There were many stories in 2011 that caught our attention — and kept it. Here are our picks for the biggest news stories of the past 12 months. From longtime MLA Ken Kowalski’s retirement to the major upgrades done at the town’s recreation centre and the ongoing trouble at the Pembina Hills school division, there was a lot going on in 2011.
There has been a lot of action on the provincial political scene this year — premier Ed Stelmach retired, a leadership race ensued, and Alison Redford was selected to replace him.
For Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock, though, MLA Ken Kowalski’s retirement was the big story.
The veteran MLA, who after 32 years has been the longest-serving MLA in the current Legislature, announced in August that he would again seek the nomination to represent this constituency.
Four months later in December, however, he made a surprise announcement that he would not seek re-election, citing a desire to take back his life to spend with family and friends.
Reactions from local politicians to the announcement was one of surprise, and many spoke highly of his accomplishments for the riding during his time in office.
With another provincial election expected this spring, potential replacements have wasted no time in putting their names out there — with the majority so far having come from the Westlock area.
Town Coun. David Truckey and county councillors Maureen Kubinec and Bert Seatter have announced their intentions to seek the nomination, as has Barrhead native Tim Schultz, who has spent several years in a high-level advisory role.
This story may well end up as a top story in 2012, as well, since the nomination won’t officially take place until January.
It has been a long and troubled year for the Spirit Centre project, but there is certainly light at the end of the tunnel.
Ongoing developments with the project have kept making headlines, making this a particularly noteworthy story.
The first big announcement this year was that the Westlock Rotary Club had secured the naming rights for the facility, having donated more than $250,000 for the construction of what will be known as the Westlock Rotary Spirit Centre.
The good news took a turn for the worse when the project’s original contractor, Balon Construction, first went into a voluntary receivership and then went belly up, leaving the town and taxpayers to sort the mess out.
The town was able to take over the project and hired Brenex construction to oversee the work. Construction is back on track, but the projected completion date of fall 2011 obviously didn’t happen and the cost ballooned by about 25 per cent to $15 million.
Despite these hiccups, many residents continue to tirelessly fundraise for the project, which is now expected to be finished this spring.
The ongoing story of what happened to former Pembina Hills school division Supt. Richard Harvey was punctuated with the news in December that Harvey’s replacement, Egbert Stang, has also left the division.
Throughout the year, readers have been asking us to continue to seek answers with respect to Harvey’s mysterious departure, since the board won’t even so much as if he quit or if he was fired in fall 2010.
A Freedom of Information request continues to make its way through an appeal process to have roughly $4,000 in fees waived because this is a matter of public interest, and a new request has been filed with respect to Stang’s departure.
Adding to the mystery surrounding what’s going on at the division, Barrhead RCMP launched an investigation into an allegation of fraud over $5,000 late in 2010.
The News was informed in August that the matter had been forwarded to the Crown prosecutor’s office to determine if charges would be laid, then in November, Sgt. Bob Dodds said the matter was still in the hands of the police, offering little in the way of explanation.
This is another story that promises to continue to develop in 2012.
The Westlock Foundation oversees seniors’ housing in the Westlock area, and this past year the organization has made significant progress toward the completion of a four-story, 68-unit expansion to the Pembina Lodge.
Two unique aspects of this project stand out: the way it was financed and the way it was built.
The foundation approached Westlock County about securing a loan through the Alberta Capital Finance Authority, which will loan to municipalities but not housing bodies.
The county went forward with the plan, borrowing $5.6 million on behalf of the foundation at a lower-than-normal interest rate.
The move will save the foundation about $1 million over the 20-year loan period.
The project was built with modular units, meaning many of the suites were built off site then lowered into place by crane. This helped to shave some of the costs of the facility as well as drastically speeding up the project.
The current expansion, with a total cost of approximately $20 million, is just Phase 1 of a two-phase project.
Once the 68 units are completed, likely some time this spring, the second phase will begin. It will include an overhaul of some of the lodge’s existing facilities, including an expansion of the kitchen and dining room.
Westlock was shocked to hear of the drowning death of Laura Letts Beckett, a teacher at Dapp School, in late August 2010 at a provincial park in B.C.
RCMP reported at the time that she and her husband Peter Beckett had been boating when she fell in the water. She was not wearing a life jacket and apparently couldn’t swim.
The community was even more shocked to hear the revelation just under one year later that RCMP were treating the matter as a homicide, and shortly thereafter arrested her husband Peter Beckett for the murder.
There has been little action with respect to the legal proceedings, with Beckett having put over his election and plea several times this fall. In early December, the News learned that Beckett was granted bail a $100,000 cash bail, requiring a $50,000 deposit and a surety for the remainder. Our most recent information is that Beckett has not yet raised the bail.
The news has traveled all the way to the other side of the globe, as well, with several news outlets in New Zealand having picked up the story because Beckett spent one term as a municipal councillor in Napier, New Zealand.
Few things make a community come together the same way a large-scale natural disaster does, and few communities could do it as quickly as Westlock did.
When wildfires threatened Slave Lake in May, residents were forced to evacuate the town and many of them came to Westlock.
Within days, hundreds of local volunteers had signed up to help out in any way they could, and donations were flying in from every corner of the province and beyond.
Many residents opened their homes to host Slave Lake families temporarily, while many more took refuge in an emergency shelter set up at the community hall.
Students from Slave Lake were welcomed into local schools to finish off their school years, and many more took advantage of the Alberta Distance Learning Centre.
The Westlock Veterinary Centre got into the act, too, providing temporary housing for pets displaced by the fires.
Volunteer firefighters from Westlock County took the spirit of giving one step further, with some departments in the north end of the county heading to Slave Lake to help get the wildfires under control.
Once things had settled down a bit and residents were allowed to return to their homes, premier Ed Stelmach was in Westlock to personally thank the volunteers for their efforts.
The spirit of sport is alive and well in Westlock and Barrhead, and in 2013 we will have the opportunity to prove that to the rest of the province.
In May, MLA Ken Kowalski and minister of tourism, parks and recreation Cindy Ady made the announcement in Westlock that the 2013 55 Plus Summer Games will be held in Westlock and Barrhead.
The announcement came after a lot of work by the four municipalities involved in the bid process: Barrhead, Westlock, County of Barrhead and Westlock County. The process of organizing the games is now well underway, with the board of directors close to being filled.
There have been a few speed bumps in the process, however, as board chair Henry Romanchuk announced late this year that he was stepping down as board chair. Several other directors also stepped down.
This will prove to be a relatively minor hiccup, though, as Barrhead’s Gerry St. Pierre has stepped up to fill the role of board chair, and organizers are emphatic that there is still plenty of time to fill the other remaining positions.
The Games are scheduled to take place in the summer of 2013.
Following the 2010 municipal election in Clyde, in which four of the five sitting councillors failed to win re-election, tensions on the village council have risen and have consistently made themselves known.
Former mayor Doug Nyal was the only one of the five councillors able to secure re-election, and was chosen as mayor at the village’s first organizational meeting.
Early in 2011, village CAO Melanie Beastall submitted her letter of resignation to council. Beastall would not say why she tendered the letter, but several other councillors said it was related to tensions between her and Nyal.
Councillors held another organizational meeting and elected Wayne Wilcox as the mayor. Beastall subsequently rescinded her resignation letter.
That does not necessarily seem to have solved the problems in the village, however, as the tension in the village council chamber is apparent to anyone who sits in on a meeting — particularly the tension between Beastall and Nyal.
Nyal has also drawn the ire of some residents because of his actions; in particular resident Ken Wassing has consistently called on Nyal to explain what he perceives as an unreasonable number of absences from council meetings.
Heavy snowfall last spring took its toll on several buildings in the area and had town crews scrambling to ensure the snow was cleared off the roofs of town-owned buildings.
Unfortunately, the snow buildup on the roof of the Westlock Community Recreation Centre could not bear the weight of the wet snow and a small portion of the roof collapsed.
Engineers determined the building was still structurally sound so it remained open, but plans were the underway to expand the routine maintenance of the facility to include a massive overhaul. While most of the changes have been aesthetic, with the turret on top being replaced by a skylight and the ongoing upgrades to the walls and siding, the installation of a new spray park has been a popular addition to the facility.
The park, which was paid for with the help of Westlock County and the Village of Clyde through provincial grants, opened to the public Oct. 3 this year and has seen steady use ever since.
The operating costs of the facility continue to be a source of friction between the town and county, however. Town council made a presentation to county council in the spring, asking them to consider increasing their funding to a rate proportional to the rate of county residents using the facility. County council denied the request.
Women seeking to escape abusive relationships will no longer have to travel outside the Westlock/Barrhead area to find emergency accommodations while they set a new direction for their lives.
The Sparrow’s Hope women’s shelter opened in Barrhead County in the spring, and since then has served more than a dozen women.
The shelter has struggled with funding right from the start, however. As a faith-based initiative, spearheaded by Ben Kellert and Westlock Youth for Christ, it is not eligible for as many government grants. Kellert has said he won’t let that stop him, however, and although money is tight donations continue to come in and there is “no chance” the shelter will close.
Nonetheless, he put out a call for more donations in December, citing the need for a “Christmas Miracle” to secure the funding.
Kellert said the effort that has gone into getting this shelter going has been well worth it, because he knows there is a need for it. Representatives of related agencies, including Heidi Magus of the Hope Resource Centre and local RCMP officers, have lauded the group’s efforts to meet the need.
