News

Cooper Recsh, six years old, helps Grady Young, two years old tighten his chaps at the Ponoka Stampede on July 1. Both of these young cowboys were watching their fathers as Blade Young was one of the top 12 bull riders during the Ponoka Stampede and Jason Recsh was one of the pick-up men.

Former chief of the Samson Cree Nation, Victor Buffalo has received Canada’s highest civilian honour for lifetime achievement. The Governor General of Canada Michaelle Jean announced new appointments to the Order of Canada on July 1. Buffalo will be installed as an officer of the Order of Canada to recognize him for his outstanding achievements and service in Canada. He will be accepting his insignia in Ottawa at a later date.

During the seven days of the Ponoka Stampede members of the RCMP arrested and lodged about 150 people in their cells. The number is 50 up from last year’s number of 100 and police worked diligently to remove trouble from the grounds.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business released its first annual Alberta Municipal Spending Watch. The CFIB found that growth in municipal operating spending is out of control and that population and inflation increased only 34 per cent between 2000 and 2006 while operational spending increased 56 per cent.

Kids love to have fun and they like to do that by getting involved in rodeo starting at a young age. For some children picking up a rope or riding maybe more of a challenge than other kids but there is a solution. At the ninth annual Ponoka Stampede Rodeo Challenge 29 kids who had a physical or emotional problem took centre stage for their own rodeo.

One driver was killed and another person was seriously injured in a two-vehicle collision on Hwy 2 south of Ponoka near Wolf Creek Golf Course. The collision occurred on June 29 at 12:10 p.m. with Ponoka RCMP, Ponoka Fire Department and Lacombe Ambulance responding to the scene.

The rodeo excitement is over for June 28 and the chuckwagons are just about to hit the track. T

The first day of World Professional Chuckwagon races saw a new Ponoka Stampede track record being set by Doug Irvine.

The 72nd annual Ponoka Stampede has day two in the books. It was a full slate of events on the afternoon of June 26 with the crowd of 6,870, getting a little wet but some of the best times of the rodeo so far were recorded.

Between June 15 and 22, Ponoka RCMP members tried to catch up on their paperwork before the Stampede arrives and it becomes impossible to do anything but attend to call after call. One of the things that made it a little easier to do this was the types of calls that came in this week which didn’t require much in the way of investigation. For instance, one “regular contributor to this blotter” called 911 to complain that he had given someone $40