Herald-Tribune Year in Review

Year in Year in Year in Review

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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

2010

2 Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune • Tuesday, January 4, 2011

January

First GP born babyPerfect was the adjective April Larsback

and Jon Taunton used to describe their new bundle of job, Zoe Jean Marie, the first baby born at Grande Prairie’s QEII Hospital in 2010.

Zoe, all six pounds and eight ounces of her, was born eight seconds after midnight.

Three other babies were born in Grande Prairie the morning of Jan. 1, with the next one after Zoe coming in at 2:10 a.m.

Year of change for TEC CentreIn only its third year in operation, the TEC

Centre at Evergreen Park was committed to making major changes in 2010.

Bridget Hennigar, president of Grande Prairie Regional Agricultural and Exhibition Society, explained even with the overall eco-nomic slowdown the TEC Centre planned to host more conventions and events than ever before.

A new event in 2010 was the high school premiere volleyball tournament.

“We want to show that partnering with the hotels in the area, we can sponsor these types of conventions. It speaks to the north; we want to have an opportunity to bring peo-ple to the north, from all over Alberta, from all over Western Canada,” she said.

The transition came as the park began to search for a new general manager to replace Greg Suess, a former event manager with Northlands Park in Edmonton.

Class in sessionA Catholic school opening and two

school renovation projects were the talk of Grande Prairie as Education Minister Dave Hancock and newly-appointed Infrastructure Minister Ray Danyluk stopped by the Peace Region.

The two politicians were special guests at the grand opening of Hythe Regional school and the moderniza-tion celebration at Alexander Forbes school as well as the official opening of Mother Teresa Catholic school in Grande Prairie.

Hancock said the three projects represent $44 million in investment in the future.

“Which means not just refurbish-ing the facility but the latest technol-ogy - it all related to opportunities for the kids going to these school,” he said.

GP most expensive city in CanadaGrande Prairie has some of the highest

municipal taxes in Alberta and by far the highest utility charges, making the city of the most expensive in Canada, according to the latest annual report by the City of Edmon-ton.

Comparing 21 cities and towns across Alberta, it said an average household in Grande Prairie paid $1,993 in property taxes, 11th of the 21 surveyed, but higher than all other Alberta cities polled.

When all utility costs, including power, nat-ural gas and water, were factored in, Grande Prairie jumped to the most expensive city on the list.

The average charge in Grande Prairie was $2,232, driving up the taxes/utilities combi-nations for an average home to $5,139.

QEII Foundation shake upThe Queen Elizabeth II Hospital Founda-

tion shook things up by cutting three people from the payroll.

In addition the foundation hired former board member Patricia Reid as interim exec-utive director, after long time director Eve-lyne Veins went on medical leave.

Jason Forbes has assumed the role of act-ing chairman of the board and spokesman while Vi Sunohara retains title as chair-woman.

Forbes added cutting the staff in half was

a hard decision but one the board had to make in order to remain accountable to its donor

The recession also played a major role in this decision.

GP Inn no moreThe Grande Prairie Inn will cease to

exist as a hotel by June 2010 as it planned to convert into a seniors’ retirement com-plex.

The project was revealed via newspa-per advertisements and mailed pamphlets explaining what’s called The Grand retire-ment living concept.

Rotary House opensAfter years of planning, the $12 million

Rotary House officially opened its doors ushering in a new era for the homeless and those with mental health issues in the city.

The three-storey city-core accommoda-tion facility on 97A Street near Montrose Avenue will house up to 143 of the city’s homeless and those with mental/devel-opmental disabilities. The new facility marked the official end of the Wapiti Com-munity Dorm.

Funding for the building was kick-started with an initial $500,000 donation from the three Rotary Clubs in the city nearly five years ago. It was then that the club was looking to work on a project to market the 100th anniversary of Rotary Club.

Remo Zaccagna Herald-Tribune staffat eight seconds after midnight, april Larsback and Jon Taun-ton became the proud parents of Zoe Jean marie Taunton.

cRysTaL Rhyno Herald-Tribune staffKateri mission student hanna gresty (left) and erin graber, a mother Teresa student cut the ribbon at the official opening of mother Teresa school.

Remo Zaccagna Herald-Tribune staff

The new $12 million Rotary house officially opened its doors in January 2010.

Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune • Tuesday, January 4, 2011 3

FebruaryCity drops 1.1M for York

The City of Grande Prairie was the success-ful winner in a court-ordered sale of the York Hotel, spending $1.1 million from a reserve fund.

No decision was made as to what the city would do with the hotel and land.

The city also owns an empty lot near the hotel, the old Germain Park site. Local store owners in the downtown core were quite happy with the decision and were anxious to know what the city’s plan was to be do with property.

Cardinal announced as cultural ambassador

Four weeks before the Arc-tic Winter Games, Celeigh Cardinal was named the Games Cultural Ambassador.

Cardinal, a 29-year-old s i n g e r-s o n g w r i t e r f ro m Grande Prairie, was sur-prised about being asked to become involved, but quickly embraced her role.

“As someone who isn’t very athletic, to be included in the cultural com-ponent helps the Games reach a broader demographic. I hope that my participation in this helps represent the vibrancy of the cul-ture in our community,” Cardinal said.

Cardinal’s role involved participation in opening and closing ceremonies, medal presentations for the traditional Dene games, as well as attending and performing at the multiple gala evenings.

“The Arctic Winter Games places equal priority on sports and culture ... the appoint-ment of a culture ambassador helps us to promote the cultural aspect of the Games by highlighting an individual who makes cul-ture and heritage part of her life daily,” said Jackie Clayton, director of culture and cere-monies.

Sunrise House closedThe Grande Prairie Youth Emergency Shel-

ter Society was hit with a major blow on Feb. 12 when Sunrise House closed its doors.

The decision left between eight and a dozen homeless youths to look elsewhere and about 10 employees without work.

“The board struggled with the decision for a while, but we basically reached the point where we need to address multiple concerns, and we felt that this was the best action to do that,” said board President Sean Doerkson.

Reasons for the closure stem largely from the maintenance and upkeep of the Mountview neighbourhood building as well as a lack of core funding.

The board also wanted to look at its staffing and programming structures, which it would work on with the City of Grande Prairie and Northwest Child and Family Services.

The closure was expected to last between three and six months.

“I’m pretty confident that the issue will be resolved and that the shelter will be up and running again within the next three to six months ... this is absolutely not the end of the Sunrise House,” said Ald. Gladys Blackmore.

Hwy. 43 twin pushing aheadGrande Prairie motorists were expected to

see some relief from heavy traffic on the 116 Avenue bypass in 2010 when the first leg of the new Hwy. 43X route west from the Four-Mile Corner opened.

This project was apart of almost $50 mil-lion worth of highway construction dur-ing the summer, including twinning west of Wembley.

Alberta Transportation’s capital plan for 2010-2013 will extend Hwy. 43 twinning west to Beaverlodge, ending two kilometres east of the town at Secondary Hwy. 723. The 13-km stretch will cost $22.6 million.

Hwy. 43 is twinned to just beyond Crooked Creek, west of the Sturgeon Lake reserve, and

resumes just before entering Val-leyview.

GPRC going greenGrande Prairie Regional College

is going green in a big way as they attempt to go paperless through-out the college.

The institution has launched an Environmental Action Team, to “bring a profile of environmen-tal awareness to the college,” said GPRC president Don Gnatiuk.

Gnatiuk said this is only one of the several initiatives the colleges intends on promoting. “We buy 4,000,000 pieces of paper per year, and so now we are going to see how much of an impact we can have on that ... we are way, way behind and we need to take a bold step forward.”

The board embraced the initia-tive and the goal is to have paper-less boardrooms at both GPRC campuses.

Ludwig leads group panning well project

Wiebo Ludwig and other pro-testers say they’re in it for the long haul, stringing themselves across the road near a sour gas well site

just north of their Trickle Creek farm near Hythe.

Ludwig and about 50 pro-testers, armed with signs and photos and a trailer, set up a demonstration across from a fenced Canadian Superior Energy well that began test flaring that day.

The protest follows a day-long sit-in that Richard and Lois Boonstra, residents of Ludwig’s commune, initi-ated at the Grande Prairie field office of the Alberta Energy Resources Conser-vation Board.

L u d w i g s a i d h e w a s unsure how long they would keep demonstrating, but he did say they will be there for at least a few days.

“We as citizens of Canada are guaranteed our free-

dom that we are able to gather in a peaceful assembly and that’s indeed what it was,” he said.

Local schools busy with Haitian relief

The outpouring of support for Haiti from local schools was nothing but outstanding.

At Aspen Grove, 60 Grade 6 students hosted a Hearts for Haiti campaign where they sold red paper hearts for $1 - posting them on the walls of the school. They raised $1,950.

From Hats for Haiti campaigns to bottle drives and bake sales to Hair for Haiti fund-raisers, many schools in the three local dis-tricts pitched into help.

Grande Prarie and District Catholic Schools raised more than $30,000.

With a population of only 111 students, St. Mary’s Catholic in Beaverlodge raised close to $8,200 through bottle drives, bake and flower sales.

The school has had a sister school/orphan-age in Haiti since the 1970s.

Caleigh Cardinal

remo zaCCagna Herald-Tribune staffWiebo Ludwig, along with members of the Trickle Creek Community, protested in front of a Canadian Superior energy sour gas well north of Hythe.

niCk kuHL Herald-Tribune staffCarly mckillop of country duo one more girl performs their new single Tumblin’ Tears during an afternoon jam session at Prairie mall Feb. 4. The performance was the first part of the Benefit For Haiti Concert.


MarchWi-Fi in GP a go

All three levels of government invested $5.7 million in a Grande Prairie initiative to bring Wi-Fi to city facilities.

The federal and provincial governments both announced $1.9 million for City Hall’s wireless master plan, topping up the $1.9 million investment by the city on March 1.

The plan would establish public wireless Internet access at 17 civic sites including City Hall, Leisure Centre, Montrose Cultural Cen-tre, Coca-Cola Centre, Centre 2000, the Mul-tiplex, museum and other working buildings such as the fire halls, RCMP detachment and Aquatera facilities.

Peace River MP Chris Warkentin said technological infrastructure has become as important as any road or bridge.

“Those communities are investing in tech-nology,” he said. “It’s necessary in today’s economy ... people think it’s important when they’re choosing a community to live in.”

Dino museum finds a homeAfter months of planning delays and

changes, the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Museum has an official home – a four hectare (10-acre) site just off Highway 43 within the Town of Wembley.

The announcement was made at a fun-draising campaign launch at Centre 2000, where members of the Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative and several dignitaries outlined a strategic plan to have the dinosaur project open by the end of 2012.

The facility will feature a 40-000-square-foot, single-storey building, complete with interactive exhibits, theatre, research lab, classrooms, boardroom, cafeteria, gift shop and an exterior “time walk” showcasing 73 million years of South Peace history.

Arctic Winter Game officially openFollowing a two-act opening ceremony

titled A Hero’s Journey, the Arctic Winter Games were declared officially open to a sold-out crowd of 2,000 people at the Can-ada Games Arena.

“I was very excited,” said Wayne Ayling, who produced and co-directed the show with Fort St. John resident Gary Oker. “The cast was wonderful. All our plans came to a wonderful, wonderful end and it’s actually just starting.” The duo spent two years work-ing on the unique concept.

Saying goodbye to AWGThe Arctic Winter Games have wrapped

up, the athletes and cultural performers have

all gone home and the Aluk suit has been hung up. But a lot of volunteers were not quite ready to say goodbye.

One last hurrah was held for the Games’ 3,000-plus volunteers at the Montrose Cul-tural Centre.

It was the host society’s way of saying “thank-you” to the people of Grande Prairie who opened their arms and welcomed the world said Linda Craik, volunteers director.

“Some of them have talked to me already today about going up to Whitehorse where the 2012 Games will be ... so you do become part of that Arctic Winter Games family,” she said.

Zwozdesky visits GPHealth Minister G ene

Zwozdesky toured the QEII Hospital and the Grande Prairie Care Centre during a quick two-hour dash into the city.

In his f irst visi t s ince re p l a c i n g R o n L i e p e r t , Zwozdesky insisted he was simply getting a heads-up on local issues and concerns.

“I want to see for myself what the circumstance is and what the con-ditions are and what the townsfolk are tell-ing me and the health-care providers are

telling me are and so on,” said Zwozdesky.

After touring the hospi-tal and speaking with staff Zwozdesky said he learned the facility is even busier than he thought.

“I didn’t know that there’s a catchment area that serves anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 which is even busier than I thought,” he said.

No raise for city councilA citizen committee review-

ing the salaries and workload of city council says no member should get a raise when a new three-year term begins after the October civic election.

The three-member com-mittee presented its report to council’s general government services committee.

Committee members were surprised at the large work-load and schedules of council members but felt they could

not recommend any raises except for a yearly cost-of-living increase tied to the Alberta Consumer Price Index, the same scale used for many public service contracts and elected officials’ wages, including MLAs.

Alderman get $30,311 annually and the full-time mayor is paid $81,191. Both posi-tions have one-third of their salary tax-free.

City plans to destroy YorkAfter spending $1.1 mil-

lion to buy it, city council took its first step towards tearing down the York Hotel.

City council spent several days in Grande Cache on a strategic planning sessions where it ordered adminis-tration to prepare a report on the demolition costs and future options for the site.

Mayor Dwight Logan said the demolition was a rela-tively easy decision for coun-cil. “We actually spent very little time on it,” he said.

Blaze at Count Indus-trial Park

Heavy black smoke poured over the County Industrial

Park south of the city as fire crews from the entire region rushed to the area as an indus-trial shop went up in flames.

Roadblocks were set up several blocks away because firefighters were worried about possible further explosions at the Gibson Energy building where the fire erupted about 7:30 a.m.

Fire crews from the county of Grande Prai-rie, LeGlace and Bezanson were also called in to contain the blaze.

Capt. Dennis Biggs with the Grande Prai-rie Fire Department said an explosion started the blaze but he had no information on what could have caused it.

Biggs added the building is almost a total loss with significant damage.

Head of AHS visits GPT h e h e a d o f A l b e r t a

Health Services got an ear-ful when he opened the floor to questions after tossing aside a planned speech at the Northern Alberta Elected Leaders meeting.

AHS CEO Dr. Stephen Duckett fielded questions on a variety of regional health-care issues including STARS funding, the Beaverlodge

hospital, the planned regional hospital in Grande Prairie and long-term care needs.

Ald. Bill Given said the meeting provided another opportunity to express the city’s frus-tration on the slow-moving GP Care Centre project and the need for greater involvement from AHS in ensuring it moves forward.

Darrell winwooD Herald-Tribune staffSmoke pours from Gibson energy in a back corner of the County industrial Park.

Diana rinne Herald-Tribune staffanook (Gerald auger) and Dagee (Clinton Soto) perform the Friendship Drum Song during the 2010 arctic winter Games opening ceremony held at the Canada Games arena.

Duckett

Zwozdesky


AprilGP Care Centre work begins

The sod was turned for the city’s new Grande Prairie Care Centre in front of more than 30 spectators.

The $25-million structure will house 60 designated assisted-living beds and 60 long term care beds.

“The citizens of Grande Prairie have waited for this for a long time,” said Seniors and Community Supports Minister Mary Anne Jablonski.

“We all hoped we could have done this sooner but the fact is we’re doing it now and that’s reason to celebrate.”

It is expected to be complete by late 2011.

County approves budgeting for Sportsplex

The County of Grande Prairie decided to go ahead with the Clairmont Sportsplex.

They unanimously voted to approve $26 million in its 2010 budget for the 42-acre site.

The initial concept for the facility includes two ice surfaces, two indoor surfaces for either soccer pitches or common-use areas and an office room.

“Council is very excited about having another new facility in our community,” said Reeve Everett McDonald.

The facility has a target completion date of the fall of 2012.

Local churches unify for 24 hours of worship

Victory Church on the Rock had about 1,200 to 1,500 people show up for Praise24, a 24-hour worship service, said Pastor Char-

lotte Quist.T h i s i s t h e

third year it ’s b e e n h e l d i n Grande Prairie and about 100 people did the entire 24-hour stint, Quist said.

And the event has grown every year, she said.

“Something very unique is happ ening in Grande Prairie,” Quist said.

Herald-Tribune building for saleThe Daily Herald-Tribune newspaper is

looking to sell its current location on 100 Street.

As the newspaper expands its operations, a more modern facility would be needed, said publisher Kent Keebaugh.

“We costed out the extensive renovations required and it was deemed the cost was just too high for the current location,” he said.

No timeline on the sale of the existing property nor the move to a new location has yet been determined.

Aquatera announces plans for curb-side recycling

The utility company announced plans for curbside recycling in Grande Prairie at a year-end report to a city committee.

Details, including cost, were scarce but Aquatera is responding to customers, said CEO Bernd Manz.

In a survey, they found that 83% of cus-tomers wanted the service, he said.

“There are different pilots in the region and certainly customers within the city have indicated they would like to see that. We see really good use of the current depot (recy-cling bins) system and the Eco Centre now and this is an additional level of conven-ience,” Manz said.

County gets land near Evergreen Park for $1

The County of Grande Prairie got a good deal on two quarter-sections in the Ever-green Park area, bringing its ownership to three quarters, for $1.

They met with the then-minister of Sus-tainable Resource Development David Coutts several years ago, to ask if the prov-ince might sell or give the land to the county.

“We’ve had the two quarters – and three others in vicinity of Evergreen Park – leased from the government for many years,” said Bill Rogan, county administrator.

“These two (quarters) border the park. The three others are some of the land that the park sits on.”

The county wants other three quarter-sec-tions but it’s likely the province will want market value for them.

Big changes in store for AquateraMayor Dwight Logan announced over-

hauling Aquatera’s structure at the annual State of the City address.

“I am pleased to announce that we will

have changes made to the U na n i m o u s S ha re h o l d-ers Agreement in the next few weeks and to our board of governors’ structure to address some of the contra-dictions in the original struc-ture of Aquatera,” said Logan, who’s chairman of Aquatera’s board.

Aquatera is collectively owned by the city, County of

Grande Prairie and Sexsmith, with the city owning the largest share.

GP County residents get 0.5% tax decrease in 2010

The County of Grande Prairie adopted its $80.5 million 2010 budget which gave tax-payers an average decrease of 0.5% in their municipal levy.

The average taxpayer with a residence assessed at $299,600 saw a reduction of $6 in municipal taxes and a $1 increase in educa-tion taxes, for a net decrease of $5.

There is a similar decrease for non-resi-dential and farmland properties.

“We feel really positive we are able to get a lot of new projects in without even having to touch the tax rate at all,” said Reeve Ever-ett McDonald. “It’s a significant budget again this year and some big capital projects.”

City of GP taxpayers get 2.8% hike for 2010

The city of Grande Prairie set its 2010 municipal property tax increase at 2.8%.

The budget, passed in December 2009, called for the increase, but the rate is never set until spring.

The increase is for municipal prop-erty taxes only and does not include the education tax portion which is set by the province and included in tax notices sent out in May.

For a home with an average value of $263,300, they’ll pay an additional $80 which will increase its total to $2,967.

According to city staff, 80% of homes in Grande Prairie will pay the 2.8% increase, while the other 20% will see an assess-ment change of greater or lower than 5.5% and will pay more or less accordingly.

Grande Prairie faced a $1.245 million cut in provincial funding but City Hall was able to balance the books thanks to lower raises for civic staff.

Blaze rages near Correction LineA Gemini Helicopter on a fire ban patrol

spotted smoke from burning fields near township Road 710 and Range Road 65, five kilometres west of the Highway 40-Correcion Line Road.

Fire resources from the city, county, Tee-pee Creek, Bezanson, Wembley, LaGlace, along with two helicopters, were called in.

“We had two (homes) evacuated due to heavy smoke. They were on the south side of the Correction Line Road. They were never threatened directly by fire though – one house to the east, we called for an evacua-tion as soon as this fire jumped,” said Everett Cooke, the county’s acting fire chief.

The cause of the fire is still under investiga-tion and remains unknown, he said.

STARS gets 10-year funding pledge from province

The Shock Trauma Air Rescue Soci-ety (STARS) base in Grande Prairie will be partially funded by the provincial govern-ment along with sister bases in Calgary and Edmonton.

Alberta Health Services will give $5.488 million to STARS annually for the next 10 years, said Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky.

This is about $1.2 million more than the organization was getting, which is primarily fundraiser supported.

“It will … provide stable and predictable funding over 10 years,” he said.

“This comes about as a result of some good negotiations over the last little while.”

Dwight Logan

Damien wooD Herald-Tribune staffDr. Greg Powell. STaRS president and Ceo, and alberta Health and wellness minister Gene Zwozdesky.

Damien wooD Herald-Tribune staff

Pastor Charlotte Quist of Victory Church.


MayBig gift for Evergreen Park

The County of Grande Prairie handed Evergreen Park a $2.9 million gift out of their 2011 budget.

Reeve Everett McDonald said the park has had some tough times with the completion of the TEC Centre and the county wants to ensure it gets back on its feet.

“They are a really wonderful group of people doing some wonderful things down there,” he said.

McDonald said the county will pay off the park’s $1.1 million loan to RBC, $400,000 in accounts payable, and contribute an addi-tional $1 million to pay off some high inter-est loans.

890-hectare wildfireAn 890-hectare wildfire burning out of

control southeast of DeBolt was aggressively attacked by eight fire crews, three bulldozer groups, three helicopters and two air tankers (water bombers) flying out of Grande Prai-rie.

It was initially pegged at about 200 hec-tares, but with dry and windy conditions, the fire ballooned to 890 hectares (about 2,200 acres).

“It is a vigorous surface fire that’s been pushed by the wind and low humidity,” SRD spokeswoman Kelly Burke said.

The fast-spreading blaze was about 22 kilo-metres southeast of DeBolt in the Swan Lake area.

10 ministers descend on GPTe n p r o v i n c i a l c a b i n e t m i n i s t e r s

descended on Grande Prairie, blitzing the district and taking in as much as they can during a hectic two-day schedule.

The politicians’ meetings were part of a Conservative governmental initiative to get decision-makers out and about.

There are no shortage of concerns in Grande Prairie: The new hospital, highway upgrades, infrastructure funding, a new public high school, numerous business and social issues.

For Grande Prairie-Smoky MLA Mel Knight “this is a serious exercise to get feed-back. We’re gathering the concerns ... we’ll feed those into our planning sessions.”

The entourage included Cindy Ady, tour-ism; Lindsay Blackett, culture; Dave Han-cook, education; Jonathon Dennis, housing; Ray Danyluk, infrastructure; Iris Evans, inter-governmental affairs; Mary Anne Jablonski, seniors; Jack Hayden, agriculture; and Alison Redford, justice.

Given throws hat into mayoral raceAld. Bill Given himself has

called it the worst kept secret when he made it official con-firming he would run for Mayor in the October elec-tion.

The announcement was expected by many but Given said now is the right time.

Given a three-term alder-man, first elected at the age of 24, said he plans to spend

the summer listening and talking with resi-dents about his vision for the city.

He also said his campaign would involve what he hears during summer from the pub-lic.

Given was the first candidate to officially declare his or her intentions to run for mayor. He said it will be fine balance between finish-ing his current term on council and running for the leadership of it.

GP Stompede kick-offThe 33rd annual Grande Prairie Stompede

kicked off at Evergreen Park.“This even is a great event for Grande Prai-

rie,” said Willie Kempin, Stompede commit-tee president. “After the winter, everybody gets shaking off the winter blues. They come out and have a lot fun with their family and

learn the way of the heritage of this area.”

Snow storm hits GPSpring snow is not unheard of in Alberta

or Grande Prairie but it sure packed a punch this past Victoria Day weekend.

Almost 50 mm of precipitation fell in the Swan City in a mixture of rain and snow caus-ing chaos from the roads to the skies.

The city was forced to examine storm sewer services on the west side of Grande Prairie after the weather temporarily flooded a section of Wapiti Road.

As the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow, it helped solve the problem. “I never thought I’d say it in May but it’s nice to see the snow,” city trans-portation manager Robert Carroll said, explaining the water was able to drain faster as the rain quit.

This was not the first time the area has seen sudden flooding; the same problem occurred dur-ing a thunderstorm in 2007.

Aquatera turn taps on for rural homes

Hundreds of rural homeowners west and south of Grande Prairie are getting access to clean and reli-able water after Aquatera Utilities

turned on the taps for a new line this week.The $7.9 million West Aqua system

includes 64 kilometres of piping to rural sub-divisions including Dunes West, Sunrise Estates, Riverview Pines and Wapiti Heights.

The system serves those who decided to buy into it, allowing them to replace or phase out existing private wells. It was paid for in a three-way split between the federal and pro-vincials governments along with the county.

Residents who want access have to pay a fee and have water meters installed. The sys-tem doesn’t includes sewer or waste water service.

Tim Conrad, Aquatera communications manager said, the system has a capacity of up to 700 homes. It costs approximately $25,000 to access the system, which com-pares roughly to the price of drilling and operating a new private well.

Centennial for Forbes ChurchThe loyal congregation of the Forbes Pres-

byterian Church honoured the arrival of Alexander and Agnes Forbes’s ministry in Grande Prairie 100 years ago.

The centennial was marked by the re-opening of the original Forbes homestead. The Forbes log cabin is the oldest remain-ing building in Grande Prairie, and after 10 years of renovations, costing roughly a quar-ter of a million dollars, the building has been restored to its original state.

The Forbes family is responsible for much of Grande Prairie’s initial development. Sev-eral existing schools and hospitals were started with the guidance and help, and large portion of of what is now downtown Grande Prairie lies on the original Forbes acreage.

LyLe Travis Special to Herald-TribuneGrant Morgan, of Granton Ontario, ropes and ties down a calf in the slack Tie Down roping event during the Grande Prairie stompede.

Bill Given

eric PLuMMer Herald-Tribune staffa display in the restored Forbes homestead replicating how their home was used to treat the sick. The model depicts agnes Baird, Grande Prairie’s first registered nurse.

GPRC receives big cheque Grande Prairie Regional College can go

ahead with about 30 approved projects thanks to a $2.4 million cheque received at the monthly Alumni Foundation meeting.

The college raised $979,913 through dona-tions from corporations and alumni in the last school year. The Alberta government more than matched that, contributing $1.47 million from its Access to the Future Fund, set up in 2005.

The fund provides money to support inno-vation and enhance learning opportunities.

GPRC also intends to continue offering about $300,000 in scholarships, bursaries and awards to students.

1929 building restoredPart of Grande Prairie’s history was

brought back to life with the $8.7 million res-toration project for one of the city’s oldest buildings.

Engineers began the delicate task of restor-ing the 1929 building that once housed the Prairie Art Gallery. The brick structure on 99 Street west of the Montrose Cultural Centre has been sealed off since the southern roof collapsed from heavy snow in March 2007.

The plan involves a new three-storey struc-ture inside the shell of the original two-storey building. The outside walls will be shored up and the inside razed for a deeper foundation. An internal corridor about three metres wide will be between the outer brick walls and the new inside support walls.

Grant Berg, one of the gallery’s board of directors, said “We’re taking the history of

1929 but the technol-ogy and architecture of 2010.”

County annexation passed

The future look of the Grande Prairie region took a monumental step forward when the city and county coun-cils passed the long-worked-on Intermunic-ipal Development Plan.

The document paved the way for the annex-ation of 6,316 hectares (15,600 acres) of county land into the city over the next 30 years, and likely a lot sooner than that.

A longer 50-year timeframe will allow the city to annex another 13,390 hectares (33,000 acres) if county land for future industrial and residential areas.

Reeve Everett McDonald said both the county and the city have put in a lot work in the last few years hammering out the IDP. Now with the council approvals out the way, the municipalities can get to work.Compensation for two dead donkeys

An Elmworth woman seeks compensation for two killed donkeys from provincial wild-life officials who she said did not warn her of the presence of a dangerous grizzly bear in the area.

The bear had been radio-collared and relocated to the Chinchaga region of north-easter B.C., which is 70 kilometres southwest

of Grande Prairie.Farmer Christine Olesen

said she was never warned about of the bear’s pres-ence and has she known she would have taken precau-tions to protect her donkey’s.

Blackmore joins may-oral race

Ald. Gladys Blackmore launched her campaign to

become mayor and quickly came out swing-ing, saying the city has lacked strong leader-ship and council has little to show for three years of work.

Blackmore a three-term alderman said Grande Prairie is at a cross-roads, “We can fall back to what we were a few years ago ... or

become the city people want to come to.”

She pledged to push for a full service review at City Hall, examining all depart-ments including the RCMP to search for savings and she said the city needs to be more open for business.

GP outdoor pool clos-ing?

With the city’s Multiplex opening the summer of 2011, Grande Prairie’s outdoor pool may be at the end of its lifespan as plans are under-way to fill it in and replace it with a water and spray park, an expanded version of what is currently at Lions Park.

Council approved the impending closure of the Bear Creek pool two years prior, part of an overall parks and recreation plan, and has allocated $100,000 towards the $250,000 replacement spray/water park for 2011.

Crowds are sporadic at the pool with a maximum capacity of 280 swimmers and 400 people in the facility – some summer days people are turned away.

Recreation facilities usually have a life span of 20 to 25 years and Bear Creek pool has lasted more than 40.

GP golf looking for helpThe city’s oldest active course, the Grande

Prairie Golf and Country Club, is the process for a total overhaul of the facility.

T h e n o t- f o r- p r o f i t course has found itself increasingly dire financial straits, and has come up with an aggressive new marketing plan to bring it back to standard – as the best track in Northern Alberta.

Shareholders voted in favour of issuing new shares and debentures to facilitate a $4.5 million fundraising effort.

The deadline to raise money is Sept. 30, and if successful, the club will start a reconstruc-tion project in September

2011. Until then, management will continue to operate business as usual.

Inman family wins big twiceShari Inman and family were one of the

luckiest families in the city during 2010.After winning a Dodge Ram truck, Chrys-

ler 300C, and a, ‘09 Polaris snowmobile as the grand prize for the Cars for Christmas.

A few months after that Inman won the QEII Foundation’s Dream Home lottery, a $1.1 million package of a Lincoln MKZ and house located in the developing Taylor Estates area.

“I can’t explain it, I don’t know. I was thinking maybe I should buy more tickets too,” she laughed.


June

Blackmore

darrell winwood Herald-Tribune staffwork began on rebuilding the ruined original Prairie art Gallery. The southern roof collapsed from a heavy snow load in March 2007.

reMo zaccaGna Herald-Tribune staffThe inman family - Shari, codey, and Grant - stand outside the front door of their new dream home.

daMien wood Herald-Tribune staffa piece of Grande Prairie history came tumbling down as Frank-lin Parlee tore into the wapiti dorm.


inpictures

terry farrell Herald-Tribune staffall the swimmers hit the water at the same time in the boys 12-17 50m breaststroke. the Grande Prairie Piranhas hosted the fastrack into fall Swim in November 2010.

terry farrell Herald-Tribune staffteam alberta snowboarded soars through the air during 2010 arctic Winter Games team alberta snowboard qualifying at Nitehawk recreation area.

damieN Wood Herald-Tribune staffrobert Steven, curator and executive director for the Prairie art gallery looks at a piece of brick from the original building.

ivaN daNieleWicz Herald-Tribune staffmaje, caribou Woman (michelle lafferty) performs the maje’s lament during the 2010 arctic Winter Games opening ceremony held at the canada Games arena.

ivaN daNieleWicz Herald-Tribune staffJashua Ussak Sumdum, from team Nunavut, shoots his foot up in the air to knock the bag.

damieN Wood Herald-Tribune staffduomei Wu performs “Blankets” - an acrobatic solo during the chinese acrobatic Show.

damieN Wood Herald-Tribune staffBarbra Nassonko, 11, and the Watoto children’s choir at their performance at the christian fellowship.

damieN Wood Herald-Tribune staffdave Bury, owner of Prairie Signs, painted in the Grande Prairie Storm logo at centre ice.


inpictures

terry farrell Herald-Tribune staffteam alberta snowboarded soars through the air during 2010 arctic Winter Games team alberta snowboard qualifying at Nitehawk recreation area.

damieN Wood Herald-Tribune staffSanta Claus made a special appearance at the GP museum.

diaNa riNNe Herald-Tribune staffCanada day fireworks over Bear Creek reservoir in Grande Prairie.

remo zaCCaGNa Herald-Tribune staffannikka dobko performs at malanka during the Previt dance.

damieN Wood Herald-Tribune staffJufang Chen and ling Bai perform “Goose Hunting” a dance skit during the Chinese acrobatic Show at the douglas J. Cardinal Performing arts Centre.

damieN Wood Herald-Tribune staffGrade 12 Grande Prairie Composite High student Berat Giorani (18) led friends and fellow stu-dents ryan Krieser (18) and Sean Jami (17) down a massive Slip-N-Slide.

ivaN daNieleWiCz Herald-Tribune staffmaje, Caribou Woman (michelle lafferty) performs the maje’s lament during the 2010 arctic Winter Games opening ceremony held at the Canada Games arena.


JulyLong-time GP business man passes away

Grande Prairie businessman, civic booster and long-time Tory organizer Tom Shields died at the age of 69 due to complications relating to a kidney transplant.

Shields leaves behind a history of civic involvement, political work and a legion of well wishers and friends, including Premier Ed Stelmach.

He was a long-time party organizer and a very early supporter of Stelmach’s leadership bid for the party, helping organize that cam-paign in northern Alberta.

In a statement Stelmach said, “Tom Shields was a treasured friend and a tireless pro-moter of Alberta’s Peace Country ... His con-tribution to his family, his community and our province was outstanding.”

Council approves combative sports commission

The next time Grande Prairie fans head to watch a boxing or mixed martial arts event, they could be viewing it live and in person as city council approved the creation of a com-bative sports commission.

The bylaw met little opposition, passing in a 7-1 vote with only Ald. Elroy Deimert in opposition.

Grande Prairie is the fifth community in Alberta and second in the Peace Country to allow professional fights.

Other communities that have such com-missions include Edmonton, Calgary, Leth-bridge, Cold Lake, Fort St. John and Prince George.

Stelmach gives go-ahead for regional hospital

Premier Ed Stelmach opened his wallet for one new hospital and promised another in the Peace Country.

Stelmach announced the go-ahead on a $520 million regional hospital for Grande Prairie.

Instead of the previously advertised site on land east of the Bear Creek Golf Course, the facility will be built on land at 107 Street and 106 Avenue across the bypass from the Grande Prairie Regional College.

The facility represents a partnership with GPRC to support medical training for its pro-grams.

“This, to me, is responding directly to the needs for health faculty and health students travelling, back and forth seamlessly, and this is our opportunity to do that,” said Don

Gnatiuk, GPRC president.The new hospital will include cancer radia-

tion treatment, 200 acute care beds, expand-able to meet future needs as the population grows, and will incorporate health workforce training.

Stelmach said this facility will reduce wait times and reduce travel requirements for cancer patients in the area.

“Our goal here is to have a cancer treat-ment in Grande Prairie ... so we will move cancer treatment out of the two major cen-tres,” he said.

Soil and site testing are expected to start as soon as possible with construction set to begin in spring of 2011. Some health services will be available by the fall of 2014.

Stelmach also made an announcement that the Beaverlodge Hospital will remain open and a replacement facility will be in a future capital plan.

He did not give a specific timeline on the Beaverlodge project but noted the current hospital needs to be replaced and he said they will look at the savings on the large projects.

WWII grenade foundWhat was believed to be a grenade dating

back to the Second World War era caused alarm in a trailer park northwest of Grande Prairie.

Grande Prairie RCMP brought in explosive experts from the Canadian Forces base in Cold Lake to detonate the antique grenade.

The grenade was discovered by County Roads RV Park.

Grande Prairie RCMP evacuated two trail-ers and taped off a 50-foot radius around the location of the grenade.

Takin’ it to the streetsThis year’s Grande Prairie Street Perform-

ers Festival was the largest ever, said co-chairman Wayne Ayling.

A record-breaking 28,000 people filled the city’s downtown streets during the weekend’s 10th festival.

Their previous attendee record was as the 2008 festival which attracted about 25,000 visitors.

Bypass opensMotorists were able

to experience less con-gested traffic in Grande Prairie, with the open-ing of a new bypass in the city.

The new Highway 43X runs from High-way 43 at the Four Mile Corner intersection with Highway 2, north of Grande Prairie’s city limits. It offers four lanes of divided high-way extending 4 km west of 116 Street, pro-viding a better route for the high volume of industrial vehicles that pass through Grande Prairie.

“The new Grande Prairie bypass will help ease congestion in the city and improve the transport of goods across northwestern Alberta,” said Grande Prairie-Smoky MLA Mel Knight.

Highway 43X cost the provincial govern-ment more than $24 million to build, includ-ing $19 million spent on road construction and $5.2 million for a CN Rail overpass just east of the Four Mile Corner.

Saudi royalty to the rescueA government-issued Saudi medevac

G4 plane touched down at Grande Prairie Regional Airport ending a long and emo-tional journey for Stephen Shesterniak and family.

Shesterniak, 56, has been living and work-ing for a Saudi Arabia-based oil company for 18 years when his life went upside down in May.

He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and was quickly regressing, but because his company terminated his employment a year ago, he did not receive medical coverage.

After two months of lobbying various lev-els of governments, help was received from the Saudi royal family, who ordered Shester-niak evacuated aboard the medevac aircraft July 9 to return home to Grande Prairie.

“This trip home is by royal decree because it’s been given to us by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” said Shesterniak’s wife, Ellen.

remo zaccagna Herald-Tribune staffJackie Harvey (left) consoles her sister, ellen Shesterniak, as her hus-band, Stephen, was being placed onto a waiting ambulance.

cryStal rHyno Herald-Tribune staffPremier ed Stelmach chats with ed and Sylvia Hotte from Beaverlodge at the South Peace centennial museum.


August

No tornado touchdown in GPDespite people on social media sites such

as Facebook and Twitter reporting and post-ing photos, there was no tornado touching down a few kilometres south of the city.

Dan Kulak, a warning preparedness mete-orologist with Environment Canada said, “Grande Prairie is not the tornado alley, so to speak, of Alberta. And that even being said, it’s quite possible there was not a tornado there.”

GP Inn no longer senior’s centreThe Grande Prairie Inn will no longer

become a seniors’ retirement complex.Martin Dolemo, owner of Dolemo Devel-

opment said “People loved the concept, it was what was needed in Grande Prairie, but

a lot of people had kind of a wait-and-see attitude.”

He added the decision was made because the company wasn’t close to getting the number of future resi-dents needed.

There is also still no decision as to what they will use the building for.

Ag disaster for CountyDrought conditions have forced the

County of Grande Prairie to declare itself an agricultural disaster area for the third consecutive year.

Coun. Pat Jacobs, chairwoman of the Agricultural Service Board, said the extremely dry conditions made the decision easy.

“It was a difficult one last year, but this is now becoming the (third) year in a row we are experiencing this,” she said. “I know the cattle guys are having trouble locating enough feed for the winter.”

July precipitation measured at Grande Prairie was 32.5 millimetres, less than half the normal 70.4.

Dino discovery doing wellIt’s been a successful season for

dinosaur excavation, bringing total skull discoveries in the Pipestone Creek/Wapiti River fossil bonebeds to 29.

On the final day of a three-week excavation, world-renowned pal-aeontologist Dr. Philip Currie of Edmonton announced the discovery of two more skulls.

Currie, along with his team which includes his wife, palaeobotanist Dr. Eva Koppelhus, and members of the GPRC, air-lifted the skull along with other larger fossils.

Twelve pachyrhinosaurus skulls were found at the Wapiti bed and 17 at the Pipes-tone Creek site south of Wembley over the last several years.

Currie was excited at how well this year’s excavation went and can’t wait to return in 2011.

Crash course on culture

No one is going to learn all there is to know about another culture in an afternoon, but the Heritage Day long weekend’s 100 Flags Festival did its best to give an introductory crash course.

Music was the international language,

ranging from a Ukrainian who carries around the instruments of every country he has vis-ited, to Ugandan drummers and dancers, to a youth group of drummers singers from the local aboriginal community.

They all brought something a bit different to the Muskoseepi Park stage and the audi-ence was happy to see and hear it.

Curling club receives helpThe city will give the Grande Prairie Curl-

ing Club the money to meet its immediate needs but the decision did not come with-out minor dispute on where it would come from.

City council was dealing with a commu-nity development committee recommen-dation made last week to tap its financial stabilization reserve for $276,256 to get the curling club over one of its immediate financial humps.

The curling club received an additional $734,300 during the 2011 budget talks. This financial crisis surfaced at the City Hall level in the summer of 2010 and was primarily pegged on the curling club being saddled with high utility costs because of an aging ice plant and infrastructure.

Shelter moving ahead with renosThe Sunrise House garage sale was a suc-

cess allowing the youth shelter to steamroll ahead with renovations.

The shelter reached its $2,000 goal, said Sean Doerkson, president of the Grande Prairie Youth Emergency Shelter Society (GPYESS).

“I’m pretty happy ... considering the fact that the weather was quite lousy,” he said.

GPYESS held the sale to generate cash for the work and clear space for the renovations.

The organization was trying to move quickly with the renovations so they could re-open their doors by November.

name cutline creditmartin ntega of the african-Canadian multicultural Club and Centre performs some Ugandan drumming dancing at the 100 Flags Festival in muskoseepi Park.

josePhine lim Herald-Tribune staffRobin sissons, Grande Prairie Regional College’s paleontology education liaison, lifts a fossil recovered from the Wapiti River bonebed.

CRystal Rhyno Herald-Tribune stafflittle lily Clarke, 4, is excited about the upcoming school year.


September

Family grateful of community helpThe Crystal Lake family who lost every-

thing in a house fire are grateful to be alive and thankful for the outpouring of support from the community.

In the early hours of Sept. 23, fire ripped through the 126 Avenue home, waking the family of five who fled and called the Grande Prairie Fire Department. The blaze destroyed the home – with the suspected cause to be electrical.

Originally from Saskatoon, Sask., the fam-ily had rented the house for more than a year. At the end of the month, they had planned to move into a new home in Mission Heights.

With the support of friends, family, the Canadian Red Cross, Victims Services, and local schools the family was able to piece together the things for their new home.

Council gives 500K to Community Village

City council handed over the second half of $500,000 promised to the Community Vil-lage and got a peek at what the funds will be used for.

The village is two buildings into its three-building renovations project, with the sec-

ond stage to be wrapped up by October.Board chairwoman Tanya Wald said every-

thing should be done or very close in about a year. When finished the Village will be able to house up to15 frontline social service agen-cies.

It was originally a $2 million project, of which about $1.5 million has been collected with the money given by the city coming out-side the normal budget process.

New hospital jumps another hurdleThe long-awaited new regional hospital

has cleared another, albeit small, hurdle.Grande Prairie Regional College, which

owns the site across the bypass west of the college, had some concern about what a city rezoning bylaw could mean if it went through as initially worded.

With a few minor adjustments, the bylaw cleared second and third reading at council.

“(It) will identify that a hospital is going to be built within the quarter section, but world otherwise leave the college’s development opportunities and a future process for devel-opment in that quarter unchanged,” said city planner Dan Whelpton.

Alberta Art Days a successGrande Prairie were able to experience

one of the largest arts festivals Alberta Art Days in September.

This was the third time year Alberta Arts Days was held in Grande Prairie, but this time the city was chosen as one of the five communities to receive provincial funding of almost $75,000 for the festival.

With everything from fashion shows to short films, Grande Prairie was encapsulated by art.

Candace Hook, executive director of the Centre for Creative Arts said, “You’d have to go out of your way to avoid seeing art in the city.”

“Go Grande?”“Think Big. Go Grande.” These phrases

could very well be the next slogan to describe Grande Prairie as city officials proceed with a rebranding process.

Communications and marketing agency Deschenes-Regnier previewed a number of potential new logos and slogans for the city at a general government services committee meeting.

Mayor Dwight Logan, who believes strongly in the rebranding process, said the biggest mistake the city could make is rush

into something and set artificial guidelines for a completion date.

The most popular logo, referred to as “flowing ribbons” depicts nine different col-oured ribbons flowing out of the slogan – cre-ating the idea of endless advancements and possibilities one can have in Grande Prairie.

GP public school enrolment on riseThe Grande Prairie Pub-

lic School District saw a 5.2% spike in its student body this year.

As of the end of Septem-ber, 331 new students had enrolled in the district’s 14 schools. The largest growth was at the kindergarten level with 123 new students, 724 in total compared to the 601 in the 2009-10 school year.

There are 61 more students in Grade 11, 542 students compared to 481 in 2009-10; 52 more in Grade 2, 508 compared to 456; and an additional 54 in Grade 4, 475 compared 421.

School board chairwoman Karen Proko-powich said, “We’re really excited about the number of students coming into the system; that we will be able to work with the dollars we get from those students and be able to put into action some of the plans we now have.”

As a result of the increase in enrolment the Grande Prairie Public School District also had to hire a number of new teachers.

Among the current 449 teachers in the district, 27 are first-year teachers.

Teen killed in colli-sion

A Grande Prairie teen was killed in a two-vehicle collision.

The 17-year-old girl was the front-seat passenger of a car headed west that crossed the path of the pickup truck at the inter-section of the Correction Line and Highway 40.

The female driver, 17, and a male passenger in the backseat, also 17, were treated at the scene by Alberta Health Services EMS.

A man and woman in the truck that had been travelling south on Highway 40, were taken to hospital as a precautionary meas-ure.

Cpl. Carol McKinley of the Grande Prairie RCMP said she does not believe alcohol or weather were involved as a factor.

Celebrating modernizationThe Grande Prairie Regional Airport offi-

cially celebrated its grand re-opening follow-ing years of construction work to expand and modernize the facility.

The bulk of the $16.5 million project, bro-ken down into two phases, to expand the security room and departure lounge, add two inbound baggage belts, and improved parking facilities.

Alvin Maier, airport manager of market-ing and business development, said the air-port is at least three years away from possibly expanding the runway an additional 2,000 feet to 8,500 feet, which would accommodate long-haul flights.

In the interim, the airport may add flights to southern sun destinations and a direct flight to Vancouver by the end of 2011.

Maier said, “It’s been a long four years to get to this point and it really means that we now have a terminal building that is reflec-tive of the region and one of the best wel-coming pieces that we have coming into the region, and it really says what Grande Prairie is all about.”

Prokopowich

damien wood Herald-Tribune staffmayor dwight Logan signs a giant cheque, symbolizing the city’s second donation of $250,000 to the Community Village.

eriC PLummer Herald-Tribune staffeva Lovmo works on a painting in muskoseepi Park Saturday afternoon.


OctoberChanging of the guard

Kent Keebaugh, publisher of the Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune and Senior Group Publisher of Sun Media’s northern Alberta and Saskatchewan newspaper groups since 2003, announced his retirement following a decorated multi-decade career in the news-paper industry.

Keebaugh handed over the operations to Amber Ogilvie.

Ogilvie, who began her newspaper career 25 years ago as a sales representative in Peace River, had held a number of senior manage-ment positions in Sun Media including pub-lisher and CEO Vancouver 24 Hours and Sen-ior Group Publisher of Central Ontario Oper-ations.

With experience in all facets of the indus-try, Ogilvie will oversee a number of publica-tions in northern Alberta.

Big bust by RCMPThe streets of

Grande Prairie are 21 alleged drug d e a l e r s l i g h t e r following a mas-s i v e a t t a c k o n organized traf-ficking by Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams ( A L E R T ) a n d G ra n d e P ra i r i e RCMP.

With the arrests of 20 adults and one youth, and two search warrants, roughly $20,000 in drugs were seized, including 3.7 kilos of marijuana, 50

grams of cocaine, 19 ecstasy tabs, 22.5 grams of psilocybin (so-called magic mushrooms) and 20 tabs of ADHD drugs (methylpheni-date).

“We feel this will significantly disrupt some of the street-level organizations selling crack cocaine, and other drugs, in the city,” said ALERT Sgt. Grant Bulford, head of the local serious and organized crime unit.

Phase one of Wi-Fi a goGrande Prairie is looking to move into

a future unhindered by wires in one giant leap.

City council, at its last meeting before the

Oct. 18 municipal election, voted unani-mously to go ahead with the phase one of its Municipal Wireless Broadband Initiative, giving a contract to Alcatel-Lucent Canada worth $2.05 million.

It’s money already set aside $1.1 million from the city’s IT (Information Technology) reserve fund and $955,000 redirected from the corporate IT and business applications capital projects.

This covers phase one (of three), along with a 20% contingency.

“The first phase is to connect up our municipal buildings. The second phase is to get the emergency services up and running. The third is to provide broadband wireless for the public,” Ald. Dan Wong.

“(We’ll be able) to do all our phone, tele-vision, radio and all of our media service all in one, and be able to connect to just about anyone in the world, for much cheaper than we’re doing today.”

Twinning Hwy. 43 westSeventeen kilometres of Highway 43 west

of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation will be twinned and ready for traffic by summer 2012.

Premier Ed Stelmach made the $26 million announcement at the Grande Prairie Inn, prior to the annual Premier’s Dinner.

Stelmach called the stretch of road a key piece of Alberta’s highway network.

“Once we’re done, it will be twinned from

Montana to Grande Prairie. We’re realizing a dream come true that we begun a number of years ago,” he said.

“The highway network is the backbone of our economy.

GP ranked dangerous cityThe old adage is that figures lie and liars

figure. The first part of that appears to be the case as far local crimes statistics are con-cerned.

Grande Prairie ranked seventh on a list of the most dangerous cities in the country released in the October issue of Maclean’s magazine.

The magazine calculated the rankings using crime data for police services in Can-ada’s 100 largest populations areas from Sta-tistics Canada.

Grande Prairie was 64% above the median, Maclean’s said.

Cpl. Carol McKinley for the Grande Prai-rie RCMP said that she was slightly surprised with the city’s ranking since there’s been a steady decline in areas like robbery, vehicle theft and breaking and entering since 2008.

GP Given a new mayorIts going to take a few days to sink in, said

Bill Given, Grande Prairie’s new mayor. The 33-year-old, who’d served nine years

as an alderman, narrowly defeated incum-bent Dwight Logan 3,451-3,298.

Given didn’t believe it right away:

“It was such a close race. I didn’t want to believe it until the very end, and until some-body told me that was all the polls.

Given hopes to make sure council is work-ing toward a long-term vision than in the past, by always looking five-10 years in the future.

Council change upThe winds of change not only blew

through the Grande Prairie’s mayoral chair, but through council as well: Four new coun-cillors will help steer affairs the next three years.

Justin Munroe, Kevin McLean, Kevin O’Toole, and former alderman John Croken joined incumbents Lorne Radbourne, Dan Wong, Helen Rice and Alex Gustafson.

Rice, the elder stateswoman of the group and a veteran of multiple terms, had some advice for the newcomers.

“Listen and learn. And don’t be overpow-ered,” she said.

GP names top entrepreneurial cityGrande Prairie tops list of Canada’s best

entrepreneurial cities, according to the Cana-dian Federation of Independent Business.

The third annual “Communities in Bloom: Canada’s Top Entrepreneurial Cities” survey placed Grande Prairie on top after earning third and second, respectively in previous years.

The CFIB used a set of 12 core indicators – including businesses per capita, local gov-ernment taxes and regulation, and expected future prosperity – based on responses from 107,000 business owners across Canada.

Grande Prairie scored a 73.1 overall which was helped having the highest score in the number of businesses per capital and self-employment as a share of total employment.

Plans for Dino centre revealedExcitement buzzed through the air as the

public got a glimpse of the preliminary plans for the River of Death & Discovery Dinosaur Museum.

Toronto-based Teeple Architects Inc. Gave the audience a sneak peek at the drawings of the $26.4 million project.

The 33,000 square foot building will have 1 ½ floors and includes a basement.

As of October the museum had secured $7.2 million, about 30% of what’s needed. Its received $1.5 million from both the city and county, $3.8 million from the province and $540,000 from the federal government.

Damien wooD Herald-Tribune staff

an assortment of seized weapons and drugs.

Damien wooD Herald-Tribune staffGrande Prairie’s new mayor Bill Given celebrates his victory. Given defeated incumbent Dwight Logan with a vote of 3451 to 3298. at the age of 33, Given is the youngest mayor in Grande Prairie’s history.


NovemberGP history destroyed

A chunk of Grande Prairie’s history came crashing down amid cheers from dozens of onlookers.

Decades of dust lingered in the air as an excavator ripped apart the York Hotel, smashing its way from the parking lot on the west side through the wall bearing artist Tim Heimdal’s iconic mural of wild horses.

About 40 people gathered across 101 Ave-nue to watch as the excavator dug in again and again.

Built in 1948, the once-proud hotel, declared the finest in the north, had become known as a beacon for drugs and prostitution in recent years. It was shut down in March after the city purchased the property for $1.1 million.

Houle wins Peace Country IdolMeagan Houle is on her way to becoming

a professional singer.The 16-year-old placed first and was also

awarded the People’s Choice Award during the 2010 Peace Country Idol finale.

About 350 people heard 15 contestants compete for the top spot during the compe-tition at Grande Prairie Regional College’s Douglas J. Cardinal Performing Arts Centre.

Houle, from the Central Peace francoph-one community of Donnelly, sang Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.

She was awarded $1,000 when she planned to put towards the recording of a CD.

Third fire hall given contractCity council unanimously approved a con-

tract with Clark Builders of Edmonton for

$6.347 million project to build the city a third fire hall on the city’s west side.

GP budget down to 2.5%City council pulled out its red pens and

relentlessly cut capital projects from the 2011 budget to lower property taxes for residents.

After five hours, council members man-aged to reduce the increase to 2.5% from 7.6%.

Council was forced to cut $3,925,200 from the 2011 capital budget after deferring some projects to the 2012-14 budget.

For a home assessed at $263,000, this means there’ll be a $55 tax increase in 2011 on top of the $2,203 in taxes paid in 2010.

Taking back the nightFlashlights illuminated the Bear Creek res-

ervoir spillway when about 30 women and children marched in symbolic solidarity opposing all types of violence against them.

Take Back The Night reached the city for the first time since the march debuted in Canada in Vancouver in 1978.

Grande Prairie RCMP Const. Mark Bovaird organized the march but plans to pass the torch on to another organization, likely the city’s Family Violence Network.

In addition to raising awareness through-out the city, Bovaird hopes to reduce the number of domestic incidents the RCMP receive.

“In Grande Prairie right now, RCMP are dealing with a minimum of 100 domes-

tic (investigation) calls per month,” said Bovaird.

Curbside recycling is a goCurbside recycling is a go once again in

Grande Prairie, but this time it’ll be imple-mented by September 2011.

Council passed an amendment to the City/Aquatera Utility bylaw for single-stream blue bag recycling in an 8-1 vote.

Residents will pay an extra $4.39 on their utility bill, on top of the current recycling fee of $7.82.

That fee will be reassessed as neighbour-hood recycling depots are shut down by June 2012 when Aquatera’s contract with Recycle Plus expires.

Mayor Bill Given said, “I think we found a reasonable compromise between the con-cerns about costs and for those residents that are looking forward to see the system implemented as soon as possible. I think we achieved the right decision.”

Suspicious death in GPGrande Prairie RCMP are asking the pub-

lic to be on the lookout for an older, dark col-oured pickup truck that may be related to the suspicious death of the 37-year-old city man.

Brian Michael MacFarlane died under what police are calling “suspicious circum-stances” on Grande Prairie’s south side.

The Prince George-born man was found by RCMP along Patterson Drive, north of

76 Avenue, after 11 p.m. after they received a phone call regarding an alleged assault in the area.

He was taken yo QEII Hospital, where he died soon after.

Church bells ringingFor the first time in more than three years,

church bells chimed in Grande Prairie at 12:41 p.m..

The Knights of Columbus led a procession of priests and Archbishop Gerard Pettipas, of the Grouard-McLennan archdiocese, outside St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church following 11 a.m. mass.

The four cast-bronze bells, weighing between 60 and 270 kilograms, were manu-factured and installed at the old St. Joseph on 102 Avenue in April 1969.

The bells will ring on the hour from Mon-day through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m

County annexation gets startedGrande Prairie officially started down the

road to annexation of the county.City council unanimously OK’d send-

ing notification to county landowners in the affected areas surrounding the city, as well as the County of Grande Prairie, the Alberta Municipal Government Board, and other affected authorities and service providers.

The short-term annexation area involves 6,316 hectares (15,607 acres) over the next 30 years, almost doubling the city’s present land area. The long-term annexation over 50 years involves another 7,000 hectares. The total area amounts to some 13,390 hectares (33, 100 acres).

The city of Grande Prairie now cover 7,345 hectares (18,150 acres).

Josephine lim Herald-Tribune staffA crane rips out the side of the York hotel during its demolition as one of city’s oldest build-ings. About 30 people gathered to watch the hotel come down.

remo zAccAgnA Herald-Tribune staffThe first chimes of the 41-year-old bells in grande prairie since 2007.

Josephine lim Herald-Tribune staffmeagan houle sings hallelujah by leonard cohen at the peace country idol finale.

Girl killed in collisionA 15-year-old Grande Prairie girl is

dead following a two-vehicle collision late Wednesday afternoon south of the city.

Grande Prairie RCMP said the girl was a passenger in a Ford Explorer travelling westbound on the Correction Line between Range Road 61 and Resources Road.

The Explorer swerved, and slide sideways in front of a Dodge pickup truck that was travelling east. The driver of the Explorer, an 18-year-old Grande Prairie male was taken by ground to QEII Hospital with serious inju-ries.

The lone occupant of the pickup truck, a 32-year-old man also from Grande Prairie declined medical assistance, at the scene.

Cpl. Carol McKinley of the Grande Prairie RCMP said witnesses at the time of the colli-sion suggest icy road conditions contributed to the collision.

Another successful campaignThe Salvation Army Kettle Campaign

topped its fundraising goal of $350,000 on the last day of the drive. A total of $350,796 was collected, matching

last year’s total, all with the help of the 326 volunteers in the Salvation Army’s biggest fundraising drive of the year.

Money was received from Christmas shop-pers at Costco, Walmart, Zellers, Real Cana-dian Superstore and Canadian Tire locations throughout Grande Prairie.

Two homes destroyedA blaze broke out in Grande Prairie’s Pin-

nacle West neighbourhood causing irrepara-ble damage to two houses.

Two occupants escaped unharmed from the fire at the corner of 114 Street and 69 Ave-nue.

The Fire Department responded at 5:30 p.m. with five vehicles and 13 firefighters, with an additional 15 called to the scene during the four hours it took to control the blaze.

The Grande Prairie Fire Department con-cluded the fire originated in the garage of the house at the corner.

Mark Whelpton, chief fire prevention officer with the GPFD said, “It’s an acciden-tal cause and a total loss for the first house, probably a total loss for the second house,” adding that the combined damages are more than $1 million.

Weyerhaeuser green project is a goThe federal government and Weyerhae-

user have offical announced a green energy project more than 14 months after funding was unveiled.

The $1 billion Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program is aimed at improv-ing producers’ energy efficiency or environ-mental performance.

A $50 million turbine generator will reduce emissions by 127,000 tonnes of carbon diox-ide (CO2) per year and add 23 megawatts of electricity to the provincial grid, enough to turn on the lights in 2,800 homes.

The turbine comes on line in April 2011.

New ER protocol strategy in effect

Alberta Health Services launched new hospital emergency depart-ment over-capacity protocols to help reduce wait times.

The protocols focus on maintain-ing optimum flow through the sys-tem for patients, including areas such as community health, mental health, and addiction, and seniors.

The QEII Hospital’s protocol is trig-gered at a different time compared to in Edmonton, said Don Hunt, patient care director.

Hunt adds, while other munici-palities test their protocols these are very similar to ones in Grande Prairie have used for three years.

Work continues on the hospital’s emer-gency department expansion which will almost double the space.

The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2011.

Roundabout for Hwy. 40/668 inter-section?

Alberta Transportation is about to com-mission a study to determine the viability and feasibility of a roundabout at the inter-section of Highway 40 and Highway 668, the Correction Line road south of the city.

The County of Grande Prairie has lobbied long and hard for the province to install lights at the intersection, the site of many fatalities.

Reeve Everett McDonald and County councillors have lobbied for years to have lights installed.

McDonald said the intersection will not be safe until lights are installed.

“We are hopeful through the course of the lobbying efforts we have had the sooner or later the proving will recognize he need for a set of traffic lights for safety reasons,” he said.

GPRC, Grant MacEwan ink dealGrande Prairie Regional College couldn’t

be happier following the announcement of a partnership with Grant MacEwan Univer-sity.

The partnership offers easier access for GPRC students to acquire degrees.

GPRC president and CEO Don Gnatiuk has long said either the college provides pro-gramming or it finds someone who can.

He called this a prime example of that promise.


December

Josephine lim Herald-Tribune staffDon hunt, patient care director of the Qeii hospital in Grande prairie.

eric plummer Herald-Tribune staffFire crews battle a house fire at 69 Avenue and 114 street. emergency crews were called to the scene at approximately 5:30 p.m. in the pinnacle neighbourhood.

DAmien wooD Herald-Tribune staffDr. paul Byrne, Grant macewan university president (left), and Don Gnatiuk, Gprc president.


inpictures

LyLe Travis Special to Herald-TriuneTanner selinger, 14, competes at the long jump event during a track meet.

damien wood Herald-Tribune staffsix-year-old erin Glenn gets to get a little bit messy as she makes a mâché mold of her face at art camp.

damien wood Herald-Tribune staff“Hot wheels,” a Bay mini offers a sweet hello to the considerably bigger morgan horse, “Thrift.”

damien wood Herald-Tribune staffralph and Gail arbeau, visiting Grande Prairie from saskatchewan, stopped by Centre 2000 and took a moment to check out the sundial.

CrysTaL rHyno Herald-Tribune staffHome town favourite Tenille kicked off a summer performance.

damien wood Herald-Tribune staffed vandenhoek, manager at all-west northern Glass in Grande Prairie.

damien wood Herald-Tribuen staffCorey Thomas, Geoff Bolton and steve saboe showed a litte bit of skin and a whole lot of paint as they took to the streets of downtown Grande Prairie to support for Canada’s olympic hockey team.

Herald-Tribune Year in Review

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