Thursday - Feb. 22, 2024 - Mission plots a spray park

🌧 High 10C

Good morning!

One of the worst inventions our society has crafted is the concept of the restaurant birthday song. Who doesn’t want an entire restaurant full of servers (whom, I imagine, are not enjoying this either) to peppily howl a birthday message in a room full of people? Sometimes there are even terrible hats involved.

All these ensuring horrors, however, never stop me from informing our server whenever I’m out with my sister for her birthday. What are siblings for, if not to embarrass in public for entertainment?

– Grace

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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

Mission plots a spray park

Mission wants to build a big, brand new spray park—even though the cost will be much higher than previously budgeted. And at least one councillor wants kids to be able to start playing in the water next summer.

• Today, Tyler writes about ambitious (and costly) plans to deliver a new spray park to residents and kids in Mission—while also preserving trees, consulting with parents and kids, creating a dog park, and getting it all done as soon as possible.

Related (for Insider members)

Need to Know

🏥 BC has the longest average wait time for walk in clinics in Canada—but two of the shortest wait times province-wide are in the Fraser Valley [The Province]

➡️ A “health journey” has taken a BC Conservative candidate out of the race in Chilliwack [Chilliwack Progress]

👉️ Ottawa will pay Matsqui First Nation $59 million in compensation for a 1990 land seizure [Global]

🚘️ Crashes on Highway 1 between Langley and Aldergrove have doubled over the last three years [Langley Advance Times]

🦷 An Abbotsford dentist was fined $15k for unauthorized procedures on a sedated patient [Vancouver Sun]

🏰 The fairytale-style Hazelnut Inn in Yarrow will hold its grand opening on June 1 [Hazelnut Inn/Facebook]

🚓 Mission RCMP found a loaded, 3-D printed gun inside a chip bag during a late-night traffic stop [Fraser Valley Today]

🏞️ The province is dropping proposed changes to land use in the province [Global]

🚚 A road-safety inspection blitz ended with 70 commercial vehicles towed [Abbotsford News]

🙊 A Chilliwack school board trustee has been censured for the third time [Chilliwack Progress]

🎿 A Terrace ski hill is offering free skiing for season pass holders at other, shut-down, mountains [CBC]

🚒 Both residents and their animals were safe after a late night house fire in Chilliwack [Chilliwack Progress]

📷️ CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Ron, who was the first to correctly identify that the location of yesterday’s Current cam photo was the Mission firehouse on 7th Avenue!

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The Agenda

Abbotsford eyes new public art strategy

Abbotsford is looking at overhauling how public art gets created—and maintained—across the city.

Currently, the city sets aside 1% of the budget of all large capital projects for new public art pieces (up to a maximum of $300,000). Public art pieces have included murals, sculptures, large pieces at roundabouts, and abstract pieces. 

But the municipality has started work on a new public art policy, and a consultant’s report for the city says Abbotsford doesn’t have a cohesive plan for how it commissions, inspects, and maintains such art pieces. 

“Art durability is not being adequately defined or assessed at the acquisition phase, the lifespan of artwork is not defined by artist or conservator, the art collection lacks baseline condition and conservation needs information, and there is currently no maintenance program for public art,” the report warned.

The consultant noted that some municipalities are moving away from a per-project-funding scheme and towards a model that incorporates a percentage of all capital spending in a city. Such a scheme allows for more consistent funding and planning. The consultant also suggested the city look at ways to make it easier for the public and stakeholder groups to get involved in public art planning. 

The next stage of the city process will involve staff figuring out how to address the issues raised in the report and what specific policies to implement or change. You can read the full report here. 

🗓 Things to do this week/end

🎻 Classical concert: The Valley Concert Series presents the Carr-Petrova Duo, a pair of classical musicians, at the Matsqui Centre in Abbotsford on Friday, Feb. 23. Details online.

🧁 Cupcake class: A Food Network baking champion is teaching a class on buttercream floral cupcake decoration at the Mission Library on Saturday, Feb. 24. Details online.

🤣 Comedy: Yuk Yuk Media is launching its first comedy series in Abbotsford on Saturday, Feb. 24 at the Matsqui Auditorium. 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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