Monday - Jan. 8, 2024 - Castle Fun Park sues insurers

🌧 High 4C

Good morning!

I used to really love mini golf. Specifically, I loved one course at a campground my Oma and Opa used to take me to. There was a strawberry farm, a little museum, an ice cream shop and, of course, mini golf. It was everything a 10-year-old could ever want.

Want to keep reading about mini golf today? Of course you do.

– Grace

Support local journalism 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

Castle Fun Park sues insurers

At $18 a round, the rebuilt mini golf attraction at Castle Fun Park in Abbotsford seems expensive for mini golf. But a new lawsuit suggests one reason why.

In the suit filed in November, the popular amusement business alleges its insurers have shorted them by nearly $6 million in compensation, leaving them to pay most of the cost to repair the facility after 2021’s devastating flood.

• Today, Tyler reports on the details of the lawsuit, which was filed just days before a key deadline was to expire.

Related

Need to Know

⚠ Snow, wind, rain are all expected to hit southwestern BC in the coming days [Vancouver Sun]

⚠ Winter storm watches are in place for the Coquihalla and Highway 3 [Environment Canada]

🔎 Mission council will review controversial secondary suite policies at its meeting today [Mission Record]

👉️ A posse of vigilante dads patrolled the street on Christmas Eve in Fort Langley—pleasing some residents and worrying others [Vancouver Sun]

🏥 An Abbotsford cop and his wife are both battling different cancers [Abbotsford News]

👉 Former long-time Seabird Island Chief Clem Seymour has died [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🆘 Chilliwack Search and Rescue is recruiting [Chilliwack Progress]

🚨 A convicted killer has gone missing in Chilliwack; he’s believed to have been murdered [Chilliwack Progress]

👉 Abbotsford Police say extortionist letters sent to businesses haven’t yet been tied to any acts of violence [CityNews/CP]

🚧 Buildings have begun to come down in central Langley; the land will eventually be used for an arts centre [Langley Advance Times]

🚑 Abbotsford’s hospital was locked down after five inmates from two different Fraser Valley prisons were taken to the facility after ‘multiple stabbing incidents’ [Global]

😁 An aspiring comedian has helped rejuvenate Langley’s comedy scene [Langley Advance Times]

🖋 A Chilliwack waitress wrote a book after being defrauded by a con artist [Chilliwack Progress]

Enjoying our newsletter? Help us make it even better!

Become an Insider member and help keep local journalism and storytelling alive in the Fraser Valley.

The Agenda

Winter is coming

Winter weather might be late for the party, but it’s expected to turn up in the Fraser Valley soon.

December was unseasonably warm across Canada and, in many places, was the warmest December on record. In Abbotsford, the mean temperature, according to Environment Canada meteorologists on Twitter, was 6.2 degrees. In other years, it’s 2.9 degrees. But it has also been a wetter-than-normal December in Abbotsford. In other regions of the province, the lack of snow is leading to continuing drought concerns. 

A strong El Nino system was to blame for the super-mild weather, but meteorologists say things are starting to look colder and colder.

While the El Nino system is still going strong, jet stream patterns are already shifting. A polar vortex is gathering and is expected to split: one portion of that cold weather is expected to hover over Northern Canada and eventually spill into the rest of the country as January continues.

Community journalism needs the entire community for it to succeed.

Become a Current member today and join 1,200+ other local supporters who help keep our lights on.

As part of a membership, you get our special weekend roundup of all the things you might’ve missed each week!

🗓 Things to do

🎺 Cool tunes: Zappostrophe', a show featuring the music of Frank Zappa re-imagined, will be presented by the Harrison Festival Society on Saturday, Jan 13. Find tickets online.

🏒 Hockey: The Abbotsford Canucks host the Tucson Roadrunners at Abbotsford Centre Jan. 12 and 13. Tickets online.

🪴 Home and garden show: The Chilliwack Home, Leisure and Outdoor Living Expo will run at Heritage Park from Friday, Jan. 19 to Sunday, Jan. 21. Admission is free. Details online.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

That’s it!

Thanks for reading Fraser Valley Current today ♥️ 

If you found something useful, consider forwarding this newsletter to another local.

And before you go, please let us know:

Help share The Current

Wouldn’t the Fraser Valley be better if more people had access to local, quality news – and didn’t have to rely on social media? Share The Current with your friends and help us build better communities.