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Safety concerns have forced the closure of one runway at Cameron McIntosh Airport, and new lines will need to be painted on the other one. Both issues were discussed at the City of North Battleford planning committee meeting Monday. They arose from a routine Transport Canada site inspection conducted on infrastructure at the airport Aug. 28. According to a memo from the City’s Director of Utility Services Stewart Schafer dated Sept. 17, Transport Canada ordered the closure of the crosswind runway at the airport,
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numbered 06/24, until such time as it can be repaved. The concern is that frost heaving has deteriorated the runway pavement to the point that planes might not brake properly. “They felt it was no longer safe to use as a runway,” said Schafer. Transport Canada is also ordering an upgraded paint job on main runway 12/30. That runway has seen major repaving upgrades through Capital Airport Grants matching funds from the province in recent years. After each upgrade, the City had been repainting the landing strip lines on the runway back to what was there before. However, Transport Canada has taken issue with the painting stripes being applied. Continued on Page 3
The ribbon cutting took place last Friday afternoon to officially open the Natural Play Space at Centennial Park, billed as the first of its kind in the province. Maclaren Mann, a participant in the Battlefords Early Childhood Intervention Program, enthusiastically cut the ribbon to open the playground with the help of Gord Whitten of the City’s Parks Department staff. Mayor Ryan Bater and BECIP Executive Director Colleen Sabraw looked on. For the full story about the park turn to Page 17. Photo by John Cairns
Mayors uplifted by Amber Alert reaction By John Cairns and Josh Greschner Staff Reporter
Mayor Ryan Bater could not have been happier with the outcome of the Sunday evening’s Amber Alert, or the reaction of citizens to it. Bater called the response “nothing short of extraordinary in this community” at the City’s planning committee meeting Monday. The mayor acknowledged all the people who took part in the community effort to find Emma O’Keeffe, the six-year-old girl who was the subject of
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an Amber Alert when the car she was a passenger in was taken from a strip mall in North Battleford. She was located safe in the industrial area the next morning. “There’s been a lot of negative things said about our community in the last year, and people have said that’s not who we are,” said Bater. “Last night, that effort, that’s who we are. We’re a community that comes together in the face of a crisis. And whether you know that family or not, didn’t matter. That little girl is one of our own and everyone came to help, and it was beautiful to
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see.” Along with a number of Battleford residents, Battleford Mayor Ames Leslie said he was out looking for O’Keeffe with his wife, then checked back roads with the volunteer Battleford Fire Department. “You never know what the response is going to be for something like that and it almost restores faith in mankind,” Leslie said. Bater said it was with “tremendous joy” that they learned the child was now back at home with her family. In his remarks, Bater pointed to the efforts of
RCMP, search and rescue, both school boards, as well as the support of leadership from nearby Indigenous communities in the search effort. Leslie said efforts by Battlefords residents were “wonderful to see.” Bater noted the RCMP had pulled in resources from elsewhere to help in the search, and he also noted the civilian response was “really something to see.” The mayors said people were going on foot, using flashlights to search ditches, back alleys, grid roads and other areas to try to find the little girl. There were also
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search efforts underway in neighbouring towns and communities. Bater noted conditions were horrible, with thick snowflakes, fog and even a power outage in Battleford. Bater also had good words about the Amber Alert system. “The Amber Alert system itself did a great job of not just alerting the people here, but alerting people throughout Saskatchewan and western Canada,” said Bater. “I don’t think you could be living in Saskatchewan last night and not know what was happening.” On The Farm or On the Hunt, our special priced
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