Happy holidays from all of us here at The Free Press. It’s hard to believe that we are in the midst of celebrating Christmas 2013 and are preparing for another new year. The older I get, the faster time goes.
This is our year in review issue so let’s take a look back at 2013 our 115th year of serving the Elk Valley.
In the beginning of 2013 we saw a big corporation invest millions of dollars into our Elko sawmill, the opening of Fernie’s first naturopathic clinic and we welcomed baby Nolan, Fernie’s first baby of the New Year, to town.
In January 2013 City Council agreed to form a committee to begin addressing concerns about the possibility that Fernie may have additional burial sites outside of St. Margaret’s Cemetery; the committee is scheduled to meet sometime in January 2014.
We were elated when a Fernie teen “rolled up the rim” and won a car.
Our hearts broke when we read about the dog in Elko that was poisoned after eating Draino that was covered in saran wrap and disguised with some kind of meat.
We celebrated with George and Beth Nixon when they won our Valentines Day Sweetheart Deal contest and we congratulated the Ghostriders’ head coach, Barry Wolff when he was named the Eddie Mountain Division Coach of the Year.
We watched the Randall Hopley trial unfold as he pleaded guilty to abduction of a child under 14 and break and enter in connection to the September 7, 2011 abduction of three-year-old Kienan Hebert from the boy’s home in Sparwood.
We followed the 2013 Provincial Election with baited breath to see Bill Bennett win his fourth term as MLA.
We spent days reporting on all of the flooding that took place in the Elk Valley last summer and reminisced about the days of old when the Fernie Museum renovations were unveiled.
We watched as the famous Elkford white bear was shipped off to it’s new home at the Calgary zoo.
Congratulations again to Terry Hume for organizing Sparwood’s first ever Parkinson Walk that raised a whopping $16,000.
Which brings us to December. This month has been full of stories ranging from local heroes to unfairly treated workers.
We hope that we have done our jobs well throughout 2013 and look forward to serving the Elk Valley next year and beyond.