Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023 - The Professor of Trails

Wednesday, September 20, 2023 | Today: 🌦 High 21C

Good morning!

Oh, to be an internet or phone company in Canada. In what other world can you get hired to deliver a service, then tell your customer that they’d better be home when you show up sometime between 8am and 5pm. Just a small eight-hour window. And if you don’t like it, well, you can try the one other provider, which is either more expensive, doesn’t have the same product, or just is unreliable. Just lovely.

Anyway, you know when we’ll show up! 5:45am, on the dot (give or take your internet provider’s servers and/or overly vigilant email program). Join our newest members and support local journalism by becoming an Insider. It’s less than the cost of a month of half-decent internet.

WORTH KNOWING

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

⚠️ Here’s the current smoke forecast / Check the BC Wildfire Dashboard here

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

NEWS

The trail builder

Four years ago, Penny Deck walked out of the university classroom where she taught nutrition, health, and physiology and into a forest to build mountain bike trails full time.

“It's definitely my dream job,” she said.

As the Fraser Valley Mountain Bike Association’s operations manager, Deck works with volunteers to build, plan, and maintain the mountain bike trails that crisscross the Fraser Valley wilderness. Though she has been mountain biking for 30 years—and helping build trails for almost half that time—she never planned to have a career in the sport she loves.

• On the phone from a biking trail she was building on Sumas Mountain, Deck talked about what it takes to maintain massive trail networks and how the sport of mountain biking itself has changed over the years.

Need to know

🗳 The Hope Mountain Centre for Outdoor Learning is hosting a group paddle in Voyageur canoes down the Fraser River this Sunday [Hope Standard]

🏒 A Chilliwack hockey coach has been recognized for her work with players [Chilliwack Progress]

🌊 Langley Township crews are shoring up the banks of the Salmon River after erosion linked to the 2021 atmospheric river [Langley Advance Times]

🧯 BC United has rolled out a set of proposed wildfire policy changes; they focus on the immediate suppression of fires [Business in Vancouver]

🚗 Old tennis courts in Yarrow will be replaced by a parking lot [Fraser Valley Today]

🏠 The province is offering forgivable loans to homeowners who spruce up secondary suites and rent them out below market rates [Global]

🔥 A fire Monday afternoon destroyed a horse barn and seriously injured one person [Langley Advance Times]

👉 The province doesn’t have a duty to immediately crack down on unlicensed cannabis shops on First Nation reserves, a judge ruled [Business in Vancouver]

🚔 A road rage incident in Mission last week led one driver to brandish a screwdriver at another motorist, police say [Mission Record]

❌ Facebook blocked posts about the assassination of a BC Sikh leader [Press Progress]

👍 BC search and rescue crews say they saved the lives of more than 1,000 people last year [Global] / Chilliwack Search and Rescue hopes to start building a new facility this year [Fraser Valley Today]

The Agenda

$40 million Langley soccer campus gets design go-ahead

Langley Township has given the green light to move ahead with designing the first phase of a new youth soccer campus.

Council voted 4-1 (with three councillors absent) to tell staff to start designing the first phase of a soccer campus slated for the Smith neighbourhood, just off of 208 Street on 76 Avenue. Township staff have previously pegged the cost of the facility at $40 million. And while the municipality has yet to commit that much funding to the project, the township has already budgeted nearly $2 million to plan and design the facility.

The first phase of the future athletic park is expected to include two outdoor synthetic soccer fields, a player warmup and training area, and a drop-off area.

The township, ideally, would like the entire campus to include four artificial turf fields (including an indoor pitch), change rooms, training facilities, food service, and public use areas. But the township doesn’t yet own enough land in the area to do all that. Instead, council will consider a phased approach. The township currently owns enough land to build two fields.

Staff are expected to return to council with a report outlining the construction concepts and estimated associated costs during a November meeting.

SPONSORED BY UNIVERSITY OF THE FRASER VALLEY

University of the Fraser Valley launches a new community report

On September 14, the UFV community came together to celebrate the launch of the 2023 St'elt'elawtexw: UFV Community Report. This report is a new signature publication celebrating the many inspiring collaborations - between students, faculty, staff, volunteers, alumni, and community partners - that personify UFV's mission of engaging learners, transforming lives, and building community.

Read the full report here.

🤝 Now hiring

• Grade 3 teacher at Aberdeen Elementary School in Abbotsford

• Part-time kindergarten teacher at Little Mountain Elementary School in Chilliwack

• Teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing at the Langley School District

• Early Childhood Education teacher at Bear barbershop in Mission

• Education Assistant at Seabird Island Band

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

🗓 Walk for Veterans: The Fraser Valley Walk for Veterans will take place at Mill Lake in Abbotsford on Saturday, Sept. 23. The walk invites Canadians to learn about the lives of veterans after service and raise money through donations and sponsorships. Learn more or register here.

🗓 Agassiz fair: The Agassiz Fall Fair and Corn Festival takes place Friday and Saturday with amusement rides, food trucks, entertainment, agriculture exhibitions, and a corn-husking competition. A full schedule is online.

🗓 Rivers Day: Join Langley Environmental Partners Society at Williams Park from 11am to 2pm on Sunday, Sept. 24 to celebrate World Rivers Day and learn how to help protect and conserve Langley’s watersheds. Details online.

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

Want to promote your business to 30,000+ engaged locals?

Contact our partnerships team today

Have a tip? Email us