August 31 is the deadline to apply for the Town of Slave Lake Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) grants. This is open to organizations that help improve the lives of people in the area and encourage wellbeing of individuals, families and the community. For the application go to www.slavelake.ca or email fcss@slavelake.ca.
July 17 the Town of Slave Lake started a free program for kids aged six to 12 in Hilda Eben Park. It runs Monday to Thursday, weather permitting, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For details, call the Multi Rec Centre at 780-849-8028.
The Slave Lake Forest Area wildfires were mentioned by a New Zealand news agency called Voxy.co.nz.
New Zealand had sent fire and emergency personnel to help with the Canadian wildfires in June, says the article. Many spent most of the time on the Slave Lake area fires.
At the end of May, The Leader interviewed a Kiwi wildfire officer who was incident commander of the Grizzly and Saulteaux wildfires. The rest of his team was from Australia.
Firefighters from around the world are fighting fires in Canada this year. Thankfully, most of the Slave Lake area wildfires are under control or held, except SWF068 which is still burning out of control (as of the morning of July 21) at 427,721.44 hectares (ha) west of Peavine Métis Settlement.
In other wildfire news, East Prairie Métis Settlement is working to rebuild after one of the Grizzly wildfires (SWF063) burnt through it in May. SWF063 has been under control for a few weeks at 123,670 ha. The Alberta government has promised $9 million toward this. See Page 1 (‘MLA workload increases’) for more on this.
July 18 applications opened for families applying to KidSport to help pay for their child’s involvement in sports, physical activity, or recreation programs. The family income eligibility is the federal low-income cut-off guideline plus 50 per cent. Families can get up to $350 per child.
Nonprofits can also apply to the provincial government for support in offering these programs. The grants are through the Every Kid Can Play Program.
Something a bit unusual happened at the Sinclair Fields not long ago, just after a game ended. The Slave Lake team had just beaten the Parkland Twins in five innings, the mercy rule having shut it down early. Both teams played well, but the Heat were just better – especially at the plate.
So your local sports reporter was scribbling something in a notebook and a guy walked by, packing the chair he’d been sitting in, over on the Parkland side.
“Are you reporting?” he asked.
“Trying to.”
“Anonymous,” he said. “The reason Parkland lost is because of the coaching. Game after game.”
And off he went, leaving it at that.
And here we thought it was because of those four Slave Lake home runs, among other things the Heat did well in the game.
Googling our new MLA’s name the other day (‘Scott Sinclair appointment’ to be precise) produced some unexpected results. There’s a guy by that name in the Manitoba government too, it turns out. The U.K. government appointed a Scott Sinclair to something as well. Then there’s the Scott Sinclair of Nissan Motorsport, and the Scott Sinclair who played for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League.
Good company!
Thanks to the historical reporting of the High Prairie South Peace News, we have this item to share:
‘July 19, 1974: Grouard girls Yvonne Calahasen and Hilma Noskeye enter the Miss Indian Princes(s) Pageant in Slave Lake.’
Does anybody remember that?
This just in from Jason Swanson at the Town of Slave Lake: the new Flo electric vehicle charger was quite busy in its first 10 days of operation. He says in that period the estimated 300 kilowatt hour per month use was already exceeded. So it appears the word is getting out, and it didn’t take very long. It also appears there are more EV users on the road around here than the town was (or we were) expecting.
What that 300 kwh estimate was based on, we’re told, was informatiuon from ATCO Electric, from several charging stations it owns in and around Calgary. Some get less use than that, some more and 300 kwh is about the middle.
There are some concrete surface defects on the Poplar Park concrete pad, we’ve been told. That’s what is holding up the completion of the basketball half court there.
Then there’s the pump track, scheduled for construction this summer at Barton Park in the southwest part of Slave Lake.
Our contact at the town says installation is expected around the second week of August. It could be earlier if the material arrives before that.
When we heard there had been 2 1/2 inches of rain at Flatbush one morning last week, we thought we must have mis-heard. That same morning in Slave Lake the downpour – hard as it was – only amounted to eight tenths of an inch (according to our source over in Gloryland).
But 2.5 inches in M.D. Reeve Murray Kerik’s rain gauge. He was worried about flooding, but as he drove north, it got a lot drier, he said. Good for the pastures!
