| Contributed by Micheal Komick of
Preferred Edge Knives. Maple Ridge is a large town
about 25 km east of Vancouver. The population is about 70,000. In this district there were three smaller towns –
Haney, Port Hammond and Pitt Meadows. Haney and Port Hammond joined and they are called Maple Ridge. Pitt Meadows
remains separate but there have been talks about the two combining and being called Maple Meadows.
My wife and I moved to Pitt Meadows on the west side of Maple Ridge in 1978. We lived in a mobile home
(trailer) for ten years. In 1988 and two children later we upgraded to a house in Pitt Meadows. Ten years later we
built a house on the west part of Maple Ridge. I worked at different places as a welder, welding instructor and
welding inspector. In the spring of 2001, I was laid off at Finning and turned my "hobby" business into a
full-time business. E. I. assisted me with a 10 week marketing course and now the business is growing. While not
as fast as I would like it to, it is growing. I make Native style carving tools for wood carvers. I have a website
and the address is www.preferrededge.ca. The business is
named Preferred Edge Carving Knives and Supplies. My wife has the hard job she, cooks the… I mean does the books.
There are many pluses living in a small community like Maple Ridge. The first one I can think of is affordable
housing. There was no transit here in '78 but now we have West Coast Express, a train which will take us right to
downtown Vancouver in 40 minutes, and a bus service which will connect you with any other community in the Lower
Mainland. We are still waiting for a bridge over the Fraser River to connect to the freeway. It is expected to be
in place by 2008.
Sports is big in Maple Ridge and surrounding areas. Greg Moore, Larry Walker and Cam Nellie along with other
famous sports people came from Maple Ridge. We have a new sports complex in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows along
with two new ice rinks and three rinks per town. There are many other activities in and around Maple Ridge. The
Golden Ears Park and Alouette mountains are in our back yard with miles of trails. There are many horse back
riding trails in the back woods near Maple Ridge.
Maple Ridge has a good variety of industry, but we don't want it to become too industrialized. There are two
good size industrial sites, one at each end of Maple Ridge.
If you want to find out more about Maple Ridge go to our website at
www.mapleridge.org and enjoy. Thank you for honoring us
with your visit to Maple Ridge, B.C., Canada. We hope you will visit us in person one day. |
