Over Easy, Please - April 12, 2013

Elk Island Public

Schools recognizes

semifi nalistsElk Island Public Schools will recognized fi ve of its teachers and principals next week, after they were named among more than 100 semifi nalists for the 2013 provincial Excellence in Teaching Awards.

Two Fort Saskatchewan teachers -- Douglas Maloney of Next Step Senior High and Carla McTurk of Win Ferguson Elementary -- are among the fi nalists. Also among the fi nalists are Marie Berg of Woodbridge Farms Elementary, Kathyrn Horlor of Pine Street El-ementary, and Jim Seutter, Prin-cipal, Strathcona Christian Acad-emy Secondary.

On April 16, EIPS’ semifi nalists will attend a regional celebration to honour this acheivement. All semifi nalists also have the oppor-tunity to access special funds for additional professional develop-ment as part of the award.

“These individuals impart excel-lence in the leadership, creativity, and innovation that is prevalent among Alberta teachers, and we couldn’t be more proud or pleased that they are being recognized as quality contributors to education in Elk Island Public Schools and the province,” notes Associate Su-perintendent of Human Resourc-es, Karla Satchwell.

“We want to thank all the par-ents, school councils, and staff for their thoughtful nomination of these deserving educators.”

From the group of semifi nal-ists, 20 provincial Excellence in Teaching Award fi nalists will be honoured at a dinner and cer-emony with Education Minister Jeff Johnson. “It’s an honour to publicly recognize educators who impact students in such a mean-ingful way,” he said.

Volume 3, Number 24 Price: FREEFort Saskatchewan, Alberta • Friday, April 12, 2013

The Fort Saskatchewan RCMP are seeking the public’s assistance in an ongoing break and enter investigation.

According to a media re-lease issued by the lo-cal detachment, a home located on Meadowview

Drive was broken into during the mid-afternoon hours of Monday, March 25th, 2013.

Police have provided lo-cal media with two, high-resolution surveillance camera photos of the sus-pects. These photos are

reproduced above.

The RCMP asks that any-one who may have wit-nessed the incident, or who may be able to iden-tify either of the individu-als depicted above contact the local detachment at 780.992.6100.

Over Easy, PleaseDo Fort Schools Need a RCMP Presence? Pg. 2

GETTIN’ MORE OF THE GOOD STUFF

How’s Your Hygiene?P. 6

LOCAL NEWS

Fort Celebrates Rescuers P. 3

70 days until Summer!

DO YOU KNOW THESE MEN?

Surveillance camera photos from a local break and enter investigation. RCMP hope to identify the individuals depicted above. Photos: Fort Saskatchewan RCMP

Published in print and online every Friday

SAT SUN MON L: -8 L: -3 L: --3 H: 0 H: -1 H: 0

TUE 6/-8SUNNY

WED 6/-6P . CLOUDY

THU 4/-8FLURRIES

FRI 2/-5SHOWERS

Garritsen introduces expense reporting motion

Details of the spending of Fort Saskatchewan’s Mayor and City Council-lors may soon be more easily available to resi-dents.

Councillor Frank Garrit-sen introduced a Notice of Motion at this past Tues-day’s City Council meet-

ing, which would see all expenses of Council and Mayor, along with re-ceipts of each expenditure incurred by each member of City Council, posted online on the City of Fort Saskatchewan website.

According to Garritsen’s motion, these reported expenses would include details on the Mayor and Councillors’ travel and associated expenses, as well as expenditures as-sociated with conferences, workshops and promotion funds.

A debate on Garritsen’s motion is slated to pro-ceed at the April 23rd Council meeting.

If Council adopts Garrit-sen’s motion, Fort Sas-katchewan would have a similar expense reporting regime as the City of St. Albert.

Citing an accounting scan-dal at Alberta Health Ser-vices as their motivation, St. Albert started the on-line reporting of expenses of its Mayor, Council and City Manager in Febru-ary of this year.

It is unclear if Garrit-sen or another member of Council will move to amend the proposal to include reporting the ex-penses of Fort Saskatch-ewan’s CAO, Kelly Kloss.

Over Easy, Please April 12, 2013 Page 2

Spring SaleStarts April 2nd!

Over Easy, Please is published weekly on Fridays. We are located in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, and are a publication of Tuckbook Inc. Our website is located at www.overeasyplease.com. Over Easy, Please welcomes opinions and comments. Please note that we reserve the right to edit comments for length, style, legality and taste. Comments sent to us or posted to our website may be reproduced in print and/or electronic format. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. Therefore, the views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of Tuckbook Inc., and/or any/all contributors to this publication. We reserve the right to reject or remove advertising that we deem contrary to our ad philosophy, at our sole and exclusive discretion. Please view our contact information on page 8. This newspaper is not edible.

Phone: 780-998-0730 Fax: 780-992-1229

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The IssueDo we need a full-time RCMP/School Resource

O� cer?

By OEP Editor JUDY SELLIN

Has the time come for some Fort Sas-katchewan junior and senior high s c h o o l s to have an RCMP

presence, also known as a School Resource Offi cer (SRO)? According to the Edmonton Po-lice Service website, it was in 1979 that the Edmonton Police Service fi rst partnered with the Edmonton Public and Catholic school systems to bring police visibility within some schools. The unique partnership began in four Edmonton high schools. To date, the program has grown to nineteen sworn police offi cers who work out of twen-ty-one Edmonton high schools.

This past Tuesday, Fort Sas-katchewan City Council was presented with a request by John Paul II Catholic School principal Bill Tonita, for the hiring of a full time School Re-source Offi cer for the junior and senior high schools in the Fort. The request was also supported by both school boards and other school offi cials.

The cost estimate for a SRO for Fort Saskatchewan. Ap-proximately $140,000 per year, which would include the cost of a car/uniform and necessary equipment. Who would pay for the SRO? You, the taxpay-er. Reasons given is that the

school board cannot fund the program, nor were they suc-cessful in obtaining provincial grants for the endeavour.

The rationale in having an SRO, in brief, is to ensure a safe and caring environment; to work proactively with stake-holders to educate youth; to address community concerns regarding youth and the law; to monitor traffi c and bus safety in and around schools; .to cre-ate partnerships; to address is-sues of bullying/cyber bullying/violence in schools; and to mon-itor drug, alcohol, and tobacco use.

Information presented to City Council stated that the schools are facing complex issues such as bullying, sexting, cyberbul-lying, drug, alcohol and tobacco use, fi ght club, violence preven-tion (weapons), child protection issues, family violence, theft/vandalism, and driving offenc-es such as stunting, dangerous driving, excessive speed, and noise complaints.

Therefore, the role of the SRO is to bring the “physical presence” of the RCMP in and around schools; assist schools to create a safe and caring environment; provide confl ict resolution in complex matters; develop pro-grams to reduce violence, drug and alcohol use; offer rapid re-sponse to incidents at schools; perform criminal investiga-tions regarding drug use and crime; and reduce incidents of bullying and cyberbullying. It’s important to note that Edmon-ton schools do pay for part of the costs of their SROs.

We have security/peace offi cers in our local hospital, and just how does it make you feel as a patient, be it on an emergency or stay-over visit? Does it give

you more peace of mind to have this security? There is really no right or wrong answer, as it depends on how you feel as an individual. For me, I do feel more comfortable, for several reasons, knowing that there is security in our hospital. How-ever, in our schools, it would be RCMP offi cer that will be responsible for much more than just a physical presence. As taxpayers, I believe it is up to City Council to present us with research as to why a SRO is need in upper grades Fort schools? In addition to how such a program would be effec-tive here in the Fort.

It just may be that our tax dollars could be better spent with increasing the staffi ng of by-law offi cers, to investigate more neighborhood and com-munity complaints. In turn, this may enable the extra em-ployment of RCMP the time to do regular but random visits to the schools, as well as con-structing and hosting regular workshops and programs on how the community as a whole can assist in creating not only safer school environments, but an even safer community.

The prospects of reducing youth drug use, alcohol use, tobacco use, bullying, cyber bullying and the like, I believe has to be addressed on a community level. We all know the afore-mentioned do not only remain in schools, but are continued outside of school property, too. Perhaps we would do better if our tax dollars not only reached the schools, but the rather the community as a whole. Would it not serve us better as a com-munity if more of us were able to attend awareness programs, workshops and better under-stand confl ict resolution mea-sures?

UPDATEline birthday

The Northeast Region CAER’s community notifi cation system, which notifi es capital region residents about activities they may notice or have questions

about, and which also provides safety messages regarding crit-ical incidents, recently had its tenth birthday.

According to the Alberta Indus-trial Heartland Association, the telephone UPDATEline (1.866.653.9959) is used almost daily, enabling industry mem-bers to easily inform the public

of activities including mainte-nance, fl aring, noise, training, higher than normal traffi c vol-umes, and other incidents.

Municipalities have also uti-lized the system to great suc-cess to post on incidents such as fi res, high river warnings, traffi c interruptions and water outages.

April 12, 2013 Page 3Over Easy, Please

In Burundi, Africa

“When The Time Comes”

By OLIVIER N.

I do not k n o w if you t h i n k o f ‘death’ s o m e -t i m e s – but I do,

and I do so often. From the day fourteen of my relatives got killed in a nightmare in January 1998 -- I was only twelve, and I started to think of ‘it’ -- to every time I attend a funeral of people I know, I get lost in my think-ing, but still it seems to be a mystery. We never get used to it, even though we always know it is inevitable for all.

However, that’s actually not the focus of my think-ing. My imagination takes me beyond that fact of not being around any longer – it tries to get me answers and understanding of our “exis-tence”. I mean, when we’re

still around and when we’re not.

In our human nature, we strive to win the race by any means. We want to be heard and understood and sometimes we want more – to have a control over other all things. I do not have anything against those things – but let us remem-ber that we should not miss the very essential things in life, because our existence is limited with time. We all know none is immortal. Be-fore us, there have always been others around, but now they are not – that’s the way it is – and so it is for all.

Some say death is a natu-ral way of telling people to slow down, and others say it is life’s way of telling one they’re fi red… well, I would say that we are warned every time it’s happen-ing around us to people we know and/or the loved ones. It leaves us in mourning and cries, with shock and hurt…but still, we move on and forget about it all. But it should remind us of ‘our’ time. I believe there are people who, once passed away, really rest in peace, for they have lived a wor-

thy life that their family, friends, community and the world will always remem-ber them for. But others, they are just gone…gone forever with nothing ‘posi-tive’ left behind.

We still have the possibility to make a choice, because we are still around. Yes, I believe one can choose his passing: to leave the good memories, or just to be gone. We know or have heard of remarkable people who have chosen to make a difference; we come from the same family, communi-ty or country. These people are just like any of us, but they knew life is worth liv-ing positively. And remem-ber, a worthy and humble life is rewarded by an eter-nal life – when the time comes, they die like a hero going home.

Enjoy life and make a good choice to leave something great and worthwhile in your existence. Give the best of yourselves to your family, and leave memo-rable souvenirs in your community, so that you can be like a hero going home when the time comes. Have a wonderful week!

Rotary raises

thousandsThe Rotary Club of Fort Sas-katchewan thanked its ma-jor sponsors, Fort Saskatch-ewan businesses and the ladies of the community and surrounding area this week, upon announcing that their Death by Chocolate event raised almost $13,000.

“We haven’t seen that lev-el of support since about 2007,” stated Terry Stacey, event chair. “The event was sold out plus we had great sponsors.”

Planning is underway for next year’s event, so orga-nizers say the ladies should mark their calendars for February 22, 2014.

Edmonton teacher charged

The Edmonton Police Ser-vice held a news conference on Monday, March 11, 2013 asking the public for more information in relation to a sexual assault investiga-tion.

As a result, a 13-year-old fe-male complainant provided information in regard to an alleged sexual assault that occurred with a teacher employed by the Edmonton Catholic School District. A sexual assault investiga-tion was launched by Child Protection Section. Piotr Zaloba, 27, is now charged with sexual assault, sexual interference, and luring a child (x2). EPS continues to investigate the fi le.

Fort celebrates rescuers

The City of Fort Saskatche-wan hosted its own celebra-tion on Tuesday, for local heroes Adam Shaw and his dog, Rocky, who recently rescued two young women from the North Saskatch-ewan River.

“Today is a real celebration,” said Mayor Gale Katchur. “For us, it’s about giving our community an opportu-nity to come out and meet [Adam] and see Rocky,” she continued. “This story is so amazing... it just tugs at your heartstrings,” Katchur said.

“It’s defi nitely a celebration -- two young girls are alive and well,” said Shaw.

Asked about the moment he decided to attempt a rescue, Shaw said: “I knew they were fl oating down the

river, and just thought I got to get there and help them -- two young girls, they didn’t have much of a chance get-ting out. I fi gured me and [Rocky] had a pretty good chance of helping them out.”

Rocky, Fort Saskatchewan’s heroic 8-year-old Lab-Husky cross.

Over Easy, Please April 12, 2013 Page 4

SCARS Pet of the Week - Feather

Well I have been here awhile now, so here is a bit more about me. I am a happy and friendly girl, probably a couple of years old. I am not light as a feather as I am a medium sized shepherd cross. I am as beautiful as a feather with my tan color and pretty black mask. Since being at SCARS I have had all my vet care and I am healthy and of course spayed. I am not living in the house, but I keep my indoor run in the shop clean, so I am likely housetrained. My leash manners are much improved, as I do want to please you, but there is still a bit of work to be done. I have learned to wait patiently to enter or exit doors or gates and I usually sit when asked. I like people a lot, both the adults and the kids. My foster kids, (who are 12 and 14 years old) can walk me and handle me. I’m just just a young shepherd cross girl who was abandoned at the pound and is looking for a friend to love. Could it be you?

For more information on this pet, contact SCARS at www.scarscare.org or 780.466.7227.

Dingers by Ken Schotsch

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SUDOKU

To complete Sudoku, fill the board by entering numbers 1 to 9 such that each row, column and 3x3 box contains every number uniquely.

For many strategies, hints and tips, visit www.sudokuwiki.org

If you like Sudoku you’ll really like ‘Str8ts’ and our other puzzles, Apps and books. Visit www.str8ts.com

The solutions will be published here in the next issue.

No. 120 Medium Previous solution - Easy

Sunny Smiles Beautiful Babes

Inspirational ThoughtIf you steal someone’s thun-der, it will rain on your parade. -- Wilbur Stance.

Spiritual ThoughtA planned life can only be endured. --Millard Fuller

Random Act of Giving Suggestion

Bring a little Spring this week into your home. Invite a friend or two over for a weekend lunch. Create a wonderful green salad with colorful fresh peppers, dried cranberries, tomatoes and other crunchy veggies along with a zesty homemade salad dressing. For dessert lemon cupcakes with bright yellow icing and a jelly bean garnish.

High FiveFor those who are food safety-minded and are diligent in washing their hands.

Two Thumbs DownTo those who do not fl ush the toilet in public washrooms.

Book of the WeekGod Believes in Love -- Gene Robinson

Song of the WeekSure Be Cool if You Did -- Blake Shelton

A Spoonful of Sugar...sprinkled over a thick slice of buttered white bread is abso-lutely divine.

Funny Yokes

Q: How can you fi nd an egg in the dark?

A: Listen for the crackling.

Q: How do you turn an egg?

A: Over Easy.

Did You Know...Family photos look better if you display them all to-gether as a grouping or in a multiple frame.

Grouping your house plants in one area also makes for a nicer display.

Community Info

Fort Saskatchewan Public Library: 10011-102 Street. Mon-Thu: 10a-9p, Fri: 10a-5p, Sat: 10a-5p, Sun: 1p-5p (closed Sun in Jul + Aug)

Commuter Bus Ser-vice: Mon-Fri, Clareview <-> to Fort Sask. Departs Sherridon Dr and 99 Ave 5:34a, 6:04a, 6:34a, 7:19a, 4:16p, 5:16p, 5:46p, 6:28p, 7:08p. See www.fortsask.ca or call 780.442.5311 for full route details or more info.

Walk In Medical Clinic: 9368 Southfort Drive, next to Shoppers Drug Mart. Call 780-997-0177 for info.

Celebrity baby edition. Can you guess who this is? Check back next week to see if you are right!

Youth Advisory Council and Mayor Gale Katchur at the Earth Day 2013 Proclamation on Wednesday.

April 12, 2013 Page 5Over Easy, Please

By Fort Sask Life Church Pastor BILL OLSEN

I can still r e m e m -ber the fi rst time I took the stage to play music for a mod-

est crowd of paying people. It was awesome. The room was dimly light, the stage lights were on. The sound gear looked impressive, as it more than fi lled the stage.

The weeks of practice were now about to take their fi rst test. I was nervous and excited at the same time. My biggest hope was that I wouldn’t screw up and completely humiliate my-self. The other musicians seemed much more calm than I was, and rightfully so, as they had already done this before, but for me? This was a taste of something I would never ever get tired of... ever!

As we began our fi rst song, I couldn’t believe how dif-ferent everything sounded, as up till then, we had only played in the basement or living room of my friends house... it was safe there, but... this was the real deal, and we needed to impress the owner of the place as well as the crowd, because we really wanted to do this a whole lot more.

I think I did pretty well, for the most part. There defi -nitely were some off-notes,

Heart & Soul: Two Stories

the odd forgotten word, as well as harmonies that held a bit to be desired, but the crowd seemed entertained and impressed that we were already writing and per-forming some of our own original tunes... not too bad for a bunch of 15-year-olds!

The night proved to be a success, and we were invit-ed to play an entire week... which led to several months of playing fi ve nights per week, and a decent pay cheque as well. Of course, when you start presenting kids these kinds of oppor-tunities, as much as it is a good thing, sometimes it’s not.

It was great for developing musicianship, but hard on school grades... not to men-tion that drugs and alcohol for some became something that was desired, and not to be controlled. We actually had a group that was inter-ested in putting us on a Can-ada-U.S. tour for a year, and then record our fi rst album after the year was over... this was mainly due to our lead vocalist who had a fan-tastic voice, and really was the musician that taught us how to play and sing.

We were about sixteen when this all came down, and we went home to tell our par-ents we were quitting school and going “on the road” to play our music. After a rath-er loud debate, we all decid-ed (well at least our parents did) that it would be better to stay home a fi nish school fi rst.

It was a tough decision, be-cause all I ever wanted to do was play my guitar, and the

dream of a lifetime had just presented itself.

The short version was... we didn’t go on the road, we kept playing locally, and our bass player and lead vo-calist both remained stoned for the next year or so. We fi nally had to go as a three piece band for a while, then fi nally folded up completely, as it seemed that staying so-ber was hard to do.

I’m sure that I was saved from some very damaging things, but for one of the members, life completely fell apart -- to the point that he was so fried from drug use that for quite a long period of time, he couldn’t even dress or feed himself.

It was so incredibly sad... one of the most talented people I’d ever met, became so broken and so tormented that he could barely do life, let alone function at a low capacity.

He had such low self esteem to begin with, and when the dream fell apart, so did he. He never felt good enough, and lived under the shadow of a brother who was a shin-ing star in the sight of his stepdad... he fi nally became a prisoner of his pain and tried to bury it by becoming enslaved to an evil master.

God has put different things in us, destiny stuff, that is always calling out to us... hoping that we would some-day see it fulfi lled. But when pain overrides the opportunities, there can be such devastating outcomes. Most of the pain my friend suffered from was rejection that turned into bitterness.

Unforgiveness is such a bru-tal monster, that steals any-thing it possibly can, and most often robs us of the “highest call” that’s placed in our lives.

Fortunately for me, Jesus came and found me, and I responded. He also went looking for my friend, but for some reason my friend didn’t follow. The result is two very different stories that are being told.

What about you? What kind of masters do you serve that steal away all that’s good in your life? Do you even rec-

ognize that it’s happening? I know that many of our young are slaves to cutting and depression; there are many who suffer from fam-ily violence.

The pain screams for any kind of relief. The way I see it, there is only one way out... when Jesus comes looking for you, and He is, respond. Things could radi-cally change for you.

I’m easy to fi nd if you want to talk!

Have a great week!

Over Easy, Please April 12, 2013 Page 6

Gettin’ More of the Good Stu�

“Could Personal Hygiene Be Holding

You Back?”

By IAN HOPE

I often raise the q u e s t i o n with lead-ers at t r a i n i n g programs- what is the one thing you most

tend to avoid bringing up with an employee or team member? More than 75% of the time the answer is poor hygiene. Poor hygiene can cover a great many things- everything from uncombed hair, to crumpled and soiled clothing, to body odor and offensive fragrances and ev-erything in between.

Too bad that managers and supervisors are so reluc-tant to address hygiene is-sues, because the truth is that many employees with hygiene issues aren’t that aware of it. As importantly, they often don’t see how it affects co-workers, custom-ers and others in the work-place - not to mention how it can limit their own job and promotional prospects.

When I was quite young, and already supervising oth-ers, a situation arose which I found myself unprepared

to deal with. Two ladies complained to me about the body odor of another female employee working in our open offi ce. There were sev-en women altogether, and the subject of the complaint sat smack dab in the middle of the group- and yes, I ad-mit I’d noticed and ignored odors when near her myself from time to time. I swal-lowed hard, overwhelmed with the thought it would be up to me, a young man barely half this lady’s age, to bring this embarrassing issue to her attention.

At the time, I did what many supervisors would have done, and tried to de-fl ect the complaint away from myself. I suggested to the ladies that it was within their right to mention this, ‘woman to woman’, to the offender. A few days later, I looked at the workstations and saw that instead, each desk now had a large air freshener strategically lo-cated at the closest corner to this lady’s workstation. This seemed to have been their solution, and the snide remarks about this lady’s hygiene simply continued.

I look back on this now and realize that while my inten-tion was only to spare my staff member’s feelings, I had not done her any favors in the long term. I had not done my job and made things better for both her and the work group. For years she may have wondered why she was so unpopular with-

in the group and organiza-tion. After a great many leadership ups and downs, and in particular a lot of learning from mistakes, I’m confi dent that if a similar dilemma presented itself now, I would respond far more proactively.

I’ll give an example. A few years ago, a colleague came to me and opened the door to some helpful feedback that he very much need-ed. He had wondered why he’d been consistently over-looked for appointments to senior committee work that would put him together with some of our top people and clients. In my view, he had some fairly evident hygiene issues and I felt these were holding him back. I found a way to give him some coach-ing on these issues which he later said had never been mentioned by his ‘up-line’.

They were all things I be-lieved he’d fi nd easy to remedy once brought to his attention- the tell tale lunch stains often on his tie, the hair that was seldom trimmed and combed, the perpetual fi ve o’clock shad-ow from not getting close enough to the razor in the morning, and the shirt that was always one or two neck sizes too small leaving the knot in the tie askew. When looking in the mirror, this fellow simply hadn’t seen what was so plain to others. Taken together, they were becoming career-killers for him. Happily though, I still

recall the next day when he stuck his head in the door of my offi ce, with a broad grin and fresh haircut, wearing a crisp shirt and new tie. He looked like a completely dif-ferent person! What made our discussion work was that he could clearly see I was providing my sugges-tions only to help, and not to hurt him. This is the basis that we have to establish with everyone we are giv-ing feedback to about things as personal and sensitive as their hygiene. And by the way, this gent did get the appointment he had so much wanted about a year later.

So my advice is not to wait for others to point out that you have a hygiene issue. Take stock of your hygiene and make improvements that happily are almost en-tirely within your own con-trol. If you need a little help, try Googling ‘personal hy-giene checklist’. You’ll fi nd a number of assessment tools. You can enhance your own potential in the workplace and on the team by being at your best and this includes refl ecting a high standard of personal cleanliness and ap-pearance at all times. Hap-py thoughts to you!

Ian Hope facilitates workshops that raise the bar on key people skills. His insights are highly relevant and valued in today’s workplaces. To enquire about Ian speaking or training at your event, send an e mail to [email protected] or visit www.ianhope.com

Flying through t-storms

may deliver potent

radiation dose

Scientists have known for al-most a decade that thunder-storms are capable of gen-erating brief but powerful bursts of gamma-rays called terrestrial gamma-ray fl ash-es, or TGFs. These fl ashes of gamma-rays are so bright they can blind instruments many hundreds of kilometers away in outer space. Because they can originate near the same altitudes at which com-mercial aircraft routinely fl y, scientists have been trying to determine if these fl ashes present a radiation hazard to individuals in aircraft.

Until recently, the work to answer that question was hampered by a poor un-derstanding of exactly how these gamma-rays are gener-ated by thunderstorms, with initial dose estimates rang-ing from not-so-safe to down-right scary.

Now, scientists at Florida Tech have developed a prom-ising physics-based model of exactly how thunderstorms

manage to produce high-en-ergy radiation.

According to their model, instead of creating normal lightning, thunderstorms can sometimes produce an exotic kind of electrical breakdown that involves high-energy electrons and their anti-mat-ter equivalent. This causes an explosive growth in the number of high-energy par-ticles, emitting the observed terrestrial gamma ray fl ash-es while rapidly discharging the thundercloud, sometimes even faster than normal lightning. Even though copi-ous gamma-rays are emitted by this process, very little visible light is produced, creating a kind of electrical breakdown within the storms called “dark lightning.”

The model also calculates the radiation doses received by individuals inside aircraft that happen to be in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time. Near the tops of the storms, for the types of ter-restrial gamma-ray fl ashes that can be seen from space, the radiation doses are equivalent to about 10 chest x-rays, or about the same ra-diation people would receive from natural background sources over the course of a year. But, near the middle of the storms, radiation may be signifi cantly higher -- per-haps up to 10 times more potent -- and in the range of the largest radiation doses received during medical pro-cedures such as CT scans. It is not known yet how often, if ever, this actually occurs.

Police seize drugs and

cashThe Fort Saskatchewan RCMP executed a search warrant at a Westpark property last week, accord-ing to a police-issued media release.

As a result of their search at 30 Woodsmere Close, members of the detach-ment seized over $5,000.00 of Canadian currency and a quantity of drugs including cocaine, marijuana, hash-ish, psilocybin (magic mush-rooms), LSD and metham-phetamines. According to police, the drugs represent a value near $17,000 when sold at the street level.

Stephen Collier, 21, of Fort Saskatchewan has been charged with 5 counts of possession for the purpose of traffi cking, one count of pos-session of a controlled sub-stance and one count of pos-session of property obtained by crime over $5,000.00.

Jesse Gostola, 21, old of Fort Saskatchewan has been charged with 5 counts of possession for the pur-pose of traffi cking, one count of possession of a con-trolled substance and one count of possession of prop-erty obtained by crime over $5,000.00.

April 12, 2013 Page 7Over Easy, Please

Church ListingsFort Saskatchewan Life Church 50-10420 98 Ave. (Back of Fort Mall). Sunday Service/Kids Church @ 10:15a. Wed. Service @ 7:00p. Culture Shock Youth, Fri @ 7:00p. 780-992-9673. www.fslifechurch.ca.

Fellowship Baptist Church. Pastor Jim Paul-son. Worship Service: Sun @ 10:30a. Prayer: Tues @ 7:00p. Awana Children’s Program Thurs @ 6:30p. 9932 - 101 St., Fort Sask. (Ac. from Legacy Park) 780-992-0880.

Church of the Nazarene. Pastor: Stephen Conk-lin. 9802 104 St., Fort Sask. 780-998-2451. www.fortnaz.ca. Join us Sunday @ 11a for Worship. Sunday School @ 9:50a.

Josephburg Community Church.21380 Town-ship Road 550 (intersection of Twp. Rd. 550 & Sec. Highway 830) Aas you enter the hamlet of Joseph-

burg. Ph: 780-998-9331 Fax: 780-998-9305 www.josephburgcommunitychurch.ca Pastor: Rev. Au-drey Daley

Partridge Hill United Church. Corner of TWP 542 and RR 220. 780-895-7378. Debbie Brill, Min-ister. Worship Service: 9:30am. www.partridge-hillunitedchurch.com

First United Church. 10409-100 Ave., Fort Sask. 780-998-4060. Rev. Danielle A. James. All wel-come. Sunday Worship & Sunday School: 10:00a.

Holy Protection Orthodox Church. Saturdays: Great Vespers, 5p. Sundays: Divine Liturgy, 10a. 281 Fort Mall, 10421 99 Ave. 780-708-2877. All Services in English.

St. George’s Anglican Church. Reverend Maude Parsons-Horst. Regular worship times: Sunday @ 8:30am Holy Communion (BCP) and 10:30am Holy Communion (BAS) with Sunday School. 10029 – 99th Ave, Ph: 780-998-3620.

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GELATO

Bus Accident 1960: Part 3By WALTER MELNYK

The Chairman called a spe-cial meeting about the fi ring of the secretary-treasurer. We met at 7pm at the municipal building in Lamont. The meet-ing was brought to order and the fi rst one to speak said that he worked with the secretary-treasurer for many years, so he

voted for him. I was the next one to vote and vot-ed against. Another trustee was up next, whose district was all of Mundare and part of Chip-man. My district was all of Chipman and part of Lamont. I thought I was going to be beaten completely. He stood up and said that we both spoke to the majority of the people in Chipman and knew what their wishes were. He said that the secretary-treasurer was a good friend of his, but due to the circumstances being the way they were, he voted against him. Well, that made 2 votes against one for us. The next trustee to vote was from Andrew, and he said that due to the fact that he worked with the secretary-treasur-er for two decades, he was voting for him. That made it two for and two against. Then it was up to our Chairman to break the tie. He spoke in a very quiet voice, and said:

“The secretary-treasurer is and was a personal friend of mine, but Walter and I visited all the families that lost their children, and I know how they feel, so I have to vote against.” The secre-tary-treasurer was defeated three votes to two. I know that there were some hard feelings but I did what I was supposed to do. The minister never did hire him. The locks were changed to the offi ce, and the secretary-treasurer was fi red on the spot. I fi nished the term and the elec-tion was held. I gave the board my notice that I wasn’t going to run again. They said -- Walter, you will win it by acclamation -- but that didn’t carry any weight. As I walked out of the offi ce, I shook hands with them and thanked them for putting up with me for over a year. Now, I told them that if I get mad, I will just kick the bull in the ass and feel better immediately. That was the end of being a trustee.

Over Easy, Please April 12, 2013 Page 8

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Biscuits and Gravy: Hope in

HardshipBy BRIAN [email protected]

I would be hard p r e s s e d to be-lieve that someone h a s n ’ t h e a r d that old

saying: “If the road gets tough, keep on moving,” or at least some rendition thereof. I think a lot of times, it’s that voice in the back of the mind that keeps us pushing forward, but re-gardless, we’ve all heard something similar: a bit of encouragement from a fam-ily member or coworker or that nagging person on the sidelines in your daily life, that just seems to always be chipper beyond all belief. Sure we all get annoyed at them, but in reality we could likely serve to take a lesson or two from their playbook. Anyway you look at it, life can get tough at times. I re-member one time in particu-lar where life threw someone a curveball they likely didn’t expect. It happened the fi rst time I ever took to the slopes. That brazen, thick-skinned and hard-headed beyond any revelation of any gumption Southerner actually strapped on wood-en planks to go skiing, of all things. Of course not skiing just any ol’ place, folks, but actually skiing in the good ol’ South. Mind you, the ski hill was the only place in the

entire state with snow and that was being pumped out of snow machines like cra-zy to keep the death-wish-mad, I mean, skiers, happy. I must’ve been around 7th or 8th grade the fi rst time I went, and I hadn’t a clue one what I was doin’. All I knew is that a drop dead gorgeous girl was going on the trip, and I was bound to impress her, not that she ever noticed, mind you. Well, there we went, as part of a church youth group outing from Pleasant View Baptist Church all the way to Sugar Mountain Ski Re-sort. Oh, we were set to have a good ol’ time. I took an impromptu ski lesson to get a fi gure of how not to die, mind you the Southern boy in me listened about as much as a emaciated mule in a barley patch. But off we went, onto the bunny hill. What could be the harm? It was called the bunny hill, for crying out loud. So, courage in pocket and brains out the door, I grabbed hold of that tow rope and started up the placid, graceful, simple and peaceful bunny hill. That was till I heard the crying and people making a wide berth around something on the track of the tow rope. I, being the rather resourceful young man I was, at least so I thought, stopped to see what was the matter. On this peaceful and placid gentile slope of a ski hill was a boy about my age ly-ing in the snow. I looked and he seemed to be alright, mind the fact his leg was facing the opposite direc-tion from the way God made it in the fi rst place. But, I

still stopped and introduced myself like momma always taught me, and began to tell the boy jokes. You see, back in those days, I fancied myself quite the comedian. Though I never fi gured out if people were laughing at my jokes or at me, but I didn’t really mind either way. That boy and I, never did catch his name, joked back and forth and he laughed till the ski patrol came to take him and his new crab-like repositioned leg back for treatment. I did manage to tell him he would be great at crab soccer in gym class. His dad didn’t like that joke too much, never did fi gure out why. Now you’re likely asking if I packed it up for the day. Well folks, you know me and my hard head better than that by now. I skied the rest of the day, well, I slid down the hill either on my skis, face or other soft body parts till nightfall. Never did learn how to stop though. But I digress.

You see folks, despite the despair and ultimate strife that life had dealt, I had managed to turn it around into something marvel-ous. No matter how hard life gets, we can’t let it take away our entire lives. Sure, life is tough but ‘life’ itself has so much more to offer, and if we dwell on the hard-ships, then we may just miss the simple delights that life has to offer. Think of that next time that annoying friend tries to cheer you up, because you may just be missing a little of that silver lining they’re always talk-ing about.

Flimsy Whimsy: Safe

By JAI MURUGAN [email protected]

“ O u t ! ” y e l l e d B l i n d y , as I slid home. I never un-derstood how my imaginary ump could

be so darned incompetent.

Just once you’d think he’d get it right. But Misser, as usual, came roaring out from behind the shed, where he’d gone for a leak, away from real Mom’s sight.

“He’s as safe as peanut in a shell in Tut’s tomb, you old miserable crunch! The guy missed him ... plain and simple. How can a guy with no hands make a real tag? That’s stupid. If there was some way me and Jai here could get rid of you, we would.”

“You know darned well no other person would set himself behind this plate and get abuse hurled at him every six pitches, Kid.

But I guess if you can fi nd someone, I’d be more than happy to retire.”

“Don’t care,” mumbled Misser.

“If we’re stuck with you, we’re stuck with you. Bet-ter to be havin’ an unfair game than no game at all.”

“So are you going to shut up next time your slow buddy comes in?” asked Blindy, in a more relaxed tone.

I gave him a cruel stare for calling me slow, but he didn’t notice.

“I will if you make the call right. Otherwise there ain’t no choice. Besides, he’s not slow at all. He’s confused as to which team he’s on.

Pitching six balls and then sliding home when you’re coming in to retrieve them makes him confused.”

Blindy rubbed his imper-ceptible chin. “If you’d throw those stupid balls back to him, he wouldn’t have that problem, now would he?”

Misser looked up defi antly at the old man, 60 years his senior.

“You know I don’t have much of an arm. I’m more of a catcher than a thrower. Jai’s the thrower.”

Usually silent, this time I had to put in my two cents. “Then start catching, would you?”

Egg whites may lower

blood pressure

Scientists reported new evidence this week that a component of egg whites, already popular as a substi-tute for whole eggs among health-conscious consumers concerned about cholesterol in the yolk, may have anoth-er benefi cial effect in reduc-ing blood pressure.

Their study was part of the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American

Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientifi c so-ciety.

“Our research suggests that there may be another reason to call it ‘the incred-ible, edible egg,’” said study leader Zhipeng Yu, Ph.D., of Jilin University.

“We have evidence from the laboratory that a substance in egg white — it’s a peptide, one of the building blocks of proteins — reduces blood pressure about as much as a low dose of Captopril, a high-blood-pressure drug.”

Yu and colleagues, who are with Clemson Univer-sity, used a peptide called RVPSL. Scientists previ-ously discovered that the

substance, like the family of medications that includes Captopril, Vasotec and Monopril, was an angio-tensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor.

It has a powerful ability to inhibit or block the action of ACE, a substance produced in the body that raises blood pressure.

Yu believes that egg white peptides, either in eggs or as a supplement, could become useful as an adjunct to high-blood-pressure medication.

For now, he said people with high blood pressure should consult their health care provider before making any changes.