Eighty Years Ago

March 18, 1937

Council approved a grant to help the Upper Fraser Fisherman’s Association send a representative to Ottawa to voice opposition to the fish trap licence.

Council also chose to increase its reforestation scheme by 80 acres, while objecting to a school board request for $2,000 to buy land for a new school and sports ground.

Seventy Years Ago

March 20, 1947

The school board took the lead in reviving the annual May 24 sports day which had been neglected since the outbreak of war.

Among five sites suggested for a new post office, at the request of MP Tom Reid, was the Lyttleton property on Topping Road (204th Street).

Sixty Years Ago

March 14, 1957

School board chairman Trevor Beggs announced that a sod-turning for the new Aldergrove high school was expected in mid-May.

Fifty Years Ago

March 16, 1967

The number of Langley people on welfare dropped to 7.4 per cent in February.

Langley and Surrey Dairy Herd Associations combined to become a single organization.

Forty Years Ago

March 17, 1977

Alderman Stan Fraser absented himself while the rest of council decided to have his firm test pump the municipal wells in Aldergrove.

Langley City council attempted to ban gravel trucks from 46th Avenue and 200th Street – which would have left owners of a gravel pit adjacent to the City with no way to remove the gravel.

Thirty Years Ago

March 18, 1987

A new national political party made its mark on Langley when the Fraser Valley West Riding Association of the Christian Heritage Party held its first annual meeting.

A move to limit the amount of garbage allowed in Aldergrove’s Jackman Pit Landfill was rejected by Township council.

Twenty Years Ago

March 14, 1997

A man apparently disgruntled with a fellow employees took hostages at gunpoint at a furniture store on Mufford Crescent. Shots were fired but no one was injured. The man eventually surrendered to police.

A Langley man was hospitalized after he was shot in the face outside a Newton night club. Another Langley man was charged in the shooting.

Langley Memorial Hospital Society rejected the provincial health ministry’s plan to amalgamate control of four Langley and Surrey hospitals under the South Fraser Valley Regional Health Board. More than 99.5 per cent of the more than 1,000 society members voted against the plan.

Langley City council agreed to a six-month test conversion of Fraser Highway into a one-way street from 204th to 206th Streets, with a 30 km/h speed limit and angle parking on both sides. The conversion was to cost $60,000, with another $30,000 set aside to complete the project – if it worked – or return the road to its previous state after the six months were up.

Township council approved creation of a Business Improvement Area for Fort Langley.

Disclosure of election spending revealed that Mayor John Scholtens had spent $40,000 in his successful bid for re-election in November. In total, his Langley Leadership Team had spent $171,000 to place four members at the council table and five on the school board.

A snowstorm wreaked havoc on Langley streets.