By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Parking in downtown Cochrane may become more congested because of a dispute over a legal easement near an affordable housing complex, according to the Cochrane and District Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber president Adamo Cocuzzoli said while the town and the Cochrane Society for Housing Options (CSHO) wrangle over a five-metre wide easement used by a business adjacent to the 21-unit HomeStead, the spectre of some residents having to use streets for parking has become a concern.
He noted while HomeStead’s development permit calls for 45 parking stalls, the potential loss of the easement area, which was included in the original development plans, could force the CSHO to look at street parking to replace 18 stalls that may be lost.
“We are concerned with the easement issue,” Cocuzzoli said Feb. 18. “If the town says it has to meet the requirements (of the development permit), we don’t want the solution to end up impacting downtown parking.”
Cocuzzoli said downtown parking is already frustrating, forcing local residents and tourists to shop outside of the core.
And businesses could suffer by taking away more downtown parking for a residential development, he added.
“Parking has been impacting us since Cochrane experienced its growth spurt,” Cocuzzoli said. “It’s a little frustrating coming into downtown and that’s a sore spot for a lot of people.”
Last week, the CSHO appeared before council, asking for more than $100,000 the society claims it has incurred because of the easement issue, which the town has wavered on.
The town’s most recent stand calls for the society to honour the easement, which was granted to Express-O-to Go in 1995, and draft an alternate development plan.
The CSHO has suggested it plans to follow through with the original development permit, which includes building on the easement.
There have been suggestions of legal action from both the CSHO and Express-O-to Go owner, Randy Caspell.
Sandy Wong, the town’s senior planner, said the CSHO has been directed to apply for another development permit that honours the easement.
She said 45 parking stalls are required by the Land Use Bylaw, which includes one stall for each dwelling and four stalls for every 93 square metres of commercial space in the facility.
“What the society may have to do is come back with a redesign,” Wong said. “They’re a developer no different from any one looking to develop in any community in Alberta. We’re waiting to see what they decide to do.”
If a new development permit is sought, Wong said the town’s new Land Use Bylaw would apply, which has decreased the required number of stalls but has widened them.
Cocuzzoli said the chamber plans to work with both sides to find a solution that will lessen the impact on downtown parking.
“We would like to see a reduction of parking in the development permit to make it viable,” he said. “The chamber is looking out for the interests of our members but we’re looking for a solution that will benefit the town as a whole.”

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By Wes Gilbertson
The Eagle
Just how tough is this year’s competition in the Rocky View varsity boys’ basketball league?
On almost any other circuit, a team ranked among the top 10 in the province — as the Cochrane High Cobras currently are — would automatically be a heavy favourite to claim divisional gold.
But that’s not the case in these parts, where the Cobras are looking up the six-team standings at a trio of squads, two of which were also ranked ahead of them in the mid-February 3A provincial polls, released last week.
Nonetheless, Cochrane High coach Linda Binder is encouraged by what she has seen on the hard court.
“Things are looking good,” she said. “I like where we are at right now.”
With a 78-51 triumph over the cross-town Bow Valley Bobcats Feb. 15, the Cobras picked up their fourth win in Rocky View league action, but still trail the Bert Church Chargers — ranked among Alberta’s top 10 4A squads — and the Springbank Phoenix and George McDougall Mustangs in the standings.
Cochrane High hosts the Mustangs Feb. 28 in the regular season finale for both squads. A win for the Cobras could vault the team into third place, setting up a first-round playoff contest against the last-place club.
“We would like to do really well against McDougall because that’s going to influence the zone rankings,” Binder said. “It would be nice to beat them at home.”
With the Rocky View post-season just around the corner, the Cochrane High bench boss is optimistic her charges may be peaking at just the right time.
Binder noted the Cobras have “a lot of depth” and are finally getting healthy. “All of the players are contributing and we need that to continue to be successful.”
Another key for the Cobras down the stretch, according to Binder, will be making smart choices on the floor.
“It’s crucial right now to make the right decisions,” she said. “The conditioning seems to be there but the mental aspect sometimes still is not.”
According to mid-February polls, the Cobras are the number seven 3A squad in the province. The Phoenix are ranked fourth while George McDougall holds the number six spot.
The competition is even stiffer at the zone level, where the Cobras will also be battling top-ranked Highwood High, second-ranked Holy Trinity Academy and the number eight Strathmore Spartans for a berth in the provincial championship tournament.
The Cobras are back in action this weekend, when they are slated to take part in a tune-up tournament at Calgary’s Bishop Carroll.

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
Mitford Middle school parents will determine whether casinos will still be employed to help the school raise much needed dollars after a committee was struck last week to weigh the social costs of using funds generated by gambling.
According to Mitford Principal Bill Bell, some questions have arisen among parents about the use of casino dollars, which represents the majority of the school’s annual fundraising for extracurricular activities.
“A couple of parents thought it would be a good idea to revisit the concept of using casinos,” Bell said Feb. 17. “While we really need to recognize the positive things that have happened in the school because of those (casino) dollars, some people felt there was a social cost to that.”
According to Alberta Gaming, as of Jan. 16 there are 17 charitable casinos in the province, which, along with bingos, pull tickets and raffles, are used by 9,700 eligible charitable groups for fundraising.
In 2004-2005, Alberta charities earned $147 million in net revenue from casinos, which makes up the majority of the $238 million raised through charitable gaming activities.
Bell said Mitford is able to host a casino roughly once every 18 months which raises around $30,000 for school projects.
Around 50 per cent of the casino revenue goes to the band program for additional instruments and trips.
By contrast, Mitford’s next most lucrative fundraising venture, entertainment coupon books, generates between $8,000 and $9,000.
“It will be a significant loss of money but casinos, they cut both ways,” Bell said. “It’s easy to quantify the money but not the other (impacts). It almost becomes a question of ethics.”
According to the Canadian Problem Gambling Survey of 2002, 82 per cent of adult Albertans participate in some form of gaming. The survey suggests 5.2 per cent of adult Albertans have a gambling problem, with about 1.3 per cent considered “problem gamblers.”
Cindy Overland, a former town councillor and a Mitford parent, tours area schools with the Calgary Distress Centre, speaking about her experiences as a former compulsive gambler.
Noting she didn’t want to sit on the Mitford committee because of her past, Overland said shedding light on the impacts of gambling is important for parents to consider if they have to choose to continue hosting casinos.
“Someone has to ask that question, but I asked not to be on the (committee) because I am so closely and personally affected,” she said. “Whatever it leads to, at least we’ve had that discussion.”
Overland noted children today are exposed earlier to gambling, which has raised the risk of creating a new generation of problem gamblers.
Citing a 2002 youth survey, Overland noted 23 per cent of youngsters are at risk of becoming problem gamblers, which has risen dramatically from the approximately five per cent during her generation.
She said the province has contributed by cutting the flow to traditional grants that used to go to non-profit groups.
“The government changed us. We used to, as non-profits, apply for grants and held teas and bake sales,” Overland said. “The government has pretty much taken most of that away and said now you have to use casinos. The government itself is as addicted to money as those addicted to gambling.”
Cochrane’s two public high schools don’t use charity casinos to boost fundraising efforts, but band programs at both Bow Valley High and Cochrane High have benefited from gaming revenues for years.
Cochrane High Principal Chris Lees said while the school’s band program supplements its fundraising with casinos, other programs have little problem getting support from the community and parents.
“There are no limits to the parents supporting programs their kids are involved in,” Lees said.
Cochrane High’s football program, Lees noted, is an example of the community getting behind something, raising funds to make it better.
Early in the season, the team heads to the United States to play exhibition matches and often takes in college or professional football games.
“Usually, we go with a user pay system but we do have a lot of alumni and benefactors who support the program and donate money to it,” Lees said.
Bow Valley Principal Dave Morris said while only the band program takes advantage of charitable casinos, the school is considering forming a non-profit society to cash in on casinos.
“Right now our band parents association is the only one that does some casinos and we’re not rethinking that, that’s for sure,” Morris said. “We’ve been trying to get a school society going so we can try and get (a casino) as well.”
According to Bell, the five-member committee struck by Mitford’s school council will return with the results of a survey for school council to make a decision, likely on March 10.
With Mitford’s next casino scheduled to take place in September, Bell said the school council will have more than enough time to decide whether to continue hosting the events.
“By the end of April, we’ll make that decision about whether to participate in the next casino or not,” he said.

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By Jack Tennant
Start saving your money for a great benefit for Meg Pyper on March 18 at the Bearspaw Lifestyle Centre.
Meg is the owner of Westlands Art Gallery and is battling cancer.
No doubt she’s totally uncomfortable with the publicity, but when you’re a good person and you run into challenges, that’s what happens — friends rally around and help.
Organizers, led by Wendy Fuchs, have done a great job getting some quite remarkable auction items and they’re not finished yet.
There’s a hot air balloon ride, a Lake Louise ski pass and some incredible original art by artists like Wirth, Reynolds, Hall, Tait and Lennard.
It starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $20 — $23.50 in Newfoundland.
Tickets are available at Foxtails, Coffee Traders, Cochrane Health and Fitness, Anything Grows Home Store, Westlands Book Store and the Cochrane and District Chamber of Commerce.
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So what’s with the capital letters in the middle of a name?
This is becoming an epidemic and I think it started with the Links of GlenEagles golf course.
There it is, a cap E right in the middle.
Next we have the RancheHouse with the cap H smack in the middle again.
Now we have the HomeStead which is the moniker for the low-cost rental housing facility being built on Second Avenue West.
I don’t get it. Is a capital letter in the middle of a name part of our western heritage?
If so, count me in. I want to show my western heritage as well.
From now on it’ll be Jack TenNant. Well, it’s better than JaCk.
On second thought, I don’t think I’ll bother.
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No, we can’t put the Canadian womens hockey team into the Olympic hockey mens’ division.
A good thought though.
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Still with words and stuff . . .
Have you noticed how many more terms and phrases are reduced to initials these days?
I came across a great one in the Calgary Herald the other day.
The story was about a prevention program in the sex trade industry and the acronym was DISC.
You might think computers or you might think back problems, but you probably would never guess the real answer: Deter and Identify Sex-trade Consumers.
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The Home Show sponsored by Royal LePage Foothills Realty goes April 1 at the RancheHouse and once again it’ll be very busy.
Once again the theme will be about promoting shopping local and consumers will find everything from renovations to mortgages, landscaping, insurance and shingles.
Contact Foothills Realty at 932-2101 for more information.
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This is a challenging time of year for the Cochrane and District Community Foundation.
A pleasant but difficult challenge.
Each year the foundation hands out money to worthy organizations that applied for grants so the decisions are tough.
This year $52,594 is available and the challenge is 34 organizations have requested $178,478.
The foundation has a huge impact on the community. Since its first grant in 1999, more than $350,000 has been provided to many and varied community organizations.
The foundation is having a dinner with a guest speaker April 1 at the RancheHouse and this is more for awareness than fundraising.
Call Jim at 932-7856 or Lynn at 932-4910 for more info.

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By Sarah Junkin
The Eagle
One of Cochrane’s oldest volunteer organizations will disband after a unanimous vote Feb. 18, but it may still have an impact on the community.
The Cochrane Ranche Hands has been trying to raise awareness about ranching history and its local significance for several decades. But times have changed, said Ranche Hands president Don Hepburn, and the role of the group and changing demographics indicate it’s time for the group to disband.
“I think the group felt we’re not really making any progress, and maybe it’s time for a change,” he said. “We felt it was better to do it this way than just to fade away.”
At a Feb. 9 open house hosted by Urban Systems Ltd., which is recommending ways to improve the paths and trails around the Ranche site, it was suggested the Ranche Hands could still be useful in helping educate users about the natural, historical and environmental significance of the area.
“I’m going to be talking to the town about that next week,” said Hepburn. “We’ll see what kind of support or advice they might need from us. They may want to set up a new advisory committee or do something different.”
As well, the Ranche Hands has an extensive collection of artifacts that must be disposed of.
“A lot of them were borrowed from the province, so the town may wish to borrow them instead,” said Hepburn. “We’ll have to talk about that as well.”
The Ranche Hands are also the group that hosts the annual Dominion Day tea on July 1, an event that draws large crowds of tourists and residents.
“We don’t know about that either,” said Hepburn, who has been with the group since 1992. “But we’ve decided to get together in early May to decide whether or not to continue on with that. All we know for now, it’s time for a change.”

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By Shawn Logan
The Eagle
A seniors’ advocacy group that pushed Alberta’s auditor general to review the province’s continuing care facilities has launched a website aimed at improving awareness about the challenges that still face the system.
Cochrane’s Bev McKay, a member of the Citizens’ Network on Continuing Care, said she hopes the website — www.continuingcarewatch.com — will provide a forum for those who have experienced problems with continuing care facilities, as well as providing facts and statistics.
“We hope people will become engaged in this,” McKay said Feb. 20. “I think (the website) will make them aware of how government actions since the early ’90s are influencing the quality, accessibility and affordability of continuing care services.”
Last May, Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn released a report that concluded the standards of nursing, personal care and housing are not current and lack sufficient monitoring in long-term care facilities across the province.
The report found that 31 per cent of basic standards related to care were not met at the 25 long-term care facilities and 20 lodges investigated. There are 174 nursing homes in Alberta.
But while the report outlined 30 areas “where the government failed in its responsibility,” McKay said after almost a year, nothing has been done to improve the system.
“People should be outraged. We don’t have anything a year after the auditor general’s report,” McKay said. “We saw a light at the end of the tunnel with the auditor general’s report and its just gone blank.”
The report made a number of recommendations to improve the system, but didn’t call for legislation or the creation of enforcement and compliance bodies. However, it was reported Feb. 21 that the provincial government is contemplating new standards or seniors’ facilities as part of its agenda for 2006.
McKay, also the founder of the defunct Families Allied to Influence Responsible Eldercare (FAIRE), said there are now around 5,000 “documented cases” as well as photos detailing poor conditions and, in some cases, abuse in continuing care facilities in the province.
She said the website will allow more people to tell their stories and generate grassroots support to bring standards and oversight to continuing care homes.
The changes to Alberta’s continuing care system are also outlined, suggesting that while long-term care facility operators have benefitted financially, little improvement has been shown in the standards.
“We’re calling on people to give us feedback,” McKay said. “We want to paint a picture of what it’s like out there because that picture is so shameful to this government.”

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By Sarah Junkin
The Eagle
One of Cochrane’s fastest growing congregations, the Cowboy Church celebrated its first anniversary Feb. 7.
The group, which meets at the Cochrane RancheHouse every Tuesday evening, has surprised even its ardent supporters with its rapid growth, according to church webmaster Evelyn Marinoski.
“At the beginning we thought we’d have maybe 50 people,” she said. “But we had closer to 100 right away.”
Now close to 300 worshippers attend the non-denominational services that are geared towards ranchers and farmers.
“We have quite a mix of people,” said Marinoski. “There are a lot from the town, but I suspect a lot have an agricultural background.”
She added a nursery and a youth group have drawn in families as well as seniors.
“It covers the whole gamut,” she said, adding visitors from all over the world have stopped to experience the church.
The church is funded by members, and weekly offerings are collected in a cowboy boot. In warm weather, baptisms are performed in a horse trough.
Marinoski said the Cochrane church has been so successful that it inspired two other Alberta communities to start their own.
“We helped Willowcreek Cowboy Church in Nanton, and Clearwater Cowboy Church in Dovercourt get started,” she said.

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By Warren Harbeck
So, will that be dark roast? Medium roast? Light roast? Decaffeinated? How about an African blend? Or something from Brazil, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, or Hawaii?
Whatever your favourite blend is, its aroma and taste soon become addictive. Some folks can’t even start the day without their wake-up cup.
Others join their friends around café tables or office coffee machines for their daily mid-morning chat, exchanging news, views and gossip over their favourite blend.
Still others sip their favourite blend while sitting around elegant boardroom tables making decisions about cutthroat competition, hostile takeovers, global defense policies, and bellicose responses to perceived or real threats and insults.
Indeed, in the midst of all these varied places and activities, the cup of roasted brew bears passive witness to words and thoughts that have the power to change life dramatically for family, friends, companies, communities and countries. And not always for the better.
But what if there were a brew that could actively change the world? And never for the worse, but always for the better?
That is the challenge given us by one of our most distant and loyal e-mail coffee companions, Raj Patwardhan, of Mumbai (Bombay), India.
Raj contacted me back in 2003 via our website, www.coffeewithwarren.com, and asked if he, too, could join us here in Cochrane as one of our e-mail coffee companions. Since sitting down with us, he likes to refer to this column in a most flattering way as “Warren’s Coffee Shop: a place to feel one with our world.”
If that label is at all deserved, it’s because of the wise and uplifting words he and others share around our table.
For example, in his first letter to this column, Raj quoted those familiar lyrics: “Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me.”
Consistent with those words, he wrote sometime later that he hoped all of us might become “brushstrokes of joy, love and laughter,” quoting the motto that graced the wall of Cochrane’s Paintbox Artist Supplies that he first encountered at our table.
And in response to last year’s mounting world tensions he wrote:
“Any effort to stimulate faith of the masses in love, peace, hope and harmony is most welcome in a world benumbed by the sounds of explosions, sight of blood, smell of gunpowder. It is a tough task, for sure, but not impossible.”
Raj is a true lamplighter, faithful to the spirit that, I hope, will always be the basis for bringing us together through this column.
Which brings us back to this week’s theme, a coffee concept suggested by Raj himself.
“As always, reading your column is as stimulating as a cup of freshly-brewed coffee,” he wrote the other day. “It has the aroma which is, shall I say . . .
‘addictive’?
“Which stimulates another thought.
“How wonderful it would be if the majority of the masses were to get addicted to love, peace, compassion, harmony, empathy, tolerance, and respect.
“I don’t know how to concoct these ingredients in such a way that the masses would make a beeline for this brew. But I believe that kind of brew would help the good to prevail on this good earth.”
I really like the sound of Raj’s new blend. I even know what I’d call it. I’d name it after Raj’s e-mail user ID: “Sublime.”
I wrote back to Raj and asked if it was okay if I shared his idea with you.
“Yes,” he said. “We need to use all our resources, skill and will to make this brew. Please go ahead.”
So, my coffee companions, what other ingredients would you like to bring together to create this wonderful new brew called “Sublime”? Let me know, and if you’d like, tell me why you’ve chosen those ingredients.
As for me, I’d like to include as one of the ingredients a few lines from Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong’s hit song, “What a Wonderful World”: (more…)

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By Sarah Junkin
For more than four decades I’ve proved that I’m inept at virtually every sport I’ve ever tried. This is due to both physical inability, as well as the fact I often can’t seem to grasp the actual rules. But today I am happy to announce I have recently found out I have a shot at qualifying for an Olympic team.
Running concurrently with the Torino Winter Olympics are the first ever Knitting Olympics, which are taking place right this very minute.
Approximately 200 knitters in 14 countries around the world are at this minute frantically knitting sweaters, toques, mitts and even socks, which are difficult because you have to know how to “turn a heel” (which I am expert at). The rule is that whatever garment you choose to knit must represent a degree of difficulty, and should be completed by the time the Torino Olympic torch is extinguished at the closing ceremonies Feb. 26.
This brilliant idea that’s probably going to catapult me into the annals of Olympic history, is the brain child of a Canadian woman from Toronto named Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who, via the Internet, sent the idea to knitting organizations, clubs and stores around the world where it quickly caught on.
Welsh team co-captain Brenda Dayne of Llanteg, Pembrokeshire, has high hopes for the Welsh contingent, saying online and in the press that she hopes it will put Wales on the Olympic map.
“When I first heard of it, I thought it was a pointless and stupid exercise,” she said. “But then I realized it was no more pointless and stupid than careering downhill on planks of wood or spinning about on a patch of ice.”
Dayne is currently welcoming new members onto the Welsh team and I think I have a good chance of making it.
“If you have a Welsh surname that’s an automatic in,” she said. “But even if you just like daffodils, or would love to visit Wales some day, that’s good enough for us.”
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Well, the real Games are almost over, and I bet Torino natives are looking forward to getting on with what they do best: building Fiats, producing amazing soccer players, and making delicious chocolate. But we shouldn’t forget that other famous world contribution that was born out of the Italian city — the Torino scale.
This is the comprehensive measure of the risk of an asteroid smashing into the earth like it did 65 million years ago when a huge flying rock hurtled through space, careened into our planet and wiped out all the dinosaurs.
The idea is that the Torino scale is Earth’s new way to gauge the potential damage that may occur in the event of an impact from asteroids or other flying objects. As the Richter scale measures the strength and potential damage from earthquakes, the Torino scale was invented in 1999 to measure the potential for damage from objects striking Earth.
Using a colour and numbering system, zero indicates virtually no probability of being hit, and 10 is the promise of a global catastrophe.
I wonder why it’d be helpful to know that we were all going to be wiped out on a certain date.
It could happen. In 2003, a rock was spotted heading our way. Labelled 2003 QQ47 by the experts, it ranked as a one on the Torino scale which calculated there was a one in 909,000 chance it could bash into us on March 21, 2014. Since then the 1.2 km long rock has been downgraded to a zero, though it’ll continue to be monitored by the Near Earth Object Program. I must say it’s a relief to know there are groups like that one out there paying attention to this stuff.
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It’s too bad the annual Cochrane and District Youth Talent Festival has had to be shelved for this year due to a lack of suitable facilities. It’s a shame because so many kids look forward to strutting their stuff on stage and getting some constructive feedback from professional adjudicators.
But Sandy Johnson, the town’s cultural program co-ordinator, has some good news for budding artists looking to get advice from a panel of professional musicians and presenters.
The Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta is a group that travels around the province aiming to improve the profile of upcoming artists.
“It’s not a talent show per se,” said Johnson. “And it’s not for little, little guys, but maybe kids from 14 up who would like to perform.”
She said “Canadian Idol” Kalan Porter was a one-time performer.
“And we all know what happened to him,” chuckled Johnson.
To book a spot at the March 26 show, call 780-420-0604 but be quick because space is limited.
sarah@cochraneeagle.com.

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