Battlefords News Optimist

Ed, my neighbour next door, says he has no patience for listening to what he has heard before. Ed is a talker and it has to be some earth-shaking news to get him to listen to someone else.

Whatever happened to Freedom 55? As the Baby Boomer generation careens towards retirement, those in charge of making Canada's pension safety nets stretch to cover the bulge are scrambling for ways to achieve that.

The celebration of a new minister for the River Valley Anglican Parish, Diocese of Saskatoon, was held at St. John's Anglican Church in Borden Jan 29, to induct Rev. Debbie Ramage into the parish.

For the month of November, Country Corners 4-H Club had a general meeting. Members discussed bingo, curling and many other things. Nov. 20 the club had a fund day and executive training. Members played games and got to know members from other clubs.

The Ryan Bater era as leader of the Saskatchewan Liberals is over. Bater, who lost in the Battlefords constituency last fall and whose party was shut out of seats for the third straight election, resigned the party leadership Tuesday morning.

Jacy Akre needed to face just nine more shots to set the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League record when she faced the Saskatoon Stars.

BIDYK - It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Stanley Bidyk, late of North Battleford, Saskatchewan on January 18, 2012 at the age of 79 years. Stanley was born on December 25, 1932 at Lashburn, Saskatchewan.

Cheryl Cook-Taylor will assume the role of operations manager for North Battleford Housing Authority (NBHA) March 1. "We are very excited to welcome Cheryl to our team," Murray Greenwood, NBHA chairperson said.

In the last two Festival Fanfare columns, I introduced the speech arts adjudicator, Gaye-Lynn Kern, and the strings adjudicator, Kim de Laforest. This week, meet our piano adjudicator, Mark Turner.

It will likely be the fall of 2013 before Battlefords students are affected by any changes the Living Sky School Division might make to address crowded conditions in some of the community's schools.