PARTING GIFTS David Bowie and the sad, inspiring history of making art while dying
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Red Deer Advocate THURSDAY, JAN. 14, 2016
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DRUNK FOR A CAUSE
SCHOOL BOUNDARIES
Students brace for major shift in ’17 BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF Plenty of Red Deer Public elementary students will be swapping schools once the district’s new elementary school opens in Inglewood in September 2017. Changes to school attendance boundaries were being presented to school board trustees on Wednesday. The board will defer its final decision on the changes until its Jan. 27 meeting to allow for community input and response. Apart from students living in Inglewood, Vanier and Vanier East who will attend the new kindergarten-to -Grade-5 school built for 500 students, major changes are also in store for students at Pines School that houses the Spanish bilingual program, at Grandview School and Mountview School. “We’re going to re-purpose Grandview School to house our Spanish bilingual program. We’ve really been surprised by how successful that program is. Every year just more and more families are choosing that program so we want to give it the space to expand,” superintendent Stu Henry said on Wednesday. The Spanish program currently has about 120 students. Pines School will be closed and held in reserve. “With all the construction happening in that northeast corner, by Clearview Ridge and Timberlands, we may need a release valve in the next few years so we may just reopen it to take care of some of the neighbourhoods over there. But that would also depend whether we get another school in the next few years.” Henry said the south end of Red Deer has too many old schools in aging-out neighbourhoods all close together By moving the Spanish bilingual program to Grandview, most English students at Grandview will be amalgamated at Mountview School. Grandview students from Rosedale will to go Barrie Wilson School. He said most of the changes make sense because students will live closer to their school.
Please see BOUNDARIES on Page A2
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/ Advocate staff
Thanks to an RCMP drinking party, things got a little silly Wednesday at the City of Red Deer RCMP Detachment. Here Leanne Murray, left, and Marlo Holmes take a selfie after consuming several alcoholic beverages. The two volunteered, along with Frazer Snowdon, John Brown and Steve Kenny, to help train RCMP members in a Drug Recognition Expert Course at the detachment. After the volunteers were sufficiently inebriated, nine RCMP members from across the province then administered physical co-ordination tests on the intoxicated subjects, providing a hands-on opportunity for the officers to observe, test and assess how varying doses of alcohol impair the average person’s physical co-ordination.
Handley, Mulder spar over fate of late-night bus service BY CRYSTAL RHYNO ADVOCATE STAFF
OPERATING BUDGET
Emotions ran high as council reinstated late-night bus service on all routes on Wednesday. It was a 5-4 split vote, the closest over the six days of debate, that ultimately put the bus back on the road for half-hour service after it was reduced to hourly service after 10:45 p.m. in 2012. A rare heated exchange between Councillors Tanya Handley and Lynne Mulder showed the severity of the decision.
Handley said it is premature to make “emotional” decisions until the city has concrete data on ridership and the Transit Master Plan. “We need to wait,” said Handley. “I understand the emotional argument. I feel it but my head says let’s wait and get it right so we are not doing the same thing to people again. We’re not putting it into place and pulling it out when we look at the master plan.” Mulder said she took exception to it being “an emotional decision.” “I’ve heard you on many occasions
be extremely emotional about the public,” said Mulder. “I would just say I believe in the riders and the information. The people who I talk to would like this service reinstated. I take exception to the words ‘emotional decision.’” Mulder said this time slot is extremely important for those people who work nights. “It is meeting a need in our community for a vulnerable group of people and I think we have an obligation to do that,” said Mulder.
Please see BUDGET on Page A2
Savvy Sylvan store owners help snag serial robbery suspect COUPLE PLANNED AHEAD IN CASE OF THEFT BY JENNA SWAN SYLVAN LAKE NEWS
Photos by JENNA SWAN/Sylvan Lake News
Jenn and Tim Stoddart, owners of Bayshore Market, stand inside their store where on Monday an attempted robbery occurred. Thanks to some quick thinking the pair helped to capture a suspect wanted for a number of robberies and attempted robberies over the last month in Sylvan Lake.
WEATHER 60% flurries. High -4. Low -13.
FORECAST ON A2
INDEX Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business . . . . . . . .C4-C5 Canada . . . . .A5-A6, C2 Classified . . . . . . D1-D2 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . D4 Entertainment . . . . . . C3 Sports . . . . . . . . . B1-B3
The infamous Sylvan Lake serial robber’s run has hopefully rumbled to a halt. An arrest was made Monday in a string of convenience store thefts, thanks to two Sylvan Lake business owners, a collaborative approach to crime prevention in the community and fast acting measures from the RCMP. For weeks Jenn and Tim Stoddart, owners of Bayshore Market, watched as one local business after another was hit by a masked but seemingly unarmed assailant. They knew it was only
a matter of time before they saw those signature eyebrows walk through their door, knowing it was inevitable they and the robber would likely soon meet. They had asked other local business owners and victims of the robberies how the individual acted while in their stores, along with what he had said during the robberies. With what they learned, Jenn and Tim spent a good deal of time talking about and rehearsing what to do when the robber came knocking on their cash drawer. Their weeks of suspicion were correct. On Monday afternoon at 3:21 p.m. the black-masked bandit crossed the threshold of their store front.
Please see THEFT on Page A3
Waiting for house prices to drop Central Alberta house prices flattened out last year and may drop this year if the economic downturn continues unabated. Story on PAGE C1
PLEASE RECYCLE