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THE STETTLER INDEPENDENT NEWS
Sight Seekers meet Thursday morning Stettler Sight Seekers, a support group for people with vision loss, plans to meet at 10 a.m. Thursday at Paragon Place in Stettler. The scheduled guest speaker is Janice Gust. Coffee will be served at the meeting.
For Business, Students & Home Needs Servers Desktops Laptops Printers Stettler 403.742.0448
Lacombe Red Deer 403.782.1140 403.347.3344 www.advanced-systems.net
Thank You Animal Haven Rescue League would like to thank all the businesses in and around Stettler who supported our Fall Supper on Oct. 27. • Bloke’s Bakery • Cabinet of Curiosities • The Cupcake Cabin • Maggie Joe’s Catering Cafe • Sean’s No Frills • Elmtree Healthstore • Sunset Printing • Home Hardware • Anne Larose • Wells Furniture • Heartland Youth Centre • Peavey Mart • Debbeez Flowers • Sobeys and Gifts • Sears We would also like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers for all their hard work in helping make rescue league this a successful event.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
County hires Green as engineering head LES STULBERG Independent reporter The County of Stettler has welcomed Rick Green to its team. Green fills the new position of director of engineering. “ We h ave s o m a ny projects in the county that require engineering expertise and we are pleased to have Rick on board to provide that expertise to us,” said CAO Tim Fox. Green, a registered engineer technologist, spent most of his 25-year career providing consulting services to municipalities throughout Alberta. His first position was in Hanna, where he spent 14 years working for an engineering firm providing service to the Special Areas, Starland County, and the MD of Acadia. He also worked for the City of Grande Prairie and for EXH Engineering in the Peace Region. Green’s most recent endeavour had him living in Lacombe and working for Stantec Engineering in Red Deer. Green said he’s famil-
iar with the area, and has done work in the county when employed by Stantec. Public works, planning a n d d eve l o p m e n t a n d utilities are the departments that will most benefit from having Green on staff, Fox said. Green is reviewing engineering of the paving of the Fenn Road to Highway 835 and an intersection upgrade at 835. He will also be reviewing the Rural Road Study, analyzing need, condition of roads and traffic, and making a recommendation to council. “I will be able to fill the gap that the county p r ev i o u s l y o u t s o u r c e d — it should be a moneysaving proposition for the county,” Green said. The Kelowna native and his wife Stacey have a 15-year-old son, Nicolas. While the family still lives in Lacombe, Green said that they eventually plan to relocate to the Stettler area. “I am anxious to get involved in the community — especially soccer, as a referee,” Green said. Green listed Buffalo
LES STULBERG/Independent reporter
Rick Green brings 25 years of related experience to his new job at the County of Stettler’s director of engineering. Most recently, he worked in Red Deer.
Lake as an attraction for him in choosing Stettler as a place to work.
“I am looking forward to doing lots of boating on the lake,” he said.
New View Learning Is your child struggling in school? Has your child been labeled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, ``not trying hard enough``, or a ``behavior problem``? Does your child: * have difficulty sustaining attention? * complain of dizziness, headaches or stomachaches while reading? * red reBEand andreread rereadwith withlittle littlecomprehension? comprehension? * have difficulty putting thoughts into words? * have an unusual pencil grip? * have difficulty telling time, managing time, being on time? * seem to have difficulty with vision, yet eye exams don’t reveal a problem? New View Learning resolves the root causes of dyslexia and associated learning disabilities including reading, ADD, math, and handwriting. Clients learn through individualized one-on-one 5 day programs. The program provides clients with the tools needed to succeed in school. Brenda Davies BA Davis Dyslexia Correction Facilitator Drumheller, Alberta
Operation Christmas Child
Phone: 403-823-6680 Email: rbdavies@hotmail.c Email: rbdavies@hotmail.cB www.dyslexia.com
Since 1990 Operation Christmas Child has been collecting shoe boxes ¿lled with hygiene items, school supplies, toys and candy and distributing them to children in desperate situations around the world. This year Operation Christmas Child will send its 100 millionth shoebox!!
National Collection Week is November 19 to 25 Local collection centre is Stettler Alliance Church 6710 - 50 Avenue the of¿ce will be open for collection Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
LES STULBERG/Independent reporter
Beef production specialist Karin Schmid delivers the keynote speech to the Alberta Beef Producers Zone 5 annual meeting last week in Big Valley.
Bison watch most relevant for Alberta beef producers LES STULBERG Independent reporter
FCC Drive Away Hunger
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Thanks for filling plates across Canada Thanks to the generosity of our partners and community volunteers, there are fewer empty plates this fall. You helped raise 1.4 million pounds of food and over $760,000 for food banks across the country.
@FCCagriculture #DriveAwayHunger
When beef producers gathered for their annual Zone 5 Alberta Beef Producers fall meeting in Big Valley last Tuesday, they made it clear they wanted to head off any future disasters. The beef industry has been rocked by its share of dilemmas, the latest being the E. coli beef recall and temporary closure of the XL Foods packing plant at Brooks. Key speaker Karin Schmid, beef production specialist with ABP, outlined several issues ABP is working with and gave industry updates. But it was the bison watch information that Schmid shared that most concerned the local beef producers. The bison population in Wood Buffalo National Park in north-eastern Alberta is infected with brucellosis and tuberculosis. Those diseases have been long eradicated in the general livestock population. Bison herds in the immediate area outside the national park boundaries have now also tested positive to the diseases. Schmid said ABP is working to be pro-active before they have to deal with a disaster, in case contact infects cattle herds
with the diseases. She said progress has been made at the provincial level and hopes the political will also exists at the federal level. Beef producers said their concern was that few people not connected to the agricultural industry understand the enormity of the issue, in the event those diseases get into the general cattle population. Endiang farmer and teacher Stuart Somerville said politicians would be reluctant to order mass destruction of infected bison herds for fear of public outcry. He said there would be a need to educate the public first. In the resolution portion of the meeting, Somerville submitted a resolution “to support education about the threat that brucellosis and tuberculosis in wild bison populations pose to food security.” The resolution passed with no opposition. Zone 5 delegate Doug Sawyer updated the crowd on the XL situation and the beef recall. He said the recall was “handled differently — a muscle-meat recall has never been seen before.” Sawyer said he hoped Alberta Beef Producers would be involved in round-table discussions for a comprehensive review of the handling of
the recall and issues that warranted it. His concern was the beef industry might be “put at risk by a knee-jerk reaction by the CFIA to impose extra regulations. That would be problematic.” ABP wanted to get ahead of the issue with messages to inform the public of beef safety, but their messages were “largely ignored by the media,” Sawyer said. Sawyer endorsed the management take over of XL Foods by JBS-USA as beneficial. “JBS has long export arms — access to markets — I personally have a good feeling about it.” JBS-USA is a subsidiary of JBS-S.A., the Brazilian-based food processing company that is the world’s largest meat packer. There was no need for elections at the Zone 5 fall producers’ meeting, as Cathy Sharp of Lacombe/ Stettler and Rob Somerville of Endiang were elected by acclamation. Sitting delegates include Nanita Blomquist of Big Valley; Charlie Christie of Trochu, Doug Sawyer of Pine Lake and Rose Wymenga of Leslieville. Zone 5 includes County of Stettler, Lacombe County, Red Deer County, Starland County and Clearwater County.