billion in income tax cuts, Campbell praised Finance Minister Carole Taylor for pointing out that tax cuts are important for people who want housing.

“When we are keeping people in their homes, when we are providing more affordability for housing, and leaving more money in their pockets, that gives them a chance to make their own decisions.”

In response Wednesday, the coastal forest industry said the budget did not address industrial tax reforms forest companies say they need.

The government’s housing strategy is going to require a strong forest industry, said the Coast Forest Products Association. “We need to ensure that budget 2007 builds a housing legacy out of B.C. wood,” said Rick Jeffery, president of the 22-member Coast Forest Products Association. The association’s membership includes companies such as Interfor and TimberWest, who have traditionally supported the B.C. Liberals.

Coastal producers have been lobbying for tax reforms to improve productivity and encourage investment, saying they face the highest marginal tax rates in North America.

He said the association will continue working with the government on tax issues, specifically the impact of provincial sales tax on investment and the burden of property tax on heavy industry.

But Campbell said Tuesday’s income tax cuts will be a boon to business suffering from skills shortages.

“I think it is not a bad thing to be able to say to people, whether they are from Alberta or Saskatchewan or New Brunswick, ‘You are going to pay the lowest level of personal income tax of any jurisdiction in Canada as long as you are making $108,000 or less.’ “

The former mayor of Vancouver chided residents who say they don’t want special facilities for addicts in their neighbourhoods because they don’t want any of ‘those people’ here.

” ‘Those people,’ they have forgotten, are actually us. We have to build some community literacy about this.”

He also repeated his call for 25-foot building lots in Vancouver, saying they would dramatically reduce the cost of housing.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Gates: Microsoft chairman pictures increasingly interactive software

Vito Pilieci
Sun

OTTAWA — The next 10 years will bring “extraordinary” changes to the world, predicted billionaire businessman Bill Gates on a whirlwind tour of Ottawa Tuesday.

Whether it is through new medicines delivered by organizations such as his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or emerging technologies, exciting and challenging times are ahead, the chairman of Microsoft Corp. said in a speech at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa before hitting Parliament Hill to make a major AIDS funding announcement.

“This is a very exciting time in the software industry,” he said. “The digital revolution is proceeding to change the way we live and work.”

He pointed to the growing popularity of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) telephone services as a sign of new technologies emerging to change the way we communicate with one another.

“The telephone network is completely disappearing and becoming an application of the Internet,” he said. “Even TV itself will be delivered over the Internet.”

With the explosion in new Internet services still in full swing, Gates pointed to YouTube and Wikipedia as indications of what websites will look like in the future.

Microsoft is working on its own line of interactive offerings, including an online video service, a la YouTube, called SoapBox, and an interactive mapping tool called Live Earth. The mapping system shows all the things a person would expect to see on a map such as locations, routes and points of interest. It also has a feature that turns a map into a virtual 3-D representation of a city. By doing so, skyscrapers rise up, trees and parks are given contour and even traffic jams are depicted in real time.

The new map software is already available for use online at maps.live.com, although it is still in its preliminary testing stages. When it is finished, Gates said a person will be able to pull up a

3-D map of a town — Ottawa, for example. The Parliament buildings will jut out of the scenery like as if they were part of a pop-up book. Moving a pointer over top of them will allow a person to see if Parliament is sitting, what bills are being debated and whether the session is available to be viewed over the Internet.

Similarly, moving a pointer over a shopping mall will show what stores are inside, whether they are having sales and which ones offer online shopping.

While he applauded the ingenuity that went into creating the new online services, Gates said the software industry is heading for a drought of talent that could hamper the fast-growing North American software industry.

Except in Asia, enrolment in post-secondary science and math programs are down, said Gates.

While additional investment in post-secondary education is important, Gates urged governments to put more resources into promoting science and technology courses at the high school level. He said by getting high school students interested in computers and science, it will ensure they pursue technology and science degrees in university.

Gates also urged businesses to become more involved with post-secondary schools. Big companies do not create technology clusters of small startup companies, he said. High-quality researchers at universities do.

“Large research universities are the ones who spin out biotechnology and software startups,” he said, adding one of the reasons Microsoft has been so successful is because it closely partners with researchers at post-secondary institutions to monitor what types of projects they are working on.

“Half of the breakthroughs at Microsoft come from the university environment,” he said. “We became very good at meeting top professors and explained we wanted the top students to come and work for Microsoft.”

Gates said capturing and retaining top-level talent has allowed the company to continue to dominate the market for software over the past 33 years.

When asked about emerging threats from competing companies such as Google –which has its own word-processing and spreadsheet software –or others in the open-source software community, Gates became defiant.

“Is this the year free software was invented? I’d remember 1981. It was hyper-competitive then.” he said. “If there was ever a year that passed when people didn’t say we would go out of business, I’d be worried. Keep up the record, 33 years straight.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Builder sees blue future

Gordon Hamilton
Sun

The mountain pine beetle may have devastated Interior forests, but the dry, blue stained timber it leaves behind has turned into a marketing plus for log home builder John Johnson.

Johnson has found the blue stain, caused by a fungus that is carried by the beetle as it bores into the bark, gives the wood a special look that customers from Europe to Australia find appealing.

Johnson’s company, Sitka Log Homes of 100 Mile House, earned international fame for building the $3 million B.C.-Canada House for the 2006 Turin Olympics. More than 100,000 people a day toured the two-storey chalet.

This week he is building a 1,200-square-foot home out of the blue-stained wood inside BC Place stadium, assembling the log house piece-by-piece for this year’s B.C. Home and Garden Show.

“This is a great place to show people that beetle-killed wood can be just like any other wood for construction,” Johnson said during a break in the frenzy of construction.

The home has to be finished for Wednesday’s opening of the show.

Johnson said he expects the log home will be the first encounter for most Lower Mainland residents with the beetle that has killed the Interior pine forests, turning vast landscapes into red and grey patterns of dead and dying trees.

“We are trying to reach as many people as we can and this is a great place to explain to people that beetle-killed wood is no different than any other wood in terms of its strength.”

Like most log home builders in B.C., Johnson has been forced on to a supply of wood killed by the epidemic that has destroyed half a billion trees so far. But he has found the logs are perfectly sound and add valuable character to the homes. The blue stain penetrates deep into the wood long after the beetle — which lives out its life-cycle in the bark — has left.

He builds 35 to 40 log homes a year, most for the U.S. market. About 80 per cent of those homes are made from beetle wood and that’s not only because he has no alternative. Buyers actually ask for it, he said.

“People want it, especially for the higher-end houses that we send to the United States. The bugs only go into the bark and then they leave, so there are no adverse effects from the bugs except the colour.

“We have been using it for several years now and the reason is that is has a lot more character than the others woods. There’s the colour as well as the natural characteristics of pine.”

The chalet at BC Place is up for sale, and Johnson is hoping that by the time the home and garden show ends Sunday, he will have found a buyer.

“We are asking $199,000, set up pretty well anywhere in B.C. It comes complete with light fixtures and cabinets.”

Peter Simpson chief executive officer of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, said the beetle-log home is expected to be a major draw at this year’s show. The log home was built at 100 Mile House then all the logs were numbered and the home disassembled for the journey to BC Place stadium. Johnson and his crew spent a week re-assembling it.

“Some of our beetle-damaged lodgepole pines are showing up all over the world now, which we find kind of neat,” Simpson said. “I am a real fan of log home construction, but you can actually see the blue rings caused by the stain from the beetles.”

Simpson views the home as a showpiece for what this province’s builders, can accomplish.

“Everybody has heard about this wood being not good for anything but here you can see that it can be real value-added wood.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

Media-merging show combines live players with computer-generated sets

Marke Andrews
Sun

A lot of entertainment companies talk about convergence. Stage 3 Media Inc., a Gastown firm which began last May, walks the convergence walk.

Stage 3 Media, whose four partners have backgrounds in video games, television writing, information technology and acting, is currently in post-production on Sanctuary, a science fiction series pilot with live actors and computer-generated (CG) sets, which will play over the Internet this spring.

“I was really compelled by convergence, and could see a major shift to television on demand,” says Stage 3 Media CEO Marc Aubanel, who spent 13 years as an executive producer at Electronic Arts Canada, working on such video games as FIFA and Need for Speed Underground.

“I got together with some other people in the industry, talked about it, and we decided to take the plunge ourselves and self-produce our content rather than go through a large company,” says Aubanel, who stresses that in today’s media, “the power is shifting from programmers to the consumer.”

Aubanel’s partners are Damian Kindler, co-executive producer on Stargate Atlantis and a television writer for more than a decade, Martin Palacios, an IT specialist, and Amanda Tapping, star of TV series Stargate SG-1.

Originally, the company founders planned to do their first online series about the Internet, but had such a response from the science fiction community that they chose Sanctuary as their first project.

Sanctuary, which stars Tapping (who is executive producer and an investor in the series), combines live actors and CG sets and backgrounds. Shot with digital cameras over a 20-day period at Bridge Studios, the action was all done in studio using a crew of about 120. The actors worked with a green screen, using only small props such as weapons and doors. Stage 3’s in-house artists and animators (the company has 18 employees) are adding all the sets and backgrounds in post-production.

While the production saved money by avoiding location costs, equipment trucks and remote crews, the series costs are comparable to a cable or network series because of the extensive post-production. Without giving a budget, Aubanel says the cost of making the series is about the same as a video series shot for cable TV.

“We didn’t have to build sets and we didn’t have to go on location, but we had to spend three months building and rendering virtual sets,” says Aubanel.

Unlike so many television series, which are dependent on public funding from Telefilm Canada, Sanctuary is completely financed by private B.C. investors.

With eight 15-minute “webisodes” of Sanctuary in the bag, Stage 3 Media hopes to have enough interest to do 40 episodes a year. The first four episodes will air for free on the show’s website in mid-spring, likely in May. Anyone interested in viewing the next four episodes will pay for them, the viewing fees “competitive” with other television-content websites.

Stage 3 Media will then look for “more traditional” distribution, such as iTunes.

So far, the website (www.sanctuaryforall.com) has had 26,000 viewings of the Sanctuary teaser, and 630,000 hits.

The company will make sure the website has plenty of interactive elements, with video-game characteristics.

“In the long term, we see this as a mishmash of a TV show and a game,” says Aubanel.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Sun

Twenty years from now, no one may care anymore that the cost of the Vancouver Convention Centre expansion increased during construction by more than $200 million.

By then, we hope British Columbians will have enjoyed the benefits from attracting tens of thousands of visitors to the waterfront facility and the pain of the cost overruns will be long forgotten.

Right now, however, we have to be concerned about the hubris displayed by Premier Gordon Campbell in selling the deal and what that might mean for the billions in construction under way or planned for the 2010 Olympics and beyond.

There is no suggestion at this point that the convention centre will rival the fast ferries as a boondoggle since it should have significant value when it is completed.

But as the budget balloons to $800 million, with no fixed price yet for 20 per cent of the construction, the convention centre will soon be vying for entry into B.C.’s Hall of Fame for Runaway Budgets.

The $800 million does not even include the $73 million written off in 1999 by the New Democratic party government for the earlier convention centre project known as Portside that never got past the planning stage.

Given the inflationary construction environment in Vancouver in the past three years, it’s not fair to immediately conclude that this project is being mismanaged, although we are glad to see that the auditor-general has been asked to look at the books.

What is clear, however, is that the partner responsible for any cost overruns — the provincial government — failed to prepare a realistic budget for this mammoth project.

When the deal to build the convention centre expansion was announced in December 2003, it was projected to cost $495 million, with $90 million coming from the tourism industry and the federal and provincial governments each kicking in half of the rest.

By the time the ground was broken almost a year later, the budget had already grown to $565 million.

Campbell assured reporters that was enough to build the convention centre on time, on budget.

“Count on it,” he said. “There are contingencies built into the project and it’s going to be run professionally.”

It was the same assurance he showed a month later when the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line project needed an additional $65 million from the province to get started. Would that be all?, Campbell was asked. “That’s it,” he agreed. “Kaputski. Done.”

Hopefully, with the rapid transit line, now called the Canada Line, taxpayers will be insulated from cost overruns because it is being built by a private partner under a fixed-price contract.

The province tried to get a private partner to build and operate the convention centre. No one was interested.

With hindsight, we should have wondered what private enterprise knew that the provincial government didn’t.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Sun

Download Document

Three years to go. Reporter Clare Ogilvie asks: Are the costs and the construction on schedule?

Clare Ogilvie
Province

WHISTLER NORDIC CENTRE

The centre is 22 kilometres south of Whistler Village and eight km from the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The site has already been logged and has seen mining.

It will host four events: cross-country, biathlon, Nordic combined and ski jumping. The area will have a capacity of 12,000 in each of three stadiums. There are two regulation ski jumps and there will be 39 km of trails, down from the 100 km proposed in the bid book. Following the Games, the $115.7-million centre (the original bid book cost was $102 million) will operate as a legacy using an endowment fund.

Construction began in June 2005 and is scheduled to be complete by fall 2007.

WHISTLER OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC ATHLETES’ VILLAGE

The village will be south of the resort in the Lower Cheakamus. Part will be sold after the Games for housing and part will provide ongoing accommodation for competing and training athletes.

The village will accommodate 2,400 athletes and officials in at least 250 units. About one-quarter of the units will be wheelchair accessible.

The village is budgeted to cost about $131 million. VANOC is to contribute $37.5 million, including an allowance of $6.5 million for a First Nations legacy. The athletes’ centre has a separate budget of $16 million for accommodation and training facilities and is being funded by VANOC.

Site preparation is underway and the first phase of construction is to begin next month. Completion is scheduled for summer 2009.

WHISTLER ALPINE VENUE

All alpine events are to take place on Whistler Mountain with a 7,600-person stadium at the finish line. Modifications to existing runs and construction began in June 2005 and will be done by fall 2007. The estimated cost: $26.2 million. (Original cost: $23 million.)

WHISTLER SLIDING CENTRE

The venue for bobsled, luge and skeleton events will be on Blackcomb Mountain. The track will be 1,450 metres, featuring 16 curves. Speeds in excess of 130 km/h can be achieved in races that are to run around 52 seconds. There will be viewing for 12,000 people and seating for 6,000, mostly temporary.

Construction started in the summer of 2005 and will be completed in winter 2007 for use in two seasons before the 2010 Games. It’s expected to cost $99.9 million and will be supported after the Games by a legacy endowment fund. The bid-book cost was $55 million.

VANCOUVER CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE

The VCEC will be used as the International Broadcast Centre and main media centre and accommodate an estimated 10,000 people. Construction will expand the VCEC to more than triple its current size. Funding is in place through the provincial and federal governments. Construction started in November 2004. VANOC plans to start use of the facility in September 2009.

VANCOUVER ATHLETES’ VILLAGE

The 1,100-unit Olympic Village will be located on industrial lands in False Creek and will accommodate 2,500 athletes and officials. The city sold the site to Millennium Properties Limited for $193 million last April, with an agreement that housing and associated buildings would be available for the Games. Part of the structure will be a legacy of low-cost housing. The city will pay $5 million in costs and fees. VANOC will pay the city $30 million as a project contribution for the use of the facility. Site preparation and infrastructure work began in February 2006. Completion is fall 2009.

UBC WINTER SPORTS CENTRE

This will replace most of the aging Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre and feature two international-sized arenas for hockey and sledge hockey. The larger one will seat 7,000 people (5,000 post-Games). The other sheet will be used for practice. The original 1,200-seat main rink will serve as an operations and media centre during the Games.

The centre will also include a fitness facility and a new restaurant. Construction began in April 2006 and is expected to finish in spring 2008. VANOC will contribute $37.6 million and UBC another $9 million. RONA, an official sponsor, is also giving $1 million in materials and services. Original bid-book estimate: $35.8 million.

RICHMOND SPEED-SKATING OVAL

With 8,000 seats, the oval will offer a significant multi-sport facility with a full range of winter and summer uses after the Games. It’s estimated to cost $178 million (up from $155 million in 2004). VANOC will contribute $62.4 million to the project with all the other costs to be contributed by the City of Richmond. Construction began in 2005; scheduled completion is fall 2008.

HILLCREST/NAT BAILEY STADIUM

A new facility will replace the Vancouver Curling Club and be used for Olympic curling, including the paralympic wheelchair curling event. Most of the 6,000 seats will be removed post-Games to provide more curling sheets, a hockey arena, gym and library.

Construction starts in April 2007, to be completed by fall 2008. VANOC will contribute $38 million.

PACIFIC COLISEUM

The facility will be renovated, including structural changes. It will host figure skating and short track speed skating and seat up to 15,586. The upgrades are expected to cost $25.2 million and started in 2005 with completion in fall 2007.

Killarney and Trout Lake ice surfaces will be used for practice. Both will be upgraded for the Games with VANOC making a $5-million contribution to the total Vancouver parks board cost of $26.5 million.

B.C. PLACE STADIUM

The stadium will host the first indoor opening and closing ceremonies, plus nightly medals presentations. The facility, which seats more than 55,000, will also receive a facelift.

GENERAL MOTORS PLACE

The main venue for hockey, seating 18,630. Upgrades are due to start in October 2007 and finish in August 2008. The bid book estimated upgrades will cost $5 million.

CYPRESS MOUNTAIN RESORT

The host for freestyle skiing and snowboard events will receive upgrades and snow-making equipment. The $14.6-million upgrades began last May and will be finished in the fall of 2007. The freestyle skiing venue became the first 2010 site to be competition-ready last November. Up to 12,000 spectators will be able to be accommodated in each of two temporary stadiums.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

SURREY: Inter-urban rail line to launch

Brian Lewis
Province

Having a one-track mind is proving to be a valuable asset for the small, dedicated group of enthusiasts in the non-profit Fraser Valley Heritage Railway Society.

It’s proving, for example, that it takes more than a thumbs-down from the bureaucrats at TransLink to derail the dream these rail buffs have of establishing a new high-tech community rail system on parts of the long-abandoned inter-urban rail line between Vancouver and Chilliwack.

In fact, at its regular meeting tomorrow, Surrey city council will help push that dream further down the track to reality.

That’s when Surrey officially launches its Heritage Rail Project, through which it hopes to run several restored inter-urban cars along part of the inter-urban line.

“A heritage rail project like this is clearly of tourist interest,” says

Coun. Bob Bose, who heads Surrey council’s transportation committee.

“But the underlying objective here is to pursue the idea of a community rail system that would run at higher frequency to serve communities along the existing inter-urban route such as Cloverdale, Sullivan Heights, Newton and Kennedy Heights,” he adds.

Bose also says they’re all town centres that Surrey council wants to support for further urban development.

In the longer term, project supporters envisage this light-rail service extending through Langley and Abbotsford to Chilliwack.

“We’re also looking at this as a demonstration of hydrogen-powered fuel-cell systems,” Bose says, “and we’re in a very unique position to have it in place for the 2010 Olympics.”

Powertech, B.C. Hydro’s research subsidiary, would provide the hydrogen fuelling from its location beside the inter-urban line near 88th Avenue in Surrey.

At tomorrow’s meeting, Surrey council is expected to endorse a staff report that recommends the city undertake the Heritage Rail Project as a first step toward establishing community rail. The hiring of two heritage project consultants by Surrey, at a cost of $100,000, is also being authorized.

“Staff holds the view that it is more realistic to initiate a smaller scale Heritage Rail service on a section of the inter-urban line, then gradually expand this service on to the full length from Cloverdale to Scott Road,” the staff report says.

The report adds that an earlier feasibility study by TransLink called for much more elaborate and expensive commuter rail systems on the inter-urban line than backers of the lighter and less expensive community rail system say is necessary.

Preliminary capital costs for community rail in Surrey are estimated at $110 to $150 million; TransLink estimates its costs for an inter-urban in the $360-to-$700-million range, depending on the technology adopted.

The staff paper also notes a TransLink concern that any rail service on the inter-urban line would divert riders away from TransLink’s proposed bus rapid transit/light rail options for King George Highway and 104 Avenue.

“They’re not interested in community rail, so we’ve decided to put some money up to take advantage of an opportunity that TransLink has no appetite for,” Bose says.

However, it’s not a project that Surrey can finance by itself, so it’s hoped that this pilot project will draw potential third-party partners, he explains.

Adds Peter Holt, executive director of the Surrey Board of Trade and a spokesman for the railway society: “This project will alert the people of Surrey to the fact that we have a wonderful diamond in the rough here with the inter-urban rail line.”

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

Barbara Hagenbaugh
USA Today

PHILADELPHIA — In most government buildings, workers and visitors have to walk through metal detectors on their way in.

While that’s also the case at the Philadelphia Mint, the biggest scrutiny comes when it’s time to leave the building. Highly sensitive metal detectors scan people and their items for any coins. The smallest amount of metal, even underwire in bras, can set off the buzzer, leading to additional searches.

It’s a long-standing practice at the Philadelphia Mint, where employees are not allowed to bring in coins and have special debit cards for vending machines.

But these days, the stakes are even higher. That’s because the Mint is currently producing the first batch in a set of presidential dollars, cranking out $2 million to $3 million of the sparkling, gold-colored coins each day. Take out a few hundred pennies, or even quarters, and not too much is lost. Walk out the door with a few hundred dollar coins, and someone could afford a nice TV.

Some of the presidential dollars are leaving the Mints in Philadelphia and Denver, where they are also being produced, for delivery to Federal Reserve banks ahead of their Feb. 15 launch. So far, Fed banks, which distribute coins to private bank branches, have ordered more than 300 million of the first coin. That compares with 1.3 billion Sacagawea dollar coins produced in 2000, the first year of that unsuccessful program.

The latest dollar-coin program will feature a former president on the heads side, starting with George Washington, and progressing in the order in which they served. Presidents must be deceased at least two years to appear on the coins. Four coins will be released each year, similar to the enormously popular state quarter program, which has turned millions of Americans into coin collectors.

A lot is at stake for the government. Previous efforts to get the public to use dollar coins have failed. About $110 million of Sacagawea dollar coins are in storage. Except for collectors’ sets, they have not been minted since March 2002, a little more than two years after they were introduced with much fanfare.

Mint officials say the new coins’ designs will be popular with both collectors and consumers.

“It’s really going to stimulate the dollar,” says John Mercanti, head of engraving at the Philadelphia Mint, which takes up a city block across the street from Ben Franklin’s burial plot. “Our designs are far more dynamic and far more spectacular than they have been at any time in the past,” says Mercanti, who has worked at the Philadelphia Mint for 34 years.

Sound of money-making

Walking through the Mint, you’d think you were in any other factory, surrounded by machinery, forklifts and signs encouraging workers to wear safety goggles.

Except for one thing: the sound, an unmistakable jingle-jangle of millions of coins being stamped out of long sheets of metal weighing as much as 10,000 pounds each, then rolling down conveyers. It’s as if every slot machine in a Las Vegas casino were paying out at the same time.

The Philadelphia Mint has stepped up production to meet demand. Its 160 factory workers are rotating on eight-hour shifts — 24 hours a day, often seven days a week.

When Congress ordered the new dollar-coin program, it created several challenges. Perhaps the biggest was that the legislation required the phrases “E Pluribus Unum” and “In God We Trust,” along with the year and the mint location, to appear in recessed letters on the edges, rather than the faces, of the coins. Such lettering allows for a larger portrait, draws attention to the wording and provides something different for coin collectors.

That created a headache for the engineers and others trying to figure out how to mass-produce the coins, says Richard Robidoux, plant manager at the Philadelphia Mint. Edge lettering hasn’t been used on a coin since 1932, so Mint officials didn’t have experience manufacturing coins with that feature and didn’t own machinery that inscribes on the edges of coins.

A real challenge was coming up with a process to produce the coins quickly. “It’s one thing to make it work, it’s another thing to make it work 3 million times a day,” Robidoux says.

A circular solution

The Mint figured out how to make it work, with an interesting twist. Because the coins are fed through an edge-lettering machine a thousand coins a minute at the end of the minting process, the lettering’s placement on the edges will be different from coin to coin.

Not all the inscriptions are off the faces of the coins. “United States of America” and “$1” appears on the tails side, while the president’s name and years of service are on the heads side. Artists say removing some of the writing gave them more space for design.

From their small cubicles tucked in a corner of the Philadelphia Mint, artists Don Everhart and Joe Menna say they are excited to see their designs stamped onto millions of coins. Everhart designed the back of the coins, featuring the Statue of Liberty, which will be constant throughout the life of the program. Menna designed the front of the George Washington coin.

Everhart, 57, and Menna, 36, have backgrounds in sculpting. Menna studied in St. Petersburg, Russia, under teachers who studied with the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Both say they’re proud to see their work mass-produced into something people will use daily.

“That’s the most rewarding part of the job,” says Everhart, who also designed the state quarters for Nevada, California and Montana.

“I could end my career here tomorrow and have something that would stick me in the history books,” Menna says.

Nothing will be spared for competitors at seven-hectare competitors’ village

Kent Spencer
Province

Exactly three years from today the Vancouver Athletes Village will open and according to 300 pages of just-released information under the Freedom of Information Act, Olympic performers are in for the royal treatment.

Nothing will be spared at the seven-hectare site to make the athletes’ playpen a splendid experience, according to the documents made available to The Province by the 2010 Games Watchdog Committee.

The village on the southeast corner of False Creek features clusters of eight-storey apartments and luxurious amenities, from five-star hotel service to a hall to dance away the midnight hours.

There are pool tables, X-Boxes and a massage centre. A stage for entertainment, a religious centre and a ticket office. A bank and postal and courier services.

An area as big as a big house, 300 square metres, has been set aside for gift-bag storage. The material will be donated by sponsors.

The village’s 15-odd buildings have been designed according to the latest green standards.

Glass and non-glare finishes are featured. Decks are guaranteed at least three hours of sun a day and are protected by windshields.

Poisonous plants such as burning bush and deadly nightshade have been banned. They are on a list of 100 common types that are not permitted in the rooftop gardens.

There will be a library, an Internet cafe and phone lounge and a 500-square-metre fitness centre.

The latest headlines from Europe will be easy to keep track of at a news agent.

Athletes will be housed two to a room measuring 12 square metres. Men and women won’t share living quarters.

The washers and dryers are free of charge, but do-it-yourself.

The level of hospitality is equivalent to a four- or five-star hotel. Meals for the 2,800 hungry competitors will feature Vancouver’s famous multicultural cuisine.

Top-flight Canadian snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb said he hopes Vancouver’s food is tastier than the meat and veg served up at last year’s Italian Olympics.

“The pasta was repetitious,” he said. “It was a pretty static menu.”

If Turin was any indication, Lipscomb said the guys will leave the beauty salon and florist for the girls.

The idea behind the main athletes’ village is to provide a secure base where international guests can relax under protective eyes.

“We were encouraged to spend our whole time in the Turin village,” Lipscomb said. “It was quite a feeling of decompression after years of preparation. Canadians have a reputation of being good hosts. I hope everybody takes that seriously.”

The site will be enclosed by a secure perimeter fence with overhang to prevent climbing.

Extensive security measures were introduced following the 1972 Munich Games, where 11 Israeli athletes were killed in a terrorist attack. Vancouver will pay $1.47 million in terrorism insurance for the publicly owned buildings.

Vancouver project manager Jody Andrews said standards of comfort are set by the International Olympic Committee.

© The Vancouver Province 2007