MAY
- The Rogers Hometown Hockey travelling roadshow came to town, with a day of family-oriented activities culminating with the broadcast of the Calgary Flames-Dallas Stars playoff game on the big screen outside Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
- Andrew Christal of Airdrie was found guilty of manslaughter in the Dec. 2019 murder of Kasif Hirani, whose body was found on a rural road near the Springbank Airport the morning after his murder.
- Planning for an Indigenous Innovation Centre in Cochrane moved ahead with a talking circle and a request to Town council for a space to house the centre. The input of Indigenous people living in and around Cochrane was being sought by the group spearheading the centre.
- Premier Jason Kenney announced the contract award and beginning of construction on the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir Project. The project’s budgeted cost had grown to $744 million.
- David Milgaard, who made Cochrane his home after spending 23 years in prison for a wrongful conviction for rape and murder, died in hospital at the age of 69, following a short battle with illness. Milgaard’s story was the subject of The Tragically Hip’s famous song, ‘Wheat Kings.’
- Cochrane Town council approved a property tax increase of 9.85 per cent for 2022 at their May 9 meeting. Also at that meeting, council approved $50,000 in funding for the Route 22 Artist Collective Gallery for the group’s operating budget.
- The Cochrane Environmental Action Committee’s ‘branches and banks’ program continued to see trees planted in strategic locations around town. About 35 Garmin Canada employees planted roughly 1,300 trees on May 13, followed by another group of volunteers who planted about 500 more at Riverfront Park the next day.
- What may be the most important document coming out of Town council in the next four years – the Cochrane Strategic Plan 2022-2025 – was released to the public for their input on May 16. The plan reflects the values, priorities and principles to be used in all decision-making for the municipality for the next four years.
- A drunk driver fleeing a checkstop struck a Cochrane RCMP officer with his vehicle over the May long weekend, sending the officer to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
- Cochrane Tourism Association executive director Jo-Anne Oucharek told Town council at a meeting May 16 that like the roads in town, tourism has some challenges, and that if not well planned, tourism development can overwhelm infrastructure, increase traffic congestion, create social stress, and/or interrupt normal resident activity.
- The Cochrane and District Youth Justice Committee celebrated 25 years of working to help youth avoid criminal records and assisting young offenders in atoning for their earlier transgressions.
- Grade 12 students were excited to learn they would be allowed to hold in-person graduation convocation ceremonies after more than two years of wading through the COVID-19 pandemic.
