Ponoka News, April 29, 2015

Vol. 67, No. 18 | WEDNESDAY, APR. 29, 2015 | 403-783-3311 | [email protected]

WWW.PONOKANEWS.COM

CONNECTING THE COMMUNITY

Scubacleaners

Divers with Aquatech Dive Services work together to clean up the town’s reservoir at the Lucas Heights Pump Station Monday, April 27. Here Priscilla Hamilton helps fellow diver Jocelyn Werner after a shift of cleaning in the reservoir. Please see story on page 29.

Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye

Ponoka Stampede.The gala parade going down

Chipman Avenue in the 1940s.Story on page 5

Wolf Creek badminton play downs begin.

Story on page 37

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Town administration mumon changes to community buildings

BY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYE

A slow and methodical change has been occurring behind the scenes at Ponoka Town Hall and while the reasons behind it seem rea-sonable, the way it’s being done does not seem to be totally transparent.

The first indication of changes to the town’s mo-dus operandi appears to have come in November, when Wes Amendt, director of com-munity services, approached Bob Hepp of Bob Hepp and Company Catering regarding the company’s lease at the

Kinsmen Community Centre (KCC).

After 14 years at that location, Hepp was told his company was being put on a month-to-month lease. It is believed it was in Febru-ary that the town approached Hepp and told him the com-pany’s presence there was no longer a good fit for the town’s plans. Hepp told the town he would need until Dec. 31 to honour prior com-mitments.

Hepp wasn’t the only par-ty the town spoke to regarding their lease. In November, the Ponoka and District Chamber of Commerce received notice that its lease of the town’s Visitors Information Centre (VIC) would end Aug. 31, 2015.

Les Jaster, executive manager for the chamber approached the town last April as the lease was about to expire.

At the time there was still no CAO and Jaster said ad-ministration requested that the chamber wait until a CAO

could be hired. He said at the time the possibility of a different way of using the space at the centre was indeed raised.

Requests to both the town and the chamber for copies of correspondence between the two entities were declined.

An email request to the town for information on its plans for both the KCC and the VIC resulted in answers related only to the VIC.

“This is a great building in a great location and will remain a Visitor Centre,” ex-plained Donna Brinkworth, Communications Officer in an email.

When further asked about the Kinsmen Centre, Brink-worth replied that nothing has changed with regard to the town’s plans for it.

Other options for the chamber

The chamber is now look-ing at some potential spaces, explained chamber president Jim Hamilton. “I’m disap-pointed because I believe the chamber should be in the cen-tre,” he said.

Referring to town’s jus-tification for the change that

the chamber offices were not always staffed, Hamilton added if the town does have staff in the VIC during regular hours, he would be happy. “We’ll find a new place. It was never guaranteed forever. If they need the new space, then hopefully the town is growing and utilizing the space well.”

As part of the ongoing changes, the town is reported to have asked for a fee for this week’s election forum among the candidates to be held at the Kinsmen Com-munity Centre unlike in the previous occasions when no charges were mentioned.

Brinkworth said the town must treat everyone equally and with no favouritism. “This is particularly true for events of a political nature,” she said.

The debate will now be held at the Stagecoach Sa-loon.

Earlier this year the Ponoka Legion also received communications from the town regarding its building.

It is unknown if the re-quest was to purchase or to trade the property as the

documents were not released, but Mayor Rick Bonnett did confirm the town has been approaching different asso-ciations and the Legion was one of several.

Mayor clear about council’s plans

While administration appeared reluctant to be in-formative regarding its goals, Bonnett had no issue speak-ing with Ponoka News on council’s direction to admin-istration and with the VIC.

“With the visitor centre, the reason why we needed to do something there was because we need some more space,” explained Bonnett.

“It’s either that or reno-vate Town Hall and I really don’t want to sink much more money in Town Hall until we know what we’re doing,” he added.

The goal is to have the VIC open as much as possible and with town staff there, it will remain that way, accord-ing to the mayor. Bonnett said with Jaster being the only person in the building, it can be a challenge keeping it open every day. “You can’t expect him to be there all day long.”

Bonnett’s goal is to keep an open dialogue with community groups and he welcomes discussion from the Legion, or any other group. “We’ll put everything on the table,” he stressed.

With regard to the aging Town Hall, Bonnett said his recommendation to adminis-tration for a new one should include a multi-use facility in those plans. He feels residents would agree to that if it ben-efits residents and town staff.

He suggests sinking mon-ey into infrastructure without a proper goal for the future may not be a good idea, re-ferring to the Hudson Green Nature and Activity Centre approved by previous council.

“We already had a hall that wasn’t getting used enough and that’s the mis-take that I don’t want to make again,” stated Bonnett.

Hepp’s plans to retire changed in February after the Legion approached him to be their in-house caterer; Hepp and the Legion are working on ratifying an agreement.

During budget delibera-tions in December, $126,000 was set aside for improve-ments at the Kinsmen Centre but council requested a build-ing plan be conducted to see if that money should be spent.

Mayor Rick Bonnett

Wednesday, April 29, 2015 PONOKA NEWS 3

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TIPS FROM THE GOLF GUYSRob MacPherson & Ryan Moore

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Ponoka Golf ClubPro Shop: 403-783-4626

www.ponokagolf.com I email: [email protected]

PRACTICE ROUTINESee it every day where golfers will bring a couple large buckets of balls to the driving range and the only club that comes out of the bag is the driver and they fi re out 200 balls in about 20minutes. Do yourself a favor and start with a shorter club anything from a 7iron to pw hitting a maximum

of 6 balls with any club. Work your way down through your set hitting odd numbered clubs down to the driver (max 6 balls) then go back up through your set with the even numbered clubs fi nishing with a pw. On the course you are changing clubs every shot so practice with all your clubs and you will see much more consistency when you hit the links.

COMING EVENTS

• SUNDAY, MAY 3 Noon Annual Spring General Meeting

• TUESDAY, MAY 5 6:15pm Ladies Night

• THURSDAY, MAY 7 9:15am Ladies Morning 6:15pm Men’s Night

• SATURDAY, MAY 9 Junior Swing Lessons Call Pro-shop 403-783-4626

• SUNDAY, MAY 10 9am Mother’s Day Brunch 403-783-2255 for reservations

• MONDAY, MAY 11 9am Senior Morning

“ Quality and comfort is our No.1 priority - so go ahead and smile!”

Y O U M A Y Q U A L I F Y F O R D E N T U R E S T H R O U G H

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C A L L T O D A YF O R I N F O R M A T I O N

PONOKA D E N T U R E C L I N I C

• Danny Jones •

5101 - 49th Ave • 403-783-3771


Emergency crews attended the scene of a roll-over in downtown Ponoka that resulted in one driver being trapped in his vehicle.

The rollover occurred Friday, April 24 at 11 a.m. after the driver of a 2010 Toyota Corolla failed to stop at a Stop Sign on 51 Street. The Corolla was southbound on 51 Street and collided with the pas-senger’s rear side of a Honda Ridgeline that was eastbound on 48 Avenue.

The Corolla continued southbound on 51 Street and then turned west on 47 Avenue. The driver appears to have taken the corner too sharply and ended up hitting a post and then a tree stump on the sidewalk, which re-sulted in the Corolla rolling onto its side, trapping the driver.

Ponoka firefighters ex-tricated the 68-year-old

Firefighters extricate motorist trapped in vehicle

Emergency crews help a man trapped in a vehicle Friday, April 24 after it rolled near the Bargain Shop. There were minor injuries in the incident. Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye

driver, who is believed to have suffered minor injuries. It is believed the 70-year-old driver of the Ridgeline also suffered minor injuries. Police issued a ticket to the 68-year-old man for failing to obey a Stop Sign.Youths and man flee from stolen vehicle

Driving a stolen ve-hicle in an erratic manner proved to be a bad idea for a 22-year-old man with three youths in the vehicle.

Officers responded to calls of a silver 2011 Toyota Tundra, with no lights on, being driven in an erratic manner on Highway 2. The Tundra was located and stopped in the westbound lanes of Highway 53.

Once officers got closer to the vehicle, the driver pulled away and continued on. Eventually the pickup was found in the ditch with no one inside. The 22-year-old man later returned to the scene.

Police dog services was called in and three youths were located. Their ages are 13, 14 and 15. The 22-year-old was charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle, operating a vehicle while being pursued, pos-session of stolen property and driving with no insur-ance or licence.

The 14-year-old Ono-way youth was charged with possession of stolen prop-erty, failing to comply with

probation and breach of a youth order. Charges of the other two were not available at production time.

continued on page 4

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Your Guide To Local Houses

of Worship

CHURCH DIRECTORY

PONOKA WORD OF LIFE CHURCHPastor Rob McArthur 403-783-5659

Sunday @ 10:30 a.m.Corner of Hwy 53 & Hwy 2A (former Crossroads Restaurant)

www.wordofl ife.ca

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCHPASTOR DAVE BEAUDOIN

6230-57 Ave. Ph. 403-783-6404 Saturdays 9:30 - 12 [email protected]

NEW COVENANT BAPTISTREFORMED CHURCH

Currently meeting at Ponoka Christian School 6300-50 St.Worship Service Sunday 10:30 a.m.

Everyone Welcome!phone: 403-783-6962 • www.baptistreformedponoka.org

PARKLAND REFORMED CHURCHSouth on 2A, West on Spruce Road 403-783-1888

Rev. Mitch Ramkissoon Worship Service 10:00 a.m. & 2:30 p.m.www.parklandurc.org

Associated Gospel Churches of CanadaCHURCH OF THE OPEN BIBLE

Pastor Jerry Preheim • Pastor Matt Sealy3704 - 42 St. Ponoka 403-783-6500

Worship Service 11:00 a.m. • [email protected]

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH PONOKASr. Pastor Paul Spate

Erin Dirsten - Fac. Youth & Family Min. & James Crosina - Fac. of Community Life5109 - 57 Ave. Ponoka www.fbcponoka.org 403-783-5533

Bible Discovery Hour 9:30 a.m. Worship Service 10:30 a.m.

PONOKA UNITED CHURCH Minister: Beatrix Schirner [email protected]

Sunday Service 10:00 am.

5020-52 Ave. Ponoka Phone: 403-783-4087

SONRISE CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

Pastor W. DellemanWorship Service 10:30 a.m.

½ mile south of Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury 403-783-6012 • www.sonriseponoka.com

ST. AUGUSTINE CATHOLIC CHURCHFr. Chris Gnanaprakasam, S.A.C.

Mass Times: 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 9:00 a.m. Sunday5113 - 52 Ave., Ponoka, T4J 1H6 403-783-4048

[email protected]

ST. MARY’S ANGLICAN CHURCHRev. Donna Willer

Rev. Marty Tuer, Honourary Assistant5120 - 49 Ave. Ponoka 403-783-4329

Sunday Service: Holy Eucharist 10 a.m.www.stmarysanglicanponoka.com

TRINITY EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH

5501 - 54 Ave. Ponoka 403-783-4141Sunday Service: 10:30am Sunday School: 10:30am

Pastor Tim Graff • trinityponoka.ca

ZION CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIPPastor Fred Knip

9 miles east on Hwy 53 403-782-9877Jr. Church during service for children

Sunday Service 10:30 am

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other dogsother dogs

Religion

“An Easter Story”?“You’re sure late -

wasn’t that a month ago?” Well, yes it was; but I’m

An Easter Story

Pastor Jerry Preheim

Church of the Open Bible

A member of the Ponoka Ministerial

Association

not thinking about “THAT” Easter story. I have a story about something we saw happening this past Eas-ter Sunday. It happened so fast – almost a blink of an eye; but I’ll remember it for years to come.

It was an Easter Ser-mon; but not the kind that you’d hear in church. Some of the best are not actually “sermons” at all, but come to us in other ways, in the give-and-take of life.

It’s not hard to tell that Easter weekend is a very busy time for any practising Christian, and especially a pastor. We had a very won-derful time of worship; with good singing – good fellow-ship – and a Good message from God’s Word. Every-one had a good time.

Our celebrations (my

wife and I) didn’t stop at church. We were looking forward to family coming over for a late dinner. And we were hurrying home – our prep time was pretty short as it was.

On the busy highway, (we don’t live in Ponoka), we could see at the stop light up ahead, a man hold-ing a cardboard sign. What we saw in that brief few seconds turned out to make it a very special day for us.

In its simplicity, the sign read:

“Have a HAPPY Eas-ter”

His face told of his joy; and his big grin was an ex-clamation point to the well printed sign.

You didn’t have to look very hard to see that he meant what he had written.

It spoke volumes to me. I wished for a visit with

him – but not enough time. We’ve all been there. (I felt like the Levite on the Jeri-cho road)

Two in the afternoon on a sunny Sunday, and prob-ably plenty of other things to do; but he gave of his time to let passing motorists know - there truly is a rea-son to be HAPPY – for the Lord has RISEN INDEED.

Totally unobtrusive, but my, what a BIG blessing!

Some passers-by smiled and waved, but others not so much.

I might not ever hear his name, but he has left me with a prayer “Lord, make me more like him”.

Thanks for the visit. I look forward to our visit next time.

continued from page 3

Man arrested for making threats to woman

Police were called to a home on 54 Avenue Mon-day, April 20 over reports of a man threatening violence on a woman.

Officers received a complaint that a 33-year-old man from Clearwater

RCMP briefsCounty threatened violence against a Ponoka woman.

The man was arrested by Red Deer RCMP and he was charged with utter-ing threats of violence and property damage.

There were children in the home at the time of the incident.Chainsaw stolen

Police are investigating

the theft of a chainsaw from a home on 58 Street. The theft of the chainsaw and other tools occurred from a garage overnight of April 21. There are no suspects. Truck stolen

Officers are on the look-out for a green GMC Sierra with a licence plate of BGY 5437 that was taken from the Calnash Ag Event Cen-tre last Friday.

The theft occurred April 24 between 3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Police say the keys of the truck were in the vehicle and so was the owner’s wal-let. A credit card from the wallet was used in Lacombe some time after the theft. Semi tractor drives through field

The driver of a semi tractor had some explaining to do after his tractor drove right into a field before fi-nally coming to a stop.

The 42-year-old Cal-gary man received a ticket for failing to drive in the centre lane after he drove into the field April 21 be-tween 6:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. The truck was on Highway 2 near Menaik Road when it went off the road. Teenager charged with impaired driving

Police charged a 19-year-old Ponoka teen-ager with impaired driving after a traffic stop April 26.

The driver was stopped on 54 Street in a 1981 Ford pickup at 3 a.m.

After smelling an odor of liquor from the vehicle, the 19-year-old driver was arrested and taken to the de-tachment where he supplied two blood alcohol samples of .10. There were also two 18-year-old teenagers and one 17-year-old in the ve-hicle. Marijuana, rifle found in police search in Maskwa-cis

A search warrant on the Samson Cree Nation yield-ed marijuana, a .22 calibre assault rifle, ammunition and scales.

The search was held Thursday, April 23 with Maskwacis RCMP, the community response unit and police dog services where two men had been arrested.

A third man was ar-rested in the Ermineskin town site. Police charged Jonah Wes Applegarth with several charges including possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, possession of stolen proper-ty under $5,000, possession of a firearm contrary to an order and unauthorized pos-session of a firearm.

Ponoka RCMP and the Integrated Traffic Unit re-ceived 108 calls for service last week.

If you have information on any crime call Ponoka RCMP at 403-783-4472 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.


Reflections of Ponoka

BY MIKE RAINONE FOR THE NEWS

When we were growing up in and around Ponoka, ev-ery little boy and many little girls loved to build tree-huts, chase gophers, flirt, eat ice-cream and dig tunnels. We spent many happy hours building our secret tunnels in the snow, in a hay stack, in a tree stump, on the river bank or from one under-ground play-fort to another. Most of us in our youthful years likely made a trip out to Chain Lakes, where we got to explore in the deep valleys in search of rare rocks and shells, skeletons, waterfalls, and maybe even a hidden tunnel that was left behind by the retreat of the ice-age many centuries before.

Remember When...Photo courtesy of Peel’s Prairie Provinces

It is never too early to start thinking about our annual rip-roaring Ponoka Stampede, and this

classic 1940s photo shows the gala parade going down Chipman Avenue with all its color and excitement. Notice that the cars are all angle

parked on both sides of the street, as well as the big crowds cheering on the participants.

Photo courtesy of Jack SpinkThe Hopewell tunnel at the Alberta Hospital was completed in 1964 and served for several decades as the vital underground transportation link between the new administration and admitting building and the rest of the massive and busy Psychiatric facility.

The early tales of the

Ponoka tunnels

The Hopewell tunnelIt was only when our family was living in the staff cot-

tages at the Alberta Hospital that I and my buddies found out about the Hopewell tunnel. All of us youngsters lived and played up there on those massive grounds all year round, but we always looked forward to the one and only time of the year, at the family Christmas party, that we were allowed to tear up and down all the long corridors that have connected the wards and buildings of the hospital for over a century.

The construction of the modern Hopewell Admission and Administration building was completed in 1963, but did not officially open for service until August of 1964. In-cluded in this vital new addition to the psychiatric hospital was a long underground tunnel that ran several hundred feet from the Heritage Building to the Hopewell build-ing and served as the only weatherproof link connecting the new facility to the rest of the hospital. What planners didn’t realize when they designed the tunnel was the fact that the area where it was to be located contained many underground artesian wells, and in order to prevent it from becoming an instant canal, they quickly had to install pumps that would have to be ready 24-7 to swing into ac-tion. In order to bring a constant flow of fresh air into the tunnel, there were vents in the ceiling that drew from the outside.

This well-lit tunnel, which also continued big steam lines and other power sources, was always very busy, night and day with the movement of the nursing and medical staff and patients, as well as the laundry, kitchen, mainte-nance and all other support employees who were required to transport the supplies and materials that were required to keep the hospital running smoothly on a 24-7 basis. I was told by former staff members that everything was transported on big carts, some pushed, and others pulled by tractors with electrical motors, while some individuals even travelled along the tunnel on bicycles.

When a major construction program began at the Cen-tennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury began in 1987, many of the old and original buildings were de-molished over the next five or so years to make the way

for new modern psychiatric treatment facilities. The now completed centre is one of the finest in Canada, and also features a unique ‘underground world’ to facilitate the countless maintenance and related year round activities, as well as to accommodate everyone in the case of an emer-gency or disaster.

Deep dark secrets?As a cub reporter for the Ponoka Herald so many years

ago, I was always looking for a hot story to impress the ed-itor. While enjoying a few drinks in a local tavern with the boys on my fastball team after a game, one of our commu-nity’s old-timers asked me if I knew about the tunnel that ran below the Morrison’s Hardware Store and the Royal and Leland Hotels many years ago.

During my 25 plus years working for Ponoka newspa-pers, I asked the question about ‘the tunnels’ many times, but really never did get to many answers. Some have sug-gested that the so-called tunnel was likely built during the era of prohibition in Alberta, so may have been used as a place to secretly distribute some of that much told about real good local ‘hooch’ that the old-timers claimed was being brewed in the country stills that were located in the hills surrounding our community. Then again, maybe it was a shelter to escape from a disaster such as a fire or a storm, or it could just have been used as the place to store the real expensive items, or even one of those big old safes or cedar chests in which the storekeeper locked up the day’s take or family keep-sakes.

As far as the crawl space that some claim went under-neath the alley from the Royal to the Leland Hotels, what a great way to travel from one pub to the other without being seen, especially if the weather was bad, the wife or girlfriend came in the front door looking for you, or maybe even the jovial old town cop if one had been overindulging just a little bit too much. Whatever the case, most of these tunnels are forever gone now, and likely many of those grand and colorful and century-old tales of our community will forever remain a mystery, unless of course if someone comes forth with the ‘rest of the story’ so that we can have a little fun and just keep right on passing them all on to all of you in for many more weeks in Reflections.


5019A Chipman Ave., Box 4217, Ponoka, AB. T4J 1R6Phone: 403.783.3311 Fax: 403.783.6300 Email: [email protected] every Wednesday by PNG Prairie Newspaper Group in community with: Regional Publisher, Fred Gorman

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Judy DickManager

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All editorial content, advertising content and concepts are protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is forbidden.

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Mustafa EricEditor

Opinion

Dear Editor,

I had written a long let-ter pointing out a few of the many attacks the PC government has launched against the property rights of Alberta landowners and the significant amounts of rights landowners have al-ready lost. But recent events have forced me to amend my letter.

My letter included in-formation and comments around Bill 19, 36, 24, 50, 1 and the government’s sig-nificant abuse of the water act. Property rights have

been significantly eroded over the past five years with that erosion acceler-ating over the past year. I also had comments about Premier Prentice’s decision to choose a flood mitiga-tion project that would take private land in Springbank rather than choose the pro-posed project that would use public lands at McLean Creek.

Last Thursday, a group of concerned private land owners investing their own time and money held a meeting at Trochu hall with about 400 attending. I offer

a well done, THANK YOU and congratulations to these individuals. (Please remem-ber the Surface rights board was created by this govern-ment and the members are appointed by this govern-ment.)

The speakers laid out clearly how the Surface Rights Board had made rul-ings and hung landowners out to dry causing stress and requiring them to expend unnecessary legal fees. Mr. Prentice’s PC government knew of this but stood by and did nothing. One of the attendees was floor crosser

Kerry Towles -and shock of shocks- within five days her boss Premier Prentice sud-denly became concerned about landowners’ property rights, holding a campaign style event in Three Hills and writing letters to the editor.

During Premier Pren-tice’s run for the leadership, he said property rights were a significant issue for him, he intended to restore what Albertans had lost and that it would be his number 1 is-sue. This gave many of us some hope. The Premier’s solution was to introduce

Bill 1, a short piece of legis-lation that did nothing. Bill 1 repealed Bill 19, the very intrusive land assembly act sponsored by Minister Jack Hayden. We can pretend that meant something but in fact Bill 19 had never been proclaimed and was not law. In addition, the threat of Bill 19 had served its pur-pose as the PC government had managed to obtain right of way for the unnecessary sole source power lines, which will add thousands of dollars to every Albertans power bill.

I have spent a few days

reading Hansard for the fall session. During the debate of Bill 1 and during ques-tion period, the Wildrose constantly told the PCs about the flaws and dangers in Bill 36 and several other bills. The PC government refused to change Bill 36. On Dec. 3, in the house re-garding Bill 36 Mr. Fawcett said “we are committed to that legislation”. On Nov. 20, Mr Fawcett said “Mr. Speaker, no, we will not re-peal Bill 36.

continued on page 7

We are in a whirlwind of an election and budget frenzy at both federal and provincial levels.

Federal Finance Minis-ter Joe Oliver has announced his budget, one clearly de-signed to win this year’s election rather than setting the economy on a sustain-able growth path, aimed at distributing benefits mostly to sections of the popula-tion whose votes appear to be Prime Stephen Harper’s main target. The effort is so brazen that, responding to the criticism regarding the big revenue hole the

Budgets for electionsheightened Tax Free Sav-ing Account contributions threshold will create in the future, Oliver did not see any problem in confessing that he was kicking the can down the road. “It is a prob-lem to be solved by Stephen Harper’s daughter,” he said. Whether he had in the back of his mind a suggestion of a Harper political dynasty ruling Canada forever is a separate discussion, of course.

Mr. Harper’s seemingly growing desperation to win this year’s election is show-ing more and more, witness the latest attempts to lure foreign leaders into his elec-tion campaign. We recently had India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the country’s big population centres, predictably urging the leaders of the Indian communities behind closed doors to support Harper. Soon we will have a visit by another foreign dignitary, the President of the Philip-pines Benigno Aquino III, who is likely to do the same with the Filipino commu-nities around the country, probably touching down in

Alberta as well. Earlier, we had the mas-

terstroke from the federal government in sending Ca-nadian soldiers to Ukraine, where there have been no recent reports of any escala-tion of violence between the Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian military. The move appeared to be designed to kill two birds with one stone: Ramp up the nationalistic hysteria a little bit more while also pleasing the Ukrainian communities in Canada that also have a sizeable vote potential.

In the province, the election campaign is getting hotter and hotter thanks to the gaffes and missteps by Jim Prentice and his gov-ernment.

Prentice himself took a step back in regard to his re-cently announced budget by reversing his decision to tax charitable donations, hardly attributable to a leader who knows what he is doing. But his Education Minister Gor-don Banks undersigned an even bigger blunder by ac-cusing the province’s school boards of acting like banks. He probably failed to as-

sess that, unlike politicians thinking of the electorate only during campaign pe-riods, school boards carry a much more important responsibility towards the children of the communities they operate in. In realiza-tion of that responsibility, school boards act cautious-ly and carefully in making plans for the immediate and long term future and, ac-cordingly, they save money for contingencies. But that money is not for the provin-cial government to waste,

it is for the children of the people of this province.

Some polls suggest that people are now waking up to the fact that the past 40 or so years of PC govern-ments have done much less than what could have been done with the resources of this province. Yet, there are many individuals who say that Alberta is still the best province to live in Canada, and there may be some truth to that.

But it is important to understand that it is not be-

cause of, but rather despite the PC governments, partic-ularly of the last ten years, that Alberta is still in a good position as compared to other provinces, and it is only thanks to the gener-osity of Mother Nature in endowing this land with so rich resources.

Be it federal or provin-cial, complacency should be the last thing guiding the behaviour of the electorate in this year’s votes, because the stakes in both cases are much higher this time.

PCs not sincere on property rights


COUNCIL UPDATES & BYLAW INFO

EVENTS AND RECREATION

NOTICES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Town TimesPonoka, AB T4J 1P7

Ph: 403-783-4431 | Fax: 403-783-6745 | Email: [email protected] Check us out Online: www.ponoka.ca

DID YOU KNOW...???Your civic address must be displayed on your property, both on the front and back. Civic addresses are used by our public works department as well as emergency services to locate your property. Not displaying your civic address could result in delays for these services in assisting you.

Library NewsSUMMER READING PROGRAM COORDINATOR: We’re hiring! Ponoka Jubilee Library requires a Summer Reading Program Coordinator to oversee a ‘Play!’ themed program that encourages reading in school-aged children throughout the Summer months. Running from June 8-August 28, this 12 week position is 35 hours/week, Monday–Friday, focusing on the planning, advertising, preparing and developing of the twice weekly programs for children ages 5–12, with occasional clerical duties being assigned. Applicants must be a post-secondary student, study in a related fi eld is an asset. Applicant must have enthusiasm, the ability to interact positively with children, and good organizational and computer skills. For a full job description go to www.ponokalibrary.prl.ab.ca. Send resumes with cover letter, as attachments to Jaclyn Berry, Library Manager at [email protected]. Application deadline: May 1, 2015.WAKE UP YOUR GARDEN: Ponoka Jubilee Library is partnering with Tine Roelofsen from Bobtail Nursery to present ‘Wake Up Your Garden’. On Thursday May 7th from 6:30 pm–7:45 pm, come discuss what garden chores need to be done in May. The program includes clean-up, fertilization, pruning, planting of lawns, fl ower beds, trees, roses and vegetables. Please contact the Library at 403-783-3843 to let us know you plan to attend. No fee.CANADIAN FIREARMS SAFETY COURSE: Ponoka Jubilee Library is hosting a Non-restricted Canadian Firearms Safety Course on Sunday, May 24th from 8am-5:30pm. You must pre-register, cost is $120/person. Space is limited. Go to www.albertafi rearmscourse.com for more information, or contact the Library at 403-783-3843.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDEDCanada Day “Largest Human Canadian Flag” Record attempt, July 1st.

& Ponoka Day in the Park , August 29th.For more information please contact Wes Amendt, Director of Community

Services (403) 783-0118 or email wes. [email protected]

Alberta Elm Tree Pruning BanApril 1st – September 30th

Keep our Elms disease free! This ban is to help keep Alberta free of Dutch Elm Disease. Beetles are active during the ban period, and can be attracted to the scent of the fresh wound and attack or infest a healthy tree. For more information: www.stpoded.org

Spring Clean-Up The Annual Town of Ponoka Spring Clean-Up Week is scheduled to begin May 19 and will continue until completed. Pick up is restricted to compostable materials (e.g. landscaping waste such as leaves & grass clippings) and small amounts of tree branches that are no longer than 3 feet. Materials not picked up include: rocks, construction material, wood, household waste, and pet excrement. Preference is to have all materials in a pile and not bagged. Make sure your yard waste is set out

adjacent to your normal household garbage pickup location. If yard collection is not completed that week - it will continue the following week. The Town will only make one trip per street/avenue. ***Please do not throw grass, leaves and compost materials into the garbage***

Ponoka Youth Centre 2015 Summer Program(July 6 - August 28):

Registration starts May 4th, contact 403-783-3112 or visit www.ponokayouthcentre.com.Brand New Field Trips! Launchpad Trampoline Park, PC Cooking School, Bowden Sun Maze,

Devonian Botanical Garden, Bowling, Swimming, Theme Days and much more.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:“There’s no next time. It’s now or never.” ~ Author Unknown

Job Opportunities:-Volunteer Fire Fighters -Fire Chief -Transfer Station Attendant

For more information please visit the Town website and apply to [email protected]

Janitorial Services Ponoka Fire Hall• The Town of Ponoka invites written proposals for the supply of janitorial services for the Town owned

Ponoka Fire Hall. Complete proposal packages will be available to all interested contractors at the Ponoka Town Offi ce (5102-48 Ave).

• For more information contact West Amendt, Director of Community Services at 403-783-4431.• Proposals must be submitted in writing to Wes Amendt no later than 2:00 pm on Friday, May 1st,

2015. Email to: [email protected]. Faxed and electronic mail submissions will be accepted.

Next Town Council Meetings

May 12th @ 7:00 pm

Committee ofthe Whole

May 19th, 2015

Are you a good artist or have some great ideas and would like to see that put into art? The Aquaplex is looking for someone to help design a mural for the blank wall space over the whirl pool. The top 5 will then be selected and voted on by you the public and painted by a professional artist. Have the designs water related and of course appropriate. You can tie in the town theme and logo, or go a who different route. Submit by July 2nd to the Aquaplex front desk. Thank you!

Looking for a Tennis partner to two? Call 403.783.0131 to have your name added to a list!

Aqua Zumba starting Wednesday April 22nd 8:30-9:30am. PD Days public swim 1-3pm. STAT swim May 18th 2-4pm family, 4-6pm public.

Tennis Courts are now open. Membership and user fees can be paid to the Aquaplex.Aquaplex:

McKenna ChristensenGrade 10

Skills Canada

PSC Broncs News

This Week At PSC April 29 - May 6April 30 – Election Candidates @11 amMay 1 – PD DayMay 5 – Grade 6 Registration & Orientation

Please visit our website for all upcoming events and exciting [email protected]

Skills Canada is a competition where students compete in a number of trade and technology based careers. They practice to improve their skill and abilities in

their trade or technology of interest. They compete in regionals, and then they can go to provincial and even nationals. I myself competed in the baking section. I practiced for a number of months with my foods teacher, Mrs. Christiansen, perfecting my products for the competition. Mrs. Christiansen and I also collaborated with the St. Augustine’s foods teacher, Mrs. Wittal, and her computer. By us working together, sharing some knowledge and skills, it certainly benefi tted all of us.

Skills Canada allows students like me to challenge ourselves and further develop our skill set in a particular career, which you wouldn’t be given in a regular high-school course. We get to go and compete and really experience what it would be like in that career. Skills Canada promotes career paths and allows us to further succeed in what we love to do. A special thanks to Melissa Jacobson, Sherry Christiansen, and Dayna Wittle for allowing me this opportunity, and to experience what Skills Canada has to offer.

continued from page 6This is a piece of legislation that is very, very important to our integrated resource management system that will allow us to develop our re-sources and our economy in a very responsible manner”.

There are numerous instances where the PC gov-ernment staunchly defended their bills that diminish or destroy Albertans property rights. According to the reg-ister, Premier Prentice was in the house. If he cares, why

did he not speak up? If Pre-mier Prentice cared about our property rights, why did Bill 1 not contain all neces-sary measures to restore the rights the PC government has extinguished?

I find it sad when a pre-mier’s actions do not match their words; we had two and a half years of that kind of government under Premier Redford and it was hard on Albertans. Many of Premier Prentice’s candidates were part of that government.

We are in the middle of an unnecessary election. This is still a relatively free country and you have a chance to vote as you wish.

All I ask of you is that should you chose to vote PC or should you chose not to vote, that you have the char-acter to gracefully accept the loss of your property rights; they have shown you what you should expect.

Murray WoodsLinden, AB

Dear Editor,Young people don’t vote in large num-

bers in elections. I’m not sure the reason for this other than my own experience as a young person when my contribution seemed minimal, sometimes irrelevant. There are 2.5 million eligible voters in Alberta for the election on May 5 and as our last mayoral election showed every vote counts, even a single one. So how to encourage younger voters to participate?

Ask them if they plan to vote. If there’s any cynicism about the value of their vote, tell them about the last Ponoka election for mayor. Ask them about the contributions their parents, their grandparents and great-grandparents made to this country and how they changed it often by the sweat of their labour. We’re not expected to make great and earth shattering contributions, just small, valu-

able ones that together can change important things. Let them know they aren’t stray dogs wondering in the wilderness but belong to a community that sometimes struggles to stay connected. If they’re not registered, help them or invite them to call the constituency registration office at 403-782-1301. Saturday, May 2 will be the last date to register. If they can't make that deadline, they can come to the voting station on voting day and present their driver’s licence for registration. If they have no driver’s licence, they can bring a bill with their current address and another I.D. like a health care card or library card.

This election is about all citizens being included where every vote counts. We don’t have a perfect political system but we’re doing our best as we work towards a more representative model.

George Jason

We need young people to vote


12th Annual Giant Indoor Garage Sale on Saturday, May 2 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.A huge selection of items including furniture, radios, kitchen utensils, dishes, toys, glassware, tools, clocks, home decorations and many more.

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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!Thank You

A special “Thank You” to all our great volunteers who made our

“Super Heroes” themed Trade Fair a success!

With your dedication, the showcontinues to be simply the best!

Thank you to the Trade Fair sponsors as well as the Chamber member businesses who donated merchandise.

To all the individuals who donated their time to come and entertain, job well done and greatly appreciated!

Also, a HUGE thank you tothe vendors and everyone who attended.

4900, Hwy 2A, Ponoka403.783.3888

Gull Lake Golf CourseGull Lake Golf CourseAdult League Start Dates & Tee Times

Ladies League Tuesday April 28 9:30amMens League Tuesday April 28 6:00pm

Seniors (Age 55plus) League Wednesday April 29 9:00amMixed Thursday Night League Thursday April 30 7:00pmMixed Saturday Night League Saturday May 16 7:00pm

All levels of play are welcome to join.All levels of play are welcome to join.Call 843-3322 for more information.Call 843-3322 for more information.

Come and check out the proshop the 2015 stock has arrived!!!


Applications for new de-velopment keep coming in to Ponoka County so much that planners expect to see higher numbers than last year.

Some of that interest stems from the county’s industrial land along the Highway 2 and Highway 53 interchange, explained

County planners pleased with upward growth


Town councillors are now more familiar with a proposed recreation study thanks to a detailed explanation from the consultant that helped write it.

Council heard from consultant Gary Debney of McElhanney Consulting Services Tuesday, April 21 during the committee of the whole meeting. He provided insight into the company’s proposal on a Recreation and Culture Master Plan and Fa-cility Development Study.

Town council hears the benefits of a recreation master plan

Debney was requested to speak with council to help clarify goals in the plan. He told councillors he took part in past studies for the town and he feels this document is vital to ensure proper planning for the future. “It’s consistent with what we understand as community needs.”

He said there is already a vast amount of data available to the town, which negated the need for a survey of the community. With that already available information Debney

said the next step is the vision. “You can just go straight

on to starting to determine your vision and your direc-tion,” explained Debney.

Coun. Marc Yaworski wanted to know how long before action could be taken on the document. “When does council get a final report and how long after that before we put a shovel into the ground.” he asked.

Wes Amendt, director of community services, re-plied that they hope to have information ready by budget deliberations to allow council time to consider projects.

Debney added with the company’s knowledge and

planning department, this document will set the future of recreation in Ponoka. As an example, Debney said if the lifespan of the Ponoka Culture and Recreation Complex were 30 years, planning for a new building would need to begin.

“Just that factor alone means that you need to identi-fy a parcel and/or expansion,” said Debney.

The key, he says, is the plan should be flexible to al-low a building or space to have multiple functions. He feels they could host a work-shop with community leaders to determine ideal uses of a building. Getting key com-munity leaders together is an

important part of that. “We propose, right away,

that the recreation committee and council come together,” said Debney.

Having a viable plan now will also help council if grant funding does become avail-able.

Mayor Rick Bonnett wanted to be clear council is not eager to spend $78,000 on the study and see nothing happen.

He feels residents already know what they want such as a multi-use facility and a field house and is unsure if spending the money of the study is worth it.

Debney suggests the study

is important. “You know what you have. You know what you need. This project is going to put it together and set the path.”

What the company will be able to do is provide ar-chitectural designs, plans and modeling in the study, which he suggests will save the town money and time.

No decisions were made as this was a committee of the whole meeting but the request to approve the pro-posal was brought to council Tuesday, April 28 during a regular meeting.

More details on council’s decision will be in next week’s edition of Ponoka News.

Ponoka County Assistant CAO Tom Webber during a Ponoka and District Cham-ber of Commerce lunch Tuesday, April 21.

Members of the chamber held their luncheon at the county office for the first time in several years. Web-ber used the opportunity to provide some highlights for the county.

Besides growth in de-velopment, Webber said they are also proud of the county’s involvement with developing high speed Inter-net in rural areas and with growth at the Don Laing In-dustrial Park.

“There’s consider-able interest from trucking firms,” said Webber.

Since there are no road

bans there and being locat-ed right along the highway, trucking companies are able to stay mobile. Interest is so large that the county intends to pave the service road for another mile to prepare for expansion.

Rural high speed In-ternet

After spending $1.2 mil-lion on transmission towers, $500,000 of which was from a grant, many rural residents now have high speed Inter-net. The initiative is drawing interest around the country, explained Webber. “Actually Industry Canada was really interested in this model.”

CAO Charlie Cutforth recently travelled to Ottawa, ON to explain how the pro-cess worked, added Webber.

The main reason for setting up the program was because many of the bigger companies such as Telus and Bell are not interested in dealing with rural areas be-cause of the low population.

Development continues to see growth at Ponoka County near Gull Lake. “There’s an incredible amount of development go-ing on at Meridian Beach,” Webber continued.

Financially the county is also doing quite well, he added, partly due to develop-ment applications.

“We remain in a fairly solid financial position,” said Webber. “The 2015 budget is set at $35 million, so things are cooking along pretty good.”


Ponoka News – proudly supporting the community

PONOKA WHEELCHAIR VAN SOCIETY SAYS

Bob Peters, (left) treasurer of the Ponoka Lions Club recently presented Nell Liddle, president of the Ponoka Wheelchair Van Society with a cheque for $10,000 to help fi nance the purchase of two new wheelchair vans.

The purchase of the vans was also made possible by the following GENEROUS DONORS:

as well as many giving citizens of the community.The support towards this fundraiser was so greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU

* Community Initiatives grant from the Government of Alberta* Ponoka County* Rutherford Community Society * Golden Age Bowlers* Fort Ostell Chapter IODE* Ponoka Stampede Association* Loyal Order of Moose

* Ponoka Elks #561 BPOE* Legacy Place Social Group* Ponoka Legion 55 Plus Club* Seafi eld Social Workers* Rimoka Residents Association* Concord Ladies Group* Ponoka United Church* Catholic Women’s League

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Email: [email protected]

L to R: Ron Orr, Wildrose Party candidate; Peter DeWit, Progressive Conservative candidate; Tony Jeglum, Alberta Party candidate; and Doug Hart, New Democratic Party candidate take a final few minutes to gather their thoughts before speaking in a forum at Mecca Glen School on Wednesday, April 22.

Photo by Amelia Naismith

BY AMELIA NAISMITH

A student-directed elec-tion candidates’ debate took place a Mecca Glen School on Wednesday, April 22 with students in grades 6 to 9 questioning the candidates on their be-liefs and party plans.

New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Doug Hart, Progressive Conser-vative (PC) candidate Peter DeWit, Alberta Party can-didate Tony Jeglum and Wildrose Party candidate Ron Orr all answered a se-ries of questions on topics ranging from education to what makes a good repre-sentative of the people to the importance of agricul-ture.

When asked the qualities of a good rep-resentative, each of the candidates touched on actu-ally representing the needs of the constituents.

“I believe one of the qualities a candidate has to have is you have to be a

Lacombe-Ponoka candidates hold forumat Mecca Glen School

good listener,” said DeWit.Being a businessman

in the community, he says he sees the government as a business in place to pro-vide essential services at an affordable cost. He feels there is no possible way to please everybody but a good candidate will make realistic choices.

Hart feels the provin-cial government has run on a business model too long and believes the govern-ment only sees constituents as cost centres and consum-ers.

“They forget they’re public servants,” said Hart.

He believes the essen-tial traits of a candidate include mediation and co-operation.

“A good representative, I think, represents the con-stituents to the legislation,” said Jeglum.

He believes sometimes parties are able to influ-ence local representatives to put the needs of the party first and the needs of the constituent second. “You should be able to say this is what’s important to me, this is what’s important to the constituents.”

Orr feels candidates should begin to consult with the people more when representing them, in order to build a networking soci-ety.

“We also need a stra-tegic ability. What are the solutions and how do we fix them now?” Orr elaborated.

“I think it’s also about honesty,” he added.

In times of economic downturn small schools such as Mecca Glen, which

already face challenges due to low per capita fund-ing find it even tougher to keep their doors open. The students of Mecca Glen wanted to know how the candidates would be com-mitted to keeping small schools open.

“We will not cut fund-ing that has been frozen,” said Orr. “More important than that, Wildrose is a grassroots party.”

He believes small, ru-ral schools such as Mecca Glen are not just schools; they are the heart of rural

communities. He does not feel it is appropriate for such schools, with rural needs, to be governed from Edmonton under urban authorities that do not un-derstand those needs.

continued on page 10

“We have to separate our

heads from our hearts and base

our decisions on community

needs.”Doug Hart, NDP candidate


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continued from page 9

“The PC Party is com-pletely committed to quality education in Alber-ta,” said DeWit.

When the education budget was released, De-Wit says it was actually increased, not decreased. “The misunderstanding was the reduction was in the administration of the schools not in frontline teaching positions.”

“You have a strong school here, you serve a local need and I think that needs to be supported by the Alberta government,” he added.

Jeglum feels, with the Internet so accessible these

days, going forward, it will be easier to keep smaller schools open. With so much knowledge on the Internet classes won’t al-ways need a physical body in front of them to receive instruction.

“It doesn’t matter what grade you are in, what subject you are in you can pull up a world renowned scholar … which I think bodes really well for small,

rural schools,” said Jeglum.Hart says if small, ru-

ral schools continue to be funded based on popula-tion, it is imminent that they will close.

“We have to separate our heads from our hearts and base our decisions on community needs,” said Hart.

Wait times in hospitals was also on the radar at the school and Jeglum took to the microphone say-ing he had never worked in healthcare and did not know exactly how the sys-tem works. He says Alberta ran into trouble over the last 20 years because those in control are politicians claiming to be experts on Alberta Health Care. “And they get in there and they meddle.”

However, Jeglum add-ed, to decrease wait times would mean making an investment in health care and training more doctors in Alberta and having them stay in Alberta.

Orr’s solution is choice and competition. Allow people to choose where

they are treated, whether it is in Alberta, in Canada or elsewhere. This will free up time in hospitals, as the number of people waiting for the same service will decrease.

“Wildrose is 100 per cent committed to keep-ing the Canada Health Act, which basically gives us a national health insurance plan,” he added.

DeWit feels the Gov-ernment of Alberta needs to make local health boards a priority. “I’m also aware we need to look at efficien-cies as well.”

“As a matter of fact we’re doing a review of the whole health care system,”

he added.The students also

wanted to know how the candidates plan on address-ing the issues agriculture is facing.

“I’m very passionate about agriculture I grew up in that world,” said DeWit. “First of all agriculture is doing very well.”

“There’s still some bright spots and one of the bright spots right now is agriculture. A lot of people are still employed by the farming community. They turn over a lot of dollars in the local economy, and we don’t always appreci-ate them enough so I think we need to change that,” added.

He feels international issues farmers are fac-ing are international trade agreements. “That’s, in a way, some things we need to pay close attention to.”

Jeglum says more money comes from oil than grain and farmers are not able to easily sell their grain. “(Canadian National Railway) and (Canadian Pacific Railway) can make

“Wildrose is a grassroots

party.”Ron Orr,

Wildrose candidate“I’m very passionate

about agriculture I grew up in that world.”

Peter DeWit,PC candidate

Forum at Mecca Glen Schoolmore money hauling oil than they can by hauling grain,” he commented.

The Alberta Party sup-ports the development of short-line railways so help act as a solution.

Hart says the issues came from the dissolution of the Canadian Wheat Board. “It’s been curious to see the percentage of the money that’s collected for the sale of grain to Europe that goes to the farm.”

“When we had a single desk grain sale system over 90 per cent of the price of the grain after transpor-tation costs went to the farm,” he added. That has dropped to approximately 50 per cent.

Orr believes there needs to be a complete regulatory review. A re-view of tax structures that affect the farming industry also needs to take place, in conjunction with the fed-eral government. “They aren’t necessarily farming friendly.”

The provincial election takes place Tuesday, May 5.

Extra! Extra!Read all about

it in the

www.ponokanews.comwww ponokanews comwww ponokanews com


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BY AMELIA NAISMITH

A man who pled guilty to impaired driving in Ponoka provincial court on Friday, April 24 was sen-tenced to a $1,690 fine and a one-year driving prohibi-tion.

On Feb. 8 of this year, Ponoka RCMP pulled over a vehicle being driven by Richard Goertzen, 54, near the Ponoka Stampede Grounds.

The vehicle was pulled over for driving with one headlight and upon ap-proaching the driver, the RCMP member could smell alcohol on Goertzen’s breath and in the vehicle.

He was detained for the purpose of an investigation and failed a roadside test.

Goertzen was arrested and taken to the Ponoka detachment where he pro-vided two breath samples at .16 and .15.

The court was told Go-ertzen and his wife were at an event at the stampede grounds and when it was time to leave, she was not

Impaired man labeled public nuisance sure how to get back to Highway 2; he was going to drive just until they got there.

“It was a bit of a heated discussion when we got out to the vehicle that eve-ning and my wife said she wasn’t comfortable,” Go-ertzen told the court.

“I gave in like an idiot. It was a horrible decision,” he added.

Judge J. Mitchell told Goertzen that he might be eligible to apply for an al-cohol ignition interlock device after four months.

Man sentenced for thieving, trying to pay student loans

A 22-year-old man was sentenced to $1,300 fine after pleading guilty to breaking and entering into a Ponoka business.

On Feb. 28, 2015, Paul St. Gelais jumped over a barbed wire fence at Ponoka Towing and put two diesel catalytic converters into the back of his truck.

When the RCMP ar-rived, St. Gelias attempted to hide in the cab of his

truck. The shoes he was wearing matched the prints found in the snow.

He has no previous criminal record and the court was informed St. Gelais told the RCMP he committed the crime be-cause he needed to pay more than $20,000 in stu-dent loans.

In the future St. Gelais can apply for a pardon to have the record released.

Man considered nui-sance by RCMP gets seven days in custody

A man who served sev-en days in pre-sentencing custody for causing a dis-turbance, had those days credited for his sentence and was considered having served his time for the mis-demeanor.

On April 18, 2015 Ponoka RCMP were called in to a complaint of an in-toxicated man knocking on residence doors near The Bargain Shop, and a female passed out under a tree.

Upon receiving a de-scription of the man, RCMP knew they were dealing

with Kelly Applegarth, 51, of the Samson Cree Nation.

RCMP had also re-ceived complaints earlier that day of the two individ-uals for public intoxication and urinating in public.

Applegarth was arrest-

ed on the spot.Judge Mitchell told

Applegarth that he would abstain from adding pro-bation to his sentence because RCMP know who his is, but advised him to stay away from Ponoka.

“I don’t think the people of Ponoka appreciate you coming around,” the judge said.

“So if you don’t want to get dealt with by the RCMP, stay out of Ponoka,” he added.


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BY AMELIA NAISMITH

Wolf Creek Public Schools (WCPS) board of trustees has decided at their Tuesday, April 21 meeting to officially delay allowing an appointed First Nations trustee to sit on the board.

The matter first came to a head late last year after WCPS received word from the Alberta government regarding the wish of the Nipisihkopahk Education Authority, Samson Cree Nation.

WCPS was contacted directly for the first time by the authority via a let-ter received April 15, 2015. “We finally have a letter di-rected at Wolf Creek school division, so now we have to do something,” said board chair Trudy Bratland.

In previous meetings, trustee Bob Huff voiced his concern over adding an ad-ditional, appointed member to the board because of the cost implications, which he said could reach $30,000 annually.

“Because of the politi-cal state of affairs, I think we should delay. It’s a cost item,” said Huff.

With the budgeting chal-lenges schools divisions are facing, Huff believes the money that would go to the trustee position should be used to help teachers “on the frontline.”

The letter sent to WCPS states Nipisihkopahk Edu-cation Authority is seeking an appointed trustee to se-cure “appropriate school board representation.”

It was hoped a trustee would be in place for the upcoming school year.

“I’m not sure that will happen,” said Bratland.

WCPS has placed a focus on addressing First Nations education needs with the Wisdom and Guid-ance Committee, primarily consisting of First Nations members.


Appointed FNMI

trustee delayed

by WCPS board

decision


DONATION

Ashley Lamey, representing the

Ponoka Royal Purple presents a cheque for $1000.00 to

Alexis and Dustin Groves members

of the Ponoka Gym and Trampoline Club. The donation is to help with the clubs

new building.

THANK YOUA HUGE THANK YOU TO THE MANY

INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES WHO HELPED IN ANY WAY WITH OUR RECENT

FUNDRAISING AUCTION.

We were overwhelmed again this year with the great success. We were blessed with over 200 live auction items and 80 silent auction items and were able to raise $127,000.

We are thankful that God gives us the means to provide Christian education for our children.

Ponoka Christian School Auction Committee

Mike RainoneHammertime

Correction:

In the heat of this much-hyped and expensive 2015 provincial election cam-paign, we will hear some people express the fact that they have been disgusted with the way that our gov-ernment has performed in the past, can’t make up their mind who to vote for this time around and might not even be bothered to vote at all. If too many of us take that same attitude and don’t practise our freedom of

Your vote is very important for our futurechoice on Tuesday, May 5 at polling stations throughout Alberta, there will be not be a very strong message sent from the constituents to the successful candidates and the party that will be chosen to lead us for the next four years.

If this is the case, it could very well end up be-ing the ‘same old-same way’ lackadaisical style of government that we cer-tainly do not want to take us into the future. It is okay and very important for us to complain about the cur-rent state of Alberta politics and politicians, it is great to go out to the forums and coffee shops to express our opinions, and it is really im-portant for us to ask all the candidates about their fu-ture platforms and promises for OUR GOVERNMENT, but if we don’t get out and make OUR CHOICE for our next leaders and gov-ernment, it is all for naught.. Many voters don’t realize that there are nine official political parties registered in Alberta and these include The Alberta Party, The Alberta First Party, The Pro-gressive Conservative Party,

The New Democratic Party, The Liberal Party, The So-cial Credit Party, The Green Party, The Wildrose Party and the Alberta Communist Party. Many enthusiastic men and women throughout Alberta have shown their willingness to represent their political parties in this vital 2015 election, and are ready and able to serve their constituencies as a member of the Legislative Assem-bly. As proud citizens of Alberta, we need only take a few moments on May 5 to mark the ballots that will decide our future govern-ment. Thank you for your participation.

We are in a ‘Selfie’ world.

While on holidays re-cently I have noticed that so many people of all ages are now out and about snap-ping all sorts of photos of themselves and their bud-dies with their ‘selfies’. I guess these new fancy cam-eras with the long handles produce great personal pic-tures, just as long as you don’t back off a cliff, into traffic or fall into a pond while trying to get a perfect shot.

This new digital phe-nomena has likely taken many of us, especially se-niors, by surprise, and we may be just a little reluctant before we rush out and buy one and have to retire our trusty old ‘Brownie’ and step into the flashy new world of electronics. My wife and I use our handy-dandy iPad (a gift from the kids) to take all sorts of photos and then send them off to all the relatives and friends on our e-mail hit list. My only problem is that I have a heavy ‘trigger finger’, and I usually end up taking way too many shots of the same subject, so thank goodness for the ‘delete’ button, where after we pick out the best shots you can send the rest to the magic ‘trash can.’

As an old newspaper guy, I love these new digi-tal cameras, simply because I can take lots of shots and then check them out to suit the story. In the old days, on assignment with the Ponoka Herald, I started out with a ‘box camera’ and then graduated to a Kodak, but you still had only one or two chances to get a quick

photo, and if your camera wasn’t working or the sub-ject was out of focus, you never found out the bad news until you got into the dark room. Since the new photo and computer age has now taken complete con-trol, I have been given strict instructions from my editor and my grand-children to stop and save all the stories and photos that I do, just in case I push the wrong but-ton along the way.

Only a grandmother would know

A 2,5 years old grand-daughter’s favourite story around the family ‘memory mill’ is when she was be-ing looked after by dear old grandpa while her mother and grandma were out Christmas shopping. Some-one had just given her one of those fancy little ‘tea sets’ as a gift, which had become one of her favou-rite toys of all time, hosting many delightful tea and cookie parties with anyone she could coax into taking part.

On this day grandpa was sitting in the living room in his favourite chair engrossed in the evening

news when she burst into the room wearing her best apron and carefully car-rying a little tray. With a huge smile, she presented him with a little cup of ‘tea’ (which of course was just water) and a plate full of cookies that her and her big brother had made in the ‘easy bake’ oven two weeks ago. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for the yummy lunch from her grandpa she heard the front door open.

He asked his wife to come into the living room and wait while the little girl went to get him another cup of tea, which the old gentleman explained was ‘just the cutest thing.’ Af-ter she came down the hall with the tea, she quietly watched him drink it, then expressed in wise word that only a grandma would know.......”Did it ever oc-cur to you dear that the only place that our little sweet-heart can reach to get water is in the toilet?”

Love your grandchil-dren with great patience, expect a few surprises along the way, and have a great week, all of you..

The story on page 32 of Ponoka News April 22 edition regarding the volun-teer tea has a name spelled

incorrectly. The Rita Scott Volunteer Award presented to the Kountry Krafters states one of the winners’

names as Linda Cunning-ham, but her last name is actually Cunnington. We regret the error.

www.ponokanews.comwww.ponokanews.com


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PES Grade 4 student Sadie Clark takes a look at one of the modules Tuesday, April 21 in the ATCO Energy Education Mobile, a travelling educational unit that helps educate student on energy safety and efficiency. Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye

ATCO Education Mobile popular among PES studentsBY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYE

Students at Ponoka Elementary School (PES) had fun last week with an educational mobile unit sponsored by ATCO En-ergy.

The ATCO Energy Education Mobile made a

stop at PES Tuesday, April 21 to help Grade 4s under-stand the importance of being safe around electric-ity and other energy tips.

The unit follows the Grade 4 curriculum and is in its fifth year of op-erations, explained Mark Antonuk, manager of

ATCO Energy Sense. “It was developed in consul-tation with the Alberta teachers to align with their Grade 4 curriculum in Al-berta.

Students went through four modules in the mo-bile unit:

• The Alberta energy

landscape: This module gives students an overview of the energy resources in the province.

• Electricity: using it wisely: This module shows proper uses of elec-tricity and how to reduce energy consumption.

• Heat and keeping the

heat in: Antonuk says this unit gives students a better idea of how to reduce heat loss and save money.

• Detective: this mod-ule reinforces lessons learned from the first three.

Antonuk said more than 17,000 students have

seen the unit and more than 40,000 people have seen it at different com-munity events. He says the other benefit of the mobile unit is it creates discussion. Students pass on their learning to their parents and families.


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After years of hard work and dedication, the Mamawi Atosketan Native School (MANS) can now pride itself as a Kinder-garten to Grade 12 school, with its first class of Grade 12 students graduating later this spring.

On Saturday, April 25, students, community members and supporters of MANS filled the school’s gymnasium for a Mile-stone Celebration and Open House to celebrate all the school has accomplished in its 12 years of existence at its current off reserve loca-tion.

“By carrying students from Kindergarten through to the completion of Grade 12, the school can also pro-vide direction to students for college and higher edu-cation opportunities,” said principal Gail Wilton in a press release.

Across Canada, the completion rate of First Na-tions students who enroll in

Native school celebrates 12 yearsand first Grade 12 class

A student of Mamawi Atosketan Native School’s musical sign language group waits to perform during the Milestone Celebration. Picture by Kelly Dreger

Alfred Breikreuz of Ponoka accepts a hand-beaded medallion as a thank you award from Krista Abt, MANS student, and Mark Johnson, President of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada, thanking him and Camrose building contractor Ken Taylor for their donations of time and labour in the construction of the school at the MANS Milestone Celebration. Picture by Kelly Dreger

high school is 39 per cent, states the press release.

With its sole focus on education for First Nations youth, the school will see a 100 per cent completion rate with its first year of Grade 12 students.

A recently completed addition to the school build-ing was also celebrated during the open house cer-emony; donations of labour from Ron Grue, Camrose Rotarian, and a Calgary contractor, William Pier-santi, aided its completion.

It is the new space that allowed the school to add a Grade 12 to its roster.

Over the last 12 years, MANS has transformed from a one-room school with 17 students to a full-fledged Kindergarten to Grade 12 institution.

“You do your little bit and wonder whether you make any difference. (It’s) like tossing a marble into a pond,” said Sandra Kiehl-bach Toms, who was the

founding teacher/principal of the school at its first loca-tion on the reserve in 1985.

“But when many people toss in their marble, look what it can become,” she added.

The school is underwrit-ten by the Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and began adding high school classes one grade at a time during the 2012-2013 school year.

During the ceremony, three beaded medallions were given to developer/contractors Alfred Brei-kreuz of Ponoka and Ken Taylor of Camrose, La-combe resident Elizabeth Tym as representative of deceased founding do-nor Mary Krysowaty and Kiehlbach Toms as thanks for their dedication to the school.

MANS first Grade 12 graduating class is being honored in a graduation cer-emony to be held Thursday, May 21 at the school, 7 p.m.

continued from page 12FNMI student success

co-ordinator Shelagh Hage-mann heads the committee and focuses on creating suc-cessful transitions for FNMI students between grades and schools.

“We already have this Wisdom and Guidance Committee in place. We’re working toward trying to make a difference,” said trustee Donna Peterson.

“We do have strategies in place to work with our First Nations students,” said Bratland.

Trustee Lorrie Jess says if an appointed First Nations member is placed on the board, the public is going to expect Dutch, Hutterite and German-specific trustees — to name a few examples — to have representation opportunities.

WCPS boardThe board has direct-

ed superintendent Larry Jacobs to respond to the Nipisihkopahk Education Authority. Bratland does not think the issue will re-appear before the board

until the upcoming election is over and the budget and fi-nancial chaos school boards are facing has settled.

Bratland says the board wants the time to make a good decision.

RE

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It was standing room only during the Ponoka and District Health Foundation (PDHF) open house Thurs-day, April 23.

The event was held at the Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre to generate in-terest in the foundation and its future plans. Organized by trustees Mark Bateman and Kelly Sperber, attend-ees had a chance to hear how busy the PDHF has been.

Dr. Brendan Bunting, also a trustee, said money donated to the foundation

used to go into a trust in Red Deer. While the mon-ey was used only for the Ponoka hospital, it is more attractive to donors to have a foundation in Ponoka who raises and manages the funds, he explained.

“We think it’s a wonder-ful thing that it’s back in our community,” said Bunting.

He said the foundation’s goal now is to develop and improve its fundraising ca-pabilities. “We’ll try to do our best to make this a vi-able foundation that spends money wisely.”

Not only does the money go to important life-saving

equipment at the hospital, it could potentially pay for important staff training.

One big supporter emerged to the delight of the foundation last year in the form of Ponoka Fes-tival of Trees, explained Bateman, which donated $59,500 to the PDHF.

The festival has con-firmed it is fundraising for the hospital this year again.

The hospital has been able to take donated funds to purchase an important pediatric care cart for chil-dren. This cart will allow physicians and nurses to provide immediate care to children before being taken to a hospital specifically geared to children.

The importance of a local hospital cannot be underrated, according to Bateman. “Everybody at some point in time needs services at the hospital, or know someone who needs the services,” he explained.

Much of the money donated to health founda-tions usually comes from family members or groups who earmark it for a spe-cific purpose. The purpose of these foundations is to continue to raise money for the hospital and to support its life-saving needs.


15044CC1

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PONOKA RISINGSUN CLUBHOUSE

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For more information on these programs please call

403-783-5810 Weekdays

The Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre was packed during the Ponoka and District Health Foundation open house Thursday, April 23. Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye

Community interest high forPonoka Health Foundation open house


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May 4 & 5, 2015CALNASH AG EVENT CENTRE BARN

MONDAY, MAY 4TH

Female Show5:30 p.m.

West, East & Central

Ponoka 4-H Beef Clubs

Supper following the sale

For more information, contact: Mark Matejka - 403-783-6389

TUESDAY, MAY 5TH

Club Steer Show 9:30 a.m.District Steer Show 1:00 p.m.

Awards 4:00 p.m.SALE 5:00 p.m.

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Ponoka students head toSkills Canada provincials

Mckenna Christensen, from PSC, works on her baking challenge Friday, April 17 in Red Deer during a Skills Canada Regionals competition. Christensen won gold in baking while Brenna McCaughey from St. Augustine Catholic School won bronze.

Photo submitted


Students from both Ponoka Second-ary Campus and St. Augustine Catholic School have found some success at a Skills Canada regional challenge.

The competition was held Friday, April 17 at Hunting Hills High School in Red Deer with two Ponoka students re-ceiving gold medals for their efforts and one receiving silver.

Nic Seymour, Grade 11 student at Ponoka Secondary Campus, won a gold medal in cabinet making. He had to make sure the cabinet would pass judges’ criti-cal eyes.

He placed important focus on his join-ery skills and overall craftsmanship of his cabinet this year, which resulted in high points. “They (judges) do a lot of mark-ing on your sanding and the way it’s put together,” he explained.

He had to build a cabinet to a specific size in six hours. For provincials Seymour will have to complete a task that is set at two six-hour trials. Seymour placed fifth in provincials last year and he feels the ex-perience will help him do better this year.

In baking, PSC student Mckenna Christensen, Grade 10, earned a gold med-al. She has been practicing since February on the challenge. Her biggest concern:

“The time and getting to know the new kitchen.”

She had help from her grandfather who is a former baker, Bill Goodbun, who used to own Goodbuns Bakery in Ponoka.

“He gave me a lot of techniques and stuff that they used back then,” said Chris-tensen.

One thing that helped in the bak-ing process is Christensen did not use a proofer, which helps the dough rise fast-er, explained food studies teacher Sherry Christiansen.

“She had done hers grandpa’s way and it proved well for her,” said Christiansen.

The Grade 10 student practiced so much that she knew her bread was ready by the time she was done baking it.

Teacher Christiansen said there was positive collaboration with St. Augus-tine home economics teacher Dayna Wittal, who also had a student, Brenna McCaughey placed second in the baking challenge.

Christiansen says students at both schools have created a bond together and the competition has become a positive team environment.

Provincials is set for Wednesday, May 13 and 14 at the Edmonton EXPO Centre. The top two placed competitors are head-ing to provincials.


Motivational speaker from Kenya, Janet Auma, speaks to students at PSC Wednes-day, April 22 for A Better World Canada. She spoke about being burned at the age of four and how she overcame her disabilities from the incident.

Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye

Kenyan woman tells her story of accomplishments despite disability


Students at Ponoka Secondary Campus (PSC) received an inspirational speech from a Kenyan woman who was severely burned when she was four year old.

Janet Auma spoke to Grade 10 students Wednes-day, April 22 about how her life changed dramatically after falling into an open fire pit. The effect of the fire was so serious that part

of her face melted off and her neck was joined to her shoulders for many years.

“It took 11 months while I was in the hospital,” said Auma.

Help for Auma came from an organization called A Better World Canada. The organization asked Auma to speak on a campaign called Disability is not Inability. It helped pay for her surgery that reconstructed her face and detached her neck from

her shoulders. While this improved her

life, it took some time be-fore the pain of the surgery went away.

Rather than stay at home Auma, went back to school and overcame many obstacles. “Kids were really scared of me,” she recalled.

She continued on with her education and once she completed Grade 8, went on to high school.



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continued from page 19While many people

in the area usually finish their education at Grade 8, Auma completed high school and pursued her in-terest in design work.

She went to a voca-tional school and learned how to sew clothing, sheets and studied interior design; all this despite having only one usable hand. Auma also gave stu-dents some insight into life in Kenya and she ex-plained she sews uniforms for students.

“You have to wear a school uniform in Kenya,” said Auma.

A Better World Canada was inspired by Auma’s determination, so it sent her to Canada for her first time to tell her story and to remind students that life continues on despite disabilities.

“I can do everything as other people can do,” she stated.

Her sewing skills are at such a high level that Auma does not use patterns when creating dresses or jackets. She

says she gets a visual of what she wants and sews from there.

As this was her first time in Canada, Auma has had to get use to some dif-ferences, especially the weather; Kenya is quite warm. “It’s not cold like in Canada,” she joked.

BY AMELIA NAISMITH

Ponoka County’s Iola Road has now been ten-dered for paving and its set completion date is marked for Sept. 15 at the latest.

County council made the decision to go with the company Border Paving from among the bidders during a special meeting held Monday, April 20.

Border Paving has taken on the project with a cost estimation of $4.9 million.

“They were the one contractor we were hoping would be able to do it,” said Ponoka County CAO Char-lie Cutforth.

“It’s the most money we’ve ever spent on one project,” he added.

Cutforth says there was another contracting com-pany who put in almost the same bid. However, its completion date was sched-uled for much later in the fall and Cutforth says the county wants to have the project done sooner rather

than later.Cutforth says he is hop-

ing the paving project is done earlier than Sept. 15 but feels the county can af-ford that date. “The urgency isn’t as great as we feared it would be.”

With oilfield activity along the road having less-ened with the economy, Iola Road does not have to handle the same pressures it usually has to.

“Our primary concern is to protect the local residents that live along there,” said Cutforth.

Iola Road is located at the west end of Ponoka County, west of Highway 20 and nine miles north of Rimbey.

The project involves paving of an approximately five and a half miles of road with hot mix asphalt. “It will have the same standard as the primary highway,” said Cutforth.

Last year, Ponoka Coun-ty received $1.2 million in drilling fees and Cutforth

says drilling in the area has been active for many years. While it is a hefty invest-ment upfront, the county will make the money back through those fees.


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Iola Road tendered for $4.9 millionCounty’s costliest project ever to be completed in less than six months

Iola Road is located at the west end of Ponoka County, north of the town of Rimbey. Approximately five and a half miles of the road will be paved by mid-September. Map courtesy of Ponoka County

Kenyan woman tells her story of accomplishments despite disability

RE

CYC

LE

YOU

R P

APE

R!


Joseph DeschampsI am friends with the Ponoka Outreach staff and students. I try to do elder roles within the school. I sincerely feel that this is a family that is committed to moving forward and increasing the standard of education.

Friday, May 1PD Day — no school for students

Monday, May 4All students welcome to attend

Wednesday, May 6Night school — All staff present

BY AMELIA NAISMITH

ZAP! Theatre is intro-ducing to the community a night of comedic madness and mayhem with several performances of “Oh, Hor-rors! It’s Murder!” at the Asker Church in the next two weeks to continue to serve a good cause.

The play follows the in-vestigation into the death of professor Dirk Carlton just as he was about to give a lecture at a museum detail-ing his great archeological finds in Egypt, which in-cluded a now missing prized jewel.

“It’s a rollicking good time,” said director and general manager Daniel Allers.

“You’ve got your clas-sic cast of characters,” he added, referring to parts ranging from that of a wacky detective to the love interest.

The play has been in rehearsals since the end of January, but Allers says it was actually brought before the theatre as a possibility in 2012. “It was actually the other production we con-sidered doing that year,” he said.

“So I brought it back . . . everybody loves a good murder mystery,” he added.

This year, the cast in-cluded members of the troupe from as a far away as Airdrie and Spruce View. “They all have a passion for acting,” said Allers.

“It’s amazing to have a group of young people (17 to 25 years of age) who

Murder mystery to help fund Tanzanian orphanage

Gahiji Amun (Joseph Butcher), guest of the Egyptian Embassy, bows before a priceless Egyptian gem held by Professor Dirk Carlton (Luke Wagner) during a ZAP! Theatre dress rehearsal of Oh, Horrors! It’s Murder! on Saturday, April 25 at the Asker Church.


are so dedicated to give up every Saturday night,” he added.

Performances take place at the Asker Church, east of Ponoka of on Highway 53, on May 1, 2, 8 and 9. Eve-ning shows are at 7 p.m. with 1:30 p.m. matinees on Saturdays; doors open a half hour before show time.

Admission to the per-formances is by donation.

Allers encourages those looking for good entertain-ment to come see the play and support those involved.

“Laughter is good for the soul,” said Allers.

“Quality local theatre doesn’t grow on trees,” he added.

Tanzanian orphanage All of the proceeds from

the performances are donat-ed to a boys’ orphanage just south of Muanza, Tanzania, which is funded by the the-atre and the Central Alberta Homeschool Choir.

Not only does the cast have a dedication to per-forming, they are also passionate about helping Patrick and Beatrice Mwa-fule, the operators of the orphanage.

“It’s really remarkable,” said Allers. Since the en-tirety of the proceeds go to the orphanage, production costs of the performances comes from the pockets of those involved and a few sponsors. Allers says costs can reach as high as $3,000.

“They’re passionate about what they do and they believe it is possible to make a difference,” said Allers.

In the last three to four years, the theatre and the choir have raised approxi-mately $200,000 for the orphanage.

Within the last three months, the boys at the or-phanage — approximately 35 of them — finally moved into the completed building and Allers says the next step is “to make the organization and the land self-sufficient so fund-ing can stop coming from North America, that’s the dream.”

PLEASE RECYCLE YOUR PAPER!


15044DG1

LACOMBE-PONOKA

Voting Made Simple

Find out more at www.elections.ab.ca

The Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act (section 9.1) requires that Third Party Advertisers must register with Elections Alberta if they spend or plan to spend more than $1000 for election advertising. Refer to our website.

Provincial General ElectionTuesday, May 05, 2015

ALBERTA POLITICAL PARTY NAME ABBREVIATIONSAFP Alberta First Party LIB Alberta Liberal Party NDP Alberta New Democratic Party AP Alberta Party SCA Alberta Social Credit Party CP-A Communist Party - Alberta GPA Green Party of Alberta PC Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta WRP Wildrose Party

Official Agents of Nominated Candidates in Lacombe-Ponoka for the May 05, 2015 Election

CANDIDATE POLITICAL PARTY/INDEPENDENT

OFFICIAL AGENT TELEPHONE NO.

OFFICIAL AGENT ADDRESS

Peter Dewit - PC Amber Deschiffart1 (888) 343-3716

RR 5, Site 1, Box 68Lacombe T4L 2N5

Doug Hart - NDP James Strachan(403) 307-2643

5925 61 Avenue Ponoka T4J 1T8

Tony Jeglum - AP Daron Jeglum(403) 391-0597

Box 28, Clive T0C 0Y0

Ron Orr - WRP Gregory Paranich(403) 600-4457

Box 96, Blackfalds T0M 0J0

For further information on the election, please contact Margaret DeVries, Returning Officer at 117, 5001 52 Street, Lacombe, AB T4L 2A6 or by phone at (403) 782-1301.

BY AMELIA NAISMITH

The Ponoka Christian School raised a record $127,000 during its annual fundraising auction, held Saturday April 11 at the school.

Each year, the school brings the community to-gether for a live and silent auction to raise money for the small school, and this year the funds will go to completing the sound system for the school’s gymnasium.

An LED work light was one of 200 items included in the school’s annual fundraising live auction, held Saturday April 11. This year the funds will go toward finishing the gymnasium’s sound system.


Auction raises funds for gymnasium sound system

“There’s a set amount that goes back into the school’s budget. Anything above and beyond, we’re hoping to finalize the sound system,” explained the school’s principal, Bob Morris.

At Thanksgiving, a large donation was given to the school, which was used to bring in sound experts and purchase $12,000 in sound reducing baffling.

“Our sound system is terrible,” said Morris.

He added the money

from the auction could also hopefully be used to get some Chromebooks for the students.

With only 100 students in the school, the auction is able to raise thousands

of dollars each year. Com-mittee chairperson Elaine Makkinga says it is the school’s key fundraiser for the year.

“I think it’s also just a good event; how it pulls the

school community together. Being a Christian school, it’s a blessing, this day. It’s all these people working together but it’s by God’s hand, we all believe that,” said Makkinga.

The family-focused event included a bouncy castle and crafts for the younger students as well as 200 items in the live auction and approximately 80 items in the silent auction.

Be environmentally friendlyRECYCLE YOUR PAPER!


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Voting will take place to elect a Member of the Legislative Assembly. Voting hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Returning Officer office hours: 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday.

If you would like to work on Voting Day, apply at www.elections.ab.ca.

Advance Voting will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from April 29, 2015 – May 02, 2015

These Advance Polls offer level access.

Advance Poll Locations: Office of the Returning Officer: 117, 5001 52 Street, Lacombe, ABRimoka Seniors Lodge, 5608 57 Avenue, Ponoka, AB

Find out more at www.elections.ab.ca

The Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act (section 9.1) requires that Third Party Advertisers must register with Elections Alberta if they spend or plan to spend more than $1000 for election advertising. Refer to our website.

Special Ballot ApplicationsAvailable from the Returning Officer throughout the election

period for electors who will be unable to vote in advance or on Voting Day because of:

• physical incapacity

• absence from the electoral division

• imprisonment

• election officer, candidate, official agent or scrutineer working away from his or her own polling station

• residency in a remote area

Announcement of the Official Results10:00 a.m. on May 15, 2015 at the Office of the Returning Officer for Lacombe-Ponoka

Returning Officer: Margaret DeVries Address: 117, 5001 52 Street, Lacombe, AB T4L 2A6 Phone: (403) 782-1301 Fax: (403) 782-0730 Email: [email protected]

The office has level access.

Provincial General Election – May 05, 2015

Polling Place Legend: Lacombe-Ponoka

LACOMBE-PONOKA

Voting Made Simple

001Dakota ChurchRge Rd 273 Twp Rd 434Ponoka County

002,003,006,007,008, 013,014Ponoka Legion Hall3911 Hwy 2APonoka

004,005Mecca Glen School234031 Hwy 53Ponoka County

009,010,011,012,015,016, 017,018Ponoka Kinsmen Community Centre5009 46 AvenuePonoka

019,020Morningside Hall4915 50 StreetMorningside

021Meadowbrook ChurchJunction Of Hwy 792 and Twp Rd 422Ponoka County

022,023,032,053Wolfcreek Community Church4110 Hwy 12Lacombe

024,025Clive Community Hall5204 50 StreetClive

026,027Mirror Community Hall5102 50 AvenueMirror

028,029Alix Community Hall5008 49 AvenueAlix

030,031Haynes Community HallJunction Of Haynes Road and Twp Rd 390Lacombe County

033,034,035,036,037,038, 039,040,041,042,043Lacombe Memorial Centre - North Hall5214 50 AvenueLacombe

044,045,046,047,048, 049,050,051,052Lacombe Memorial Centre - South Hall5214 50 AvenueLacombe

054Gull Lake Hall27 Lakeview AvenueGull Lake

055,056,057,058,059,060, 061,062,063,064/065Blackfalds Community Hall4810 Womacks RoadBlackfalds


15044DG2


5th Annual - Ladies Onlyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa55555555555555555555555555555555tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL555555555555555555555ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhChampagne BreakfastSaturday, June 27

Stage Coach Saloon

8:00 am to 11:00 am

Don’t delay!

Book your tickets early-limited seating available

Ponoka NewsPonoka News

- Proud to Support our Community- Proud to Support our Community

Tickets on Sale MAY 1

403.783.0100

Chicks for Charity Society proudly presents:

For donations or further information,

please call Jane at 403.358.8770

$40PerSeat!

• Try these simple tips to help your child stay hydrated:• Encourage your child to drink plenty of fluids

throughout the day so they arrive at sports events well hydrated. Ensure that your child has easy ac-cess to free water:

• provide water stations during sport events• send your child to school with a water bottle to bring

to gym class and to keep at their desk• ensure easy access to water fountains

• Make sure your child drinks enough fluid during activ-ity by stopping them for regular water breaks every 15 to 20 minutes. Most children do not need a sports drink during activity.

• Encourage fluids after activity is over as well. Water, milk, and soups are great options. Discourage children from drinking soft drinks, fruit

juices, sports drinks and energy drinks. These are higher in sugar (which could cause stomach aches and tooth de-cay). Some may contain caffeine which can be harmful to children.

Healthy food and drinks are an important part of school, physical activity and sports performance. Active children need plenty of fluids throughout the day with extra water during and after activity.

Help youth stay hydrated to perform at their bestEating healthy meals

and snacks and drink-ing enough fluids (staying

hydrated) are important for good health as well as school and sport perfor-

mance. Drinking enough fluid helps your body to control its temperature. Not

having enough fluid (being dehydrated) can increase the risk of injury, lead to

low energy, and have an im-pact on performance. Active youth need to drink enough

fluid before, during and af-ter exercise to help the body function at its best.


To enter call Karen at 403-783-3989

PONOKA STAMPEDE STAR

TALENT AUDITIONS Wednesday, May 27 & Thursday, May 28

at the Stagecoach Saloon at 7:00 pm

Fabulous prizes to be won!

Top 10 performers will appear at the Ponoka Stampede on Monday, June 29

on the big stage with a full band.

Spectators and audience are welcome to come and listen to some great talent.

See you there!

$3000 guitar courtesy of Gilmore Guitars,

Red Deer and Ponoka Stampede

One day recording session at MCC Recording Studio in

Calgary courtesy of Dave Temple ($1000 value)

Songwriting/Mentoring

session with Bobby Wills

Ponoka CapitolTheatre

4904 - 50th St.Ph. 403-783-3639

PLAYING May 1 - 7May 1 - 7

AGES 1264 $9.00

AGES 211& SENIORS

$7.00TUESDAYS

& MATINEES $6.00

3D$3 EXTRA

SCREEN #1Starts April 30th

Avengers:Age of Ultron

141 min2:00 PM

Sat & Sun7:00 PM Nightly

Not Rated Yet

SCREEN #2

Paul BlartMall Cop 2

94 min2:00 PM

Sat & Sun8:00 PM Daily

Rated PG

Gwynne DyerThink

Globally

“What’s emerging is what we need, which is a comprehensive plan, going after the criminal gangs, going after the traffickers, going after the owners of the boats...and stabilising the countries from which these people are coming.” And when you have fin-ished “stabilising” Syria, Somalia and Libya, over-throwing the Eritrean dictatorship, and ending poverty in West Africa, could you drop by and fix my plumbing? Oh, and Ye-men. Fix Yemen too.

“These people” are the 1,300 refugees who drowned in the Mediter-ranean in the past two weeks, the 30,000 who will drown by the end of this year while trying to cross if nothing more is done – and of course, the estimated half million who will make it safely to Italy, Malta or Greece. The speaker was Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, but he was just one voice in the European Union choir

Displacement ActivityThe EU’s leaders were

meeting in emergency ses-sion because of a public outcry over all the refugees drowning on the crossing between Libya and Italy. These same leaders were responsible for most of the deaths, because last year they ended a very effective Italian Navy search-and-rescue operation and “replaced” it with an EU operation that had a third of the resources and was not supposed to operate more than 50 km off the Italian coast.

So now they had to fix it somehow, but they were all aware that their elec-torates at home still don’t want millions of migrants flooding into the EU, refugees or not. So they did what politicians do in circumstances like these. They came up with a dis-placement activity.

The problem, it turns out, is not refugees fleeing from places like war-torn Syria and Somalia, from cruel dictatorships like Eritrea, and from impover-ished parts of West Africa. It is the evil traffickers – the new slave-traders, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called them – who lure the migrants away from their homes and charge them $2,000 per person for a place on a leaky boat to Europe.

Well, of course. Why would anybody want to leave a nice, safe place like Syria or Somalia unless they had been tricked into it by unscrupulous people-smugglers? So if we just break up those criminal gangs, maybe even go into Libyan territorial waters and destroy their boats be-fore they leave the coast, then the demand for their services will vanish. Ev-erybody will stay home,

and the problem will go away.

Wait, sorry, we forgot. We have to “stabilise” their countries too. But THEN the problem really will go away, and we’ll all live happily ever after.

Are any of the 28 EU national leaders so na-ive that they believe this garbage? Of course not. So why are they saying it? Because they, like the people who voted for or against them, are torn be-tween a distaste for seeing innocent people die, and a determination that mil-lions of those innocent people cannot come and live in their countries.

So they want to hide what the policy is really about, and displace the blame for its bad effects (namely a lot of people drowning) on somebody else. Racist and hypocriti-cal, you say, with a bit of

Islamophobia thrown in. You’re right about the hypocrisy, but for a lot of Europeans the problem re-ally is the numbers.

There are millions of people living within 1,500 km. of the Europe-an Union’s borders who would move there tomor-row if they had the chance, and that’s just the desper-ate ones who are trying to escape from wars, violent anarchy and extreme re-pression.

Count in all the oth-ers who would just like a chance to make a decent living in a place where corruption is relatively low and the law is usu-ally enforced, and you are probably into tens of millions of potential mi-grants. Most of them are not desperate enough to

risk the trans-Mediterra-nean route. Make it easier and safer, however, and lots of them would come too.

There are now close to one billion people liv-ing within 2,000 km. of the EU’s borders. Thanks to some of the world’s highest population growth rates, that will double in the next 30 years, which virtually guarantees that there will be more civil wars, more failed states and even more refugees. And that’s before you fac-tor in the impact of climate change in the sub-tropics.

The EU’s own popula-tion is about 650 million, and it is not growing. So there is deep concern among EU leaders (though many of them don’t want to say it in public) that in

ten or ten years they will be facing illegal migration so massive that it would fundamentally change the cultural identity of Euro-pean countries.

They want to get the new, much tougher policy towards refugees in place now, before the refugees taking the sea route to Eu-rope start coming in even greater numbers, but they don’t want to take respon-sibility for the deaths that will happen as a result. How to shift the blame? Try this. “It’s not our fault that all those poor people are dying at sea; it’s the fault of the evil people-smugglers.”

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are pub-lished in 45 countries.

A New Bundle A New Bundle

of of Joy?Joy?Share it with family

& friends in the

1-877-223-33111-877-223-3311


JOHNSON’S BEACH CAMPGROUNDMay Long Weekend

Johnson’s Beach Campground is located on Red Deer Lake.From Ponoka, it’s 33km east on Highway 53 and 6km north on Rg Rd 221.

From Bashaw, it’s 7km north on Highway 21,8km west on Highway 53 and 6km north on Rg Rd 221.

“FAMILY CAMPING ONLY”• NO tents allowed• NO campers under the age of 25 (unless accompanied by an adult)• NO EXCEPTIONSWe appreciate your co-operation and hope to provide a safe and fun weekend for all.

FEES:• Groups: $22.00 per Unit or $100.00 minimum• Non-Serviced Sites: $20.00 per day• Serviced Sites: $22.00 per day

Ponoka Drop-In ActivitiesPonoka Drop-In Activities5015 – 46 Avenue5015 – 46 Avenue

Drop-ins welcome at all events.

Regular Jam Session every Saturday at 1:00pm

May 3 Country Blend 7pm - tickets avail. now $20. Contact Doreen 403-783-3805 or Drop-in exec.

PONOKA ART CLUB CLASSES

Classes held at Drop In Centre - 10am - 4pm Cost $25.00 paid at class

Contact Lyla Lang Langford 403-783-1887 or Bernice Edwards 403-783-6858

Billiards - Weekdays 1:00pm. Mon through Sat – 50 cents per game. Honour system

Monday Bridge 1:00pm

Monday Whist - 1:30pm

Monday Yoga - 6:30pm

Tuesday Canasta - 1:00pm NEW PROGRAM

Tuesday & Thursday Exercise class 9:30am

Tuesday Shuffl eboard - 7pm • FINISHED UNTIL FALL ON APRIL 28

Wednesday Sewing Guild 9:30am to 4pm

Wednesday Cribbage 1:00pm

Wednesday Yoga - 6:30pm

Wednesday Duplicate Bridge 7:00pm

Thursday Floor Curling - 1:00pm • FINISHED UNTIL FALL ON APRIL 30

Thursday Weaving 1:00pm Welcome to drop-in to see how it’s done

Thursday Bridge 1:00pm

Thursday Pickleball 7pm - contact Janice Mackie 403-396-4315 for location

Thursday Art Club Drop In Noon to 4pm

Friday “500” 1:00pm

Saturday Yoga 9:30am

Memberships available for 2015 - $10.00 per person. To rent our facility contact Dorothy @ 403-783-3027 or George @ 403-

783- 3514 or leave a message @ 403-783-5012. Rentals are increasing and we would like to invite our town administration,

business groups, and general public (Wedding, funeral, and Birthday groups), to inquire about rentals services and prices

early in their planning. We may fi t your bill!

The kids were unbeliev-ably disappointed.

There isn’t much you could do, though, when a long-anticipated event gets rained out. You can rant and shake your fist at the sky but you know that’s en-ergy wasted. The best you can do is rent a movie, re-schedule your event – and read “Rain: A Natural and Cultural History” by Cyn-thia Barnett.

Eons ago, just after Earth became more than a bit of debris flung off in the birth of the sun, wa-ter vapor got trapped in our planet’s atmosphere. Eventually, Earth’s surface cooled enough that that moisture poured down and it rained for years. That’s a good thing: without it, there would be no life here.

Early civilizations came and went with the rains.

You may be surprisingly happy to have read this book

Terri Schlichenmeyer

The Bookworm

“Rain: A Natural and Cultural History”by Cynthia Barnett

c.2015, Crown$25.00 / $29.95 Canada 368 pages

Humans moved from forest to savannah and picked up hoes, tamed livestock, and built boats. They created gods to explain where rain comes from and who ruled lightning, and just about ev-ery culture passed down a cataclysmic flood story.

Centuries ago, people learned to harness and save water, yet they could do lit-tle but dance or pray for rain to fall in times of draught. In the early 1400s, King Sejong the Great of Korea understood how to measure what fell. In the late 1500s, witches were blamed for dry spells; barometers were invented a hundred years later, and a fad for weath-er-watching captivated America and Europe.

By 1802, clouds were named by a man whose father thought weather prediction was folly; later that century, rainmakers were paid fortunes to make clouds form over dry fields. Today, even though we have modern methods of predicting rain and there are thousands of local pre-cipitation reporters around the world, meteorologists sometimes still miss storms and showers.

Even if we could tell where it was going to come down (or not), there are things about rain we tend to overlook. Doodlers get raindrop shapes all wrong, for instance. We ignore that rain has changed elections, societies, and wars. We mightn’t understand that pruny-wet fingers could be an ancient rain adaptation, or that “raining cats and

dogs” isn’t what other cul-tures say. And we may not know that the rain falling on our faces today may have wet the faces of our most ancient ancestors.

Maybe because it’s as refreshing as its title, or maybe because it reminded me of spring, but “Rain: A Natural and Cultural His-tory” made me very happy.

That stuff that falls from the sky isn’t strictly what this book is all about, though. Author Cynthia Barnett also touches upon history, biology, Earth sci-ence, global warming, and

all kinds of tiny facets of culture. We’re sprinkled with delightful surprises, as well as terrifying tales of draughts and floods, then introduced to majesty on one page and destruction two pages later. That, for sure, is not all wet.

This book practically screams for weather fans to own it. It’s filled with fascinating knowledge, no matter where you live. Whether your pray for precipitation or curse it, “Rain: A Natural and Cul-tural History” is awash with goodness.

Cynthia BarnettPhoto courtesy of Jennifer Adler


Ponoka’s drinking water reservoirs underwent impor-tant maintenance last week to ensure the town’s water stays clean.

Aquatech Dive Services was hired to conduct water reservoir cleanup at the Town of Ponoka’s water reservoirs with much of the time being spent at the Lucas Hieghts Pump Station.

The company spent some time Monday, April 27 ex-plaining what it takes to clean the one million gallon tank.

“We’re taking a look at the floor for any cracks, any pop outs. Same with the pil-lars and the walls,” explained dive supervisor Steve Beru-be.

While the idea of be-ing a scuba diver brings out the adventurer in a person, Aquatech’s work is really about proper maintenance and cleaning of reservoirs. Their job is assisted with high tech underwater video equipment that gives them and clients a direct look at the infrastructure.

He says cleanup of these reservoirs is important and while the town’s reservoir is relatively clean, he has come across some where the sedi-ment is a couple of feet deep. “We recommend a schedule of every three to five years to have them inspected at least.”

Diver Priscilla Hamilton has been certified as a diver for a year and she says vis-ibility can be minimal if there is a lot of sediment. “It is really easy to get lost in a tank,” said Hamilton.

“You just kind of have to constantly remind your-self which wall you’re up against,” she added.

The only real source of light is from the helmet, which illuminates the way for a diver, who can then track cleanup. “You wouldn’t want to continuously keep changing your direction,” she explained.

Divers go into a tank with full body scuba gear, weigh-ing in at approximately 100 pounds, and a large helmet to allow constant airflow, said Berube. They are able to speak with the dive supervi-sor and even listen to music

while conducting the work, usually for a three-hour stretch.

To ensure no contami-nants enter the water, divers’ skin is completely covered and their gear is sanitized be-fore entering a reservoir.

The Lucas Heights res-ervoir is relatively large

measuring in at approximate-ly four metres by 40 metres by 40 metres. The water is about three metres deep, explained Steve Wass, water-works foreman for the town.

He recently ordered a mixer that will be placed in the middle of the reservoir. Wass says this mixer creates

a healthy flow of water that ensures cleaning chemicals do not sit stagnant.

“If you have that stuff in suspension in the water, that’s when you have trouble with your chlorine doing its job,” explained Wass.

Berube said some of the more interesting items he has

found in other reservoirs over the years have been bugs, a mouse, a wallet, half of a rifle and a broomstick. Ham-ilton said she once found a wrench that had to be pried off the floor.

Work on the Lucas Heights reservoir was esti-mated to take three days.


TO VIEW A COMPLETE LIST OF OUR PROPERTIES AND VIRTUAL TOURS PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT www.ponokaproperties.com

real estate central alberta

6000 - 48 Ave.(Beside The Old Iron Horse

Restaurant)

403-783-5007 TODD REEDAssoc. Broker

DEB STEVENSAssoc. Broker

LISA SMITHAssociate

JANE WIERZBAAssociate

BOB TILTGENAssociate

Proud sponsors ofRDC Arts Programs

LACEY GREGORYAssociate

- 1157 sq. ft.- 4 beds & 2 baths- Detached garage- Located in Wetaskiwin$257,900 Call Jane or Lacey

HOME SWEET HOME!

- Very well cared- 2 bdrm, 1 bath- Recent upgraded windows, fl ooring, exterior paint & back deck

- 22’x22’ family rm with fi replace$212,000 ~ Call Todd

LARGE LOT/RIVER FRONTAGE

- 1006 sq. ft. bi-level, 3 bdrms / 2 baths

- Great layout & fi nished throughout- In-fl oor heat in basement- Fenced yard w/new sidewalks- Large deck & shed- Just move in!$329,000 ~ Call Bob

FULLY FINISHED!

- Over 1200 sq. ft.- Fully Finished- Double Garage- Extra Large 70’x207’ Lot- New Carpet and Hardwood- Original Owner Home

$315,000 ~ Call Todd

IMMACULATE HOME- 1.74 acre parcel in Ponoka’s SW Industrial Park

- 10,000 sq. ft. facility- Suitable for manufacturing, trucking, welding, etc.

- Includes overhead crane and compressor system

- Lot is perimeter fenced$800,000 ~ Call Todd

INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITY ACREAGE NEAR GULL LAKE- 2.67 acres with electrical, water well & septic system- Perimeter fenced- Garage pad on the property$159,000 ~ Call Todd

AFFORDABLE FAMILY HOME- Central Location- 1120 sq ft, 5 bdrm & 2 bath- Open Concept Main Floor- Huge lot, partially fenced- Great starter or revenue!$200,000 ~ Call Lisa

GREAT PLACE TO START!- 5 bedrooms, 3 baths- Over 2300 sq ft developed- Quality construction- Fully fenced yard- Move in Ready!$260,000 ~ Call Lisa

FANTASTIC VALUE!- Solid bungalow in great location

- 945 sq. ft., 4 bdrms, 2 baths- Large fenced yard with double garage

- Many costly updates are done!$224,900 ~ Call Lisa

RED DEER LAKE FIXER- Year Round Living at Johnson’s

Beach- 1300 sq ft- 2 bedrooms, 1 bath- Private Yard$150,000 ~ Call Lisa

- 2 + 2 bdrm bungalow, 2 baths- Some upgrades, including

windows, furnace, hot water tank- Nice sized lot, close to the golf

course- Single, Detached Garage

$179,900 Call Jane or Lacey

GREAT STARTER OR REVENUE PROPERTY

- Mature 10 acre parcel, minutes from town- 1236 sq ft with 3 + 1 bdrms & 3 baths- Open fl oor plan with new kitchen &

appliances- Too many upgrades to mention!- Oversized garage, 3 storage sheds &

livestock waterer$439,900 Call Jane or Lacey

QUIET COUNTRY LIVING!- 1018 sq ft, 2 bdrms, 1 bath- Thoughtfully planned, spacious

layout- Unfi nished basement with great

development potential- Nicely landscaped, great location

$259,900 Call Jane or Lacey

QUALITY & STYLE

- 795 sqft Bungalow in Wetaskiwin- 2 bdrms & NEW bathroom- Close to downtown- Detached double garage- Great starter or revenue$59,900 ~ Call Bob

AFFORDABLE LIVING

- Close to downt- Detached doub- Great starter oSOLDSOLD

CORNER LOT- 1075 sq ft, 4 Bdrms / 2 Baths- NEW shingles- Partially fi nished basement- Attached double garage- Located on Corner lot in

north end$169,000 ~ Call Bob

NEW LISTING

- Picturesque River Valley View- 1784 sq ft Executive Hillside Bungalow- Numerous Upscale Outbuildings- Commercial Potential- 81 Scenic acres - Fantastic Location w/ easy access

to Hwy 2Call Deb for details

THIS ACREAGE HAS EVERYTHING - 1383 sq. ft. Bi-Level- Walk-Out Basement- 5 B/R, 3 Full Baths- Large Backyard- Too Many Extras to List$419,000 Call Deb

HOME WITH A VIEW!- 895 sq ft bungalow- 5 B/R, 2 Bath- Partially Finished Basement- Many Upgrades- Single Garage$189,900 Call Deb

GREAT STARTER/REVENUE - 4 – Level Split- 1,692 Sq.Ft.- Large Country Kitchen- Enclosed Sunroom- Too Many Extras to List$372,000 ~ Call Deb

EXECUTIVE HOME

NEW PRICE

A MUST SEE!!- 1253 sq ft Bungalow, 4 bdrms & 2 baths- Beautifully done, numerous upgrades- 10’ ceilings, hardwood & fi replace- NEW appliances & Birch Cabinets- Fenced, Landscaped & detached dbl garage- Close to Hospital & School$339,900 ~ Call Bob

Scuba divers clean up Ponoka’s reservoirs

Priscilla Hamilton, a diver with Aquatech Dive Services, monitors the cleaning of the town’s water reservoir Monday, April 27 at Lucas Heights. The company uses a special underwater camera system to monitor clean up. Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye


Ponoka Victims Services (PVS) hosted a barbecue

Thursday, April 23 to raise awareness of the National Victims of Crime Awareness week.

The awareness campaign was set for the week of April 29 to 25 and Miranda Pinksen, executive director with Ponoka Victims Services, said the barbecue was intended to increase engagement in the community.

“We’re more of a behind the scenes service in the community,” said Pinksen.

PVS advocates are all volunteers who take time out

of their lives to help people in various emergencies. They will help victims in times of crime, fire, accidents and other areas where they are needed, said Pinksen.

“Our services are pretty vital to support the victims through the process of what’s happened,” said Pinken.

There are times that advocates have helped a victim from the onset of a tragedy all the way to the final ver-dict in court. Help could be as small as finding a room for someone at a hotel in the event of a minor accident but also for serious matters.

“We’re trained in the event of homicide,” she ex-plained.

“We have a lot of resources here in Alberta,” she added.

Funding for victims services in Alberta comes from a portion of tickets and fines made in court. The mon-ey goes to a “victims of crime” fund and is used from there. Pinksen said she was able to take advantage of a federal grant to host the barbecue.

She feels the positive impact from advocates is hard to measure because their role is important.

Becoming an advocate does take a few months as there is a high level of training provided to ensure advo-cates can manage most emergency situations. Pinksen says one of the benefits of being an advocate is being part of a team that helps people in need.

“It’s the camaraderie that you get from the board and from your advocates as well,” said Pinksen.


403-783-8881

#3, 5012-48 Avein the Wedin’s Prof. Bldg.

TO VIEW ALL LISTINGS VISIT US ONLINE AT WWW.FIRSTCHOICEPONOKA.COM

RIZWAN SYEDAssociate

Large family home with all living space on the main fl oor. Large living room with woodstove, 3 bdrms + an offi ce, as well as large family room with woodburning fi replace. Over 2100 sq.ft. all on an oversized lot.

RIVERSIDE

$224,000

Beautiful bi level home, many upgrades, hardwood fl oors, European tile & slate, 4 bdrm, 3 baths, oversized double g a r a g e / h e a t e d , mature yard, great location in Red Deer.

RED DEER

$349,900

Over 1200 sq ft. home with everything on one level. 3 bedrooms and a 5 pc. bath, open concept, double attached garage. Located in the north end of Ponoka.

NORTH END

$225,000

BOB TILTGEN 403-704-0644real estate central alberta

6000 - 48 Ave., Ponoka

$245,000 ~ Call Bob!

NEW LISTING

UPGRADED HOME• 1129 sq ft raised

bungalow• 5 bdrms/3 baths• Extensive recent

upgrades• Great family home• Large deck & yard• Quiet area• Move in ready!

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$135,000 ~ Call Bob!

NEW LISTING • Views of 15th fairway @ Wolf Creek!!

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place

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FEATURED LISTINGS THIS WEEK

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real estate central alberta

6000 • 48 Ave, Ponoka

Jane Wierzba 403-358-8770Trusted Experience

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•

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NEW LISTING THIS WEEK

$319,000Call Jane or Lacey

Ponoka Victims Services hosted a barbecue and candlelight vigil Thursday, April 23 at the Kinsmen Community Centre for Victims of Crime Awareness Week. Here Althea Lewis plays the piano during the vigil. Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye

Victims Services hosts awareness barbecue


JOHN W. LOW Agencies Inc.5118 - 50th Street, Ponoka 1-800-392-8658 403-783-5512

PROFESSIONAL REALTORS OF JOHN W. LOW AGENCIES INC.

WAYNEMcGARVEY

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SHAWNA LOWBroker

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VACANT LOTGreat opportunity to build your dream home or duplex in north end of town. Mature neighbourhood.

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Call Annettefor details

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For more details call Annette403-704-7023

Located north of Ponoka with 2000 16 X 80 manufactured home. Ideal country setting.

ASKING PRICE $269,000Call Brian

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GET READY FOR SPRING!6 ACREAGES AVAILABLE. Beautiful building sites just a short drive south of Ponoka in Jada Estates. Building restricitons make this property an exclusive area for upscale homes.

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Great location on main street of Ponoka. Total space

2750 sq. ft. building and lot only. $139,000

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COMMERCIAL 4 bedroom, 3 bath bungalow with walkout basement and triple garage. Located on 5.93 acres only minutes from town.

4 bedroom, 3 bathrooms, move in ready home located in Lucas Heights on large lot.

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real estate central alberta6000 - 48 Ave., Ponoka

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GREAT STARTER OR REVENUE!• Over 2000 developed sq ft• 4 Bdrms, 3 baths• Double attached garage• Fenced Yard• Downstairs suite

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Within 2 km of PonokaNo Building Restrictions set by Developer

1.21 Acres$$99,00099,000

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1.27 Acres with Drilled Well

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Call Deb!

According to Statistics Canada, Alberta ranked 7th overall in life satisfaction with Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan ranking No. 1 and No. 2. Edmonton is ranked 30th and Calgary 23rd among 33 Canadian cities, in terms of life sat-isfaction in the most recent survey measuring Cana-dian happiness.

Hard to believe, isn't it? After all, at $84,390, Alberta has the highest per capita income in the na-tion.

Now look at these fig-ures:• One in five working

Albertans (20 per cent) earns less than a living wage ($15/hour);

• The average Alber-ta household debt is $124,838, adding strain to family life and un-necessary stresses on the healthcare system;

• 21.1 per cent of Alber-tans experience of lot of stress in their lives (Alberta ranked 10th among the provinces and territories), with Newfoundland be-ing the least stressed province (15.2 per cent experience stress);

• Only 63.6 per cent of Albertans felt a strong sense of belonging to their community. That placed us 12th, just ahead of lowest-ranked Quebec. Nunavut has the highest sense of be-longing.

But it could be, if Alberta establishes a new economicvision based on the well-being of its citizens

It's no fun being an Albertan

Mark AnielskiTroy Media Columnist

Let's not forget our unfunded social and hu-man capital liabilities, either. Our First Nations, for example, are living in poverty and hopelessness with high rates of suicide.

The Genuine Wealth Institute has estimated that the province's Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), a broad measure of societal well-being (what I like to call the Happiness Index), declined 0.5 per cent per year between 1961 and 2003. Meanwhile, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita increased steadily by about 2.2 per cent per year. I guess it's true that money can't buy happiness.

Today, in the midst of another provincial elec-tion, maybe it is time to move on to a new aspira-tional vision for Alberta. It would be based on in-dividual and collective "happiness," using our

abundant natural assets (oil, gas, agricultural land, forests and clean water), our human capital, our so-cial capital (relationships, trust) and our entrepre-neurial spirit to build a better, more just economy.

But using a well-being-based investment approach to governing the province would require es-tablishing a new strategic vision for the future.

Maybe the past can of-fer us some guidance.

When Peter Lougheed was elected premier in 1971, he led his team with a new vision for Alberta that included championing the oil and gas industry and developing the oil sands. But his vision also included collecting a fair share of royalties based on the value of oil and gas sales and putting aside 30 per cent or more of this money in Alberta's Heri-tage Savings and Trust

Fund. He did this to ensure Albertans received an ap-propriate return-on-equity for our natural resources.

During the Lougheed years, royalties on oil and gas averaged 27 per cent of their value. Unfortu-nately, beginning in 1985 the rate of return to Alber-tans from oil and gas sales has been steadily falling, reaching its lowest level during Alison Redford's tenure.

The Alberta gov-ernment (as do all governments in Canada) currently operates with-out a balance sheet, so my first recommendation would be that we conduct a review of the real total wealth held by the prov-ince. That review will give us the tools to properly manage our natural capital and optimize our human and social capital assets as well. It could be a game-changer for the province.

Alberta could become a model economy of well-being following the lead of China and Bhutan which have both adopted a new economic paradigm based on well-being and happiness. The Chinese model is based on the an-cient Confucian idea of "xiaokang," which means "a society of well-being" where economic growth is balanced with sometimes-conflicting goals of social equality and environmen-tal protection.

Given the present unhappy state of our province's well-being, I encourage all Albertans to ask their candidates dur-

ing the provincial election if they would support an economy of well-being that would create a much better future for our chil-dren and grandchildren.

Mark Anielski is an economist and co-found-er of the Genuine Wealth Institute, an economic think-tank whose mission is to provide practical ideas, analytics and so-lutions for businesses, communities, and nations in building the new econ-omy of well-being. Mark served as senior economic advisor to China between 2003-2007 and is an eco-nomic advisor to Bhutan.

DO YOUR PART

RECYCLE


SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

www.ponokaageventcentre.com403-755-8490 | 3611 Hwy 2A, Ponoka

BREAKFAST & LUNCH SERVED MONDAY – FRIDAY 7AM – 2PM

CALNASH AG EVENTS CENTRE

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

MAYMAYCALENDAR

Parkland Area Alberta Dressage Assoc. - Dressage Daze III

World Series of Team Roping @9am

Can Am Barrel Classic @9:30am

Black Elk Cutting

Aurora Arabian Horse Show

PAADA Move in

World Series of Team Roping @4pm

ARENA CLOSED Barrel Classic Setup

Black Elk Cutting

Aurora Arabian Horse Show

4 H Beef Achievement Day Setup - BarnParkland Area Alberta Dressage Assoc. - Dressage Daze III

Team Roping Canada @9am

Can Am Barrel Classic @9:30am

Black Elk Cutting

31Aurora Arabian Horse Show

4H Achievement Day Setup - BarnOpen Ride 9am-4pmSilver Valley 4H - Arena 7-9pm

ARENA CLOSEDSilver Valley 4H - Arena 7-9pm

Victoria DayARENA CLOSED Ground Prep

ARENA CLOSED Ground Maintenance

4H Beef Show & Sale @5pm - BarnBarrel Practice / Open Ride 9am-1pmOpen Ride 1pm-4pm

Barrel Practice / Open Ride 9am-1pmOpen Ride 1pm-4pm

ARENA CLOSED Ground Prep

ARENA CLOSED Ground Maintenance

Barrel Practice / Open Ride 9am-8pm


Black Elk Cutting - Move in




Black Elk Cutting

Aurora Move in

Please check website regularly for furtherinformation & updates as info is

‘Subject to change’

35TH ANNUAL SUMMER MACHINERY 35TH ANNUAL SUMMER MACHINERY CONSIGNMENT AUCTIONCONSIGNMENT AUCTION

FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015 • RIMBEY, ALBERTA

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO CONSIGN CALL:

ALLEN B. OLSON AUCTION SERVICE LTD.RIMBEY, ALBERTA • License No. 165690

(403) 843-2747 • 1 (855) 783-0556 Toll FreeE-mail: [email protected] • Homepage: allenolsonauction.com

Selling equipment to all four Western provinces and the Northern USA. Listings are now being accepted for the Summer Machinery Consignment Auction.All items must be listed by Tuesday, May 19, 2015 to be included on our Sales Posters, Newspaper, Radio Advertising, Web Page and extensive mailing lists.

PAECS seeing continued growth at ag event centre


It has been another good year at the Calnash Ag Event Centre and the proof is in the financials as presented during the Ponoka Ag Event Centre Society’s (PAECS) annual general meeting.

PAECS president Terry Jones told attendees at the AGM Monday, April 27 that he is proud of the growth the ag centre has seen. He said managers Joyce Vold and Dennis Pugh have done so well that the centre has only two weekends avail-able for 2015.

“It’s pretty awesome to be booked up,” said Jones.

A big project the as-sociation will be working on in the near future is fundraising for a roof to connect the barn and the main arena. He feels join-ing the two buildings will bring new events to Ponoka during the winter months.

The Alberta Barrel Rac-ing Association (ABRA) finals continues to be a big draw for the ag centre. “We’re thrilled to have the ABRA. They’re our big-gest customer and they signed a five year lease,” said Jones.

This year’s AGM was a little different than last year’s as the financial statements do not include the operation revenues and expenses as that belongs to the Ponoka Agricultural Society (PAS). Operations and staff salaries belong to PAS to take advantage of provincial grants available to agriculture societies. Revenues up for the cen-tre

Revenues for the build-ing at the end of September 2014 were at $970,594 with expenses coming in at $817,605. The dif-ference left the ag centre with a surplus of $152,989

Gord Parker, accountant with Rowland, Parker and Associates (standing), speaks to attendees of the Ponoka Ag Event Centre Society AGM Monday, April 27. (l-r) Watching on are Cec Dykstra (secretary/treasurer), Terry Jones (president) and Sherry Gummow (vice-president). Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye

Despite that, there is some interest on the capi-tal debt at the building and PAECS had a short-fall of $66,452, just under half of which was due to

a goods and services tax adjustment. Canada Rev-enue Agency proposed to disallow $487,576 in In-put Tax Credits that were previously claimed, the

maximum expected liabil-ity is $32,300.

The other expense is from interest and bank charges. Despite the differ-ence, between PAECS and PAS operating, the society is still seeing a positive revenue of $86,537.

PAECS’ cash posi-tion at the end of its fiscal year – Sept. 30, 2014 – was $356,073, just over twice the figure in 2013, which was $174,886.Youth rodeo school

One area that Jones feels PAECS is short on is having a youth rodeo school. He suggests a ro-deo school in one or two week courses would be ideal for the ag centre.

“My goal is to buy a set of bucking shoots and start having some rodeo schools for the youth and teach them the right way to ride,” said Jones.

He feels there is a wealth of knowledge in Ponoka that could provide valuable experience to young rodeo athletes. “We have the local guys around town that have the exper-tise,” he said.

Other events such as the Festival of Trees and re-cent bull sales have proved to be successful events at the centre, he added. The Festival of Trees is set to occur at the centre again this year.


explained Gord Parker, ac-countant with Rowland, Parker and Associates.


County residents requiring dust control on roads adjacent to their property can select either calcium chloride or oil to be applied to the road surface.

This season there will be a subsidy of $250.00 available per applicant. The County will supply the grader to do the work and any water or gravel that is necessary to make the application work.

Calcium Chloride will cost $1.25 per foot (plus GST). Minimum of 400’ required.

Oil is $6.00 per foot (plus GST). This amount will vary as supply demands change. Minimum of 400’ required.

If you are interested in this service, arrangements for stakes to be picked up and payment for the application can be made at the time of the request with Lorna at the Ponoka County Offi ce.

For further information phone 403-783-3333

Ponoka County4205 - Hwy 2A

Ponoka, ABT4J 1V9

Ponoka CountyPUBLIC NOTICE

DUST CONTROL PROGRAM 2015

Jim E. Lysons,A. L. S., P. Eng. ALBERTA LAND SURVEYORPROFESSIONAL ENGINEER

R.R. #3, PONOKA, ALBERTA T4J 1R3

SUBDIVISIONS, PROPERTY BOUNDARIES, ROAD & DITCH DESIGNS,

MUNICIPAL ENGINEERING CONSULTANT

RES: 403-783-6756

Slow noisePlant 2015 continues

south of the 49th parallel with some activity here in Western Canada but things have been slowed by some sporadic, cooler, wetter weather (a mini-blizzard in southern Manitoba!). The U.S.D.A.’s progress report is showing us that corn sowing is slightly behind schedule with the southeast and eastern regions way behind. As a result, even the seed companies are admitting that prospective corn acres there could be switched over to soybeans or sorghum as the optimal yields window passes. Con-versely, U.S. spring cereal seeding remains ahead of schedule and the U.S. win-

ter wheat crop did enjoy the rain it got in mid-April but the portion of the crop rated good-to-excellent continue to fall in major growing states in the south-ern plains. Overall, some of the noise currently playing with traders’ and farmers’ emotions includes updated weather reports, rumours of more labour strikes in South America, lower feed demand in the U.S. be-cause of a bird flu making the rounds, and crop-killing rain in parts of India.

As we’re heading into a year where growing con-ditions remain relatively alright, the supply-side argument looks to be well-backed in the form of more

big numbers. Some people are starting to compare the phase of the commodity cycle to that of the 1980s where margins were simi-larly tight (albeit interest rates are significantly dif-ferent than back then). On that note, we are also us-ing more technology on the farms these days, which is relatively increasing pro-duction come harvest time. So while there’s argument that this a good thing for the rest of the world as more and more farmers employ new, but expensive technologies that produce more and more food, it also means that food prices will fall, leaving the aforemen-tioned margin smaller and

smaller. Alas, this can push more people out of farm-ing (a la the 1980s) but I’m confident that we run our operations more proac-tively these days between penciling out our costs of production and locking in profit as it becomes avail-able (“make sales when you can, not when you have to!). The good news is that countries like Saudi Arabia and China are abandoning their self-sufficient agricul-tural policies, relying on those who are the best in the world as providing them food security.

Let’s keep things rela-tive though – the market will continue to move re-gardless of your margin. Some of these moves are legitimate fundamental factors. For example, the most recent StatsCan re-port shows that 19.4 million acres of canola will get planted this spring, versus expectations of around 20.3 million. Other acreage dif-ferences were more pulses (no surprise there), more flax and way more oats and barley year-over-year. Comparably, when little things like the aforemen-

tioned “noise” happens, the market gives a knee-jerk reaction to the aforemen-tioned noise. This in mind, managed money is sitting at or near record short po-sitions on the futures board, and some would consider that to be a contrarian indi-cator that we have bottomed out and there’s only upside here. It also brings back the argument that if there is any significant weather risk (i.e. continuous rains slowing down Plant 2015) or increasing geopoliti-cal risk (i.e. another Arab Spring in Egypt), the mar-ket will rise and managed money closing out of short positions could accelerate a rally. That being said, these sort of rallies should be identified as opportunities – traders look at it as “buy the rumour, sell the fact” where a farmer should think of it as “sell the rumour, profit on the fact”.

To growth,Brennan Turner

President, FarmLead.comBrennan Turner is origi-

nally from Foam Lake, SK, where his family started farming the land in the 1920s. After completing his

degree in economics from Yale University and then playing some pro hockey, Mr. Turner spent some time working in finance before starting FarmLead.com, a risk-free, transparent online and now mobile grain mar-ketplace (app available for iOS & Android). His weekly column is a summary of his free, daily market note, the FarmLead Breakfast Brief. He can be reached via email ([email protected]) or phone (1-855-332-7653).

continued from page 32Directors exceeded terms of service

One issue that requires attention is that the bylaws of the organization may have been violated by the length of the term served by some of the directors on the PAECS board.

On July 18, 2008 the society was formed with board members being al-lowed two terms of service. A term of service is set at three years. The bylaws state that: “Board members may serve on the board for a maximum of two consec-utive three-year terms.”

The board consists of four partners: the Ponoka Stampede and Exhibi-tion Association (three members), PAS (three members), the Town of Ponoka and Ponoka Coun-ty (both one member) and one more member at large representing the commu-nity. PAECS has not had a member at large for some years.

PAS members of the board, Cec Dykstra and Sherry Gummow and Stampede members Jones,

Dale Olsen and Danny Jones were members since PAECS was formed. It is believed their terms of ser-vice ended July 18, 2014.

Jones said a new policy and procedures committee has been formed to dis-cuss potential changes in the bylaws. “We’ve been meeting the last month and the policy and procedures committee has been going over the bylaws and setting the policy.”

He added that much has changed since the board was formed and the committee, along with a lawyer, will put forward suggestions to the PAECS board as to how to pro-ceed. Jones is in favour of keeping existing board members. When asked if there is a benefit to chang-ing directors, he disagreed.

“The members we have now, they’re all in it for the same reason. It’s to make this the best facility in Can-

ada,” said Jones. He likened keeping

the same directors to the Ponoka Stampede and Ex-hibition Association and the success they have had over the years. “We have such a good board right now.”Looking for a member at large

The last member at large was Don Letwinetz, who left a few years ago. Jones said it can be a chal-lenge to find someone willing to put in the hours. The board has advertised for the position but a suit-able candidate has not been found.

“You’ve gotta be com-munity minded and willing to volunteer,” explained Jones of the position.

He says while attend-ing meetings is one part of the job, it’s also working closely with the staff and working to fundraise for PAECS.

FARM LEADBrennan Turner

Another good year at Calnash Ag Centre

This paper is

100% 100% RecyclableRecyclable


Good Feeder Steers 1000 lbs Plus: 210.00-225.00 Good Feeder Steers 900 lbs Plus: 230.00-245.00 Good Feeder Steers 800 lbs Plus: 245.00-258.00 Good Feeder Steers 700 lbs Plus: 262.00-289.00 Good Feeder Steers 600 lbs Plus: 300.00-330.00 Good Feeder Steers 500 lbs Plus: 320.00-338.00 Good Feeder Steers 400 lbs Plus: 330.00-365.00 Good Feeder Steers 300 lbs Plus: 350.00-385.00

Dairy Steers 190.00-217.00

Baby Calves Dairy Type: 150.00-500.00

Baby Calves Beef Type: 300.00-625.00

Hay: Sq Bales 5.25-7.00

Straw: Sq. Bales NONE

Greenfeed: Sq. Bales

VJV MARKET REPORTMARKET REPORT APRIL 22, 2015

On Wednesday, April 22, 2015 - 2510 head of cattle went through our rings

& 122 head on the Canadian Satellite - TOTAL - 2632

Vold Jones & Vold Auction Co. Ltd. | Dawson Creek Auction

Vold Jones & Vold Co. Ltd. © 2006

4410-Hwy 2A, Ponoka Alberta, Canada, T4J 1J8

SLAUGHTER CATTLE

STOCKERS AND FEEDERS

D1 - D2 cows 135.00 -148.00D3 - D4 cows 115.00-133.00Good Holstein cows 130.00-145.00Medium Holstein cows 108.00-122.00Heiferettes 145.00-160.00Bologna Bulls 165.00-190.00

Feeder bulls 180.00-200.00Good Bred Cows 2200.00-2800.00Older Bred Cows N/AGood Bred Heifers: 2200.00-2500.00Cow/calf pairs (younger) 2850.00-3400.00Cow/Calf pairs (older) N/A

Rd Bales 75.00-90.00

Rd Bales NONERd Bales

Heifers 195.00-210.00Heifers 220.00-232.00Heifers 226.00-240.00Heifers 245.00-265.00Heifers 260.00-278.00Heifers 300.00-320.00Heifers 310.00-345.00Heifers 335.00-360.00

MAY 13/15 - TOWN OF PONOKA BIKE SALE

CUSTOM FENCING

• CORRALS • ARENAS• ENTRANCES • BARBWIRE• TEAR DOWN OLD FENCE

Call Deven 403-963-3887

Canadians keep

donatingBY KIM INGLIS

For the third year in a row, Canadians have been more philanthropic than the year previous. Accord-ing to the most recent BMO Charitable Giving Poll, 84 per cent of Canadians made a charitable donation in the past 12 months with the av-erage gift being $624 - an increase of 8 per cent from 2013.

And, Canadians want this generosity to continue its upward trend. When asked about their 2015 plans, 90 per cent expect to make donations totaling $720. Interestingly, many also use their philanthropy as a teaching tool.

Another 2014 survey, commissioned by Imagine Canada, examined both generosity and attitudes about charitable donations. It found that one-third of donors wanted to set an ex-ample for their children or others about the importance of giving back.

While these data all bode well for the less for-tunate, giving can also help the charitable organizations and donors. Cash donations are still the most popular way of giving, but both charity and donor can ben-

efit from more tax efficient ways of achieving their philanthropic goals.

Gifting publicly listed securities, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds to registered charities is one way. A donor who sells the shares of appreciated secu-rities, and donates the cash, is taxed on capital gains. However, if the shares are donated directly, the charity issues a tax receipt based on the fair market value of the securities. The charity gets the full value of the shares and the donor gets a full value tax credit without the imposition of capital gains taxes.

Efficient philanthropy is also achievable with RSPs, where the donor names a charity as beneficiary of their registered plan. On death, the balance of the plan transfers directly to the charity, and the estate receives a tax credit for the value on disposition. This can offset taxes on final in-come and effectively bypass probate fees. Flexibility is another advantage because the donor can change the beneficiary if circumstanc-es change.

Similarly, insurance can be used with a charity named as beneficiary. When

the donor passes, the chari-ty receives the policy’s cash surrender value plus any net accumulated dividends and interest. The resulting tax credit can be applied to a final tax return.

Donor Advised Fund funds set up endowments wherein the donor makes an irrevocable contribution of cash and other assets, which are invested to maximize the worth of the dona-tion and increase its value. Investors can set grant rec-ommendations and choose which registered charities receive donations. In return they are provided with an immediate tax benefit that can be carried forward up to five years, and they have a continuing philanthropic legacy.

Those wishing to donate to a charity but still needing income can use a Charitable Remainder Trust. Assets are transferred into a trust and the donor gets an immedi-ate tax benefit. The donor receives lifetime income and the charity receives the assets when the donor dies.

Kim Inglis, CIM, PFP, FCSI, AIFP is an Investment Advisor & Portfolio Manag-er with Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, a divi-sion of Canaccord Genuity Corp., Member – Canadian Investor Protection Fund. www.reynoldsinglis.ca. The views in this column are solely those of the author.

Investing our hearts in champagne

BY DAVID WHITE

“Here you have this wonderful, miraculous thing, with hundreds of thousands of little tiny bubbles that are defeating gravity and exploding in this gentle fragrant foam on the lip of the glass. There is something beautiful – in a kind of giddy way – about just the sight of Cham-pagne.”

It was slightly surprising to hear wine importer Terry Theise make this statement.

Since the dawn of glob-al wine consumption, large producers like Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clic-quot have dominated the Champagne market. These companies purchase their grapes from thousands of growers across the region to deliver a consistent product each year – and spend mil-lions trying to convince us that their wines are best en-joyed when celebrating.

Theise has spent the past 20 years urging Americans to ignore these companies and instead drink “farmer fizz,” or Champagne pro-duced by the farmers who grow the grapes. And he’s worked harder than anyone to dispel the notion that Champagne should only be consumed on New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, and other special occasions.

But Theise recognizes that Champagne carries an emotional charge. There is, to put it simply, something

special about Champagne. As Theise writes in his most recent catalog, “we invest our hearts in it.”

Theise and I connected because I wanted to find out why he started importing Champagne.

Theise first brought in wines from the region in 1997. He was already a well-known importer of se-rious wines from Germany and Austria, countries that were – and still are – curi-osities for most Americans. Convincing consumers to drink grower Champagne must have seemed like yet another Sisyphean effort. After all, while the region and its wines were always associated with prestige and luxury, only serious wine enthusiasts knew that top Champagne was on par with the finest wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

For good reason, every-day Americans poo-pooed Champagne. The good stuff was too expensive – and rarely seemed worth it. The imitation Champagne served at weddings – think Cook’s and cheap Prosecco – was, well, gross.

Theise’s professional history with Champagne dates back to the early days of his relationship with Odessa Piper, the well-known restaurateur and chef. When they be-gan dating, Piper lived in Wisconsin and Theise was settled in Washington, D.C.

“As happens in long-distance relationships,” he explained, “you have a lot of misery and heartbreak when you’re apart. But when you come together, it’s a big celebration. So we quickly ran through all the grower Champagnes that were available in the U.S. market and I found myself thinking, ‘Is this really all? There have to be more good growers than this.’”

So Theise planned a trip to Champagne with Piper, armed with advice from other serious wine geeks.

“This was all personal,” he continued. “All I want-ed to do was to buy some Champagne to ship back to myself so I’d have stuff in the cellar to open up with Odessa. So we visited a number of producers. And I came away with my mind expanded – I had not real-ized the profound degree to which Champagne was a wine of terroir, just like ev-ery other wine of Northern Europe.”

By the conclusion of his trip, Theise decided to add Champagne to his import portfolio. And slowly but surely, he found an audi-ence for his new offerings. Consumers appreciated the fact that these wines had personality – and couldn’t be found at the local corner store. Sommeliers appre-ciated the opportunity to advocate for Champagne at the dinner table.

Sales for Theise really began to take off in 2003 – and the growth has been impressive. While grow-ers accounted for just 0.62 percent of America’s Cham-pagne market in 1997, they now account for about 5 percent of it. That percent-age continues to rise. And overall shipments of Cham-pagne to the United States have been climbing steadily since 2009.

Theise doesn’t like the fact that large Champagne producers have relegated their wines to “beverages of ceremony,” but only because their marketing “presumes that ceremonies are few and far between.” As he ex-plained, “there are weekly, if not daily ceremonies.”

Champagne warrants such romanticism, espe-cially from Theise. Shortly after that first trip to Cham-pagne, Theise and Piper tied the knot.

David White is the founder and editor of Terro-irist.com, which was named “Best Overall Wine Blog” at the 2013 Wine Blog Awards.

This paper is




PONOKALIONS CLUB

Ponoka Lions Club member Bob Peters is preparing to ship 1600 pairs of used eyeglasses to be to be cleaned, sorted by prescription and distributed to people in need in developing countries. Thanks Ponoka for your support.

12th Annual Giant Indoor Garage Sale on Saturday, May 2 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.A huge selection of items including furniture, radios, kitchen utensils, dishes, toys, glassware, tools, clocks, home decorations and many more.

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IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN!

Visualize! Work hard! Dream and plan and you can make it happen!

This is what they say, and whoever they are, it seems their word is law, es-pecially if you believe their words to be true.

Being somewhat of a dreamer, sometimes dar-ing to imagine great things which I have learned, much to my chagrin, more often than not don’t materialize, I view the above with more than a little bit of skepti-cism.

Take golf.I have visualized the

ball sailing effortlessly down the fairway, disap-pearing into a green that is

Treena MielkeOn The

Other Side

Swinging into another golf season

barely visible to the naked eye. I have imagined me on the golf course, producing deadly chips and stellar putts with a simple flick of the wrist.

In my mind I have made impossible shots, out of the trees, out of the sand and out of other places where

the average golfer would dare not tread.

Yes. I have worked hard. Taken lessons. Prac-ticed lots.

And then I have dreamed that I was good; very, very good!

The end result!I became discouraged,

disillusioned and, decided to follow up on the worst-case scenario and my worst game, ever.

I gave up golf!Last year, I went out

only once with my seven-year-old granddaughter.

And to prove my point, she beat me.

But, as we all know, hope springs eternal and when golf season rolled around this year, I had this ridiculous thought.

I want to try again.

Weird!I called my nephew

who is the best golfer ever and whose love of the game is truly contagious. Without even trying, he makes golf fun, not only for himself, but also for whoever is lucky enough to be with him.

I decided if I was going to golf badly and hang my head in shame, I wanted to be with him, because he would still say something like, “thanks for coming,

Treen, we’ll do it again soon.” He would not men-tion the word ‘loser’.

He said (and I quote) “I would love to golf with you” and I was immedi-ately so excited, I forgot to finish unloading the dish-washer.

“Yes,” I shouted! “I love golfing.”

Of course, I had to find my clubs, which had long been buried in a corner of the garage, forgotten, ne-glected and covered with a layer of dust.

I arrived at the golf course, breathless and slightly early, surprising everyone, including me.

And it turned out there were four of us; my nephew, his son, and his dad – three generations of darn good golfers. And then, bringing up the rear, golfing from the ladies tees, running and slightly breathless and trying to keep up.

There was me!I had some good shots

and some bad shots, but, overall, it was the best game ever and it had noth-ing to do with the score, really.

It was the cool guys I was out with.

True, their golf shots were awesome, but that wasn’t what made them winners in my eyes.

It was the way they made me feel like a winner.

Therefore, I have de-cided I will not be a quitter, either.

And, I will be back!


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Ponoka Offi ce: 403-783-3315

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Junior Locos lose to Barracudas and RenegadesBY JEFFREY HEYDEN-KAYE

The first two home games of the Lacoka Locos junior team proved a tough challenge as they lost both games.

The first game for the Tier II junior team was Saturday, April 25 at the Ponoka Culture and Recreation Complex against the Lethbridge Barracudas. The Locos lost 17-3 with goals for the local side coming from Brennan Elder, Braeden Grant and Dustin Bell.

The Locos had a total of 36 minutes of penalties while the Barracudas had 14 min-utes.

The next day the Locos played the Red Deer Renegades losing 5-8. A final score sheet was not available at press time. The Locos’ next home game is Saturday, May 2 against the Okotoks Ice at 6:30 p.m. at the Ponoka Culture and Recreation Centre.

Lacoka Bantam wins against OldsThe Lacoka Strand Media Bantam team

had a strong weekend against the Olds Stingers.

Their first game was at home April 25 where Strand Media won 12-5. Top scorers

were Josh Green (3), Myles Pallister (3), Adam Warner (2), Jordan Henezi, Coulson Pike, Wyatt Petrie and Ryker Klassen.

Their second game at Olds proved even better. Strand Media defeated the Sting-ers 15-2. Top scorers were Josh Green (6), Racheal Wood (3), Tanner Bell (2), Adam Warner, Caleb Andrew, Coulson Pike and Joel Hollingsworth.

Team manager Roben Green said the team had strong success with passing. “We have a great group of kids with lots of talent and it is awesome to watch them all grow, learn, and play,” said Green.

Lacoka Novice wins against Red DeerThe Lacoka Locos Novice team played

well against the Red Deer Chiefs novice at home April 25.

Lacoka won 3-1 with scorers be-ing Wyatt Avery (2) and Noah Cooper. Coaching staff are working closely with experienced and first-year players to gain confidence in the game, says manager Deanna Bloomquist. “Our small Novice team have a great group of coaches that are teaching the kids the basic skills of la-crosse,” she said.

Carson Barnes of Jr. B Lacoka Locos battling with the goalie of the Lethbridge Barracudas for the control of the ball during their regular league game at the Ponoka Culture and Recreation Centre on Saturday, April 25, coinciding with Ponoka Lacrosse Day involving many regional teams in a weekend jamboree.

Photo by Mustafa Eric

Sports

Wolf Creek badminton play downs begin

Badminton doubles partners (l-r) Karlene Riley and Sarah Nagel, of Rimbey Jr/Sr High School, play a tough bronze medal match in the Wolf Creek playdowns Tuesday, April 21. Photo by Jeffrey Heyden-Kaye


More than 80 play-ers competed in the Wolf Creek North Badminton playdowns Tuesday, April 21 with players from grades 7 to 9.

Players competed in singles and doubles events, said organizer Phillip Hambly.

“The tournament was hosted in three differ-ent schools with Grade 9s competing at Rim-bey Jr/Sr High, Grade 8s competing at Ponoka Secondary Campus and Grade 7s competing at St. Augustine School,” said Hambly.

He said the top four players or teams in each grade advanced to the Wolf Creek finals, which was held Tuesday, April 28. Players at that event can also advance to the CWA-JHAA championships, which is set for May 8 and 9.

Hambly says this is a fun event for top players from these schools: Bluff-ton School, Crestomere School, Ponoka Secondary Campus, Ponoka Chris-tian School, St. Augustine School and Mecca Glen School.

“Skill levels can range during this event, but all participants always show great sportsmanship and provide a great effort,” said Hambly. Results: Grade 7:

Boys SinglesGold – Aldrine Perez

(St. Augustine) Girls SinglesGold – Mackenzie Gil-

lard (Crestomere) Boys DoublesGold – Mathias Sandin

and Erik Mathieu (Mecca Glen)

Girls DoublesGold – Alysha Balatbat

and Angela Ahn Abadilla (St. Augustine)

Mixed Doubles

Gold – Paige Jensen and Colter Bresse (Cresto-mere) Grade 8:

Boys SinglesGold – Noah Hackett

(St. Augustine) Girls SinglesGold – Madison

McLaren (Mecca Glen) Boys DoublesGold – Riley Fillinger

and Brennan Waldron (Mecca Glen)

Girls Doubles Gold – Caley Hofstra

and Chelsey Johns (Rim-bey)

Mixed DoublesGold – Marcelle Louis

and Jaymee Klinger (St. Augustine) Grade 9:

Boys SinglesGold – Michael Aba-

dilla (St. Augustine) Girls Singles Gold – Shae Boy-

es (Bluffton) Boys DoublesGold – Hayden Krzywy

and Evret Fillinger (Mecca

Glen) Girls DoublesGold – Megan Smaw-

ley and Alison Walker (Bluffton)

Mixed Doubles

Gold – Lucas Oppel and Emma Bendera (St. Augustine)


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RESTRICTIONS: Offers valid from 4/1/15 - 4/30/15 on select new 2014/2015 Polaris® Off-Road Vehicles. Youth models excluded. Does not apply to prior purchases. This is a limited time offer which is valid for the purchase of selected qualifying models and is subject to credit approval from TD Auto Finance (TDAF) on qualified purchases financed during this program. Offer may not be combined with certain other offers, is subject to change and may be extended or terminated without further notice. See participating retailers for complete details and conditions. Rates from other lenders may vary. Freight, license, PPSA/RPDRM, insurance, registration, any retailer administration fees and other applicable fees and taxes are not included in the financed amount. Dealers are free to set individual prices, but must be enrolled with TDAF to participate. Monthly payment and cost of borrowing will vary depending on amount borrowed and down payment/trade. Minimum amount to finance is $5,000. Example: $7,500 financed at 3.99% over 36 months = 36 monthly payments of $221.40 with a cost of borrowing of $470.27 and a total obligation of $7,970.27. Free 1 year extended warranty valid with purchase of a new 2015 Polaris Off-Road Vehicle. One year promotional coverage consists of 6 months factory warranty, plus 6 months Polaris Protection Extended Warranty for a total term of 12 months. Cannot be combined with any other Extended or Limited Warranty offer (promotional or coupon). Including Alberta, this is given as a free of charge Limited Warranty. Subject to $50 deductible, no mileage limitation. Coverage may be extended at the time of vehicle purchase. Offer excludes RZR XP® 1000 High Lifter Edition, race, fleet and modified vehicles. See your dealer for complete details.

WARNING: Polaris off-road vehicles can be hazardous to operate and are not intended for on-road use. Driver must be at least 16 years old with a valid driver’s license to operate. Passengers, if permitted, must be at least 12 years old. All riders should always wear helmets, eye protection, and protective clothing. Always use seat belts and cab nets or doors (as equipped). Never engage in stunt driving, and avoid excessive speeds and sharp turns. Riding and alcohol/drugs don’t mix. All riders should take a safety training course. Call 800-342-3764 for additional information. Check local laws before riding on trails. ©2015 Polaris Industries Inc.

Horse show performance: The American Saddlebred As-sociation of Alberta held its Spring Fling Horse Show at the Ponoka Calnash Ag Event Centre Friday, April 14 to Sunday, April 26. Approximately 190 entrants, mainly from across Alberta, participated in the show. Photo by Amelia Naismith

SUBMITTED BY DAN SVITCH

For teachers, parents and school communities it is our honour to be given the privilege of preparing future generations for the world they will inherit upon their graduation.

Creating the best envi-ronment in which to foster excellence and achieve-ment is a firm commitment of STAR Catholic Schools. And, we believe that envi-ronment was made even better by a Government of Alberta announcement on March 16, 2015, that informed Albertans of forthcoming changes in the weighting of grade 12 di-ploma exams.

In the past, diploma ex-ams were weighted 50/50 in combination with in-class teacher assessments, the combined grade mak-ing up a student’s final mark. Education Minister Gordon Dirks announced that starting September 2015, diploma exams will be worth 30 per cent of a student’s final mark, put-ting a greater weighting of 70 per cent on the teachers’


PONOKA REC HOCKEYWants to say

THANK YOU!• To OUR COACHES for all your hard work

& donating your time

• To OUR REFEREES for a job well done

• To all OUR PARENTS for your commitment

• To all THE KIDS for working hard on the ice

See you all next year !

Ponoka Rec Hockey Association AGMis Thursday, April 30 at 7:00pm

Upstairs at arena

PONOKALIONS CLUBCASDDA Canadian Searchand Disaster Dogs Assoc.Come and see rescue dogs at work

– demonstrations at Centennial ParkSunday, May 31 starting at 1 p.m

Fish Derby• 15 years and younger • Cash prizesSunday, May 31 starting at 1 p.m

at Centennial Park

Diploma exam changes willmore accurately assess

student learningin-class assessments. The changes will be made to all core subjects in which pro-vincial diploma exams are written — Math, Science, English and Social.

This is an issue in which STAR Catholic has taken a lead advocacy role, and one we know will re-sult in a more accurate reflection of a student’s knowledge and skills in a subject area. The move fol-lows on the Alberta School Boards Association’s (ASBA) decision at their most recent Annual Gen-eral Meeting to go on public record as supporting the 30/70 reweighting of diploma level courses. In

fact, it was STAR Catholic Schools that put the ASBA motion forward, and we were very pleased to see the overwhelming major-ity support it received from

other school boards across the province.

Learning is so much more than simply recalling facts and figures, names and dates. Although that has a proper place, suc-cessful learning includes the development of skills needed to thrive as an adult. Those skills, which are not always best or readily as-sessed on a diploma exam include: collaboration, innovation, communica-tion, critical thinking and

problem-solving, and the ability to present and rep-resent complex ideas to others. Those competen-cies are acquired in day to day pursuits of the class-room, and are valuable to a student’s education and the creation of a 21st century Alberta.

In examining the vision of Inspiring Education (the government’s long-term vision for Alberta’s educa-tion system), the shift in weighting of the diploma exams is better aligned with the spirit of empowerment and trust that underwrites that vision. It speaks to the confidence we have in the teachers who work with our children on a daily basis, as being the profes-

sionals best equipped and positioned to accurately assess a student’s under-standing and mastery of the curriculum.

To be clear, modifying the diploma exam weight-ing does not lower the bar of expectations. In fact, 30 per cent is still a very substantial portion of a stu-dent’s final mark. Instead, the modification repre-sents a more appropriate reflection of what a student actually knows and is able to do. Alberta is proud of its reputation across Cana-da and internationally as an educational leader and we are certain that reputation will only continue to flour-ish and be improved upon.

At STAR Catholic

Schools, we aim to grow a student in body, mind and spirit. The change to diplo-ma exams aligns with those values, as a student is still expected to perform well on a standardized test, but knows that the hard work and academic achievement they put forth throughout the year carries genuine value.

Dan Svitich [email protected] is a Ponoka Trustee on the STAR Catholic Schools Division Board. STAR Catholic Schools has more than 3,300 students in 10 schools located in Beau-mont, Drayton Valley, Leduc, Lacombe, Ponoka and Wetaskiwin.

To be clear, modifying the diploma exam weighting

does not lower the bar of expectations. In fact,

30 per cent is still a very substantial portion of a

student’s final mark.

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Publishes: May 6Publishes: May 6Deadline: May 1 Deadline: May 1

St. Augustine Catholic School Grad 2015

Show support to the 2015St. Augustine grad class this year and

congratulate them on all of their efforts and success.

Publishes: May 27Publishes: May 27Deadline: May 22 - NoonDeadline: May 22 - Noon

We celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in

May, originally created to thank mothers for everything they do for their families. The meaning behind

this special day has remained unchanged over the years and gifts, flowers, cards, dinners,

brunches and lots of affection are showered on mothers everywhere

Ponoka Secondary CampusBest Wishes

Class of 2015!This section will show support

to the grads and congratulate them on their efforts and success.

Publishes: June 3Publishes: June 3Deadline: May 22 NoonDeadline: May 22 Noon

Celebrating Moms EverywhereCelebrating Moms Everywhere

BY MONISHA VASA, M.D.

My brain knows that gratitude is important. I know when I am in a state of gratitude — aware of my blessings, small and big, I feel happier and less alone. I feel more connected to the people around me, and my life experiences. I feel in my body a life force greater than myself.

But my heart can find it difficult to stay in a sus-tained place of gratitude. Rather, it is a practice of reminding myself over and over, to start, over and over. Sometimes that means making lists of things I am grateful for at the end of each day, or at least at the end of the week. Sometimes that means taking a deep, conscious breath before I get out of bed and put my

Five steps to encourage an attitude of gratitude in our children

feet on the floor.I am learning to practice

gratitude as an adult. But what would it be like if we could introduce the concept of gratitude to our chil-dren when they are young? If gratitude just became a part of their vocabulary, a daily habit like brush-ing their teeth or eating dinner? If they can experi-ence the magic of gratitude early, perhaps the practice wouldn’t feel so challeng-ing or foreign to them.

Here are five steps to encourage an attitude of gratitude in our children:

1 Start with cultivating your own gratitude prac-tice: If we believe in the value of being thankful for all that we are blessed with, our vision starts to shift. We start to see the potential val-ue or gift, even in difficult

life experiences. Children tend to follow what we do, even more than what we say. If our children see us connected and thankful, that energy will flow down-stream towards them.

2 Vocalize gratitude as part of an everyday con-versation: Say it out loud. “I really appreciate being able to watch you play in your soccer game.” Or, “We are so fortunate to have and share this meal together.” Making it a point to ex-press our thankfulness out loud can increase our joint awareness. The more we say it loud, the more we feel it in our bones.

3 Discover gratitude even for the small things: Children inherently are ex-cited about both little and big things in life. Encour-age gratitude for the small,

mundane parts of life, not just the exciting Disney World moments. As we adults know, much of life is a day in, day out, routine. The trick is to see the beauty and wonder even in another day at work, or another morning of dropping the kids off to school. Some-times, on difficult days, all we might be grateful for is

another day on this Earth, or the beating of our heart. That is more than enough.

4 Encourage down-time for reflection: If we are moving at breakneck speed, it is hard to slow down enough to notice what there is to be grateful for. Noticing is the first step towards counting our bless-ings. Encourage lots of time

for quiet, rest, and reflec-tion. A good time is the end of the day, perhaps before or after a night time story. Ask your children questions about the enjoyable and difficult parts of their day, the “highs” and the “lows.” This can encourage a dia-logue about both gratitude, as well as the struggles they are currently experiencing.

5 Acknowledge the reality of their emotional experience: Kids, just like adults, won’t feel grateful for everything, all the time. It is a practice for all of us. Sometimes, we need to feel through the anger and sorrow of an experience, before we can come to a place of gratitude. Other-wise, our gratitude becomes hollow, artificial. Allow your children to feel what they feel, with adequate time and space. When the time feels right, see if there is an opportunity to include gratitude in the conversa-tion.

Perhaps our practice

of gratitude is one of the greatest gifts we can give to ourselves. We start to see all that is alive and breathing in our world, all of the collec-tive energy and wisdom we are a part of. Whether we are grateful for our breath or another day, or whether we are grateful for a vacation or a yoga class, it is all impor-tant. We notice our life, and all of the details, and allow that noticing to sink into our lived experience.

If we can start this prac-tice and conversation early, with our children, we take advantage of their young, resilient minds. Gratitude becomes something we

share with them, deepening our understanding of them, and deepening our connec-tion to them. More than that, we can encourage skills that will last them a lifetime, en-hancing their own sense of wellness in this world.

Monisha Vasa, M.D. is a board certified General and Addiction Psychiatrist in private practice. She re-sides in Orange County, CA with her husband, two beloved children and two English Bulldogs. Dr. Vasa is the author of the new non-fiction children’s book, My Dearest One. For more information, please visit www.mindful-healing.com

Arnold Feragen1918 - 2015

After a valiant and long fought battle against old age, the family of Arnold Feragen announce the passing of “Grandpa” at the Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre on Saturday, April 11, 2015 at the age of 96 years. Arnold was born in Hay Lakes, Alberta on December 18, 1918 to his parents Ole and Sofi a (neé Bakken) Feragen. Arnold will be lovingly

remembered and missed by his son Ken (Sharon); 5 grandchildren: Trevor (Julie), Clinton (Lisa Rose), Shenoa (Travis Gislason), Clayton, and Whitney; and by 6 great-grandchildren: Owen, Karlee and Kendra, Hayden and Mia, and Damon. Arnold started his married life working the family farm in Hay Lakes until illness curtailed that endeavour. After a long recuperation Arnold moved his family to Red Deer where he worked for a short while. They moved east of Ponoka (where Gladys was born and raised). He worked for various farmers as a farm labourer. In 1959 he worked at the Ponoka Mental Hospital on the hospital farm for about two years. He later worked briefl y for the town of Ponoka. Around 1963 Arnold started to work for Albert Stickel as apprentice plumber. He later obtained his plumbing ticket and worked for Stickel Plumbing until his retirement in 1983. Arnold spent many hours of his retirement at the Leisure Lanes Bowling Alley. He bowled in the golden age bowling league until a broken hip stopped him. Arnold’s greatest joy was his grandchildren whether he was watching them playing hockey or fi gure skating or just having them around. Later he was just as proud and entertained by his great-grandchildren who also played hockey, lacrosse or danced. Unfortunately he never got to get to know his last great-grandson very well but he loved him as much as the others and got to hold him and be with him at Christmas. Arnold was predeceased by his wife Gladys on July 31, 2009. He was the last and longest lived of the eleven Feragen siblings. He was predeceased by his parents, two sisters and eight brothers. Since Arnold loved animals, whether it was the teams of horses he used to farm with, or dogs that he owned over the years or the two kitty’s he had as best friends for many years until his passing, any memorial donations can be made to the S.P.C.A. or donors choice in lieu of fl owers. The family would like to thank F.C.S.S. for the years of care they provided that allowed Arnold to remain in his home for as long as he was able. Also we are thankful for the excellent care dad received at the Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre. Thank you also to Dr. Bunting for putting up with Arnold’s “Norwegian stubbornness and humor” over the years. A Funeral Service will be held on Friday, May 8, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. at the Ponoka First Baptist Church with the Interment Service following later that day at the Zion Church Cemetery. To express condolences to Arnold’s family, please visit

www.womboldfuneralhomes.com.Arrangements Entrusted To PONOKA FUNERAL HOME

~ A Wombold Family Funeral Home ~

FIPKE (nee Walker)Gayle Belle

Gayle Belle Fipke (nee Walker) passed away peacefully April 23, 2015 at the age of 82. She was predeceased by her loving husband of 50 years, Leonard (2001) and son, Brian (1953). She is survived by 5 children, Dwaine (Jeannette) Fipke, Deborah (Charles) Johnson, Theresa Giganti, Brenda

(Suresh) Ganpatt and Gwen Fipke, 14 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.Funeral service will be held at the Lacombe Memorial Centre on Monday, May 4th at 11:00 am. Refreshments provided after the service and interment will follow at the Rutherford Cemetery. Donations to the Lacombe Hospital Long Term Care Unit in lieu of fl owers are requested. Condolences may be made by visiting www.wilsonsfuneralchapel.ca

WILSON’S FUNERAL CHAPEL & CREMATORIUM serving Central Alberta with locations in

Lacombe and Rimbey in charge of arrangements. Phone: 403.782.3366 or 403.843.3388“A Caring Family, Caring for Families”

Marie O. ThompsonOn April 24, 2015 Mrs. Marie Thompson of Ponoka passed away at the age of 86 years. She will be lovingly remembered by her children David, Wayne (Joanne Seefried), Larry (Loretta “Ski”), Valerie Dillen (William), Ryan (Ayla), and Cathy Hansen (Martin Malterer); grandchildren Dean (Lana), Duane (Danielle), Craig, Christine (Don), Curtis, Jason, Micheal (Margaret), Amy,

Devon (Amanda), Lisa (Nicholas), and Keith (Kayla); and great-grandchildren Eli, Liam, Daniel, Chevy, Cruz, Emily, and Aliyah. She was predeceased by her husband Vern, son Kevin, and daughter-in-law Cathy. A Funeral Service will be held at the Ponoka Funeral Home at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, May 1, 2015 with the Interment Service following at the Forest Home Cemetery. Memorial donations are gratefully accepted to the Alberta Heart and Stroke Foundation or any charity of your choice. To express condolences to Marie’s family, please visit

www.womboldfuneralhomes.com. Arrangements Entrusted To PONOKA FUNERAL HOME

~ A Wombold Family Funeral Home ~

In Loving MemorySheila Janet Kraft

Born August 11,1956

Passed away peacefully on April 20, 2015 at the age of 58, in the Lamont Care Centre.She will be lovingly remembered by her son Robert (Tanya) Kraft; grandchildren, Chris, Kelsey and Ashlynn; her mother Dorothy; sisters and brothers, also her loving partner Al

Taylor. She will be sadly missed by many.There will be no service at this time, a memorial will be held at a later date.

VANSTONE Raymond Allan

Raymond Allan Vanstone passed away at Rimbey Long Term Care Centre on Tuesday, April 21, 2015 at the age of 57 years after a bout with cancer. He is lovingly remembered by his father, Stanley Vanstone of Wetaskiwin; his mother, Janice Tytler Vanstone of Sylvan Lake; his sisters, Sharon Deines of Parksville,

BC, Susan Swarbrick of Sylvan Lake, AB; his brothers, Doug Tytler of Rimbey, AB, Jim Vanstone and their spouses; his daughter, Amy Piper of Terrace, BC; as well as several nieces and nephews and numerous friends. Raymond was predeceased by his sister, Gail Vanstone. Rest In Peace. Interment of cremated remains will take place later in the year. Messages of condolence may be left for the family at www.myalternatives.ca.

Obituaries Obituaries Obituaries

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Arts & Crafts Shows ..................50Class Registrations....................51Coming Events ..........................52Lost ............................................54Found ........................................56Companions ..............................58Personals...................................60Bingos........................................64Fitness & Sports ........................66Happy Ads .................................70

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SORRYthe

Scott School Spring

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Hope to see you all in the fall!

BIG BROTHERSAND

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Mentors make a

difference

403-783-3112

Meetings 59

Fitness& Sports 66

ComingEvents 52CENTRAL Alberta Singles dances at Royal Canadian

Legion Innisfail Hall May 9: Flashback Freddie,

May 23: Randy Hillman and Hot Spur,

June 27: Phil Wayne. Music 8 pm - 12 am. Everyone welcome

403-341-7653 403-304-7440FORT MACLEOD 70s

Reunion. Sept. 11-13/15. The grooviest party ever! If you attended F. P. Walshe between 1969 and 1980,

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Meetings 59AL-ANON WEEKLY MEETING

FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF ALCOHOLICS.

Tuesdays 8 p.m.Neighborhood Place

5110 - 49 Ave., PonokaFor more info 403-783-4557

Tuesday, May 12 • 7:00pmAt the hockey lounge in the arena

If you attend the meeting you will receive 1 hr. off per child of volunteer hrs.

www.skateponoka.ca

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

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Disclaimer: *Enrollment fee required. Offer expires 5/31/15 and requires joining same day as fi rst visit for a minimum 12-month recurring billing contract. Enrollment fee and monthly fees vary by location. Valid for new Curves members only. Not valid with any other offer or discount. Valid at participating locations only. No cash value. **Curves Fitness members on average lose 5 lbs. over a 20-week period.

Ponoka

Garage Sale

Thursday, Apr. 30 • 1 - 6 pm

Friday, May 1 • 10 am - 5 pm

Saturday, May 2 • 10 am - 5 pm

4 miles east on Hwy. 53 - 1 ½ miles south on

Range Road 251

Toys, many antiques, old records. Masey Ferguson 18hp garden tractor with rototiller.

You name it – we got it!

announcements

HAPPY 18thMr. Bean(Brady)

Love Mom, Baylee , Lisa

In Loving RemembranceWILLIAM (BILL) BOWIE

October 25, 1939 - April 25th, 2010You were a very SPECIAL MAN

And you were loved so very much,And you brought so much happiness

To the many hearts you touched.

You were always kind and caringAnd so understanding too,

And if help was ever neededIt so freely came from you.

You were a gift to all of usAnd you brought joy to everyone,And life has never been the sameEver since you have been gone.

Love from,Marie

Dan & SandyKim & Allan

Luke & Carley& Families

In Memory of Anita SmithApril 29, 2014

AuntieOf all the many blessingsHowever great or small

to have had you for an auntWas the greatest one of all

The family chain is broken now and nothing seems the sameBut God takes us one by one,

the chain will link again.

In remembrance of Anita SmithApril 29, 2014

Not for herself but for others she lived, not to receive but only to give.

A special person, a special face.A special someone we cannot replace.

Sad are the hearts that love you, silent are the tears that fall.

Living life without you, is the hardest part of all.May the winds of love blow softly,

and whisper for you to hear, That we will love and remember you,

and forever keep you near.

So dearly loved, so sadly missedLove Dad and Mom and families

Lovingly remembered always

Thank you to all, for the kindness, prayers and hope during Jane’s journey. Your support has been greatly appreciated. To Jack, Judy, Fred, Jean, Doug, Cody and Bonnie for the many rides to see Jane. Jo Rodney, Linda, Marie, Luke and Carly for the comfort you delivered. The Seafi eld Morningside Community. Jo Nichols for the wonderful supper after the funeral. Many thanks to Rev. Donna Willier, Rev. Dr. Doreen Scott for the service. The Ponoka Funeral Home, Sheila Van Astyne (singing), Dick Cameron (piping), Betty Chernoff (eulogy), Margeret, Courtney and Bonnie (readings), Jody, Marlene and Jean (casket spray), Jane’s siblings (pallbearing), Susan Clayton, Katie Hobart, Matthew, Jim, Sam, Jeremy and Peter Wallis. Bob & Company Catering (lunch), Loyal Order of Moose (hall), The Wolf Creek Bus Crew (Jane’s Bus #3), The Red Deer Hospice Society. As well as the many fl owers and donations made in Jane’s memory. Special thanks to Diane and Jeni.

Charlie Bowie

Thank you to family and friends for you warm thoughts, well wishes, fl owers and donations. Also to the many people who travelled for Travis’ memorial service. Words cannot express our gratitude and appreciation during this trying time. Special thank you to the R.C.M.P. - both Cutknife, Sask., and Ponoka detachments, Victims Services, Ponoka Funeral Home, Seafi eld Ladies Association, The Raspberry Patch for the wonderful biscuits, Bob Ronnie Catering, the Moose Hall, and Shalaine Hancik for the beautiful songs. Lastly to my children and grandchildren for the support and help. We could not have got thru this without you.

SincerelyGrace and Eugene Normand

In Memoriam

Celebrations

Anniversaries

CONGRATULATIONS Gordon and Verna

Schalin Wedding Anniversary

29 April 2015. With best wishes from

friends and family.

Card Of Thanks

CelebrationsDROP IN to celebrate Stan

Dedio’s 84th Birthday atPonoka United Church,Saturday, May 2nd from

1 - 4 p.m., 5020 - 52 Street, Hall 1, NW door.


Just had a baby?

Tell everyone with

a Milestone

Announcement

1.877.223.33111.877.223.3311Classified Memorials:helping to remember

Announce yourSpecial Day

in the Classified Announcements

Say more with an Announcement

Garage Sales

Meetings 59AL-ANON WEEKLY MEETING

FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF ALCOHOLICS.

Tuesdays 8 p.m.Neighborhood Place

5110 - 49 Ave., PonokaFor more info 403-783-4557

ALATEEN Weekly meetings

Tuesdays @ 8 p.m. Neighborhood

Place5110 - 49 Ave.

PonokaFor more info.

403-783-4557 or 403-783-8371

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

Monday night meetings at the Anglican Church Ponoka 8:30 p.m. Phone 403-783-0719 for info.

ComingEvents 52

Clerical 720

Meetings 59THURSDAY AA Meetings

at 8:30 p.m. in theCatholic Church basement.

52 Street & 52 Ave.Ponoka.

403-783-4347403-783-3442

Medical 790MEDICAL

TRANSCRIPTIONISTS are in huge demand! Train with the leading Medical

Transcription school. Learn from home and work from

home. Call today. 1-800-466-1535;

www.canscribe.com. [email protected].

Oilfield 800

EXPERIENCED LABOURERS and

HEAVY EQUIPMENT OPERATORS REQ’D.

Must have all safety tickets. and valid drivers license.

Competitive wages. Call 403-502-1091

Professionals 810

WANTED: Store Manager

for our Sobeys Liquor Stettler location!......

Sobeys Liquor is offering an exciting opportunity to kick off your management career. As the ideal candi-date, you have excellent

people and communication skills, strong knowledge of fi nancial management, a focus on, and a passion

for, engaging your customer. Sobeys offers comprehen-

sive full-time benefi ts, pension contributions and

matching, as well as a competitive compensation package. Please submit

resume by: e-mail: [email protected]

fax: 780-447-2960or: Drop off in store.

Closing Date: May 11, 2015

Teachers/Tutors 840GPRC, Fairview Campus, requires Heavy Equipment Technician Instructors to

commence August 15, 2015. Visit our website at: www.gprc.ab.ca/careers

for more information!

Trades 850SHUNDA

CONSTRUCTIONRequires Full Time

EquipmentOperator

Q Endorsement preferred. Competitive Wages

& Benefi ts.Fax resumes & ref’s to:

403-343-1248 or email to: [email protected]

Clerical 720

Trades 850

Truckers/Drivers 860

12345

For tables or more information call

403-783-6776

PONOKA Farmer’s MarketPONOKA Farmer’s MarketFirst market of the Season!

Wednesday, May 6 9:00 am – 1:00 pmPonoka Arena Curling Rink

Lunch MenuBreakfast Sandwiches

FREE COFFEE MAY 6

Rimbey Implements Ltd.

Al York General ManagerAl York General Manager

Rimbey, AB

Cell: (403) 783-0593

Bus: (403) 843-3700

Fax: (403) 843-3430

AG EQUIPMENT

AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES

A & JA & J AUTOMOTIVEAUTOMOTIVEREPAIR6701 - 46 Ave.

Ponoka, AB T4J 1J8(403) 783-8755

Al DickhautOwner/Operator

A & J AUTOMOTIVE

Al DickhautOwner/Operator

A & J AUTOMOTIVE

6701 - 46 Ave.Ponoka, AB T4J 1J8

(403) 783-8755

CUSTOM SPRAYING

PLUMBING

ANIMAL SERVICES

Craig FenskeCraig Fenske

CUSTOM SPRAYINGCUSTOM SPRAYINGLicensed pesticide applicatorLicensed pesticide applicator

Competitive ratesCompetitive rates

403-704-0660403-704-0660

Ponoka Victim Services

Employment Opportunity

Administrative Assistant

(Part time, 10 hours per week)

Ponoka Victim Services is a not for profi t organization working in partnership with Ponoka RCMP Detachment. This position assists the Executive Director with administration, scheduling & coordination of volunteers, maintaining resources, correspondence and assists with special events and fundraising initiatives.

We are seeking a dynamic people oriented mature individual who is able to:

• Work within RCMP operational policies and procedures• Has strong computer literacy with excellent written and verbal

communication skills• Ability to take initiative and work independently, solution oriented, well

organized• Promotes positive and harmonious interaction and relationships

between staff, program volunteers, program supporters and the RCMP members.

The successful applicant will report to the Executive Director and be required to:

• Pass and maintain an enhanced reliability security clearance through RCMP

• Complete all basic training through Solicitor General & Public Security• Flexible work hours which may include occasional evenings and/or

weekends

Interested candidates are invited to submit a cover letter accompanied with a current resume to:

Attention: Ponoka Victim Services P.O. Box 4068 Ponoka, AB T4J 1R5 or by email to [email protected]

Application Deadline is: Monday May 11, 2015

We thank those in advance for their interest however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. This position will remain open until a suitable candidate is found. No phone calls please.

Wolf Creek Public Schoolsinvites applications for the following position:

Administrative AssistantInclusive Learning Services, Division Offi ce

For further specifi cs on the above position, please visit Wolf Creek Public Schools’ website at www.wolfcreek.ab.ca, or

contact the Division Offi ce at 403-783-3473.

WANTED!!MotorcycleTechnician

Required for busy Trike and Bike shop. Must be a team player and be able to

think outside the box. Resume required:

Phone: 780-389-3344 Fax: [email protected]

5410 - 50 Street, Wetaskiwinor email

[email protected]

Please apply with resume& current drivers abstract

WETASKIWINREADY MIX

We’re Growing &Extremely Busy!

• MIXER DRIVERSMinimum Class 3 with air.

or Fax (780) 352-1607

Now Hiring

Employment#700 - #920


Trades 850CANADIAN Enviro-Tub

Inc. is currently accepting resumes for the following positions: Journeyman or Apprenticeship Welders.

We offer competitive wages, exc. benefi t pkg. &

a positive work environ-ment. Please e-mail

resumes to [email protected] or

fax 403-742-5239 or drop off in person at #10 19447 Hwy 12 East, Stettler, AB.

Professionals 810

VolunteersWanted 890

Trades 850SHUNDA

CONSTRUCTIONRequires Full TimeCarpenters

Competitive Wages& Benefi ts.

Fax resumes & ref’s to:403-343-1248 or email to:

[email protected]

BusinessOpportunities 870

SAWMILLS from only $4,397. Make money &

save money with your own bandmill. Cut lumber any dimension. In stock ready to ship. Free info & dvd:

www.NorwoodSaw-mills.com/400OT.

1-800-566-6899 ext. 400OT.

Misc.Help 880OLDS Gymnastics club iscurrently looking for bothCompetitive level 1 NCCPor higher and Recreationalcoaches for Sept/2015. Please send resumes to [email protected]

EmploymentTraining 900

MEDICAL TRAINEES needed now! Hospitals &

doctor’s offi ces need certifi ed medical offi ce & administrative staff! No experience needed! We

can get you trained! Local placement assistance

available when training is completed. Call for

program details! 1-888-627-0297.

Misc.Help 880

Contractors 1100

EmploymentTraining 900

MEDICAL TRANSCRIP-TION! In-demand career!

Employers have work-at-home positions

available. Get online training you need from an employer-trusted program. Visit: CareerStep.ca/MT or

1-855-768-3362 to start training for your

work-at-home career today!

Business Services#1000 - #1430

Construction 1085

- Mel Hanson -• Renovation specialist• Project management consulting• Carpentry

NEW EDEN WORX

Ponoka Based403-302-7412403-302-8729

Fencing 1169FENCING - Farm $2100,

Post & Rail TBN, you supply material, Matejo

Contracting [email protected]

Landscaping1240REFORESTATION NUR-

SERY SEEDLINGS of hardy trees, shrubs, &

berries for shelterbelts or landscaping. Full boxes as

low as $0.99/tree. Free shipping. Replacement

guarantee. 1-866-873-3846 or www.treetime.ca.

LegalServices 1260

CRIMINAL RECORD? Think: Canadian pardon.

U.S. travel waiver. Divorce? Simple. Fast.

Inexpensive. Debt recovery? Alberta

collection to $25,000. Calgary 403-228-1300/

1-800-347-2540.

Misc.Services 1290

At Your House?

It’s time to call your Welcome

Wagon hostess. She will bring

congratulations and gifts for the

family and the NEW BABY!

NEW BABY

Heather Goodwin403-704-3647

[email protected]

GET BACK on track! Bad credit? Bills?

Unemployed? Need money? We lend! If you

own your own home - you qualify. Pioneer

Acceptance Corp. Member BBB. 1-877-987-1420; www.pioneerwest.com.

EMPLOYMENTOPPORTUNITY

Mature Full Time Maintenance Worker

Must have a vehicleWages $14 - $15/hour

depending on qualifi cations

Contact Ernie@ Western Budget780-335-6767 or


HEATING • A/C • EAVESTROUGHING

Immediate Opening forEAVESTROUGH WORKERS

3912 – 66 Street, Ponoka, AB T4J 1J8Email [email protected] | Fax: 403-783-3531

Seasonal/Part-timeIdeal for summer student

• Must have valid driver’s license• Physically t and must be able to work

from ladders• Mechanically inclined• Good work ethics• Safety conscious

Please submit resume to:

Sur-B Enterprises Ltd.

BOBCAT SERVICE• Snow Removal• Driveways & Parking Lots• Post-Hole Augering - 6, 9, 12, 15• Corral Cleaning• Grading & Construction

Call Jim Ashbough 783-2764 or Cell: 588-0599Jack Surbey 783-5283 Cell: 588-0597

BOBCAT SERVICES

SALES & SERVICE

BOTTLE DEPOT

Call Jim Ashbough 403-783-2764or Cell: 587-729-0092

PONOKA BOTTLE DEPOT

Open Monday - Saturday10 am - 5 pm

Closed Sundays & Holidays

We Now Recycle Milk Cartons for Deposit

3, 5520 Hwy 2A(Across from Husky)

403-783-6875

Tues - Fri: 8:30 am-5:30 pmSaturday: 9 am-3 pm

403-783-51851-800-662-7135

Fax: 403-783-4635

Motorcycles & ATV’s

OVERHEAD DOORS

www.doorsondemand.ca

403-963-5000

5306 - 60 ST, PONOKA, AB T4J 1K7

PH: (403) 783-6372 • FAX (403) 783-6345

“Reasonable rates on all your plumbing needs”Gas Fitting - Home Renovations - Drain Cleaning

-24 HOUR SERVICE-

PLUMBING

SHANDALL PLUMBING LTD.

JAMES AVERY

LANDSCAPING TREES

Ponoka- located 1.5 Miles North of High SchoolPhone (403) 783-5072 Cell: (403) 704-5384

www.brtrees.com

Specializing in Colorado Blue & Green Spruce. Also offering a variety of caliber deciduous trees. Schubert, Royalty, Mountain Ash, Weeping Birch, Norland Apple, Green/Black Ash and many more.

VICTIM SERVICES ADVOCATE

POSITIONS AVAILABLE: UNLIMITEDVictim Service Advocates assist victims of crime or tragedy. Advocates may provide support through telephone contact, home visits, court accompaniment or directly assisting RCMP members in circumstances of tragedy or severe stress and trauma. Volunteer roles and responsibilities are contingent upon training and experience.

Duties and Responsibilities: • Make contact with victims of crime, offering assistance and support through

phone or correspondence and face-to-face.• Provide crime prevention resources to prevent further victimization and encour-

age proactive community involvement. • Directly assist Police members were victims of crime experience severe stress

and trauma; particularly, where there is no family or friend support base avail-able. (i.e. Sudden deaths, suicide, armed robbery or sudden infant death)

• Inform Victims of Crime of their Rights and the importance of Victim Impact Statements.

• Provide follow-up assistance regarding status of a case, stolen property or court proceedings.

• Assist victims of crime with court preparation in order to facilitate familiarity with court procedures in order to alleviate potential fears and concerns.

• Assist Victims of crime through the court process by accompanying them to provide moral support.

Skills Required: • Reside in the area served by the RCMP Detachment• Demonstrate calm, pleasant, and effi cient telephone manner • Demonstrate customer service habits and ability assist clients in a personable

satisfactory fashion • Ability to understand the mandate and services of the RCMP, as well as the

hierarchical chain of command and make appropriate referrals within that structure

• Excellent grasp of English language • Solid writing and verbal communication skills • Demonstrate ability to maintain strict confi dentiality • Punctual and dependable • Self-motivated and ability to take appropriate initiative • Familiarity with Community Resources • Demonstrate ability to work as a team player • Must attend all required training events • Ability to learn computer programs as required

Locations:Ponoka RCMP DetachmentBox 40685120 – 50th Avenue Ponoka, AB T4J 1R5

Contact:Miranda [email protected]

SUMMER READING SUMMER READING PROGRAM COORDINATORPROGRAM COORDINATORP onoka Jubilee Library requires a Summer Reading Program Coordinator to oversee a ‘Play!’ themed program that encourages reading in school-aged children throughout the Summer months.Beginning in June, this 12 week posi on is 35 hours/week, focusing on the planning, adver sing, preparing and developing of the twice weekly programs for children ages 5-12, with occasional clerical du es being assigned. Applicant must be a post-secondary student, study in a related eld is an asset. Applicant must have enthusiasm, the ability to interact posi vely with children, and good organiza onal and computer skills. Go to www.ponokalibrary.prl.ab.ca for a full job descrip on. Please email resumes with cover le er, as a achments to Jaclyn Berry, Library Manager at [email protected]. Closing date: May 1, 2015We thank all those who apply, but only those chosen for an interview will be contacted.

Kwik Kerb Continuous decorative

concrete borders

Check out our new continuous natural rock fi nish

Call for a free estimate403-783-6115 or 403-352-5372 (cell)

Many colours, stamps and patterns.Landscape curb and edging for gardens,

flower and rock beds

[email protected] • www.kwikkerbparkland.com


ClassifiedsYour place to SELLYour place to BUY

Contractors 1100

HOW can you make your phone ring and make some quick cash?Place your ad here . . .Phone 1-877-223-3311

READ THE CLASSIFIEDS & find just what you’re looking for. 1-877-223-3311

JOB HUNTING? Read theClassifieds. 1-877-223-3311.

Misc.Services 1290

NEED TO ADVERTISE? Province wide classifi eds.

Reach over 1 million readers weekly. Only

$269. + GST (based on 25 words or less). Call this

newspaper NOW for details or call

1-800-282-6903 ext. 228.

PersonalServices 1315

HIP OR KNEE Replacement? COPD or arthritic conditions? The Disability Tax Credit. $1,

500 yearly tax credit. $15,000 lump sum refund (on average) Apply today!

1-844-453-5372.

Misc.Services 1290

WellDrilling 1400

PersonalServices 1315

Unplanned pregnancy may be

diffi cult to face.We care. For

confi dential help call 403-343-1611 (24 hrs.)

JOURNALISTS, Graphic Artists, Marketing and more. Alberta’s weekly

newspapers are looking for people like you. Post

your resume online. Free. Visit:

awna.com/for-job-seekers.

Pet Services 1318CLINKERSKENNELS

403-783-6272

* Quality Boarding for your dogs & cats

*Proof of vaccinations and advance bookings required

HOURS: Mon - Thurs 9 am - 12 Noon; 4 pm - 6 pm;

Fri. 9 am - 12 Noon; 4 pm - 7 pm; Sat. 9 a.m. - 12 noon;

Sun. 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. & 4 - 7 p.m.

www.clinkerskennels.ca

Rental -Misc 1350

Need RV or Self Storage?8’ X 10’ mini storage units

available for rent. Also RV storage. Secure compound.

Call Keith at First Call Towing

783-3636

Misc.Services 1290

Roofing 1370METAL ROOFING & SID-ING. 30+ colours available at over 40 Distributors. 40

year warranty. 48 hour Express Service available

at select supporting Distributors. Call 1-888-263-8254.

YardCare 1430THE ROTOTILLER GUYGarden Rototilling & Yard

Prep. 403-597-3957

Painters/Decorators1310

WellDrilling 1400

Welding 1410

Auctions 1530AUCTION

Sales Wed. @ 6 pm. Antique sales 1st. Sun. of the month @ 1 pm. Last antique auction for the summer May 3. Moose Hall 2 miles south of

Ponoka on 2A WE BUY FOR CASH.

403-304-4791Check website for full listingswww.bigstrapperauctions.net

COLLECTOR CAR AUCTION. 8th Annual

Calgary Collector Car Auc-tion June 12-14, Indoors Convention Center Grey

Eagle Casino. All makes & models welcome. Consign today 1-8880296-0528 ext.

102: EGauctions.com.

UNRESERVED FARM AUCTION. Saturday, May 2 at 10 a.m. Antique trac-

tors, horses, mini excavator, trailers, tools,

boat, SUV, and more! Czar, Alberta. Scribner Auction 780-842-5666; www.scribnernet.com.

Auctions 1530

Sunday, May 3, 1 pm Sunday, May 3, 1 pm Moose HallMoose Hall

• Curio cabinets• Curio cabinets• Assorted oil lamps• Assorted oil lamps

• Coins• Coins• Galvanized tub• Galvanized tub

• Metal &• Metal &wooden trunkswooden trunks

• 1950’s chrome & • 1950’s chrome & arborite tablearborite table

• Records• Records• Dressers & more!• Dressers & more!

Presented by

BIG STRAPPER AUCTIONSLinda Dunbrack

403-304-4791 (cell)To view items:

www.bigstrapperauctions.netLunch will be available

N IQUESALE

Upcoming Estate SalesUpcoming Estate SalesMay 24 – 12 noonMay 24 – 12 noon

at 5222 51 St, Ponokaat 5222 51 St, PonokaJune 7 – 12 noon, onsite June 7 – 12 noon, onsite

auction west on Hwy 53 – auction west on Hwy 53 – see website for directionssee website for directions

Equipment-Misc. 1620

A-CHEAP, lowest prices, steel shipping containers. Used 20’ & 40’ Seacans insulated 40 HC DMG

$2450. 1-866-528-7108; www.rtccontainer.com.

Firewood 1660LOGS

Semi loads of pine, spruce, tamarack, poplar.

Price depends on location. Lil Mule Logging

403-318-4346

Tim’s PaintingInterior & Exterior Painting

Excellent workmanshipHouses, decks, windows & trim

Call Tim Greshner403-704-6554

Serving Ponokafor over 20 years!

OVER 40 YEARSOF DRILLING EXPERIENCE

FREEESTIMATES

ALBERTATALL PINE

DRILLING LTD. 100%CUSTOMER

SATISFACTION

• Water Well Drilling• Steel or PVC Casing• Pre Drilling Piles• Water Well Pump

Testing & Monitoring

• Submersible Pump Sales & Installation

• Well Abandonments• Shock Chlorination• Backhoe Service

24 HOUR SERVICE TRUCKDomestic, Industrial & Oilfi eld

24 HOUR24 HOURRed Deer 403-343-6266Bentley [email protected]

www.tallpinedrilling.com

12345

View our 29 patented and patent pending inventions online at

www.1800bigiron.com

RURAL WATER TREATMENT (Province Wide)

Tell them DannyHooper sent you

• B-PRESSURE • PIPELINE • OILFIELD • ASME Section VIII Division I VESSEL

FABRICATION & PIPING• SHOP/PORTABLE

• CNC PLASMA CUTTING• ALUMINUM • SHEARING & FORMING

MAIN: (403) 783-7591FAX: (403) 783-8178

Website: www.harbinwelding.comE-mail: [email protected]

12345

Let us amplify your message!

Add this feature to your next career ad booking

Call for more details 1-800-282-6903 ext 235

12345Place your ad in this newspaper and province wide

with a combined circulation of over 800,000 for only...

$995plus GST/HST

Value Ad NetworkAlberta Weekly Newspapers Association toll free 1-800-282-6903 x228 email [email protected] or visit this community newspaper

the MOST out of your advertising dollars Squeeze

New Appliances Needed?

New, dependable, affordable Inglis & Whirlpool

household appliances.

403-783-4880

Berni'sRefrigeration and Appliance ServiceWe deliver & install your purchases.

DENTISTRY

Family Friendly Dentistry

Box 11004905 50 St.Rimbey, ABT0C 2J0

RIMBEYDENTALCAREDR. STEVE CALDER BSC DDS

Ph. (403) 843-2173Fax: (403) 843-2607

HEATING

“Committed to your comfort”

Advertise your business

in the Business

Directory!

EYE CARE

Drs. Heimdahl, ZoBell & Kallal403-783-5575 1-800-662-7168403-783-5575 1-800-662-7168

WWW.4YOUREYESONLY.CA • 5120-51ST AVE, PONOKA

- ADVANCED EYE HEALTH & VISION EXAMS- CONSULTATION & REFERRAL SERVICES- DESIGNER EYE WEAR & CONTACT LENSES- INSURED MEDICAL EYECARE SERVICES NOW AVAILABLE FOR ALL AGES

NEW PATIENTS ALWAYS WELCOME

OFFICE HOURSOFFICE HOURS: Monday - Friday: Monday - Friday8AM - 12:30PM • 1PM - 5PM

BIRCHLAND DENTAL CLINIC

- General Dentistry - Orthodontics - Cosmetic Dentistry - Bonding - Veneers

- Bleaching - White or Gold Fillings- Crown and Bridge - Implant Restorations

“WE ENTHUSIASTICALLY WELCOME NEW PATIENTS”

DR. HUGH PORTER • DR. RICK BARR • DR. JEFF BARRDR. GREG EDWARDS • DR. STELIAN LISMAN

DR. DAVE CHORKWA

PRACTICE OF DENTISTRY

4037835225 • 40378352355118 - 51 Ave., Ponoka, AB T4J 1R5

DENTAL CARE

Ph: 403-782-7722Fax: 403-782-7499

Robin Esau

[email protected]

BOBCAT SERVICES

BRUCE’S BOBCATLarge & Small Jobs

ANYTHING& EVERYTHING

403-783-0663

ANYT& EVER


CLASSIFIEDS Sell it Best! To place your ad phone 1-877-223-3311

DO

YOUR PARTRECYCLE YOUR PAPER!

Buy & Sell#1500 - #1990

Painters/Decorators1310

WellDrilling 1400

Welding 1410

WellDrilling 1400 Well

Drilling 1400

Misc.Services 1290

GardenSupplies 1680

BEAUTIFUL SPRUCE TREES. 4 - 6 feet, $35 each. Machine planting: $10/tree (includes bark mulch and fertilizer). 20

tree minimum order. Deliv-ery fee $75 - $125/order.

Quality guaranteed. 403-820-0961.

Agricultural#2000 - #2290

Farm Equipment ..............2010Haying Equipment ............2020Tractors ............................2030Combines & Headers ......2040Fertilizer Equipment..........2050Misc. Farm Machinery ......2060Equipment Wanted ..........2070Farm Custom Work ..........2080Farm Auctions ..................2090Livestock ..........................2100Livestock - Exotic..............2110Sheep ..............................2120Poultry ..............................2130Horses ..............................2140Horse Boarding ................2150Riding Supplies ................2160Horse/Stock Trailers ........2170Pasture Wanted ................2180Grain, Feed, Hay ..............2190Seed Grain ......................2200Seeding & Tillage ............2210

FarmEquipment 2010

FUTURE steel building, ready to be erected, 26’ x

25’ x 19’, located in Central AB, great for farm or small

acreage, must sell, reduced $11,000

403-485-2532

Livestock 2100

BULLSFOR SALE• Red and Black Angus

• Hereford

• Yearlings & 2 Yr Olds

MATEJKA FARMSMark

403-783-6389

12BullsFor Sale

Registered Yearlings

Black AngusCall Jim

387-6050(780)

Misc. forSale 1760

Livestock 2100PUREBRED red and black Angus bulls. 1 and 2 year

olds. Semen tested and delivered.Vicwin Farms 403-784-3517, 403-318-7363.

BAR-DALE LIMOUSIN, ERSKINE, AB.

40, two year old virgin bulls for sale at the farm. Fully guaranteed.

Call Carole Barclay at 403-742-4825,

Terry 403-740-5037Ricky 403-740-5711. email

[email protected]

FOR SALE. Simmeron Simmentals, fullblood full Fleckvieh bulls, yearlings and 2 year olds, polled and horned, A.I. blood-

lines, very quiet, muscled. 780-913-7963; www.simmeronranch.ca.

LIMOUSIN BULLS Polled Red and black two year olds and yearlings. Red

Angus Yearlings. Semen tested. Combest Limousin

Farm. (403)742-5211

SHORTHORN bulls for sale, reds, roans and

whites, 2 yr. old yearlings. Semen tested and delivery within 100 miles. www.pros-

pecthillshorthorns.com Les & Shelley Peterson,

780-877-2444.

Horses 2140WE BUY HORSES: broke,

un-broke, or unwanted. Jerry Dodds 403-783-0303

Grain, FeedHay 2190

1ST. cut hay for sale, Phone 403-782-3149

or 403-350-8800

HEATED CANOLA buying Green, Heated or

Springthrashed Canola. Buying: oats, barley,

wheat & peas for feed. Buying damaged or

offgrade grain. “On Farm Pickup” Westcan Feed & Grain, 1-877-250-5252.

SEED GRAIN WHEATCERT. HARVEST,

REDWATER, FOREMOSTBARLEY CERT.

COPELAND, COWBOY,COALITION SEED,OATS

SEED, FAVA BEANS PH. 780-855-2240,CEL, 780-678-6329

SELLING ORGANIC/conventional Sweet

Clover, Red Clover, Alfalfa, Smooth and Meadow Brome, Crestedwheat, Timothy, Sainfoin. Milk Vetch. Free delivery on

larger orders! Pasture and hay blends. Birch Rose

Acres Ltd., Star City, SK. Phone 306-863-2900;

[email protected].

SQUARE hay bales, horse hay quality, 90% meadow brome, 10% alfalfa, no rain, plus second-cut alfalfa. 403-741-4353

SeedGrain 2200SEED Barley & Seed Oats

for Sale. 2 Row & 6 row high yielding varieties

available. Suitable for grain or silage. High germination

& vigour. Seed treating available. On Farm scale.

Larry Trautman, 403-843-2733, Mark Trautman 403-704-3157

For Rent#3000 - #3200

Acreages/Farms ..............3010Houses/Duplexes ............3020Condos/Townhouses........3030Manufactured Homes ......3040Four Plexes/Six Plexes ....3050Suites ..............................3060Cottages/Seasonal ..........3070Roommates Wanted ........3080Rooms for Rent................3090Motels/Hotels ..................3100Offices ..............................3110Stores/Commercial ..........3120Industrial ..........................3130Warehouse Space............3140Garage Space..................3150Storage Space ................3160Land ................................3170Pasture ............................3180Mobile Lot ........................3190Misc. for Rent ..................3200

Wanted to Rent#3250 - #3390

Acreages/Farms ..............3255Houses/Duplexes ............3260Suites ..............................3270Rooms..............................3280Manufactured Homes ......3290Housesitting Wanted ........3300Garage Space..................3310Storage Space ................3320Stores/Commercial ..........3330Office Space ....................3340Industrial ..........................3350Warehouse Space............3360Resorts & Cottages..........3370Pasture/Land....................3380Mobile Lot ........................3390

Acreages/Farms 3010FOR RENT

Mobile home with porch & carport plus pasture. N/S, no kids, no inside pets. Mature

couple wanted.Available May 15

4 miles east of Ponoka on Hwy 53 –

1½ miles south RR251Phone for

appointment & viewing

7 – 9 pm403-783-2453

Houses/Duplexes 3020

FOR RENTSmall 2 bdrm bungalow

Stove, fridge, washer, dryerSingle car garage

Available Immediately

RENTED

RIMBEY HOME FORRENT - 5 bdrm, 2 bath, 5appliance, fenced yard,oversized, double de-

tached garage. Availableimmediately. Rent and DDare $1250, we require 1stmonth, last month and DDprior to move in and a 1 yr

lease. A pet may beconsidered for an addition-

al fee. 250-488-0025 [email protected]

4 Plexes/6 Plexes 3050B R I G H T ,

completely renovated

3 BRM in 4-PLEXWith 5 appliances

Heat & water included, N/PAvailable June 1

403-783-0471

3 BEDROOM IN 4-PLEX, IN PONOKA.

4 appliances. Close to swimming pool & seniors drop-in Centre, very quiet,

mature tenants only 403-783-5493

RIMBEY: 2 bdrm., bright & open, incld’s heat &

water , off-street parking, storage & onsite laundry, no pets. 403-843-4894

Suites 3060FOR RENTQuiet 1 bdrm suite on the main fl oor. Close to downtown, shared washer/dryer. Parking available, N/S, N/P.403-963-0937

FURNISHED BACHELOR SUITE FOR RENT

IN PONOKA.TV & utils. incld. $700/mo.

403-963-0204

Large 2 BDRM bsmt. suite in

PONOKA incld’s util’s, washer/dryer, no pets, non partier, N/S. Working tenant only. Avail immed.

403-704-1645

* RIVERSIDE APTS. *Newly renovated

1 & 2 bedroom units in Ponoka: 3724-45 Street.

403-357-0287

HEATING & EAVESTROUGHING

Reaching 6000households weekly

For just$30 per week this space could be

yours!

403-783-3311

VETERINARY SERVICES

VETERINARY SERVICES

8 a.m. - 5 p.m Mon. to Sat. • Open late Thursday24-hour Emergency Call

• Dr. Kelly Loree • Dr. Leighton Coma• Dr. Trevor Hook • Dr. Jasmine Hardy

Southwest Industrial Park 4102-64 St., Ponoka

403-783-5200

ROOFING

Commercial - ResidentialInstallations - Repair

3912 - 66 St, Ponokawww.wcmltd.ca

[email protected]

On-Farm Mobile Veterinary Services

Ultrasound-aided Reproduc ve Programs

CETA Cer ed Dairy and Beef Embryo Transfer

Herd Health

Bovine Veterinary Services

Dr. Bruce Wine

Phone 403-391-1684

Doug 1.403.318.0498Casey 1.403.358.0452

Hillbilly Tree Mulching Ltd.• FENCE LINES• FENCE LINES• CUT LINES• CUT LINES• POWER LINES• POWER LINES• PIPELINES• PIPELINES• BRUSH & BUSH• BRUSH & BUSH• STUMPS• STUMPS

MULCHING TO SUIT ALL NEEDS Can do trees up to 15” wide

TREE MULCHING

ROY’S ROOFINGROY’S ROOFING& SIDING& SIDING

• Roo ng• Sof t• Windows

• Siding• Fascia• Sheds

403-740-6081

Ponoka Veterinary Clinic Dr. Murray Jacobson Dr. Clayton West Dr. Ashley Shannon

Mon. - Fri.8 am - 5 pm

Sat.9 am - 4:30 pm

24 Hr.Emergency403-783-4348

5502 - Hwy 2A Ponoka, AB T4J 1M1

VETERINARY SERVICES

Darcy’s Drilling Services

WATER WELL DRILLING SERVICES

Darcy SchmidtPh: (403) 783-2220

Fax: (403) 783-8828Email: [email protected]

• water wells drilled & serviced• new pump & pressure system installations• all types of pump repairs• well shocking

ECKLUNDWater Well Service

WATER WELL SERVICE

• Install & Service Pumps• Shock Wells

• Pressure Systems Serviced & Installed

Home: (403) 783-3712 Cell: (403) 704-3413

Advertise your business

in the Business

Directory!

THIS SPACE COULD BE YOURS FOR

$30PER WEEK.

CALL 4037833311

PLUMBING

5110 -50 StreetBox 4414Ponoka, AlbertaT4J 1R7

JESSE ZINTER Offi ce - 403-783-5489

We now carry a complete line of

Ritchie Stockwater parts

Hours of Business:Monday - Friday7:30 am - 5 pm

PONOKA PLUMBING & HEATING• JOURNEYMAN PLUMBER REQUIRED

8:00

12345

780 440 4037 | SEACAN.COM

Steel containers from 8' - 53'. 20' & 40' skids with optional 4' landings available. Mount with twist locks.

Customizable and secure. From storage to workspace.

Reached a Reached a Milestone?Milestone?

Share it!Share it!

1.887.223.3311

This paper is



Real Estate#4000 - #4190

Realtors & Services..........4010Houses for Sale................4020Houses Wanted................4030Condos/Townhouses ........4040Acreages ..........................4050Acreages Wanted ............4060Farms/Land ......................4070Farms/Land Wanted ........4080Manufactured/Mobile Homes ..................4090Income Property ..............4100Commercial Property ......4110Industrial Property ............4120Cottages/Resort Property ..4130Businesses for Sale..........4140Buildings for Sale ............4150Lots for Sale ....................4160Out of Town Property ......4170Investment Opportunities ..4180Mortgages Bought/Sold....4190

ManufacturedHomes 40901980 14’ x 68’ SAFEWAY Canadiana, 2 bdrm., fridge, stove, washer, dry-er, in the Rimbey mobile park. Immd. possession. $35,000. 1-780-465-7107

Immediate Occupancy available! New 3 bedroom,1520 square foot modular for sale in Ponoka. Just $918/mth mortgage! Toll

Free 855.463.0084, onlineat www.jandelhomes.com

or email us at [email protected]

PublicNotices 6010

ManufacturedHomes 4090

THE HEART of Every Home is in its Kitchen.

Kitchen specials starting at $138,500. Upgrades

include full backsplash, stainless steel appliances

& more. For more informa-tion call United Homes

Canada 1-800-461-7632 or visit our site at www.

unitedhomescanada.com.

ManufacturedHomes 4090

BusinessesFor Sale 4140HIGH CASH PRODUCING vending machines. $1.00 vend = .70 profi t. All on location in your area.

Selling due to illness. Call 1-866-668-6629 for details.

MortgagesBought/Sold4190BANK SAID NO? Bank on us! Equity Mortgages for

purchases, debt consolida-tion, foreclosures,

renovations. Bruised credit, self-employed,

unemployed ok. Dave Fitzpatrick:

www.albertalending.ca. 587-437-8437, Belmor

Mortgage

Public Notice#6000

Public Notices ..................6010Special Features ..............6050

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALSJanitorial Services • Ponoka Fire Hall

The Town of Ponoka invites written proposals for the supply of janitorial services for the Town OwnedPonoka Fire Hall.

Complete proposal packages will be available to all interested contractors at the Ponoka Town Offi ce(5102 – 48 Avenue).

For more information contact Wes Amendt,Director of Community Services at 403-783-4431.

Proposals must be submitted in writing to the undersigned no later than 2:00 pm on Friday, May 1, 2015.Faxed or electronic mail submissions will be accepted.

Wes AmendtDirector of Community Services

Town of Ponoka5102-48 Avenue

Ponoka, AB T4J 1P7Fax #: 403-783-6745


Rimbey Gas PlantJANITORIAL CONTRACT

Tenders are requested for the janitorial contract at the Keyera Rimbey Gas Plant beginning August 1, 2015.

Detailed specifi cation packages may be obtained from the Keyera Rimbey Gas Plant Administration Offi ce or by phoning 403-843-7100.

Please submit bids too:

Keyera Rimbey Gas PlantBox 530Rimbey, AB T0C 2J0Attention: Tracy BrownRe: BID - JANITORIAL CONTRACT

Bids must be received no later thanJune 30, 2015.

The Council of Ponoka County has been asked by Lorraine Nelson to amend Land Use By-Law 7-08-LU as follows:

Reclassify approximately 2.25 acres of the NW 16-42-25-W4 from Agricultural District to Country Residential District to allow for subdivision of the rezoned area (1 new parcel to be created).

Before considering the by-law, Council will hold a Public Hearing at which any person claiming to be affected may ask questions or make comments. This hearing is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 2015 in the Council Chambers of the County Administration Building.

A copy of the proposed by-law may be inspected at the County Administration Building, Ponoka, Alberta during regular offi ce hours.


Charlie B. CutforthChief Administrative Offi cerPonoka County4205 - Highway #2APONOKA, Alberta T4J 1V9Phone: 783-3333Fax: 783-6965e-mail: PonokaCounty @PonokaCounty.com

Amendment to Land Use By-Law 7-08-LU

The Council of Ponoka County has been asked by Shawn & Lori Gartner to amend Land Use By-Law 7-08-LU as follows:

Reclassify approximately 14.5 acres of the SW 25-44-27-W4 from Agricultural District to Country Residential Hobby Farm District to allow for subdivision of the rezoned area (1 new parcel to be created).

Before considering the by-law, Council will hold a Public Hearing at which any person claiming to be affected may ask questions or make comments. This hearing is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 2015 in the Council Chambers of the County Administration Building.

A copy of the proposed by-law may be inspected at the County Administration Building, Ponoka, Alberta during regular offi ce hours.


Charlie B. CutforthChief Administrative Offi cerPonoka County4205 - Highway #2APONOKA, Alberta T4J 1V9Phone: 783-3333Fax: 783-6965e-mail: PonokaCounty @PonokaCounty.com

Amendment to Land Use By-Law 7-08-LU

Ponoka County

PUBLIC NOTICEPonoka County utilizes herbicides for weed and brush control along County owned Right-Of–Ways. This is done as part of an integrated vegetation management plan consisting of mowing, hand picking, hand brushing, and brush mulching. Vegetation control provides for safe roadways through improving sightlines and visibility for motorists and to allow motorists to detect wildlife in the roadside ditches. Also, by controlling unwanted Prohibited Noxious and Noxious weeds, the County decreases the risk of invasive plant encroachment into area farm production and to the environment. All roads within the County are subject to spot or blanket spraying from May to October (weather depending).

For further information please contact Shayne Steffen, Manager of Agricultural Services, or Justin Babcock for Ponoka County at (403) 783-3333.

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS:4205 Highway #2A

Ponoka, Alberta T4J 1V9Phone: (403) 783-3333

Fax: (403) 783-6965Email: [email protected]

A.L.L. STARS REALTY LTD.

Payments as low as $589.00 per month OAC3 bdrms, 2 full baths, garage, covered deck, open fl oor plan. Picture perfect, like it just come off the lot.

20 X 80 MODULAR

Call Audrey Bannister1-780-352-1317

Out OfRed Deer 4310

OPEN House! Thursday, April 30th,

1 pm - 7 pm. #53, Poplar Grove

[6205 54 St. Ponoka]. Tired of renting?

Own a new 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1520 square footmodular in Poplar Grove

Village! Immediateoccupancy available.

Just $867/mth mortgagepayment! Toll free

855.463.0084, online at www.jandelhomes.com

or email us [email protected]

PublicNotices 6010

OpenHouseDirectoryTour These Fine Homes

• • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • •

PublicNotices 6010


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YOUR LEGACY TEAM

Pat BoardmanSales Manager

Mark SchreinerSales Consultant

Trevor FeragenSales Consultant

Bob MassSales Consultant

“Let your Legacy start here.”

www.legacyfordponoka.ca

N E W U N I T S A l l p m t s a n d p r i c e t a k e i n t o a c c o u n t $ 1 0 0 0 C o s t c o r e b a t e • E g p m t s C 1 0 6 8 t o t a l p m t s $ 3 1 0 8 5 t o t a l i n t e r e s t o v e r t e r m $ 1 0 7 1 @ . 9 9 % • A l l p m t s o a c

o v e r 2 0 0 t O c h o o s e f r o m - m a n y u n d e r $ 1 3 , 0 0 0 !If the Legacy Markdown isn’t on it .. . you probably paid too much!

2015 FORD F150 XLT CREW CAB 5.0L 2015 FORD F150 XLT CREW CAB 5.0L XTR | T1077XTR | T1077

LEGACY MARKDOWN LEGACY MARKDOWN $40994$40994OR $264 BW @ 84MTHSOR $264 BW @ 84MTHS

0% IS BACK! 0% FINANCING ON ALL NEW F250 & F350 FOR 72 MONTHS

LEGACY FORD...LEGACY FORD...YOUR PRESIDENTS AWARD WINNERYOUR PRESIDENTS AWARD WINNER

#1 in Sales and Service Satisfaction2015 FORD FUSION SE2015 FORD FUSION SE

C1068C1068


MSRP $30299

2015 FORD ESCAPE SE2015 FORD ESCAPE SE T1012 T1012


MSRP $32549

2015 FORD ESCAPE S AUTO, 2.5L 2015 FORD ESCAPE S AUTO, 2.5L C1030C1030

LEGACY MARKDOWNLEGACY MARKDOWN $23994$23994OR $145 BW @ 84MTHSOR $145 BW @ 84MTHS

MSRP $26249

2015 FORD F150 XLT S/CAB 5.0L 2015 FORD F150 XLT S/CAB 5.0L T1064T1064


MSRP $48769 MSRP $50049

2015 FORD F250 XLT WESTERN 2015 FORD F250 XLT WESTERN EDITION 6.2L EDITION 6.2L

T0845T0845


MSRP $53574

2009 LINCOLN MKS AWDT0620AT0620A

LEGACYLEGACYMARKDOWNMARKDOWN

$18994$18994OR $191 BWOR $191 BW

@ 60MTHS@ 60MTHS

2008 CHEVROLET AVEO LT2008 CHEVROLET AVEO LTC0886AC0886A

LEGACY MARKDOWN LEGACY MARKDOWN

$6984$6984OR $89 BWOR $89 BW@ 48MTHS@ 48MTHS

2007 VOLKSWAGON NEW GTIT0981AT0981A

LEGACY MARKDOWNLEGACY MARKDOWN

$11894$11894OR $132 BWOR $132 BW

@ 72MTHS@ 72MTHS

2012 MAZDA CX-72012 MAZDA CX-7P0416AP0416A


$20994$20994OR $211 BWOR $211 BW

@ 60MTHS@ 60MTHS

2013 FORD FUSION SW2013 FORD FUSION SWC0698AC0698A


$18994$18994OR $165 BWOR $165 BW

@ 72MTHS@ 72MTHS

2010 SUZUKI JXL LTD2010 SUZUKI JXL LTDL0451L0451LEGACYLEGACY

MARKDOWNMARKDOWN

$13994$13994OR $142 BWOR $142 BW

@ 60MTHS@ 60MTHS

2010 DODGE JOURNEY SXT2010 DODGE JOURNEY SXTL0456L0456LEGACYLEGACY

MARKDOWNMARKDOWN

$12994$12994OR $132 BWOR $132 BW

@ 60MTHS@ 60MTHS

2010 DODGE CHARGER2010 DODGE CHARGERL0479L0479LEGACYLEGACY

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$12994$12994OR $132 BWOR $132 BW

@ 60MTHS@ 60MTHS

2012 CHRYSLER 200 LX2012 CHRYSLER 200 LXT0871AT0871A


$12994$12994OR $132 BWOR $132 BW

@ 60MTHS@ 60MTHS

2012 FORD FOCUS SEL2012 FORD FOCUS SEL T0394A T0394A


$11994$11994OR $123 BWOR $123 BW

@ 60MTHS@ 60MTHS

2009 DODGE JOURNEY SE2009 DODGE JOURNEY SEL0488L0488

LEGACY MARKDOWNLEGACY MARKDOWN

$8994$8994OR $93 BWOR $93 BW@ 48MTHS@ 48MTHS

Documents

Ponoka News, April 29, 2015