Aldergrove resident Alyssa Nielsen was glad to see a tree of lights go up in the temporary public plaza at 272nd Avenue and Fraser Highway, calling it “very festive and very beautiful.”
“In the midst of everything that all of us have been going through in so many communities, it lifts my spirits,” Nielsen said.
This year, the lights were arranged in a tree-shaped pattern on wires by a volunteer crew from Aldergrove’s “Buy The Right Light Co.” using lights purchased by the Township and stored by the company.
Owner Dave Struthers said it took staffers Gavin Schellenberg and Henry Pelton the better part of an evening to install the lights on Monday, Nov. 29.
“We didn’t finish up till about 1 in the morning [the next day]” Struthers told the Langley Advance Times.
Aldergrove Business Association vice-president Veronica Cave watched the lights go up from her business across the street, Veronica’s Gourmet Perogies.
“They really worked hard,” Cave said of the volunteer effort that created the tree of lights.
“I absolutely love it. I think it’s great.”
READ MORE: 27-foot-tall Christmas tree approved for former Alder Inn site
In 2020, a 27-foot Norwegian Spruce from an Abbotsford tree farm was set up on the lot, the former location of the Alder Inn.
Councillors Bob Long and Petrina Arnason convinced a majority of Langley Township council to fund the tree and set it up with lights.
The Inn, which housed a bar, a liquor store, hotel rooms, and Langley’s last strip club, had been in operation since 1948 and shut it’s doors in June of 2019.
The municipality spent $5.4-million to purchase the hotel as well as two neighbouring lots.
READ ALSO: Alder Inn site to become public plaza for celebrations in near future
In June, Township council approved creating a temporary public plaza on the site, budgeting $150,000 for chairs, planters, and lights.
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