Monday - Feb. 24, 2025 - Langley considers land swap with school district

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Good morning!

It may be hard to believe, but today is the 1,000th edition of the Fraser Valley Current. Or thereabouts. Honestly, we know our 1,000th edition is going out sometime this month but we aren't quite sure when—we even asked Google's AI bot, but it was predictably useless.

I think today's main story is a perfect example of The Current. After all, where else can you read an in-depth feature about a bowling alley that sits at the heart of a tiny community well off the beaten path of most news coverage.

As you read today's edition, and Josh's story, I hope you consider what it took to make it happen. That story, and this entire publication, wouldn't be published were it not for the support of our Insider Members. But here's the thing: we're still not financially sustainable. This week, we're launching a month-long Supporters Drive.

We badly need more Insider Members so we can continue doing our work. Too often, news consumers hope others' will pay the cost of the journalism they consume. We need 200 new members to ensure we can keep reporting. It doesn’t cost much—only $2 each week. But if everyone who consumed our journalism became a member we could do far more, and cover many interesting issues and stories that we don't currently have the time and manpower to investigate.

Please become a member today. It's easy and only takes a moment. Local news won’t survive without you.

– Tyler

Keep local journalism alive by supporting The Current. Become a Current Insider member today and help bring local stories to life.

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope 

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

The bowling alley at the heart of Boston Bar

Denise Normand pushes back from the swivel chair and walks out of her office with a handful of papers. She enters the dimly lit bowling alley, eyeing a wall filled with names and numbers.

Her shoulder-length blond hair sways with each step. Normand walks by a book shelf and children’s play pit littered with miniature bowling pins. In a dozen paces, she reaches the four lanes in the alley. Overhead lights reflect off the sparkly hardwood floor, brightening up this corner of the building, Canyon Lanes, located just off the Trans-Canada Highway in Boston Bar.

The first of a dozen bowlers are not expected to show up for another two hours, but Normand, the manager of Canyon Lanes, has an important job to do.

On a Monday evening in December, she fiddles with plastic numbers and letters in her hand and glances towards a sheet of paper. Every week, Normand revises the highest average scores in three separate leagues on multiple marquees that hang on a wall. The scores date back to 1991, the year the bowling alley opened.

“I have to put these up, or my Monday night bowlers will be upset,” Normand says to herself as she updates one board to read: JOE 229, ROD 225, DOUG 221.

To many people outside of this rural community within the Fraser Canyon, bowling may be considered a dying sport. The number of bowling alleys in Canada and the Lower Mainland have shrunk in recent years. But for the residents of Boston Bar, North Bend, and surrounding First Nations, their hometown alley continues to be a source of pride.

In more ways than one, Canyon Lanes is a source of stability for a town that has teetered on the edge of existence since gold miners first flooded into town.

• Today, join Josh as he explores the heart and history of Boston Bar’s bowling alley: Canyon Lanes.

Related

Need to Know

🔊 A huge crowd of Hope residents attended a meeting regarding a proposal to expand a local gravel pit [Hope Standard]

🌲 More than half of Mission residents can’t find affordable rent, a new report says [Mission Record]

🚔 A charity store in Aldergrove has been broken into once again [Aldergrove Star]

🚒 Chilliwack fire crews extinguished a blaze in an industrial building Friday [CityNews]

❌ Abbotsford’s new Rona store is already closing [Fraser Valley Today]

👉 A Langley apartment that houses many seniors won’t have a working elevator for months [Langley Advance Times]

🟧 The federal NDP has nominated a candidate to contest the election in the Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford riding [Abbotsford News]

⚠ Officials are warning that toxic drugs have been found in the Agassiz area; the purple pills are being sold as MDMA [Sq'éwqel "Seabird Island Band"/Facebook]

💁‍♂️ A Chilliwack homeless shelter needs food donations [Fraser Valley Today]

🚁 Three people were injured in a collision involving an Abbotsford police car [CBC]

⚽ Vancouver FC is getting upgrades to its professional soccer stadium in Langley [Langley Advance Times]

👉 A medium-strength earthquake hit the BC coast last Friday afternoon; some movement could be felt as far away as Chilliwack [CBC]

🔥 A boarded-up home in Langley burned down Thursday [Langley Advance Times]

🍻 Looking to hire skilled brewers? Meet talented KPU students at the Brewing Career Fair on March 5. Connect with top talent and grow your team!*

*Sponsored Listing

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The Agenda

Langley to consider trading land with school district for new Willoughby school

Langley Township will decide today whether it should create trade land with the Langley School District to build a new elementary school in Willoughby.

In a motion set to be introduced during Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Eric Woodward says Willoughby Elementary is old, in “an obsolete location,” with “subpar” roadway access, and has “ongoing safety concerns.” The Langley School District has $15 million for a 10-class addition for the school in its five-year capital plan, but council has said in the past that is not enough.

The township has informally told the board chair and school district staff that the building should be replaced rather than upgraded, according to the motion. Woodward wants council to ask the province and the Langley School District if an entirely new school could be built on township-owned land near Yorkson Community Park instead.

The suggestion comes after The Current published a story on the rising land costs for a new school in the Willoughby neighbourhood. In late January, the school district approved the purchase of a new five-acre site for $32.5 million—$7 million more than when the district first looked into the purchase two years ago. (You can read the story here.)

According to Woodward’s motion, the township could build a new school on five acres of undeveloped land abutting Yorkson Community Park, which has two grass playing fields that could be used by an elementary school. The motion suggests costs for a new school could be reduced if the township were to trade its vacant land with the property that houses the current Willoughby Elementary School. The township could pay the difference in land value (assuming the Yorkson property is worth more) to the school district to help construct the school, the motion suggests.

Woodward’s motion says the township could also provide funds on top of the $15 million requested by the district for an addition to ensure the school is built to the size and standard of other elementary schools in the area.

The old Willoughby Elementary site could potentially be used for a new green space, public plaza, pool, and community centre.

There is no guarantee the idea will make it to the request stage, let alone construction. Council will need to vote on the motion during its meeting today, and get approval from the provincial government and school district. If the motion passes, staff would communicate the desire for a new school—and the option to trade properties—to the other groups. Staff would also begin work on concepts for the potential new Willoughby community centre.

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🗓 Things to do

Grain expo: The Baking Association of Canada hosts its Farmer-Miller-Baker Summit at UFV in Chilliwack on Tuesday. Details and registration online.

Classical concert: The Cheam Vista Classical Concert Society begins its 2025 season with a performance by Foothills Brass on Thursday. The Canadian quintet has an eclectic repertoire. Details and tickets online.

Music night: Songwriters Barney Bentall, Tom Taylor and Shari Ulrich return to Langley's Bez Arts Hub on Saturday. Details and tickets online.

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Catch up

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