Monday - April 1, 2024 - What's up in April?

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Good morning!

It’s been a long time since I attempted an April Fools’ prank. I don’t try too hard anymore. But I have a pretty strong resume of practical jokes. But one of my favourite pranks didn’t happen on April Fools’ day at all. It was at a very rustic summer horse camp, where my friends and I stole everyone’s shoes and hung them high in the dying, beetle-eaten pine trees.

But we made a tragic mistake in the planning of the prank: we stole everyone’s shoes. Including the cooks’. They got back at us by serving fruit punch—which turned out to be pickle juice dyed red—that day at dinner.

– 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

Tulips, more tulips, and a clown named Scruffles:
What's up in April

A massive snowstorm is making its way towards the Fraser Valley. Expect ice, arctic winds, and buckets of billowing snow over the next few days.

Just kidding. 

The arrival of April in the Fraser Valley brings, alongside a smattering of April Fools’ jokes, the full-fledged arrival of spring. Flowers sprout in the fields. The days are longer and the sun is more and more likely to make an appearance. And a new season of farm festivals and competitions begins. 

• Today, Grace writes about what’s happening in the Fraser Valley in April. 

Related

SPONSORED BY THEATRE IN THE COUNTRY

AMADEUS: A musical genius who thrives on chaos

Tour-de-force performances in Langley! Audiences get a wonderful glimpse into this unique world of music creation, as a legendary rivalry explores the spectacular rise and early death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is a theatrical experience that must not be missed. Dinner Theatre or Theatre Only. Runs from April 10 - 27.

Need to Know

🚎 Langley City’s mayor says Translink should have one elected governing body—not two separate boards [Global News]

🚚 Illegal dumping is on the rise outside of Mission [Mission Record]

⚖ Charges have been laid in a stabbing that seriously injured a man in Abbotsford last year [Abbotsford News]

🔥 Two people were injured when a trailer caught fire and burned to the ground in Chilliwack [CTV]

👉 UFV’s new chancellor was previously awarded an honourary degree by the university [UFV]

🚨 Emergency crews were called out to rescue a man stuck on a sandbar in the middle of the Chilliwack River [Chilliwack Progress]

🚗 Head’s up! A carbon tax protest could disrupt traffic on highways in the Hope area today [Fraser Valley Today]

🚑 An SUV flipped over, injuring two occupants in Chilliwack on Sunday [Fraser Valley Today]

🌲 A Langley church opened a new affordable housing complex with 98 units / The government and a non-profit bought an older apartment building to keep rents below market rates [Langley Advance Times]

🔎 The District of Kent will research possible safety measures to implement near Kilby [Agassiz-Harrison Observer] / Kent had been insisting the province should undertake the work [FVC]

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The Agenda

Chilliwack buys a new Zamboni

The City of Chilliwack is buying a new zamboni for $221,751.

The new addition, technically an ice resurfacer and not a Zamboni-brand machine, is the 2024 Olympia Ice Bear, an electric model that will replace a 2014, natural-gas powered machine. The city currently runs two other identical ice bears: now it will run a matching fleet of three.

Only one proponent, Burnaby-based Vemar Equipment came forward with a proposal to supply the resurfacer.

Langley Township makes plans to monitor short-term rentals

Langley Township staff will spend a year monitoring the short-term rental market before council makes any big decisions about regulating the industry.

Last October, the province passed new rules about short-term rentals that, among other things, forbid listing entire empty apartments on platforms like Airbnb. The new legislation asks local governments to create and enforce short-term rental bylaws using methods the province provides.

The Township currently doesn’t collect data about or regulate short-term rentals in the municipality. It also doesn’t collect related noise or traffic complaints. Other local governments, staff wrote in a report, track the rentals by requiring them to have business licences—but Langley Township doesn’t. Requiring business licences (starting this May) is part of the enforcement tools included in the new provincial legislation.

Regulation in the township will not start quickly alongside the new provincial legislation.

“Due to the complexity of such a program, limited data on the implications of short-term rentals in the Township and limited staffing resources, it is recommended that the status quo be maintained, at least temporarily,” city staff wrote.

Staff will report back in mid-2025 with plans for a potential regulatory program for the township.

🤝 Now hiring

• Medical office assistant/receptionist at Fraser Health in Chilliwack

• Assistant theatre professor at UFV in Abbotsford

• Vinyl and sign installer at Bourquin Printers and Signs in Abbotsford

• Recreation leader at Langley Township

Hiring in the Fraser Valley? Reply back and let us know!

🗓 Things to do

🌷 Tulips: The Botanica Tulip Festival—a reimagined version of the Chilliwack Tulip Festival—is set to return this April. Details online.

😆 Comedy: Very Very Improv and Chilliwack Improv will perform a double-header show on April 6 at Cowork in Chilliwack. Details online.

🖼️ Art: The Abbotsford Arts Centre hosts Into The Woods, an exhibition showcasing the art of Chris Johnston and Jake Muller from April 6 to 27. Details online.

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Catch up

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