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Langley in history: Township council doesn't give itself a pay raise

A look back through the files of the Langley Advance which started in 1931.
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Eighty Years Ago

April 16, 1936

• Commissioners Pratt, Coates, and Gilmore of Abbotsford were to address a meeting called by the Langley Board of Trade to discuss incorporation of Langley Prairie as a separate municipality.

• Council agreed to pay $1,000 for a small strip of land near Patricia School in south Aldergrove, so children could walk to school without trespassing on private property which was being seeded to crop. Purchase of the property was cheaper than the alternative: construction of access across a deep ravine.

• Council also decided to buy a diesel tractor bulldozer for $2,250.

Seventy Years Ago

April 18, 1946

• The school board took an option on 30 acres of Mrs. Niel McLeod’s farm at Roberts Road (56th Ave.) and Johnston Townline Road (216th St.), to build a new high school.

• Langley Legion changed the site of its proposed auditorium from the Trans-Canada Hwy. (Fraser Hwy.), across from the Rump and Sendall Hatchery, to two acres on Roberts Road (56th Ave.).

Sixty Years Ago

April 19, 1956

• Langley City’s tax rate dropped from 52.8 mills to 38 mills after a re-assessment of property values. The Township’s rate for 45 mills was down from the 53 mills of the previous year. However, property taxes were expected to yield the same total income as in 1955.

• Langley City’s superintendent of schools, licence inspector, plan approval officer, and building inspector was fired by City Council following the discovery of irregularities in his duties.

• Plans for a new city hall included a health centre, after plans to renovate an old house into a city hall were abandoned.

Fifty Years Ago

April 21, 1966

• Final count of 394 blood donations made Langley’s Red Cross clinic the second most productive ever in in the area.

• Langley City’s 1966 tax rate was set at 64 mills, an increase of three over the 1965 levy.

Forty Years Ago

April 15, 1976

• Aldergrove Chamber of Commerce called on Township council to build a curling rink in the area.

• Township council consulted its solicitors about the status of a property owner who refused to dedicate a piece of property to upgrading of 56th Ave.

• The beginning of the year indicated a 50 per cent increase in building permits.

• A new recreation complex was opened at Chrisholme Training Centre for Boys.

• Township Council’s motion to raise mayoral and aldermanic paycheques by 6.3 per cent died without a seconder.

Thirty Years Ago

April 16, 1986

• A major developer withdrew its proposal for Square One in Langley City, but Mayor Reg Easingwood was optimistic that the plans for a regional shopping centre could be revived.

• Jury deliberations began in the murder trial of Jeffry Ewert who had pleaded insanity in the killing of Corinna Makiev.

Twenty Years Ago

April 17, 1996

• Langley School District’s budget was $2.7 million over the Ministry of Education’s allowance of $105,225,733.

• Less than two weeks after the Thunder, Langley’s junior A hockey franchise, was eliminated from the play-offs, local coaches Rick Lanz and Mark Hollick skated off to head up Surrey’s Eagles instead.

• Township council wouldn’t budge on its decision to charge Aldergrove Kinsmen standard rental fees for a few days’ use of a facility that the service club itself had built, the Aldergrove Kinsmen Community Centre.

• Parents’ petitions and lobbying finally paid off in a $4.2 million expansion of Walnut Grove Secondary School.

• Police seized 380 grams of heroin – estimated to be worth a quarter million dollars – in a raid on a corner store in Langley City.