AUGUST

Aug. 2

As Fraser Health prepared to stop admitting patients to Chilliwack General Hospital's subacute/ rehabilitation unit, local doctors remained firmly opposed to the elimination of the 20-bed inpatient ward.

Dr. Ralph Jones, the lead physician of the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice, said the unit played a key role in the hospital and Fraser Health should have asked doctors about how it would affect patients.

Aug. 2

A frightening early morning fire gutted an unoccupied Garrison Crossing townhouse and shocked neighbours.

A neighbour from an adjacent complex said 20-foot flames were shooting off the top of the three-storey unit.

Aug. 7

The Cultus Lake Volunteer Fire Department donated old equipment, including pants, jackets, boots, masks and helmets to Firefighters Without Borders, which helps provide used gear to firefighters in Third World countries.

The Chilliwack Fire Department also donates its used gear to the charity.

Aug. 7

The president of the union representing employees at Army Support Unit Chilliwack asked residents to contact Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl with their concerns.

Union of National Defence Employees president John MacLennan said he had not heard any real justification for the elimination of 18 full-time jobs in Chilliwack.

Aug. 9

A Surrey man was airlifted to hospital with serious brain and spinal chord injuries after a hit-and-run in the Chilliwack River Valley.

Mounties said the victim was riding a "pocket" motorcycle when he was struck by a pickup truck travelling the opposite direction. The driver of the truck later called police and was arrested.

Aug. 14

Two years after a damning Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) report on improper boundary adjustments in Chilliwack, city hall made the required applications for non-farm use at five schools and one park.

The application, in essence, is to ask permission of the ALC to use certain land in the Agricultural Land Reserve the way it has already been used for years.

Aug. 14

A judge said Joshua Austin Marlowe had become a "human lemming" when he held up four Chilliwack businesses with a fake gun earlier in the year.

Judge Russell MacKay sentenced Marlowe to two years in jail and three years probation for the robberies.

Aug. 16

He went to Africa to try to bring justice to a war-torn country, but after seven frustrating months, Chilliwack lawyer John Lester's patience finally ran out.

Lester left his Crown counsel job in Chilliwack in 2011 to work as part of a United Nations team meant to provide assistance to prosecutors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But Lester left his post early, partly to protest the lack of action on the ground.

Aug. 16

A 61-year-old Agassiz woman is at home recuperating after falling through a manhole Aug. 14 at a Woodside Boulevard development.

A piece of plywood had been placed over the open manhole. It gave way when the woman stepped on it andshe plunged into the 10-to 15-foot-deep hole.

Aug. 21

Distrust of the RCMP's senior managers by rank-and-file members was widening by "leaps and bounds," according to a letter sent by a 39-year veteran of the RCMP to Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl.

Cpl. Loren Chaplin, who lives in Chilliwack, wrote that the force "needs to be burnt to the ground" and that officers are stressed out, burnt out and tasked with doing more with less.

Aug. 21

Chilliwack city council was to receive a recommendation on Aug. 21 from staff to reject a proposal to save the Paramount Theatre.

But staff also gave the option that "council direct staff to develop a business plan for the remediation, restoration and long term management of the Paramount Theatre building as a civic facility."

Aug. 23

A picture was painted in Chilliwack court of a pro-development culture at city hall under former mayor John Les where "creative" approaches led to "sophisticated" land deals that violated a number of provincial regulations.

Former City of Chilliwack director of development Grant Sanborn was in court to plead guilty to violations of the Agricultural Land Commission Act and the Land Title Act.

Aug. 23

Chilliwack city council voted six-to-one to demolish the Paramount Theatre.

Council voted to follow up with the Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation offer to demolish the building at no cost to the city. Coun. Jason Lum was the only one to vote against demolition

Aug. 28

The 2012 sockeye season was called "a complete disaster" by local First Nations, who blamed politicians in Victoria and Ottawa.

At the start of the season, First Nations were told they could catch up to one million sockeye for food, social and ceremonial purposes. But Sto: lo Tribal Council Grand Chief Clarence Penner said natives had only caught 400,000 sockeye on the Fraser.

Aug. 30

A Supreme Court justice said Chilliwack city hall's "pro-development culture" under former mayor John Les failed the public.

"'Creativity', I find, was used as a euphemism for approving without scrutiny," Justice Miriam Maison-ville said during the sentencing of the city's former director of development, Grant Sanborn. "A culture emerged that was of the view that the numerous existing safeguards in place . . . were seen as guides and were ignored."

Aug. 30

In a forum that pulled together topics ranging from mandatory courses to traditional long houses, Canadian educators and administrators met in Chilliwack to look at ways to better integrate First Nations values and culture into our post-secondary institutions.

The first of its kind, the gathering at the University of the Fraser Valley's new Chilliwack campus hosted 250 guests.

2012 YEAR IN REVIEW