For St. Albert residents in April 1962, it was officially time to shop! William Veness, chairman of the board of administrators for the New Town of St. Albert cut the ribbon at Grandin Shoppers Park, the city’s first major retail development.
“During the second 100 years of our existence, we shall look back on this time as one of our great milestones,” Veness said. Retailers included a cafĂ©, the Grandin Beauty Salon and Barber Shop, Grandin Bakery, Jack & Jill Family Shoes and Vallee Lanes Bowling Alley. The big winner was a youngster who won the draw for a Shetland pony. But while shoppers were ecstatic, residents were getting antsy about water fluoridation. Promised for that year and already behind schedule, the process was further delayed waiting for one last small pump to arrive. At the same time the city was hiring grader and sweeper operators at the unbelievable wage of $1.65 to $1.75 per hour.
The following April the town appointed its first dogcatcher. It also decided its council should be reimbursed for its duties — the mayor and councillors would receive $10 per meeting for no more than 36 meetings a year, while the mayor would also receive $15 per day for each day spent performing required duties, to a maximum of 30 days a year.
April 1964 saw St. Albert make attempts to grow only to be hindered by the past. The town announced it was looking for construction of a $1-million hotel that would house a pool, banquet facility, conference room and other stores, pumping $20,000 into the city’s coffers and employing 100 people. Yet within a week the city faced two lawsuits of a combined total of an almost equal amount. St. Albert Development Ltd. was looking for between $50,000 and $350,000 because the town had not submitted accounting showing sales and revenues on a monthly basis for land held in trust by the city. Engineered Homes also wanted $550,000 for unspecified grievances. Both cases dated back to 1958 when the town was administered by a board and its sole employee was town manager Gordon Parkes. Council decided to ask Parkes for more information for “the sake of our town as a whole.”
The following spring saw some conclusion to the previous month’s election fiasco, in which the results of the general election were thrown out by a judge due to polling irregularities. After the province revised the Town and Village Act to allow for special elections, the city announced a tentative date of June 16 for the town to elect a mayor, three councillors and two trustees — all of the seats that had been declared vacant by the judge.
In April 1966, some residents were outraged to learn they would now have to carry their full garbage cans to curb on garbage day, then take the empty ones back to where they kept them themselves! The move was part of a city cost-cutting measure; by making homeowners put out their own garbage, the city could eliminate two workers per garbage truck. Away from the grumbling, the Welcome Wagon used the time to set up the city’s Newcomers’ Club, aimed at helping new residents meet other people through coffee parties, bowling nights and other activity groups.
The town was atwitter one April weekend in 1967 after the police received reports of break-ins at 21 buildings that started on Thursday and didn’t stop until Monday when officers arrested two 14-year-olds. The pair was caught sleeping in the furnace room of the community hall. During their spree, the two had drank some chocolate milk at St. Albert high, messed up Father Jan School a bit, passed through the curling club, town hall, the church on Mission Hill and the Youville Chapel, taken some binoculars from the legion (which they said they used from the roof of town hall to watch the police search for them), grabbed three radios, some toys, cigarettes, lighters and candy from Emery’s Pipe Shop, before stopping by the Gazette for some chips and, in the process, leaving some tools behind. They had even broken into St. Albert Garage and spent some time in a Cadillac, drinking beer. All of the stolen goods, minus the chips and chocolate milk, were accounted for.
And if the kids seemed like a problem, by April 1969 it was the teachers under the microscope. A group of parents apprised the Protestant board during a meeting that their children were reporting excessive instances of corporal punishment and foul language on the part of school staff at Leo Nickerson, including hair pulling and ear- and arm-twisting. Within days, the school principal had taken a leave of absence until the end of the school year, his wife, also a teacher, had resigned, and Lowell Throndson had been named acting principal. The outgoing principal, Joseph Garber, insinuated the problems at Nickerson existed in the entire district, comments roundly criticized by the board.
St. Albert’s boxing community was also in hot water after allowing an unsanctioned card to go ahead at Mission Park School. The Amateur Athletic Union of Canada (AAUC) had withdrawn its sanction two days prior, but the St. Albert, Sherwood Park and St. Matthew’s Boxing Clubs decide to square off anyways. As a result, three trainers at the St. Albert club were suspended, plus all referees, judges and timers who participated, for periods of three to six months. The AAUC said it did not sanction the fight because St. Albert had a reputation for not following health guidelines, such as having doctors examine all fighters after leaving the ring, and that local referees and judges had a reputation for being partial to St. Albert fighters. None of the boxers who fought, however, were suspended.
Peter Boer is an editor at the St. Albert Gazette.
