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Abbotsford Council has voted to look into the possibility of building a cricket field at Clayburn park.

Members of the Abbotsford cricket club had asked Council to let them use the field at Clearbrook park.

That park was shut down last year after numerous residents complained about noise, vulgar language from players, and people urinating in bushes.

Councillor John Smith says he does want to make sure local cricket players have a place to play but to him looking at a new location was better than re-opening Clearbrook.

“Given the history of the situation and the inability of the parks department and the community to actually control what went on there, I’m not prepared to vote to put it back.”

Mayor Bruce Banman says while the Cricket club should have done a better job policing themselves, they’re not the only ones to blame.

“I find it offensive actually that the City couldn’t be bothered to put portapotties there. I think we played part of the role in the self destruction of this. And with regards to the neighbors that live on a green space, I find it just a tad offensive that you think it should be your own private quiet space. It’s not actually a greenspace it’s actually a park and it should be used.”

Because the Rotary pitches also double as soccer fields it’s tough for the local cricket clubs to get playing space.

A new pitch at Clayburn could cost around 500 thousand dollars.

A man was found suffering from serious injuries from a beating in Mill Lake park Wednesday morning.

The 30 year old man was discovered around 4 in the morning and was airlifted to hospital in critical condition.

Police believe he was part of a group of people who initially were meeting peacefully.

Then it’s believed something was brought up, possibly related to a past incident, that touched off the violence.

The others on the scene are asked to contact police.

The victim had some negative interactions with police, but mostly of a minor nature and police don’t believe he has any gang affiliations.

Abbotsford Police are once again alerting the public about the dangers of taking ecstasy, and this time, they have help with their message, from a family who nearly lost someone to it last week. On March 16, a 24 yr old man took a dose that he thought was safe….he was not at a party, and was not with other people. His parents didn’t even know he was a user. The dose turned out to be nearly lethal. He said he remembered the 2 cases of local girls overdosing, and got scared, so he told his parents and they took him to the hospital.  It was a good call to tell his parents, because upon arrival at the hospital, he collapsed, and nearly died. He was in a coma for 3 days. He has since made a miraculous recovery, but shared his story with police so they could pass it on. The use of street drugs is riskier now than its ever been.

It took well over two hours last night for Abbotsford residents to have their say about whether Chances should be able to add more slot machines.
Most of the 3 dozen speakers at the public hearing were in favour.
Graham Taylor said gaming is legal in this province and people will go spend their money in other communities if there aren’t enough machines here.

“Restricting and possibly denying the additional slot operations in our local gaming centre will not stop those people in our society with a gambling problem.  For those of you on council that I voted for, and like others probably in this audience, we elected you to manage our city’s operations and funds…not our moral compass.”

About half a dozen spoke against the application. Evelyn Budzinski said gambling can be very addictive.

“It’s more addictive than crack cocaine is, and machines are intentionally set up this way.  Machines are set up for speed and reward…more than 10 games per minute.  Also, the hypnotic nature…the lights, the sound and the speed.”

Next Monday the application will come up on the agenda for more debate.
The current application gives a maximum of 300 machines, although BCLC has only authorized Chances to add 50 to their current stable of 125.

Abbotsford South MLA John Van Dongen has crossed the floor to join the BC Conservatives.

Van Dongen, a long time Liberal, says he doesn’t agree with the direction his party has taken over the last year.

“I haven’t seen the renewal that I believe we needed in our party and I believe that the BC Conservative party provides the best option for a broadly based credible free enterprise government in the next election.”

Van Dongen says he’s also disappointed in the leadership of the party, pointing to the handling of the BC rail case and the cancellation of the naming rights agreement with Telus for BC Place.

“My assessment was that Christy Clarke wasn’t the right person to be leader but when she was elected I decided to hunker down and work with her, work with the caucus which I’ve done for the last 12 months. But I feel that it’s time for me to move on.”

Van Dongen becomes the only current member of the Conservatives in the legislature.

Abbotsford Mayor Bruce Banman says it’s unlikely City Council will vote to give Ledgeview Golf Course a 250 thousand dollar fee for service.

The golf course society, which leases land from the City, made the request in January citing large revenue shortfalls.

Banman says Ledgeview has helped raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities through hosting golf tournaments.

He says he doesn’t think the community wants to see the course disappear but says he’d like to see them work things out for themeselves.

“If I was in Ledgeview’s shoes I would be going out to the community and asking those people who normally golf maybe somewhere else to golf at Ledgeview this year.  All it would take is a couple of rounds of golf that people would normally go somewhere else and they’ll be in fantastic shape.”

Ledgeview  general manager Chris Hood says they’ve gotten off to a good start in 2012 and things aren’t as dire as they were when they asked Abbotsford Council for 250 thousand dollars to help offset revenue losses.

However Hood says they’re still hoping for some kind of partnership with the City.

“Whether it’s some sort of capital matching with the capital assessments that our members participate with or some sort of operational assistance it would definitely be appreciated but it’s not something that’s going to make or break our year.”

Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich says being recognized for his more than 30 years of service makes him feel old, but says he still loves coming to work.

Rich was given the Governor General’s exemplary service medal on Tuesday.

He says in his time as policing the biggest change he’s seen is the scrutiny police officers are under and the amount of work police have to do to maintain the public’s trust.

“That’s not all a bad thing, I’m not trying to say that it’s bad but it’s certainly different than it was.  When I joined the force there still lots of characters that kind of did whatever they wanted and a lot the evolution in policing has been around us becoming more professional and being more accountable to the public.”

Rich began his career in Vancouver in 1980 and took over as chief of police in Abbotsford in 2008.

Quicker than you can say by-election you’ll be seeing signs everywhere for the candidates.  Premier Christy Clark called the by-elections yesterday for Chilliwack-Hope and Port Moody-Coquitlam.   In our neck of the woods, Laurie Throness is running for the Liberals, Gwen O’Mahony for the NDP, and John Martin for the BC Conservatives.
Throness says the byelection comes down to choice.

“Voters of Chilliwack-Hope have a choice about whether to continue to support the BC Liberal government which has maintained a very vibrant, strong economy for over a decade….or to switch and go with the NDP, which have a very different agenda; we believe it’s a high tax and a high deficit, spending agenda.”

Throness says he’s been in campaign mode for weeks, but plans to intensify everything he’s doing.

O’Mahony says the Liberals have already run attack ads accusing leader Adrian Dix of not having an economic plan, something she says simply isn’t the case.

“He’s made the promise to invest in post-secondary education and skills training, and how are we going to pay for that?  He’s made it very clear.  Our taxation has been out there and in the open.  Restoring the bank tax is an option, then there is the discussion of course, of rolling back corporate tax rates.”

She says the main three issues facing the community are affordability of living expenses, health care, and availability of well paying jobs.

Martin says one of the big issues here and in the rest of the province is how expensive it is to live in BC.

“We pay more in taxes overall, than any family west of Quebec.  And when you start looking at ICBC rates, medical premium rates, the carbon tax that nobody else has to pay….it’s just getting tougher and tougher for people to make ends meet.”

Martin says he will also fight to stop any waste to energy incinerator from coming in, saying air quality is a big part of quality of life in the Valley.

For her part, the Premier is definitely concerned about vote splitting, and yesterday took a shot at the BC Conservatives  in the Port Moody riding, who she says are only trying to play spoiler, because they’re running a candidate who’s principal qualification is that she has the same name (Christine Clark).   She says people in these ridings could be sorely disappointed if too many votes go to the Conservative Party, at the expense of the Liberals.

“I think we do have to be concerned about that.  We have always had what we call a ‘free enterprise’ coalition.  There are two parties that we’ve traditionally had.  One that cares about enabling a thriving private sector economy, and one that cares about creating more government jobs.”

Voters will head to the polls on April 19th.

The BC Teachers Federation will be holding a vote next month on whether to stage an illegal walkout in response to the province’s Bill 22 legislation.

The vote will happen April 17 and 18 and will involve all 41 thousand members.

Teachers will be back in the classrooms on Monday and will provide year end report cards, but in April they will also vote on whether to withdraw all voluntary services such as coaching and after school activity supervision.

Several districts, including Mission, have already made that move.

Abbotsford teachers association president Jeff Dunton says it was discussed at their last meeting but says the decision on withdrawing volunteering has been left up to individual teachers.

Abbotsford police are recommending charges of driving without due care and attention against an RCMP officer involved in a collision in Agassiz last July that killed 20 year old Steven Genburg.

Investigators believe that the officer was speeding, and that his patrol vehicle crossed into the oncoming lane.

Constable Ian MacDonald says after seeing the results of the investigation officers didn’t think a more serious charge such as criminal negligence causing death was appropriate.

“What the standard is looking for is something that would demonstrate some wanton actions or reckless actions. And I will defer to crown as to whether they can find that in the evidence.”

Crown will consider the evidence and make a decision on a possible charge for the officer.