By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Cochrane council was set to meet behind closed doors Sept. 27 to discuss plans for a new protective services building and the potential of a public-private-partnership (P3) for the facility.
Council had been scheduled to discuss the matter in-camera (usually held after the regular meeting, where the public and media are not permitted) Sept. 26 but a lengthy council session led to a call to postpone the discussion.
Mayor Ken Bech said at the Sept. 26 meeting the discussion should be postponed because of the “intense” nature of the issue.
Last year council settled on rebuilding at the existing fire/EMS station and former town hall site, a project estimated to cost $3.9 million.
But after a local group purchased land near the Cochrane Towne Square shopping centre earlier this year, the town entered into talks to lease space to house its fire, EMS and bylaw services on that site, which is also slated to house a separate medical clinic.
Julian deCocq, the town’s chief administrative officer, wouldn’t discuss details of the matter prior to the Sept. 27 meeting because “it’s not proper to disclose any degree of discussions.”
“There is a report containing a number of options for council to review,” deCocq said, adding details can’t be released until properly reviewed by council. “There are options council has to consider, including a decision to stay with the current property or to shift gears.”
He noted a decision “may or may not be made” following the in-camera session as council may discover more information is needed.
“Anything presented will be released in full,” deCocq added.
The new site had been one of four studied by the town, but the existing site was deemed the best fit as the province had planned to take over municipal ambulance services.
But after the province backed away from its plans, the town opted to take a second look at the other site, deCocq said in July.
Bech was also reticent about discussing the reasons for the closed session.
“The Town of Cochrane has an economic interest in this and it falls under that section of FOIP (Freedom of Information and Privacy Act),” Bech said.
Asked to confirm whether details of a P3 arrangement were being discussed and whether the public would have a chance to have a say on the matter, Bech had little to say.
“I won’t discuss any part of it,” he said.
Results of the in-camera meeting were not available by press time Sept. 27.

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off

By Wes Gilbertson
The Eagle
With a pair of wins each last week, both the Bow Valley Bobcats and Cochrane High Cobras football squads remain undefeated in Rocky View School Division regular season play.
But, barring a tie, that won’t be the case after the crosstown rivals meet at 3 p.m. Oct. 1 on the Cobras home turf.
Despite losing a number of key offensive starters to graduation last season, the Bobcats had no problems putting points on the scoreboard last week, knocking off the Springbank Phoenix 34-8 on Sept. 21, and then posting a 35-0 rout over the George McDougall Mustangs in their Sept. 24 home opener.
The Cobras also flexed their offensive muscles in a pair of tilts last week, clobbering the Chestermere Lakers 58-0 on Sept. 21 and notching a 55-6 victory over the Bert Church Chargers three days later.
Both squads now boast 2-0 records in Rocky View league play and have been eagerly anticipating this weekend’s gridiron battle.
“It’s a game that you can’t not get up for,” said Scott Allard, a Bobcats assistant coach. “For us, it’ll be a good measuring stick to see where we’re at with our program, to see what we need to work on and what we’re doing well.” (more…)

• Filed under Archives | Continue reading | Comments Comments Off

By Wes Gilbertson
The Eagle
To say the least, Jeff Glass’ professional debut didn’t go quite how the young netminder had planned.
First of all, Glass had hoped his first taste of the professional game would come in exhibition action with the Ottawa Senators, the club that selected him with the 89th overall pick in the 2004 NHL entry draft.
It did not.
Instead, it came with the Binghamton Senators of American Hockey League (AHL), where Glass was assigned during Ottawa’s first round of training camp cuts Sept. 21.
To make matters worse, his long-awaited debut didn’t go very well.
In fact, Glass got somewhat of a baptism by fire, getting shelled for nine goals on 46 shots during a 9-3 thumping Sept. 25 at the hands of the Syracuse Crunch, minor league affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“Yeah, it was a little bit lopsided,” sighed Glass, a member of Canada’s gold medal-winning entry at the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championship. “I got hung out to dry a bit.”
Glass was one of 15 Senators hopefuls demoted Sept. 21 after spending just over a week skating alongside Dominik Hasek, Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza and the rest of Ottawa’s top guns at the Corel Centre.
For Glass, the youngest of five netminders at the main camp, the demotion hardly came as a shock. In fact, he said he had fun testing his mettle against some of the world’s best, but realizes where he sits on the team’s depth chart and was eager to get to Binghamton and begin proving he deserves a spot on the Sens’ top farm team for the upcoming season.
“I knew, more or less, this was where I was going to start my career,” he said Sept. 26 from Binghamton, located about 200 kilometres northwest of the Big Apple. “I wanted to get down to business. This is where I wanted to be.”
Regardless of the outcome of his first start, Glass is confident he can still crack the roster before the AHL season kicks off on Oct. 5.
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” Glass said, adding the coaches told him he wasn’t to blame for the one-sided loss to Syracuse and that the contest wouldn’t have a major impact on his evaluation.
Glass, who calls GlenEagles home during the summer, could also be sent to the East Coast Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers by the Ottawa Senators’ brass.

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off

By Jack Tennant
I love it when others underestimate the compassion, enthusiasm and generosity of Cochrane folks.
Last Sunday, there was a five kilometre walk raising funds for the Parkinson’s Society of Southern Alberta.
Participants included people from Airdrie and northwest Calgary, but this was the first time the walk was held in Cochrane.
And there were doubters.
When the idea to have it in Cochrane first surfaced, it was suggested that organizers would be lucky if they raised $5,000.
The final count Sunday afternoon was $13,656.90.
Never underestimate the compassion and enthusiasm Cochrane and area folks have for a good cause.
ß ß ß
Divorce is a growth industry these days and it’s a traumatic experience for many people, not just the principals.
On Oct. 5 there’s a Divorce Care Program for Adults at the Soulstice Wellness Centre, 123-2 Ave. West, conducted by Velma Noble. Phone 932-1991 for more info.
ß ß ß
I think this experience is a major reason I love bagpipes.
A trip to Nanton a couple of weeks ago relived it for me.
It was 1943 and I was a farm kid in the wee Manitoba village of Arrow River. Perhaps 30 people lived there, including the Carnegie family.
They owned the general store and were not long removed from Scotland. A very thick burr was in every word Ernie Carnegie, the father, ever spoke.
Except one day when he spoke from his heart through the bagpipes.
That was the day the Carnegie family and the wee village got the news that Pilot Officer Bob Carnegie, a member of Canada’s bomber command, had been killed in action.
As the community mourned, Ernie Carnegie, in full Scottish regalia, went to a hill overlooking the village and played lament after lament on his beloved pipes as he marched slowly back and forth.
As a seven year old not realizing the significance of it all, my dog and I ventured to the hill and sat quietly a few feet away as a proud but devastated father played through his tears honouring his son.
My mother appeared to take my dog and I home, but Ernie waved her off and we were allowed to stay.
And the memory flooded back Aug. 21 when I visited the Nanton Lancaster Society Air Museum.
The previous day a polished black granite wall containing the names of 10,643 Canadians, who gave their lives serving bomber command, was unveiled.
In about the fourth column at the bottom was the name engraved with all the others: Robert Carnegie.

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off

By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
A man charged with repeatedly molesting a three-year-old child will plead guilty to charges of sexual assault and sexual interference, his lawyer said at Cochrane provincial court Sept. 22.
Paul Brunnen, representing the accused, who cannot be named because of a court-imposed publication ban to protect the victim, said his client is prepared to accept responsibility for what he did.
“This matter will be dealt with by a guilty plea,” Brunnen said. “There’s not a great deal in dispute in relation to these facts.”
The 23-year-old accused sat in the prisoner’s dock with his hands folded in his lap, eyes forward and not looking at the gallery where a half-dozen members of his family were sitting.
The hearing was to determine whether the accused could be released into the custody of his family until he is sentenced. He has been in jail since he was arrested earlier this month.
Court heard of a pattern of abuse between September 2004 and May 31. The accused admitted to having 15 to 20 encounters with his fiancé’s child, who was only two-years-old when the abuse began.
Crown prosecutor Pat Yelle described how the encounters escalated over that period until he was eventually caught in the act by his fiancé and his brother in the couple’s Cochrane home.
“The accused made a confession that this had not been the first time,” Yelle said, noting the mother did not report it to police immediately “because she was afraid of the accused and afraid of his reaction.”
Court heard the man lived in Calgary with his brother until he was reported to police on Sept. 6 and immediately confessed.
“The accused was interviewed by police and gave a complete confession,” Yelle said. “He indicated that the incidents had progressed.”
Yelle said the man “distracted” the victim through tickling or dangling toys out of the child’s reach.
She added the accused, in discussions with the police, “denied touching any other child,” and noted he had recently become a father with the birth of a child with his fiancé.
Court heard the accused was suicidal and was discovered in his prison cell “with his shirt off and around his neck.” He was given special clothing to prevent further incidents.
Yelle told the court the level of abuse and the age of the child were factors that should keep the man behind bars until he is sentenced.
“This is an individual who has a serious sexual deviancy. It’s very unusual to use a child this young in this manner,” Yelle said. “We have no idea how much of a risk he is to other children in the community.”
Brunnen argued that the man wouldn’t be a threat if he lived with his family and continued to work until his sentencing. He noted the accused would be able to report to an outpatient program and get help for his problem in the interim.
“He is aware he’s going to jail for a lengthy period of time. He’s not attempting to dodge the issue,” Brunnen said, noting it could be two to four months before he is sentenced.
Judge John Reilly said while it’s “tempting to release him to his family,” the nature of the abuse was too serious to ignore.
“In view of the extremely serious nature of the charge and the age of the child, in my view it is necessary for him to be detained,” Reilly said.
The accused will return to Cochrane provincial court Oct. 11 to enter his plea.

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off

By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
The ability of the Cochrane Planning Commission (CPC) to effectively act as the development authority for the town came under the microscope as town council considered fundamental alterations to the body during its annual committee review Sept. 26.
While town administration suggested the CPC — currently made up of two town councillors and five members of the public — remain the same, Coun. Jeff Genung, a member of the committee, proposed a radical change to its membership.
He suggested the CPC would be best served with four members of the town’s senior staff — its chief administrative officer along with the heads of planning, operations and community and protective services departments — two town councillors and one member of the public.
Genung said problems with attendance, and a lack of planning expertise among its public members, prompted him to reconsider the composition of the CPC.
“I would like our planning documents to be gone over with a fine-tooth comb. The last step (in the development process) is at CPC and I don’t feel this is happening,” he said. “What I’m trying to achieve is a more technical skew in looking at our planning documents.”
The CPC is charged with ensuring development plans are consistent with the town’s Land Use Bylaw, and it acts as an advisory board to council.
Once a development is approved, the CPC can make recommendations on the plan to ensure it remains consistent with the town’s statutory documents.
While noting he had no problems with any individual members of the CPC, Genung said he is concerned that not all public members have a strong technical grasp of the town’s planning documents and vision.
“It’s inconsistent. It depends completely on the makeup of the committee,” he said. “I’m not trying to smooth the road for any development coming forward. It’s the larger subdivision work I have most of my concerns with.”
But that notion met resistance from some councillors.
Coun. Larry Wackershauser dismissed any move to dilute public involvement in a committee he said was the most crucial to a municipality.
“If the public should be on any committee it should be this one,” Wackershauser said. “Nothing is perfect. You’re always going to have problems with a committee no matter what the makeup is. When people get on council for the first time, they know nothing and that includes everyone sitting in this room.”
Calling comments about the existing CPC “a slap in the face,” Coun. Andy Marshall said if anything the public component needs to be expanded.
“I feel this is quite a jolt for the principle of public participation. I support an expansion of citizen participation,” Marshall said. “To shut (the CPC) down because we don’t like how this group works is not a good principle.”
Coun. Truper McBride, who also sits on the CPC, took it a step further, suggesting the committee should not include any council participation.
He noted Genung’s proposal would place town staff in the “awkward” position of having to vote in opposition “with basically their employers.”
“My view of the planning commission is that it is an administrative body and council does not belong on it,” he said. “We set policy and administration implements it. We are interfering in that process by stepping into an area we don’t belong.”
Genung noted a number of communities include a mix of elected officials, staff and the public, including the cities of Calgary and St. Albert.
He added council is elected to represent the public and thus it fills the role of public participation some councillors fear will be eroded.
Genung’s stance found some support from Coun. Ken Hynes, who has previously mused about reshaping the CPC.
“I’m not criticizing any member of the CPC, I’m just looking for the best way to serve the citizens of Cochrane,” he said. “I reject any notion that council doesn’t represent the public. We need to look at the long view here and I think we should not be afraid to review it.”
Because of the apparent split among councillors on the issue, Hynes recommended the matter be discussed in-depth at a regularly scheduled council briefing.
Council agreed unanimously to review the CPC at a future committee-of-the-whole meeting.

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off

By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
The Rocky View School Division will be able to increase its investment in maintenance services thanks to an increase in provincial grants, trustees heard Sept. 22.
During talks in June, Rocky View had to pass its annual budget without its plant operations and maintenance grant, which had yet to be announced.
Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation restructured maintenance grants and the board heard last month that its share would increase by $1.3 million, or 15.4 per cent.
Rocky View will have $9.8 million to spend on caretaking and maintenance in 2005/2006.
Secretary-Treasurer Darrell Couture told trustees the infusion will allow the division to boost services in an area that hadn’t been properly funded in the past.
“This is much-needed money and will enable the division to more adequately maintain our facilities,” Couture said. “We haven’t been able to add to our maintenance staff for a number of years.”
Trustees heard the additional funds will allow the division to hire four more full-time maintenance personnel and increase caretaking hours at schools by four per cent. The division will also add two full-time grounds personnel in lieu of temporary staff.
Salaries for maintenance staff will be boosted by two per cent and temporary workers will get an increase in their hourly wages, Couture said, noting the salary hike will allow Rocky View to stay competitive in hiring and retaining staff.
“With this budget we’ll have the ability to add personnel to look after the increasing area we have,” Couture said.
In addition to more and better compensated personnel, trustees heard the new funds will also go to implementing weekend boiler inspections, plus increased summer security and surveillance systems.
With the cost of building materials soaring, Couture said the new funds would allow the division to boost its materials budget.
“The cost of maintenance materials has gone up much higher than the cost of living increase,” Couture said.
Four new vehicles and a new mower will also be purchased.
The increase will lead to a “slight deficit on a cash basis” of $190,722, Couture said, noting depreciation of acquired vehicles and equipment would cover the additional funds.
He added next year’s budget will achieve a surplus of approximately $450,000 due to the lack of one-time funding (used this year for vehicles and equipment) and because the division will see more savings from a five-year electricity supply contract that starts Jan. 1.
Beiseker trustee Wendy Metzger was pleased with the funding hike.
“We’ll be able to offer a more enhanced service to our schools,” she said.

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off

By Warren Harbeck
As I’m writing this week’s column, Nat King Cole’s nostalgic tones are reminding me that this week is one of my favourites of the entire year. His refrains are making me uncharacteristically homesick for the place of my youth. They awaken memories long dormant in my five senses.
“The falling leaves drift by the window/The autumn leaves of red and gold….”
Oh, the sheer experience of the season!
I spent my youth in western New York state, where maples and oaks indeed vibrate in bright reds and golds past windows, across rolling hills, in picnic groves, and along arboured country roads.
Yes, we have those same colours here in the Alberta foothills, too, but they’re more likely to be found in hedgerows of cotoneaster framed in the warm yellow glow of poplars. And yes, as they fall and litter our lawns, we get out the rakes and gather them into piles for carting away.
Did I say piles? They’re nothing like the humongous mountains of maple and oak leaves we used to pile up as kids back East. And really, the point wasn’t so much to have them hauled away, as to make great heaps to dive into, or just to lie on and watch fluffy cloud critters pass across the deep-blue autumn sky.
And who could resist a spirited leaf fight with the neighbour kids? Or just throwing the aromatic wonders into the air and letting them float back down over our heads and shoulders? Or shuffling ankle-deep along leaf-covered trails and listening to the crisp, crunchy sounds and feel the leaves tickle our legs?
Then, after the hours of fun, we’d select the biggest, most beautiful leaves to take home and press between sheets of wax paper — to preserve them forever (but mine always seemed to crumble in my dresser drawer before spring arrived).
Of course, there was still the question of what to do with all those piles of leaves. Back then no one seemed too worried about smoke pollution and burning bylaws, so we’d have these magnificent leaf-burning parties. And oh, how good the smoke smelled! Even with our eyes closed, we knew fall was in the air.
There was a particular taste to autumn, too. Back where I grew up, autumn came later and lasted longer. The leaves were just finishing up around Halloween. Even now, the thought of leaf-burning makes me thirsty for sweet apple cider with donuts, treats I really pigged out on while my older sisters helped me carve our annual pumpkin and Mom and Dad readied my spooky costume.
Such associations with autumn are not without their counterparts here in Southern Alberta.
I was talking about this with Cochrane coffee companion Kate Millar. She loves horseback riding through the autumn splendor, she said, but the aroma she treasures most has less to do with the falling leaves and more to do with the horsey smell of her trusty mount blended with the scent of saddle leather.
My rancher friends associate this season with the sight of golden fields and the smell of fresh-mown hay. Indeed, it’s hard to think of autumn in Alberta without those large round hay bales being readied for winter, or the rows of square bales curving gracefully toward the early-snow-covered peaks to the west.
And are you noticing the bright red clusters of berries on mountain ashes around Cochrane? I was enjoying the sight of some one morning this week while scraping a beginning-of-autumn frost off my windshield — a feature of the season here that I never experienced back East.
As Nat King Cole puts it, “soon I’ll hear old winter’s song”.
Without question, I love autumn in our part of Alberta. My wife Mary Anna and I are looking forward to our annual trek down the Kananaskis Valley later this week. We’ll ooh and aah at one of the grandest autumn mountain vistas in all the world while taking in ponds and lakes reflecting golds and blues and mountain-top white. And we’ll sip spiced tea at a lodge, and shuffle hand-in-hand along leaf-strewn trails.
But through all this, nostalgia will take me back to my youth and to a season of special memories.
“But I miss you most of all, my darling,/When autumn leaves start to fall.”
(c) 2005 Warren Harbeck
warren@harbeck.ca.

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off

By Sarah Junkin
Within mere minutes of my husband kissing me goodbye and slamming the door behind him as he left for Toronto on a business trip, the toilet in the upstairs bathroom inexplicably exploded.
Alarming as this sounds, I wasn’t particularly surprised because whenever my sweetie leaves town, the kids and I seem to lurch from one mini-emergency to another.
Rarely does the cat get appendicitis or the car engine bursts into flames when he’s conveniently around to offer advice and support.
Nor does the school ever call to complain about one of the kids when he’s here to take at least partial responsibility for the apparent delinquency of our offspring.
No, these things only ever happen when he’s happily sampling the room service of some five-star hotel, far, far away from the chaos of family life.
It’s like there’s a sort of macabre karma thing at work in the universe that dictates that disaster and pandemonium will spontaneously erupt only when I’m trying to manage our tumultuous life by myself.
If the point is to make me appreciate my husband more then it certainly works.
There are still three more days till he gets back and I swear, I will never complain about him again.
But to get back to the toilet problem.
It’s lying all over the upstairs hallway in several pieces in anticipation of my husband’s return, and it’s occurred to me how you never appreciate toilets until there’s a problem with them.
This brings me to another toilet irritation of mine.
One of my favourite Calgary restaurants unbelievably has what I believe must be the nastiest washrooms in town.
They’re revolting, enough to put you off your meal, but the food’s pretty great so I try to plan accordingly well in advance.
Globally, public toilets are at the front of everyone’s minds these days.
Really.
The Chinese are in the process of enforcing what local officials are calling “the first public toilet management standard in Beijing’s history.”
They’ve termed it “the largest toilet revolution in history” which is pretty fascinating.
Oddly specific, their new rules state that no more than two flies or two pieces of discarded garbage or waste can be allowed in Beijing’s public toilets at any given time.
Of course this is because Beijing has won the bid to host the 2008 Olympics and they expect the eyes of the whole world to be on their toilets presumably.
By Sept. 6, 1,100 public toilets had been upgraded, according to the Beijing Times.
Some of their new public toilets in tourist areas have even been ranked by a star system with the cleanest and most comfortable getting the coveted four stars.
The whole world has gone toilet crazy.
From Sept. 26-29, the first World Toilet Summit is set to take place in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with delegates flooding in from all over the world including Ghana, India, Russia, Chile, Africa, Canada, Cambodia, and Germany.
Beijing has of course sent 25 delegates since public toilets seem to be their main concern right now.
The theme of the conference is “Setting Standards and Satisfying Needs Globally”, the idea being that the tourism and the economy of a country is inextricably linked to the quality of public toilets and hotel facilities.
When a toilet in a London hotel was described on an American traveller’s Web site as having “the best john in England” bookings increased overnight.
Key speakers are expected to talk on a variety of topics, including Mayor Amy Khor from Singapore who will set out the Singapore model of public toilet excellence.
A social program has been organized for the delegates, including a civic reception in Belfast City Hall, followed by a fancy summit dinner, with lavish prizes awarded at the U.K. Loo of the Year awards ceremony.
On a more serious sanitation note, the devastating tsunami at the end of last year, and the more recent New Orleans catastrophe has emphasized among other things, how rapidly sanitation is shattered when disaster strikes.
It’s made me reflect on all the luxuries I normally take for granted.
Like a simple upstairs toilet.
And a husband who knows his way around a tool box.
sarah@cochraneeagle.com

• Filed under Archives | Comments Comments Off