Twelfth Night of Christmas!

Here we are at the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas; Twelfth Night.  January Sixth marks the end of this Christmas season.  I hope yours was a happy and merry one.  A vicious head cold took some of the celebration out of me and I was generous enough to share it with my wife!  This Christmas was a sniffly but quiet one in our house!

Congrats to the Dyer, Doepker and Bye families and to Beiseker Home Hardware, Skyview Inn B&B, and CHS Dynagra for winning the Beiseker Christmas Light Contest.  Well done, all of you!

Now we start packing up Christmas and settling down to a "normal" January.  I hope that if you made a New Year's Resolution, you made a realistic one.  Never set yourself up for failure.  Have fun with it and good luck meeting those goals.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bridging the Gap!

For those of you who were wondering about the South Bridge on the walking path, down near the Public Works Yard, it will be reconstructed in the spring.  The other two bridges are now complete and they look great!  They have been raised up so they should be high and dry when that newly deepened ditch fills up this spring. 

We are hoping that the improvements to that drainage canal will help in moving all that run-off water from Rocky View County lands through the village, and out the East side.

I suspect that part of the delay in the reconstruction of the South Pedestrian bridge was a result of the vandalism done to the second bridge.  Senseless vandalism costs us all. 

By the way, I noticed tracks across the pedestrian bridge behind CHS-DynAgra which appear to be made by some kind of ATV, perhaps a quad.  A reminder to all that the bridge was built as a pedestrian bridge.   Motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles should not be using it.

Beiseker Fire Department Gets a Boost!

photo via Rocky View Weekly

Friday morning, I got a call from Beiseker Fire Chief Bob Ursu.  He asked me if I had time to come over to the CHS DynAgra facility next to the Village Office to help receive a cheque on behalf of the Fire Department.

Imagine my surprise when I found out the cheque was for $25,000!  Each year, CHS Inc. - of which DynAgra is a part - provides funds to communities for worthy projects.  The Beiseker Fire Department applied for funds to continue their upgrading of equipment and vehicles.

CHS Canadian Region Director, Mark Biedenfeld, was part of the presentation of the cheque to Chief Bob and myself.  He was most pleased to be in Beiseker and to help our volunteer firefighters.  This donation will provide a tremendous boost for the Beiseker Fire Department and their efforts to upgrade their firefighting and rescue equipment along with their vehicles.

Thank you CHS, good on ya! 

Wind Damage Update

Remains of the damage done by that huge windstorm we had in November still litter the village.  I would imagine the insurance adjusters are swamped with cases from throughout this area. 

The Beiseker Fire Department Fire Hall was one of the worst hit of village property.  The insurance company had an outfit come out and put on a temporary cover.  They then took bids from companies willing to re-roof the building.  It is my understanding that the process is complete.  Work will begin as the resouces become available and as weather permits. 

Other village roofs were damaged but those repairs will likely be done in the spring. 

I have noticed that the private and commercial properties damaged in the storm are also being repaired now.  No word from DynAgra on the fate of those three large bins blown over by the wind. I would imagine they're pretty hard to handle on their side like that.