The pages of the August issues of the St. Albert Gazette throughout the 2000s are laced with stories about the western bypass/Ray Gibbon Drive, the new multipurpose recreation centre/Servus Place and affordable housing options.
An Aug. 2, 2000, Gazette headline read that plans had been shelved for a new Saints' arena that had been proposed on Qualico Land in Campbell Park. Soil-testing problems were cited as the reason, because it would make construction too costly.
On Aug. 30, 2000, RCMP statistics showed shoplifting offences were on the rise with 206 offences listed in 1999. But Canadian Tire management disputed police findings, saying that shoplifting thefts could run as high as $250,000 per year. It was suggested that the shoplifting was an ongoing problem but perhaps the statistics showed more of the thieves had been caught.
More than 400 St. Albert residents competed at the Edmonton 2001 World Championships in Athletics.
That same August, the Letters to the Editor pages were full of complaints about the mess in the Sturgeon River. One letter-writer counted 14 grocery carts in the water.
Mosquitoes, mosquitoes, mosquitoes
Throughout the summer of 2001, there were a total of 8,541 mosquitoes trapped near Big Lake, compared to just 646 at John Janzen Nature Centre in Edmonton. Edmonton bug experts blamed a lack of spraying on Big Lake as the cause for the infestation.
As for the 30-year-road saga, it was still a hot topic in August 2001 when the "Sensible Choice" group asked city council to ditch plans for Ray Gibbon Drive.
Environmental concerns
In August 2002, the Arts and Heritage Foundation moved out of the Juneau Home after repeated cases of illness among staff members.
On the environmental front, city public works staff sprayed ash trees in downtown St. Albert to get rid of cottony psyllid tree lice. The summer, which was the driest in 133 years, meant farmers had run out of hay. The Hay West Farm Initiative provided local farmers with feed brought in from Ontario.
2003 was the year of mad cow disease. In August 2003, after three months of economic devastation to Alberta's beef industry, the United States announced a partial end to the American beef ban. Locally the Kinsmen, the City of St. Albert and the Chamber of Commerce planned the Beef It Up fundraiser.
That year, three-spined sticklebacks were noted in Riel Pond and the presence of these creatures meant that work would be set back on the west regional road until they were removed.
The rains came in 2004 and the unusually wet July meant higher than normal water levels in the Sturgeon River. This delayed an environmental monitoring program for Riel Park landfills.
Nonetheless, on Aug. 21, 2004, it was announced that the west regional road was a go. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans notified the city that the west regional road cleared all hurdles of the environmental impact assessment and therefore could proceed to construction.
On that same Aug. 21 front page, it was announced that the cost for the proposed Multi-Rec Centre was expected to hit $40 million.
Province celebrates 100 years
The Children's bridge near Tache Street was completed in August 2005.
St. Albert celebrated the province's 100th birthday with a party in front of St. Albert Place. Local service clubs donated $1,000 each for the event and the city contributed $5,000.
The first Alberta case of West Nile disease was announced that August in the Palliser Health Region south of Calgary. In St. Albert, AltaLink power line crews used helicopters to attach reflectors to the lines near Big Lake in an effort to dissuade birds from flying into the wires.
First troops home
By August 2006, construction was well underway for the west regional road. That August, bike trails were closed in the Riel portion of Red Willow Park to allow construction on the road. The city started capping on the Riel landfill to stop draining towards the Sturgeon River.
In Akinsdale, a petition was launched asking for a relocation of the ring road.
Repairs to the Woodlands water play park were to cost $2.8 million. The repair came in $800,000 over budget because of increased labour costs.
The first pine beetle was spotted in western Alberta.
Banners were unfurled on St. Albert Trail in August 2006 to welcome home the first wave of 1,400 troops from Afghanistan. More than 2,000 were still serving in Afghanistan.
MP John Williams announced he would retire and wouldn't seek a sixth term, and in the same issue of the Gazette, Brent Rathgeber announced he would seek the Tory nod.
City council briefly proposed a fundraising effort by proposing that the names on the Mark Messier and Troy Murray Arenas were up for sale. The City asked the two athletes to pay for having their names on the arenas. Two weeks later, city council stick handled its way around the furore, apologized and said the names would remain to honour the two athletes.
The province purchased Newman College in August 2007 for $42.5 million to make way for the ring road alignment.
In August 2008, construction began on the north leg of the ring road at Mark Messier Trail.
Once again, August froshing rituals were in the news when 14 St. Albert teens faced weapons charges stemming from a series of hazing incidents at the end of June.
An Edmonton Garrison soldier, Master Cpl. Erin Doyle, was the 90th fatality in Afghanistan.
And in that dry summer of 2008, the mosquito population hit an all-time low with just 850 mosquitoes snagged in Edmonton traps.
The city's affordable housing plan kicked off in August 2008 with applications made available for rent subsidies and basement suite grants.
Football fields in Riel Recreational Park were completed with ATCO Trailers and change rooms by August 2009.
On the road front, Newman College was demolished in the summer of 2009 and commuters were told to expect traffic snarls on the Anthony Henday Drive around 184 Street and 137 Avenue.
Cranes lifted the modular unit for the new addition to North Ridge Lodge in August 2009.
In August 2010, stories on nearly every front page of the Gazette centred around the disappearance of Lyle and Marie McCann, who were last seen July 3 of that year. In August, the McCann's children launched a poster campaign.
City council gave the Downtown Area Redevelopment plan a green light to allow for possible construction of 25-storey towers along with the redevelopment of St. Anne Street and a civic plaza in front of St. Albert Place.
Traffic problems were still the norm in August 2010, but once back in the city, residents could settle comfortably into houses that were holding their market value on the Edmonton MLS with an average selling price of $400,000 and a Forest Lawn bungalow being listed at $339,000. The four-year closed mortgage rate was 5.59 per cent.
