Eighty Years Ago
December 30, 1937
• Dr. Marr resigned as medical health officer and was replaced by Dr. McBurney.
• Reeve (mayor) Thomas Reid wanted more vegetables grown in Langley for the Vancouver market. He believed there was an outlet for parsnips and carrots.
Seventy Years Ago
December 31, 1947
• Police court fines for the previous month totaled $207. Traffic offenders included a school zone violator, seven speeders in 20-mile-per-hour zones, three double-parkers, three cases of two riders on one bicycle, and three dangerous drivers.
Sixty Years Ago
January 2, 1958
• A mud slide blocked Rawlison Crescent on Christmas day. It was the wettest holiday in 22 years.
• The new Fort Langley Elementary school was officially opened by a representative of the B.C. Department of Education.
Fifty Years Ago
January 4, 1967
• The highways department notified Langley City that the lights at New McLelland Road (56th Avenue) and Fraser Highway were no longer necessary.
• A ratepayers’ association was formed in Fort Langley, with the objective of getting rid of the McDonald’s Cedar Products sawdust burner.
• First baby of the New Year was Gwen Elaine Klassen, first-born of Mr. and Mrs. John Klassen.
• An arbitration board award, raising Langley teachers’ payroll by 6.8 per cent, was calculated to cost taxpayers an extra 3½ to four mills.
Forty Years Ago
January 4, 1978
• A newly published 288-page volume, The Langley Story, written by Donald Waite, covered Langley’s history from 1828 to 1918.
• Arbitration gave Langley teachers a six per cent pay hike, the maximum allowed by the federal Anti-Inflation Board.
• Another study into the proposed Gloucester Estates industrial park development proposed for north Aldergrove had some of council fuming at the Central Fraser Valley Regional District’s “stalling” tactics. Bypassing the CFVRD by going dorectly to the provincial cabinet was suggested as a way of getting the development underway.
• Council decided a proposal to build a shopping centre at the corner of Wix Road (24th Avenue) and Carvolth Road (200th Street) was premature.
Thirty Years Ago
December 30, 1987
• A meeting between the two Langleys and the Central Fraser Valley Regional District was called by the province. They were to discuss Langley City’s wish to opt out of the CFVRD.
• Final approvals were granted to plans for a $4.7-million addition to the Rainbow Lodge seniors’ complex in Langley City.
Twenty Years Ago
January 2, 1998
• Due partly to the efforts of Langley Township Councillor Karen Kersey and others throughout the province, necrotizing faciistis (so-called flesh-eating disease) was officially declared a reportable disease in B.C., meaning that all cases had to be reported for monitoring by a central authority.
• Art Knapp Plantland was voted the Master Trimmer in the Langley Advance Festival of Trees. The event raised $4,210 for the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation.
• Overcrowding at Walnut Grove Secondary School prompted Township Councillor Heather McMullan to vote against the Redwoods Neighbourhood Control Plan, after she had previously backed the plan every step of the way.