ONE YEAR AGO
• A Red Deer woman was praised by police for successfully steering an RV from the passenger side after her husband suffered a heart attack at the wheel. Sheriff’s chief deputy Rich Stephens told local media in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, that Gertrude Prefontaine did a “phenomenal” job of controlling the RV, avoiding on-coming traffic, and taking the vehicle off the road in the safest place possible. Gertrude, whose 74-year-old husband, Joseph Prefontaine, died on Aug. 4, could not explain how she kept her cool, saying “it’s a terribly hard question to answer . . . I think there was a guiding hand. . . .”
• After a two-month breakaway that culminated in a rescue at a downtown office building, Buddy the cockatiel was safely back home. Linda Hansen of Red Deer received word while vacationing in Sicamous, B.C., that her beloved bird had been found. She immediately made the seven-hour trip home. The bird was retrieved from the sixth-floor ledge of First Red Deer Place
FIVE YEARS AGO
• Efforts to ban smoking gained steam in the Town of Sylvan Lake.
• Alberta Municipal Affairs rejected a petition circulated by angry Alix residents wanting to oust their mayor. It deemed the petition invalid because it was not completed within the required 90 days.
• Wild Rose MP Myron Thompson faced dissent in his own riding from two long-time Conservative supporters. The critics said it was time for Thompson to retire from federal politics. Thompson, 70, said he had no intention of stepping down before the next election.
10 YEARS AGO
• Despite loud protests to earlier proposals, the public remained relatively quiet as the John Howard Society looked to turn the former Park Hotel into a halfway house for paroled convicts. The hotel, which included a stripper bar, would eventually be replaced with the halfway house and space for retail outlets.
• Lacombe town council cleared the runway for an unusual 10-lot airpark at the airport. It rezoned some of the area at the airport to allow residential lots, where houses and hangars could be combined.
25 YEARS AGO
• More than 20,000 people from 15 countries, every Canadian province and over one-third of American states had walked in the footsteps of Jim Robertson. That’s how many people had followed the Waskasoo Park naturalist through the doors of the Kerry Wood Nature Centre since he first unlocked them on a frosty Dec. 21, 1985. With dozens of exhibits tracing the natural history of the Red Deer River regions, the 1.3-million centre had become a popular spot for tourists and long-time city residents.
• City councillors opposed to mosquito controls said they’re sticking to their guns despite overwhelming public pressure for massive spraying. “I don’t care if it hurts me politically or not. I don’t agree with spraying,’ said Councillor Dennis Moffat.
He said spraying was sure to become an issue in the fall’s municipal election, but planned to advocate a more personal approach to the problem
50 YEARS AGO
• A major move toward retaining Red Deer’s reputation as a “clean” city was taken by council when Aldermen approved resolutions declaring once new subdivision a “no-burning” area, requiring homes in the district to have garbage incinerators and order that all new buildings started in the city have Class “A” chimneys which would allow installation of inside incinerators. The steps taken by council resulted from continual complaints about outside burning of garbage, the mounting costs of pick-up, the untidiness of lanes littered with overturned refuse cans and litter and the generally unsatisfactory situation of the city’s mountain garbage accumulation and disposal.
• The City of Red Deer was expected to play a major role in an integrated disaster plan for Central Alberta which would coordinate services of fire departments and other services in Red Deer, Penhold RCAF, The Provincial Training School, Lacombe and other centres, Mayor J.M. McAfee told city council. One advantage of the plan, the major said, would be the establishment of a central authority for the dispatch and allocation of equipment — a decision that rested with senior city officials who would send equipment out of the city if deemed necessary.
This method, however, placed serious responsibility on officials who could have be criticized if things went wrong.
90 YEARS AGO
• “B” Division, Alberta Provincial Police, with headquarters at Red Deer, have cleaned up three bunches of cattle thieves this year, and Inspector Fisher and his staff deserve congratulations on their unceasing efforts to protect life and property in their district. The latest case is that of Ralph Roomer alias Joe Bently, and Joe Williams who were given penitentiary sentences before Judge Mahaffy at Red Deer Tuesday, when found guilty of horse stealing. The former will spend three years in Prince Albert, while Williams was given a two-year sentence at Fort Saskatchewan. A man named Miller was released, as the evidence was insufficient.
• One of the sights of the city just now is Mr. Paton’s display of lawn, greenery and bloom at the Soldiers Hospital grounds. The broad roadway stretching north and south from entrance to entrance may perhaps be called his main base line, and this is bordered by velvety grass sward backed by long-stretching banked beds of green and bloom, the royal blue of the lobelia, the scarlet of the geranium, the endless variety of color in the snapdragon, the nemesia, the pansies, the hollyhocks, the phlox, the pinks, etc. with more lowly shrubs and plants, and with carragana and cedar hedges to protect, providing endless variety of form and color.
100 YEARS AGO
• The Alberta Garage Co. erected a solid brick garage on Second Street South. The business handled Ford, Interstate and Overland cars.
• The United Farmers of Alberta planned to hold their provincial convention in Red Deer the following January if sufficient accommodation could be guaranteed.