Thursday, April 6, 2023 edition: Canceled Buses And A Shrinking World

Thursday, April, 6 2023 | Today: 🌧️ High 10C, Low 8C | 7-day forecast

Good morning!

The first team of astronauts going to the moon since 1972 was announced this week. The crew of Artemis II includes Jeremy Hansen, who will be first Canadian to head into deep space. Fun fact: Hansen is from Ontario but completed basic military training in Chilliwack in 1994.

This crew won’t actually land on the moon. They’ll fly around it. The launch is planned for November 2024 and is, in some ways, an elaborate test-flight of the technology that will land humans on the moon again and eventually, according to one of the Artemis II crew members, Mars.

I never wanted to be an astronaut. I don’t like confined spaces and I’m bad at math. But it’s awesome to think that there are people in this decade (and in this country) who still point at the sky and say, “Hey, we should go there.”

Speaking of launching things, The Current’s membership drive is going strong but we aren’t at our goal yet. Join the membership crew like Richard, Ellen, and Norma.

NEWS

A shrinking world during the transit strike

The bus is more than a way to get from point A to point B for Amy and Sylvia Dirks.

Amy is a 33-year-old woman who lives with a disability in Chilliwack. Her mother, Sylvia, has seen firsthand the vital service that HandyDart, as well as standard public transit routes, provide for people with disabilities and seniors in the community.

“It broadens her world,” Sylvia said. “It's really, really important.”

But the buses aren’t running in Chilliwack—and haven’t been for weeks.

The Fraser Valley transit strike shut down buses and many HandyDart services throughout the valley on March 20. Drivers are asking for pensions, better wages, and better working conditions from their employer, First Transit.

HandyDart is still running for “medically necessary” services, which largely means medical appointments alone. But Sylvia says a lack of public transit for vulnerable people like her daughter is affecting everyone and that necessity, in this case, is defined too narrowly.

• Today, Grace writes about how the lack of public transportation is impacting people with disabilities like Amy.

Need to know

🔥 Fires were set in three houses in Hope [Hope Standard]

📄 A petition calling for Harrison Hot Spring’s council to resign was signed by about 10% of its residents [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

👉️ First Transit wants an injunction against striking bus drivers in Abbotsford and Chilliwack [Abbotsford News]

🥕 The Salvation Army in Chilliwack is asking gardeners to grow a row of fresh veggies for the food bank this summer [Chilliwack Progress]

➡️ A 29-year-old inmate died at Kent Institution [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

👉️ Abbotsford Hospice Society held it’s most successful gala ever, raising $161,000 to complete building repairs at Holmberg House [Abbotsford News]

👮 The RCMP is investigating whether three recent shootings in Chilliwack are connected [Chilliwack Progress]

📷️ Current Cam: The winner of this week’s Current Cam is April Neave, who was the first to correctly guess the location of the photo was at the corner of Yale Road East and Nowell Street in Chilliwack.

☺ TODAY’S SMILE: What’s the gear effect? See it in action in this precise curling shot [Devin Heroux/Twitter]

😂 Come LOL with a Vancouver Improv group coming to Harrison on Apr. 22. Presented by the Harrison Festival Society. Tickets are available here.*

*Sponsored Listing

The Agenda

Patio improvements coming to Jolly Miller Pub

The Jolly Miller Pub in Chilliwack will be the latest restaurant to jump on the Fraser Valley’s three-season patio train.

The pub on Vedder Road will cover and enclose its current patio, expanding the gathering space available in less-than-perfect patio weather.

The addition went before council on Tuesday so the plans could be approved. The patio has occupied the same space for several years. With the addition in place, it will be the same size patio with less rain and fewer mosquitos.

City staff called the small changes a “high-quality addition to the area.” The enclosed space will include retractable glass panels and a peaked roof.

Kent mayor plans to walk over Agassiz-Rosedale bridge

Kent mayor Sylvia Pranger plans to walk 26 kilometres to Chilliwack later this month to raise funds for her community’s new pool. But the walk comes with a bit of a hurdle: namely the Fraser River and the notoriously pedestrian-unfriendly bridge that spans it. (Read more about the crossing and the risks it poses here.)

Although the District is still hammering out details and expects to release more details today, Pranger does plan to walk over the bridge. Because the bridge has no sidewalk or shoulder, that will require some form of traffic control to allow Kent’s mayor to survive the crossing uninjured.

You can find more on Kent’s fundraising efforts here.

Throwback Thursday

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