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Vol. 15, No. 22, Wednesday, April 29, 2020 www.LamontLeader.com
SUMMERTIME BLUES Pandemic wipes out local summer events
BY JOHN MATHER Covid-19 will put a halt on a large variety of summer festivals throughout the Lamont County area including most Canada Day events. In Mundare, CAO Colin Zyla said he would be recommending to council that they cancel Canada Day activities and the community-wide garage sale in the wake of the provincial health authorities extending their policy of social gathering limitations to the end of August. “I’m bringing it up to council this week,” he said. “I was watching the press conferences and I don’t think we have much of a choice if we can’t have mass gatherings,. “Unless there is a change in the next little bit then our major ball tournament will be cancelled along with Agridaze in late August.” Zyla said he would be bringing to council whether to open the Ukrainia Park to camping. “Right now private campgrounds can remain open but you have to follow protocols,” he said. “But there’s no mingling and camper units have to be a certain distance apart. “We can’t have ball tournaments and we don’t have the revenue stream, why keep the park open? “We have a park attendant, but she isn’t there 24-hours a day so how do we enforce social distancing? It doesn’t make sense to keep it open.” But he said council would have to make the final decision on it. In Andrew the town was going to host a big birthday party to celebrate its 90th anniversary, but CAO Pat Skoreyko said that plan has been scrubbed. “Our amalgamation date was June 24, 1920.” she said. “We had a few meetings to start planning some celebrations, but that’s all off now,” she said. Also shut down is the town’s
File photo of performers at Babas and Borshch Ukrainian Festival cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. annual Canada Day barbecue in the Centennial park. While she wasn’t aware of any cancellations of sports tournaments, she did say all summer events that require bookings through the town are cancelled. She said several ideas had been tossed around for the 90th birthday including a parade, a barbecue in the park, and possibly even an era fashion show. Skoreyko said it’s a tough pill to swallow because that big anniversary only happens once. She also said while they hadn’t opened the RV Park yet, she really wasn’t sure what the final decision on opening would be. “It doesn’t open until the May 24 weekend, so I’m not sure what will happen with it opening up.” In Chipman the brakes have been put on the Annual Car Crafters car show scheduled for June 7, which draws a large crowd over its two-day run. The swap meet that goes with the sale is also cancelled for this year. In Bruderheim, the Covid-19 regulations have meant many community events are cancelled. Chief Administrative Officer Patty Podoborozny said Canada Day celebrations have been cancelled which means no parade, no outhouse races, or pancake breakfast.
“We’re going to try and do something for Canada Day, but it won’t involve any crowds,” she said. “But I’m not going to let you in on the big surprise yet.” She added the town’s annual Meteorite Cup ball hockey tournament that is held in June is cancelled for the year also. Bob Cote from the Bruderheim Agricultural Society told The Leader the annual Model T races were holding off cancelling up to press time, but with the new AHS restrictions, he doubted it would go ahead. “And our horse pull event, which we decided to move up to June this year is now cancelled.” Podoborozny said the Bruderheim campground would remain open. “It’s more of an RV Park and there are no recreation facilities there,” she said. “We have imposed a no-tenters restriction and there will be no outhouses. All the units will have to be self-contained.” Podoborozny explained most of the people using the town’s campground are workers employed at the nearby plants. “They generally aren’t here for fun or games, so they go to work in the morning and come home and go to bed in the evening. They don’t do much socializing.” For the first time in its eight-year
existence the Babas and Borshch Ukrainian Festival in Lamont has been cancelled. “We were pondering cancelling it, but when Alberta Health extended the social distancing through the end of August it was time to move to shut it down for the year,” said festival coordinator Hazel Anaka. She said she now faces the daunting task of returning cheques to sponsors or to performers who were scheduled for the August 22 -23 event. “We have to reach out to sponsors to ask if they want cheques returned or if they want us to hold on to them for next year’s event.” The festival draws several thousand to Lamont every year. Anaka states the ground work for this year could be used for next year’s festival, “but it will be a whole new world next year.” She wonders whether people will still be able to sponsor or whether performers will still be in business and able to perform. “There’s definitely a domino effect moving forward.” In Lamont a number of events have been cancelled including the townwide clean up on May 9 and the town wide garage sale June 6. The town’s annual Picnic in the Park scheduled for June 11 has been postponed until the fall. The town’s sports fields and recreation facilities are all closed so there will be no rentals or bookings taken at this time. The Lamont County farm safety day for young students from around the County scheduled June 5, has been postponed. Assistant Agricultural Fieldman Lindsay Benbow said she wasn’t sure if the County would be able to reschedule it for the fall. A budget of $10,000 had been approved for the event.