News

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

Now is the time to start reprogramming phones and other telecommunications equipment as the 10 digit dialing system is now underway.

The Lion’s Centennial Park was alive with music, dancing and vibrant colours on June 20. Many people gathered at the park for National Aboriginal Day to celebrate the rich and valuable culture of Aboriginal people.

The 72nd annual Ponoka Stampede kicked off on June 25 with 3,753 people watching the professional rodeo action. It was a beautiful evening with only a few showers for the first night of the largest professional rodeo in Canada.

The beautiful Battle River is being polluted. Sometime between June 18 at 3 p.m. and June 19 at 9 a.m. nine 20-litre pails of cooking grease and oil were discovered on the bank of the river just south of the green bridge on 50 Ave according to town officials.

The skies quickly turned dark on June 17 at approximately 4 p.m. on a nice sunny day. Then the rain and wind came fast and hard. The thunder shook the trees and the lightening lit up the sky.

The Ponoka Outreach School held their sixth annual graduation recognition and awards banquet on June 16 at the Kinsmen Centre. More than 270 people were in attendance, approximately 100 more than last year, to honour 30 graduating students and 36 students from junior and senior high school for individual awards.

Ian Bateman, left, Hailey Boser, Emily Jacobs, Mark Ferguson, Ian Ferguson and Andrew Jacobs work the horn section during the band concert at Diamond Willow Middle School June 11. Approximately 75 people took in the concert, which consisted of big band tunes, Elvis song and classics like Amazing Grace.