Friday - Dec. 15, 2023 - Local book gift guide

🌦️ High 8C

Good morning!

I’m flying up to my hometown for the holidays next week. Though I love being around family for Christmas and it’s beautiful up there in the winter, I do wish they lived a little bit closer. (Just a bit—like, nine hours driving, maybe, as opposed to 13). As it stands, it’s just barely too far to drive in the winter and so I get to experience the truly effervescent joy of trying to fly over the holidays. I’m optimistic this year. Last year my flight was cancelled (after I spent the night in the airport) and I didn’t make it home until Boxing Day. That can’t happen two years in a row, right?

– Grace

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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 Current’s local book gift guide

I once had a friend who bought several copies of the Communist Manifesto and gave them out as Christmas gifts to everyone she knew.

She was half-joking and I thought it was great—but I don’t think everyone else did.

Buying books as gifts can be tricky. As a book-lover myself, I’ll find any excuse to give someone a book. But I've come across a few challenges. I can’t always just buy copies of the best thing I’ve read that year, because everyone’s tastes are different. But it’s a little tricky to figure out what someone might like without asking them outright and completely spoiling the surprise. (The better you know the person in question, of course, the easier it gets.)

One good option is to find a book that’s not only about a topic that person might like, but also has a strong connection to a place they love. Your odds of intriguing that special person have just doubled. 

• Without further ado, I (Grace) present the Current’s local book gift guide.

Related

Need to Know

🚚 The provincial government is cracking down on trucks that crash into overpasses [CTV]

💡 The Chilliwack Real Estate Board has published its full annual list of super-festive homes [Chilliwack Progress]

🏘️ Kent’s mayor is urging faster action to address a lack of housing in Agassiz [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🐔 Avian flu has been detected in more than 50 BC flocks, most located in the Fraser Valley, but officials say spread is slowing as wild bird migration season ends [CTV]

👉 BC Search and Rescue teams have been unable to get certified for new skills for three years because of a provincial moratorium that few want to talk about [Northern Beat]

 👉️ A Langley murder suspect and a Delta man were charged with manufacturing weapons [Langley Advance Times]

🎪 Mission’s acrobatic arts club will hold its fifth annual circus arts show [Mission Record]

🚑️ A drug dealer who crashed into an ambulance was sentenced to 14 months in prison for drug offences and a hit-and-run conviction [Langley Advance Times]

➡️ A Langley mom is fighting to get pro-suicide websites blocked in Canada [CTV]

🎅 A Langley non-profit held a winter wonderland event to collect toys and donations for kids in low-income families [Langley Advance Times]

The Agenda

Abbotsford paths come last

Any snow that falls the rest of December will force the city to draw from a contingency fund. 

The city blasted through its snow removal process more than eight months ago, with more than $1.48 million spent during snowfalls earlier this year, according to a recent report. That’s about $350,000 more than the $1.13 million the city budgeted for. Next year, the city will budget $1.28 million for snow removal. That money is set based on previous years of spending.

Abbotsford has more than $3 million set aside to pay for salt, sand, and labour in a particularly bad snow year, council heard earlier this week. If that money isn’t used, it goes into the city’s growing financial reserves.

During snowfalls, the city has eight brine trucks, 12 plows, and a half dozen one-tons it can deploy, along with tractors, backhoes, loaders and a grader. But asked what it does for trails and paths, a staff member told council that although the city has an ATV with a plow, resource limitations mean that work comes after every road is clear.

Coun. Dave Loewen said he was disappointed to hear that.

“In our official community plan one of the focuses is active transportation, walking and cycling, yet I hear that’s a low priority when it comes to clearing pathways.”

Loewen suggested the city should consider adding resources to clear more paths for pedestrians.

Correction

Yesterday we wrote that the CP Holiday Train would stop in Lytton and, later that day, in Agassiz on Sunday, Dec. 16. The train will actually stop in the valley on Sunday, Dec. 17.

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💾 Flashback Friday

This small plane, part of Langley company Skyway Aviation Services’ fleet in the 1960s, is dropping water on a field in Abbotsford. RCAF pilot Art Seller originally dreamed up Skyway Aviation while he was a prisoner of war in Germany. When he returned home in 1945, he started the business. The general aviation company trained pilots, sprayed crops, and, eventually, expanded into early water bombing efforts for wildfire suppression. A cutting edge technique at the time, Skyway Aviation would move from dropping large amounts of pure water to using smaller amounts of fire retardant through trial and error.

🗓 Things to do

🎭️ Theatre: Gallery 7 Theatre in Abbotsford presents Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, a Pride and Prejudice sequel, from Dec. 15 to 23 at the Matsqui Auditorium. Details online.

🕯️ Historic Christmas: The Fort Langley National Historic Site is hosting Humbug Holidays, a Christmas celebration with make-your-own ornaments, from Dec. 16 to 30. Details online.

🎄 Christmas parade: Aldergrove’s Christmas parade will light up the evening downtown on Saturday, Dec. 16. Details online.

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Catch up

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