Last week we passed on the news that the Swan Hills Grizzly Gazette was probably closing, after 27 years in business. This week an update on the situation from the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association.
In its weekly update to its members, the AWNA reported that publisher Carol Webster’s editorial on the likelihood of the paper not surviving had drawn quite a response from residents in Swan Hills. Armed with that response, she was able to drum up some weekly sponsorship for a ‘community events’ type of feature. She’s seeking other such commitments for other features in the Gazette and hopes to cover her costs that way.
Webster had toyed with the idea of dropping the print version of the paper, thereby saving some costs, and doing it only online, “but residents told her resoundingly that they didn’t want that,” says the AWNA bulletin.
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The court report in the Jan. 10 Leader has caused some confusion, due to the name of one of the convicted people being quite similar to that of a local resident. So for purposes of clarification, the Allan Javorski convicted of mischief is not the long-time Slave Lake resident Alan G. Javorsky. Different spelling, different person.
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Yes, mark your calendars. Because Saturday, June 2 is the Rotary Club’s big 777 reverse car raffle. It’s always a lot of fun and somebody goes home with a car they didn’t come in. That of course is the person whose ticket comes out of the drum last. Gangs of fun, as Bill Cosby used to say.
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Sheila Willis of the Friends of Historical Northern Alberta Society seems to be keeping busy. It can make your head spin trying to keep up with all the things she’s got on the burner, most of them having to do with the History Check mobile application that she’s largely responsible for developing. We’ve been following the progress of it for the past couple of years. We’ve done stories on it and will probably do more. And in spite of that, we don’t really understand what it is or how it works. But as long as somebody does, things should be okay.
What we do know is it is available for free and can be added to your cell phone or other connected device. Once on there you can use it to do a self-guided tour of northern Alberta, using all the info about sites and highlights and businesses and services to enhance your enjoyment of the trip. How was that?
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Here’s a reminder from your Rotary Club from the other side of the coin: they’ve collected a fair amount of money in the past year and now they want to give it away. The club is accepting applications for funding up until Jan. 29. There’s a form that has to be filled out and turned in by then. The forms can be found online at portal.clubrunner.ca/481. Once they’re filled out, they can be sent by email to lmhaas@telus.net or tcrain@live.ca. Or by mail to Slave Lake Rotary Club, Box 561, Slave Lake, AB, T0G 2A0. Questions? Call Lynne at 780-805-9014 or Tracey at 780-849-1756.
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It’s always good to find out somebody is reading the paper. M.D. councillors Brad Pearson and Jeff Commins are two of them. We found this out last week when Brad pointed out we’d left his name out of the list of successful candidates for council in the municipal election back in October. This was in the Year In Review feature in the first edition of 2018. Sorry about that Brad! You’re in!
Then Jeff informed us we’d left him out of the story on board appointments for the new councillors. Doh! Jeff sits on no less than five committees or boards in addition to council itself, including the housing authority and the landfill commission, which are two of the busier ones.
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The Summerwood community, we have just learned, has received recognition from FireSmart Canada as a ‘FireSmart Community.’ This comes as a result of last summer’s FireSmart clean-up event, which got rid of a lot of dead and down wood from the bush in and around the community. As a result, Summerwood gets a sign indicating its Firesmart Community status, which will be presented in April. Summerwood is located next to Gilwood Golf Course, north of Slave Lake.
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Those who remember Leader reporter Katrina Owens will be happy to hear she’s landed on her feet back in Ontario where she comes from, and is working in the field of newspaper journalism still.