ALDERGROVE STAR ALDERGROVE STAR Your Hometown Community Newspaper for over 54 Years
| Thursday, August 2, 2012
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Page 3: Town’s Trolley Plans Get New Ally
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Cooking Up a Storm in Aldergrove’s Bountiful Gardens
Multi-million challenge for pool funding By NATASHA JONES Aldergrove Star
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Patsy Homan, Brielle Savard and Emily Wuschke had fun taste testing and harvesting veggies from Aldergrove’s community garden before they prepared them for the salad at the community’s weekly Garden to Table dinner on July 26. On the menu was cauliflower, onions, kale, zucchini, chervil, parsley, two kinds of lettuce and beans, with orange edible nasturtium flowers on top. Fresh and delicious!
Growing our community with gardens By KURT LANGMANN Aldergrove Star
Small-scale gardening is catching on in a big way in Aldergrove. Patsy Homan says her enthusiasm for gardening is shared by many of her Aldergrove neighbours, and is becoming a popular movement in the town. Not only are there the Aldergrove Community Garden plots in the corner of Aldergrove Athletic Park, and the Garden
to Table program at St. Dunstan’s Anglican Church, there are also small groups of residents who have banded together to create small, shared garden plots at private residences. Homan plays a part in all these programs. “We have a strong sense of community and big hearts right here in our small town of Aldergrove,” sayd Homan. “If you are looking for ways to become part of our gardening community in Aldergrove, please join us every Thursday at our Garden
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to Table program from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at St. Dunstan’s Church, 3025-264 Street.” This community vegetable garden at the church property was planted with the desire to bring people from all walks of life together as a community, to help those in need and to share healthy meals at the church’s weekly dinners. “You can have fun harvesting fresh veggies from our garden or help prepare dinner,” says SEE: Page 3
ay Birthd Birthday Party Parties!
When Mayor Jack Froese challenged Glen Valley residents to find the funds the Township had expected from the sale of 21 acres of forest, he inadvertently — and significantly — underestimated the loss in revenue to the Township. Froese challenged the residents to come up with $2 million, the amount he indicated the Township would lose after it pulled down the “For Sale” from the forested land. In fact, the Township was anticipating around $3 million, which would have represented a good chunk of the Aldergrove Elementary school site it wants to acquire for a pool, ice rink and community centre. Three independent appraisers have valued the school land at $3.7 million. Last September, the School District obtained ministerial approval under the government’s land disposal process to sell the property, which has been vacant since the school closed in June, 2007. That process requires school districts to offer the land to other levels of government once it has been established that it is not needed as a school. Meanwhile, Glen Valley residents have formed Watchers of Langley Forests (WOLF), pledging to find ways of amassing the $2 million. The money is a fraction of the eventual cost of Aldergrove’s new community centre. On July 23, council endorsed two options for the centre, with elements that include a pool and ice rink. The Township will present these for public feedback in the autumn. Either will cost at least $33 million. “Funding for this project will be a major challenge which still has to be addressed,” parks and recreation director David Leavers wrote in a report to council. The Township will realize savings once the Aldergrove Arena and Parkside outdoor pool have been decommissioned, and will pursue grants from the provincial and federal governments, and dip into its reserves and surpluses. Partnerships to help pay for the facility may also be considered, much along the lines of the arrangement the Langley Events Centre has with Trinity Western University and the Langley School District.
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