Wednesday - Jan. 10, 2024 - No regrets

🌧 High 4C

Good morning!

We’re going to do another mailbag edition (or two) in the coming week or (three). We’ve already asked our lovely members (whose support keeps this thing going) for their questions. We’ve started doing some research but figure we can also open the field to the rest of y’all. You can ask a question here.

One of our members asked: “How long does it take for an average story to go from idea to newsletter?” They did suggest that there might not be an average story. Which is correct!

The Harrison tree story yesterday (and the interview with the mayor today) has its roots in an email a reader sent on Dec. 15. We spoke to the mayor about a week after that and the tree story took another couple weeks to put together, what with the holidays and other priorities. That’s a good simple story. But we also have stories that gestate for months. I’ve got one story in the works that started with an interview with a newly elected school trustee more than a year ago. There have been a couple more interviews since then. Now I just have to write the thing (and take a picture).

Similarly, I’ve got an interesting story on what happens to baby male dairy cows that is ready to go but has waited for the perfect moment to run a story all about scientific advances in bull semen.

– Tyler

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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

Harrison’s mayor has no regrets

Yesterday, we wrote about Harrison Hot Springs’ struggle to decide what to do with three massive aging trees in the centre of town.

While we were researching that story, we spoke to Harrison Hot Springs Mayor Ed Wood. Wood has feuded with his council for more than a year, leveled accusations about “moles,” and dealt with an exodus of staff.

“It’s nasty, nasty, dirty politics at its worst,” he told us, when we started asking about the trees.

• Today, we have the full interview, in which we ask Wood whether he felt any responsibility for the chaos on council.

Related

Need to Know

⚠ The highways into the Interior have been an absolute mess; a semi jack-knifed near the Coquihalla and Highway 3 junction [Castanet], and Highway 1 north of Lytton was closed briefly for a collision [Hope Standard]

❄ More wind and snow and rain is expected [Global]

👉 The City of Abbotsford has warned that freezing temperatures are expected [City of Abbotsford]

🌨 Curious why that sidewalk in front of the local park remains treacherous? Last year we looked at how much effort local cities go to when it comes to clearing their own sidewalks [FVC]

⚖ Three men have been charged with robbing a woman on a rural Abbotsford property last April [Abbotsford News]

👏 A Chilliwack golfer and a Langley basketball player have been named to the University of the Fraser Valley’s sporting hall of fame [UFV]

🌲 Why does nationwide train travel seem so impossible in Canada? [Maisonneuve]

👉 Langley City’s mayor paid tribute to a former councillor who has died [Langley City]

🚔 Langley Township residents are facing a 7% tax increase, with RCMP pay hikes driving much of the change [Aldergrove Star]

🚨 Three Kent Institution inmates were hospitalized with serious injuries after a series of incidents last week [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🏥 Barely a quarter of BC residents say the provincial government has handled health care well [Nanaimo News Bulletin]

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The Agenda

Disc golfers pitch proposal for new course

A pair of disc golfers have pleaded with the City of Mission to create a course for the growing sport in a local park.

Derek Salmon and Robert Gauthier, two members of the Abbotsford Mission Disc Golf Club, visited Mission’s council as a delegation on Monday.

The pair explained the sport to council. They noted that the ideal setting for a course is in a forested area but that courses can be built in a range of other environs, from mountainsides to abandoned landfills. Salmon and Gauthier said the sport has expanded dramatically since the pandemic began. While Mission has a “beginner-friendly” nine-hole course at Centennial Park, the association is hoping the city can create a larger, more-challenging facility.

The pair said that up to 40 people use the Centennial Park course a week, but often can’t keep up with demand from casual and league players. They touted the low costs to start up and maintain a course, as well as the potential for a course to bring in players from out of town. A larger course, they say, would allow for the hosting of tournaments, while reducing conflicts with other park users.

Salmon and Gauthier said the club already has $7,500 to contribute towards the construction of a course, and could fundraise to pitch in even more.

Mayor Paul Horn and the rest of council voiced enthusiasm about disc golf, its affordability, and the possibility of a second course. Horn said that the course at Centennial Park had led to more use of that site, helping make the area feel safer for other users.

He said staff would work with the disc golf players on a future course and how it might fit in with larger park plans around the city.

More: The Fraser Valley Regional Library lends out free disc golf kits. Learn more here. You can find a map of disc golf courses here. Of the largest communities, only Abbotsford lacks a course in a public park.

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📸 Current Cam

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🗓 Things to do

Zappa: The Harrison Festival Society presents Zappostrophe’, a show re-imagining the music of Frank Zappa, Jan. 13 at Harrison Memorial Hall. Tickets online.

AHL hockey: The Abbotsford Canucks host the Tucson Roadrunners at Abbotsford Centre Jan. 12 and 13. Tickets online.

Speech: Langley Seniors in Action hosts its free monthly hub meeting Jan. 17 at 10am at the Langley Senior Resources Society. MP John Aldag will speak on the Dental Plan for Seniors and Universal Basic Income.

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

Catch up

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