As Langley residents welcome 2014, toasting fresh starts and new beginnings, there is still some unfinished business lingering from 2013.
Perhaps the biggest newsmaker of 2013, judging by our letters pages at least, is the Coulter Berry building in Fort Langley — or, rather, the lack of it.
In October, work was halted on the controversial building after a B.C. Supreme Court ruling. It has left a massive hole, now dubbed “the Heritage Hole” in the heart of Fort Langley.
The judge who ordered the work stopped recently left the Township with a window to possibly let work continue but not without another full set of public hearings. What the Township will decide remains to be seen, as does what the developer now wants to do, having already lost time and money.
What we can predict is that Coulter Berry will dominate the news well into 2014 and one can only hope the personalized attacks will be taken out of the mix.
Meanwhile, Aldergrove residents have been left high and dry about whether they are getting a swimming pool and, if so, what size it will be.
Estimated costs for the community centre project ballooned well past what the Township could stomach. So far, it’s looking like the community centre rink has been put on ice and let’s hope the pool the community gets is bigger than a wading one.
Aldergrove has the been the redheaded stepchild of communities in Langley and deserves a proper full-length pool. One wonders why costs can’t be shared with Abbotsford, with its residents very likely to benefit from it.
While the provincial election upset of 2013 sent political junkies into a frenzy, it left a hole in Langley City, with well-liked mayor Peter Fassbender leaving for bigger things.
Fassbender is now the minister of education, with councillor Ted Schaffer stepping in as acting mayor. We won’t even begin to predict who will be running for the mayorship in the municipal election in November 2014.
This New Year has potential for a lot of mud slinging, but before that happens let’s all take in the famous lyrics of the New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne to heart and “take a cup o’ kindness yet.”
Kindness carries more weight in the world than mud any day.