April 21, 1966
Hospital Society calls meeting to start organizing for petition
Directors of the Agassiz-Harrison Hospital Society have called a public meeting for Tuesday, May 3, in the Municipal Hall to organize the circulating of a petition for a hospital in this district.
All those interested in the hospital and willing to help with the drive for signatures to a petition are asked to attend. Meeting will be at 8 p.m.
The society has had no guidance from Victoria as to how to go about getting a hospital, according to President Harry Currie, and a visit from the head of the hospital insurance service, promised by Hon. Lyle Wicks, has shown no sign of materializing.
In the apparent absence of any official procedure for organising a hospital district, the society plans to go ahead immediately on its own to obtain as many signatures as possible before carrying its case farther with the government.
Scouts, Guides plan parade, campfire Saturday evening
Permission is being sought from the municipal council for a parade of Scouts, Guides Cubs and Brownies on Saturday evening as a preliminary to the Kent Jamboree to be held in the school gymnasium at 8 p.m. the following Friday.
The parade would start at the Scout Hall, come down Railway Road to Pioneer Street, loop around the business district, and conclude with a campfire and singsong in the Pioneer Street park.
Program for the Jamboree includes skits, demonstrations, games and movies. Master of ceremonies will be scoutmaster Bob Fletcher.
Members of the Scout Group Committee and the Guide Association will take part in one game, to be directed by Scout Field Commissioner J. Watson. Precise nature of the game is a closely guarded secret. Mrs. Locke, Guide district commissioner will also be present.
Admission will be 25 cents for adults with children free if accompanied by parents. Door prizes have been donated by local merchants.
Chilliwack ready to give franchise to valley firm reeve tells other councils
Chilliwack Municipal Council is ready to call a plebiscite in May or June on a franchise to Valley Natural Gas Distributors Ltd., Reeve Richardson told a meeting of mayors, reeves and councillors at Cloverdale Tuesday night.
The meeting was called by the natural gas firm so that municipal officials who were hesitant to make a decision on the company's request for franchises could learn the views of other municipalities. Reeve Richardson was the only one to put his position on record. His statement was greeted with applause by most of some 70 municipal representatives present.
Most of the councillors apparently preferred to wait until they had heard the B.C. Electrics side of the case, at meetings to be held next week, before they made a decision. Reeve James Fraser Councillor W.A. Beaton and chairman A. Burger and Commissioner R. Gill represented Kent and Harrison Hot Springs.
Reeve Richardson said that his municipality was favourable inclined towards giving the franchise and holding the necessary plebiscite in the near future. He suggested that the matter should be settled as soon as possible, and said it was his opinion that the Valley area would get quicker and better service from the Valley company.
The B.C. Electric would have to serve the Vancouver area first, before turning its attention to the needs of the Fraser Valley, he said and in any case that company would be in no hurry put in gas lines to compete with its existing electrical lines.
Mr. R.J. Morgan, of the pipeline engineering firm of Morgan and Harshman of Tulsa, Oklahoma, outlined the company's plans for distribution. They would tap the line at Hope, Agassiz, Sardis and Sumas, he said and would serve an area from Hope to White Rock on the south shore, as well as Agassiz and Harrison Hot Springs, Mission and Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows on the north. Their plan showed two crossing of the river to serve the Mission and Haney areas. The Oklahoma firm has been retained by Valley Natural Gas to handle engineering.