Thursday - Feb. 1, 2024 - What's up in February?

🌧 High 11C

Good morning!

I have a lot of friends who have gotten entangled in some kind of pyramid scheme or another. So, when someone I knew six years ago reaches out to me over social media, I kind of expect them to try to sell me makeup or kitchenware or artisanal lettuce or something. But the other day a friend I made working at a summer camp in high school reached out, got my phone number, and just called to catch up out of the blue. It was really fun, and it has me planning to do the same to some other old friend I haven’t spoken to in a few years.

– 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

What’s up in February?

Love is in the air this month—but it’s thicker in some areas than in others.

February is a month for celebrating the loved ones in our lives. Two whole holidays are dedicated to it: the classic Valentine’s Day and the more recent addition of Family Day. Special ways to celebrate both will take place throughout the Fraser Valley over the next few weeks—though some local spots have eschewed romantic events for their singleness-celebrating cousins.

• Today, Grace writes about what’s happening this month, which is (somehow) February already.

Related

Need to Know

🏘️ Increased housing density could be coming for some single-family projects in Langley Township [Langley Advance Times]

🗓️ There are two months left to provide your feedback on the province’s plan to share land-use decision-making with First Nations [Abbotsford News]

👉️ The deadline for homeless campers to leave Island 22 passed yesterday [Chilliwack Progress]

🌳 A Chilliwack organization is running a day-long workshop on managing eco-anxiety later this month [Chilliwack Progress]; We wrote about the rise of eco-anxiety last year [FVC]

📱 You can now use your phone to pay your bus fare in most of the Fraser Valley [BC Transit]

🐝 UBC researchers are studying whether planting flowers to attract pollinators helps nearby crops [UBC Okanagan]

🔥 A fire has forced a family from their home in Mission [Mission Record]

🎞️ A Fort Langley non-profit is running a 48-hour film contest later this month [Langley Advance Times]

👚 Plus-size women’s fashion store Torrid will open a location in Abbotsford [Abbotsford News]

🚔️ A prolific offender was arrested after a string of break-and-enters in Abbotsford [Fraser Valley Today]

➡️ The City of Abbotsford is updating its Official Community Plan and seeking public input [Abbotsford News]

🤑 An Aldergrove resident won $50,000 on a scratch ticket [Langley Advance Times]; an Abbotsford resident won $500,000 on a grand prize draw [Abbotsford News]

🌴 Escape to Thailand and leave the cold weather behind, with non-stop travel from YVR.*

*Sponsored Listing

The Agenda

Lytton gets free rescue truck

Instead of trying to sell their fire department’s 27-year-old rescue truck, Port Moody is giving it away to the Village of Lytton. 

Port Moody had decommissioned the truck and an even-older pumper vehicle because of their ages. Together, the two trucks wouldn’t fetch more than $20,000, according to their fire chief. So instead, they’re giving them away.

Loon Lake is getting the pumper, while the rescue vehicle is going to Lytton. The village’s new rescue truck won’t be able to put out fires, but the Village of Lytton says it’s still going to be a great help for its volunteer fire department. 

In particular, it means the department won’t have to take its fire-response engine to respond to road events over its huge coverage area. That will allow the fire truck to remain available and in service more often. The village hasn’t had a dedicated rescue truck to service their large road rescue boundary, so Lytton Fire & Rescue has had to take an engine out of service while responding to long rescue calls.

Although the truck had reached the end in Port Moody, Lytton said the donation “will greatly increase Lytton Fire & Rescue’s response capacity for the greater community and will serve Lytton for years to come.”

The TriCity News reported that Port Moody’s councillors were happy to help smaller and remote communities protect themselves. But they also suggested that other, larger communities should also step up to the plate.

SPONSORED BY BC TRANSIT

Go with Umo

BC Transit’s new electronic fare system, Umo, is ready for use in the Central Fraser Valley, Chilliwack, Agassiz-Harrison, and Hope transit systems!

It’s your choice how to use Umo – mobile app or reloadable card.

Visit bctransit.com/umo for more information, including videos and FAQs.

🗓 Things to do this week/end

🥳 Block party: Mission’s “First Friday” free block party will be held Friday, Feb. 2 in downtown Mission. Find live music, entertainment, and shopping on and around 1st Ave. Details online.

🎙️ Open mic: Russ Rosen hosts an open mic night every Thursday at the Bez Arts Hub. Sign up at 7:15pm, performances start at 7:30pm. Details online.

🎻 Opera and tech: Live from the underworld, a show combining opera and real-time motion capture, will be on at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Saturday, Feb. 3. Find tickets 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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