ALDERGROVE
STAR
Your Hometown Community Newspaper for over 55 Years
| Thursday, April 9, 2015
Check our website out daily for updates, breaking news and more: www.aldergrovestar.com
Girls’ Rugby Returns to High School!
Page 7: Extraordinary volunteers honoured
PAGE 15
Township boosts fire, police services
A Giant Bunny Cuddle
Property taxes to go up by $60, fees hiked too By DAN FERGUSON Aldergrove Star
HARRY HUNT PHOTO
The Easter Bunny visited with Alexia Bath, 2, and the Kids’ Club set at Otter Co-op on Friday, April 3.
Most homeowners in Langley Township will pay about $60 more in municipal taxes this year, following approval of a municipal budget on Monday that will raise taxes 3.67 per cent. Fees for water, sanitary sewer and solid waste services will also rise between four and five per cent. According to Township figures, the owners of a house valued at $514,000 will pay an additional $56 a year in property taxes ($4.67 more a month) and $52 more in fees for water, sewer and solid waste services ($4.33 a month) if applicable. The tax increase will pay for adding eight more firefighters and three more “frontline” RCMP officers, plus various paving and construction projects. Some members of council wanted to reduce the amount of paving and construction work as well as delay hiring some of the proposed new police and
fire to trim the tax bite, but they were in the minority. Councillor Kim Richter argued against hiking sanitary sewer and solid waste utility fees. Staff said the hikes were meant to end the effective subsidy of those services by non-user taxpayers, a position the rest of council supported. Councillor Bob Long called the fees increase a “one-time hit” to fix the anomaly. Long liked a cost-cutting option suggested by staff that would have delayed adding two of the new police officers about a year, but the rest of council disagreed. Richter and Councillors David Davis and Michelle Sparrow thought trimming paving and construction projects, another staff-presented option, might ease the hit for local taxpayers. However, most of council agreed with Mayor Jack Froese, who said the projects are needed because of the community’s rapid
growth. “It’s really just keeping up,” Froese said. Councillor Angie Quaale saw little point in postponing hiring police and firefigters, because the savings were only about $4 a year. “I think most residents would be happy [to pay that amount]” Quaale said. When Councillor Blair Whitmarsh said delaying hiring police and fire amounted to saving “a cup of Starbuck’s coffee per household per year” Richter said small increases still add up. “You can’t always bring it down to a cup of coffee,” Richter said. Councillor Petrina Arnason said “the cumulative effect of adding tax upon tax,” even small increases, can be hard for seniors on fixed incomes. Another staff-presented option would have delayed hiring four of the eight new firefighters by a year to save money, something Davis thought might have SEE: Page 3
Rifles, cocaine, cash seized in ‘856 Gang’ raid Aldergrove Star
The RCMP seizure of weapons, drugs and cash during a March 16 raid that targeted several locations in the Yukon has a strong connection to Langley. The bust is part of an ongoing effort to disrupt organized crime in Whitehorse, said Cpl. Calista MacLeod. “We’re very aware of the harm that drugs and violence do to our
communities,” she said during a news conference on Wednesday. “This investigation was focused on disrupting the suppliers who bring drugs into our communities, not just catching it after it gets here.” Reporters were invited to view the seized materials at the Whitehorse RCMP building on Wednesday afternoon. Three rifles, four hand guns, a taser, a bullet-proof vest and several
bags filled with ammunition covered a large table. There were also bags filled with Canadian currency, although MacLeod did not confirm how much. She did say the cocaine represented between 45 and 90 individual sales, if left uncut. “But usually drugs are cut with all sorts of questionable things so it could potentially be much more than that,” she said.
Some of the items were clearly related to the 856 gang, including a pair of black T-shirts with the number emblazoned on the front. The gang, originally from Langley, took its name from the prefix of phone numbers in Aldergrove. Senior members can be identified by the numbers tattooed to their inside lip. In the past 10 years it has slowly expanded to other Canadian cities, including communities in northern
British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. MacLeod said the gang has increased its visibility and its activities in Whitehorse in the past year. “The drug trade in the North has connections to organized crime in southern Canada,” she said. “These criminal organizations have not historically had much direct presence in our communities. In this
SERVING YOUR GLASS NEEDS SINCE 1977 • FULLY LICENSED AND INSURED • WE OFFER COURTESY CARS OR PICK-UP AND DELIVERY! WE SPECIALIZE IN: SAME DAY SERVICE! • ICBC and Private Insurance Claims • Windshield Repairs and Replacements • Shower Doors • Mirrors and much more!
ONE COMPLIMENTARY STONE CHIP REPAIR WITH EVERY WINDSHIELD!
Anthony Breuker
604.856.6550 • www.a1glass.ca • VISIT OUR SHOWROOM: 3060-275A Street, Aldergrove
SEE: Page 3