Last week when this was written the Slave Lake Oilmen’s Golf Tournament hadn’t happened yet, so we got to speculating about what it might be like out there this year, with as many as 40 teams of four participating. Looking for info on the Oilmen’s didn’t bring much up online, but our story on the 2022 edition showed up. It has a picture of the winning Ruel Concrete team, looking dapper in polo shirts and shorts.
The forecast high for the first day of this year’s Oilmen’s was 15C, which meant the temp at tee-off would have been about 10C, if not colder. Under those conditions, you’d think some guys might choose long pants, but we’re guessing not. It seems obligatory to wear shorts these days, unless you’re playing on the PGA tour. The new LIV Tour, we notice, doesn’t have any such requirement. It’s downright weird seeing Phil Mickelson in shorts.
Anyhoo….will Chad Caron’s team repeat as Oilmen’s champs? Chad is on a roll right now, having won the Westlock Men’s Open a week or two ago.
Work on the downtown sidewalks is moving along – not fast enough for the inconvenienced shops and their customers – but it seemed to be getting close to the end when this was written. It might even be done by now.
‘We just want our sidewalk back,’ said one business owner the other day.
We notice that Pyramid Mechanical has moved from its Main St. location. One day there were a lot of vehicles there; the next day, almost none. Pyramid is now doing business on 8th St. NW.
A cat walked into The Leader office last Tuesday, took a look around and then left. Not as exciting as having a visit from a bear, but it’s the best we can do until something more exciting happens.
Harry Bartlett of the Rotary Club tells us the Grey Cup pool tickets are about two thirds sold (as of Aug. 15), and that the Rotary cash raffle tickets will be available soon. We were expecting more news out of him, but that was all he could come up with….
With all of the rain, the Slave Lake Forest Area wildfires are mostly being monitored from the air. However, Alberta Wildfire still encourages people to stay off of the burnt areas, especially when it is rainy, because burnt and semi-burnt trees might fall over.
In Alberta wildfire season continues until the end of October, but often isn’t as busy in the fall. Fingers crossed that will happen this year, as it looks like the Northwest Territories, BC, and other places will keep the firefighting community plenty busy.
On August 16, Yellowknife, NWT, started to evacuate. Slave Lake isn’t listed as a evacuation centre.
However, a few evacuees started to arrive on August 17. This is because evacuees are encouraged to find their own accommodations and some have family or friends in Slave Lake.
There’s nothing quite like reading a book on the beach. Devonshire Beach fits the bill very well. It’s also a good place for bird and people watching. See photo of a shorebird taken on Aug. 13 on Page 24.
The Slave Lake Food Bank has been helping lots of people. It depends on donations.
Sweetgrass (seniors home) in Slave Lake is collecting donations in August for National Food Bank Day, which is September 1. For details, see ad on Page 7.
In other food bank news, Gavin VanKuppeveld, who won the open category at the West Fraser Sandcastle Competition at Beach Fest on August 12, decided to donate a portion of his winnings to the Slave Lake Food Bank and his company will match this for a total donation of $500.
The Flatbush Legion is holding a pig roast on Saturday, September 16 with cocktails at 5:30 p.m., supper at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available at the Flatbush Store and Flatbush Post Office until Thursday, September 14.
Central Slave Lake Agricultural Society in Kinuso is 50 this year. It’s holding a Fall Fair on August 25 to 26 to celebrate. For details, see article on Page 10.
Somebody was saying the other day he thinks the traffic on Hwy. 2 is three times what it used to be, and he wasn’t talking about 1965. Of course it’s hard to know exactly how much busier it is these days, but certainly busier. Commercial traffic is way up; are there more private vehicles also? Why would there be? The population hasn’t grown that much around here in the past 20 years.
Questions, questions, questions: For example: just how many berries are there in Manyberries? That’s s something we’ve always wondered about.
You might already have heard about the guy who called The Leader last week, thinking he was calling a towing company. He had three vehicles stuck in the bush off the Wabasca highway and hadn’t been able to find anybody willing to come in there and pull him out.
We put the word out on our social media, with his phone # and a few hours later a towing company (Silvertip) in Wabasca said they’d taken care of it. Happy to help!
We got a call last week from somebody who was surprised and pleased to learn that hard plastics are being collected at the regional landfill and sent to Westlock. They are processed there and then turned into products that are then sold.
“I don’t think a lot of people know about this,” she said.