ONE YEAR AGO
• A massive oil spill caused from a pipeline leak threatened water supplies at a popular resort lake 30 km southwest of Innisfail. Emergency crews started mopping up the spill on Gleniffer Lake on Monday after 75 to 125 barrels of sweet crude oil escaped from a pipeline five km north of Sundre.
• Hockey fans had a million reasons to attend Red Deer Rebels games. Rebels owner Brent Sutter donated $1 million to Westerner Park and fans of the Western Hockey League club were the big winners as the contribution was used to buy a four-sided, state-of-the-art video scoreclock for the Centrium.
FIVE YEARS AGO
• Convicted sex offender John Schneeberger was issued a deportation order, ending his battle to stay in Canada. Schneeberger was convicted in 1999 of sexually assaulting two female patients while practising medicine in Kipling, Sask. His ex-wife and children lived in Red Deer.
• A Red Deer provincial court judge found Jirah Construction Services Ltd. of Rocky Mountain House guilty of failing to ensure the safety of Brian Thesen after a four-day trial. Thesen, 20, died after being thrown from the roof of a home under construction in Red Deer.
10 YEARS AGO
• A petition started by two Central Alberta women finally brought changes to the intersections of Hwy 11 and Hwy 20 near Sylvan Lake. The women started the petition after a fatal accident at the intersection. The government initially said it had no plans to change the intersection, but dropped the speed limit to 80 km/h on Hwy 11 and eventually installed traffic lights.
• The first made-in-Red Deer Ghost statue became the fifth in the series of bronze sculptures. Reaching Out, created by former college instructor Eldon Neufeld, depicted a boy helping a girl wearing a leg brace because of polio, and commemorated the work done by the Rotary Club to eradicate polio.
25 YEARS AGO
• Dr. Brigham Card, an instructor at Red Deer College since 1981, was awarded a prestigious $25,000 prize for his work in educational sociology. Dr. Card, 70, won the award in the social or physical sciences category. He was one of 170 candidates for the three Sir. Frederick Haultain prizes, said Leon Lubin, director of the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund.
• Suzy Creamcheese, a women’s wear store at Bower Place Shopping Centre, closed because Red Deer women weren’t buying the clothes the store liked to sell, said the manager. The kind of clothing the store prided itself in selling, “ the really glitzy, really special kinds of things,” weren’t as popular here as they were in bigger centres like Edmonton and Calgary, said manager Susan Woodruff.
50 YEARS AGO
• Red Deer’s remarkable home building program, which had taken place over the year with little letup during the winter months, was pointed up in a report submitted to city council. A regular feature, the report was set up to inform aldermen of the progress of builders on lots they have bought from the city with the stipulation that construction must start within a certain time.
• Every city likes “to put a mark on the wall” when one of its citizens distinguishes himself beyond the local level. And Red Deer boasted more than its share of eminent men and women in a dozen different fields. The city chalked up a mark for a new category, poetry. Doug Vahey, a city resident, was awarded first prize in a Canada-wide poetry contest. Not a new name on the local talent roster, Doug Vahey had long been recognized as a leading Alberta painter whose works hung in Munich, Germany, Montana, and Calgary.
90 YEARS AGO
• The UFA.convention for the Red Deer Federal riding to consider political action held at the Parish Hall was a most successful and epoch-making event for this district. There were 179 delegates present, besides a large number of other interested, making a constant gathering of 250 to 300.
• The War Savings Stamps drive held by the Women’s committee gave very gratifying results. About $1,500 worth of stamps was sold and pledges take to the amount of about $6,000. The first members of the club were Messrs Payne & Graham and Dr. Parsons. Mr. Gittus. The organizer for Alberta was much encouraged by the result and thought Red Deer would do as well as any other place its size, if not better.
100 YEARS AGO
• Great West Lumber Co. employee William Abeccrombie drowned in the Red Deer River. He lost his life coming down the river with a log drive.
• In an editorial, the Advocate expressed its “very strong opposition to any attempt to have religious instruction (made) a part of the public curriculum of this province.”