Saturday, Jul 30, 2011 06:00 am

By: Peter Boer

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July of 2002 saw the city officially sign off on a three-person RCMP unit for St. Albert dedicated exclusively to drug enforcement. The team was put to the test early as it learned a meth lab had been set up by some Hells Angels associates at a Deer Ridge home. By the time police moved in, the lab had been relocated.

The unit was busy again the following July as it raided an apartment in Grandin, finding what it referred to as a "shooting gallery," or a place where users went to use crystal meth. Officers found hundreds of used needles in the apartment as well as a quantity of meth. On the federal scene, Member of Parliament John Williams and some St. Albert residents were furious when the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission confirmed the riding of St. Albert would be merged with parts of north Edmonton. Williams had vehemently opposed the move, which also saw Morinville and Legal combined in the constituency of Westlock-St. Paul.

Fed up with vandalism in the city’s parks, council decided to pass a curfew. No people were allowed to be in any of the city’s green spaces between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Anyone caught violating the curfew faced a $100 fine. In that same month, council was served with two lawsuits and a warning of a third by Landrex over the city’s opposition to the developer’s Hunter Ridge proposal, which Sturgeon County had passed. The 15,000-resident subdivision was slated for land St. Albert wanted to annex.

The big news in 2005 was the legalization of same-sex marriage and former premier Ralph Klein’s decision not to try to find a way to weasel out of it. By July St. Albertans, however, faced a problem. Klein had agreed to allow marriages but only if marriage commissioners were allowed to choose whether or not they wished to perform such ceremonies. Of the three commissioners in St. Albert, one said he would not perform same-sex marriages, one would not answer the question and the third had left town.

Also in 2005, thirty Telus employees at St. Albert’s switching station walked off the job along with thousands of other workers after four and a half years of failed negotiations. And tragically, a mystery unfolding in Edmonton came to an end just outside of St. Albert’s boundaries when the body of Lianna White was found by searchers after her husband, Michael, had reported her missing. He was later charged with and convicted of her murder.

Tragedy struck again in July of 2006 when 25-year-old St. Albertan Mark Milakovic went into cardiac arrest after his arrest for stealing a car in Edmonton. He slipped into a coma and subsequently died. A fatality inquiry was later launched as the death occurred in police custody. That month St. Albert officially became one of the first municipalities to require all bike riders to wear helmets, regardless of age. Anyone caught not wearing a helmet faced a $100 fine or a bike safety session. But it was a local woman’s firing that made national news once the Gazette reported the story. Wendy Moger, a Weight Watchers’ group leader, was fired by the organization for not following its dress code, which requires women to wear skirts. Moger, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, wore pants to hide an electronic device that stimulated her calf muscles. Once the story hit the national media, Moger was quickly offered her job back. Even more residents were angry when city council, in its efforts to raise money for building the multi-purpose leisure centre, sent letters to Mark Messier and Troy Murray, for whom the Campbell arenas were named, informing them if they wanted their names on the rinks, they would have to pay $200,000 and $125,000 respectively. Both declined but the subsequent uproar prompted council to quickly drop the idea and keep the names in place.

The St. Albert Indoor Farmers’ Market was cancelled in July 2007 when it was decided St. Albert Place could no longer host it. The city’s new hockey team got off to a bit of a dubious start after Greg Parks, the team’s general manager was found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman who claimed he had forcibly kissed and caressed her.

St. Albert joined the growing trend of municipalities forgoing municipal planning commissions (MPC) when it officially dissolved its own. The move was symbolic as the MPC had not met since 2005 and its powers had been given to administration. The following July saw announcements to improve St. Albert’s appearance. First came a proposal to upgrade Founders’ Walk from a red shale trail to a path feature trilingual interpretive signs, then a fund to reimburse downtown businesses up to $2,500 if they purchased blade signs, flower pots or outdoor seating. In Afghanistan, local troops got a little bit of a taste of home as they received and raised the city’s flag, sent to them as a gesture that the city supported them.

July of 2010 was notable for many reasons. There was the incident of a groundskeeper pouring fuel on the mosquito baseball diamond at Legion Memorial Park and setting it ablaze to try and dry out the ground. That ultimately led to the closure of that diamond and testing of the other diamonds, which found the practice had been used repeatedly. Some of the soil even had to be removed and replaced. Convicted sex offender Anton Paul Rapati was finally deported to the Netherlands. But it was the disappearance of Lyle and Marie McCann that dominated the news. Having left St. Albert July 3 in their motorhome for B.C., the couple never arrived. Their burned out motorhome was found July 5 at a campground near Edson but at that time no one knew they were missing. Within days the SUV the couple had been towing was found and a person of interest, Travis Vader, was arrested on outstanding warrants.

This past July has seen the McCanns officially declared dead by a provincial court judge. A memorial service open to the public is being held today at St. Albert Catholic Church at 11 a.m.

Peter Boer is the editor of the St. Albert Gazette.