Serious, fun, sad, quirky - 2011 was nothing if not varied in the Tri-Cities. Join us for a nostalgic journey through the last six months of the year that was.

JULY

Local teachers declare support for their colleagues across B.C. as the spectre of job action looms. Ninety per cent of B.C. teachers vote Yes in a province-wide strike vote. A teach-only campaign begins Sept. 6, with teachers no longer completing administrative duties like supervision, money collection and sending forms to school offices. In late November, the Labour Relations Board dismisses an application from the B.C Public School Employers' Association (BCPSEA) asking that teachers reimburse school districts 15 per cent of their salaries and benefits for not preparing and distributing report cards.

. The Port Moody Station Museum hosts a three-day celebration to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the first passenger train to arrive in the city. Festivities include model train displays, telegraphy skills, artist demos, a Lego train display and the Golden Spike scavenger hunt.

The first scheduled passenger train arrived at Port Moody's station on July 4, 1886.

. Two massive power BC Hydro towers collapse into the Fraser River, causing widespread power outages, commuter chaos, forced evacuations and road closures in south Coquitlam. The incident is triggered when a 30-storeyhigh, 230-kilovolt transmission tower on the Surrey side of the Fraser collapses near the CN rail yard. Power lines on the Coquitlam side of the river - near Fawcett Road - absorb the force of the fall, as well as the remaining weight of the downed structures and lines. Those downed lines result in 25,000 homes being left without power in Surrey and closures of the Port Mann Bridge and Lougheed Highway. "In my 30-plus years of policing, I would rank this up in the exceptionally unique category," RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen says. BC Hydro attributes the incident to "increased and unexpected erosion along the river that may have been accelerated by an unexpectedly high water flow."

. One of the more elusive animals found locally makes a surprise appearance at a school. A bobcat is spotted near Banting Elementary, prompting conservation officials to remind residents to keep their pets indoors.

Though a danger to small animals, bobcats are not viewed as harmful towards small children.

. Ten minutes worth of foolhardiness nearly turns fatal for a group of men from Port Coquitlam and Langley. The trio build a makeshift raft out of barrels to cruise down the Fraser River with - and nearly die in the process. The raft capsizes shortly after it's placed in the water, and one man is seen floating down the river near Hope. Hope RCMP, regional air services and the Hope and District Search and Rescue team join forces to rescue the men, who are between the ages of 29 and 34. Two of the three men are found wearing life jackets and all are taken to hospital due to hypothermia. Drugs and alcohol are ruled out as contributing factors.

. Former Coquitlam resident Yating (Lancy) Hu is reported missing on July 15. Two months later, her estranged husband is charged with murder.

Zhongming (James) Mou initially told police he had dropped Hu off at her Burnaby apartment on July 15 at about 8 p.m. Later, he changes his story and tells investigators that Hu, 27, had stayed at the family's Coquitlam home on Nash Drive that night. He says they left the next morning at 5: 30 a.m. On Aug. 27, Hu's body is found stuffed in a suitcase in the Fraser River near Steveston. Mou is charged with one count of first-degree murder.

. PoCo Building Supplies celebrates its 90th anniversary. The store was opened by Harry Galer under the name Port Coquitlam Transfer in 1919. It passes through four generations, turns into a 10,000square-foot retail space with a four-acre lumber yard, and moves to its current Mary Hill location in 1967. "If you look at the statistics, it's very unlikely that a family business gets beyond a second generation, and less than five per cent get beyond a third," said Chris Galer, the great grandson of the founder.

"It's a statement about our family and our staff that we have a place that endures the ups and downs. We could've easily shut the doors and done something different. We've been through a lot in the 90 years."

. A pillar in the Tri-Cities political scene throws in the towel - temporarily anyway. Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini announces he will not seek re-election in the November municipal elections. Having served 12 years as mayor, Trasolini says, "I think that I've done all that I can." Fast forward to late November, and Trasolini is on a podium flanked by Adrian Dix, Mike Farnworth and Diane Thorne as he announces his intention to run for the BC NDP in the upcoming Port Moody-Coquitlam byelection.

AUGUST

. Former Coquitlam MP Dawn Black announces she will be leaving politics after nearly four decades in office. The New Westminster MLA cites her desire to spend more time with family. Black's political career began in 1973 when she campaigned for Dave Barrett, and she first served as MP for New Westminster-Burnaby from 1988 to 1993. She returned to the federal stage in 2006, defeating Paul Forseth to capture the New Westminster-Coquitlam riding. She retained that position in 2008 but resigned in 2009 to seek the provincial seat in New West vacated by Chuck Puchmayr.

. Anmore resident Ken Hogue is attacked by a black bear while walking his dog along Sunnyside Road. Hogue sustains minor injuries and is released from hospital later that day after stumbling upon a mother black bear and three cubs feeding on garbage. The mother bear is destroyed, while her three cubs are taken to the Critter Care Wildlife Society in Langley. Bear Aware co-ordinator Drake Stephens says the mother bear had been a familiar sight in the area, as had her last set of now-grown cubs. Within a week, Anmore council begins discussions around changing the village's garbage bylaws.

. A former Port Moody resident with links to one of B.C.'s high-profile gang syndicates is murdered in Kelowna. Red Scorpion member Jonathan Bacon is shot and killed in a targeted attack outside a Kelowna resort during the mid-afternoon. Police say Bacon was shot by masked gunmen outside of the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort. He was travelling in a white Porsche SUV at the resort's front entrance when an unconfirmed number of shooters in a vehicle behind the Porsche opened fire. Five others are wounded in the attack.

. Members of the NDP pay their respects to federal party leader Jack Layton, who dies on Aug. 22 after a second bout with cancer. "The country has lost such a positive force - a man with such energy, such incredible optimism," says former New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Dawn Black. "When I think about Jack, I think about his optimism. He would say to us in caucus, 'Don't let them tell you it can't be done. Don't let them tell you it can't be done. It can be done.'" A state funeral is held at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall.

. A massive fire rips through a three-storey building on Coquitlam's Begin Street, displacing dozens of residents and causing more than $4 million in damage. No one is killed or injured in the blaze.

Preliminary reports indicate the fire was caused by contractors working on the roof of the building. The fire affects about half of the 75 suites in the building known as Le Chateau, and some residents may not be allowed back in for more than a year.

. Port Moody-Coquitlam MLA Iain Black resigns to head up the Vancouver Board of Trade. A date has still not been set for the byelection.

. Quick thinking at a local beach prevents a tragedy. A beachgoer at White Pine Beach notices a 22month-old toddler struggling in the water, pulls the child to safety and performs CPR. The child is transported to BC Children's Hospital as a precautionary measure. "We believe that the patron more than likely saved the child's life," says Port Moody Police Const. Bill Kim.

SEPTEMBER

. Three women behind a PoCo-based baby business get a break - and then some. Sisters Dina Girard, Melanie Ewen and Teresa Vader get an invite to showcase their kids clothing line, dubbed Peekinz Baby, at a pre-Emmy Awards celebrity-gifting suite called the Boom Boom Room. The event is expected to attract Hollywood luminaries such as Rachelle Zoe, Halle Berry, Denise Richards, Laila Ali, Tori Spelling and Courtney Cox. With eight kids between them, the trio launched their business in the spring of 2010. Their signature calling card? A bamboo baby clothing line that features an opening in the back of all one-piece outfits to allow for a quick diaper check.

. Two bears are shot and killed within the same week in Port Coquitlam and Anmore. In the Anmore case, a year-and-a-half-old black bear is found in a tree and initially thought to be hiding or scared.

At first, conservation officers try to direct the bear back into the nearest green belt. However, the bear has a severe puncture wound in its side, prompting conservation officials to kill it. The second case in Port Coquitlam involves a black bear trying to enter a screen door to a home on Gately Avenue. A loud noise from within the home startles the bear, which proceeds to knock over a garbage can and begin munching on the easy pickings. Conservation officers find the bear beside the Coquitlam River near the Lougheed Highway bridge, where it is ultimately destroyed.

. Coquitlam city council expresses interest in moving Royal Columbian Hospital onto the Riverview Hospital grounds. While council seems sold on the idea, not many other people are. Fraser Health officials suggest Coquitlam is already

adequately served by the current local hospital model.

Ultimately, the city's request gains no traction.

. Pitt River Middle School teacher Karen Johns takes part in the longest game of hockey ever recorded to help fund cystic fibrosis research. Johns and 39 other players, including some from the Tri-Cities, suit up for a contest that spans 10 days and two hours, setting a new Guinness World Record. Nearly 2,500 goals are scored. The final result sees Johns' team score about 970 goals, compared to about 1,300 from the opposing team. More than $133,500 is raised for cystic fibrosis research.

. Once a rising star in the Canadian Football League, Adam Braidwood has his third run-in with the law in less than a year as the Terry Fox Hometown Run makes it way through Port Coquitlam. RCMP receive several 911 calls around 10: 30 a.m. on Sept. 18 regarding an apparent break-and-enter at a home near Coast Meridian Road and Coquitlam Avenue. A former No. 1 overall pick by the Edmonton Eskimos in the 2006 draft, Braidwood is charged with possession and discharge of a firearm. He is granted bail in November alongside a host of conditions.

. Members of the Proulx family travel across the continent to gather in Maillardville and celebrate 100 years of family roots in the area. Relatives from Maple Ridge and Florida descend on the area for music, dancing, singing and cooking, as well as to perform skits and take a closer look at their history via a homemade video. The celebration centres around George Hector Proulx, who first moved to Maillardville in 1911. At the time, he set up a general store on the corner of Laval Street and Brunette Avenue, a site that would later become Maillardville's first post office. Proulx was named mayor of Coquitlam in 1923.

. Coquitlam city council gives preliminary approval to a zoning amendment to pave the way for hotel and conference facilities at the Boulevard Casino. The owner of the Best Western Plus Coquitlam Inn Convention Centre calls on the city to hold a referendum on the issue, suggesting the development would represent unfair competition for other hotel chains in the city. The zoning amendment, however, receives the green light during second and third readings in late October. A timeline has not yet been given for the start of construction.

. It was targeted, but it wasn't gang related. A man is shot at the Mr. Lube on Barnet Highway near Lansdowne Drive in Coquitlam in mid-afternoon on Sept. 28. Police later point to drugs as being the primary motive. The incident is initially pegged as being gang related, though investigators later back off that claim. The victim is known to police, but no arrests are made in the case.

OCTOBER

No good can come from carrying a man purse. A 37-year-old Coquitlam man learns this lesson the hard way, as the Abbotsford Police drug squad arrests him after allegedly discovering 800 grams of cocaine in his man purse. The suspect is pulled over in Surrey, just east of the Port Mann Bridge, and is also found to be in possession of two cellphones. "When the man gets stopped," Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald says, "his man purse is on his lap, and as he gets out of his vehicle the purse hits the ground."

. Drive-through, meet drive-in. A 20-year-old Coquitlam man crashes his car through the window of Church's Chicken on Johnson Street in Coquitlam. Police had come in contact with the suspect's vehicle earlier, due to the car being driven erratically. The driver then took off. Police lost track of the man's car until it was found sticking out of the restaurant. The suspect ran from the scene, but was later apprehended by police. Alcohol is not believed to be a factor.

. The NHL has the Hockey Hall of Fame. B.C. motor sports enthusiasts have the Greater Vancouver Motorsports Pioneers Society. Three Tri-Cities residents are inducted into the society, capping more than four decades worth of devotion to all things on wheels. Belcarra's John Carlson and Coquitlam natives Tom Taylor and Tom Berrow get the nod. Carlson is known as a long-time classic car restorer, appraiser and show judge; Taylor and Berrow made their marks as racers.

. A spa in Coquitlam Centre offers Stanley Cup riot suspects an incentive to turn themselves in to police. Eccotique Spas & Salons offers $50 "Calm Down and De-Stress" certificates to rioters if they first confess their crimes to the cops.

"They have to come in, tell us how they were involved and show their ID. We do ask them to be fingerprinted at that moment," says Shannon Douglas, manager of the Coquitlam Centre location.

"Then we give them a small book-sized gift card that they have to take to the Vancouver Police Department." No riot suspects make use of the offer.

. A mother bear is shot after officers catch her searching for garbage with her cubs at Summit Middle School.

Four bears are found at the school when police and conservation officers arrive, and all of them are tranquilized. The mother bear is destroyed due to her history of getting into garbage in Port Moody and Coquitlam. The three cubs, named Rose, Kira and Kaymona, are transferred to the Critter Care Wildlife Society in Langley.

. Businesses, residents and commuters breathe a collective sigh of relief as the new King Edward Overpass is opened in Coquitlam. After more than a year's worth of construction, traffic tie-ups and losses to local businesses, the new structure is unveiled. The new overpass replaces the previous three-lane underpass configuration and is intended to reduce congestion, while also improving traffic and people movement in the area near Lougheed Highway and United Boulevard. The structure also contains a fourmetre wide multi-use pathway - intended for cyclists and pedestrians - that connects Mackin Park on the north side to the future Fraser Mills development on the south.

NOVEMBER

. Three Port Coquitlam residents are treated for smoke inhalation after a fire rips through a home and causes about $300,000 in damage. The incident takes place at 2633 Klassen Crt., and requires 10 firefighters to battle the blaze for close to three hours. Two neighbouring homes are damaged, with the house immediately to the south sustaining about $9,000 worth of damages. A cause is not determined, though the fire is believed to have started on the main floor of the home.

. The Vancouver Police Department recommends charges against two Tri-Cities men in relation to the Stanley Cup riots in June. A 52-yearold PoCo man with a lengthy criminal record is alleged to have stolen from a store at 710 Granville St., and is facing charges of participating in a riot and break and enter.

A 20-year-old Coquitlam native is also charged alongside 59 others. In total, 163 charges are recommended.

. A human foot is discovered in Sasamat Lake by a group of schoolchildren, marking the ninth foot found in southwestern B.C. in the past four years. An autopsy confirms the bones, found in

a size 12 black Cougar-brand hiking boot, are human. The coroner rules out foul play and suggests the boot could have been in the water for upwards of a decade. Of the nine feet found in recent years, the Port Moody case is the first in which the discovery was made in fresh water.

. An anonymous group calling itself the "Coalition for an Environmentally Friendly PoCo" distributes hundreds of pamphlets in an apparent smear campaign directed at a proposed composting plant. The group claims the facility, which is being built at 880 Lougheed Hwy., will contain massive shipping containers full of "extremely toxic" amounts of hydrogen sulphide gas. The city goes on the defensive, mailing out pamphlets of its own that deny the anonymous claims, on top of holding a public information session in late November.

In mid-December, council gives its blessing to Metro Vancouver to issue a composting facility licence to the Cascade Renewable Carbon Corp.

. Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart is struck by a vehicle on Austin Avenue and spends a pair of nights in hospital one week before the civic elections. Stewart says the incident has exacerbated a pre-existing back condition, but he is otherwise uninjured. Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jamie Chung confirms that a green Chrysler Intrepid hit a pedestrian walking on the south sidewalk near the Esso gas station and that an investigation is continuing.

. Election night sees two of the Tri-Cities' three mayors retain their seats, while a new face is introduced in Port Moody. Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart edges out Barrie Lynch by just under 3,000 votes; Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore captures 5,827 votes - more than twice the amount his two competitors, William Issa and Patrick Alambets, received combined; and Mike Clay gets the nod in Port Moody with 3,112 votes. Doug Macdonell is the lone incumbent to lose his seat in Coquitlam, while Craig Hodge and Terry O'Neill represent the new faces at City Hall. Sherry Carroll loses her seat in PoCo and is replaced by Dean Washington. In Port Moody, new faces include Zoe Royer, Rick Glumac and Rosemary Small. Heather Anderson retains her seat in the Anmore mayor's chair and is joined by newcomers Tracy Green and Timothy Laidler.

DECEMBER

Two Surrey women are charged with break and enter and theft under $5,000 in relation to a Coquitlam dognapping. Co-founders of A Better Life Dog Rescue, 58-year-old Janet Olson and 59-year-old Louise Reid are arrested by Surrey RCMP in relation to the dognapping of Samson the bull dog. Police allege the pair had targeted homes with a seemingly healthy, unattended pet in the yard while wearing official-looking uniforms. As well, they are said to have disguised the licence plate of the vehicle they drove. When the women are arrested for the pet theft, they are both wearing animal welfare uniforms.

. Christine Clarke is acclaimed as the BC Conservative candidate in the Port MoodyCoquitlam byelection. Described as an effective negotiator and a proactive decision maker, Clarke is the director and chair of advocacy for the Canadian Skin Care Alliance. Clarke will run against former Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini and an as-yet-unnamed Liberal candidate. A date has not yet been set for the byelection.

. Fin wants finning finished. New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Fin Donnelly introduces a private member's bill that seeks to ban the import of shark fins into Canada.

The move is based on stats that suggest shark populations worldwide are threatened by the practice of shark finning, and upwards of 73 million sharks are killed for their fins annually. The practice of shark finning involves removing the fin from a shark's body. After the fin's removal, the shark is thrown back into the ocean to die. The practice is already illegal in Canada, though there is no legislation preventing the importation of fins, which are used to make shark fin soup.

. A 19-year-old man is in critical condition after a late-night stabbing at the Coquitlam bus loop at the corner of Barnet and Lougheed highways. The Maple Ridge resident is taken to Royal Columbian Hospital as a result of his injuries, but police release no suspect information. The 19-year-old spends three days in hospital before police begin interviewing him.

. A licensing snafu in Port Moody leaves the owner of a bar and grill in a strange bureaucratic mess. Joe's Atlantic Grill owner Peter MacDonald takes his situation to Port Moody City Hall in the hopes that council will help him iron out the issue. Because he has a food primary licence, he can't host audience-participation singalongs or other live performances.

A rep from the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) visits his bar in the days before the meeting informing him that although he's allowed to have music at the bar, people can't clap or sing along. MacDonald asks council to send a resolution to the LCLB to support a change in those policies, a move that's ultimately endorsed by council.

. Greg Moore's got a new job. The PoCo mayor is acclaimed chair of Metro Vancouver's board of directors. With the new job comes an additional $66,000 on top of his salary as mayor. "It will mean working more and longer hours, but I'm lucky to have such a great council in Port Coquitlam," Moore says.

. Missed Part 1 of our recap? You'll find it online at www.thenownews.com or by Googling "A year in review, Tri-Cities style."

jkurucz@thenownews.com