Wednesday, June 7, 2023 - Saturday morning construction noise

Wednesday, June 7, 2023 | Today: ☀️ High 31C

Good morning!

I went hiking last weekend and my legs are still sore from the effort. I climbed Evan’s Peak in Golden Ears Provincial Park for my first hiking trip of the season. If you go, wear hiking boots and bring bug spray! I went on my own, but I met some interesting people on the trail. One of them told me that if I liked Evans Peak (I don’t think “liked” is the right term, exactly: it was really steep) I should try Goat Ridge in Chilliwack. That’s my destination next weekend if the weather holds out! Do you have a favourite hike in the region that I need to try? Let me know in a reply to this email.

Thanks to new members Dave and Paula! Find out how you can join the Fraser Valley Current Insiders club here.

NEWS

Is 7am too early for Saturday construction?

It’s 7am Saturday morning and you’re awoken from your slumber by the sounds of an excavator removing the earth from the ground.

To speed up home-building efforts, that could be the new reality for Langley Township residents. Council is considering whether the Township should follow Abbotsford, Chilliwack and other Fraser Valley communities by permitting Saturday construction to begin earlier.

But there are disagreements about how best to balance builders’ construction needs with residents’ desire for weekend peace and quiet.

• Today, Joti writes about a proposal to extend construction hours in the Township—and looks at what is allowed in other Fraser Valley cities.

Need to know

🔥 The wildfires west of Harrison Lake have both doubled in size; you can see their latest burn areas using NASA’s FIRMS map [NASA/FIRMS]

🔥 The Chehalis River fire north of Chehalis Lake is now listed at 300 hectares.[BCWS]

🔥 The Statiu Creek fire south of the lake is listed at 30 hectares [BCWS]

🏕️ A campfire ban has been announced for the Coastal Fire Centre starting Thursday, June 8 [BCWS]

🚌 Buses in Langley are getting more crowded as ridership increases past pre-pandemic levels [Langley Advance Times]

🏓 The Chilliwack Curling Club will offer indoor, air-conditioned pickleball courts this summer [Fraser Valley Today]

💵 A Mission high school student is going to McGill University on a $100,000 STEM scholarship [Mission Record]

🎹 A new piano for residents has arrived at the Langley Hospice Society after an attempted fraud last year [Langley Advance Times]

➡️ An Alberta man charged with a Chilliwack murder from four years ago won’t make his first appearance in court until next year [Chilliwack Progress]

🚗 More than 500 vintage cars will be shown off at Chilliwack’s Village Classic Car Show this summer [Chilliwack Progress]

🏳️‍🌈 Hope’s first Pride festival kicked off at the town’s RCMP detachment last week [Hope Standard]

👉️ The man charged with arson for several Abbotsford fires pleads guilty to mischief [Abbotsford News]

🤿 A team of trained divers will clean the bottom of Cultus Lake later this month [Fraser Valley Today]

🏘️ Langley city wants to know what its residents think about denser housing [Langley City]

🚧 Motorists can expect delays on Chilliwack River Road this summer during construction of a bike and pedestrian pathway [Chilliwack Progress]

🚴 A cyclist struck while crossing an Agassiz crosswalk escaped with minor injuries [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

👉️ The three-year-old boy airlifted to hospital last week after nearly drowning in Cultus Lake is expected to live [Fraser Valley Today]

🌤 You can find your local weather forecast here: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

⚠ Here’s the current smoke forecast [Firesmoke.ca]

🚘 Driving today? You can check the current traffic situation via Google here [Google] | You can find DriveBC’s latest updates here [Twitter]

☺ TODAY’S SMILE: Why watch car races when you can watch double-decker bus races in the UK? [ElvisKline99/Youtube]

SPONSORED BY FORT LANGLEY JAZZ & ARTS FESTIVAL

Jazz legends open Fort Langley Jazz Fest

Kick off the 2023 Odlum Brown Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival with a concert you won’t forget, featuring Phil Dwyer’s Connections Quartet.

Phil Dwyer’s Connections Quartet brings together premier musicians in a one-of-a-kind concert including JUNO-award winner, saxophonist and pianist, Phil Dwyer; Juno-award winner Brad Turner on trumpet and piano; renowned international drummer Alan Jones; and Phil’s son, Ben Dwyer on bass.

The quartet will perform new and other works from over 40 years of playing in various configurations together. This illustrious group of artists will perform as two trios and a quartet, all in one with Phil and Brad taking turns at the piano with their alter egos performing on saxophone and trumpet.

Thursday, July 20, 7-10pm at Chief Sepass Theatre! Get your tickets here.

The Agenda

Pickleball project approved in Mission

Tucked in a rural area well away from any sizable neighbourhoods, Wren Park is a long ways for Mission residents to drive to play pickleball. But that’s exactly why it’s going to be home to the city’s newest set of courts.

Council gave its approval Monday to a plan to build six pickleball courts on a concrete pad in the rural park. The project comes a year after noise complaints doomed attempts to create a set of courts at a local school.

The new site for the courts is Wren Park, a park in the Silverhill area just south of Hayward Lake. When pickleball users first considered potential sites, Wren Park was deemed too far out, parks manager Jason Horton told council. But the noise complaints generated by pickleball—the sport’s use of hard paddles and a hard ball generates a continuous and reverberating “clack”ing sound—have doomed the hope to play the sport at more accessible parks.

Only three neighbours live within 100 metres of the new site, and Mayor Paul Horn suggested they’ll be protected by some of the noise by expanses of trees.

“If we needed to, we could put some slats or some material on that northern fence to help rebuff noise as well,” Horn said.

The project received unanimous support from council.

“For the price point, I think we’re getting a good deal,” Coun. Ken Herar said. Construction of the courts will cost $90,000. A basketball hoop on the existing concrete pad will be moved, but remain on site.

Horn also suggested parks staff consider the potential for a dog park at the site.

Single-family home prices on the rise

House prices are once again rising, though it depends on where you look and what you're buying.

The latest figures from the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board show benchmark prices of single-family homes in Abbotsford, Mission, and Langley all rising in May from the previous month. Prices of townhomes and apartments were more mixed.

The benchmark price of a single family house is now $1.6 million in Langley and $1.2 million in Abbotsford. That's up from the start of the year, but $300,000 lower than last May in Langley, and $200,000 lower in Abbotsford.

You can see the statistics for yourself here.

🤝 Now hiring

• Youth worker at the Cyrus Centre in Chilliwack

• Several positions at Archway Community Services in Abbotsford

• Landscape technician at The Grounds Guys of Abbotsford

• Baker at Cobs Bread in Langley

Hiring in the Fraser Valley? Reply back and let us know!

📸 Current Cam

Each week we showcase a different photo from across the valley and invite readers to share their best guesses about where it was taken.

Any guesses as to where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form with your best guess—or with a picture we can use in a future edition.

Things to do

📖 Book club: Books and Borscht, a weekly lunch and book discussion at the Mennonite Heritage Museum, will feature the contributors to Diverse Tapestry. Thursday at noon. Call 604-758-5667 to register.

🌊 Play: Wild Light will be performed on select days between June 8 to 17 at Langley’s Bez Arts Hub. The play about a family’s second chance at life takes places off the coast of Prince Rupert and is inspired by true stories of BC lighthouse keepers. Tickets online.

🎙️ Stand-up comedy: Laughs on Tap is back at Five Roads Brewing in Langley this Saturday. The monthly event features local and less-local comics at the small brewery. Tickets online.

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

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