BARRHEAD - In 2022, Barrhead-area residents celebrated several successes. The Leader staff combed our issues and selected some of our favourite good or interesting news stories that did not make our Top news stories of the year.
GFR Ingredients/Kiel Industrial Park sale
One of our favourite good news stories that we had debated including in our Top News Stories of 2022 is the announcement in April that GFR Pharma (owners of GFR Ingredients) purchased two lots at the County of Barrhead's Kiel Industrial Park in April.
GFR Ingredients is a producer and supplier of plant-based proteins. Its current plant is in Barrhead in the old Northern Alberta Dairy Pool (also known as Nu-Maid Dairies) facility.
Brett Hodson, one of GFR's principal owners, said they had been looking for ways they could expand their operation for several years and had been looking at possible locations across Western Canada.
"We started talking to (the county) about the infrastructure capacity, water, power and sewer, and needless to say, it piqued our interest," he said, adding that the county's Non-Residential Tax Incentive Bylaw was also one of "many factors" that tipped the scale the county's way.
Reeve Doug Drozd, during the April 5 council meeting, called GFR Ingredients a great fit for the community.
"We know they are in the value-added agriculture space ... It was our No. 1 priority when we created the industrial park," he said.
Wrong number
In February, Barrhead RCMP Detachment commander Sgt. Bob Dodds told the Leader how a telephone fraudster had called him, claiming to be from "Shared Services Canada", and that there had been some questionable activity regarding his social insurance number (SIN). It was the third such call he had received in one day.
"They said that my social insurance number had been flagged for fraudulent activity, and there was a warrant for my arrest," he said.
The voice then told him to press One.
Although he was confident that someone in the detachment or higher up in the chain of command might inform him about his pending arrest, Dodds decided to press One.
"He gets on the line, saying he is Officer So-and-So from Service Canada and proceeds to ask me for my name," he said.
Dodds decided to keep the game going, giving the scammer a fake name.
The scammer then tells Dodds that he has his file open and that there has been some fraudulent activity with his SIN before asking him to confirm his number by giving him the last three digits.
"I told him I was a bit nervous about doing that, especially since a Barrhead number is coming up on my call display," he said, noting the scammer was "ghosting the last number called."
"At the end of the day, they are pretty good at covering their tail and since he did not get any money out of me, there was no offence committed," he said."But I figure the 10 minutes I can keep him on the phone is 10 minutes that he doesn't have to try to defraud someone else, who could be more vulnerable."
Barrhead youths turn Lemonade Day project into a summer job
Eleven-year-old Cyrus Peña-Anderson loved his experience during Lemonade Day so much, he decided to try to make it a full-time job, at least over select events over the summer.
Lemonade Day is a program through Community Futures that teaches children how to start, own and operate their own business using the classic lemonade stand model.
In 2022, Lemonade Day in Barrhead was held in conjunction with the June 18 Street Festival.
Cyrus and sister Jade operated the stand outside of Sanderman's Home Hardware on Main Street.
"It was fun. I learned a lot, so I wanted to keep doing it," he said.
Close call
In March, Brian Kuyten called the Leader to tell us about an incident at his Manola area residence when a bullet pierced the glass of his living room window and hitting his TV stand before becoming lodged in a wall.
"It was about 12:30 in the afternoon when a bullet came through our living room window," Kuyten said.
At the time, his wife, Jodi, was watching television in the room, while he was in another room.
"Had she or anyone else been sitting on our loveseat, they could have been severely hurt or even killed," he said.
RCMP investigated the scene and determined it was a .22 calibre bullet.
Sgt. Dodds noted it was the second such incident that occurred that day (March 13) with the other being near a residence near Highway 777, which the Westlock detachment took the lead on.
Unfortunately, he said, police did not have a lot to go on, noting it is difficult to get scoring information on low-calibre ammunition.
"It could be anything, from someone plinking away at tin cans and inadvertently firing in the wrong direction, someone shooting at buildings, or someone was trying to scare, harm, or kill someone," Dodds said.
Former Barrhead resident attempts to become Maxim 2022 Covergirl
Barrhead Composite High School 2017 alum Amber Rozenza who currently lives in Edmonton and works in road construction, hoped to boost her career as a cannabis advocate or influencer by winning the Maxim 2022 Covergirl Contest.
Rozenza finished in the Top 15.
"I have been following their Instagram page since I was 16 (Rozenza is now 21), so I knew about the contest, plus one of my best friends entered the contest three years ago and did quite well, coming in fifth," Rozenza said. "I was inspired by her, so when I saw an article on my Instagram newsfeed that they were looking for applicants, I thought, why not give it a shot and see what happens."
Maxim is an online and print men's entertainment magazine that publishes articles on entertainment, technological gadgets, automobiles, and travel. It boasts a readership of nine million worldwide.
Barrhead Outreach School student takes provincial silver in poster contest
Barrhead Outreach School Grade 12 student Jasmine Babbage earned silver in the Royal Canadian Legion Literary and Poster Contest.
"I've had this idea for a couple of years, but I never got around to it," she said. "This year, in my last year of high school, I knew I had to do it."
Her poster (a large acrylic painting) depicts a trio of infantry soldiers, depicted as silhouettes, who visit a Canadian war cemetery. Circling the cemetery scene is a black poppy outline with white writing saying, "We Will Remember".
It was the first time Babbage entered a poster in the contest. However, in Grade 6, she did submit an essay for the literary contest that also received recognition at the local level.
Herman Barkemeyer presented Babbage with her prize on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion.
End of an era
Before the end of the Victoria Day long weekend, Telus removed its last payphone from the County of Barrhead with the removal of the phone at the Thunder Lake Provincial Park.
It is worth mentioning that, technically, there is one last remaining payphone in the county at the Sunny Beach RV Park (formerly Elk's Beach), but it is part of the Onoway phone exchange.
Brian Bettis, a Telus regional general manager, the removal of the payphones from communities across Alberta and B.C. is an opportunity for people to reflect on the importance and role the device played in communities over the last 40 years.
"Outside of the party line, payphones were how many people kept in contact," he said. "Anyone that is over a certain age can remember how they were given a dime or a quarter a parent to call home for a ride or an emergency. Culturally, they were huge."
However, he said, in recent years, due to the overwhelming prevalence of cell phones, most payphones are no longer necessary, and they are no longer financially viable.
Before its removal, in the last two-and-a-half years of its existence, it had been used less than 25 times.
Notable anniversaries
Lorne Jenken High School's Class (now Barrhead Composite High School) of 1972 celebrated its golden 50th anniversary at a reunion on the May 6-7 weekend.
Festivities included a school tour and a dinner/dance at the Barrhead Royal Canadian Legion. About half of the 142 graduating class was able to attend the festivities.
Brenda Harris-Baron, a 1972 Grad and reunion organizing committee member, said were able to contact the majority of the 72 grads.
"Which is pretty amazing when you think about it," Harris-Baron said, adding that although many of the 1972 grad class settled in the Barrhead area, many had moved on to regions across the country, including several who had moved to B.C. "Two who travelled back for the reunion settled in the Toronto area, and interestingly enough, both were Air Canada pilots."
Among those attending were three former schoolteachers, Patricia Barton Gibb and Ken Kowalski, along with principal Richard Martin.
Serving as the master of ceremonies for the banquet was Jay Litke, who coincidently served as the MC during the original grad ceremony.
Misty Ridge Ski Hill also celebrated its 50th anniversary opening its doors in 1972 to provide a low-cost outdoor recreational facility for skiers of all skill levels.
The ski hill, which is 30 kilometres north of Barrhead next to the Athabasca River, first opened its doors in 1972 to provide a low-cost outdoor recreational facility for skiers of all skill levels.
About 400 people attended a night skiing event at the hill to commemorate the anniversary.
The County of Barrhead purchased the original 10 acres from Walter and Helen Neuman and leased the slopes to Jack and Jeanne Bozak. County Coun. Bill Lane, a longtime Thunder Lake resident and supporter of the hill, gave kudos to all the volunteers who gave their time and effort to make the ski hill what it is.
"Sometimes people forget about what an asset we have," he said. “It is kind of tucked away and doesn't always get the attention it deserves," he said.
Raising money for the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation For the second-straight year, two Barrhead teams, the Master Batters and Cleats and Cleavage won the Jackpine Slow-pitch tournament in Fort Assiniboine on the Labour Day long weekend.
However, the real winner was Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation, thanks to a sizeable donation the sizeable $20,700 donation from the event's organizers, Darren and Jennifer Wood.
The popular event started sometime in the 1980s, but in 2016, the Woods turned it into a fundraiser for the foundation.
"We wanted to do something good," Darren said. "As parents of a daughter with cerebral palsy, we have been to the Stollery a lot, and we know first-hand the good they do."
Counting the 2022 donation, the tournament has raised more than $80,000.
