Monday, July 17, 2023 - Big scholarship, big plans

Monday, July 17, 2023 | 🌦 High 23C

Good morning!

Yes, it’s three days later and I’m still consumed by all things space. (Partly because the latest space news—India’s rocket launch to the moon—kept my interest piqued in the subject.)

I got to thinking about stargazing in the valley. (I was also reminded of the controversial half-complete observatory in Mission. After significant dollars had been spent on construction, council ultimately voted to demolish the structure citing poor planning, among other things.) The valley may not have an observatory but I recently discovered that the Fraser Valley Regional Library offers telescopes on loan! How cool is that?

Insider members who want to learn about a useful tool that I use to bring the night sky to life can scroll down to the newsletter’s members-only section.

WORTH KNOWING

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

⚠️ Here’s the current smoke forecast / Check the BC Wildfire Dashboard here

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

NEWS

Big scholarship, big plans

Rida Khan was in the high school library when she learned that she was in the running for a life-changing scholarship.

She was studying for a major exam in a subject she loves—AP chemistry—when she opened the email. Suddenly, doors into higher education that had previously been only barely open were thrown wide.

The scholarship Rida won, called the Beedie Luminaries scholarship, is for students who have great grades and who have faced other challenges in their lives. The Chilliwack teen moved to Canada with her family when she was seven years old. While she found navigating the new environment easy when she was young, it got trickier as she got older.

• Today, Rida speaks to some of those challenges—and her plans for the future—in this conversation with The Current.

Need to know

🔥 The Davis Lake wildfire north of Mission has grown to 150 hectares in size and remains out of control [BC Wildfire]

🚐 Hope Care Transit offers free bus service on Wednesdays from select pickup locations [Hope Care Transit/Facebook]

👮🏻‍♂️ Police are investigating a fatal stabbing of a 42-year-old old man in Mission [CTV]

📈 The number of people experiencing homelessness in the valley grew by 21% in the last three years, the Fraser Valley Regional District found [Fraser Valley Today]

🏆 Young Fraser Valley athletes are competing in the North American Indigenous Games in Nova Scotia; view the schedule [NAIG 2023]

🚴‍♀️ Fraser Valley’s Terry Fox Ride of Hope was a big success; the riders are just shy of reaching their $100,000 fundraising goal [TFRideofHope/Facebook]

🥤 BC introduced new rules to phase out single-use plastics by December [CBC]

🚔 Chilliwack RCMP released a photo of woman they are looking to apprehend [RCMP]

👉 A Cultus Lake campground was evacuated on Friday after a cougar attacked and killed campers’ pets [CTV]

🏡 Langley hospital foundation’s seniors housing complex officially opened [Langley Advance Times]

🌲 Abbotsford Tech District will mean high-quality education and well-paying jobs close to home. It will build up not out, preserving trails on Sumas Mountain.*

*Sponsored Listing

The Agenda

Accessible playground to be built at Sardis Park

A new playground designed to include small children with disabilities is coming to Sardis Park.

The nature-themed playground will be built for kids two to five years old. It will also be “barrier-free,” or more accessible to kids who use accessibility devices like wheelchairs or walkers. There won’t be curbs separating the space from the rest of the park like traditional playgrounds. Rubber surfacing, instead of gravel or sand, will sit under the new structures.

Makr/Playworks won the contract for the work for nearly $275,000. The city’s total budget for the project was $300,000, including a $75,000 contribution from the Mt. Cheam Rotary Club.

A nearby playground, also in Sardis Park, for kids aged five to twelve is slated to be replaced this year as well.

Abbotsford still waiting for feds to provide disaster-repair funding

Nearly two years after the devastating 2021 floods, the City of Abbotsford has repaired three-quarters of flood-damaged sites, but it still has dozens more to go. And many of those that haven’t been completed are still awaiting funding from the federal government.

The city had about 300 sites damaged by flooding.

Those sites include roads, bridges, drainage dikes and culverts, pump stations, paths, and riverbanks.

Of those sites, around one-quarter—roughly 75—have yet to be fully repaired, according to an update to council on July 10.

The city has sought Disaster Financial Assistance for 35 projects. But funding has only been received for one-third of those. The city is still hoping to receive about $15 million to cover repairs for two dozen more projects. Those include work to repair dikes, bridges, roads, and drainage systems.

The city has so far only received $648,000 through the Disaster Financial Assistance program.

By comparison, Abbotsford has $11.5 million in grants and $180,000 in donations.

Things to do

🏎 Woman in motorsports: Velocity Autosports is hosting women’s night Monday at Mission Raceway Park. Details online.

🐝 Garden tour: Visit Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm & Meadery on Saturday for a bee-friendly demonstration garden tour. Details online.

🧶 Crochet for beginners: The Chilliwack Cultural Centre will host a crochet for beginners workshop on July 22 and 29. Register online.

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