Battlefords News-Optimist

Temperatures at various times lately have either risen or dropped very quickly. Jan. 25 my thermometer registered plus 4 C. Monday, it registered - 23 C. Nearing the end of January one can already notice that the days are getting longer.

A mixed bag of weather again, from cold warm hot to cold and so it goes. Every nice day brings spring that much closer and we are through January already, so spring is not so far away.

Among the 325 University of Alberta Augustana Campus students earning scholarships for the 2013-14 academic program were three Northwest students.

The Battlefords Minor Softball Association hosted the Don Bates Pitching Clinic at the NationsWEST Field House last week. The clinic consisted of six one-hour sessions from Jan. 19 to 30.

If you buy into the hype or not, there is only two days to wait anxiously for that notorious ground hog to leverage his predictions on the remaining length of winter. I'm cheering for Team Spring.

I'm in the market for some very specific computer hardware - so specific, I have to order it from out-of-province. It's called a RAID, and it makes several hard drives act as one. I've been looking intensively at one called a LaCie 5Big Pro NAS.

Battlefords RCMP responded to more than 20 calls for service/occurrences between 6 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28 and 6 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29. Among those were one alarm and two nuisance/false 911 calls. Tuesday 8:48 a.m.

BONDAR, HARRY: It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Harry Bondar on January 19, 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta. Harry was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Ruth (Caplan) in 2007.

The traffic signal at 11th Ave and 100th Street is again functioning, however the left turning arrow for motorists turning from 100th Street onto 11th Avenue eastbound will not work until further notice.

Saskatchewan comedian Brent Butt will be headlining the second annual Celebrate the Arts fundraiser at the Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts. The event is scheduled for March 22.