Frankly Speaking

The sense of community in large cities like Surrey and Vancouver is sometimes difficult to fathom. While it exists in many ways, in organizations and neighbourhoods, a city-wide sense of community is usually absent. Certainly in Surrey, it’s been a long time since the vast majority of residents have been deeply committed or moved by any single event. In White Rock, it still exists. The strong sense of community is one reason there has been a lot of attention paid to the takeover of the White Rock water utility by the city (for a yet-undisclosed figure) and more recent plans to add chloramine to the water supply. That has prompted a furious reaction that landed at city hall. City council passed a motion unanimously to halt chloramination, but to some degree it will be out of their hands. Dr. Michelle Murti, medical health officer at Fraser Health Authority, said that total coliform counts over the summer indicated “we have a problem with the distribution system,” requiring secondar...

Allan Dann was toasted and remembered at a celebration of life Saturday at Newlands in Langley. Among those attending were longtime Cloverdale residents, business people, volunteer firefighters, family and many other friends. My father Art Bucholtz enjoyed seeing former colleagues and friends, such as former notary El Fedewich and Alan Davidson, longtime insurance executive at Hugh and McKinnon. Allan Dann was toasted and fondly remembered by a large crowd on Saturday. The longtime Cloverdale businessman died in December at the age of 91. He lived an amazing life. Born in Surrey in 1924, he lived and worked in Cloverdale for most of his 91 years. He took over his father Ernie's radio and electrical business after returning from service in the Second World War, working for many years alongside his mother Doris. Many of those details are contained in a Cloverdale Reporter story , but suffice to say that, when he closed his business in January, 2013, his family had operated it f...