Fort Langley will be getting a rainbow crosswalk.
On Monday evening, Township council passed a motion from Coun. Angie Quaale to install the new feature across Glover Road at Mary Avenue.
Her motion comes after a group of Fort Langley artists held both online and live art auctions of some of their top works to raise half of the $12,000 needed for the installation.
The other half is being contributed by the Fort Langley Business Improvement Association.
Quaale said she would like to “commend the community for bringing this forward,” and thanked the BIA as well.
The project was originally spearheaded by artist Elaine Brewer-White in July, following the massacre of 49 of people in a gay nightclub in Florida.
Brewer-White asked council that she and a group of volunteers be allowed to paint a crosswalk — with paint donated by Benjamin Moore — at Glover Road and Mavis Avenue, just to find out that there were many restrictions in place.
Township staff originally estimated the project would cost $50,000, as all four crossings at the intersection would have to be painted with specialty paint, and it would have to meet Transportation Association of Canada guidelines.
A smaller crosswalk at Glover Road and Mary Avenue was estimated to cost $12,000.
Coun. Petrina Arnason asked staff if the Township would be on the hook for maintenance costs five years down the road.
Ramin Seifi, manager of engineering and community development, said it would be incorporated into future Township budgets.
Quaale also noted that the maintenance of the crosswalk could be paid for through a public art fund, should the Township proceed with creating such a fund.
Artist Elaine Brewer-White auctioned off her sculpture ‘Harry was a dog lover at heart’ as part of a fundraiser for a Fort Langley rainbow crosswalk.
