Weekly Roundup — Sept. 4

Here's what's making news in Leduc and area this week:

• Local school boards are waiting to find out how an $80 million cut to Alberta Education's budget announced last week will affect their operations this year.

• RCMP will be stepping up their presence in school zones this week to give drivers a refresher on speed limits.

• Laura profiles local punk band California Lane Change, who won the Battle of the Bands at Leduc's first Rock the Rails youth event Aug. 27. Also, check out our photo gallery with tons of pics from the event.

• Leduc County council has provided staff with guidelines for the county's 2010 budget, including a $250,000 contingency fund for Capital Region Board projects.

• Are you prepared to take up the Terry Fox challenge?

• Local school boards are updating their pandemic plans in advance of the fall flu season and are expected to include some guidelines for dealing with the H1N1 flu virus.

• Alex has a feature about Leduc County's Bridges mentorship program, which provides support and guidance for women living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

• City of Leduc council turned down a request by the owners of the Prairie Professional building — partially destroyed by a June 12 fire — for more than $10,000 in tax relief.

• Leduc County and the Town of Beaumont are embarking on a joint sustainable growth study.

• Construction is underway on a new elementary school in Thorsby.

• In sports, the Atlanta Thrashers have their eye on Leduc minor hockey alum Travis Toomey, who is heading to a scouting tournament this week.

• We have updates on the Bobcats', Wildcats and Ti-Cats' weekend football games; and despite not making the finals, the E2 Crude/West women's rugby team dominated in the B-division playoffs last week.

• And in your weekly crime and punishment update, a Leduc man racked up more than $3,000 in fines for playing his stereo too loud.

All this and more in the Sept. 4 Rep!

Back to books

Bells were ringing all over Leduc this morning as students headed back to school for another year. The Rep was out bright and early to capture some of the excitement.


Amber Mayer, Madison Pittman and Courtney Beierbach, all 11, are pleased to be at the top of the food chain as they enter Grade 5, their last year at East Elementary School.


Jayden Bayrack, 7, and younger brother Graysen, 4, couldn't wait to get back to East Elementary School. Graysen had been looking forward all summer to wearing his new Team Canada sweater.


Ceanna Brunes, 5, discovered the perfect cure for the first-day-of-kindergarten jitters: a hug from pal Emma Bianic, 6.

A visit from the Swann

Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann, left, stands with his assistant Bryan Wade at the Best Western Denham Inn during his stop in Leduc on June 15.

Earlier this week Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann paid a visit to the Best Western Denham Inn to come talk about some issues to whoever wanted to do.

Myself and five other citizens from Leduc were waiting patiently for the MLA from Calgary to arrive and he finally did around 3 p.m. One of the other people that was waiting for him said something along the lines of "he's late, he must be a politician" and I chuckled a bit. Swann did apologize for being late and being as busy as he is I definitely could let it slide.

We were ushered into the restaurant at the hotel and we all sat down for some coffee and a chance to voice some of our problems that we hoped Swann would have an answer for. The five other people that showed up to meet Swann voiced their opinions on some issues like car insurance and the title word 'Liberal' of the Liberal party. 

When I got my chance to speak to him I wanted to see what his opinions were on the situation with the Conservatives and the economic update. He was very much in favour of Ignatieff and felt that the advertisements against the Federal Liberal Leader were very offensive and not needed.

“Like many Canadians I’m very offended by the attack ads on Ignatieff, and I don’t think these ads show what Ignatieff is trying to accomplish,” said Swann.

The key issue was employment insurance. This whole issue got resolved yesterday and thankfully there will be no election in the summer, but we could be out voting come fall so who knows how good this new panel will be for the government.

The opposition had proposed that the government should lower employment insurance eligibility to 360 hours, which works out to 45 workdays. 

Swann also went on to talk about Bill 44 in which he was strongly against and for a good reason.

“This bill is not only offensive to the teachers but also to young people who want access to have information and be free to discuss it, debate it and get to their own conclusions with their families about what is true and what isn’t,” said Swann, leader of the Alberta Liberal Party.

He was very adamant the Alberta government didn't give a free vote like the premier had said. 

“The premier said it was a free vote yet not a single one of them went against it, so that just shows you how free it is,” said Swann.

Swann also comments about Bill 44 on his blog.

Leduc Comp goes CAR-AZY!!

461 names were entered into the Leduc Composite High School's "Stay in School, Stay on Course" draw. Each time a student had perfect attendance for a whole month of the school year — no absences, no lates — they were entered into the draw. The prize? A souped-up 2007 Chevy Cobalt courtesy of Murray Chevrolet. Check out the video above for the winner's priceless reaction — and Laura's cameo!

And for full coverage of the draw event, check the June 19 issue of the Rep!

Weekly Roundup - June 5

Here's what's making news in Leduc and area this week:

• We went all Edmonton Sun-esque on our front page this week with this story.

• The International Region has been voted the best place in Alberta to do business by Venture Magazine.

• What's the 211? Our summer intern, Bobby Roy, knows.

• Leduc County councillors are urging the county's subdivision authority to treat all residents fairly after a development was approved in the Wizard Lake area despite the fact that an area structure plan has yet to be completed for the region.

• In other county news, New Sarepta has released an overview of their finances in advance of their 2009 budget, Calmar is cracking down on speeders,

• Leduc's Storefront School is undergoing a change of name and location.

• I am so proud of this cuteness.

• Alex interviewed the retired cop who helped take down an armed robber at CIBC on April 7.

• A provincial court judge had some harsh words for a man who pleaded guilty to dealing marijuana in Leduc.

• The Rep has kicked off its auction to raise funds for the Boys and Girls Club of Leduc.

• Everyone is invited to learn about Leduc's history at the Grain Elevator this summer.

Weekly Roundup — May 22

Here's what's making news in Leduc and area this week:

• Overcrowded classrooms and schools are becoming an issue in the Black Gold Regional School Division.

• The Town of Devon is mourning the loss of recent high school grad Steven Larson, who died suddenly the day after celebrating grad with his classmates.

• The Leduc and District Food Bank is seeing an increase in their number of clients in these hard economic times.

• Leduc's L.A. Dance Academy is raising money to support one of their young dancers, who was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

• Alex spoke to two individuals about their reaction to Avi Friedman's workshop on affordable housing. Nancy Laing with the Leduc Foundation says Leduc needs to offer a wider range of housing, while Kirk Popik, mayor of the Town of Calmar, says now is the perfect time to start addressing the sustainability of our communities.

• Guests at the May 19 EDA partnership breakfast learned about nano and microtechnologies — a.k.a. really, really small machines that are smarter than the writer of this story will ever be!

• Across the county, New Sarepta's annual fair is coming up, Thorsby is hosting a community clean-up, and the Discovery Centre in Devon received some government funding.

Ch-ch-ch-check it out!

(Photo: Tribute artist Jason Scott belted out the Neil Diamond tunes at the Maclab Centre May 18. Photo by Alex Pope.)

Weekly Roundup — May 8

Here's what's making news in Leduc and area this week:

• Leduc County has issued a fire ban due to the extremely dry and windy conditions that have lingered in the area in the past few weeks. (I was really worried this story would be rendered irrelevant by the torrential downpour we had on Wednesday night, but as of today, the fire ban still stands.)

• STAR Catholic Schools are paving the way for more interactive education in three of their high schools. (More here.)

• STAR is also partnering with MedicAlert to increase student safety.

• Wetaskiwin and Camrose RCMP are coming to grips with the loss of one of their comrades following a fatal collision last week.

• Girls left their worries behind for a fun weekend of building self-esteem with the Boys and Girls Club.

• Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger (mushroom, mushroom!)

• County residents will be getting automated meters from FortisAlberta.

(Photo: Nine-year-old Jonah Bommassar was one of the many students who came out to enjoy the "Rodeo of Smiles" on April 30 to kick off the 40th annual Leduc Black Gold Pro Rodeo. Photo by Laura Ring.)

Education innovation

This week, I wrote a story about the St. Thomas Aquinas Roman (STAR) Catholic School Division, which has undertaken some neat initiatives to make learning more interactive for their junior high and high school students in Leduc, Ponoka and Drayton Valley.

On May 1, I attended STAR's celebration of the first six months of their "Building I.T. Together" project and left feeling really excited about the opportunities that are available for students nowadays.

When I think back to elementary school and learning how to use a "word processor," I'm amazed that students today are using Skype to chat face to face with experts and other students all around the world.

I really feel that there's no better education than the one you receive by experiencing the world, especially through travel and interface with people who live differently than you do, but for many kids, that's not economically feasible. So the fact that they can learn about other countries from the people who live there without having to fork out thousands of dollars for a plane ticket is incredible — and for many of them, it will likely pique their curiosity enough that when they do have the financial means to travel, they will.

You can read more about the BIT project in the May 8 Rep, but I wanted to share the video above, which Brad Clarke from Alberta Education showed to demonstrate why radical change is needed in the way we teach our students in this ever-shrinking world.

Weekly Roundup — April 3

Here's what's making news in Leduc and area this week:

• Leduc County decided not to make a decision on a proposed amendment to its land-use bylaw that has caused a lot of controversy in the region

• Four municipalities held an emergency planning exercise that simulated a critical water shortage

• Black Gold Regional School Division is working on setting a new direction for special education

• A school program that encourages junior high students to help each other stay away from smoking is looking for support from the community

• In sports, the Leduc MNP Riggers held their season-ender awards banquet on March 28, while the Leduc Roughnecks Atom AA team finished their season as Alberta Central Cities Hockey League champions

• Community members got together to reflect on and pray for those in leadership positions at the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast on March 28

For all this and more, pick up a copy of the Rep or visit our website.

(Photo: Taylor Davies, Emma Faulkner and Keri Bierke of Beaumont's Daisy Chain Theatre Productions performed a mini-musical called Nuts with other members of their Tiny Broadway class at the group's year-end recital at the Maclab on March 27. Photo by Alex Pope)