Round about Lahr News and views from Lahr newspapers, summarized by Trisha Cornforth Spring flowers have arrived in Lahr The weather has been warm and sunny recently, so the Rhine valley is now really green and brightened up with the yellow and pink colours of daffodils and jasmine as well as lots of fruit trees in blossom. In Lahr, the last Sunday in March (26th this year) is known as "Blossom Sunday" and wonderful outdoor flower displays have been arranged in the downtown streets in preparation for this event which includes the stores being open on Sunday afternoon, the annual spring market stalls on the Marktplatz and the fun-fair rides set up on the parking lot between KK and Lahr city hall. Many Canadians will remember this amusement fair which used to be located on the square opposite the Canadian Community Centre but has now moved to a better situation downtown. The area opposite the Canadian Community Centre is now being redeveloped as a shopping mall (Arena Park, see our photos). Lack of air traffic controllers for Lahr Airfield in summer Strasbourg Airport has to be closed down for at least a month this summer to carry out much-needed runway maintenance/repairs. In order to keep air services running to and from the “European Capital”, it had been planned to divert passenger and freight flights to other airports such as Lahr. However, the plan ran into difficulties because the German Air Safety Authority would not accept the French air traffic controller and insisted there should be at least six specially qualified German air traffic controllers to work in Lahr for the period in question (Lahr forms an unusual situation because the middle marker beacon is still missing because of opposition from Friesenheim). Kurt Jäger, the general manager of the Lahr Airfield Company, suspected that this regulation had been introduced as a plot against Lahr and in favour of Baden-Soellingen Airport. However, in just a short time he has managed to find five air traffic controllers with the necessary qualifications, so it looks as though the plan will go ahead as scheduled after all.