Y2K may have been a bust, but that did not keep the rest of the past decade from being front page news.

Foothills residents have seen explosive growth, an economic boom and bust, floods, rising gas prices, swine flu and mad cow disease.

The past decade has also seen the Town of Okotoks become an internationally recognized leader in environmental conservation, a reputation that attracted the Drake Landing solar community to town. The development was Canada’s first solar energy community with houses tied to a communal geothermal system.

Here are the top 10 news stories of the decade as chosen by Western Wheel staff:

1. Population cap safe/MD leaves CRP

Okotoks town council voted to retain the town’s 30,000 population cap after months of public debate over the cap and growth plans for the Calgary region.

Council unanimously voted to keep the cap and explore future water sources while working out a new plan with the MD of Foothills to manage growth near the town.

Meanwhile, the MD of Foothills turned its back on a new growth plan for the Calgary region and joined the counties of Rocky View and Wheatland in pulling out of the Calgary Partnership in September, 2009 over concerns about high densities in new developments outside the city.

2. Okotoks’ explosive growth

The Town of Okotoks was one of the fastest growing communities in Canada this decade,  nearly doubling in size from 11,664 people in 2001 to 21,690 in 2009.

Okotoks struggled to keep up with the growth as new roads and other infrastructure were built to serve the thousands of people moving to the community.

3. Floods

Mother Nature walloped the foothills in June 2005 as three floods hit the Sheep and Highwood river basins after record rainfall.

Downtown Okotoks sat under water and volunteers filled sandbags in communities throughout the foothills while unlucky residents watched their homes succumb to flood waters.

The Province announced $55 million in disaster recovery funds to cover damages from the floods and Prime Minister Paul Martin toured areas hard hit by the floods in High River.

The Sheep River flooded once again in 2009 resulting in a water boil order and outdoor watering ban that forded the Town to commit to millions in upgrades to its water treatment plant.

4. Mad cow

Foothills ranchers struggled to survive after a cow with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was found on an Alberta farm in May 2003. Within hours of the announcement the U.S. closed its borders to Canadian beef exports and other nations followed suit.

Additional cases have been found in the country since then and the industry slowly rebounded after the Canadian government tightened testing rules and U.S. government slowly re-opened its borders to Canadian beef.

Canada continues to work to convince other countries that remain closed to Canadian beef to lift restrictions.

5. Vince Motta

In 2001 Motta, a 21-year-old Okotokian, attended two Calgary hospitals, but left due to long lineups, before going to High River Hospital for pains in his abdomen.

He was treated for an appendicitis, but had an asthma attack during surgery. He was airlifted to Rockyview Hospital by STARS Air Ambulance in extreme distress and died.  A public inquiry was later held and determined changes needed to be made to the overall health system, especially wait times at Calgary hospitals and the procedures at the High River Hospital and STARS Air ambulance. The Motta family launched a $4.5 million lawsuit against the doctor and nurse who treated their son and STARS Air Ambulance. It has not yet been settled.

6. Horrendous crash

A Cochrane cement truck driver killed five Okotokians in December 2007, including two young sisters who attended Percy Pegler School and a baby.

Christopher Gautreau and his daughters Alexia, 9, and Kiarra, 6, died when their car was rear-ended by a speeding cement truck on Macleod Trail. Melaina Hovdebo and her 16-month-old son, Zachary Morrison, were also killed. Daniel Tschetter was convicted of five counts of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison. He is now appealing the sentence. The victims’ families are suing Tschetter and the company he worked for at the time of the crash for $3.6 million.

7. Health care

The last 10 years brought a big shift in who was overseeing local health care. In 2003 the Headwaters Health Authority, which took care of areas as far south as High River and west to Banff, was folded into the Calgary Health Region whittling the number of health regions in the Province down to nine. The following year the Okotoks Health and Wellness Centre opened. Last year the Province dismantled all of the health regions and created a Superboard with 12 members. Volunteer advisory boards have been established and two Okotokians, Irene Pfeiffer and Larry Albrecht, are sitting on the local board.

8. Drake Landing solar community

Okotoks became home to a first-of its kind solar community in 2006. The Drake Landing solar community is made up of 52 homes that use innovative technology to reduce greenhouse gasses. Eventually, 90 per cent of the home’s heat will come from heat captured from the sun in solar panels.

9. Turner Valley Gas Plant

The Province tip-toed into environmental cleanup at the historic Turner Valley Gas Plant in 2001, encasing asbestos in the old buildings and removing some of the soil contaminated with mercury. Efforts to deal with the contaminated site continued through to 2009, with the Province spending a total of $16 million, which included such projects as building a wall to prevent chemicals from entering the Sheep River and extinguishing the ground flare at the river’s edge that had been burning continuously since approximately 1981.

10. Amalgamation of Black Diamond and Turner Valley

On Oct. 15, 2007, a push to amalgamate Black Diamond and Turner Valley failed after the majority of Black Diamond residents voted no in a plebiscite. The majority in Turner Valley voted yes.

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