Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Canada Day activities still on

In this file photo, a Canadian flag flies in
the wind on Main Street in Moose Jaw.
Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald

By Lisa Goudy

Smoky skies haven’t deterred any Canada Day plans for Moose Jaw yet.

“We’re going to rock the flock,” said Aaron Ruston, one of the Canada Day committee organizers. “It’s going to be interesting.”

The day’s events are scheduled to go as planned, starting with a pancake breakfast at 8 a.m. at the Cosmo Senior Citizens Centre and continuing with bands and other entertainment at the Crescent Park Amphitheatre in the afternoon. There are fireworks scheduled for 10:30 p.m. at Hamilton Flats.

However, Ruston said there is a back-up plan in case the smoke is too heavy.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Mastering engineering services

Council approves a master services agreement for engineering services

Councillors and members of city administration are seen
at the June 29, 2015 council meeting at city hall.
Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald

By Lisa Goudy

Josh Mickleborough and his department identified an issue with the city’s request for proposal (RFP) format with selected engineering consultants.

So he came up with a solution – a master services agreement for engineering services.

“The RFP format has been under some scrutiny in the industry. They felt it didn’t meet the full value-driven process, which is typical for consulting services. This has resulted in a lack of interest for work in Moose Jaw by engineering firms,” said Mickelborough, director of engineering services with the City of Moose Jaw.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: A temporary trade waste extension

Councillors approve three-month extension of garbage collection program

A group of residents from Rosewood Housing Co-op
sit in council chambers at city hall on June 29, 2015.
Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald

By Lisa Goudy

About 30 people from Rosewood Housing Co-op sat in council chambers Monday night.


They were waiting to hear if the commercial garbage collection would be continued for their building. Back in February, councillors decided to discontinue the commercial garbage collection program effective July 1 because it wasn't cost-effective.

On Monday, after an hour of debate, councillors decided to provide them - and any other customers currently relying on the trade waste collection program - a three-month extension of the program in order for councillors to receive a clarification of information.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Cooking up a recipe for fun

YA author, illustrator Kevin Sylvester excited for Festival of Words

Kevin Sylvester, longtime sportscaster for CBC Radio
and author, will be at the Festival of Words this summer.
Submitted photo

By Lisa Goudy

Kevin Sylvester used to read Hardy Boys’ mysteries growing up and now he’s found a way to combine that with cooking.

“The way I describe it is you sort of throw James Bond, Julia Child and Gordon Ramsay into a blender and … get a youth potion and you come out with Neil Flambé,” he said. “The way I describe it to kids is I say, ‘Take things that you like and mash them together.’”

Sylvester, CBC Radio personality and author of the best-selling Neil Flambé series of children’s books, will be a guest at the 2015 Saskatchewan Festival of Words, which will run from July 16 to 19. At the festival, he will host the Kids Ink workshop.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Speaking out through poetry

Spoken word poet Moe Clark excited to come to Festival of Words

Spoken word poet Moe Clark will be a guest at the
2015 Saskatchewan Festival of Words this summer.
Submitted photo

By Lisa Goudy

Moe Clark doesn’t believe the government is doing enough regarding missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

So she wrote a spoken word poem about it called Butterfly Ashes.

“It’s a piece that no matter where I go, it still has valid space to be shared because it’s still an ongoing concern,” said Clark. “Until the government issues a stronger public inquiry as to what is actually the cause of this, how come these women have not been found, we need to keep sharing what is important and what matters.”

As a multidisciplinary Métis artist who has collaborated on several projects – including directing the 10^th annual Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Montreal – Clark started doing spoken word poetry 10 years ago when she lived in Calgary. She finds inspiration from indigenous communities, issues in the world and from other poets.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Keys for the future

Krista and Sawyer Korbo receive keys to their new Habitat for Humanity home

Krista Korbo and her three-year-old daughter
Sawyer stand in front of their new home at 517
Home St. W. on June 26, 2015. It is Habitat
for Humanity's fifth build in Moose Jaw.
Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald

By Lisa Goudy

"Mommy, why are you crying?" asked three-year-old Sawyer Sorbo.

"Because I'm happy," replied her mother, Krista.

On Friday, Krista received the keys to her new home at 517 Home St. W. The three-bedroom, single family bi-level home measures 746 square feet on the upper floor and 720 sq. ft. on the bottom floor.

"It means that we have roots. It means that this is stability. I was able to get that with my job. I wasn't able to have that with my home life, but now I do," said Krista after the ceremony. "So I'm very excited to call this home."

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Lisa's Corner: Equality is everyone's right

By Lisa Goudy

Meryl Streep wrote letters this week and that's been making headlines.

She sent a letter to each member of Congress, saying "I am writing to ask you to stand up for equality - for your mother, your daughter, your sister, your wife or yourself - by actively supporting the equal rights amendment."

She added that, "A whole new generation of women and girls are talking about equality - equal pay, equal protection from sexual assault, equal rights."

Streep included a copy of the book Equal Means Equal by Jessica Neuwirth, president of the ERA Coalition. That coalition campaigns to update the U.S. Constitution to include an amendment to prohibit discrimination against women and girls under the law.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Hyperbaric chamber location is set

Hospital opening on track with hyperbaric services by end of 2015

The new hospital is seen on June 25, 2015. 
 Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald

By  Lisa Goudy

Dr. Fred Wigmore has no concerns over the move of the hyperbaric chamber into the new hospital.

"The construction, et cetera, won’t interfere with our opening or our flow of the hospital, so we think it will fit in nicely in that manner and the flow won’t be disrupted at all and it’ll still be a complimentary service,” said Wigmore, senior medical officer with the Five Hills Health Region. “We look forward to having it up in our new hospital and still providing that service.”

On Thursday, Health Minister Dustin Duncan confirmed the location of the hyperbaric chamber in the new hospital.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Relief on the way at Providence Place

Rental A/C unit expected to be operational by end of day Friday

Providence Place is pictured on June 25, 2015.
A rental air conditioning unit is anticipated to
be operational by the end of the day on June 26.
Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald    

By Lisa Goudy

When Kim White moved her grandmother into Providence Place in January, she didn’t expect the air conditioning to fail.

“I’m just concerned and I don’t want to have another protest. I just want to get the air unit in,” she said. “The heat and the dehydration just takes a toll on these old people. It takes its toll on me and I’m 35.”

White, who has been visiting her grandmother and other residents every day, said her grandmother requires 24-hour care. She added she is moving her grandmother out of Providence Place on July 20.

In March, workers discovered the air conditioning unit wasn’t working in the long-term care facility.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Brick by brick

Claybank Brick Plant to hold annual Heritage Day celebrations

By Lisa Goudy


Brick used in the boilers of the Corvette warships in the Second World War came from a plant about an hour's drive from Moose Jaw.

"It was used in the fireboxes of the locomotive that brought the settlers out west. The face brick that was made here was used in another national historic city, the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City," said Hilda Maier, executive director of the Claybank Brick Historical Site.

"Some of the brick that was produced here was used in the launch pads at Cape Canaveral for the moon shots in the '70s. So this little brick plant in the middle nowhere has got connections to very many worldly things."

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: New server training in Sask.

Anyone selling or serving alcohol will need SIRS training

 Terrylynn Drysdale gets ready to serve a
beer at Bugsy’s Irish Pub on June 22, 2015.
Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald

By Lisa Goudy

Having worked in the serving business for 35 years, Terrylynn Drysdale believes every server should have server intervention training.

Soon, every person in Saskatchewan who serves and sells alcohol in licensed establishments will need to complete the Serve it Right Saskatchewan (SIRS) course, as the Government of Saskatchewan announced on Monday.

“I think it’s a terrific idea. I’m 100 per cent for it,” said Drysdale, a supervisor at Bugsy’s Irish Pub. “It’s a really informative course. It’s just a one-day course, but it teaches you the different signs.”

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: A new face

Wilbur McLean hired as city’s first communications manager

By Lisa Goudy

The City of Moose Jaw is looking to connect more with the residents.

Wilbur McLean is going to help with that as the city’s first communications manager. McLean, who spent a number of years as a communications officer with the City of Medicine Hat, will start in Moose Jaw on Wednesday.

“They need to know more about what it is we do and how we do it and why we do it the way we do it. I guess what we’re looking for is a little bit more transparency and accountability,” said Matt Noble, city manager. “As well, we’d like to get ahead of some of the issues.”

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Exploring implications of genocide

Storyteller Peter Midgley will be at the 2015 FOW

Peter Midgley will be doing an editing
workshop and Storytime for Little Ones at
the 2015 Saskatchewan Festival of Words.
Submitted photo 

By Lisa Goudy

Peter Midgley grew up at the tail end of apartheid in Africa.

“That, of course, shapes a lot of what I write about. Actually in Counting Teeth, which is a book in which I take my … daughter – she’s 18 at the time – and we go back to revisit Namibia, the country where I was born. So it’s partly to show her where I was born, but at the same time, to look at what has happened in more or less 20 years of independence,” he said.

“At the time that I go back is when they agreed with the German government to return 70 skulls that had been taken to Europe during the genocide of 1904 to 1908.”

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Lisa's Corner: Seeing Earth from an outer perspective

By Lisa Goudy

There’s something fascinating about space.

Wouldn’t it be great if we saw footage of space, or of Earth from space, in high-quality video or images? The answer is probably yes.

Earlier this week, I watched two space-related videos online. The first was the first full-colour HD footage of Earth taken from the International Space Station. Showing less than a minute of footage from London, Boston and Barcelona, it was quite neat to watch.

This started in December 2013 and January 2014 when Russian astronauts mounted UrtheCast’s ultra high-definition camera called Iris onto the space station. There is also a second camera that captures photos. The company is planning to install two more cameras on the station in 2017.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Gardening for the soul

Lyndon Penner “super thrilled” to be coming to Festival of Words

Saskatchewan-born gardening expert and
author Lyndon Penner will be at the 2015
Saskatchewan Festival of Words this July.
Submitted photo 

By Lisa Goudy

Having only written two books, gardening expert Lyndon Penner couldn’t believe it when he was invited to the Festival of Words.

“I do a lot of gardening events. I don’t get to do a lot of writing events specifically. So I’m excited about that,” he said. “I love books. I love learning and so I’m super thrilled to be a part of this.”

Penner’s two books are called The Short Season Yard (2014), and Garden Design for the Short Season Yard (2015).

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Planting for the future

By Lisa Goudy

Central Collegiate teacher Vivian Gauvin remembers what it was like to be at a Heart Garden planting ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.


“The Native Studies students from my class decorated hearts and sent them to Ottawa. They were part of the ceremony on June 3 in Ottawa,” she said. “I was there at the ceremony. I was able to see it, experience it, and bring it back so the community of Moose Jaw could experience it. I took pictures of the students’ hearts and sent them back to the students.”

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Lisa's Corner: Feeling the effects of celebrity deaths

By Lisa Goudy

From Scaramanga to Count Dooku to Saruman, Sir Christopher Lee was an actor known to many generations.


Thursday morning, when the news broke that he had died, social media lit up with tributes to the late actor. Lee, who was 93, was hospitalized for heart and respiratory problems, made great and numerous contributions to the film world.

Over the years, he starred in more than 250 films. He was knighted for his services to drama in 2009. He was everyone’s favourite villain.

We tend to give a lot of attention to celebrities who die. I’ve heard some people say that we shouldn’t care much about when a celebrity dies because we don’t know them anyway. Besides, people die every day.

While it’s true we don’t know them personally and many people die every day, it does affect us in some way. After all, these people were a part of pop culture.

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Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Top 10 Biggest Dinosaurs

By Lisa Goudy

Dinosaurs might be on a lot of people’s minds after a new dinosaur was discovered last week in Canada.

The Regaliceratops peterhewsi was nicknamed Hellboy after the fictional comic book character because of how its stubby horns resembled the character and how difficult it was to get it out of the rock. It lived 68 million years ago in what is now Alberta.

In honour of the latest dinosaur discovery, and with the upcoming release of Jurassic World, here’s a list of the Top 10 biggest dinosaurs that once walked the Earth, according to journal Scientific Reports. To put the estimated masses in perspective, a fully-grown polar bear weighs approximately one ton. Also keep in mind that with new discoveries all the time, this list is subject to change.

10. Diplodocus - This was also one of the longest dinosaurs. Diplodocus lived in the late Jurassic period (155.7 million to 150.8 million years ago) and usually roamed in western North America. The estimated mass of the dinosaur is 16.3 tons.

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