ONE YEAR AGO
• Matthew Walker didn’t feel any different when he woke up Sunday — but he was thrilled to realize he was a city slicker. “That’s wicked. That’s just awesome,” said the young Lacombe gas pump attendant, upon learning his town had officially become a city on the weekend. Walker said he believed Lacombe’s newly attained status would benefit the whole community of nearly 12,000 people because of the new opportunities the designation would bring.
• The Uptown Cinema Centre in downtown Red Deer could soon return to theatrical life. Central Alberta Theatre announced on Friday that it was negotiating to acquire the 4922 49th St. building, which had been vacant since Landmark Cinemas ceased operations there in June 2008. William Trefry, CAT’s executive director, said members of the non-profit society that operates the performing arts organization voted on Aug. 31 to authorize their board to acquire the Uptown.
FIVE YEARS AGO
• The City of Red Deer won a precedent-setting court battle allowing it to crack down on bars to curb alcohol-fuelled rowdiness. The bar bylaw, believed to be the first in Alberta, was approved in June 2004 after four years of city efforts to quell chaos in the downtown bar zone.
• Lack of housing officially became a crisis. People stressed out because they were unable to find housing were the most frequent callers to Red Deer’s Crisis Centre. The centre referred people to community housing agencies, but there was not enough housing to fill the need.
10 YEARS AGO
• Efforts to attract doctors to the David Thompson Health Region to address the physician shortage were finally paying off. Red Deer had three incoming specialists, Rocky had replaced a family doctor/anesthetist, Bashaw replaced a retiring physician and Sylvan Lake had recently brought in a new family doctor.
• The Olymel slaughterhouse was shut down for several hours over a bomb threat. It was the third such threat in two years, although the first two had taken place when the company was still owned by Fletcher’s Fine Foods.
25 YEARS AGO
• Opposition to stinking, burning garbage dumps in Central Alberta was to come to a head when the Red Deer Health Unit pondered the fate of four sites. The health unit had the power to close dumps but had never used it. It could also order tighter controls on dumping, site supervision or any number of restrictions to crack down on negligent municipalities. Under the gun was a dump owned an operated by the town of Innisfail and three Red Deer County dumps at Lousana, Benalto and Kevisville
• Fear of the Aryan nations had made Caroline residents unwilling to plan a public meeting in their village about the white supremacist group. Two ministers helped to organize the meeting said they would wait until controversy over the anti-Semitic church dies down. “We’re a little concerned about stirring up a lot of emotions,” said Neil Allenbrand of the Church of the Nazarene in Caroline. Re. Allenbrand, said from Caroline, about 100 km southwest of Red Deer, that although it was important for village residents to know about the Aryan Nations, the time was not right.
50 YEARS AGO
• Construction of a junior-senior high school able to accommodate approximately 400 students was to be launched in the Maryview area for the Red Deer Separate School board at a cost of more than $300,000. Board chairman Ken. L. Crowe announced to the Advocate that construction of the large one-storey building would be sent on its way with a sod-turning ceremony.
The new school to be built immediately east of the Maryview Elementary school and fronting on 39th street was to be completed in seven months and would accommodate students in grades 7 to 12 both inclusive. It would offer complete academic and commercial course.
• “West Berlin is the most worried city in the world . . .East Berlin is just one great, big concentration camp ruled by the communists.” These conclusions formed indelibly in the mind of Mrs. Helmut Thiel of Terrace Park during the month that the Red Deer woman flew back to her native city of Berlin for what she hoped was going to be a pleasant visit with her ailing parents, but instead turned into the most frustrating time of her lie. While in West Berlin, she was trapped there by the crisis precipitated by the communists and for a while she feared that she might not be able to return to her husband and their three children in Red Deer.
90 YEARS AGO
• Red Deer is to have a Municipal Hospital District of some kind, anyhow, if the opinion of the late provisional board counts for anything. The next step is for those interested to get busy and petition for the formation of a district which will carry. This can easily be done now, with the recent vote to show where the boundaries should come.
• The Red Deer schools opened yesterday with an initial registration in High School of 116, an increase of 30 over last year. The Public School initial registration was 387, which should be largely increased during the next week. All the teachers were on deck except Miss Summerhayes, of the High School staff, and Miss McLellan, of the Public School staff, who will commence on Tuesday. Principal Locke is having an exceedingly interesting time arranging the classes.
100 YEARS AGO
• Red Deer’s public school enrolment was 282 students. The high school boasted 53 pupils.
• H.H. Humber’s brick block on Gaetz Avenue in Red Deer was nearing completion.