As both a community member, and downtown business owner, I wanted to take a moment to extend my thanks to the operations team at the City of Chilliwack. Their team is efficient, responsive, well run, hardworking and friendly. Whenever they are on scene they leave our city in beautiful condition. Every time that I call them with a concern, or use the city app (download it) to report graffiti, refuse, or a maintenance issue it’s almost always taken care of within 24 hours. For a city of our size, this is no small feat.
In particular, I want to thank the staff members that service the downtown core.
Over the past several weeks I have been collaborating with a team of incredible volunteers to clean up privately owned commercial property that has fallen into a state of neglect in our Historic Downtown.
With the enforcement of Bylaw 2775 on pause during the pandemic and the beautiful new development by Algra Brothers, I felt that it was imperative that private citizens and business owners step up to ensure that neglected properties don’t continue to pull down the overall atmosphere of our downtown.
We weed, sweep, leaf blow, pick up trash, remove large refuse and make reports to the City of Chilliwack.
We’ve been making great progress on some derelict properties, and are truly brightening up and changing the feeling of our downtown. It’s a lot of fun (and COVID-19 safe), and is certainly increasing civic pride, and a sense of belonging and meaning in our downtown. Find me if you’d like to volunteer with us. Coupled with the new murals, it’s starting to look pretty sharp.
READ MORE:Volunteer cleaning crew using elbow grease to improve downtown Chilliwack
All the while, the operations team continues to do an outstanding job on the surrounding civic areas, and they have been supporting our efforts by responding quickly to our reports.
Our family’s business (The Book Man) has been downtown for 30 years, so I believe that I can speak with confidence when I say that the downtown has truly never looked better.
I’d love to invite everyone to come down and rediscover it, take some photos of the murals and peruse the shops.
I’d also love to encourage everyone to give a wave, and say thanks to any city staff member that you see tending to a garden bed, making a repair, or replacing a piece of equipment. They’re unsung heroes in our city and are deserving of our respect and gratitude.
We’re truly lucky to have such a strong team of well organized, community minded individuals serving us all.
Amber Price
• Send your letter to the editor via email to editor@theprogress.com. Please include your first and last name, address, and phone number.
• READ MORE: Chilliwack Progress Letters