Eighty Years Ago
March 31, 1938
• Council took a dim view of the Glen Valley Diking Commission’s demand for its annual payments on Township land in the diking district. The GVDC had not yet paid its $1,200 bill incurred during flooding two years earlier. Council decided to contra the accounts.
• Langley Junior Band faced demand, as the numbers of retiring members outstripped new recruits.
Seventy Years Ago
April 1, 1948
• A $124,000 referendum was planned to buy two graders and a ditcher for road and culvert work.
• Harold Brandow, chairman of the Langley Memorial Hospital Finance Committee, told council $30,068 was needed to finish the hospital. He hoped part would come from the province. Of the total $195,000 cost of the hospital, $75,000 came from the municipality, about a third was expected from the province, and $45,000 was raised publicly. Another $40,000 was also wanted for a nurses’ residence.
Sixty Years Ago
April 3, 1958
• Langley joined the Diefenbaker bandwagon, sending conservative W.A. McLennan to the House of Commons with an 8,000-vote edge over CCFer George Hahn.
• L.A. Davies succeeded Gus Wegesser as president of the Willoughby Hall Society.
Langley High School classes were to start at 8:30 a.m., to coincide with those at the new Aldergrove High School. To accommodate bus schedules, classes would end at 2:30 p.m. at both schools.
Fifty Years Ago
April 4, 1968
• Langley City farmer H.S. Berry was elected to the board of directors of the Fraser Valley Milk Producers Association.
• A 130-foot portable spar tree was one of nine of its kind shipped from Skagit Corporation on Logan Avenue.
• The prospects of supplying Fort Langley with utilities looked dim, according to Councillor Walter Jensen and planner Ken Major. Costs were high, they said, and the population too sparse.
Forty Years Ago
April 5, 1978
• Township council and the school board were at odds over an indoor pool proposed for the corner of 52nd Avenue and 216th Street. Council wanted the board to push for extra federal and provincial money for the project, but the board said it was taking a “hands off” stance.
• Alderman Jock Lindsay suggested the numbers of roaming canines might be reduced by imposing stiffer penalties for owners of dogs caught at large.
• A man accused of the murder of Brenda Kercher had been implicated by his brother, who testified that he had made the accusation as a practical joke.
• Approval in principle of a roller rink at 216th Street and Fraser Highway brought the wrath of residents down on Township council.
Thirty Years Ago
March 30, 1988
• A Langley murder suspect who had escaped jail earlier was recaptured in Tynehead Park by Burnaby RCMP. [The suspect later appeared in court and was acquitted of all of the charges against him.]
• Langley’s new transit tax – for services Langley would not receive until July – was already being raised, and it was just days before it was to be applied.
Twenty Years Ago
April 3, 1998
• An attempt to use new legislation to recall Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman – and several other MLAs from both sides of the legislature throughout B.C. – failed. The local attempt proved especially dismal.
• Langley City mayor Marlene Grinnell said provincial officials indicated a willingness to work toward building a railway overpass.
• Langley school trustees were preparing a policy that would clear tobacco smoke from all school property.
• A Langley City pawn shop operator charged that council’s moratorium on pawn shops hurt his business, and he threatened legal action.
• Langley Township councillor Muriel Arnason was recovering in hospital after having undergone bypass surgery.