By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Three mules drowned in the Bow River during the filming of a television series near Morley Aug. 16 despite warnings that rising water from heavy rainfall couldn’t be controlled.
The animals were swept away during the filming of a river crossing near the Chief Goodstoney Rodeo Centre for “Into the West”. The Turner Network Television (TNT) production crew had been warned three times by TransAlta that the Bow River would be rising.
TransAlta’s operations supervisor for hydro, Roger Drury, said Aug. 23 that he received three phone calls from the production crew on the morning of Aug. 16.
“They called the first thing Monday morning and the question was, ‘The river is higher this morning, what’s going on?,’” Drury said. “I warned them to expect flows to continue to go up during the day.”
He said TNT had asked TransAlta if it could lower the Bow River for two days of shooting.
Drury said TNT was told TransAlta could only control the release from its hydro plants up-river from the Seebe electric dam, which is fed from tributaries and hydro plants on the Kananaskis, Spray and Cascade Rivers.
The Seebe operation has no reservoir so “whatever comes in has to go through,” he said.
TransAlta agreed to delay the release of water from the Barrier hydro plant on the Kananaskis River that feeds into the Bow until noon, giving a window from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. when water levels would be lower than normal.
Drury said a filmed crossing Aug. 13 went off without a hitch but heavy rainfall Aug. 15 in the Canmore and Exshaw areas caused levels to rise.
Despite questions from TNT about the rising river, Drury said he told them TransAlta had no control over the increasing flow due to the heavy rains.
“I told them the flows would be higher and coming up through the day,” he said. “We made it clear there was no way we could specifically control that water coming down the Bow.”
He said the river at the Morley site rose about eight inches over the morning and may have surged swiftly, creating a fierce undercurrent.
“It could easily have come up six inches in 10 to 15 minutes,” Drury said. “It’s not what I would call a wall of water, (but) a six-inch flow depth can make quite a difference.”
John Scott, head wrangler for the production, was reluctant to discuss the incident, referring questions to TNT unit publicist Brandee Brooks, who could not be reached.
Scott noted two wagons had crossed the river “just a few minutes before” and despite the accident “no errors were made.”
He said he hadn’t heard about the calls to TransAlta and the forecast of continued rising waters but the safety of the animals was paramount.
“It’s never happened in my 20 years on a movie set,” he said.

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Promoting public involvement and shoring up the town’s spending habits are key components of what council candidate Andy Marshall says he will bring to Cochrane if elected.
The veteran journalist, who will turn 62 before the Oct. 18 election, said a new council needs to tighten the public purse strings and open the doors to citizens who have felt left out.
“Council has to be very vigilant over spending,” Marshall said, launching his campaign Aug. 23. “Certainly taxes have gone up too much.”
He said this year’s four per cent tax hike promoted by council was closer to an average of 13 per cent based on rising property assessments.
While he acknowledged council put the brakes on some pricey projects, in some cases, such as councillors’ decision in May to raise their salaries, indicate a “cavalier attitude” for taxpayer dollars.
“I think in the last six months they’ve begun to realize things are going to get really tough (financially),” Marshall said. “The priority for me is to keep a very close watch over spending.”
In order to secure one of the six council seats, Marshall will face off against five incumbents — Doreen Sutherland, Jeff Genung, Ivan Brooker, Maureen Wills and Truper McBride — and at least one other candidate, Ken Hynes, who has officially declared his intention to run.
A handful of other candidates, including former mayor and councillor Lydia Graham, have said they may stand for election.
While Marshall wouldn’t say a clean slate is needed in the council chamber, he noted some “fresh ideas” may be necessary.
He said there is a perception the current council is not open to public feedback beyond the existing statutory requirements.
“A lot of people don’t feel they’ve been heard in town office,” Marshall said. “Perhaps we need fresh people to come in with fresh ideas and be more open.”
Marshall, who campaigned in an effort to defeat the town’s plan to secure the former Western Heritage Centre as a municipal home in 2002, said that process showed the division between council and the public.
Despite a successful push by the group Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility to hold a plebiscite on the plan, Marshall suggested many felt disenfranchised by the results. A 59 per cent majority was in favour of taking over the former interpretive centre.
He also vowed to push for an end to closed-door meetings that have become more prevalent despite public concerns about their legality raised by outgoing Mayor Judy Stewart.
“Doing business in public is . . . important. There are a lot of closed meetings and pre-council meetings held on a regular basis,” Marshall said. “Let the public know what council has to deal with and ultimately it will help everybody.”
A comprehensive plan to deal with the town’s growth, promoting environmental and social responsibility, encouraging affordable housing and maintaining recreational and cultural needs are also part of Marshall’s platform.
Despite rumblings that community associations may contest some council positions, Marshall, who is president of the Cochrane Settlement Community Association, said he will resign from the position if he wins and won’t lobby specifically for his neighbourhood.
The nomination deadline for the October election is Sept. 20.

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Plans to build a controversial concert stage north of Cochrane are set to be renewed with what the proponent, Dale Cook, said will be a more open approach.
But according to some of the nearby residents, who opposed the stage and saw it defeated at the Municipal District of Rocky View’s Subdivision and Development Appeal Board in March, the new initiative is off to a rocky start.
Cook said he is working on an application that will conform with land uses permitted on the site but he’s hoping to get the community onside to move the project ahead with less opposition.
At an Aug. 12 open house, Cook said he unveiled a pair of options to the dozen residents that showed up: a covered amphitheatre called the Rocky Mountain Music Centre that had already drawn fire from residents, or a number of possibilities ranging from recreation vehicle storage and service garages to a hotel and restaurants.
“We’re still committed and still believe in the performing arts centre,” Cook said Aug. 23. “The objective here is to get input from the community as to the types of land use that are appropriate for that zoning.”
The proposed covered concert stage on Big Hill Springs Road (Hwy. 567), east of Highway 22 on Ricochet Ranch, called for 5,500 seats and 18 events every summer.
Some residents raised concerns about the increased traffic and noise that would be generated by the facility.
Cook is working on a new development application but will try and get as much input from residents before moving forward, he said. He expects the process could take two months or more before he applies to the M.D.
Cook admitted he erred in not soliciting more community input and seeking support before moving ahead with the project.
“It was our mistake. We should have been a lot more thorough in the beginning,” he said. “We spent the last six months addressing all the issues that were brought forward and we’re very confident we can resolve each and every one of them.”
He wouldn’t get into specifics about how the noise and traffic concerns would be dealt with.
But a pair of area residents questioned Cook’s new spirit of openness towards his neighbours.
Karen Falk, who lives on Weedon Trail west of Ricochet Ranch, said she took in the Aug. 12 open house and saw very little difference.
She said it was poorly advertised, with a small ad in the Aug. 11 Cochrane Times, and she only heard about it through a neighbour.
“I would’ve thought it was somebody’s 50th wedding anniversary,” Falk said. “He’s choosing not to be clear.”
She said there appears to be little difference in the amphitheatre plans while the second option was not well thought out and offered few specifics.
“I just don’t feel he’s going about this right,” Falk said. “He obviously doesn’t have community support on this. I have concerns he’s going to be slipshod on this.”
Morley Kostecky, a spokesperson for a group opposed to the stage, said he was not informed about the open house but not surprised Cook chose to fly under the radar.
“Obviously it was intended to be low profile,” Kostecky said. “It looks like Mr. Cook has some kind of game plan.”
Kostecky predicted Cook would face the same levels of opposition as he did earlier, no matter how much public input is generated.
“We were thinking all along the proposal as presented was completely unacceptable,” he said. “We demonstrated quite clearly that the noise and traffic levels are not appropriate for this community.”
Despite the concerns, Cook said the corridor is earmarked for more intensive development and residents should consider his proposal, a seasonal facility that would have less impact than other options.
He pointed to the Cochrane Lakes subdivision and plans for a RV storage and gas bar at the corner of Highways 22 and 567.
“It’s obvious we see development taking place in that corridor,” Cook said. “The community in general has to determine what it is going to look like. Development is coming whether we bring it or not.”

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Both Cochrane-area trustees will seek another term on the Rocky View School Division board as the Oct. 18 election nears.
Cochrane trustee Cindy Berry and John Murray, who represents the area surrounding Cochrane, will both throw their hats into the ring.
Berry, who has two children in Cochrane schools, is looking forward to seeing some projects come to fruition.
“There are some things I want to see completed,” she said. “The new ESC (Education Support Centre) building, the hiring of new teachers, it’s exciting these things are happening and I’d like to see how it all plays out.”
But with fewer dollars flowing into school board coffers despite continued growth, Berry said the board needs to push the province for infrastructure funding.
She noted while the division will receive $5.4 million (including $2.9 million this year) for teachers over three years, Rocky View still lacks classroom space in many of its schools.
“That’s our biggest battle is finding the room to put them. We don’t have a lot of partially empty schools around,” she said.
Berry will seek her third term.
Meanwhile, Murray is taking aim at his fourth term as a trustee and holds many of the same objectives as his colleague.
“My number one thing is getting this new central office built and getting it built within budget,” Murray said, referring to the planned ESC in Airdrie.
And while he appreciates the additional money earmarked for new teachers, he agreed the infrastructure funds have to rise as well.
About one-third of Rocky View students are housed in portable classrooms.
“If we want to attain the sizes of classrooms that the province is going for, we’ve got to add new schools,” Murray said. “Growth is still a challenge for Rocky View. Soon we’re going to have to be putting portables on top of portables.”

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Concerns have arisen over changes to grazing allotments leased from the province that allow their possible sale to the highest bidder.
Leaseholders in the province’s “white area” (or settled area) received letters July 23 detailing the move that allows them to put the land on the market and match any bid for the property.
The Farm Holdings Consolidation Program allows leaseholders to better dictate what is done on private land and possibly improve their position with banks, according to Alberta Sustainable Resource Development spokesperson Donna Babchishin.
“It’s a very serious decision when the leaseholder looks at that. It’s not a decision that’s made very often,” Babchishin said. “Once purchased, it would be private land.”
Alberta has about 100 million acres of public land, approximately five per cent of which are leased for grazing and agricultural purposes.
Under the new program, leaseholders can request to have up to 640 acres put on the market. If granted approval from the province, the land “goes through a public process and is advertised” with the leaseholder retaining the option to match the highest bid.
Babchishin said leaseholders in the white zone have always had the ability to request to purchase the land but never had the ability to match the highest bid.
“Basically, it’s to help support, strengthen and diversify agriculture,” she said.
But some people expressed concerns that the leased lands may be purchased by developers, taking valuable farmland out of commission.
Rancher Harvey Buckley leases a block of five quarter sections (800 acres) and another block of eight quarter sections (1,280 acres) in Jumping Pound and Cremona areas.
He said the program could benefit beleaguered farmers but with no restrictions on the purchaser, it may create problems.
“The thing is full of holes that leaves it open to abuses left, right and centre,” Buckley said. “The principle is okay, but it is not well thought out.”
He said the plan as it exists may prompt farmers already reeling from drought and mad cow disease to quit the business and transform the land into something else.
Buckley said particularly in the sensitive Eastern Slopes, the prime land could see fast development if no controls are in place.
“They (the province) need to zone it a permanent agricultural zone or put a caveat on it,” Buckley said. “They should say it has to fit into ongoing (agricultural) operations.”
As for his land, Buckley said he has no intentions of putting it on the block.
“My land is not for sale and it won’t be,” he said. “Even if I had enough money to buy it, why in the sam hill would I want to?”
The program has also drawn fire from environmental groups.
Cochrane’s Vivian Pharis, a director for the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA), said the province has long sought to get out of the public land leasing business.
“They’re determined to rid themselves of white zone land,” Pharis said. “It’s just another way of attempting to do that without consulting the public.”
She said most farmers wouldn’t have the ability to outbid any concerted interest in the land and the new program was installed to “try and appease a few large ranchers.”
Pharis added the province tried to get out of the public lands business in the 1980s as well but the AWA joined the effort to oppose the move and the government backed off.
But the recent changes suggest the province may once again be testing the waters, Pharis said.
“I think they’re doing it for one reason: to get out of the business of administering public lands,” she said. “They just don’t seem to have any regard for those lands even though Albertans hold them as treasures. It’s like another commodity, another thing to be bought and sold.”
Pharis said the AWA will continue to push the government to adopt a public lands policy to keep a tight reign on what uses are allowed on the lands.
Babchishin said while no restrictions exist, the plan is aimed at helping ranchers, not at creating new development.
“This is a farm and agriculture initiative. It’s not directed at development in any way, shape or form,” she said. “This is only an adjustment to long-standing concerns about having different options (for leaseholders). This isn’t part of a bigger (development) picture.”
However, at least one area tourist operation sees an opportunity with the new program.
Lawrence Cowan, general manager of the Bar C Ranch Resort northwest of Cochrane, said the operation has its eyes on some of the 3,600 acres of leased land it sits on.
“Our intention has been all along to purchase those lands,” Cowan said. “And we are looking at other lands in the area.”
He said the Bar C has no intention to develop the lands but to maintain the natural resource that is central to the operation.
“We are in a position to purchase but there are still things we haven’t cleared up,” Cowan said. “It’s our selling point. We really have an earnest desire to make sure the area is protected.”

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
The town will roll out an incentive program to maintain heritage resources in hopes that some of Cochrane’s most historic buildings will be maintained.
Senior Planner Sandy Wong said while the town hasn’t determined how best to provide incentives similar to existing provincial and federal programs, ensuring Cochrane maintains a link to its ranching history is vital.
“The whole idea is to try and encourage people who have heritage buildings to save them, protect them and restore them,” Wong said Aug. 20.
The town undertook a Heritage Register and Management Plan in 2002 that identified 45 structures as historic resources based on their architectural and cultural history, as well as their context within the town.
Wong noted owners of heritage resources that generate revenue are eligible for federal grants of 20 per cent of restoration costs up to a maximum of $1 million.
At the provincial level, owners looking to restore their historic properties can be eligible for “monies upwards of $75,000 over five years” to top up matching grants.
Wong said a report, detailing possible ways to implement a local incentive program, will be delivered to council in September.
“We have three case studies we’ve identified as examples of what could happen,” she said, noting they include the King Solomon Lodge on Centre Avenue and the Reed House located at the end of Third Street West.
She said if an owner applied for a building to become a municipal historic resource, the town would have to pass a bylaw.
Heritage homeowners could also apply for provincial resource status, Wong said, adding only the Cochrane Ranche currently has that status.
Wong said the Cochrane Heritage and Archival Preservation Society as well as representatives from the Cochrane Settlement Community Associa-tion have been invited to hear the town’s plans for an incentive program.

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Next month’s opening of St. Timothy Jr./Sr. Catholic High school will be the end of a journey new principal Al Campbell began in 1993 as the principal of Cochrane’s Holy Spirit school.
While construction of the surrounding grounds and the interior of the school continues, Campbell said excitement is growing with an estimated 205 students set to begin St. Timothy’s inaugural year.
“This has been an interesting journey looking back over 10 years,” Campbell said. “The vision certainly was, in this community, to have Catholic education through to senior high.”
The $10.8 million school was years in the making as the Calgary Catholic School District had difficulty securing land for the project.
In 2001, the town granted a 19-acre parcel north of the Cochrane RancheHouse to the school district after the province agreed to provide site servicing. The town still controls a four acre plot on the north side of the property and will open talks after the school opens about shared usage of recreational facilities.
The three-storey school will serve Grades 7 to 11 in its first year before accepting Grade 12 students next year.
St. Timothy has the capacity to house up to 500 students and can be expanded with portable classrooms. It features 16 classrooms, two science labs, two career and technology studies classrooms, an art room, a drama room, a library with a wireless computer lab and a music room. The school will have an outdoor basketball court, a soccer field and a football field. Like all Catholic high schools, it will also feature a small chapel.
The gymnasium won’t be finished for the school’s September opening but will likely be ready in a few weeks, Campbell said.
“We will pursue academic excellence and focus on teaching and learning,” he said. “One of the main things though has to be a Catholic education.”
He said St. Timothy offers the option to students who want to continue their Catholic studies into high school in Cochrane. After leaving Holy Spirit, students had to commute to St. Francis High school in Calgary or go to one of Cochrane’s two public high schools.
“I think we offer a very solid program that meets the needs of parents and students in the community of Cochrane who share the value of Catholic education,” Campbell said. “We have something to offer the community.”
The 11-year Cochrane resident noted parents have already stepped up to the plate and should play an important role as the school evolves.
“The parents have been a very important partner in the process (of opening St. Timothy),” Campbell said. “As we now begin to open the school, the parents will be even more involved.”
He said a school council will soon be formed and will begin working on a “vision” for the school as well as a mission statement.
The school’s sports teams will be called the “Thunder” and will be decked out in regal purple and green as the school’s colours. A school logo is still in the design process.
The new school will field volleyball, basketball and cross country teams in its first year and is working on building a football team in a town that has provincial champs at both of its high schools.
As for the school’s namesake, Campbell said St. Timothy was a 1st century apostle who worked with St. Paul. He said the school and its namesake share some similarities.
“The life of St. Timothy could be looked at certainly as a journey as well,” Campbell said. “Just like St. Timothy, Cochrane and district Catholics were on a journey and now we’re bringing that journey to a closure. I’m looking forward to working with students and parents to make the dream a reality.”
St. Timothy opens its doors to students for the first time Sept. 1.

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By Sarah Junkin
I just returned from a weeklong camping trip in Osoyoos and Penticton, B.C., where it was hot, dusty, and very beautiful.
I confess I’m not an avid camping type, usually preferring vacation venues where room service, hot tubs and big fluffy bathrobes are included in the price. But I find if I prepare mentally beforehand, even I can bring myself to sleep on an ant-infested ground.
In any case, the hot sun, Canada’s warmest fresh water lake (Lake Osoyoos) and a whole lot of happy, contented kids went a long way to compensate for the fact I had to pick wasps out of my drinks and stumble hundreds of yards in the dark if I wanted to go to the bathroom during the night.
One thing that made this vacation particularly different from vacations in the past was that for part of the time, at least, our family was joined by two delightful young ladies: the girlfriend and a chum of two of my three sons.
Vacationing with young girls, I have learned, is quite different from sharing sleeping quarters with active adolescent boys.
For one thing, despite the fact we’d set up our very basic campsite literally on a sandy beach with little in the way of modern conveniences, the girls were nonetheless quite willing to invest time and effort to maintain their lovely appearances.
The guys on the other hand, lost that battle very early on. In fact, by the end of the first day their normal minimum standards of personal appearance and acceptable hygiene had plummeted to alarming depths as the campfire, cooking and the other unusual smells that seem to accompany the whole camping experience permeated their skin.
The girls on the other hand, somehow contrived to smell like a garden of flowers, their hair and make-up flawless, as though they’d just stepped out of some high-class beauty salon. It didn’t seem to matter that they’d just emerged from an hour in the lake, or completed three hours on a beach volleyball court in 35-degree heat.
They weren’t impressed with the washrooms and shower facilities they had to work with, and no wonder. They were very grungy indeed, and we wondered why it is that disgusting showers and toilets necessarily have to be a part of the whole camping adventure.
Of course, it would never occur to any of my sons to comment on the cleanliness of a public facility of any kind, but girls, I found out last week, do care about this sort of thing, and they should because it’s important.
Mary Ann Racin is a mother of two who has created a public bathroom Web site. It’s called www.thebathroomdiaries.com and it rates almost 10,000 public washrooms in 100 countries around the world, including several hundred in Alberta.
It’s the largest enterprise of its kind in the world, and TechTV has called the Web site “the best idea ever.”
Cochrane is one of the few communities in Alberta whose public facilities are not mentioned on thebathroomdiaries.com web site although washrooms in Airdrie, Lake Louise, Banff, Calgary and even Irricana have been featured.
“Golden plungers” are awarded to the best public bathrooms in the world in various categories, and pictures of the bathrooms are beamed around the Internet for all to see.
So I was thinking what a wonderful honour it would be for Cochrane to win one of those awards.
In order to do that, we’d first have to find a washroom in town that could compete in categories such as “best bathroom for a cerebral experience,” or “best bathroom for extroverts” or even “best bathroom to have a medical emergency,”
Then a whole lot of us would have to log on to the site and rave enthusiastically about our chosen washroom.
No Cochrane facility that I can think of immediately springs to mind, but if you know of one that’s worth a visit, let me know. Having washrooms we can be proud of would tell the world that we value our tourists, and care very much about the comfort of visitors to our community.
Contact Sarah Junkin: sarah@cochraneeagle.com.

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By Joslynn Boyce
With one week left until school begins, I have all of my binders packed with fresh paper and pens, and they are now tucked away in my backpack ready for that back-to-school bell.
Although I don’t necessarily dream about going back to school, I am not really dreading the day when I have to jump back on the bus and head off to learn something new.
I had a wonderful summer holiday here in Cochrane. The weather was great, most of the time, and I managed to keep myself occupied for the two months I had to myself. A majority of the summer I spent outside with my friends walking the red shale path or enjoying what downtown Cochrane had to offer. Whether we went to MacKay’s to grab an ice cream, or taking part in the Canada Day celebrations, we were nearly always out of the house and enjoying the warm weather when we had it. I guess not having a car, let alone a license, had a little something to do with us having to walk everywhere. But who ever said that was a negative thing?
It is so nice to live in a town that has so much to offer to people of all ages. This is an ideal example of a town that parents would love to raise their family in. It is very clean and safe as well as a very friendly environment. There is a lot to do here such as walking the red shale paths, catching a movie, perfecting your aim at the bowling alley, splashing around in the pool, going to the recreational complex and we even have two golf courses and a rodeo.
Talk about variety, and I haven’t even got to the bonus features yet.
We live less than 20 minutes away from Calgary and approximately half of an hour from the mountains.
And not to mention that we have two local newspapers that help you stay in the know, which happen to be free.
Speaking of bonus features, I have had the opportunity to make wonderful friends in the two short years that I have been living in Cochrane. They have a certain flair about them that allows me to feel at home, as if I have lived here for a decade.
I guess what I am trying to say is that with all that Cochrane has to offer, I have fully enjoyed my summer holidays keeping my self occupied.
But like every other summer, it must come to an end and we must head back to school and watch the leaves fall from the trees from inside a classroom. But just because school is in doesn’t mean we have to end all the fun. There are always coffee houses we can turn to for a nice warm hug!
Bring it on! And bring on the friendships!
Joslynn Boyce is a Grade 10 student at Bow
Valley High.

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