Friday - Jan. 17, 2025 - Harrison gets $25K for accessibility

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Good morning!

Yesterday, Tyler kindly accused me of favouring cows in my work here at The Current. I asserted that our last story about cows was almost a year ago. And although I was correct, Tyler is still not wrong.

As some long-time readers know, my daughter was big into cows in her toddler years. And having reported in Agassiz before I started at The Current, I do have a fair number of contacts in the dairy industry. It makes it easy to find and report on stories about the cows and cow-related topics.

With a team of only two (plus two halves with Grace G. and Josh), it takes concerted effort to make sure our stories span the breadth of what the Fraser Valley has to offer. So I’d love your help to figure out where we should dig for more stories. Are we missing coverage of specific people or pervasive issues? Should we be writing more about cows than we already are?

Shoot us an email any time with your ideas. I can’t guarantee we’ll do them (or reply to each email), but we will definitely keep your thoughts in mind as we go forward with our reporting this year.

– Grace

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NEWS

Big ambitions, small gains in Nooksack flood prevention

You can’t stop a flood with internal memos and good intentions.

Having learned important lessons from the 2021 Sumas Prairie disaster, the federal government kickstarted work on a series of projects to reduce damage from future calamities. But three years later, the feds still have little to show for their talk, leaving experts like University of Waterloo professor Jason Thistlethwaite as exasperated as ever.

• Today, Tyler reports on big ambitions and small gains, hears why disaster management in Canada is like a Spiderman meme, and probes a ‘nasty’ press release from the insurance industry.

Related

Need to Know

👉 Ch’iyáqtel (Tzeachten First Nation) has bought 50 acres of land to add to its reserve in Chilliwack [Fraser Valley Today]

🔎 Trina Hunt’s death remains unsolved four years after her body was found near Hope [Hope Standard]

🚍 TransLink has revealed the route and station locations for a new rapid bus route between Langley and Maple Ridge [Vancouver Is Awesome]

🚂 A man was airlifted to hospital after he was hit by a train in Chilliwack Wednesday [Chilliwack Progress] / The incident happened on the riskiest section of track in the Fraser Valley [FVC]

🚓 Abbotsford police seized $8,000 in cash and drugs Wednesday after an officer witnessed a drug deal [Abbotsford Police/Facebook]

🍎 Langley food bank use has increased 21% compared to 2023 [Langley Advance Times]

🚑 A 69-year-old passenger died when their vehicle hit a utility pole in Mission Wednesday [Mission Record]

📃 BC’s urban mayors, including those in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, say BC needs to prioritize mental health and substance use treatment [Chilliwack Progress]

⛔ Cultus Lake’s Lakeside Market is closing after six years in business [Fraser Valley Today]

💸 A 25% tariff on Canadian exports to the states could result in 124,000 fewer jobs in BC over the next three years, BC economists say [CBC]

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The Agenda

Harrison receives $25K to make village more accessible

Harrison Hot Springs may be more accessible to all residents in the coming years.

Two months after adopting its first accessibility plan, the village announced it has received a $25,000 grant to make some of its promises a reality. The plan, which aims to address physical, environmental, and communication barriers in Harrison, was adopted in October.

With the money, the village plans to install automatic door openers at numerous facilities, build accessible picnic tables, and add braille to signage, according to a social media post published last month.

The initiatives are a few of the promises outlined in the accessibility plan. The document says the municipality will add braille in all village-owned washrooms, and install automatic doors at buildings it owns.

The Local Community Accessibility Grant is funded by SPARC BC, a Burnaby-based charity that focuses on inclusion initiatives. The one-time grant began taking applications in June 2023. Projects must be finished by the end of the grant program, March 31, 2026.

The funding announcement came two days before Harrison announced its new accessible beach playground was officially opened to the public.

— Josh Kozelj, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

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🗓 Things to do

Concert night: The Jay Mitchell Band performs at the Fort Langley Community Hall tonight at 7:30pm. Details and tickets online.

Radio play: The Chilliwack Players Guild presents French Poison, a staged reading of the radio play about a famous French crime and trial, on Saturday at 1pm and 3pm. Details and tickets online.

Romantic music: The Valley Concert Society presents the music of Brahms, Rabl and Smetana during its Romantic Gems concert on Saturday, Jan. 18. Violinist Stefan Jackiw headlines the performance, which was originally scheduled for the early days of the pandemic. Details and tickets online.

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