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Red Deer Advocate FRIDAY, NOV. 15, 2013
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Stettler couple come out swinging at robbers
STEMMING THE FLOW
MICHENER CENTRE
Family seeks to block patient transfer
BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF A Stettler couple married for nearly 40 years bravely tried to fight off a pair of knife- and gun-toting robbers on Tuesday. The woman escaped with minor knife cuts to her hands after the masked thugs came into the town’s Royal Hotel about 11 p.m. They demanded cash and fled after a brawl with the owners. The 67-year-old husband, who asked that his name not be used, said when they came demanding money he gave the robbers about $100 in cash from his pocket but they insisted he turn over float money from the bar. One grabbed more money and that’s when the owner grabbed a baseball bat he kept for defence and started swinging at the other man. “We were fighting for about five minutes,” he said. The knife-wielding man started waving his weapon, which ended up cutting his wife’s hands when she jumped in to help her husband. “She tried to hold them. They were pretty young guys. I could not handle two guys myself. “She tried helping me.” He managed to pull off one of the men’s masks before he fled. He looked to be about 18 years old, he said. His wife was taken to hospital by ambulance and treated for minor cuts. She is doing fine now and he also escaped without any serious injuries. “My body’s OK,” he said. The couple have owned the hotel for the past eight years. They have been married for 38 years.
ASKS COURT FOR OPINION ON CONSENT BY MYLES FISH ADVOCATE STAFF The brother of a Michener Centre resident, concerned that a forced relocation would lead to his sibling’s premature death, will seek a court opinion next month as to whether his family can continue to block any move from the facility by withholding consent. Claiming the province does not have “equal or better facilities” in place to transfer Michener Centre residents into, Brian Reed said Thursday he believes he and his parents have a right to deny consent for any move of brother Bruce to a community group home. In an effort to legitimize that belief, he will appear at Red Deer’s Court of Queen’s Bench on Dec. 6 to obtain the court’s opinion on the matter. “I want the court to give its opinion on whether a guardian has an absolute right to withhold a move of an individual if he thinks anxiety, physical harm, or premature death could be the result of this move,” said Reed, of Lomond, a village southeast of Calgary. The action is available to guardians under the provincial Adult Guardianship and Trusteeship Act.
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
With the change of seasons comes a new round of water woes in the city. As frost enters the ground, pipes are subjected to shifts in the landscape and, inevitably, water will come bubbling to the surface. With water flowing down the alley, City of Red Deer Environmental Services employees Mark Gruenwald, Colin Molsberry, Darren Hilsendager and Chet Stotz work to close a water main in Waskasoo in the alley behind Moore Cres. at 45 Avenue.
Please see CLOSURE on Page A2
Please see ROBBERY on Page A2
Prison opts for sewage lagoons over regional system EFFLUENT WILL EVENTUALLY END UP IN THE RED DEER RIVER
Construction has begun to update the wastewater lagoon system at Bowden Institution, but the project is causing some worry about future protection of the Red Deer River. One new storage cell is being built on the northeast section of the federally-owned land where the prison sits, between Bowden and Innisfail. The lagoon capacity will increase by 133,000 cubic metres. Correctional Service of Canada proposed the expansion almost two years
WEATHER
ago to help accommodate an additional 200 inmates as the current lagoon had reached capacity. The news came as a disappointment to the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater Commission. The commission is responsible for the multimillion-dollar project that will transport wastewater from outlying communities through more than 100 km of pipe to the Red Deer treatment plant by the time it’s finished in 2015. “Lagoons eventually have to release. No matter what happens, if you release, it will eventually get to the Red Deer River,” said Dennis Cooper,
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FORECAST ON A2
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chair of the wastewater commission. While connecting to the regional system is more expensive than lagoons, Cooper said it safeguards the river, which supplies water to more than 200,000 people. “Alberta Environment told us they want to keep the Red Deer River pristine. . . . They didn’t want to take a chance in contaminating the water supply.” Cooper said towns such as Olds, Bowden and Innisfail wanted to stay with their own sewage treatment plants, using lagoons, but Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development encouraged them to join
Please see LAGOONS on Page A2
Inside the canine mind ‘A Dog’s Life’ airs on ‘The Nature of Things’ Thursday on CBC Television.
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the regional system. “These towns, all together, are going to borrow about $15 million to pay for 10 per cent of this system. Then the feds come along and say they don’t want to connect to the system at the prison. It’s unfortunate. It seems like a bit of a double standard.” Cathy Stocki, media relations and outreach advisor with Correctional Service of Canada, said connecting Bowden Institution to the South Red Deer wastewater system was not an efficient option.
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