INSIDE: Stabbing victim says sentence didn’t reflect the crime Pg. 4 T U E S D A Y
December 14, 2010
3 N E W S ,
SPORTS,
Plenty of rain, but no flood
WEATHER
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E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Putting the chill on city’s buzz kill
FUNDRAISING AFFORDABLE HOUSING
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
T
he threat of flooding in Chilliwack came and went on the weekend with little or trouble or damage. A flood watch warning was issued Saturday evening and was maintained Sunday morning for the Fraser Valley due to heavy rains. But that warning was downgraded to a high streamflow advisory by Sunday afternoon and cancelled altogether Monday morning. Despite the torrential rains Sunday morning, as far as City of Chilliwack public works was concerned, the rainfall wasn’t as heavy as expected and things went smoothly. Seventy millimetres of rain fell on Sunday, according to Environment Canada numbers, although Chilliwack relies on data from EB IRST Agassiz as there is no First reported on monitoring station chilliwacktimes.com in the city. The Chilliwack River snow pillow recorded 100 millimetres of precipitation, according to the B.C. River Forecast Centre. At Slesse Creek, which feeds into the Chilliwack River, the river peaked at a two-year return period flow of 85 cubic metres per second at 3 p.m. Sunday, but as of Monday all rivers were receding. Standing water could be seen all over fields and other properties in Chilliwack on the weekend, but director of public works Glen MacPherson said city staff and equipment kept up with the water. Ditches backed up and there were approximately 30 calls to deal with on Sunday, mainly to do with road drains blocked with leaves and a few blocked culverts, according to MacPherson. There were “a couple of flood basements,” but no real damage to private property, he said.
BY PAUL J. HENDERSON phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
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Magda Nodzykowski/For the TIMES
This gingerbread house by Chilliwack secondary school teacher Steve Anderson looks tasty but still wasn’t good enough to win the Gentlemen’s Gingerbread Invitational at Minter Country Gardens on Saturday. Top honours went to Ken Popove, who won $1,000 for the charity of his choice: Chilliwack General Hospital.
f Chilliwack’s mayor and council make a move to restrict medical marijuana growers they can expect a legal challenge. Last week city council directed staff to explore the development of a bylaw regarding medicinal marijuana grow operations that would include zoning restrictions. The move came out of the Oct. 13 meeting of the city’s public safety advisory committee during which a July bylaw banning medical marijuana in Pitt M e a d o w s w a s “. . . it (the city) discussed. is exposing In July Pitt itself to Meadows council passed a land use significant bylaw amendcourt costs.” ment ensuring grow operations Jacob Hunter are not permitted as homebased businesses in any city zone nor as agricultural operations. But both the existing Pitt Meadows bylaw and anything on Chilliwack’s horizon will likely face constitutional challenges, according to a Vancouver marijuana anti-prohibition organization. “The bylaws passed by the city of Pitt Meadows are doubtlessly unconstitutional, and will not stand up in court,” said Jacob Hunter of the Beyond See BUZZ, Page 7
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