Fowl Play at Douglas Park, Earth Day Walking Tour at Sendall Garden

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of helping celebrate the installation of a new mural at Douglas Park with members of Langley City’s Arts, Recreation, Culture and Heritage Committee, members of Council, and the artist Jessica Fairweather and her family.

Councillor Wallace, Mural Artist Jessica Fairweather, and I. Select the image to enlarge.

The mural, titled Fowl Play, is located on the southwest corner of the recently renovated Douglas Recreation and Child Care Centre. The mural uses a combination of tile and stained glass. The grey tile represents the jet trails in the sky. The birds featured in the mural include:

The “Fowl Play” Mural. Select the image to enlarge.

• Bald Eagle
• Rufous Hummingbird
• Canadian Goose
• Stellar Jay
• Wood Duck
• Pileated Wood Pecker
• Mourning Dove
• Mallard Ducks
• Great Horned Owl
• Violet-Green Swallow
• American Gold Finch
• Great Blue Heron
• Loon
• Northern Flicker
• American Robyn
• European Starling
• House Finch
• Nuthatch
• Double-Crested Cormorant

You can see many of these birds throughout Langley City. Be sure to check out this mural next time you are in Douglas Park.

Councillors Wallace and White are the co-chairs of the Arts, Recreation, Culture and Heritage Committee. Councillor White was unable to attend due to a last-minute urgent matter. The mural was co-created with members of Raphael House, the Committee, and Grade 5 students from Douglas Park Community School.

The Urban Bounty team at the Earth Day Walking Tour at Sendall Gardens. Select the image to enlarge.

A bit later, I stop in quickly to the Earth Day Walking Tour at Sendall Gardens, which is part of the ongoing, pop-up Langley City’s Village Cafe series, where people can learn and share about local issues, and celebrate heritage in a low-key format. There, I learned about urban gardening, and I also learned about the React Now app for your phone, which provides multilingual guidance on how to respond rapidly to a drug overdose.

Langley City First Team Running in Fall Municipal Election

In 2024, a group of concerned long-time Langley City citizens met to discuss the future of our community. Our goal was to ensure that Langley City continues to move forward, looking out for the safety of residents and growth for businesses from an accountable and effective local government.

“Seeing what was going on with politics in Langley, we wanted to ensure that Langley City remains an independent community,” said Rhianna Reddekopp, who founded Langley City First and is a long-time City resident and small business owner. “We want to make sure that every nickel of taxpayer money gets reinvested back into our community efficiently and effectively to address the priorities that make Langley City a unique community.”

Langley City First was formed as a Local Elector Organization under Elections BC to defend the things that make Langley City our home, and move our community forward. We believe in bringing independent voices to lead our community with strong community connections and responsible decision-making. We believe in a safe and prosperous Langley City, and in people who believe in our community, free of outside interference and partisan politics.

“With these values in mind, we reached out to several members of Langley City Council,” said Reddekopp, “We are proud to announce that Mayor Nathan Pachal, Councillors Paul Albrecht, Mike Solyom, and Rosemary Wallace are willing to be endorsed by our organization.”

As a registered Elector Organization, we hope to provide a united team in this fall's civic elections that is committed to defending and advancing the following values:

• Building A City for the Future
• Enhancing Green Space
• Investing in Safety and Livability
• Fostering Community Connection
• Creating a Resilient Community with Appropriate Infrastructure and Responsible Fiscal Stewardship
• Supporting a Team Where Independent Voices Work as a Cohesive Team

Langley City First believes in our community, its people, its businesses, and its potential, and we are committed to moving the city forward through collaborative leadership, safe communities, and responsible growth for today and future generations. We are excited to endorse our first candidates and look forward to announcing more in the coming months.

I wanted to reshare this post from Langley City First. To learn more about the team and its values, please check out the Langley City First website.

SkyTrain Pile Driving Operating Hours

I’ve received a few emails from residents about thumping or pounding sounds in the evenings over the last few weeks in Langley City. This is due to SkyTrain guideway pile-driving work occurring in and around our community.

I can also hear pile-driving work at my home and at City Hall, and I know it can impact people’s quality of life.

For the most up-to-date information, questions, and concerns, please reach out to the SkyTrain project team at 1-844-815-6111 or surreylangleyskytrain@gov.bc.ca. As this is a provincial project, they are not subject to local government bylaws, including those regarding noise and construction site hours of operation.

As of this post, regular construction hours for the SkyTrain project are 7 am to 10 pm Monday through Saturday. Noisier work, such as pile driving, is occurring between noon and 9 pm. To minimize the noise, the SkyTrain project team is using various techniques to manage it, including vibrating portions of the guideway columns into the ground. A project of this size will, of course, have impacts during construction.

Pile driving work is expected to conclude in mid-2027.

Project Black Feather - Helping Youth Exit Unhealthy Influences and Habits

Over the last little while, I've been posting about Project Black Feather. This program received its initial funding from the federal government through its Building Safer Communities Fund in partnership with Langley City and Township. The program is for students in the Langley School District who are at a high risk of becoming vulnerable to unhealthy influences and habits. Such influence could include gangs, and habits could include problematic substance use. Langley City Council previously received a presentation on the number of students helped and the positive outcomes. Last week, Council heard more, including about an outcomes report based on eight program participants who were followed for about a year.

The key outcomes for reducing vulnerability for young people in the program include:

• Crisis prevention through surge capacity: The program provided the right support when needed. Knowing that sometimes little support is needed, and sometimes a lot of support is needed.
• Trust durability exceeds expectations: Young people stayed connected to the program, where traditional programs would fail.
• Capacity-building, not dependency: Young people acquired transferable skills and reliance as part of the program to remain sober and stay employed.
• Youth began learning to set healthy boundaries on their own: Young people left harmful peer connections.
• Family stabilization enabled youth stabilization: The program also worked through coaching and supporting young people’s caregivers.
• Workplace integration emerged as a high-leverage pathway: Young people who got connected at their workplaces developed positive connections.
• Youth moved from being service recipients to contributors: Several young people in the program became peer leaders and even volunteered to support other program members.
• Partner corroboration confirmed distinctive reach: Other organizations and government ministries noted that Project Black Feather was reaching young people that they would otherwise be unable to reach.

The program's success is based on how it works. Its foundation is to build trust with young people participating in the program, which means being reliable and there for a young person whenever. The report noted that bringing a sandwich to a young person helped them become fully engaged in the program. The program is also wrap-around, and if the young person needs to connect with another service provider, the Project Blackfeather team would make the arrangements, including transport, and be with the young person during appointments if required. The program also directly engaged the young person’s caregivers.

It was really encouraging to hear about the good work of Project Black Feather and how it is having a positive impact on young people in Langley.