Stettler scores hockey hat trick
Provost News photo
BUZZER-BEATER — The Stettler Legion Blues raise their sticks in jubilation after Logan Davidson’s goal with 1.9 seconds left gave the Blues a 4-3 victory over the Edson Legion Sabres in the final of the provincial midget B hockey championship Sunday at Provost. Stettler also won the provincial peewee A championship at Hinton on Sunday, one week after Stettler captured the provincial bantam A crown on home ice. For full coverage of Stettler’s golden weekend, see pages B1, B2 and B3.
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Clearview nixes teacher agreement LES STULBERG Independent reporter A motion to ratify the tentative framework agreement as prepared by the Alberta government and the Alberta Teachers’ Association was defeated by Clearview trustees in a 4-2 vote last Thursday. Clearview board chair Ken Checkel said the agreement did contain positive features. The board was pleased with the financial aspect — the province committed to looking after the cost of the increase in teachers’ salaries in the agreement. The length of the agreement was also favourable. “A four-year agreement brings four years of labour peace,” Checkel said. He cited the board’s concerns of the agreement as being the limits on teacher instruction time, added bureaucracy, the impact on school boards if the province couldn’t keep its commitment on teachers’ salary increases and the balance of government, ATA and school boards in negotiations. “School boards are being shut out — big government and big unions are taking over,” Checkel said. He added school board powers are being curtailed in a number of areas, including input into professional development. Budget discussions continue to dominate board meetings as the board works to have its 2013-14 budget in place by May. The trustees voted to decrease their expense budget to $180,000 next year, from the $193,000 that was budgeted for the current year. That amount would cover the costs accrued when Clearview trustees
attend meetings and conferences. The cut responded in part to a directive in the provincial budget for school boards’ allowable spending on administration to be reduced by 10 per cent. Trustee Peter Simons suggested a way to further reduce board expenses would be to cut trustee benefits to 75 per cent. Trustees discussed how to divide the Equity of Opportunity grant, which the province increased in its spring budget. The board approved $644, 000 for instructional purposes and the balance of the grant, about $300,000, will go to the transportation budget. That amount is less than transportation received from the grant in the current year. Clearview secretarytreasurer Lewis Hill said the loss of the Fuel Contingency grant will amount to a reduction of only $10,000 to $11,000 in the current year, due to conservative budgeting expectations of the grant by administration. The 2013-14 transportation budget will see a greater impact, however, with the loss of the fuel grant — a drop of about $200,000 in funding. Hill said the possibility of the number of bus routes being reduced could not be ruled out at this time. The board learned the cost of substitute teachers was on the rise. Last year, the bill for substitute teachers was more than $500,000. The board favoured the potential of expanding dual-credit programs through its co-operation with Red Deer College and other colleges in the province. Most of the programming is now in the CTS area, something the board wishes to expand on.
LES STULBERG/Independent reporter
Sheldon Jackson uses a snowblower to clear his Stettler driveway last Friday, one day after a heavy snowfall and strong winds extended winter’s wrath into late March. Cold temperatures persisted through the weekend.
Winter goes out without whimper LES STULBERG Independent reporter The Stettler region was pummelled by the wild spring weather that smacked much of Alberta last week — as snow and blowing snow wreaked havoc on the area. Highways were hit hard, making driving conditions tricky, and many country roads were left impassable. Many of Clearview’s rural school buses did not operate last Thursday and by Friday all bus routes, except those in the town of Stettler, were cancelled because of the blocked roads, said Clearview superintendent John Bailey. The weather chaos gave many rural students an early start on their spring break. County of Stetter chief administration officer Tim Fox said the county office received 25 to 30 complaints of blocked roads within a 24-hour period. He said the calls pertaining to medical concerns were given priority. The weather conditions were so bad last Thursday that the county had to pull in most of their snowplows, Foxsaid. He said that on Friday, all 13 of the county’s snowplows were out and would be running 14-hour shifts per day, right through the weekend, to get the roads open. He said he’s “extremely concerned” what might happen to the roads if there’s a quick thaw. Fortunately, the Stettler area did not see anything as colossal as the massive pile-up south of Edmonton, on the QE2, involving about 100 vehicles and resulting in more than 100 people being injured in the mayhem. Sgt. Duncan Babchuk of the Stettler RCMP detachment said police were not called out on any traffic-related incidents during the storm. “I have noticed a huge change from the beginning of winter until now,” Babchuk said. He said people now know how to react to poor road conditions and equipment-related incidents, like lack of snow tires, have been corrected. “That’s good news, he said. Babchuk said police did, however, field a number of calls from people inquiring about road conditions.
Similar reports came in from the Bashaw area. Sgt. Cam Paul said the Bashaw RCMP detachment did not respond to any weather-related traffic accidents. “The people in rural areas are pretty savvy when hit by weather like this,” Paul said. It was a different story in the Coronation area. The storm appeared to intensify as it moved eastward from Castor to the Saskatchewan border. Const. Carl Almusa of the Coronation RCMP detachment said Alberta Transportation closed highways 12, 36, 872 and 599, east of Castor. He said there were at least two rollovers, but there were no injuries reported. Almusa said multiple people were stuck and stranded on the east-country highways. “A couple of semis got stuck on the highway and were out there for the night,” Almusa said. He said he was “out late” himself, dealing with the havoc caused by the spring storm. “Local people knew to stay off, but it was the people travelling that got caught,” Almusa said. In a Saturday interview, County of Paintearth Reeve George Glazier said county personnel are dealing with the aftermath of the storm. He said the county has 11 Bobcats out, pushing the immense amount of snow that was heaped on county roads in the wake of the spring blizzard. As of Saturday, Glazier estimated 40 per cent of the east-west roads in his area were still blocked and that a portion of Highway 599 was still closed. Poor road conditions led to the postponement of the Coronation music festival grand finale concert and the Castor spring rummage sale. The agriculture community, in the midst of calving season, was also impacted by the storm and by the late arrival of spring in general. “It’s been a challenge,” said Dee Green, who along with her husband Dale runs a cow-calf operation near Byemoor. She said the weather prompted them to check their herd at two-hour intervals around the clock — packing newborn calves into the barn. “It could have been worse,” she added on a positive note. “It could have been colder.”
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