APRIL
- Displaced Ukrainian families began arriving in Cochrane in April and some locals made arrangements to take them in. An early leader in the effort was Chantal Barber, who alongside her family took in a family of five Ukrainians. Students in Cochrane schools began taking in donations to distribute to the Ukraine families.
- Burnco was awarded the Alberta Sand and Gravel Association Award of Excellence for its showcase of stewardship. Community relations and operations related to its gravel reclamation project in the heart of Cochrane. They took the 140-acre gravel pit that had been in operation since the 1950s and turned it into the development-ready property soon to be the site of the new community known as Greystone.
- The Powderhorn Saloon in Bragg Creek hosted a fundraiser for Ukrainian relief on March 25, which saw the community pitch in $18,420 for the cause. Caterer Rani’s Rasoi donated $10 from every plate of East Indian food sold and the Saloon added 25 per cent of the day’s sales. Manager Rose Dallyn called it a “Small town, good-ol’ fashioned fundraiser.”
- Mayor Jeff Genung’s Facebook post asked for kindness, saying that some criticism of town council and administration on a social media posting had “gone too far.” He also mentioned in his post that RCMP had been “contacted by frontline staff who felt unsafe.”
- A ground-breaking ceremony took place April 11 to celebrate the expansion of the Stoney Health Centre in Morley. Aaron Khan, Stoney Health Services CEO and executive director, said, “It’s a very happy day for the people in our community.”
- A grass fire in the East End and GlenEagles April 8 marked the beginning of the spring grass fire season, as firefighters from Cochrane Fire Services, Rocky View County Fire Services and Redwood Meadows Fire Department joined forces to eventually get the blaze under control.
- A Cochrane five-year-old was engaged in a COVID-related battle that highlighted how serious complications from the virus could be. Xavier Ferguson was hospitalized in Calgary with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or other organs. He eventually came home as his condition gradually improved.
- First-year RancheView School Grade 6 teacher Maureen McCann was nominated by Rocky View Schools for the Edwinn Parr Award, given to six outstanding first-year teachers across the province.
- A pilot died and his female passenger was taken to hospital in Calgary in critical condition after a small plane crashed just north of the Trans Canada highway, near the Springbank Airport.
- A 28-year-old Cochrane woman was carried 300 metres down a steep mountain face to her death after a cornice collapsed on Mount des Poulis in Yoho National Park on April 13.
- A generous group of volunteers banded together to see to it that 20 or more kids would be able to attend the BGC Cochrane and Area summer camps for kids. Madan Bista, Alf Leslie, and Paul Singh organized a community bottle drive, raising more than $5,600.
- A group of native wildflower enthusiasts were successful in getting permission from various government agencies and a construction company to salvage some ancient plant species on the hill northeast of the Highway 1A and Highway 22 interchange, for relocation elsewhere. A grassland specialist from the University of Calgary said ancient grasslands in Alberta were made about 9,000 years ago and can take 6,000 years to mature.
