Athabasca News

Athabasca University (AU) will be unable to pay its debt in two years if immediate action is not taken, according to a sustainability report released June 1.

A bushfire last Tuesday near the Cornwall apartment complex is being treated as suspicious. At around 4 p.m., the Athabasca Fire Department was called to a fire that had started in tall grass and moved to the bush area.

The communities of Calling Lake and Athabasca definitely rose to the challenge of hosting around 4,000 evacuees from Wabasca early last week. At 3 p.m. May 23, a wildfire that had been threating the hamlet of Wabasca jumped a fire barrier.

More than 80 people packed the Athabasca Seniors Centre last Thursday in a show of interest for more seniors housing development in Athabasca. Seniors, community groups and municipal representatives made an appearance at the open house.

Most residents of the Wabasca area are able to return home after evacuation orders for most of the region were lifted late Tuesday evening.

According to the Lakeland Communities Health Advisory Council, there’s no real danger to patients during ground transportation.

Frank Appleby, a former Athabasca-area MLA and staunch community advocate for decades, passed away on Victoria Day at 101 years old.

The fences are up and shovels are in the ground as construction starts on new seniors housing in Boyle. Last week, APM Construction Services Inc.

Downtown Athabasca is going to get a little greener this summer. On Friday, the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre built a new community garden next to the Petro Can cardlot, where the Imperial Oil gas station used to be.

For the first time in it’s 19-year history, the Magnificent River Rats Festival will have a beer garden. The idea of a beer garden has been on the radar for quite a bit of time.