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ALDERGROVE Your Hometown Community Newspaper for over 56 Years
| Thursday, December 18, 2014
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Crowds Flock to Visit Santa Claus
Find ‘other’ funds for new Aldergrove pool, council urged By DAN FERGUSON Aldergrove Star
BOB HUNT PHOTO
Santa Claus made numerous stops to visit with youngsters in Aldergrove in perfect weather Saturday in advance of the big day next week. See inside this issue of The Star and on The Star’s website for full coverage of the festive events in the community.
Avian flu spreads to Langley farm By MONIQUE TAMMINGA Aldergrove Star
A table-egg layer farm in Langley is the 10th victim of the avian influenza outbreak in the Fraser Valley. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirms that the outbreak had spread to the barns at the egg farm on Saturday. That means an estimated 53,000 birds will be euthanized from the Langley farm. Signs are up indicating a restricted area at 232 Street and 40 Avenue and 240 Street and Fraser Highway. The actual address of the farm has not been made available. The bird flu outbreak was first iden-
tified on a turkey farm in Chilliwack on Dec. 1, prompting the CFIA to declare a control zone covering the southern half of B.C. It has affected both turkey and chicken farms. The avian flu is high contagious among birds but doesn’t travel to humans. Only in very rare cases where a human is in direct and constant contact with birds has it spread to humans. With the Langley chicken farm, that brings the number of affected birds to 233,800 in the Fraser Valley. However, despite the outbreak, it doesn’t appear to be impacting people’s ability to buy turkeys for Christmas.
MONIQUE TAMMINGA PHOTO
Signs were posted in area of affected farm.
The Township of Langley needs to find another way to fund an indoor pool in Langley, one that doesn’t rely on selling publicly-owned land. Joanne Nicolato, the chair and founder of the Aldergrove Recreation and Pool Society, made the suggestion at the Monday afternoon (Dec. 8) meeting of council. Her comments come after several attempts at raising the money for the pool by selling Township land to developers have turned into time-consuming controversies, with some residents fighting to preserve the forested properties. “If land sales are the only means … how many years will it take?” Nicolato said. “We are asking that all options are looked at,” Nicolato added. The Aldergrove Recreation and Pool Society is the group that launched the campaign to build an indoor pool. Nicolato renewed her group’s call for an bigger eight-lane pool, saying it would expand the user base by making the facility suitable for bigger events. Responding to questions from council, Nicolato said alternatives could include borrowing the funds or saving money by delaying construction of a proposed new ice rink. Council also heard from Aldergrove resident Dianne Kask, who said the new ice rink should be postponed and
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Joanne Nicolato pressed council to get the new pool built before the end of their four-year term of office. when one is built to replace the existing facility, it should be located somewhere else because the proposed site on the former Aldergrove Elementary school site at Fraser Highway and 270 Street is too small to handle the resulting traffic. Kask said the pool and a proposed fitness centre should also be moved, to the site of the current Kinsmen centre, for the same reasons. Local swimmers are currently served by the 50-yearold Aldergrove outdoor pool, which was closed for 52 days of its 90-day summer season this year due to water clarity problems. In June of 2013, council approved a six-lane, 25-metre “short course” pool instead of the eight lane, 50-metre “long course” pool the society had been seeking. That was a response to an “Aquatic Needs Assessment” report by a private consultant, Professional Environmental Recreation Consultants (PERC) Inc. which said anything more than four lanes would be under-used.