Eighty Years Ago
July 28, 1938
• Residents from other parts of the Fraser Valley complained about alleged over-zealous speed limit enforcement by Langley police.
• The Young People’s Club of Sharon United Church sold farm produce, donated by local farmers, at the New Westminster market.
• Complaints were received that members of the poultry club had been exhibiting livestock in the municipal hall.
Seventy Years Ago
July 29, 1948
• Council prepared a $25,000 bylaw to replace 25 bridges, all but one of them with steel culverts. The province agreed to replace 15 bridges washed out by the June flood.
• The Nicomekl River flowed white after the Roberts Road Bridge, weakened by the June flood, collapsed under the weight of a milk truck.
Sixty Years Ago
July 31, 1958
• Rainless clouds gave only partial relief from a heat wave that peaked at 100ºF (37.8ºC) on Sunday.
• Councillor Eric Flowerdew tried unsuccessfully to get the rest of council to force developers to provide adequate water for new homes. He was opposed by Councillors Walter Jensen and S.T. Hogben, who said, “If [purchasers] buy land without water, they do so at their own peril.” Three times, Flowerdew’s resignation from his chairmanship was refused.
Fifty Years Ago
August 1, 1968
• Langley City and Township agreed that the Union Oil Co. could use a small stretch of Kerr Road (198th Street) which had fallen into disuse with the opening of Langley Bypass. The oil company already owned the adjoining property at the junction of the bypass and Fraser Highway, formerly owned by the Langley Elks Lodge.
• Both municipalities also decided to house their RCMP headquarters together in Murrayville. For economic reasons, however, the two detachments would maintain separate identities.
Forty Years Ago
August 2, 1978
• Mayor George Driediger announced a freeze on staff, police, and capital expenditures, towards a rollback of $1 million in the Township budget. He called on the school board to also trim its budget $1.5 million.
• Fort Langley’s new post office building was officially opened.
Thirty Years Ago
July 27, 1988
• Federal electoral reform dived Langley in two, with Brookswood and Southwest Langley forming part of the new Surrey-White Rock riding, and the rest of the Township and Langley City, coupled with some of Abbotsford, forming a redesigned Fraser Valley West riding.
Twenty Years Ago
July 31, 1998
• Despite the protests of residents, union workers, and user groups, Township council approved the handover of Langley Civic Centre and Aldergrove Arena management to a private company, Canlan.
• The biggest equestrian show in the Pacific Northwest was to be hosted in Langley, at Milner Downs.
• The Livable Region Strategy being promoted by the Greater Vancouver Regional District aimed to put more jobs at home in Langley.