Want a second-hand toaster from a guy who used to know Brad Pitt? You might find that and more – for free – today at Servus Place.
City crews are hosting the annual Take It or Leave It event today in the Servus Credit Union Place parking lot. Close to a thousand people are expected to attend.
“It’s an opportunity for residents to upcycle anything that’s in fairly good shape that they don’t want to necessarily throw in the dump,” said Trevor Craft, head of the city’s solid waste team. That’s in contrast to next month’s large item drop-off event, which is for oversized items that should go in the trash.
Participants with items to give should drag their stuff to the north-side parking lot between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. today for inspection and unloading by city crews. Tires, toilets, paint, explosives, barbecues, building materials, mattresses and refrigerators will be rejected.
Residents will get to take home any item they want between 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Craft said. Public works staff will settle disputes over items through random means such as having people guess a number.
Craft said he’s seen canoes, jukeboxes, and whole sets of patio furniture all turn up at this event. He’s personally grabbed a set of windows at a previous event and given them to his in-laws for use in a greenhouse.
“One man’s junk might be another man’s treasure.”
The event is a great way to keep waste out of the landfill and potentially help out a neighbour, Craft said. You can also support St. Albert Scouts by buying hot dogs and hamburgers and drop off donations for the St. Albert Food Bank.
The event ends at 1:45 p.m., after which all items still on site will be hauled to the dump.
St. Albert kids will get to journey through the grasslands this summer for free by coming down to the log cabin by the Sturgeon River.
The Big Lake Environment Support Society’s Summer Nature Centre reopens for what is likely its 19th year this June 27. The annual program, run by BLESS out of the old log cabin by St. Albert Trail and the Sturgeon River, gives area youths a chance to have free nature-related fun all summer long.
University of Alberta forestry student Jillian Dyck has returned for a second year as host of the centre.
“I love working with kids,” she said, and this job lets her stay close to home.
“It’s really great seeing how excited (kids) get from something as simple as a craft.”
Dyck said she has a variety of nature-themed activities available at the centre every weekday until the end of August. Most are based on a specific theme, such as bugs or mammals. Week one will focus on summer camping and fire safety.
New this year will be a week dedicated to the prairie grasslands, which are a major geographic area in Alberta. This unit will focus mainly on farm animals and how they influence the environment, Dyck said.
In addition to tossing bean bags and growing grass in a cup, visitors will get to go on scavenger hunts, catch bugs in nets and examine aquatic invertebrates in pond studies.
About 150 people a week visited the cabin last year.
The nature centre is open from noon till 7 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on other weekdays. Email [email protected] for details on the centre.
A St. Albert birder is all atwitter that a relatively rare bird has returned to the city region.
St. Albert birdwatcher Bob Lane reports that he spotted and photographed a western meadowlark along Range Road 255 between Hwy. 37 and Morinville last Tuesday.
The western meadowlark is not typically found near St. Albert, but is common in southern Alberta.
“You can’t miss them,” Lane said of the bird’s distinctive yellow chest with a black V on it.
Lane noted that this was roughly the same area where he spotted a meadowlark last year.
Meadowlarks are typically a prairie bird, which is why you don’t often see them around here, said birder Alan Hingston. They’re very faithful to their habitat, though, so if they find a patch of field they like, they come back again and again. He does a breeding bird survey in northwest Sturgeon County every June, for example, and there’s one stop on it where he almost always spots one of these birds. (There were five there this year.)
Just one western meadowlark has been spotted in the history of the St. Albert Christmas Bird Count, Hingston’s records suggest.
