Thursday - Sept. 5, 2024 - Chilliwack’s reusable take-out pilot to begin in January

☀ High 33C

Good morning!

There was always a barbecue on the first day of high school. It was hosted by my friend Lucy, who lived a convenient 10-minute walk away, and was a welcome chance to reconnect with friends we hadn’t seen much over the summer. The barbecue would be spitting flames, since none of us really knew how to grill properly, and we’d linger in her shaded backyard and plan our futures as far as the next June.

It was more than just an afternoon for old friends, however. It was also a reconnaissance mission. During those first few hours at school, Lucy would scope out every new kid in our grade and invite them back to her house for food, chatting, and the hot tub. Once the half-day in class was over, we’d all troop over to her house, mingle with the newcomers and see which would fit into our own group.

As an adult who struggles with the extroversion needed to make new friends, I dearly miss Lucy’s barbecues. They were the defining moments of each September, and a foundation for friendships that lasted into adulthood. (If you have kids in school, I highly recommend they follow Lucy’s example. It’s the best method for getting new friends.)

– Grace

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Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 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

Hope’s cinema costs $1 million; the mayor says the district won’t buy it

The Hope Cinema is up for sale, but Mayor Victor Smith says the district isn’t planning to buy the beloved-but-unprofitable cultural institution.

In late August, Hope’s theatre was listed for sale for $990,000—a relatively good price for a theatre of any sort in the year 2024. But the price is relatively low for a reason: two different groups have tried to make the theatre work as a business without success in the small community.

The downtown Hope theatre is a beloved institution and community landmark. But nowadays, it’s no longer a place that makes money.

That has left its future up in the air. And the local municipality doesn’t appear to be the theatre’s likely saviour.

• Today, Tyler asks Hope’s mayor about whether the municipality could take over the city’s cultural landmark.

• This fall, with the Fraser Valley’s mayors reaching the midway point of their respective terms, we will be talking with the region’s leaders about the state of their communities, and the challenges and successes facing their cities and towns. The series will kick off next week with an interview with Smith.

Related

Need to Know

🚓 A man tried to pull a woman into his vehicle while she was hiking at Sumas Mountain, police say [Abbotsford News]

🗳 Abbotsford South and Abbotsford West both have independent candidates who have announced their campaigns for the upcoming provincial election [Abbotsford News]

🚨 A Saturday night police chase in Chilliwack ended with the arrest of a prolific offender [Chilliwack Progress]

🚔 An 85-year-old man has been charged for allegedly driving his car into two teens in Abbotsford in February [Abbotsford News]

🥇 A mayor and councillor are among the four eastern Fraser Valley residents honoured for their contributions to the community [Chilliwack Progress]

🔎 Mission RCMP are looking for witnesses to a hit-and-run on the Cedar Valley Connector two weeks ago [Fraser Valley Today] / A nine-year-old girl was also injured by a driver who blew through a red light, police say [Mission Record]

🏗 BC has released free, standardized designs for homes in an effort to more easily increase density across the province [Daily Hive]

💃 A new Latin festival is coming to Langley this weekend [Langley Advance Times]

🛣 New highway signs on the Trans-Canada in Lytton and Yale will help encourage tourism, officials hope [Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal] / We reported on the Yale Historic Site and its challenges in August [FVC]

📸 CURRENT CAM: Our Current Cam was pretty tricky this week! We’ll give you a few more days to figure it out, and if we don’t get any correct guesses by Sept. 10, we’ll share a different photo of the Current Cam location. (Shout out to Joan Patton for being the only person to attempt to guess this week’s location.) You can view the Current Cam and submit your guess via yesterday’s newsletter.

The Agenda

Chilliwack’s reusable take-out pilot to begin in January

A lending library for take-out tins is set to come to Chilliwack at the start of next year, and could expand to the rest of the Fraser Valley if it’s successful.

In April of 2023, the Fraser Valley Regional District began considering whether it should implement a container-sharing program, in an effort to crack down on single-use plastic waste. At the time, the FVRD was considering a year-long pilot project with a company called Reusables, which manages similar programs in Vancouver and Seattle.

Now, Chilliwack has agreed to be the test community for the FVRD’s pilot program in 2025. Restaurants in Chilliwack’s downtown core will be able to participate, paying $75 a month to get stainless steel take-out containers instead of plastic bowls and boxes. Customers will be able to choose if they want to get their food in a reusable container or a plastic one, and then can return the containers to any participating business. (Restaurants will be responsible for cleaning and sanitizing the containers.)

The hope is to have 25 businesses participating by the end of the pilot project. If it is successful, the program will be expanded. Chilliwack has already begun conversations with the downtown BIA to figure out what kind of containers might be needed for local restaurants.

Chilliwack and the FVRD will split the $20,000 cost to purchase the containers, as well as pay for program administration and reporting on the program’s success. If the lending library fails, Chilliwack may be able to sell back the containers to Reusables at market value.

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🗓 Things to do this week/end

🎸 House concerts: Abbotsford will be home to a community-focused set of house concerts featuring local bands Thursday (Sept. 5), Friday (Sept. 6), and Saturday (Sept. 7). Three concerts, three different homes, three days in a row. Email [email protected] for details and venues.

💄 Summer drag: Bricklayer Brewing in Chilliwack is hosting its last summer-themed drag show of the year on Friday, Sept. 6 at 7pm. Local drag queens from Langley, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack will be at the brewery until 11pm. Tickets and details online.

🎨 Painting pop-up: Abbotsford's artist-in-residence Molly Gray will be painting in a pop-up studio at the Clearbrook Library on Saturday, Sept. 7. Come to view the creative process and contribute to a collaborative painting. Details 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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