Battlefords News-Optimist

Ed, my neighbour next door, is still in Mexico on this last day of December 2012. This year, the New Year will arrive without the usual clang of pots and pans and shouts and whistles on Ed and Ruby's front steps at midnight.

In two lunch and learn sessions held Jan. 9 at Unity Composite High School and Jan. 10 at McLurg School in Wilkie, Dr.

The driver's side window of a truck parked on 106th Street in North Battleford was smashed out sometime overnight Jan. 14. Nothing was taken from inside of the vehicle.

At the Radisson Royal Purple meeting Jan. 7, held at the home of Roberta Harris, the Lodge donated $50 to the Hafford and District Music Festival. Happy birthday was sung to Ellen Cousins, Linda Yuskiw and Lorraine Olinyk, all with January birthdays.

Dec. 19, the Speers branch of Lakeland Library held an open house from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with 12 people attending. Colleen Wicks, local librarian, served coffee, punch and cookies and had decorated the library for Christmas.

The Rotary Club of the Battlefords had a special presentation Monday for the fundraising campaign for Saskatoon's Ronald McDonald House. Gerald W.

It's been a deadly winter on Saskatchewan highways and two of the main contributing factors to traffic fatalities, non-seatbelt use and distracted driving, are the focus of this month's traffic safety blitz.

It's been awhile since my last rant and I just wanted to take a moment to bring readers up to speed on the progress in North Battleford's downtown core, or not, since then.

Congratulations to the winners of the Christmas lighting contest for the village of Neilburg. Taking first place were Julie and Marty Bowes. Second place winners were Darwin and Diahann Urlacher. The third place winner was Donna Schmidt.

North Battleford city council's deliberations on its operating/capital budget were supposed to take place this week, but at Monday's council meeting, it was announced that the meetings had been delayed for several weeks.