Mercury
Proud to be an Independent CANADIAN Publication
The Tofield S A L U T E T O T H
Over 100 years as your #1 source of news, advertising, and opinions
Huge 6 page salute to Tofield RCMP
Pages 8-13
T O F I E L D D E TA YOUR LOCAL PAPER
Established in 1918 in Tofield, Alberta
Wednesday July 15, 2020 Vol. 102 Issue 46
$1 INCLUDING GST
Village of Ryley receives $113,250 funding
Ryley Pool open to the public with limited hours
Page 17
Page 18
Fire hydrant artists take to the streets Fun Covid sports day activity brightens up the Village of Ryley with entertaining characters KERRY ANDERSON As part of its annual Sports Day activities on June 20, Ryley celebrated with many village-wide activities including family fire hydrant painting. The project was part of a continuing effort to beautify the village, pointed out Deputy Mayor Cyndy Heslin, adding that Ryley paid for the paint for the hydrant artists. "Some are quite cute animals, an Oiler fan showed their pride, a Star Wars fan and a Native-themed hydrant to commemorate National Indigenous Day that same weekend," she said. There are still a couple of hydrants remaining to be painted if the village has
any more interested artists. A tour around Ryley presently and you will see hydrants painted by locals; Keltie and Savanah Klassen (Dog), Jessica Hill and family (Multi coloured), E m m i e Kischook (Dalmatian Dog), Maureen Basford (Dalmatian Dog), Annette Short & Donna Pitre (Gumball Machine), Vance and Cyndy Hesline (Aboriginal Man), Donovan and Lyndie Nickel and family (R2D2 Painting, Star Wars), and Shawn and Josh Forre (Oilers Painting). Heslin said because of the Covid restrictions, the Village could not put on its regular sports day so Ryley council and staff did a safety style sports day.
The group put together, by hand, 250 boxes filled with activities. “There were wooden flowers and paint provided for residents to paint and put on their front lawn to recognize and thank frontline and ess e n t i a l workers who worked, and continue to work, during COVID,” said the Deputy Mayor. “Ryley Woodcrafts made these for us as well as wood tiles to paint - that we plan to put on our concession building in the sports grounds.” There was a scavenger hunt, Zoom parties for both children and adults, and several other activities including the fire hydrant painting during the day.
As for the hydrants, the Village got approval from Beaver Emergency Services Commission (BESC) and the Ryley Fire Chief to apply the paint. “REM Weiss from BESC did stipulate that the fire hydrants cannot be just one colour...as different one colour hydrants mean something in firefighter legaleeze,” said Heslin. “For instance all blue means high volume hydrant, all black means out of commission. As well, we could not paint over the fire hydrant number as this would mean the firefighters would not be able to read it.”
Two Covid-19 cases in Beaver County, stats show continued recovery in Alberta KERRY ANDERSON Well into Phase 2 of Covid-19 relaunching of Alberta, Alberta Health Services (AHS) reports that there are only two active cases of the pandemic in all of Beaver County. With a population of 10,191, reports from the Beaver County area indicate that .02 percent of residents have come down with Coronavirus.
The two confirmed residents either are, or have been, under a minimum mandatory 10 day isolation according to AHS. As of July 7, Alberta has had 8,436 confirmed cases of Covid-19 or .19 percent of the population of 4,428,247 Albertans. Alberta’s death toll since the start of the outbreak is 157, or .18 percent of the total reported cases, and
.0035% of Alberta’s population has died because of the disease. Presently there are a reported 54 people in hospitals in Alberta with Covid19. Alberta has 106 acute care hospitals. Six of the 54 are requiring treatment at Intensive Care Units (ICU). In all of Alberta, there were 592 active cases as of July 10 meaning .013 percent of Albertans actively had the virus as of
last week. Edmonton (243) has now surpassed Calgary (230), which was reporting high numbers in March and April. Still the two large cities in Alberta only have .018 percent of its populations contracting Coronavirus. To this date in Alberta, chances of recovering from Covid-19 if contracted is 98.14 percent.