Money from the budget of the cancelled Magic of Christmas Parade in Langley City will pay for Christmas lights from 201st St. to 203rd St. along Fraser Hwy., a stretch that has been light-free for several Christmases.
Council voted to approve the proposal to spend up to $10,000 on Monday, Dec. 6, after Councillor Paul Albrecht, chair of the Magic of Christmas Parade committee, described it as “something that the city should be doing, that is, providing lighting along a main corridor that comes into our community and adds that cheerfulness, that happiness, that spreading of Christmas cheer in the holiday season.”
The committee “felt it was an appropriate time and appropriate thing to do,” Albrecht remarked.
Because the Downtown Langley Business Association (DLBA) had already purchased and installed lights for that stretch of Fraser Highway, Coun. Gayle Martin suggested the proposal ought to be reworded to make it clear the city was reimbursing the DLBA, and the rest of council agreed.
The lights will become property of the City and will be installed and stored by staff, Albrecht explained.
Coun. Rudy Storteboom said the residents and businesses along that stretch of Fraser Hwy. have been feeling left out for a long time.
“This will be a real boost to the spirit,” Storteboom predicted.
In response to a question by Coun. Nathan Pachal, Albrecht said the city was looking into the lights issue before the DLBA acted to buy lights.
“We were in the process of finding out what the cost would be,” Albrecht said.
“With the cancellation of the parade we had some excess money available. So we thought it would be appropriate to redirect [the funds].”
“This wasn’t the DLBA forcing the City’s hand,” Pachal commented, adding “this is something we were looking at doing.”
Pachal called Fraser Hwy. near 201st St. the city’s “eastern gateway” to downtown and deserves the same Christmas light treatment as the “western gateway.”
Mayor Val van de Broek said she supported the lights, but felt the way the proposal was presented, put council in a “predicament.”
“I feel like it was a decision that was made before it came to council,’ van den Broek said.
Coun. Teri James, who is executive director of the DLBA, excused herself from the discussion.
READ ALSO: Langley City cancels Christmas parade
In November, the City’s Magic of Christmas Committee announced that the 2021 Magic of Christmas Parade would be cancelled due to the ongoing impacts of the coronavirus.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: Christmas in Langley’s Williams Park returns
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