Eighty Years Ago
June 13, 1935
Reeve Noel Booth explained to a relief delegation that the overall cost of relief was increasing, although individual payments had been reduced the previous summer.
Booth brought a motion to a quarterly meeting of the Associated Borads of Trade in Vancouver, opposing the creation of a highways commission by the provincial government.
Dr. J.C. Berry of Langley was appointed to the permaÂnent staff of the Animal Husbandry Branch of U.B.C.’s Faculty of Agriculture, as assistant to Professor King.
The Fort Langley beer parlour was set to open across from the CNR depot, in a building designed to accommodate 100 patrons.
Seventy Years Ago
June 14, 1945
Dr. Gordon L. Davis, son of the H.L. Davises of TopÂham Road (216th St.), graduÂated from Ontario Veterinary College, and planned to open a practice in Ladner.
W. Blair’s herd results lled the Langley Cow Testing Station Association in may, with an average production of 63.8 pounds of butterfat. Twenty-one herds showed averages of 40 or more pounds of fat.
Flight Lieutenant Wallace R. Oatway was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after completing his tour as an air bomber in the Tiger Squadron.
Eugene Goller arrived home after his liberation from a German prisoner of war camp.
Sixty Years Ago
June 16, 1955
Langley Memorial Hospital trustees talked past midnight about plans for expansion, and the hospital administrator was instructed to re-open negotiations with the contractors and Langley and City Councils, to make a small addition to centralize offices and to provide space for a chest X-ray unit which the Department of Health was willing to install.
Langley City Mayor E.E. Sendall proposed that trade licences in the City be good in the Township and vice versa, but Township Reeve George Brooks declared, “I can’t go along with that at all.â€
RCMP and the provincial fire marshal were investiÂgating a case of arson at Gibson’s Auction barns. The fire had been doused before any serious damage resulted.
Fifty Years Ago
June 17, 1965
Langley shoe merchant Vern Penner was elected president at the Langley Chamber of Commerce’s annual general meeting at Langley Hotel, succeeding Bill McMillan.
B.C. Lieutenant Governor Major General G.R. Pearkes was to be a special guest at the opening of McLean Scout Park on North Bluff Road (16th Ave.), east of Carvolth Road (200th St.).
Side bacon was priced at 65 cents per pound.
Forty Years Ago
June 12, 1975
B.C. Minister of Health Dennis Cocke was to officate at the formal opening of a $3 million 50-bed addition to Langley Memorial Hospital.
Bob Wilson, Kelowna’s administrator, was hired as Langley City’s clerk, replacing K. Spanier who was moving to a post in Ashcroft.
Concrete was poured for the $28,000 Gueho Bridge. Completion was expected in the fall.
Thirty Years Ago
June 12, 1985
A credit card slip connected Langley MLA and Social Credit cabinet minister Bob McClelland to an RCMP investigation into a Victoria escort service. The resulting scandal became known as the “Top Hat Affair.†The credit card bills were addressed to McClelland’s legislature office.
Only two weeks after it passed a referendum, Langley’s new indoor pool was already swimming in controversy. Township Aldermen Muriel Arnason and John Beales objected to their colleagues’ decision to hire architects without calling for bids on the design.
Langley Memorial Hospital announced an operating budget shortfall of $400,000.
Aldergrove Festival Days took place under sunny skies.
Twenty Years Ago
June 14, 1995
Loggers blockading a road in Pitt Meadows allowed Langley Fine Arts School grads to get to their prom at Swan-e-set Country Club via a back road. The loggers were protesting the protection of a stand of timber they had planned to harvest.
Bob Wenman, who had served as Langley’s Member of Parliament for more than a decade, died at the age of 54, the victim of a rare bacteria he had picked up overseas.
