ONE YEAR AGO
• A Red Deer woman hailed her son as a hero after the 16-year-old saved his dad’s life using the Heimlich manoeuvre. Jay Muntean’s dad, Phil, was eating an apple as he helped him with his taxes when the chunk went down the wrong way. The younger Muntean, a Grade 11 student at Notre Dame High School, snapped into action to perform the life saving act.
• Red Deer city council endorsed revised plans for a $27-million G.H. Dawe Centre renovation. While the project would cost $10 million more than the previously allocated $17 million, councillors heard escalating construction costs were responsible for about half of that.
FIVE YEARS AGO
• The temperatures over the May long weekend almost set reached record lows, leaving campers to chill. Early Monday morning, the temperatures reached -4.5 C, nearly breaking the May 19, 1918, record of -5.3 C.
• Central Albertans were being asked to collect dead crows as part of the early warning system to detect West Nile virus. People were asked to take the dead birds to the nearest Fish and Wildlife office for testing.
10 YEARS AGO
• The Red Deer planning commission approved a plan for a new fire hall at 39th Street and Davison Avenue. The building included a 12-metre clock tower.
• The Red Deer College graduation made history when the college granted bachelor of arts and bachelor of education degrees for the first time.
25 YEARS AGO
• A new city census showed Red Deer had broken the 50,000 barrier with 50,257 people calling the city home.
• A motion asking Mayor Jim Keegstra to resign was defeated 4-2 by Eckville town council. Keegstra ignored pleas from the Chamber of Commerce to resign anyway, insisting he had done nothing wrong and that he would happily defend his views in a public debate on a Jewish conspiracy trying to take over the world.
50 YEARS AGO
• Construction began on a multi-million dollar natural gas processing plant 120 km northwest of Red Deer. The $15-million plant was expected to play an important role in the petrochemical industrial development of Red Deer and Central Alberta.
• Campers formed a bucket brigade and offered other assistance in preventing a more serious loss when fire destroyed a storage shed at Rushton’s Resort at Pine Lake.
90 YEARS AGO
• The Burnt Lake Red Cross Work Party beat all records in their district in the raising of $320.30 at the box social and dance at Mr. Sveinson’s. Though the weather was rather threatening, “culminating in rain and snow, there was a big turn out, the spacious bar floor being crowded in the dancing.”
• Mr. Earnest Wilson received a letter from his brother, Arthur, in which he admitted the people back home likely knew more about the situation in France that he did. Arthur also wrote about witnessing the aftermath of a German bombing run. “The screams of the people, especially the children, made me feel sick and furious,” he wrote, after German bombers levelled a string of homes several hundred yards from where he was staying.