Snippets from some February Lakeside Leaders
1978
Feb. 9 (Thursday)
Leo Brost won the Hawaii trip at the Roland Michener Athletic Club Hawaii Night in the E.G. Wahlstrom School gymnasium.
Slave Lake RCMP caught two men who were known as the ‘Panty Phantom.’ They broke into people’s homes and stole women’s undergarments, damaged property and vandalized the places.
Then on Feb. 3 some time after 5 a.m. the men broke into a trailer home and stabbed the male resident when he was asleep in his bed. The article doesn’t say if the victim lived or died.
The police investigation included plain clothes officers, a polygraph operator and stake outs.
Two Letters to the Editor complained about what they saw as flippant coverage by The Leader of the men breaking into people’s homes to steal women’s under garments.
Ben Bosch, Sawridge Hotel Manager, was in charge of a Chamber of Commerce initiative to make a tourism brochure. The estimated cost was $6,500 for 20,000 brochures.
A million-dollar lottery ticket was traced to the area, having been sold at Barton Drugs in Slave Lake, but so far no one had come forward with the winning ticket. The owner of the ticket had one year to claim their prize.
Continuing Education had to cancel a proposed basic upholstery class, but eight others were going ahead. Beginning Cree and Hunter Training and Outdoor Survival were full. Needlecraft, Macrame, Weaving for Beginners, Karate and Intermediate Cree had some space available.
Kinuso 4-H held a Skate-a-thon. The 24 young participants raised around $560.
‘Disneyland on Ice’ was the theme of the Lakeside Figure Skating Club’s carnival, which was scheduled for mid-February. About 110 children were going to perform. The carnival was directed by figure skating instructor Lorna Baird.
The carnival included figure skating and crowning a Carnival Queen. Grade 7 students Michelle Meredith, Diane Prodniuk, Marcie Oakes, and Elaine Gagnon were the contestants. Their schools chose them. They were to attend an Oilwives’ supper meeting and give a short speech on a chosen topic and be judged on personal merit. They were to be crowned by the 1977 Carnival Queen – Terry Ann Dumelie.
A Letter to the Editor said that the Slave Lake arena needed plexiglass to protect the spectators from stray hockey pucks. This was especially important now that it had a higher level hockey team, the Winterhawks.
An item hidden in the midst of the ‘Smith News’ was that scarlet fever and strep throat were keeping students away from school. Also, less alarmingly, the flu was rampant.
1989
Feb. 8
Pearl Calahasen (36) was voted in as the Progressive Conservative candidate for the provincial election. She narrowly beat out Slave Lake Mayor Bill Pearson. Over 2,000 people crammed into the Kinuso Ag Hall – both sides and on plywood over the ice in the curling rink. An ambulance had to be called to rescue someone who fainted because of the smoke and the heat. A trumpet player added to the noise.
Of the people present, 1,825 were PC members who arrived early enough to vote. The PC election had seven candidates.
People started arriving at noon and the decision wasn’t made until the evening.
The election took four rounds of voting, with the lowest-ranking candidate winnowed out each time. By the final vote in the evening, the number of voters was down to 1,546.
Two young offenders broke into Marten Mountain Metal Works and stole a safe. The police found the safe two days later, with the contents missing.
‘Mamawihkamatotak’ or ‘Let’s work together and help each other’ was a Slave Lake-based program with an aim to combat drug and alcohol abuse in surrounding Indigenous communities. It had started the summer before, with a weekend workshop. In the second phase, it was going into schools in the communities around Slave Lake.
The Riverboat Daze Association changed its name to the Slave Lake Exhibition Association. It had new ideas, but planned to keep the logo, timing, theme, name etc. of the annual summer Riverboat Daze celebrations.
The association also decided to become incorporated under the Societies Act.
The Slave Lake Pioneers held a variety of events for seniors in January. Girl Guides helped with a potluck supper at the end of January. Hilda Eben led an exercise class. Peter Kinjerski was the bingo caller. Catherine Gairdner held a quilting and patch cutting time. Audrey Emes led an aerobic class.
Aaron Lehman organized the second annual Volksski. It was a 5 km loop starting and ending at Gilwood Golf and Country Clubhouse. It went into Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park to the North Shore Day Use Area and then circled back through the golf course. The anticipated leg across Lesser Slave Lake to Dog Island was cancelled because of high winds.
The Slave Lake Ringette Club had two teams. One for girls 13 and under and the other for girls 14 to 17. The older team was second in a tournament in Peace River. The younger one placed third.
1995
Feb. 1 paper
The provincial government signed a 10-year grazing lease on Crown land within the hamlet of Widewater without consulting with either the M.D. of Lesser Slave River or Widewater residents. Both were up in arms. The man planned to bring in sheep. His neighbours were worried that these would draw in wolves.
The M.D. planned to take the issue up with the Minister of Environment and Agriculture. Issues included that it was against M.D. land-use and animal control bylaws; also that a creek running through the property ran into Lesser Slave Lake.
A petition against a road levy in Slave Lake had 14 pages of signatures. The organizers expected to collect another 20 pages of signatures.
Snowmobilers were breaking the rules and riding in Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park, so the park rangers were upping the amount of enforcement.
The Slave Lake United Way was founded in 1987. In 1994, it put $29,000 into local nonprofits and social agencies. One organization which received funding was the Lesser Slave Lake Distress Society.
The Slave Lake Women’s Auxiliary had a new board: Mary Short (president and public relations), Lee Webb (secretary), Joanne Roseneau (treasurer), Stella Boisvert (memorial fund), Marlene Gamble (in charge of the auction at the truck stop), and Donna Schell (special occasions committee).
Efforts to start a permanent bird-banding facility in Slave Lake got a boost with the formation of a local chapter of the Beaverhill Bird Observatory.
The board included: Marian Whitby (chair), Edith Maron (secretary), David Zuberbier (communications director), Kevin Stephenson (computers and information director), Stefan Jungkind (Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory project director), and other members of the Beaverhill Bird Observatory.
2006
Feb. 15
A proposed culture centre was too expensive, so kiboshed by Town of Slave Lake council. The proposed location was in the old Boisvert’s Super ‘A’ grocery store on 3rd Ave. NE. The estimated cost to convert the store to a theatre and other facilities was $3 million.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Willie Wittig told Town of Slave Lake council that the RCMP needed two dedicated officers to tackle drug trafficking. Assaults and domestic violence were also a big problem.
Librarian Lori Herdzik and library board member Sandy Grocholski presented to Town of Slave Lake council requesting a funding increase to be able to increase the Slave Lake library staff wages. After school around 40 to 60 kids came to the library every day, even though there wasn’t a structured school program.
Slave Lake Fire Chief Greg Gramiak told Town of Slave Lake council that the fire department could fight fires in buildings over three stories tall, so it should consider changing the land-use bylaw to allow for taller buildings.
Slave Lakers Vonnie Bohn and Melany Whittaker were in training to run a 60-km, two-day walk to raise money for breast cancer research.
Lakeside Figure Skating sent 14 skaters to a competition in Whitecourt.
They came home with 17 medals – 13 individual and four team ones.
