Prince Albert

The Prince Albert Parkland Health Region gave thanks to youth volunteers who contributed more than 5,000 hours of service time to local health care facilities over the past school year.

Health region officials, parents and Victoria Hospital staff gathered at the Herb Bassett Home on Thursday to honour the contributions of the 90 volunteers.

Teams of three will be working on their conditioning Saturday to raise money for the SPCA’s new shelter.

SaskPro CrossFit is hosting Rowing for Rover, a one-day fundraiser where teams take their turn rowing, walking and running with the goal to row as many meters as possible in one hour.

The fundraiser takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the new CrossFit facility behind Canadian Tire. The cost to register is $150 per team of three and is open to all ages.

Prince Albert will celebrate Earth Day later than usual this year, with the annual event taking place at City Hall’s Memorial Square on Saturday.

The event is traditionally held on the internationally recognized Earth Day, April 22, but for the first time, in Prince Albert, it was held over for more than a month. Coincidentally, it’ll coincide with the worldwide march against Monsanto, the international agriculture company.

Two sinkholes on 15th Street that lead to lane closures and potentially unsafe driving conditions were caused by deteriorating sewer pipes.

When the pipes were installed years ago, there were small holes in each of them that were used to put the pipes in place, said the city’s operations manager for the public works department, Alain Trudel.

The holes were plugged with a “tar-ry” type of substance that was manufactured on site and is prone to failure.

Prince Albert Dairy Queen owner Trent Kachur is voicing his concern around access to the Sixth Avenue East location.

Kachur sent a letter to city council asking for a partial removal of the median in front of his business, which was discussed at Monday’s executive committee meeting.

There were no injuries from a collision in front of the SIAST Woodland Campus Thursday morning.

Emergency services were dispatched to the scene at approximately 8:50 a.m.

According to Parkland Ambulance, a car struck two parked vehicles along 15th Street East. Both parked vehicles were empty at the time and the driver of the car was uninjured.

The scene was cleared around 9:30 a.m.

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

The Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) announced it plans to launch a new Indian Residential School Virtual Museum later this year.

“It’s a way to really educate people, both First Nations and non-First Nations, about the residential school system and experience of the PAGC First Nations,” said the virtual museum’s curator Jalal Fietz.

The museum features a timeline of life for First Nations residents before, during and after the residential schools came into existence.

At Tuesday’s executive committee meeting a report was submitted recommending the city keep Bylaw No. 54 of 1983 prohibiting the use of stop arms on school buses, in effect.

For the past months director of public works Colin Innes has been holding several consultations and researching the use of bus stop arms within in city limits from districts across North America.

A Prince Albert man accused of possessing child pornography will be going to trial this fall.

Roger D. Williams, 43, was the subject of an investigation by the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit.

He was arrested on Mar. 1 of last year after Prince Albert Police executed a search warrant on his West Flat home.

Officers confiscated a laptop from the residence, along with hundreds of sexual photos and video images of underage girls, some believed to be as young as three-years-old.

Students at Queen Mary Community School in Prince Albert are pitching in when it comes to pitching out – some will be working all week to clean Ward 1 in Prince Albert.

On Tuesday afternoon, Grade 5 students from the school kicked off the trash clean-up event, walking down 15th Street West picking up garbage.

Ashley Bruneah, a Grade 5 teacher at Queen Mary, said they’re trying to give back to the community, because it gives to the school.

The provincial coroner says 13-year-old Wayne Ballantyne died from smoke inhalation, and alcohol was a significant factor.

It was two years Tuesday that Ballantyne's body was found in a vehicle that was fully engulfed in flames.

The vehicle was located at the 900 block of River Street West.

Part of River Street East will be closed Wednesday morning while crews work on a service repair.

The closure will affect the area between Fourth to Fifth Avenue on River Street East.

The closure will begin at 9 a.m. and expected to last until the end of the day.

Drivers are being urged to watch out for directional signage and be cautious around work areas.

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow