Thursday - May 30, 2024 - New Agassiz pool could open by 2026

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Good morning!

I spent many hours of my youth sitting upright on a wiggly stool in the kitchen, not-so-patiently waiting for my mum to finish cutting my hair. It was not my favourite experience; I have never been good at sitting up straight, and there’s only so long a kid can stare at a spot on the wall while their wet hair is snipped and trimmed. But I do believe that these home-done haircuts are a right of passage.

That is why, a few months ago, I pulled out the scissors and a wet comb and gave my toddler his first haircut. The result looked suspiciously like a bowl cut, despite there being no bowls involved in the process. The second haircut went a little better; this most recent one a little worse. (It gets a little choppy when you are trying to trim bangs in the bath.) But he’s young. There is no one to impress. So why not practice these home-cuts now, and participate in a generations-old tradition?

– Grace

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

Why Abbotsford Hospital wants donors to pay for needed wheelchairs

Wheelchairs are in such short supply at Abbotsford Regional Hospital that patients aren’t getting all the support they need to avoid deteriorating in their beds.

That, at least, is how a hospital occupational therapist described the situation in a spring fundraising campaign for donations to buy new chairs.

In an interview with The Current, the hospital’s executive director suggests that while new wheelchairs would be beneficial, the problem isn’t quite so bad as described in the fundraising push. But ARH does have far fewer wheelchairs than neighbouring facilities, and statistics show that, in recent years, ARH has seen a steady increase in the prevalence of hospital-acquired complications, like pneumonia, that can be alleviated by getting patients out of their beds.

• Today, Tyler delves deeper into a fundraising plea by the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation, and asks why private donors are being asked to buy the hospital new wheelchairs.

Related

Need to Know

⚖ The trial for three Surrey men who are accused of murdering an Abbotsford couple in 2022 has been delayed by a year [Abbotsford News]

🏐 The Fraser Valley Volleyball Club’s U15 team won a national championship this month [Abbotsford News]

⚖ A Langley man who shot and killed another man with a crossbow has been found guilty of manslaughter [Langley Advance Times]

🚸 The crosswalk at Harrison Elementary will be getting some upgrades thanks to new provincial funding [Agassiz Harrison Observer]

🚢 BC Ferries has put four old ferries up for sale [Vancouver Sun]

🏀 The Vancouver Bandits will be producing the first-ever Punjabi game broadcast in Canadian Elite Basketball on Saturday [Canadian Elite Basketball League] / You can read our story on the Bandits South Asian Heritage jersey here [FVC]

🚧 The Glover Road overpass in Langley is now open to vehicles [Langley Advance Times]

🏠 No BC city cracked the top-15 most affordable communities in Canada, a new report shows; Abbotsford was deemed BC’s second-most affordable city [CTV]

📷 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to George, who was the first person to correctly identify yesterday’s Current Cam as the Murrayville Firehall.

🎉 Join EcoFarm's second annual EcoFarm Fest, a farmer’s market style family-friendly event including local food, music, kids entertainment, and educational opportunities. Find more information on their Instagram. See you there!*

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Chilliwack Mural Festival Announces 2024 muralist line-up

Chilliwack Mural Festival has confirmed nine muralists to paint from August 1 to 17.

Muralists include Fio Silva, Guillem Font, Jurace Suraco, NEAN, Ovila Mailhot, Sophie Mess, Leon Keer, and Terry & Jordyn Horne. The muralists are from Chilliwack, Seabird Island, Yeqwyeqwí:ws, Argentina, Belgium, Mexico, Spain, Netherlands and the UK.

The Agenda

New Agassiz pool could open by 2026

Agassiz’s Lets’emot Regional Aquatic Centre could be opening as soon as the spring of 2026, the District of Kent has said, and new renderings of the facility show just how much pool space it will have.

The facility has been in the works for more than a decade, with the District of Kent attempting to get federal and provincial funding for the project several times. The need for a new pool was first identified in 2008, and staff recommended Agassiz’s existing Ferny Coombe outdoor pool be replaced by 2015. The Ferny Coombe pool was built in 1978, and is the only public lane pool north of the river between Mission and Hope.

Funding for the new pool finally came through in 2022, when Kent received nearly $10 million from a Canada Infrastructure grant. The remainder of the funding for the $23.5 million pool will come from other grants, District of Kent reserves, loans, and community fundraising.

The 27,000-square-foot indoor aquatic facility will be incorporated into the existing Community Recreation and Cultural Centre in Agassiz. (The centre will be renamed the Lets’emot Regional Recreation and Aquatic Centre once the pool opens.) The renderings show an eight-lane lap pool, as well as a leisure pool, a whirlpool, a steam room and sauna, an activity space, change rooms, and a community room. (The existing Ferny Coombe pool is 25 metres long and has two slides.)

The hope is that the new pool will be able to accommodate more swim lessons, and provide a space for residents from Agassiz, Harrison, Cheam, Sts’ailes, Sq’éwlets (Seabird Island), and other communities.

The District of Kent said it aims to break ground on the project in early July, and construction is expected to take roughly 20 months.

The district is expecting the new pool to cost between $450,000 and $600,000 to operate each year. (The Ferny Coombe pool currently costs $135,000 to run for four months.) That, combined with debt repayment, would result in a roughly $18 property tax increase for every $100,000 of assessed value for Agassiz residents after the pool opens.

The District of Kent is still fundraising for the pool, and donations can be made online.

Fraser East has highest drug death rate in Fraser Health

The valley has the highest rate of toxic drug deaths compared to anywhere else in the Fraser Health region, which extends from Burnaby to Fraser Canyon. The latest BC Coroner’s Report on unregulated drug deaths identified 14 deaths in Fraser East, an area that covers Abbotsford to Hope, in March. Ten of those deaths were in Abbotsford, while the remaining four were in the region's smaller municipalities: Mission, Harrison, Kent, and Hope. That is an average of nearly four drug-related deaths for every 100,000 people in the area. In Fraser South, an area that covers Surrey, Delta, and Langley, there were slightly more than two deaths for every 100,000 people. And north of the river, there were only 1.4 deaths for every 100,000 people. 

Those rates are lower than they were a year ago. (In April of last year, Fraser East saw nearly six people out of every 100,000 die because of drug use.) The total number of deaths also declined. In BC as a whole, there were 11% fewer overdose deaths than the year before. But BC is still experiencing significantly more deaths than a decade earlier. Abbotsford had seven deaths related to unregulated drugs in all of 2014, compared to 27 deaths in the first three months of 2024 alone.  

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🗓 Things to do this week/end

🎉 Yarrow Days: Yarrow Days returns Saturday and Sunday at Pioneer Park. The parade will be heading down Yarrow Central Road starting at 10am on Saturday. Details online.

👷‍♀️ STEMinists: Women in STEM and trades are invited to the Valley Vibes - Tradies and STEMinists meet up in Abbotsford on Sunday. Get to know women in your field and talk about your passions, challenges, and triumphs. Details online.

🍓 Strawberries: The Abbotsford-Sumas Rotary is holding its annual strawberry sale. Purchase washed and sliced strawberries in either 11lb or 30lb pails to support rotary projects. The last day to order for pickup in Langley, Mission, and Chilliwack is June 2. The last day for pick up in Abbotsford is June 9. Order online.

Want even more? Insider members get a comprehensive events listing every Thursday, plus a weekly Saturday round-up edition with behind-the-scenes content. Becoming a member costs less than $2 a week and helps support the ongoing production of The Current’s newsletters and in-depth journalism. Become a member here.

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Catch up

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