Construction for the new Drayton Valley/Brazeau aquatic facility will continue through the winter, says program manager Annette Driessen.
Calvary Baptist Church
Sunday Worship Service 10:30am We meet every Sunday at 10:30 AM for a Scripturally-based message,
St. Anthony Catholic Church
St. Anthony’s Parish Drayton Valley. Weekend mass Saturday and Sunday
All Saints Anglican Church
Drayton Valley, All Saints Anglican Church participates in the Anglican Liturgy, which comforts and sustains us. Many have said that in such a busy and changing world it is important to come to a place that feels like home.
Valley Gallery and Framing
Share on facebook Facebook Share on email Email Share on linkedin LinkedIn Share on whatsapp
The construction of the facility has been underway since the fall of 2020. Driessen says the dry conditions this summer helped to move the construction along well.
Right now, the crews are working on the sub-basement, which will hold the mechanical for the pool.
Once the structure has been closed in, workers will begin digging out the basins for the pools. With all four walls and a roof up, the area will be warm enough to dig, regardless of the weather outside.
“All of the structure itself is up, all of the foundation work is done, and all of the pilings are done,” says Driessen. “Because they have the space heated up, that ground won’t freeze.”
After the basins are dug, they will pour the concrete. Driessen says that they will be using concrete trucks with pipe extensions to pour the concrete inside.
“They’re not taking any breaks,” says Driessen.
Services
- Companion Animals
- Emergency and After Hours Services
- Ovine and Caprine Health
- Bovine Health
- Equine Health
- Avian Health
780-236-0654
- Investments
- Retirement Planning
- Tax Planning
- Estate Planning
Services Offered
- SEPTIC SYSTEM INSTALLATION
- NEW SERVICES DUGIN
- WATERLINE INSTALLATION AND REPAIR
- GRADE FOR FOUNDATION
- RV/PARKING PAD
- HYDRANTS AND CATTLE WATERERS REPAIRED AND INSTALLED
- COMPACTION AND PLATE TAMPING
- TRENCHING
- CULVERTS CLEANED AND REPAIRED
- FRENCH DRAINS
- DUMP TRAILER SERVICES
- ASPHALT AND CONCRETE CUTTING
- TRACKED SKID STEER WITH 78" BUCKET AND FORKS
- MINI SKIDSTEER
- LANDSCAPING
- INTEGRITY DIGS
- DRAINAGE
First it was caterpillars. Then it was rain. Then it was smoke. Then it was more rain. Then it was mosquitoes. Then it was moths. And then it was tornadoes.
I hope I have those in the right order. It’s been hard to keep track. I should probably fit blue/green algae in there somewhere too.
Either way, it’s fair to say that the summer of 2026 has been exciting, in the same way as getting a registered letter from the CRA or finding a litter of baby skunks under your garden shed is exciting.
But summer is not over yet. It’s still only early August, so there is time left to save the season.
Technically, fall doesn’t start until 6:05 pm on Tuesday September 20. Which is (writer counts on fingers, gets three different answers and gives up) somewhere between 40 and 50 days from now.
My aim is to fill that time with as much madcap fun as possible. There’s lots to pack in.
Golf would be nice. I’ve only managed to play twice so far this year. The first round wasn’t bad. The second round was absolutely dreadful. There’s no knowing what the third round might have in store. Although based on past experience, I’ve got a fairly good idea.
My wife and I will be going on a trip to Toronto to meet our brand new grandson in a couple of weeks. We’re very excited about that obviously. And I hear Canada’s largest city is lovely at this time of year. Plus my son in law knows a place where they sell the best sausage rolls I have ever had. I know a thing or two about sausage rolls, and have the waistline to prove it.
We’ve already had our annual road trip to Westlock for the Elvis festival. My wife is a big fan and I’m just a boy who can’t say no. And incidentally don’t make the same mistake I made; they’re tribute artists, not impersonators.
We’ve also had a very wet visit to Jasper which was nice, although the mountains are more impressive when you can actually see them. But there are other places, some of them quite close by, that might be worth a visit assuming they haven’t been washed away or stripped by caterpillars.
But my wife and I are simple folks. Our favourite summer pastime is to sit on our deck with a cold drink and maybe a few tunes. The deck faces south and if you stretch a bit and stand on your tippy toes you can almost see a park. For a long time the deck was the nicest part of our house. That changed a few months ago when a nice man came and renovated our bathroom. But we still prefer the deck for hanging out on, because there’s a little more elbow room.
And that’s it. That’s my plan to spend the final weeks of the best part of the year. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m excited to get on with it.
Blimey, I must be getting old.
Local rugby player Lucy Cropley has returned from the Canadian Rugby Championships where she played on Alberta’s U19 travelling team.
Teams from Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec all attended the event in Toronto that ran from July 20 to 26. Cropley was one of 26 players selected for the Alberta team in June this year.
Though the team didn’t excel at the tournament, Cropley says Albertans don’t have the same amount of time to prepare as some other provinces. This year, the team that headed to the championships was only formed at the end of June. Other provinces, such as Ontario, can have teams that are formed in February.
“It was a really good experience,” says Cropley. “They are definitely a bit harder to compete against because they have been practicing and have known each other for a lot longer.”
She says regardless of how they did at the tournament, she was grateful for the opportunity to play on the team.
Cropley has been playing rugby for five years, starting out with the Frank Maddock Warriors.
She says over the years there have been a lot of highs and lows with the sport. Sometimes she has felt discouraged if she hasn’t made a team, even wondering if it was something she still wanted to pursue.
“It’s definitely a sport where you just have to keep trying, keep showing up, and there will be an outcome [based] on how hard you try,” she says.
Cropley didn’t score a spot on Team Alberta on her first try. She says she’s been trying to get on the team for a couple of years, but with every setback she worked hard to learn the lessons that were there. Then, when she tried out for the U19 team, she got it on her first try, ensuring she can play on the team in 2027 as well.
During her time playing rugby, Cropley has played for several teams. During the spring she plays with the Warriors, but during the fall and winter the sport has to be played indoors. As there isn’t an indoor sports centre in Drayton Valley, Cropley plays on an Edmonton team during that time.
Rugby can be played with different numbers of players on the field. There are the sevens, where each team has seven players on the field, and then there are the fifteens. The type of rugby played follows a pattern, says Cropley. In the fall, there are more sevens tournaments, culminating in the Alberta Rugby Championships in January.
Cropley made it onto the Alberta sevens team last January and ended up playing at a tournament in Vancouver in March.
Heading into the spring, there are more games of fifteens played, which is what they played at the recent championships.
Cropley says one of the aspects of rugby that she really enjoys is the camaraderie between the players. She says that at the level she’s playing at, her teammates have a good understanding of the sport and they can work well together.
“It’s not so much about the sport that you’re involved with; it’s more about the community and the friendships and stuff like that,” she says.
Cropley says it’s great to meet people from different areas who have had different life experiences than she has.
From August 2 to 9, Cropley will be at the U18 Canada West Development Camp in Victoria, where she could be selected to play for the U18 Team Canada.
“It should be a really great experience,” says Cropley. “Even if I don’t end up making it further on from that, it’s still great to have that level of coaching, and hang out with the people that are there.”
Right now Cropley is taking a gap year between high school and college so she can upgrade some of her courses, but she is planning to pursue a rugby scholarship when she does go to post-secondary.
I grew up in Glasgow in the high and far off time they called the 1970s. Back then I used to assume that everybody wished they were Scottish. It just made sense. We were the best at football, we had the coolest accents and we had the most interesting history. Later in life I discovered that actually, we were not the best at football after all. (Damn you Spain with your natural ability and team work!*) There are other places that have interesting history too. And regardless of what their accents sound like, most people do not wish they were Scottish. Generally speaking people are happy to be from, well, wherever it is they come from.
That’s almost universally true, except for a few days in the middle of February when an alarming number of folks like to pretend they’re Irish, in spite of the fact they aren’t.
But I digress.
Our sense of heritage is a funny thing. I’ve lived in Canada more than half of my life and in Drayton Valley for longer than I lived in Glasgow. This is undeniably my home and I’ve no desire to live anywhere else, even supposing I could find somewhere else that would have me. Life here has been good to me and in any case, if I wanted to leave town my wife wouldn’t let me.
Still, even after 40 years, being Scottish is a big part of who I am. But it’s complicated. These days I think of myself as Canadian first, Albertan second and Scottish, well, not third, but almost as a separate and unrelated part of my identity, like being bald or liking cheeseburgers.
When I had children of my own I felt it was important that they grew up feeling very definitely Canadian. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely wanted them to know about their Scottish heritage, which is something I’m very proud of. But they were born in Canada with a Canadian mother, Canadian aunts and uncles and Canadian cousins. The Scottish bit is there, of course, but from their mother’s family there’s some German and some Russian, along with a good slice of Prince Edward Islander and yes, there’s a little bit of Scottish from that side too.
Which I think made them typical Albertans. Their background was cobbled together from a very mixed bag of people who made their way to Western Canada going back for more than a century to their maternal great grandparents. I’ve always felt that our incredible blend of backgrounds is one of the things that makes this such a great place to live. There is strength in our diversity and we all bring some added flavour to our cultural mix. It’s why the prairies are dotted with Ukrainian churches. It’s why we have so many French place names and it’s why almost every small town in Alberta has a Chinese restaurant. It’s a unique and ever-changing blend, and it makes us who we are. Somehow, when we come together, we create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
So this year on Heritage Day. I’ll be reflecting that being Scottish is great. But being Canadian is pretty cool too.
*Also Argentina, France, England, Morocco, Mexico, Japan, Senegal, Cape Verde …
As the work progresses, there will be several different contractors working alongside each other. She says this will allow construction of all areas to proceed at the same time.
So far, the building is on schedule to open in the fall of 2022. Driessen says for the most part they have remained on schedule, but due to Covid restrictions, there was a bit of a delay. Government restrictions meant that only so many workers could be working at any given time.
Driessen says the funding for the Aquatic Centre is on a tight budget. For that reason, they are still fundraising for different aspects in the pool. For example, the facility is still looking for a naming sponsor. It’s also still fundraising for a water slide inside the pool.
Services
- Companion Animals
- Emergency and After Hours Services
- Ovine and Caprine Health
- Bovine Health
- Equine Health
- Avian Health
780-236-0654
- Investments
- Retirement Planning
- Tax Planning
- Estate Planning
Services Offered
- SEPTIC SYSTEM INSTALLATION
- NEW SERVICES DUGIN
- WATERLINE INSTALLATION AND REPAIR
- GRADE FOR FOUNDATION
- RV/PARKING PAD
- HYDRANTS AND CATTLE WATERERS REPAIRED AND INSTALLED
- COMPACTION AND PLATE TAMPING
- TRENCHING
- CULVERTS CLEANED AND REPAIRED
- FRENCH DRAINS
- DUMP TRAILER SERVICES
- ASPHALT AND CONCRETE CUTTING
- TRACKED SKID STEER WITH 78" BUCKET AND FORKS
- MINI SKIDSTEER
- LANDSCAPING
- INTEGRITY DIGS
- DRAINAGE
First it was caterpillars. Then it was rain. Then it was smoke. Then it was more rain. Then it was mosquitoes. Then it was moths. And then it was tornadoes.
I hope I have those in the right order. It’s been hard to keep track. I should probably fit blue/green algae in there somewhere too.
Either way, it’s fair to say that the summer of 2026 has been exciting, in the same way as getting a registered letter from the CRA or finding a litter of baby skunks under your garden shed is exciting.
But summer is not over yet. It’s still only early August, so there is time left to save the season.
Technically, fall doesn’t start until 6:05 pm on Tuesday September 20. Which is (writer counts on fingers, gets three different answers and gives up) somewhere between 40 and 50 days from now.
My aim is to fill that time with as much madcap fun as possible. There’s lots to pack in.
Golf would be nice. I’ve only managed to play twice so far this year. The first round wasn’t bad. The second round was absolutely dreadful. There’s no knowing what the third round might have in store. Although based on past experience, I’ve got a fairly good idea.
My wife and I will be going on a trip to Toronto to meet our brand new grandson in a couple of weeks. We’re very excited about that obviously. And I hear Canada’s largest city is lovely at this time of year. Plus my son in law knows a place where they sell the best sausage rolls I have ever had. I know a thing or two about sausage rolls, and have the waistline to prove it.
We’ve already had our annual road trip to Westlock for the Elvis festival. My wife is a big fan and I’m just a boy who can’t say no. And incidentally don’t make the same mistake I made; they’re tribute artists, not impersonators.
We’ve also had a very wet visit to Jasper which was nice, although the mountains are more impressive when you can actually see them. But there are other places, some of them quite close by, that might be worth a visit assuming they haven’t been washed away or stripped by caterpillars.
But my wife and I are simple folks. Our favourite summer pastime is to sit on our deck with a cold drink and maybe a few tunes. The deck faces south and if you stretch a bit and stand on your tippy toes you can almost see a park. For a long time the deck was the nicest part of our house. That changed a few months ago when a nice man came and renovated our bathroom. But we still prefer the deck for hanging out on, because there’s a little more elbow room.
And that’s it. That’s my plan to spend the final weeks of the best part of the year. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m excited to get on with it.
Blimey, I must be getting old.
Local rugby player Lucy Cropley has returned from the Canadian Rugby Championships where she played on Alberta’s U19 travelling team.
Teams from Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec all attended the event in Toronto that ran from July 20 to 26. Cropley was one of 26 players selected for the Alberta team in June this year.
Though the team didn’t excel at the tournament, Cropley says Albertans don’t have the same amount of time to prepare as some other provinces. This year, the team that headed to the championships was only formed at the end of June. Other provinces, such as Ontario, can have teams that are formed in February.
“It was a really good experience,” says Cropley. “They are definitely a bit harder to compete against because they have been practicing and have known each other for a lot longer.”
She says regardless of how they did at the tournament, she was grateful for the opportunity to play on the team.
Cropley has been playing rugby for five years, starting out with the Frank Maddock Warriors.
She says over the years there have been a lot of highs and lows with the sport. Sometimes she has felt discouraged if she hasn’t made a team, even wondering if it was something she still wanted to pursue.
“It’s definitely a sport where you just have to keep trying, keep showing up, and there will be an outcome [based] on how hard you try,” she says.
Cropley didn’t score a spot on Team Alberta on her first try. She says she’s been trying to get on the team for a couple of years, but with every setback she worked hard to learn the lessons that were there. Then, when she tried out for the U19 team, she got it on her first try, ensuring she can play on the team in 2027 as well.
During her time playing rugby, Cropley has played for several teams. During the spring she plays with the Warriors, but during the fall and winter the sport has to be played indoors. As there isn’t an indoor sports centre in Drayton Valley, Cropley plays on an Edmonton team during that time.
Rugby can be played with different numbers of players on the field. There are the sevens, where each team has seven players on the field, and then there are the fifteens. The type of rugby played follows a pattern, says Cropley. In the fall, there are more sevens tournaments, culminating in the Alberta Rugby Championships in January.
Cropley made it onto the Alberta sevens team last January and ended up playing at a tournament in Vancouver in March.
Heading into the spring, there are more games of fifteens played, which is what they played at the recent championships.
Cropley says one of the aspects of rugby that she really enjoys is the camaraderie between the players. She says that at the level she’s playing at, her teammates have a good understanding of the sport and they can work well together.
“It’s not so much about the sport that you’re involved with; it’s more about the community and the friendships and stuff like that,” she says.
Cropley says it’s great to meet people from different areas who have had different life experiences than she has.
From August 2 to 9, Cropley will be at the U18 Canada West Development Camp in Victoria, where she could be selected to play for the U18 Team Canada.
“It should be a really great experience,” says Cropley. “Even if I don’t end up making it further on from that, it’s still great to have that level of coaching, and hang out with the people that are there.”
Right now Cropley is taking a gap year between high school and college so she can upgrade some of her courses, but she is planning to pursue a rugby scholarship when she does go to post-secondary.
I grew up in Glasgow in the high and far off time they called the 1970s. Back then I used to assume that everybody wished they were Scottish. It just made sense. We were the best at football, we had the coolest accents and we had the most interesting history. Later in life I discovered that actually, we were not the best at football after all. (Damn you Spain with your natural ability and team work!*) There are other places that have interesting history too. And regardless of what their accents sound like, most people do not wish they were Scottish. Generally speaking people are happy to be from, well, wherever it is they come from.
That’s almost universally true, except for a few days in the middle of February when an alarming number of folks like to pretend they’re Irish, in spite of the fact they aren’t.
But I digress.
Our sense of heritage is a funny thing. I’ve lived in Canada more than half of my life and in Drayton Valley for longer than I lived in Glasgow. This is undeniably my home and I’ve no desire to live anywhere else, even supposing I could find somewhere else that would have me. Life here has been good to me and in any case, if I wanted to leave town my wife wouldn’t let me.
Still, even after 40 years, being Scottish is a big part of who I am. But it’s complicated. These days I think of myself as Canadian first, Albertan second and Scottish, well, not third, but almost as a separate and unrelated part of my identity, like being bald or liking cheeseburgers.
When I had children of my own I felt it was important that they grew up feeling very definitely Canadian. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely wanted them to know about their Scottish heritage, which is something I’m very proud of. But they were born in Canada with a Canadian mother, Canadian aunts and uncles and Canadian cousins. The Scottish bit is there, of course, but from their mother’s family there’s some German and some Russian, along with a good slice of Prince Edward Islander and yes, there’s a little bit of Scottish from that side too.
Which I think made them typical Albertans. Their background was cobbled together from a very mixed bag of people who made their way to Western Canada going back for more than a century to their maternal great grandparents. I’ve always felt that our incredible blend of backgrounds is one of the things that makes this such a great place to live. There is strength in our diversity and we all bring some added flavour to our cultural mix. It’s why the prairies are dotted with Ukrainian churches. It’s why we have so many French place names and it’s why almost every small town in Alberta has a Chinese restaurant. It’s a unique and ever-changing blend, and it makes us who we are. Somehow, when we come together, we create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
So this year on Heritage Day. I’ll be reflecting that being Scottish is great. But being Canadian is pretty cool too.
*Also Argentina, France, England, Morocco, Mexico, Japan, Senegal, Cape Verde …
Driessen says that if there is no sponsor for naming the facility, then the decision on the name will be up to the Town of Drayton Valley and the County of Brazeau.
Seasons in the sun (and rain, and smoke)
First it was caterpillars. Then it was rain. Then it was smoke. Then it was more rain. Then it was mosquitoes. Then it was moths. And then it was tornadoes.
Perseverance pays off on rugby field
Local rugby player Lucy Cropley has returned from the Canadian Rugby Championships where she played on Alberta’s U19 travelling team.
More than just a bald guy who likes cheeseburgers
So this year on Heritage Day. I’ll be reflecting that being Scottish is great. But being Canadian is pretty cool too.
New clinic officially opens
Last Monday, the new Drayton Valley Medical Clinic held its grand opening, welcoming two new doctors and staff to the facility.
