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Local News

Arson charges laid in Cardiff fire

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Morinville – A man has been charged in connection with last Friday’s fire that destroyed a Cardiff Echoes home. Mitchell Robert Hurst was charged with one count of arson, one count of mischief over $5,000 and one count of mischief under $5,000.

Hurst made his first appearance in Morinville Provincial Court June 24 via closed circuit television. […]

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Local News

Gibbons tables water bylaw, for now

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Gibbons – After a lively and sometimes heated twenty-minute debate, Gibbons Town Council agreed to table its water bylaw for a couple months until administration can filter some of the content councillors found objectionable.

Central to the opposition to the bylaw was just who was ultimately responsible for water bills for rental accommodations and exactly how big a deposit renters would have to pay the Town to get their water turned on.
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Schools and youth

Teachers say goodbye to Notre Dame

By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – Students won’t be the only ones saying goodbye to Notre Dame Elementary School this week, two of the school’s longest-tenured teachers will be as well. But unlike many of the school’s students, the teachers will not be returning to stroll the hallways this fall. Viviane Pezer and Linda Gibson are retiring after 15 and 28 years with Notre Dame, respectively.
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Local News

County severs agreement with St. Albert

By Stephen Dafoe

Sturgeon County – Despite eleventh-hour protestations from St. Albert Council, Sturgeon County withdrew from a nearly decade-long municipal planning agreement with the neighbouring municipality June 22.

Council voted unanimously on all three readings of a bylaw to repeal their participation in the intermunicipal development plan (IDP) it has shared with St. Albert since 2001, an alliance that governed how developments were handled along the two municipalities’ shared border.

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Local News

Morinville celebrates its mayoral heritage

By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – Bagpipes and Red Serge preceded the Honourable Ken Kowalski into packed council chambers June 22. Kowalski, Speaker of the Alberta Legislature and Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA, was given the honour of investing Morinville Mayor Lloyd Bertschi with the Town’s first chain of office, new ceremonial regalia that pays homage to Morinville’s administrative and mayoral heritage.

“What we’re doing tonight is doing something that basically has its tradition and its history that goes back nearly a thousand years … […]

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Local News

Arson suspected in Cardiff fire

By Stephen Dafoe

Cardiff – Sturgeon County Deputy Fire Chief Pat Mahoney said a fire that destroyed a Star Key Place home last Friday may have been arson.

“It’s still under investigation,” Mahoney said. “The RCMP were on scene as well and it’s believed to be arson at this time. There was one male individual that was taken into custody for it.”

The Deputy Fire Chief said the fire, which broke out around 12:45 in the afternoon, was the third fire in the Cardiff area that day.
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Local News

St. Jean Baptiste offering big prize pot

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Morinville – with just a few days to go before the start of what organizers are hoping will be the biggest and best St. Jean Baptiste Festival yet, tickets have just been printed for the latest add-on to the festival’s offerings.

Festival Committee member Tyler Edworthy said that 10,000 tickets have been printed and will be available for $1.00 each, giving festival goers a chance to win $5,000, an amount so large they are calling it “The Largest 50/50 Draw Ever.”
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Arts & Culture

Alexander First Nation ready for Pow Wow

]By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Alexander First Nation will be holding its annual traditional Pow Wow July 2 – 4, an event that has traditionally drawn aboriginal dancers and drummers from all over to take part in the three-day event.

This year’s Pow Wow will see Douglas Bonaise as MC, Albert Dequaine as stickman and Kipohtakaw as host drum.

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Arts & Culture

Smith Music students feed bellies and souls

By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – It was a music lover’s feast at Smith Music over the Father’s Day weekend. The school held its annual concert series – five shows over three days with the only price of admission being a donation to the local food bank.

Approximately 80 students and instructors performed for approximately ten hours, singing and playing their hearts out with tunes, many of which were composed before the students were born.
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Local News

County looking to residents to help shape growth

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Sturgeon County – Residents have five opportunities over the next couple of weeks to help shape Sturgeon County’s direction over the next 30 years. As the County moves to the second stage of revisions to its Municipal Development Plan (MDP), it is looking for more public input in shaping that document.

Public engagement sessions held earlier this year allowed the County to draft a vision statement which captured residents’ vision of their community. The upcoming sessions are designed to determine the community’s values based on a variety of themes, including cultural vitality, responsible governance, social equity, economic health and environmental responsibility.
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Local News

Seed cleaning plant victim of mischief

By MorivnilelNews.com Staff

Morinville – While warmer weather has caused many seeds to break open and create new plants, the same weather seems to have brought out mischief makers who have targeted the Morinville Seed Cleaning plant on 100 Street. Morinville RCMP are reporting that the plant has been struck by vandals on several occasions beginning around the end of May.
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Editorial & Opinion

Canadians want American-style cable news

By Robert Jump

As my esteemed colleague has so astutely observed, there are always other opinions.

It appears that Mr. Dafoe’s argument has missed the mark entirely in regard to Quebecor Inc.’s license request by placing blame for something that hasn’t yet taken place, somewhere other than where it will squarely belong if it does: with Canadian television viewers.
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Editorial & Opinion

Is American-style cable news coming to Canada?

By Stephen Dafoe

Quebecor Inc., owner of the SUN newspaper chain announced June 15 that it had applied to the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a licence to operate a 24-hour English language news channel to be called Sun TV News.

Referring to the proposed all-news channel as “controversially Canadian,” Kory Tenecyke, Quebecor Media’s VP of development, said that the channel will take on “smug, condescending, often irrelevant journalism” as well as “political correctness” itself, something Tenecyke believes Canada’s main-stream media is rife with.
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Local News

Council recognizes local business

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff
Morinville – Deputy Mayor Paul Krauskopf presented Champion Petfoods President and CEO Frank Burdzy with a special certificate during the June 15 Standing Committee of Morinville Town Council.

The certificate was in recognition of Champion being named Pet Food of the Year 2010-2011 by the Glycemic Research Institute (GRI). This is the second consecutive year that the Morinville-based manufacturer has been awarded the distinction of healthiest dog and cat pet food on the market.
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Arts & Culture

Community News Bites

By Étienne Thevou

There’s plenty to do right here at home over the Father’s Day weekend and well into next week.

Dads eat free
The Morinville Lions Club will be holding a Father’s Day Breakfast at the Morinville Legion June 20 from 9 a.m. until noon. Fathers, of course, will get to eat for free. Isn’t it great being a dad?
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