All we ever asked for was a chance.

There are days when a community can feel hope again and last Friday was one of those days.

When Elections Alberta announced the Water Not Coal citizen initiative petition had failed to meet the legal requirements to proceed, I wasn’t celebrating because a mine had been approved.

Residents in the southeast corner of British Columbia are being asked to weigh in on whether the region should continue changing clocks twice a year or move to permanent year-round time observance.

Alberta is investing $100 million in new classroom supports for students with complex learning, behavioural and safety needs, including one new Grades 7 to 12 complexity team for Livingstone Range School Division.

Applications are now open for Alberta’s new $100 Energy Rebate, a one-time payment the province says is intended to help residents with the rising cost of everyday essentials, including fuel.

A small kindness project started by two University of Lethbridge students is encouraging people in Crowsnest Pass to slow down, explore their community and share a little joy with their neighbours.

I read the social media exchange about Crowsnest Pass and the proposed Grassy Mountain project between two Alberta MLAs several times before I decided to write this.

I believe I left off two weeks ago, in my bubble story, with the fact that I was finally on my way home from Calgary, courtesy of my dear friend Herald Kane, overseer of my eyeball surgery journey, with all its tricky twists and turns. The edict from the Mitchell Eye Centre, on leaving there, was that I was not to ride in the passenger seat in case there was an incident with an airbag. Really? Well, I can tell you that riding head down with my face planted in that foam doughnut, in the back seat of his Nissan was pretty damn uncomfortable. When you are able to see ahead while travelling you mentally and physically adjust to the small nuances of a rocking car. But when you can’t see, you don’t know what is coming at any given moment. It is kind of like getting thrown around in a stagecoach. It didn’t help that Herald was used to driving in Los Angeles traffic so weaving in and out is normal.

I love watermelons and dream of making watermelon jam, but that’s a story for another time. Right now I want to tell you about some of the sweetest, juiciest watermelons I’ve ever eaten that came from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. These watermelons were so popular that in 1988, a memorial sign, “Gifts of the Kherson Region,” was erected in the Kherson Oblast, better known as the Kherson Watermelon Monument.

The regional library system serving Crowsnest Pass is warning municipalities that flat funding and rising costs are putting pressure on shared library services across southwestern Alberta.

Crowsnest Pass council has approved a land use bylaw amendment allowing two planned units in a Southmore Drive development to be redesignated for residential use.

The Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation is asking Crowsnest Pass council to help advance plans for expanded cardiac care in southern Alberta, saying residents continue to face higher cardiovascular risks while travelling long distances for treatment.

Crowsnest Pass council will debate a proposal next month that would direct administration to prepare 2027 operating budgets with expenses reduced by 10 per cent compared with 2026 levels.

Do some people actually believe in the process, or do they only believe in the outcome they want?

Over the past several weeks, I have listened to the reaction surrounding Corb Lund’s anti-coal petition, watched the media coverage and tried to understand exactly what opponents of Grassy Mountain are asking for.

Elk Valley firefighters responded to a gas leak in Hosmer Wednesday afternoon after a resident struck a gas line while using an excavator.

Crowsnest Pass residents were asked to help shape municipal priorities during a town hall focus group held June 16 at the Crowsnest Community Hall.

The session, which ran from 6 to 8 p.m., was described by Mayor Pat Rypien as the municipality’s first town hall meeting and a council-led initiative meant to gather ideas directly from residents. Approximately 46 people attended the open house.

Raylene Oram has been recognized as the Regional District of East Kootenay Electoral Area F Volunteer of the Year for 2026.

Northback officials say a new socioeconomic impact study prepared by Ernst and Young shows the revised Grassy Mountain project could bring billions of dollars in economic activity to Canada while creating local business opportunities in southwest Alberta.

In more than two decades of publishing the Crowsnest Pass Herald, I am not sure I have written an editorial that demands more of us than this one.

“The bubble is trying to keep me from writing about the bubble”

I am, right now, experiencing a phenomenon that most of you mercifully will never have to endure. I have a gas bubble in my right eye that has been there since April 26th and it is shrinking, ever so slowly, in size. It is driving me nuts but I am eternally grateful that it is there.  I must add that it is pretty damn awkward and frustrating trying to type while being obstructed this way.

Crowsnest Pass council will provide a letter of support for the concept of building the largest miner’s Davy safety lantern in Canada, but the letter will stop short of committing the municipality to the full project.