ONE YEAR AGO
• A surprise storm dumped 14 centimetres of heavy, wet snow on the city. The storm knocked out power across the city, closed schools and caused millions of dollars in damage to thousands of trees.
• About 100 people crowed into the Kozy Korner hall in Lacombe to hear plans for managing development in the rural area between Lacombe and Blackfalds during the next 20 to 30 years. The proposed plan suggested 50,000 would eventually live on just under 40 quarter sections of land between the two towns.
FIVE YEARS AGO
• Cattle prices plummeted after a case of mad cow disease was found on a farm in Northern Alberta. Rancher Clinton Kautz of Rocky Mountain House was worried a prolonged ban in the United States could devastate the industry.
• Despite vehement opposition from a local anti-pornography and adult entertainment activist, city council voted not to prohibit or further restrict where sex shops can locate. Audrey Jensen presented council a 600-name petition seeking a ban.
10 YEARS AGO
• The city planning commission and council approved a new subdivision that would include manufactured homes. The 160-acre Deer Park Northeast was to lie south of an extended Ross Street and west of a future 20th Avenue.
• The Red Deer policing committee scheduled a public meeting to deal with concerns of downtown business owners over the number of drinking establishments opening in the downtown.
25 YEARS AGO
• His Eminence Emmett Cardinal Carter of Toronto told a provincial meeting of the Knights of Columbus that the Catholic church shouldn’t sacrifice its traditions to satisfy calls for change and should provide stability instead. The cardinal also celebrated mass at St. Mary’s Church with other priests from around the province.
• A man died in his duplex after a fire broke out, caused by smouldering charcoal briquettes that had fallen out of his barbecue onto the wooden deck. The fire was burning strong when it was noticed around 4:30 a.m.
50 YEARS AGO
• City council agreed to postpone the removal of parking on Gaetz Avenue and create a special joint committee with the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce to study the issue.
• The first peony reported blooming in the district was brought to the Advocate office by Mrs. Herbert Harris of the Horn Hill district. The fern-leaf peony bloomed May 26, a few weeks earlier than normal.
90 YEARS AGO
• A prominent old-timer of the Icelandic community of Tindastoll was tarred and feathered by a group of young men because he called them cowards for not enlisting. Because most of the 13 men had been called up for military service, they were charged with assault and fined $10 in exchange for guilty pleas. They were also required to provide the victim with a new suit of clothes.
• Two automobile accidents occurred within a week. In the first, a woman sustained a slight scalp wound when one car struck another at an intersection and she was thrown out when the vehicle’s back wheels collapsed. In the second, the hand brake on Stanley Gummow’s Chevrolet failed, causing him to run down bicyclist R.J. Taggart, throwing him against the telephone building, bruising the back of his head and causing slight bleeding from one ear.
100 YEARS AGO
• Mr. Durie addressed the men’s mass meeting at the Baptist Church and the subject was the weakness of socialism. The discussion that ensued suggested many in the audience believed in the mission of socialism but confidently looked to see its measures modified and the socialist platform modified.
• Coun. Stephenson and CPR agent Lindsay found their favourite dogs dead by the lane south of Stewart Street. There appears to have been a rendezvous of dogs at this point, but whether the dogs perished in the scrimmage or were poisoned by irate householders was unknown, although the evidence suggested the latter.