Employees and volunteers at all schools in Drayton Valley and Breton will have to provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test when school resumes after the Christmas break.
The Wild Rose school board approved the move at its regular meeting on Tuesday morning. The St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School Division made a similar decision earlier this month.
Emmaus Lutheran Church
A community of faith passionately walking the road of life with the Lord Jesus. Phone: 780-542-5101, Drayton Valley Alberta
B.D. Lock and Key Ltd.
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Calvary Baptist Church
Sunday Worship Service 10:30am We meet every Sunday at 10:30 AM for a Scripturally-based message,
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The Ralcomm Group provides communication devices for individuals and businesses. We specialize in technology that
The move does not include students in either school division and will only apply to parents if they are acting as volunteers.
The Wild Rose motion came after an hour long debate and was not unanimous. Board chair Daryl Scott said he was unhappy that the board had been left to make a decision on an issue that should have been handled by the province.
“We are an education board, not a health board,” he said. “We are not health experts, we are educators.”
Scott said he was personally vaccinated. However he could not support a motion where felt that staff were being placed in a position where they had no choice if they wished to keep their jobs.
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 …
Bart Guyon is no longer Reeve of Brazeau County.
A news release issued by the County last Friday afternoon said Guyon had submitted his resignation effective immediately citing health reasons. That came on the heels of a pair of closed door council meetings. The first of those was held July 21. Council moved into private session a few minutes into the regularly scheduled meeting to discuss a last minute addition to the agenda regarding council conduct. Sections 26 and 30 of the Access to Information Act were cited as reasons. Those sections relate to cases where disclosure would be harmful to intergovernmental relations and where disclosure would be harmful to economic and other interests of a public body. Gwendolyn Stewart-Palmer, the County’s lawyer, joined the meeting by telephone. The closed session ended at 9:59 am to allow for a scheduled public hearing. The rest of the council meeting continued as normal with Guyon in the chair.
There was a second closed session later in the day to discuss a number of issues, including council conduct. That was followed by a motion to hold a special council meeting on Friday morning to “finalize council conduct decisions.”
Friday’s meeting began at 9:03 am. The draft minutes show that Guyon left three minutes later. The meeting continued in his absence for a little over an hour. According to the draft minutes, when council came out of closed session they unanimously passed a motion “that effective immediately the Reeve be removed as spokesperson of the County and that those responsibilities revert to the Deputy Reeve.”
However, a review of video from the public portion of the meeting available on the County’s Youtube channel appears to show a motion with different wording with the Reeve “removed from all duties of the County and that those responsibilities revert to the deputy reeve.”
At 2:45 pm that day, the County sent out a news release saying Guyon had resigned.
“On behalf of Council, I want to thank Bart for his service to Brazeau County, and to wish him well as he prioritizes his health,” Deputy Reeve Dallas Ekstrom said. “Our focus now is on continuity, making sure residents remain well-served and well-represented, and on managing this transition responsibly. Council will take the steps required to fill the vacancy, and we’ll keep residents informed as we do.”
The news release added that “out of respect for Guyon’s privacy, council will not comment further on the circumstances of his decision at this time.”
The Free Press reached out to Guyon for comment, but had not received a response prior to our deadline. It remains unclear what impact the council conduct discussion had on later events, or if the two are completely unrelated.
Guyon has been known to have health problems in recent years. Furthermore the minutes of last week’s meetings are still in draft form and are potentially subject to amendment to correct any errors before being approved by council.
Guyon has been prominent in municipal politics for decades. He was first elected to council in 1992. While he was out of politics for some of the intervening years, he was elected as reeve in 2014 and has served in the position ever since. In the most recent election, held in October of last year, he took 1,136 votes to 858 for challenger Pat Vos.
“You put your neck out on the line to try to do the things that you think people want you to do,” he said at the time. “It’s good to get validated. It wasn’t easy; it was a lot of work.”
A by-election to choose Guyon’s replacement has been set for November 2.
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.
Mina Bolos, the co-owner of IDA Malone Pharmacy, says he and co-owner Heidi Nasrallah funded the new clinic on their own in the hopes of helping residents get a local GP and to give the other community GPs a bit of a reprieve from their heavy workload.
Bolos and Nasrallah’s pharmacy started out at the previous Malone Clinic. When that clinic was shut down, they moved to their new location on 50th Street three years ago. It wasn’t long before they decided to work on building another clinic in the community.
“Everybody strives to get a doctor here,” says Bolos. “Through the communications and connections and everything, we’ve got two doctors.”
Dr. Nosakhare Ologbosere, who goes by Dr. Nosa, started at the clinic on June 1, while Dr. Samuel Nelson started out on July 20.
Bolos says they started working on the idea about eight months ago, but it was challenging to get a doctor to come to the community. He says he and his partner love to serve the community, and he was happy to find Nelson and Ologbosere willing to relocate to do the same.
Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon and Deputy Mayor Brandon Boehm, along with many of the councillors, were present for the event, offering a placard and gifts to welcome the doctors.
“You guys aren’t just needed, you’re wanted,” said Guyon. “People are going to be lined up to sign up to get a doctor.”
“You’ve gone through the work, you’ve brought some doctors into town, which I know has been a challenge, specifically in this town for the last few years,” said Boehm. “We want to thank you for doing that.”
Both Nelson and Ologbosere say they are happy to be in Drayton Valley and they plan to stick around.
“Since we’ve been here, we’ve met the community, and they have been very, very lovely,” says Ologbosere. “It’s been a pleasure working here, and we have the best team.”
The most wonderful time of the year
Oh boy oh boy oh boy! It’s summertime and the living is easy, just like the song says. August is on the horizon, and what better way to kick off the last full month before the onset of autumn than with a long weekend? All weekends are good. But long weekends are the best weekends of all. They are the Rolls Royce of weekends. And the long weekend that’s coming up at the end of next week could not have come at a better time. I’m sure we could all use a break after a month in which we discovered that the only thing duller than people going on and on about the World Cup was people going on and on about how bored they were with other people going on and on about the World Cup.
Heritage Day is just about here and soon all across this great province of ours Albertans will begin diligently packing their holiday trailers while positively trembling with excitement in anticipation of three days off.
Sunscreen? Check. Marshmallows? Check. Mattresses? Check. Blankets? Check. Microwave? Check? Kitchen sink? Check.
What’s that? You’re not keen on the thought of cramming more than half of your worldly goods and chattels into a large tin can and dragging it a few miles behind a half ton so you can spend a couple of days eating charred wieners while fighting off mosquitoes and the occasional ravening coyote? Gentle reader, you are not alone. Camping looks like fun, but it involves a lot more sweating and grunting in real life then they ever show you on TV.
For me the real joy of a summer weekend does not involve lining up at a dump station for several hours to empty three days worth of poo and pee from my trailer’s holding tank at the end of things; especially when some of that poo and pee probably isn’t even mine. For me the real pleasure of a long weekend is watching everyone else head off to the wilderness and then pretty much having the whole place to myself until the neighbours begin to straggle back, covered in bug bites and missing a shoe, on Monday afternoon. It’s not that I have anything against other people. It’s just that I like them better when they’re not around.
So, three days with the place to yourself. It’s a chance to wander around in your underwear belching and scratching your backside without a care in the world, although I should point out that the Free Press does not actually endorse or encourage either of those activities. But think of the peace and quiet. It’s a little slice of paradise and a fantabulous way to kick off the best month of the year. And it’s coming up in not much more than a week.
Oh August how I love your sultry ways. Come on now, who’s ready for thirty one glorious days of sun fuelled torpor? Me, that’s who. And you are too if there’s any sense about you.
An empty nest is bittersweet
The term empty nester has been around for about 110 years and is used to describe the lonely feeling parents have when their children grow up and leave the house.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the years thinking about what it would be like to be on my own. I have never lived by myself. When I was a single mom, there were definitely moments when it felt that way, but most of my choices were made with my children in mind. I didn’t feel free to just do whatever I wanted.
Having been a parent since I turned 20, I always kind of dreamed about what it would be like once my kids were grown. I would only have to clean up after myself. I didn’t have to listen to YouTubers screaming about video games anymore or listen to Ariana Grande’s voice in Sam and Cat.
No more parent-teacher interviews. No more non-urgent emergencies that I have to drop everything and attend to just in case. No more refereeing and enduring my children’s consequences when their electronics were taken away.
I love my children more than anything else, but I have to say, it honestly sounded fantastic.
Well, that day has come, and I’m afraid all the hobbies that I have developed in preparation for this day might not be enough.
There was a point when my kids were little and my parents lived a flight away, and sometimes they would go stay with my parents for a few weeks. I would be excited to clean their rooms and put everything away. After it was cleaned, I would close the door because it was weird to see the room so clean.
I imagine it’s going to be like that again. I will keep myself occupied, of course. I still have my work, I still have my dogs, and I have friends and family that I will spend time with. It will just be weird to come home and not be able to interact with another person.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m comfortable being by myself, and sometimes I really need it to recover from having my time occupied with social events. It’s my way of recharging my battery.
I also know that people who avoid any socialization have a 30-60 percent higher chance of developing dementia. So as much as spending time with others can exhaust me, it’s a matter of health and well-being.
But let’s be clear.. I’m not only spending time with people so that I don’t have cognitive issues in the future. I really enjoy spending time with the people I love, and I’m often excited to do so. I just need some recovery.
With the kids gone, every day will be my recovery period, and I think I’m going to be spending more time out and about just to get that fix. Getting that human interaction will be very important for me health wise and for my sanity.
I think I’m going to have to change my perspective on the term empty-nester. It’s not necessarily something to dread or be sad about. It’s an opportunity to create a unique, peaceful space that you can rest in after a day of spreading your wings and learning who you are in this next part of your life.
Town CAO looks ahead
The new CAO for Drayton Valley brings with him experience in a municipal leadership role. He also brings many years of military experience to the position.
Troy Grant was appointed CAO at a special council meeting held on July 8. On a municipal level, Grant worked at Sturgeon County as the General Manager of Public Services.
During his time with the military, Grant earned the Canadian Forces’ Decoration for his years of service.
He originally started at the Town in March 2026, acting as the Town Services Manager. Getting a promotion this early on was not something he had anticipated.
“I didn’t come to the town anticipating becoming anything more than the general manager of town services,” says Grant.
Now that he has stepped into the new role, Grant says he’s excited to work with the staff he’s come to know.
“This is an opportunity that lends itself nicely to my classic training through the military… I’m super excited about it.”
One of the skills needed for the position of CAO is leadership, which is something he developed as a logistics officer in the military. Grant was responsible for organizing supply chains, personnel, finances, and transportation to ensure Canadian troops around the world had what they needed to operate smoothly.
“The CAO ultimately needs to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their team and then employ those things with reinforcing those strengths and weaknesses to achieve the objectives that council and the people of Drayton Valley need,” says Grant. “That’s exactly what army leaders do.”
One of the first things Grant wants to handle is the Town’s organizational chart, with the goal of making it more clear to staff, council, and the public. Council will also have the opportunity to give feedback, says Grant, because he plans to run it by them before making it official.
He says he’s really enjoyed working with council over the past few months.
“Our current council is so open to innovation and creativity,” says Grant. “I think something we all need to wrap our heads around is that we have a new council. They’ve been in place for less than a year, but they’ve already demonstrated flexibility of thought, creativity, and aggressive policy changes.”
Another project that they have been working on is reviewing the way they handle contracting. Grant says he wants to be sure that it’s being done properly and is beneficial to the community, rather than costly or a hindrance.
At the end of the day, this position is about service for Grant, which is something he’s proud of.
“I’m fundamentally a service guy. I’m about serving people; serving Canadians. My whole career has been that. I guess for me, it’s the next chapter in service to Canadians, so I’m excited about that,” says Grant.
Another area that excites him is “moving the yardsticks progressively” for Drayton Valley.
“Being part of figuring out the path forward in a meaningful way, in a leadership way, with this council and the team that we have,” he says.
He says he would like the municipality to be seen as a place where people want to work. Where they are respected and know that the work they do matters.
One of the questions council had for Grant was how long he imagined he could stay in his role as CAO. Given the turnover of the past ten years, one of their concerns was the stability of the role.
Grant says he plans to stick around as long as they will have him. He will eventually retire, though, and he says he will be putting together a succession plan with the hope that the next CAO can come fully qualified from in-house.
“It’s a real privilege to be able to support the town and become the leader of a team that I already believe in,” he says.
Carol Vowk, the chair of the board for the Drayton Valley Community Health Foundation, said when they first heard about the opportunity for the eSIM lab, they were in the middle of a project for a room in palliative care. She said the foundation decided to table the idea, keeping it in mind for the future once they had completed the renovations.
However, when the Town initiated the Grow Your Own program, they decided to go for it.
“The future came upon us really, really quickly,” said Vowk.
While they were planning for the eSIM lab, they completed their renovations for the palliative care room. The space now includes a wheelchair accessible shower, which they didn’t have previously.
“We can accomplish great things when our community comes together,” said Vowk.
Following the speeches and ribbon cutting, attendees were able to watch a demonstration of the lab put on by RN students and hospital staff.
“Get vaccinated or do a rapid test or you don’t have a job. That’s not choice,” he said.
Scott’s view was in the minority. Trustee Charlene Bearhead said that she wished the pandemic wasn’t happening. However, she felt that the board had an obligation to do the best that could with the information available. Rapid testing will be available free of charge to staff, and those that choose unpaid leave would be able to resume employment at a later date.
Superintendent Brad Volkman said that a recent survey of school divisions staff suggested about 78 percent were fully vaccinated, however, he couldn’t be absolutely confident in that figure since not all staff had responded. He said there could be as many as 100 employees who might require rapid testing. That number included substitute teachers and casual staff. The division had obtained 2,400 free rapid tests, which he said should last about three months.
Trustee Mae Tryon, who represents the Breton area, joined Scott in voting against the motion.
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 …
Bart Guyon is no longer Reeve of Brazeau County.
A news release issued by the County last Friday afternoon said Guyon had submitted his resignation effective immediately citing health reasons. That came on the heels of a pair of closed door council meetings. The first of those was held July 21. Council moved into private session a few minutes into the regularly scheduled meeting to discuss a last minute addition to the agenda regarding council conduct. Sections 26 and 30 of the Access to Information Act were cited as reasons. Those sections relate to cases where disclosure would be harmful to intergovernmental relations and where disclosure would be harmful to economic and other interests of a public body. Gwendolyn Stewart-Palmer, the County’s lawyer, joined the meeting by telephone. The closed session ended at 9:59 am to allow for a scheduled public hearing. The rest of the council meeting continued as normal with Guyon in the chair.
There was a second closed session later in the day to discuss a number of issues, including council conduct. That was followed by a motion to hold a special council meeting on Friday morning to “finalize council conduct decisions.”
Friday’s meeting began at 9:03 am. The draft minutes show that Guyon left three minutes later. The meeting continued in his absence for a little over an hour. According to the draft minutes, when council came out of closed session they unanimously passed a motion “that effective immediately the Reeve be removed as spokesperson of the County and that those responsibilities revert to the Deputy Reeve.”
However, a review of video from the public portion of the meeting available on the County’s Youtube channel appears to show a motion with different wording with the Reeve “removed from all duties of the County and that those responsibilities revert to the deputy reeve.”
At 2:45 pm that day, the County sent out a news release saying Guyon had resigned.
“On behalf of Council, I want to thank Bart for his service to Brazeau County, and to wish him well as he prioritizes his health,” Deputy Reeve Dallas Ekstrom said. “Our focus now is on continuity, making sure residents remain well-served and well-represented, and on managing this transition responsibly. Council will take the steps required to fill the vacancy, and we’ll keep residents informed as we do.”
The news release added that “out of respect for Guyon’s privacy, council will not comment further on the circumstances of his decision at this time.”
The Free Press reached out to Guyon for comment, but had not received a response prior to our deadline. It remains unclear what impact the council conduct discussion had on later events, or if the two are completely unrelated.
Guyon has been known to have health problems in recent years. Furthermore the minutes of last week’s meetings are still in draft form and are potentially subject to amendment to correct any errors before being approved by council.
Guyon has been prominent in municipal politics for decades. He was first elected to council in 1992. While he was out of politics for some of the intervening years, he was elected as reeve in 2014 and has served in the position ever since. In the most recent election, held in October of last year, he took 1,136 votes to 858 for challenger Pat Vos.
“You put your neck out on the line to try to do the things that you think people want you to do,” he said at the time. “It’s good to get validated. It wasn’t easy; it was a lot of work.”
A by-election to choose Guyon’s replacement has been set for November 2.
Last Monday, the new Drayton Valley Medical Clinic held its grand opening, welcoming two new doctors and staff to the facility.
Mina Bolos, the co-owner of IDA Malone Pharmacy, says he and co-owner Heidi Nasrallah funded the new clinic on their own in the hopes of helping residents get a local GP and to give the other community GPs a bit of a reprieve from their heavy workload.
Bolos and Nasrallah’s pharmacy started out at the previous Malone Clinic. When that clinic was shut down, they moved to their new location on 50th Street three years ago. It wasn’t long before they decided to work on building another clinic in the community.
“Everybody strives to get a doctor here,” says Bolos. “Through the communications and connections and everything, we’ve got two doctors.”
Dr. Nosakhare Ologbosere, who goes by Dr. Nosa, started at the clinic on June 1, while Dr. Samuel Nelson started out on July 20.
Bolos says they started working on the idea about eight months ago, but it was challenging to get a doctor to come to the community. He says he and his partner love to serve the community, and he was happy to find Nelson and Ologbosere willing to relocate to do the same.
Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon and Deputy Mayor Brandon Boehm, along with many of the councillors, were present for the event, offering a placard and gifts to welcome the doctors.
“You guys aren’t just needed, you’re wanted,” said Guyon. “People are going to be lined up to sign up to get a doctor.”
“You’ve gone through the work, you’ve brought some doctors into town, which I know has been a challenge, specifically in this town for the last few years,” said Boehm. “We want to thank you for doing that.”
Both Nelson and Ologbosere say they are happy to be in Drayton Valley and they plan to stick around.
“Since we’ve been here, we’ve met the community, and they have been very, very lovely,” says Ologbosere. “It’s been a pleasure working here, and we have the best team.”
Oh boy oh boy oh boy! It’s summertime and the living is easy, just like the song says. August is on the horizon, and what better way to kick off the last full month before the onset of autumn than with a long weekend? All weekends are good. But long weekends are the best weekends of all. They are the Rolls Royce of weekends. And the long weekend that’s coming up at the end of next week could not have come at a better time. I’m sure we could all use a break after a month in which we discovered that the only thing duller than people going on and on about the World Cup was people going on and on about how bored they were with other people going on and on about the World Cup.
Heritage Day is just about here and soon all across this great province of ours Albertans will begin diligently packing their holiday trailers while positively trembling with excitement in anticipation of three days off.
Sunscreen? Check. Marshmallows? Check. Mattresses? Check. Blankets? Check. Microwave? Check? Kitchen sink? Check.
What’s that? You’re not keen on the thought of cramming more than half of your worldly goods and chattels into a large tin can and dragging it a few miles behind a half ton so you can spend a couple of days eating charred wieners while fighting off mosquitoes and the occasional ravening coyote? Gentle reader, you are not alone. Camping looks like fun, but it involves a lot more sweating and grunting in real life then they ever show you on TV.
For me the real joy of a summer weekend does not involve lining up at a dump station for several hours to empty three days worth of poo and pee from my trailer’s holding tank at the end of things; especially when some of that poo and pee probably isn’t even mine. For me the real pleasure of a long weekend is watching everyone else head off to the wilderness and then pretty much having the whole place to myself until the neighbours begin to straggle back, covered in bug bites and missing a shoe, on Monday afternoon. It’s not that I have anything against other people. It’s just that I like them better when they’re not around.
So, three days with the place to yourself. It’s a chance to wander around in your underwear belching and scratching your backside without a care in the world, although I should point out that the Free Press does not actually endorse or encourage either of those activities. But think of the peace and quiet. It’s a little slice of paradise and a fantabulous way to kick off the best month of the year. And it’s coming up in not much more than a week.
Oh August how I love your sultry ways. Come on now, who’s ready for thirty one glorious days of sun fuelled torpor? Me, that’s who. And you are too if there’s any sense about you.
The term empty nester has been around for about 110 years and is used to describe the lonely feeling parents have when their children grow up and leave the house.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the years thinking about what it would be like to be on my own. I have never lived by myself. When I was a single mom, there were definitely moments when it felt that way, but most of my choices were made with my children in mind. I didn’t feel free to just do whatever I wanted.
Having been a parent since I turned 20, I always kind of dreamed about what it would be like once my kids were grown. I would only have to clean up after myself. I didn’t have to listen to YouTubers screaming about video games anymore or listen to Ariana Grande’s voice in Sam and Cat.
No more parent-teacher interviews. No more non-urgent emergencies that I have to drop everything and attend to just in case. No more refereeing and enduring my children’s consequences when their electronics were taken away.
I love my children more than anything else, but I have to say, it honestly sounded fantastic.
Well, that day has come, and I’m afraid all the hobbies that I have developed in preparation for this day might not be enough.
There was a point when my kids were little and my parents lived a flight away, and sometimes they would go stay with my parents for a few weeks. I would be excited to clean their rooms and put everything away. After it was cleaned, I would close the door because it was weird to see the room so clean.
I imagine it’s going to be like that again. I will keep myself occupied, of course. I still have my work, I still have my dogs, and I have friends and family that I will spend time with. It will just be weird to come home and not be able to interact with another person.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m comfortable being by myself, and sometimes I really need it to recover from having my time occupied with social events. It’s my way of recharging my battery.
I also know that people who avoid any socialization have a 30-60 percent higher chance of developing dementia. So as much as spending time with others can exhaust me, it’s a matter of health and well-being.
But let’s be clear.. I’m not only spending time with people so that I don’t have cognitive issues in the future. I really enjoy spending time with the people I love, and I’m often excited to do so. I just need some recovery.
With the kids gone, every day will be my recovery period, and I think I’m going to be spending more time out and about just to get that fix. Getting that human interaction will be very important for me health wise and for my sanity.
I think I’m going to have to change my perspective on the term empty-nester. It’s not necessarily something to dread or be sad about. It’s an opportunity to create a unique, peaceful space that you can rest in after a day of spreading your wings and learning who you are in this next part of your life.
The new CAO for Drayton Valley brings with him experience in a municipal leadership role. He also brings many years of military experience to the position.
Troy Grant was appointed CAO at a special council meeting held on July 8. On a municipal level, Grant worked at Sturgeon County as the General Manager of Public Services.
During his time with the military, Grant earned the Canadian Forces’ Decoration for his years of service.
He originally started at the Town in March 2026, acting as the Town Services Manager. Getting a promotion this early on was not something he had anticipated.
“I didn’t come to the town anticipating becoming anything more than the general manager of town services,” says Grant.
Now that he has stepped into the new role, Grant says he’s excited to work with the staff he’s come to know.
“This is an opportunity that lends itself nicely to my classic training through the military… I’m super excited about it.”
One of the skills needed for the position of CAO is leadership, which is something he developed as a logistics officer in the military. Grant was responsible for organizing supply chains, personnel, finances, and transportation to ensure Canadian troops around the world had what they needed to operate smoothly.
“The CAO ultimately needs to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their team and then employ those things with reinforcing those strengths and weaknesses to achieve the objectives that council and the people of Drayton Valley need,” says Grant. “That’s exactly what army leaders do.”
One of the first things Grant wants to handle is the Town’s organizational chart, with the goal of making it more clear to staff, council, and the public. Council will also have the opportunity to give feedback, says Grant, because he plans to run it by them before making it official.
He says he’s really enjoyed working with council over the past few months.
“Our current council is so open to innovation and creativity,” says Grant. “I think something we all need to wrap our heads around is that we have a new council. They’ve been in place for less than a year, but they’ve already demonstrated flexibility of thought, creativity, and aggressive policy changes.”
Another project that they have been working on is reviewing the way they handle contracting. Grant says he wants to be sure that it’s being done properly and is beneficial to the community, rather than costly or a hindrance.
At the end of the day, this position is about service for Grant, which is something he’s proud of.
“I’m fundamentally a service guy. I’m about serving people; serving Canadians. My whole career has been that. I guess for me, it’s the next chapter in service to Canadians, so I’m excited about that,” says Grant.
Another area that excites him is “moving the yardsticks progressively” for Drayton Valley.
“Being part of figuring out the path forward in a meaningful way, in a leadership way, with this council and the team that we have,” he says.
He says he would like the municipality to be seen as a place where people want to work. Where they are respected and know that the work they do matters.
One of the questions council had for Grant was how long he imagined he could stay in his role as CAO. Given the turnover of the past ten years, one of their concerns was the stability of the role.
Grant says he plans to stick around as long as they will have him. He will eventually retire, though, and he says he will be putting together a succession plan with the hope that the next CAO can come fully qualified from in-house.
“It’s a real privilege to be able to support the town and become the leader of a team that I already believe in,” he says.
Carol Vowk, the chair of the board for the Drayton Valley Community Health Foundation, said when they first heard about the opportunity for the eSIM lab, they were in the middle of a project for a room in palliative care. She said the foundation decided to table the idea, keeping it in mind for the future once they had completed the renovations.
However, when the Town initiated the Grow Your Own program, they decided to go for it.
“The future came upon us really, really quickly,” said Vowk.
While they were planning for the eSIM lab, they completed their renovations for the palliative care room. The space now includes a wheelchair accessible shower, which they didn’t have previously.
“We can accomplish great things when our community comes together,” said Vowk.
Following the speeches and ribbon cutting, attendees were able to watch a demonstration of the lab put on by RN students and hospital staff.
By-election set after Guyon resigns
A news release issued by the County last Friday afternoon said Guyon had submitted his resignation effective immediately citing health reasons. That came on the heels of a pair of closed door council meetings. The first of those was held July 21.
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.
The most wonderful time of the year
Oh boy oh boy oh boy! It’s summertime and the living is easy, just like the song says. August is on the horizon, and what better way to kick off the last full month before the onset of autumn than with a long weekend? All weekends are good.
An empty nest is bittersweet
The term empty nester has been around for about 110 years and is used to describe the lonely feeling parents have when their children grow up and leave the house.
