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LOOKBACK: Central Alberta house prices surged five years ago

A Red Deer business selling high-end athletic clothing was cleaned out of all its inventory sometime overnight Thursday, RCMP said. It was the second time Lululemon Athletica was broken into in 10 days.

ONE YEAR AGO

• A Red Deer business selling high-end athletic clothing was cleaned out of all its inventory sometime overnight Thursday, RCMP said. It was the second time Lululemon Athletica was broken into in 10 days.

• Two pedestrian bridges on Piper Creek were declared off limits because of heavy rains. Steve Davison, City of Red Deer Parks amenities supervisor, said supports for both bridges in the Rotary Park Hill area were closed after erosion from the creek. The high creek levels and high velocity stream flows eroded the creek banks and damaged support abutments, he said.

FIVE YEARS AGO

• The median price of a home in Sylvan Lake had surged to $337,900, suggested statistics from the Red Deer and District Real Estate Board Co-op. Blackfalds, Sundre Innisfail, Stettler, Lacombe and Lacombe County recorded median house prices that were in excess of $200,000.

• Expansion of Red Deer College’s main building, part of its $110-million construction project, got the go-ahead from the city municipal planning commission. The project included visual art, business, manufacturing and technology centres.

10 YEARS AGO

• An off-duty police officer, driving while impaired, rolled his vehicle onto the front lawn of the Red Deer Advocate, destroying a sign. The officer later took voluntary retirement before pleading guilty to driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit.

• Red Deer’s Downtown Business Association announced the late Hazel Braithwaite would be the next personality featured in the Ghost series of bronze statues. Braithwaite was a farm wife, activist and New Democratic Party candidate who is in the Alberta Agricultural Hall of Fame.

25 YEARS AGO

• They may never appear in the daily form chart. Their silks will never grace the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs. But Major Burchfield and Buck Watson, the darling dashers at this year’s Westerner Exposition, will always be winners. The pair hail from Hot Springs, Ark., and their game is training pigs to race.

Six times daily such chargers as Bacon Bits, Pink Lemonade, Sprite and Coca-Cola dash for cookie rewards. Three races were held Monday evening and if interest is any indication the races could well turn out to be one of the most popular events at this year’s Westerner.

• Lacombe MLA Ron Moore backed a call in the provincial legislature Tuesday for a return to capital punishment. Butch Fisher, Progressive Conservative member for Wainwright, said Canada must restore the death penalty for killers because faith in the justice system is crumbling without it. Mr. Moore agreed. Referring to the Clifford Olson case, he said he objects to spending money to keep people like Olson, B.C. Child killer, in institutions. “There is not one iota of doubt about his guilt,” Mr. Moore said. “He is a serial killer who shows no remorse and has been psychologically pegged to kill again if given half a chance.”

90 YEARS AGO

• The Sylvan Lake Regatta and Sports Day on Wednesday was one of the biggest holiday events put on in the West Country and the hardworking and pushing committees of that aggressive community have reason to be proud of the great success of the event.

The weather was beautiful, and the campers, villagers, countryside and outside visitors made up a crowd of some three thousand: the lines of autos were a sight, not to mention the dust. There were all kinds of races on land and on the water, tugs of war, baseball games, refreshments galore, and dancing and music ad libitum in the evening. Some of the water races were well contested, but there is room for more contests of this kind, even without prizes: fast rowing and fast swimming as well as endurance swimming should be more cultivated.

• Rev. Wesley Schwalm , formerly a professor of the Nazarene College at Nampa, Idaho, will be the new pastor of the Nazarene church at Red Deer, in succession to Rev. A. C. Metcalf, who is entering into evangelistic work. Mr. Schwalm belongs to the Didsbury district, where he taught when a younger man. He will receive a hearty welcome from the Red Deer congregation.

100 YEARS AGO

• Red Deer’s public school board was expected to pay $3,000 for an entire block of property in North Red Deer for a school site.

• The Red Deer Brick Co. was sold to the Cement Builders.