The two-storey metal and glass building on the corner of Steveston Highway and No. 2 Road stands as a beacon in the night with its lit red glass windows. The structure is the new home of the Steveston Fire Hall, replacing the Number Two Hall, which was built nearly four decades ago (1972). After 20 months of construction, the environmentally friendly new hall is opening its doors to the public.

Richmond Fire-Rescue is hosting an open house this Saturday, Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to showcase its many green features, including a 60 per cent green roof, its steel and pine beetle kill wood finishes, (similar to the Richmond Oval) as well as its high technology features.

The News was given an advance tour of the 8,300 square-foot LEED gold certified building with Kirby Graeme, spokesman for Richmond Fire-Rescue.

“The crew was in temporary quarters on the site until they moved into the new building this June,” said Graeme.

As you enter the modern fire hall, to the left is a community meeting room, available at no charge to small nonprofit organizations or community groups. It is equipped with a new computer and audiovisual technology.

Beside that community space is the training and recovery room. This room is equipped with comfy, Lazy Boy style chairs, a DVD player and large flat screen television.

“This is where we will conduct CPR training and any other training needed for our guys,” he said, adding there is a staff of 44 for four rotations on 24/7.

The building is decidedly contemporary, with clean lines, LED motion sensor lighting throughout and little on the walls.

The large, airy kitchen is a chef’s dream, with stainless steel, commercial size appliances.

“Well, it’s a fact that some of our guys are really good cooks,” he quipped.

Upstairs are the lockers, four individual dorms with showers and a fully equipped gym.

“It’s state-of-the-art equipment similar to what’s at the Richmond Oval,” said Graeme.

And, yes, there is a traditional and operational pole — although it’s rarely used.

Back downstairs, Graeme showed off the hall with its 12 metre (39 feet) high training, hose drying tower and two apparatus bays.

The News was there as the “Cadillac” of fire trucks roared into its bay.

“Our new pump truck is a high-tech Salisbury,” he said.

Outside, there is a patio area with large barbecue and seating area.

“In the front of the building, on the concrete slab pedestal, which has the name of the hall, will be a public art piece … we don’t know which one yet,” added Graeme.

Meanwhile, Graeme said the winner of the Name the Mascot competition will be unveiled on Saturday.

“We received hundreds of entries to name our Dalmatian fire dog mascot and the winner will receive a gift certificate,” added Graeme.

To further engage the community, the hall held a Grade 5 poster drawing competition titled “What the Fire Department Means to Me.”

The winner receives a gift certificate, as well as the winning drawing will be made into a puzzle, to be given to elementary school age children throughout the city as prizes.

The community is invited to come and celebrate the opening of the Steveston Fire Hall, 11011 No. 2 Road, on Saturday, Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be many activities and a ribbon-cutting ceremony performed by Mayor Malcolm Brodie, fire chief John McGowan, and other local dignitaries. Please note there will be no parking at the hall. The public is encouraged to park free at either Steveston secondary, 9600 No. 2 Rd. or Westwind elementary, 11371 Kingfisher Dr. where there will be free shuttle busses available. Shuttles will run from 10:45 a.m. to 4 p.m.

SIDEBAR: Highlights of the Grand Opening Day events

— 11:30 a.m. to noon — official Opening Ceremonies

— 12:30 to 12:45 p.m. Rescue demonstration: auto extrication

— 1:30 to 1:45 p.m. Fire extinguisher demonstration

— 2:30 to 2:45 p.m. Rescue demonstration: Auto extrication

— 3:30 to 3:45 p.m. Fire extinguisher demonstration

Throughout the event:

— Fire Hall self-guided tour (see all six stations)

— Check out the newest and oldest fire trucks

— Food and popcorn

— Face painting ad temporary tattoos

— Kid’s bouncy and slide

— Safety exhibits

— Fire-Rescue Dalmatian Mascot

— Snorkel the clown

VANCOUVER - Stewart Butterfield finally has the game he set out to make nearly a decade ago, before he got sidetracked by his own success.

It’s called Glitch. It’s a massive multiplayer online game world, developed in Vancouver. It went online full-time this morning after months of test runs that attracted more than 10,000 volunteer beta testers.

There isn’t an orc in sight, although the customizable avatar you choose to represent you could have a greenish tinge to his or her skin.

It’s billed as a non-violent, cooperative exercise in world building. You can grow stuff here, or run a business. But unlike online game giant Zynga’s FarmVille or CityVille, the world encompasses a vast geography through which you travel, side-scrolling.

You water trees, you pet pigs, you collect stuff. You can start your own business, or religion.

One beta tester said this about it: “I found myself describing Glitch to a friend last week as something along the lines of ‘a massive multiplayer online environment in which you gather resources and learn skills so as to devise ever more creative ways in which to do nice things for each other.’ ”

The game plays in a Web browser. Fans and developers can create their own Glitch apps and mini-games for mobile devices.

Butterfield and his partners set out in 2002 to make a game like this, but it was the bottom of the dot-com market. Nobody would lend them money.

“We got down to the point where the only person on the team who got paid was the one with kids,” he recalled in a recent interview at the Yaletown office of Tiny Speck, makers of Glitch.

Their timing was lousy but they had one salvageable idea — Flickr — an online photo sharing program that was subsequently sold to Yahoo for an estimated $28 million.

“Flickr was kind of a last-ditch attempt to build something based on the technology we’d already developed, that was quicker to complete. We had the naive idea that someone would buy Flickr for like a million dollars and we’d use that money to finish the game.

“That’s kind of what happened – it just took seven years or so to get back to it.”

The original target for the Glitch release was spring 2011, but the game world proved more complex than anticipated.

Very early on, they shut the world down after a short beta test and left for the weekend.

“We came back and all of the pigs in the world were dead. There weren’t people around to tend to the trees or water them, and all the trees died. The pigs survived long enough to at least starve to death, and then it was basically like an apocalypse world.”

On another occasion, one player harvested every tree in the world in order to set up a lumber store.

“If there’s too easy a way for somebody to advance in the game they will always find it -– and when there are thousands of people testing they will find every little loophole that we couldn’t have anticipated.”

It usually takes about five years and a $50 million budget to develop a massive online game, Butterfield said.

Tiny Speck started working on Glitch two and a half years ago, and through three rounds of financing they raised $17 million. They have a staff of 40, and “cash left in the bank.”

Investors include LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, former Groupon president Rob Solomon and Google+ vice-president Bradley Horowitz.

The game is free. Tiny Speck hopes to profit with subscriptions and credits for people who want a custom experience.

There will also be advertising sales, of a kind. Players can buy advertisements for products they create inside the game world for sale to other players.

“We should be break-even with a couple hundred thousand [players]. It should be an attractive business with a million players.”

Digital industry senior analyst Michael Inouye of ABI Research said in an interview that the online game realm is “relatively competitive.”

Zynga (FarmVille) and a few others dominate but “there is definitely room” for ventures such as Glitch ­— particularly if it catches on via Facebook Inouye said.

“In all successful cases the experience between the user who never pays and [the one who] spends a lot should not be so disparate that the free track is the far lesser experience,” Inouye said.

Butterfield agrees.

“First of all we wanted to create an environment where that stuff didn’t matter as much. The point of the game isn’t that you crush your enemies.”

ssimpson@vancouversun.com

The Realty Watch program is a standing commitment from the nearly 14,000 Realtors in the Lower Mainland to mobilize in the event of a child or vulnerable person going missing in the community.

This collective pledge from the profession to the public embodies the community-minded approach that Realtors bring to their work every day.

"The Realty Watch Program is both unique and powerful. It can trigger an almost instantaneous mobilization of 14,000 professionals, who are also dedicated and eager citizens willing to engage with the police in support of broader community needs," said Insp. Terry Kopan, Officer in Charge, "E" Division Crime Prevention & Program Support Services.

How does Realty Watch work? Realty Watch is a community crime prevention program operating across the Lower Mainland. Police ask for a fan-out when children, seniors or other vulnerable adults go missing. A Realty Watch fanout simultaneously text-messages Realtors across the Lower Mainland. Fanouts are initiated by police and sent by participating real estate boards.

In the past year, real estate boards in northern BC and the Okanagan have undertaken steps to introduce the Realty Watch program in their communities. Soon, thousands more Realtors will be helping police keep look out for missing people in our communities.

Realtors have found three missing people since the program began 11 years ago.

Realty Watch developed from tragic circumstances. In 1996, a White Rock teen was murdered and later discovered less than four blocks from where she was last seen. Her father had asked for the help of local Realtors suggesting they would be an excellent resource to help search for missing people. Afterall, their work brought them into communities daily, they were connected via mobile devices, and could receive an instantaneous message from their professional associations - the real estate boards.

Realtors within the Greater Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Chilliwack real estate boards received 21 police-requested fan-outs to help find missing children and vulnerable adults through Realty Watch last year.

For more information about Realty Watch, please visit www.realtywatch.net.

The RCMP has launched a website listing the addresses of where marijuana grow-ops were found.

The National Grow Initiative is an RCMP-led project launched Wednesday in Ottawa that will focus on enforcement, deterrence and awareness as part of the National Anti-Drug Strategy.

Categorized by provinces, the website lists the addresses of homes, outbuildings and businesses where search warrants were executed. It also lists when the busts were made and how many marijuana plants were found. Clandestine drug labs are also included in the database.

The addresses will remain on the RCMP website for a period of one year.

"Marijuana grow operations harm communities. Wherever they exist, there's the potential for an increase in criminal activity and a greater chance of fire, explosions and violence," said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike Cabana.

British Columbia leads the list with the most grow-ops discovered, with several dozen locations listed, mainly in the Surrey area. A property in Hope, B.C., displayed on the website, was said to have had 6,496 marijuana plants found on it in June.

"(Marijuana) grow operations pose a serious threat to Canadians, the safety of our communities and the law enforcement officers fighting against these illegal operations," said Conservative MP Shelly Glover, in a news release on behalf of Vic Toews, the public safety minister. "The government of Canada is taking action to combat illicit (marijuana) cultivation in Canada, as well (as) the organized crime elements behind it."

Pauline Aunger, an Ottawa realtor and one of the Canadian Real Estate Association's board of directors, said grow-ops are a major concern for home buyers and realtors across the country.

"The (website) puts the information in the hands of the buyer," said Aunger, explaining how there is no national database for the public to know if their homes were former grow-ops.

So far, the only way for a buyer to know if a home was a grow-op is for the seller to disclose that information.

Aunger said a grow-op can compromise the structural integrity of a home and create health hazards, such as mould.

"The buyer needs to know what happened to the house, what kind of grow-op and clandestine operation was there," she said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google opened its Google+ social network to the world on Tuesday, dropping the need for an invitation to join the Internet giant's rival to Facebook.

"For the past 12 weeks we've been in field trial, and during that time we've listened and learned a great deal," Google senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said in a blog post.

"We're nowhere near done, but with the improvements we've made so far we're ready to move from field trial to beta... Anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about."

The announcement came as part of a list of the 10 latest improvements Google is making to the social network it launched in an invitation-only test format on June 28.

Enhancements to Google+ included letting members take part in video-chat "Hangouts" using camera-enabled smartphones or tablet computers, or broadcast video presentations to groups of watchers using "Hangouts On Air."

Google said it has also woven its Internet search expertise into the social network by adding a query box.

"Google+ is still in its infancy, of course, but we're more excited than ever to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software," Gundotra said.

"Over the next day we'll be rolling out all of these features globally," he said.

VANCOUVER - Metro Vancouver’s newest floating home was towed into place in the Coal Harbour Marina Monday afternoon.

It took 12 hours for the house to travel from Shelter Island Marina and Boatyard in Richmond, where it was built, to its designated lot in Vancouver.

The house, owned by Doug McClelland and Tony Tucker, was built over three years to stringent City of Vancouver guidelines. It will replace their previous float home, which tipped and sank at the marina during the Christmas Day blizzard of 2008.

It is one of six floating homes allowed at the Coal Harbour Marina by city zoning regulations. The only other place where floating homes can be found in the City of Vancouver is at the Sea Village Float Home Community in False Creek.

A reader was telling me recently about the large number of "For Sale" signs in her strata development in Maple Ridge. Of the 59 units, seven are on the market and three of them are forced sales by banks.

What piqued my interest was her comment that "the original strata fees were nothing more than a 'come-on' " by the builder/developer. When the majority of owners approved a 30-percent budget increase, two of the owners balked and walked.

So how common is it for developers to lowball strata fees to lure buyers?

Not very, according to Vancouver lawyer Lisa Vogt, who works extensively with real estate developers. Vogt says developers want their strata fees to be competitive, but won't risk their good names by under-reporting expenses in the interim budgets presented to buyers in new projects.

"Certainly, the developers we act for, and I would think the majority of developers in the Lower Mainland, this is their business and reputation is huge for them," she says.

Tracie McTavish, president of Rennie Marketing Systems, agrees.

"Most builders and developers are building for the long term, and for them to go to the time and effort and incredible stress and challenge of building a building . to have a bad taste in their mouth because the budget's not accurate, I mean, it's just suicide."

Still, it has happened. Mike Mangan, author of The Condominium Manual, recalls a case where a developer of a highrise didn't budget for maintenance of the building's elevators.

"Elevators are one of those things that are expensive to maintain," he says, "and that was just one aspect of a number of omissions, but it reflected the developer's endeavour to keep the expenses low, so strata fees would be low to attract buyers."

According to Mangan, strata owners have always been able to collect the shortfall between the proposed and actual operating expenses in the first year. And since July 1, 2000, when the Strata Property Act came into force, they've also been able to levy a penalty against developers, ranging from two to three times the budget shortfall.

Lisa Vogt knows of only one case in the last 10 years where a developer had to pay such a penalty. "And in that case, it was a developer new to the market, hadn't built before and it was kind of a one-off project for them," she says.

I asked Vogt, Mangan and McTavish what advice they have for people buying into new strata projects and looking to keep strata fees down.

- Avoid buildings with extensive landscaping and amenities, suggest Vogt and McTavish, especially "wet" ones (pools, hot tubs, water features) that require expensive maintenance and - when warranties expire after a few years - more money for repairs.

- Know the going rates. Fees in new buildings in downtown Vancouver with standard "non-wet" amenities generally range from 35 cents to 38 cents per square foot, says McTavish. Buildings with luxury amenities are in the low 40-cent-a-square-foot range.

- If you're buying in an urban area, says Vogt, find out what security measures are in place. Owners may feel they need more than the developer thought they did.

- Mangan suggests finding an experienced realtor who specializes in stratas and knows what questions to ask of the developer, including: Has the developer paid into the contingency reserve fund?

- If you're concerned about the developer's interim budget, ask a lawyer, accountant or property manager for an opinion.

- Vote in support of regular maintenance because in the end, a poorly maintained building will cost you more.

Suzanne Morphet reads email - but does not give advice - at condocolumn@shaw.ca

VANCOUVER - The small house at 502 Alexander is pretty well hidden. It’s sandwiched between a couple of apartment blocks, and the front is barely visible behind a stand of trees.

Look closely, though, and you can see it’s very old, with drop siding and an unusual gingerbread design, both hallmarks of the Victorian era.

In fact, the address first appears in a Vancouver directory in 1888, only two years after the city was incorporated. It was built by John Baptist Henderson, and a story in the Dec. 31, 1888 Vancouver World newspaper says it cost $1,500 to build.

Somehow the house has managed to remain standing through 123 years of Vancouver real estate booms. It may now be the second-oldest house in the city.

But not for much longer. An addition at the back of the house was recently taken down during a renovation, which has rendered the house unstable. The owner is now applying for a demolition permit, and it will probably be torn down.

The house is owned by Atira Women’s Resource Society, which bought it along with a two-storey brick building at 500 Alexander for $850,000 last year. (Both structures are on the same lot.)

Atira’s goal was to renovate 500 Alexander and turn it into housing for young homeless women from the Downtown Eastside. The house next door was going to be a drop-in centre.

The brick building was gutted and rebuilt into 18 housing units. The exterior was restored, so it looks the same as it did when it was built in 1912.

The back of the lot at 502 Alexander was slated to be filled with six shipping containers that are being converted to residential use. Two of the containers were on display as examples of “green housing” during the Olympics by BC Hydro.

Crews took down the back of 502 Alexander, but in doing so, made the 1888 house in front unstable, because it was built with a “balloon” frame, where the support walls are the exterior walls.

“It’s a rather complicated story, but whoever previously owned the building put on a non-conforming addition in the ‘50s, and used the back of the house as a wall,” said Atira’s executive director Janice Abbott.

“So [they] took all the cladding down, and they made a mess of the house. When that addition came down, it rendered the house [unstable], it can’t stand on its own.”

Abbott said Atira has had several meetings with city officials about what to do with 502 Alexander. Abbott said Atira has already spent $1.4 million on the project, and as a non-profit, doesn’t have the extra resources to fix the house. She has proposed keeping the facade in a “heritage representation of the old house” that may include elements such as the fireplace mantle and the banister.

Don Luxton of Heritage Vancouver said it would be a “travesty” if the second oldest house in the city were torn down while the city is celebrating its 125th birthday.

“Our earliest buildings are the story of Vancouver being carved out of the wilderness,” he said.

“This house dates from the time when the train was just arriving and the city was growing – there was nothing here when this house was built. To look at the history of this building is like going to Rome and seeing a Roman house. This dates back to the establishment of the city, very clearly.”

Luxton said fixing up old wood frame houses like this “is not difficult,” but it does take money, which is in short supply for heritage buildings in Canada.

“It’s an unfortunate confluence of circumstances, “ he said.

“It happens with many institutions and service providers; they work on very tight budgets, and there are no identified budgets for additional priorities like heritage conservation.”

Modest as it is, the house has an interesting history. After Henderson moved in 1893, it was occupied by John Stitt, the manager of the Hastings Mill store, which is now the Hastings Mill Museum in Kitsilano. (The Hastings Mill store was originally located on the waterfront at the foot of Dunlevy, a block away from 502 Alexander. It dates to 1865, which makes it the oldest structure in Vancouver. The oldest house is 385 East Cordova.)

Alexander street is named after Hastings Mill manager Richard Alexander, who built a large house at 300 Alexander in 1888. His neighbours included fellow bluebloods Duncan and Henry Bell-Irving.

Early residents of 502 Alexander included a bookkeeper named Huddart, an accountant named Jackson and a restaurateur named Schuman. The seven-block long street went out of vogue with the monied class fairly early, though: Richard Alexander moved to the West End in 1907, when his mansion was listed as a “Japanese boarding house” in the city directory.

The street would be part of Japantown until Japanese-Canadians were forced to leave their homes during the Second World War. For a brief period prior to the First World War, the 500 and 600 blocks were also a red light district.

In 1911, Ruth Richards took over 502 Alexander, and a year after that, Dollie Darlington is the first listing at 500 Alexander. Which means 500 Alexander was probably built as a brothel.

In recent years both buildings had fallen into disrepair.

“[500 Alexander] probably hadn’t been touched by the previous owners in 45 years,” said Abbott.

“It was one of the grossest SRAs [single room accommodations] I’ve even been in. When you went in there, it smelled like dead bodies, it was just abysmal.”

The new residents of 500 Alexander are to be young women between 18 and 24.

“We will have young women who are currently living in the Downtown Eastside and homeless or at risk of homelessness,” said Abbott.

“I think it’s fair to say some of those young women, if not all of them, are being sexually exploited.”

The new residents won’t be there permanently: 500 Alexander is supposed to provide housing for up to 12 months, when it’s hoped the residents can move on.

“The goal is to try and support them to explore options they probably didn’t know were available to them,” said Abbott.

“And get out of [the Downtown Eastside] before they get entrenched.”

Vancouver’s planning director Brent Toderian said the city “did investigate some options” to try and save the house, but none worked out. Part of the problem is that Alexander east of Main is outside the officially designated heritage districts of Gastown and Chinatown, “so frankly the amount of [heritage incentive] tools that we had to offer in this particular case were limited.”

“Every once in awhile we get into these unfortunate situations where two goals of the city are conflicting [i.e., creating social housing and saving heritage buildings],” said Toderian.

“It’s usually our first hope to find a marriage between those two goals, to do something creative. but that just wasn’t possible here.”

BY Eva Cohen

Vancouver Sun

August brought the long-awaited summer heat to Vancouver and the sizzling temperatures and sunshine should continue — at least for one more weekend.

With the rain throughout winter here, many people “live” for the summers, so since it began so late, will the weather stay nice longer to make up for it?

Get ready for a beautiful long weekend, because the answer is:

This week’s wet weather was just a blip in the otherwise warm and dry forecast, said David Jones, a meteorologist for Environment Canada. The entire south coast and the Interior will have warm, dry weather through Labour Day, he said.

“The weather looks really good for the long weekend, the forecast is very optimistic,” he said.

There will be a high of 27 C on Saturday in Vancouver, and Kamloops will be dry and sunny for the next several days, said Jones, with highs of 30 C and sunshine through next Wednesday.

“We’re going into a solid ridge to begin September,” said Jones. “There’s been a little bit of rain around Vancouver, but it will turn back to summer on the weekend.

After a grey July, the month of August was dry and sunny across southern B.C. Vancouver had just one day of rain, well below the monthly average of seven days of precipitation.

On that single day, half of the monthly average fell in one go: 20 millimetres. As a result, total rainfall for the month wasn’t remarkably low, said Jones, and didn’t threaten any records.

Vancouver receives 268 hours of sunlight in a typical August, while this year the city soaked up 321 hours of sun in the month — 120 per cent above average.