LangleyAdvance Your community newspaper since 1931
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Breaking news, sports, and entertainment: www.langleyadvance.com
Audited circulation: 40,026 – 32 pages
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Safety
Treats, no tricks Firefighters and police are hoping for an uneventful Halloween night.
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The Veen family at 20120 53rd Ave. has an elaborate Halloween display. Jordan Veen showed one of the family’s costumes. The display will be open to the public only on the evening of Oct. 31. Those wanting to view it are asked to bring a non-perishable donation for the food bank. The display gets bigger each year, and as soon as Remembrance Day is past, work starts on a Christmas display.
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Parkland
McLellan lands now official Langley park Land the Township once tried to sell officially became a public park this week. by Matthew Claxton
mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
• RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL
Halloween is not as busy a night as you might think for Langley’s emergency services, and that’s just the way they like it. According to assistant chief Pat Walker of the Langley Township fire service, since 2007 they’ve gone from 47 fireworks-related calls per Halloween down to as few as zero. The change was a bylaw that banned selling fireworks, and put in strict limitations on how locals can set off their own display. “It’s virtually eliminated all our issues,” said Walker. Previously, the department would be prepared for fires in hedges, mail boxes, garbage cans, and even structure fires. They also saw burn injuries, and Walker personally saw kids or teens with hand and facial burns after a couple of incidents. “We haven’t seen any since the bylaw’s been in place,” he said.
The McLellan Forest is now officially a municipal park, after decades of being considered one by its Glen Valley neighbours. The Langley Township council announced Monday that the 25.75 acre park on 84th Avenue and 252nd Street has been declared a nature park. The news was a pleasant surprise to members of the Watchers
of Langley Forests (WOLF) which had lobbied for the land to become a park. In February the group asked for conservation status for the land. “This is actually more than what we asked for,” Robertson said. The group was actually preparing a new presentation to council and expected to speak before them sometime towards the end of November about the land. Controversy raged over the property through 2012 and into this year. The land had long been owned by the Township, after the site was acquired in the first half of the 20th century for non-payment
Clocks changing this weekend
of taxes owed the Township. The parcel of properties known as McLellan West had essentially been left undisturbed for decades, and a sizeable forest had grown up. Residents from nearby streets had made their own paths among the trees for hiking and dog walking, and local bike riders had built ramps out of dirt and lumber for doing stunts. When the Township decided to sell two sizeable chunks of land, both the western and eastern sections of land along 84th Avenue, the neighbourhood erupted in protest. The council backed down on its plan to sell the western lands, but WOLF, artists, and students,
along with renowned wildlife artist Robert Bateman, urged the Township to keep all the lands public and designate them as parks. Most of the eastern properties were purchased through a private donation from the family of the late Thomas Blaauw. His widow Ann and her family donated $2.5 million to allow Trinity Western University to buy the lands, which will be managed as a conservation area. Public access is to be preserved, and TWU will use the land for environmental education and research. The sale of public lands usually funds other public projects and land purchases.
Remember the old saw: Spring forward… fall back. Daylight Saving Time returns to Pacific Standard Time this weekend. Turn clocks back one hour at bedtime for an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night.