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Last updateFri, 11 Oct 2024 4pm

Update: Greentree Mall will remain standing but future uncertain, Co-op says

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News this week that the remaining tenants of Greentree Mall were given notice to exit next year has led to questions of the mall's future, but Westview Co-op says the building will remain standing once the last businesses leave by March 2019. 

The decision was made based on the facts that Greentree Mall was operating at a "significant loss" of approximately $500,000 a year and two of the three remaining tenants had given notice they had plans to relocate, says general manager Dennis Laing. 

"It is not sustainable in that way and a decision had to be made that was in the interest of the members of the entire Co-op, not just the tenants of the mall," he says, adding they wanted to "formalize an exit date" for tenants and close the mall in 2019.

"By limiting that half a million dollar loss on the bottom line that will afford us the opportunity to invest in the business units that our members and guest are strongly supporting."

In the short-term future, the mall will remain standing until the Co-op decides what to do with the building. As of now, Westview Co-op isn’t certain they’ll put the mall up for sale immediately once the last tenants move out in March. 


He got the goat: over $7,000 raised for cadet’s Juno trip

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One man is a goat richer and the Drumheller Sea Cadets reached their fundraising goal with the culmination of the “Whose got your goat?” fundraiser.

Chompur the goat was delivered to Ken and Mia Richmond of Rumsey after they failed to purchase ‘goat insurance’ which would have prevented them from being the recipient of a new four-legged friend. He was delivered late Thursday evening to the Richmonds after their names were drawn this week.

“Well it was a little bit surprising, but I just thought I never win much and why not roll the dice and just not buy the insurance,” says Ken Richmond, who has three kids who love animals and says Chomper will be in a good home on their acreage.

The fundrasier brought in $7,300 for 16 local Sea Cadets to help fund a trip to Normandy, France in May next year. They will participate in a re-enactment of the D-Day landing, where they will arrive in watercrafts and walk in the footsteps of the soldiers who fought there in World War II.

Sea cadet Katie Hanik says the experience will be meaningful as two of her great-grandparents fought there.

“We are going to be learning about what they went through and what their lives were like. I think it’s going to be an incredible opportunity,” Hanik says.

Drumheller born photographer releases ‘Alberta Book’ project

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Renowned Drumheller born photographer George Webber has spent decades touring southern Alberta capturing and documenting small towns. His most recent work simply titled Alberta Book is set to launch December 15. While the work spans many years and much of Southern Alberta, his hometown of Drumheller is prominently featured. There are six Drumheller photos in the collection of more than 250 images. “The book was 39 years in the making. There is a photograph of the Elks Building in Drumheller that was shot on Kodachrome slide film in 1979. The most recent photos were taken in a place called Scotfield, not far from Hanna over the last Victoria Day long weekend,” explains Webber. “Most of the photographs that were taken from 1979 to roughly 2005, were shot on traditional colour film. Those taken from 2005 up to 2018 were taken with a Nikon Digital camera. The spark for a lot of this work came as a young man returned to his hometown at the beginning of his career. “My parents and sisters and I lived in Drumheller until 1960, I was seven years old and then we moved to Calgary. I would occasionally come to Drumheller to visit my grandfather.” He explains. “About 20 years after leaving Drumheller I started to do photography. I think that knowing it (Drumheller) intimately as a child and then being taken away from it, that 20 year period gave me two things; One, when I go back I carry a seven-year-old kid’s sensibility, but also if I lived there all of those years I wouldn’t have seen any of it.” “I think in 100 years from now when someone looks at those photographs, they are going to tell an enormous amount about things like people’s values, and people’s tastes. It is going to tell them all about food and gasoline distribution and all the little subtle things that people take for granted,” he said. “When you put them together it’s like painting a picture of a culture, and a time in the province’s history.” Alberta Book is to be launched on Friday, December 14 at the new Central Calgary Library. Another project that is close to Webber. “I was commissioned about 39 months ago to go down there on a monthly basis and photograph it and it really is absolutely spectacular,” he said. To get a sneak peek at the Alberta Book check out


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