Local News Reviews

Langley Advance – Tuesday, December 28, 2005

1) City Council will send a “strongly worded” letter to Township Council objecting to Township removing the truck route designation on 216 street from 40th to the Fraser Highway because trucks may be diverted through the City on 200th Street. Get real. Will the Township jump up and reverse their decision? Ahh let’s see. The City plows unilaterly ahead with the 204th street overpass and the casino despite Township’s concerns. They are also still being subsidized by the Township for about 7 cops a year at $100k+ each. This was brought up by Township well over a year ago and gosh the issue seems to be being studied to death somewhere in Langley City Hall black hole. Yeah sure - township council will spark right up to the City’s letter!

2) Jacob de Raadt, former Township resident and municipal activist (who was a key critic years back of the 200th street single point overpass), wrote a letter from his new home in Arizona very critical of the outdated 1950’s style development still rampant in Langley. Interesting to note that 13 years ago we were nicknamed “Canada’s Cul-de-Sac Capital”. Basically de Raadt says developers in Langley are still being allowed to get away with ancient tired development that is not livable by today’s standards.

Langley Times – Wednesday, December 29, 2005

1) Township Council voted 8-1 against excluding the existing Fort Langley Seaplane Base from the ALR. Staff reported that excluding the base from the ALR could lead in future “to other non-farm commercial use”. Good call by Council since the remote land east of Fort Langley located at 24600 River Road could become gosh knows what if approved. A detailed plan of what the owners really want to develop should be clearly stated before ever approving an ALR exclusion at that location. Jordan Bateman was the dissenting vote.

2) Congratulations Langley City! Besides having ever-growing numbers of hookers, thefts and burglaries, you are now beating Surrey for the car theft capital of the Lower Mainland. What more can we say?

3) Langley City Council wants “federal candidates to focus on Municipal Issues”. In other words, they want MP Mark Warawa to get them money for their way overbudget 204 Street overpass! Unless the Conservatives form the next government, no money, no way! Besides we agree completely with prolific City activist, Don Woode, who says the planned overpass location is poor and would be better located at Glover and the Bypass. We say either location will still feed money into their casino so what’s the problem?

4) This should be page one news! Sewer system upgrades in Aldergrove are needed and the total cost to you & me will be somewhere between $32 to $65 Million. How do you spell tax & spend municipal government? (Emphasis on tax).

5) Bucky is back! We crystal ball that a scathing editorial about the evil Federal Liberals will be published in the next week. Why? Well, just because! (Have you ever seen a negative editorial about the Conservatives?). Today’s editorial speaks to the growing variety of crime we’re now seeing in Langley. Our translation: crime is a major problem. The RCMP Members in Langley are great cops. But, something has not been working well. New leadership and new ideas are desperately needed – not just more cops.