The Chilliwack
Progress Wednesday
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UFV students take on new challenge.
Burrowing owl found in Chilliwack.
Peewee Jamboree gold medal match.
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Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • W E D N E S D AY, J A N U A R Y 6 , 2 0 1 6
Hottest summer on record Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
Chilliwack assessments in the mail Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Modest hikes for 2016 are what Chilliwack home owners can expect when they open their property assessment notices this week. BC Assessment has sent out the annual notices to 469,000 homeowners, reflecting market values as of July 1, 2015. “The majority of residential home owners within the region can expect a modest increase, compared to last year’s assessment,” said Deputy Assessor Brian Smith. “What we are seeing in Chilliwack is a range of five per cent to 15 per cent increases.” A typical single family home in Promontory valued at $421,000 on the 2016 roll, up from $374,000 the year before, for a 13 per cent increase. Another sample home in Rosedale went from $259,000 last year to $272,000 for the 2016 roll. Sample properties are selected by BC Assessment to establish a typical benchmark value for the roll, to illustrate market trends for the area. Smith said property increases of about five per cent were common in the neighbourhoods of Rosedale and Greendale, and between five per cent and 10 per cent east of Chilliwack and in Yarrow. Promontory and Ryder Lake properties saw slightly higher increases, he said. Things have changed in how the numbers are calculated by BC Assessment. The Fraser Valley region as designated by the assessors, now encompasses Richmond, Delta, as well as Surrey, Langley and Abbotsford to points east of Boston Bar and Manning Park. It also includes points north of the Fraser, just east of the Pitt River, between Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge and Harrison Hot Springs. “It’s important to note that BC Assessment’s Fraser Valley region now includes the Metro Vancouver municipalities of Richmond, Delta, Surrey, White Rock and Tsawwassen First Nation.” Owners of properties in South Delta and parts of Richmond were expected to see the steepest increases in the region. Overall, Fraser Valley’s total assessments increased from $294.1 billion in 2015 to $321.1 billion this year. A total of about $6 billion of the region’s updated assessments is from new construction, subdivisions and rezoning of properties. Continued: ASSESS/ p5
Eddie Gardner, elder in residence at UFV and an outspoken advocate for wild salmon, offers a traditional Sto:lo blessing to welcome the new year, and celebrate the “sacred salmon” on the banks of the Vedder River on New Year’s Day. Gardner, joined by about 30 people, drummed, sang songs, and presented four golden cedars to be planted at a later date. GREG KNILL/ PROGRESS
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From a weather perspective, things are still heating up in Chilliwack, and records continue to fall. The year 2015 saw its summer become the “hottest on record,” according to Roger Pannett, volunteer weather observer for Environment Canada, with a staggering total of 30 days in heat wave mode. “With mean temperatures for 2015 an amazing 2.64 degrees Celsius above normal, it was the second consecutive year with record breaking high mean temperatures, continuing the warming trend which started in 1986,” he said in his year end report. The months of May, June, July and October were the warmest since Chilliwack records began in 1895. After the record breaking summers of 2013, with mean temperatures 2.33 °C above normal, and last summer with mean temperatures 2.64 °C above normal, the summer of 2015 became the hottest on record with mean temperatures 3.81 °C above normal, he said. For a whopping 30 days searing hot maximum temperatures were recorded above 30 °C. “It was the 14th consecutive year with well above the average of seven hot days, a trend never previously observed. There were a total of 67 record breaking high temperatures observed in 2015 and no low temperature records.” Temperature extremes included the record-breaking maximum temperature of 36.5 °C on July 5th and the low of 4.7 °C on Jan. 1, 2015. Continued: WEATHER/ p5
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Homes values climb up to 15 per cent
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