Eighty Years Ago
December 15, 1938
• Reeve (Mayor) A.C. Hope was re-elected by acclamation. Also returned without contest were councillors Reid in Ward 2, Skea in Ward 3, and Jackson in Ward 5.
• Jim Graham chaired the annual stewardship meeting. Reeve Hope noted that the municipality had a bank overdraft of $33,000, but that that was offset by taxes in arrears of $37,000.
Seventy Years Ago
December 16, 1948
• The B.C. Motor Transport Co. offered $2,200 for the triangle of land at the northwest corner of Athletic Park for use as a new bus depot.
• The Lower Fraser Valley Artificial Insemination Association authorized its directors to borrow $10,000, which along with $17,000 on hand, plus the anticipated sale of property in Surrey, would ensure enough cash for the construction of a new barn in Milner, according to chairman Tom Berry.
Sixty Years Ago
December 11, 1958
• A delegation of 14 irate homeowners protested the granting of gravel pit licences in the Larson Road (28th Avenue) area. They feared more pits would lower property values, as well as the water table, while adding to already heavy truck traffic. A particular target for the protesters was a Surrey pit that operated through the night and used Langley’s roads to haul the gravel.
• Nine inches (22 cm) of snow fell, but disappeared in a couple of days.
Fifty Years Ago
December 12, 1968
• Aldermen Art Woolley and Walter Jensen were re-elected to council, joined by Joe Breier. The school trusteeship vacated by Breier to run for council was won by Dr. Fred Ceresny. Less than 20 per cent of eligible voters turned out to the polls.
• Taxpayers approved a $37,000 bylaw referendum to build a firehall in northwest Langley. The vote was 1,292 to 270.
More than half of Fernridge voters okayed a recreation plan for their area, but the 77-66 result fell short of the 60 per cent majority required. Even closer, Murrayville defeated a street-lighting bylaw with 59.1 per cent in favour.
Forty Years Ago
December 13, 1978
• A gravel-removal operation proposed at the Surrey-Langley border was killed at third reading by Surrey council. The surprise decision resulted from protests by Langley residents who feared damage to salmon habitat in Anderson Creek.
Township Mayor George Driediger’s company won the Langley City towing contract.
Thirty Years Ago
December 14, 1988
• Two bullets entered an Aldergrove home in a drive-by shooting. No one was injured.
• New Langley City Mayor Joe Lopushinsky wasted no time ruffling feathers, suggesting that he was not properly paid, in comparison to the City’s aldermen.
Twenty Years Ago
December 15, 1998
• A provisional budget surplus of $7 million was expected in Langley Township for the coming year, up from $4 million in the current budget.
• Kwantlen University College horticulture dean was named the 1998 Educator of the Year by the B.C. Landscape and Nursery Association.
• Counter-petitioners against the deal to privatize Langley’s ice arenas presented Township council with 5,646 signatures – significantly more than twice the number they needed.
• Meanwhile, an audit of the proposed Canlan privatization deal showed that the Township would be paying the company more than it had been paying itself – but would come out $2.5 million ahead in the long run.
• Langley City moved its administrative staff to the old Hong Kong Bank of Canada building, making way for the current city hall to be torn down and rebuilt along with a library.