ONE YEAR AGO
• Fed-up Mountain View County residents formed an association to draw attention to overly restrictive development rules that they said eroded landowner rights and stifled business opportunities. Paddy Munro, president of the newly formed Rural Roots Association, said a proposed revamp of the county’s land use bylaw went too far. “The land use bylaw is just so restrictive. They have just gone to extremes,” said Munro, a Sundre-area carpenter. “It’s like a big city urban plan and we’re just a little country county.”
• Red Deer Olympian Deidra Dionne had faced a number of hurdles over her 15-year freestyle ski career that had affected her life and career. In every case she had battled back, but her latest hurdle was not one that can be easily shaken. It was discovered during a summer training session in Quebec that the 27-year-old aerialist has a benign brain tumor on her right temporal lobe. She talked with a number of advisors following the news and made the difficult decision to retire from the sport, which was officially announced at a press conference in Vancouver.
FIVE YEARS AGO
• Marjorie Brown, seasoned hunter and senior citizen, shot a threatening cougar on her Rimbey-area farm. The encounter followed the mysterious disappearance of two of Brown’s alpacas. One vanished in early September. About 10 days later, another one was missing.
• Clancy and Cheryl Adams, who protested government flood aid from the rooftop of their home near Sundre, said they were too frustrated to continue their battle. The couple received a $25,600-cheque in August 2005. They refused to cash it, saying it wasn’t enough to cover their losses.
10 YEARS AGO
• ATCO Gas applied to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board for a 30 per cent rate hike to cover the rising cost of gas. The increase would drive prices to new records over the coming winter.
• Red Deer emergency services hired the first female firefighter-paramedic in the department’s history at the beginning of Fire Prevention Week. Clare Guse, 25, had worked previously for the Town of Innisfail after graduating from NAIT, and was one of three new hires in Red Deer.
25 YEARS AGO
• The federal prison system was caught off guard by the first confirmed case of AIDS in a prison inmate, said a Correctional Service of Canada spokesman. Les Shand said Ottawa had been preparing information packages “for several months” for prison staff and inmates across Canada when a 20-year old Bowden inmate was first diagnosed with the disease. “This guy is unique. He’s the first and he caught us a bit off guard.” Mr. Shand said.
• Area car buyers were digging into their pockets with abandon to buy new vehicles, helping local dealers rack up their best sales figures in several years. “The big number days were 1978 and ’79, “ recalled Dick Moore, sales manager at North West Motors. “But our numbers were considerably up over last year and 1982 and ’83.” Other dealers echoed the positive refrain, noting one of the few problems had been keeping enough cars on their lots to keep pace with the demand.
90 YEARS AGO
• The banquet of the Board of Trade and citizens in compliment to Senator Michener in view of his home changes and the departure of himself and family to California for the winter, was perhaps the most successful of the several banquets of the past year, and they were all good. The attendance was large and representative, the capacity of the London Grill being pressed to the limit, the banquet proper, and lavish provision of dainty viands for the taste of the guests, the excellence of the cooking, and the good service and beautiful appointments, has not been surpassed, if ever equalled, in the city and was a great credit to the management while it would not be going out of the way to say that the general standard of the speaking in style and theme was the best ever heard in Red Deer, with due regard to some able efforts by distinguished outsiders.
• The Red Deer and district Memorial Campaign was off to a good start with some handsome donations. The I.O.D.E. contributed $101, the G.W.V.A. $100, the Women’s Auxiliary of the G.W.V.A. $100, Campbell, Wilson & Horne $1a00, St. Luke’s W.A. $25, Kenilworth Lodge $25, Alberta Natural History Society $25, and many other societies had the matter under consideration . . . We could never repay the service and sacrifice of those splendid men who sleep across the seas, but let us never forget. Let us subscribe freely and willingly to the fund as the boys sacrificed. Wednesday, October 6th is the day.
100 YEARS AGO
• Several “young lads,” ages unspecified, found themselves in court for stealing pigeons from a Red Deer man. The boys were fined and required to return to court weekly to assure the magistrate they were behaving themselves.
• Arthur Hives of Penhold was killed when his team of horses ran away on him, causing him to fall out of a wagon. The wagon’s wheels subsequently ran over him.