At the end of June 2010 The Abbotsford Mission Times had the good fortune of celebrating 25 years in the community.

Whether it was floods, flu, farming, the new Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre, the Heat, Plan A or the Sumas Energy 2 - the Times family was there to record some of the biggest milestones in the past quarter century that have shaped Abbotsford's unique character.

Amalgamation of the Abbotsford and Matsqui districts in 1994 was a big step forward towards becoming a hub in the Fraser Valley and a thriving urban centre.

SE2, the plan by National Energy Systems Corp. to build a natural gas-fired power plant in the village of Sumas across the border, burned up the Times pages for six straight years before its demise.

Plan A, the multi-million project to build three city facilities, was approved. Today, the city has a class-A gallery/museum at the Reach, a new Abbotsford Recreation Centre, and its own AHL hockey team, the Heat, which calls the new Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre home.