Bev Dornan has announced she will run again for Langley Township council.
Dornan was first elected to council in 2008, in her first try for office. She has lived in Langley since she was five and is a long-time employee of Otter Co-op, where she is general merchandise manager.
“I totally enjoy being involved with the community and working with the people of Langley,” she said. “I want to be involved.”
Dornan believes that Langley Township faces many challenges as a growing community which does not have all its infrastructure in place.
“We will be growing by leaps and bounds in the future,” she said. “We need to work at balanced growth and get our infrastructure in place. — police, fire, water, sewer. We have to keep taxes to a minimum, but the infrastructure isn’t all in place, and we have to pay for it.”
Dornan said the current council has done a good job in keeping expenses down, but more can be done in the future.
Transportation is also an important issue.
“As the community is growing, the need to move people efficiently, safely and cost effectively has become one of the most important issues for all of the Fraser Valley, not just Langley,” she said.
Working within Langley and also with the other municipalities towards a plan that combines an effective road system as well as a system of mass transit (whether that is buses, light rail or sky train) to link us with each other is most important.
She says agriculture in Langley is very important, and adjustments to the Agricultural Land Reserve boundaries are a recognition that not all land that was in the ALR is arable land. However, she said it is important that land owner whose land is removed from the ALR “put money back in,” through funds like the Agriculture Sustainability Foundation which the Township has set up.
She said the interface between urban and agricultural areas is a continual challenge, as is the availability of water in some areas.
Dornan said the past three years have seen many challenges at council, but she believes she can work with “whoever is around me. Differences of opinion are what democracy is all about.”
She is running as an independent and is not publicly endorsing any candidate for mayor, she said.
Dornan has been a very active member of the community, serving as chair of the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation, president of Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce and a director of the B.C. chamber. She has also been involved with Aldergrove Festival Days and the former Aldergrove Chamber of Commerce.
She was the winner of the Women of Excellence Award for Business Employee in 2005.