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LOOKBACK: Statue honours murdered Mounties

They were dressed in red T-shirts, hoodies and mitts, carrying signs that read Go Mellisa go! and Rock On Mellisa! Hundreds of people lined Eckford Street in Eckville for a television shoot to honour hometown hero Mellisa Hollingsworth.
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Joan Parsona and Daphne Bowers were looking for fellow Newfoundlanders to join their club.

ONE YEAR AGO

• They were dressed in red T-shirts, hoodies and mitts, carrying signs that read Go Mellisa go! and Rock On Mellisa! Hundreds of people lined Eckford Street in Eckville for a television shoot to honour hometown hero Mellisa Hollingsworth. The Olympic bronze medalist grew up on a ranch just outside the community and will be competing in the upcoming winter Olympics in Vancouver in February.

• All Albertans at risk of H1N1 complications expected to be eligible for immunization sometime next week. “We expect to be able to add the rest of the high-risk groups very early in the next week so that we can complete that group and move on to second level priority groups in the population,” said Dr. André Corriveau, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.

FIVE YEARS AGO

• Mayor Morris Flewwelling admitted for the first time publicly that he was sexually abused when he was eight years old by a person of trust in the community. The admission came during a Red Deer Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting on family violence.

• Bower Place Shopping Centre unveiled a life-size statue of a Mountie with his horse honouring four RCMP constables killed in March. Brock Myrol had a special connection with the shopping centre, having worked as store security at Zellers over a nine-year period.

10 YEARS AGO

• About 70 low-income people were preparing to pack their bags after eviction notices were served on the approximately 15 dwellings they lived in administered by the Red Deer Foundation for Inspirational Moments, a group that rented from landlords then sublet to low-income clients. The evictions were cancelled shortly afterward, however, when the agency came up with the necessary funds at the last moment.

• Oilfield activity reached such a peak that oil companies were forced to advertise to find new or experienced employees. The president of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors said there was an immediate need for 3,000 people in Western Canada.

25 YEARS AGO

• Most stores in Red Deer must close one day a week if they wanted to open on Sunday, city council decided. In passing a controversial shopping bylaw, Red Deer joined Lethbridge to become the second city in Alberta trying to prevent retailers from doing business seven days a week.

• After an absence of almost 76 years, Halley’s Comet was nearing Earth and would be visible in local skies during a three month window. Local astronomers familiar with the constellations would be able to spot the famous comet near Pleiades, a cluster of bright stars visible near the horizon in the southeastern sky. Anyone who missed seeing the comet at that time, must wait until 2062 before it re-appears.

50 YEARS AGO

• Central Alberta sky watchers enjoyed a rare and beautiful performance by Aurora Borealis over the weekend as red Northern Lights danced about the heavens ­— but the display brought only trouble to telegram communications systems across Western Canada. Normally yellow or whitish in this region, the Northern Lights turned into a glowing red Saturday night and early Sunday morning and presented a dazzling display for hours.

• The million-dollar expansion program at the Red Deer Municipal Hospital that is transforming the district’s medical centre into one of the finest in the province outside of Edmonton and Calgary is drawing into the final stages. Two important sections of the new buildings, the boiler room and the laundry are in operation and the new 100-bed wing is in the finish-up stage and may be ready soon after the first of the year.

90 YEARS AGO

• Mr. L. L. Shortt’s tailor shop and stock on Ross St. were considerably damaged by fire early Wednesday morning. Mr. and Mrs. Shortt sleep over the shop, and Mr. Shortt was aroused about 3 o’clock by suffocating smoke n the bedroom: he thinks the barking of the dog n the shop below awoke him. He and Mrs. Shortt hurriedly got out the back way, and Mrs. Shortt was so upset by the sudden awakening and danger that she ran barefooted in the light snow and cold to her mother’s place on Fifth Street Northwest: she had a coat on over her night clothes.

• A farmer and his wife from Vulcan while proceeding north on Saturday, had a very narrow escape from very serious injury. They were turning on to the Blackfalds road, having just passed the C.P.R. Crossing northwest when the car skidded and overturned, pinning them both underneath. Strange to say, after crawling out from under, neither of them were hurt, beyond the man getting a slight strain on one shoulder, but the outer gear of the car was pretty smashed up.

100 YEARS AGO

• Red Deer’s police chief, George Rothnie, had a narrow escape when a prisoner he was escorting to the jails cells suddenly pulled out a revolver and pointed it at his head. The gun misfired, and the man was subsequently charged with attempted murder.

• Police chief George Rothnie resigned his position to accept the position of chief of police in Kamloops, B.C. He explained that the job in Kamloops paid $110 per month while the one in Red Deer paid only $75.