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Township council caves in to cries of ‘Wolf’

I see our newly elected Municipal Council has caved into the demands of Mr. “WOLF”,

Editor:

I see our newly elected Municipal Council has caved into the demands of Mr. “WOLF”, the bully from Glen Valley, who having saved his own personal park is now out to ensure that the residents of Aldergrove meet his demands for more preserved area, this time not in his backyard but in our backyard.

I expect most residents agree that we should try not to incur extra debt in building a rec centre and selling off the old sewer plant site may be a good way to help do that. In the memory of people who actually live in Aldergrove, that property was completely logged off 70 plus years ago. In later years it was a small farm and then it became the sewer plant site complete with large open lagoons used to treat Aldergrove’s sewage. In the late '70s it became an overloaded stinking mess and it was eventually replaced (in the '90s) with a sewer line to the outside world. Since then it has sat a vacant and mostly treeless site where a few “second growth” (actually third or fourth maybe fifth growth) trees have grown up.

I don’t believe we should clear cut the Fraser Valley but conservation has to be reality based. We have the ALR to the north, south and west; we have a 1,322 acre park less than four miles away, plus several smaller parks in town so we have plenty of protected treed properties. Every time new housing is built trees have to be removed and every housing site ends up having land-use appropriate trees planted within it. At some time past the site of every single residence in Langley, mine, yours and Mr. WOLF’s, has had the native trees removed. Is a third growth cedar tree any more valuable than a new street tree or an ornamental tree or a fruit tree in a resident’s yard? Or do the hired-gun tree and land use “experts” brought in from other communities practice their own little form of “tree discrimination” by saying “save this type of tree and not that one”?

The wolf pack from Glen Valley remind me less of a pack of wolves who prey on the weak and crippled (our Council?) and more like a farm animal who makes a lot of noise trying to get more and more of whatever they are squealing about. They will never be satisfied and their appetite will always exceed their share.

Every member of this Council, except Jack Froese and Dave Davis, promised a recreation centre in Aldergrove, (yes, you too, Charlie Fox, Petra Arnason and Kim Richter). The children of Aldergrove deserve swimming lessons, our seniors deserve a place to help keep them fit and healthy, and our general population deserves the same recreational benefits as the rest of the Township. Every day the residents of Aldergrove help pay for those expensive recreational facilities in other Langley Township communities. It’s time this little community got something back instead of having to build it ourselves. Our existing ice arena was built by a private party, the community centre by the Kinsmen, and South Aldergrove Park with its ball and soccer fields, bike park and skateboard park was built by the Rotary club and other local volunteer groups. I don’t recall who built the existing outdoor pool but it probably wasn’t the Township. (Editor's note: the park and pool were gifted to the Township by Aldergrove Agricultural Association and Aldergrove Elks and Royal Purple.)

I suggest Council do as they promised. Get on with the rec centre. Tell Mr. WOLF to go back to his forest in the valley. If he wanted to run this municipality he should have run for Mayor.

Larry Kydd, Aldergrove resident and Township of Langley taxpayer