Are we forgetting something?
No better time than “Spring Forward” to the lurching time table of newspaper production than to spring into action and attempt to correct some oversights.
No worse sin than forgetting an anniversary, and despite calendars and clocks, sticky notes and such, the News has missed a few recently.
The Medicine Hat police Service’s 125th anniversary earlier this year gets you thinking, and I’d been keen since remarking what a monumental year 2013 was ten years earlier.
There was of course the flood, which produced a good look back at the event itself and berming efforts since (more to come this week as berm money is back in the Alberta budget).
But 2013 also saw the Lac Megantic catastrophe, and some renewed interest in the age old question about moving the rail yards.
Early 2024 found the News delving into the circumstances and first hand accounts of the 1984 trail derailment in Riverside.
Sadly, a lot of our history is told through obituaries.
Somehow we missed the 95th anniversary of the Riverside Book Club a year or two ago, even though it was on our calendar. Expect more on this topic in four years time.
The News itself turns 140 next year (despite the best efforts of social media), so we beg forgiveness.
Over the last decade we’ve missed several opportunities to reprint News copyright photos of the half-kiloton explosions conducted at CFB Suffield during the 1960s. It is truly amazing what you find when you move!
No one is immune. The pandemic delayed a number of centennials for towns, villages and hamlets in the region, though many have since gone ahead.
2024 will feature the centennial of the forming of the Kiwanis Club of Medicine Hat (expect more news about it this month).
If your organization has a big date coming up, let me know.
Election time
The Montana U.S. Senate election next fall will be the most expensive in state history, the AP reports. Candidate and political group advertising could reach US$120 million in ads booked to win the swing race that could decide control of senate next fall.
By comparison the top two parties in the 2023 Alberta general election spent a total of C$10.4 million. (Montana has one 1.1 million residents, two seats in congress and one democratic senator up for reelection).
Around the horn
The Vauxhall Baseball Academies’ fundraising dinner last weekend featured Andrews Albers, a journeyman pitcher from North Battleford who spent time in the bigs, the minors, independent leagues and Japan. Albers is also the new pitching coach for the expansion Saskatoon “Berries” who will play the Hat Mavs this summer.
Anybody recall when the last “sportsman dinner” was in Medicine Hat?
A look ahead
The past year’s activities of the city’s fire service will be detailed in a report to council committee on Monday, along with new nominees for the city’s “Sports Wall of Fame.”
You likely don’t have to attend but the Alberta Municipalities spring conference fires up an the end of the week. Expect more discussion of city grants and the prospects for party politics at the municipal level to result.
100 years ago
Citing years of drought and poor wheat prices, the Canadian Land and Irrigation Co. said only government intervention would prevent bankruptcy, the News reported in early March 1924.
Financiers in London said 3 million pounds had been spent to bring water to the Vauxhall region and “drought-stricken areas of Southern Alberta” but worsening conditions had made it impossible to carry on.
A father and son from Walsh were sentenced to one month hard labour and fined for assaulting and threatening to kill a sheriff who came to collect farm equipment to absolve a debt.
A play down format was suggest to allow the Prairie Hockey League champion to compete for the Stanley Cup alongside the NHL and Pacific Coast league title holders. Regina Capitals and Calgary Tigers were in he midst of a best-of-three series.
Hotels could sell liquor until 10 p.m. on weekdays but not after 7 p.m. on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays, according to the new Alberta liquor control bill strongly supported by temperance factions led by MLA Nellie McClung.