Thursday - Dec. 14, 2023 - Chilliwack supersizes racquet sport plans

🌧 High 6C

Good morning!

Yesterday Tyler asked what you’d rather do without: a dishwasher or in-suite laundry. A shocking 85% of you said you could do without a dishwasher—a proposition I can’t quite believe. It’s not like you’d be hauling your clothes to the local stream and scrubbing them against rocks like a lost hiker. If you’re living in an apartment, you’d usually just be walking down some stairs to a communal laundry room.

But honestly, my opinion on household appliances isn’t really to be trusted. There’s still a plate of quiche growing mold inside my broken microwave.

– 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

Chilliwack supersizes racquet sports plans

A new indoor baseball facility is being planned in Chilliwack, with facilities for racquet sports and pickleball also in the works.

The $8 million-plus price tag for the racquet sports facility suggests the scope of the project has grown substantially from when it was first envisioned a couple years ago. Meanwhile, the inclusion of the baseball building—and new parks in Sardis—reveal new parks plans that have yet to be announced.

You don’t necessarily need a crystal ball to see into a community’s future. Sometimes, you just have to look at the local municipality’s budget. Every year, municipalities put together huge budgets that reveal just what they hope to do over the coming year (or 10). And Chilliwack’s new budget shows that the city has set money aside for a range of new recreation projects, plus the addition of a downtown breezeway.

Earlier this week, we peeled back Langley Township’s budget to learn that a proposed soccer campus will cost $60 million more than first suggested.

• Today, we look at the budget for Chilliwack, and its plans for a sizeable new park in Sardis, racquet sport facilities, and expanded roads.

Related

Need to Know

✏️ The new grade-free rating system for elementary students is confusing some parents [Global News]

👮 A driver fleeing Hope Mounties crashed into a power pole and caused an outage near Kawkawa Lake [Chilliwack Progress]

🧑‍🌾 Langley’s Refeed Farm is facing a financial crisis and asking for community support; The Current wrote about the regenerative farm two years ago [Langley Advance Times]

🍩 An impaired driver in Mission was busted after awkwardly trying to order food at a “fast-food doughnut establishment,” police say; another driver was busted after trying to do a donut with his truck and ending up in the ditch [Mission RCMP]

🎁 Christmas gifts and other personal items were stolen in a string of break-ins in Agassiz [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🏢 Langley Township is considering mandating a certain percentage of three-bedroom condos per development [Langley Advance Times]

🚍️ Construction will affect four Chilliwack bus routes for a month and a half [Chilliwack Progress]

🐱 A food drive for cat and dog food is happening in Chilliwack this weekend [Fraser Valley Today]

🦅 Nature Chilliwack is inviting local bird lovers to join its annual Christmas Bird Count this week [Chilliwack Progress]

🗣️ A Langley arts group is seeking stable funding for its work preserving Kwantlen language [Langley Advance Times]

➡️ An Abbotsford woman with severe allergies and health issues finally got the tiny home she has been fundraising for [Abbotsford News]

🚓 Two people were arrested in Mission for weapons offences and threats last Sunday [Misison Record]

🐕️ A stolen pet in Langley may have been the result of an attempted rescue [Langley Advance Times]

☺ CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to David, who was the first to identify yesterday’s Current Cam as the Self-Storage business on Pioneer Street in Agassiz.

The Agenda

Highway 1 opening to two-way traffic at Jackass Mountain

Two-way traffic is expected to begin on Jackass Mountain between Lytton and Boston Bar tomorrow.

A huge chunk of highway was washed out during the November 2021 atmospheric river. And although a bridge was erected a couple months after the event, the bridge had only a single lane, requiring long waits of up to 45 minutes.

Although two-lane traffic is re-opening, significant construction must still be completed on a new, permanent three-lane bridge. That work is expected to wrap up next year.

SPONSORED BY JAMES AND JAMESY

O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy

Fans of Python, Bean, and Seuss… Grab your teacups! 3x London Impresario Winners, James & Jamesy, bring their wildly popular O Christmas Tea: A British Comedy to stages in North Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Mission, and Chilliwack.

Their comic physicality, wordplay, and cleverly crafted interactive elements, is "Complete and utter fun!” - CBC

🗓 Things to do this week/end

✒️ Poetry and art show: A new art and poetry exhibit showcases creative work from staff and people served by Communitas Supportive Care Society. An artist talk and reading will take place Dec. 14 at The Reach Gallery Museum. Details online.

🎅 Christmas neighbourhood tour: The Mount Lehman neighbourhood’s Christmas Home Tour will hold its second annual event to raise money to end human trafficking on Dec. 16 and 17. Homes in the neighbourhood have been sets for over 50 Hallmark movies. Details online.

🚂 Holiday Train: The Canadian Holiday Train will pull into Agassiz on Sunday, Dec. 16 for a festive musical performance at the station. The train will visit Lytton that afternoon. Find 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.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

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