School delayed again

By Ryan Laverty
Staff Reporter

Site issues for a new Red Deer Lake School have again delayed the project.
On May 27, the Foothills School Division and landowner Bob Frieze parted ways after months of discussion over a 23-acre parcel of land off of 53rd Street.
“It just didn’t work out with the donor,” said division secretary treasurer Drew Chipman. “The MD of Foothills has already stepped forward with a couple of options and we’re hoping to know where we will be within the next two weeks.”
Whether they know or not, the breakdown with Frieze is one of many setbacks the Red Deer Lake School project has seen since it was first approved by the provincial government three years ago.
Chipman admitted regardless of the speed of the process from here on out, the earliest construction of the new school could be completed is Christmas 2006 — four months later than was first hoped, but one the community seems content with at this point.
“That is a logical time for a move, so that’s what we’re prepared to deal with,” said Jay Lyons, a member of the School Enhancement Committee. “The MD and the school division have worked very hard to get this done and for whatever reason it didn’t work out. I’m not sure why, but what we’re saying now is let’s pick the one we can expedite and get this school built.
“We are sitting on a powder keg of frustration here,” continued Lyons, whose daughter graduates from Red Deer Lake this summer, six years after the project was first proposed. “The community needs to know where this is going by the end of the school year. If the community doesn’t know by that time the frustration is going to boil over.”
The community has pledged nearly $900,000 of its own money toward the new school with another $100,000 expected soon.
But, he said, if the project continues to drag on restrictions could come into place on some of that money.
“We know the MD and school division have been working at this,” said Lyons. “We just want to say to the school division that if there is a question between the two parcels, if they are both suitable, go with the one you can expedite.”
The school division has struggled to find a suitable parcel of land to replace the current Red Deer Lake School.
Initially it was thought the school would open in September 2004, but the division and the MD of Foothills couldn’t agree on a proper location.
The first site proposed was rejected after the Devonian Foundation, an environmental activist group, classed the site as an area intended for environmental conservation and public recreation. The Devonian Foundation donated the parcel in question to the MD 20 years ago.
The second proposed site was scuttled by the MD’s concerns over the safety of access from 69th Street.
The most recent site seemed ideal to both the school division and the MD because it was a manageable 23-acre parcel accessed off of 53rd Street — the same street the current school sits on.
The two new sites being proposed by the MD are also off of 53rd Street, but must be acquired by the municipality before the next phase of planning can begin.

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Sentence does not satisfy RCMP officer

Youth who attacked RCMP Cst. Tom Christie receives 11 months

By Pamela Roth
Staff Reporter

One of the teens charged in the beating of Turner Valley RCMP Cst. Tom Christie last July will only spend another two days behind bars.
The youth, who is now 18, was sentenced to an 11-month sentence, in which two-thirds of that sentence will be spent in custody at the Calgary Remand Centre and the other one-third in community supervision. The youth has been in custody at the Remand Centre since last November and was given credit for his time already spent in jail.
Following his sentence, the youth will be placed on probation for a period of one year.
Crown prosecutor Ken McCaffrey sought an 18-month sentence for the accused while defence lawyer Barry McLaren argued that four months of community service would be more appropriate.
Nonetheless, Christie wasn’t pleased with the punishment for the youth, who starred blankly at the ground as the judge read his sentence.
“I wasn’t expecting a lengthy period of incarceration, but I certainly would have thought more than what he got,” said Christie. “I just felt the sentence didn’t fit the crime. When you have that kind of crime committed, seven months in jail just doesn’t fit.
To me, it doesn’t send the right message to other would be criminals.”
The youth, who can’t be named because of the Youth Justice Act, apologized for his actions.
“I’m sorry about what I did. I learned a lot in the last 10 months,” said the youth, who admitted he was ‘kind of drunk’ at the time of the incident and ‘wasn’t thinking clearly.’ “After I heard the victim impact statements and I heard from him (Christie) I guess I got a better idea of what I did.”
Prior to the sentencing of the accused, Touassignant read the victim impact statements of Christie’s three children, ages nine, 10 and 14.
The statements repeatedly expressed emotions of sadness, worry, anger and fear of their physical safety since the vicious assault in Calgary on July 23.
The youth had already heard the victim impact statements from Christie and his wife and met face-to-face with Christie during a recent community conference ordered by Touassignant.
“You are not a bad person. You did a bad thing and you will suffer the consequences of that poor judgment,” said Touassignant, who invited both Christie and the accused to keep in touch and update him on their progress. “The act was senseless, cowardly and unprovoked. I would be interested in how you are doing five years from now.”
The attacker pleaded guilty on March 2 to the assault when he and another teen, who was 15 at the time, knocked Christie off his bicycle and kicked him roughly 50 times, leaving him unconscious in the southwest community of Shawnessy.
At the time of the incident, Christie had been cycling with his three sons and simply asked the teens to clean up some of the liquor containers they had thrown on the ground in a back alley.
The vicious attack left Christie in a coma in the trauma ward for six days and he wasn’t able to resume work until September on restricted duty.
Christie was also left with a permanent scare on his face, suffered short-term memory loss and may take up to 18 months to fully recover.
He is planning to meet with his other attacker, who is now 16, during a community conference in the next week or two.
The 16-year-old also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and will be sentenced on June 28.