Snippets from January 18 and 19 Leaders
1978
Slave Lake business woman Evelyn Norberg was appointed to the provincial Advisory Committee on Native People’s Education. She was the executive director of Slave Lake Native Friendship Centre and a fluent Cree speaker.
At trial, a Supreme Court of Alberta judge threw out a civil law suit between two Slave Lake newspapers which came out of an editorial battle.
The case was five years old.
In 1972, Bruce Thomas (Oiler and Scope) sued John and Kay Stillwell (Northland Free Press) for two editorials.
Thomas claimed that the Northland Free Press depicted him as “malicious, vindictive, unfair, destructive, a liar, cruel, a defamer, an adherent of facism and so forth.”
The judge found that the two articles were in response to a community-wide controversy and were “not excessive or malicious.”
The Stillwells started the Free Press in response to Thomas’ critisicm of the Department of Regional Economic Expansion (DREE).
Along with not getting any money from the Stillwells, Thomas was ordered to pay all of the legal fees.
Marlene Brown of Slave Lake won a Skidoo as part of the Permanent Pool Committee’s raffle.
The Slave Lake and District Chamber of Commerce was looking for a new location for the temporary tourist booth it organized each summer. The area previously leased from Northern Alberta Railways had gone up in price.
The Town of Slave Lake agreed to pay $5,000 as its share of the Community Television Committee. Other communities involved were High Prairie and Kinuso. A meeting to discuss bringing in more channels was scheduled for February.
Town council also decided to stop selling garbage bags and plumbing supplies, which it had been doing.
The Smith Curling Club had a heated curling rink and three sheets of artificial ice.
1989
The Jan. 18, 1989 newspaper is missing from the Leader archives.
1995
Dave Auch and Guy Belanger from Smith and Richard Runnells from Flatbush met with the M.D. of Lesser Slave River council to request a new administrative office. They wanted the office to be in Smith. The idea came up because community members were led to believe that council was considering putting the administrative offices in a proposed Eco-Centre at Devonshire Beach.
The reasons given by the delegation were as follows. Smith was central, had existing utilities, the M.D. would not have to pay property tax to another municipality, and it would ‘revitalize’ Smith.
The current M.D. office was in Lakeland Building in the Town of Slave Lake. This cost the M.D. $91,500 annually.
Council didn’t make any decision.
About 50 people showed up to a Town of Slave Lake meeting about a road levy. The idea was to charge each household $240 annually for road work. In the past, property owners next to the road in question were charged. One of the reasons for the new plan was to raise enough money to be eligible for $1 million of federal and provincial infrastructure money.
Two men were on the lam from ‘open custody’ at a work camp near High Level. They stole a vehicle and headed south. They ditched the vehicle on a wellsite north of Slave Lake. They hitchhiked to Smith and stole a pickup from a farm. That’s when their luck ran out, they ran it into a tree in Smith. They ended up in Slave Lake Hospital and were arrested.
Police said they were “pretty intoxicated.”
The M.D. of Lesser Slave River had four divisions. However, some changes were in order, as Flatbush’s population was too low to warrant two councillors. The change favoured by council was to move Chisholm into the Flatbush area from the Smith division.
Division 1 (Flatbush-Chishom) – 270 residents per councillor
Division 2 (Smith-Hondo) – 417 residents per councillor
Division 3 (around Slave Lake) – 298 residents per councillor
Division 4 (southshore) – 447 residents per councillor.
There was also some debate on how the reeve should be elected. At the time, the reeve was chosen from the eight councillors after the election. The other option was having the residents from all four divisions elect a reeve during the election.
Slave Lake Victim Services, the Slave Lake RCMP, and Unique Art Gallery in Slave Lake had teamed up to do an art fundraiser. On sale were 17 paintings of the RCMP done by Arnold Frieberg over a 40-year period. They cost between $1,000 and $1,100 each.
Slave Lake artist Lorraine Thurber was in the midst of moving painting from a hobby to a career. She’d had three art showings and people seemed to like her work, but so far no commissions.
In February, Slave Lake was going to have ‘toll-free, full access to the world-wide computer network known as the internet’, moving it out of the ‘information super-highway backwoods.’ Earlier internet access in the town was limited to ‘electronic mail or UseNet groups.’ The new service included ‘live and interactive access.’
Evan Baranyk (gold), Jim Meldrum (silver) and Ian Whitby (bronze) were the top three in the men’s division of the first Grizzly Ridge Triathlon.
Connie Schultz won the ladies. She had competed in the past in the Arctic Winter Games biathlon. Athletes competed in skiing, snowshoeing, and shooting.
Dave and Irene Dick ran a small lumber mill in Assineau. To feed the mill, the best bet was to get a local timber permit. When they started seven years earlier, there were only 11 permits and around a half-dozen applicants. By 1995, it was much more competitive. “It’s like winning the lottery,” Irene said.
Challenges with getting lumber was the reason that the Southshore Sawmillers Association was formed in 1994. It had 11 local mills as members. The largest one had 15 employees. There were also about a half-dozen other mills owned by farmers which were only used when the owner got an ‘own-use’ timber permit, which could be used to make up to 100,000 board feet which could not be sold.
The Association had made an agreement with the Forestry office to allow small mills first dibs on a few timber permits in the High Prairie and Kinuso area.
These small mills often make rough timber for bridge construction.
2006
The New Year’s baby was born on Jan. 5. Her name was Samara.
The dialysis unit at Slave Lake Hospital was up and running. The first dialysis patient received treatment on Jan. 4. Previously, people had to drive to Westlock.
Slave Lake was holding a candidate forum for the federal election. Five candidates had confirmed their attendance: Brian Jean (Conservative), Mel Buffalo (Liberal), Roland Lefort (New Democrat), Ian Hopfe (Green Party), and John Malcolm (First Peoples’ National Party).
The weather was baffling, with not enough snow to make temporary log haul stream crossings or cold enough temperatures for ice roads. In December, Slave Lake received 4.5 millimetres of snow, compared to the historical average of 25 millimetres. The average was only minus 8.2 C, compared to the historical average of minus 12.9 C.
The Animal Rescue Committee of Slave Lake (ARC) was one year old. It was started in response to the situation at the dog pound.
Instead of stray dogs being put down after 72 hours if their owner wasn’t found, the community constables handed the dogs over to ARC. The dogs were given a check up, then fostered with families until they could be adopted.
ARC had placed eight dogs in permanent homes and was hoping to build a shelter.
