Wednesday, May 10, 2023 | 🌤️ High 22C | Forecast

Good morning!

It’s supposed to get pretty hot out throughout the Lower Mainland this weekend—up to 33C on Sunday. Though I like summer as much as the next person, I’m a little nervous for the rest of the season if this is what May looks like. I’m planning to enjoy it while I can, though. Yesterday I bought a skimboard off Facebook Marketplace (it’s a surfboard that you can ride in flat, shallow water) and I’m planning to figure out how to ride it in the sunshine this weekend.

What are your favourite ways to cool off when it gets horribly hot outside? Do you have a secret Fraser Valley swimming hole we should know about? Let us know!

NEWS

Langley Township seeks separate police force

Langley Township is filing for divorce—of a policing sort.

The Township’s announced this morning that council had voted to stop partnering with Langley City on policing.

Currently, the two municipalities jointly fund a single RCMP detachment that patrols and responds to calls across both the city and the township. But in a press release issued this morning, the township wants to end that, citing a desire to ensure that new police officers it is funding end up working within its boundaries, not that of the city.  

• Today, Tyler and Joti explain why the township is breaking with its close neighbour, consider what comes next, and look if the township’s complaints were justified.

Need to know

❗️ More floods and fires could come with a rare May heatwave [CBC/Canadian Press]

☀️ Temperatures are forecast to hit the low 30s this weekend [Environment Canada]

🏥 Emergency patients in a Langley hospital are waiting longer for doctors, partly as a result of the new provincial contract with physicians [Langley Advance Times]

🚓 Three kids were hit in a crosswalk on Keith Wilson Road in Chilliwack yesterday [Chilliwack Progress]

🚨 Chilliwack RCMP arrested a man with a BB gun [Chilliwack Progress]

👉️ A family marks a sombre anniversary a year after two Abbotsford seniors were killed in their home [CTV]

🧺 An annual heritage picnic in Langley City will feature two presenters who learned they were cousins through their interest in history [Langley Advance Times]

👉️ After two years outside, a memorial for residential school students in Langley was taken down after it started to crumble under the elements [Langley Advance Times]

🖼️ The Chilliwack Museum is thriving after enduring difficulties during the pandemic [Chilliwack Progress]

🐶 An unhoused man and his dog have been walking across the country to raise awareness of the need for shelters that accept both people and their pets [Mission Record]

SPONSORED BY FORT LANGLEY JAZZ FESTIVAL

Big Band Swing Dance & Silent Auction with the Dal Richards Orchestra

Get your dancing shoes on for the Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival Big Band Swing Dance, May 12, at the Fort Langley Community Hall. Featuring the Dal Richards Orchestra, swing dance lessons, silent auction, cash bar, and more!

Get your tickets here!

The Agenda

Road upgrades underway in Chilliwack

Work to widen the Vedder and South Sumas Road intersection is underway in Chilliwack.

The wider intersection will have space for new left-turn lanes for both east- and west-bound traffic. Work to move power and phone lines is currently underway, and construction on the road itself will start later this month and end in July.

Elsewhere in the city, work continues on a summer’s allotment of paving and repairs. Eleven streets have had repairs or upgrades completed so far this season. Five more streets are slated for paving work this month (click here for locations), including a project that will widen Uplands Road from Promontory to Uplands.

Home prices back on the upswing

The Fraser Valley’s topsy-turvy real estate market is once again seeing significant price increases.

Across the region, prices rose significantly in April—particularly for single-family homes. Benchmark prices—roughly the cost of a “typical house”—increased between 3% and 4% across much of the region.

Prices and sales are still lower than a year ago, but they have started rebounding. The chair of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board said realtors expect that the number of homes for sale to climb as potential sellers see prices increasing once again.

🤝 Now hiring

• Animal care attendant at the BC SPCA in Chilliwack

• Summer camp support leader for the City of Abbotsford

• Web application specialist for the City of Chilliwack

• Locksmith at the Langley School District

• Assistant general manager at Old Yale Brewing in Abbotsford

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.

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