FortSask

Strathcona County RCMP is looking for the public's help in finding a man allegedly connected to a murder back in 2021.

In September 2021, police responded to a vehicle fire near Township Road 530 and Range Road 221.

Police say they found a dead body inside the burnt vehicle. The victim was identified as 29-year-old Vanessa Silva. Her death was deemed suspicious at the time. 

Almost eight months later, following an extensive investigation, Police identified and arrested 25-year-old Cordell Kennedy as a suspect in the case. 

Sherwood Park is home to two of the finest young curling teams in the country. 

Team Plett and Team Davies were both in Ontario over the weekend taking part in the Canadian U18 Championships, where they both won the title.

"Both teams went undefeated throughout the entire event," said Heather Nedohin, the manager of the Sherwood Park Curling Club. 

That undefeated streak included a torrid 6-0 run in the round-robin rounds that continued into the qualifiers and, eventually, into the championship game. 

KidSport's Fort Saskatchewan is the winner of this month's Half Grand Helping Hand from South Fort Chevrolet and MIX 107.

KidSport is a program that allows children in need to play sports that would otherwise be too expensive through the costs of sports registration fees and equipment.

Roger Ethier, president of the Fort Saskatchewan branch, says they've been helping families in the community for over 25 years.

"We help out families that aren't financially able to pay registration for organized sport," Ethier said.

CN Rail is reporting strong movement for grain and processed grain products in the last few weeks.

The railway shipped over 650 thousand metric tonnes of grain and processed grain products for crop week 27.

David Przednowek, CN's Assistant Vice-President of Grain notes it was a solid week despite some terminal issues.

According to the weekly report several elevators in the Prairies experienced loading delays due to snow accumulation, mechanical issues, or track issues. 

Fort Saskatchewan travellers can add a few more locations to their list. 

On Monday (Feb. 13) morning, WestJet announced its largest-ever network expansion out of the Edmonton International Airport (EIA).  

This expansion is part of their 2023 summer schedule and includes two new non-stop service routes to Minneapolis, Minnesota and Seattle, Washington. 

On top of that, new domestic routes to connect Alberta to the east coast were also unveiled. These routes will connect with the following Canadian cities: 

The U.S. military shot down a fourth high-altitude object in just over a week on Sunday, this time closer to heavily populated areas in southern Ontario and the U.S. East Coast.

Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand said in a statement Sunday evening that a "high-altitude object" was detected in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron.

"NORAD launched Canadian and U.S. aircraft to investigate and the object was taken down in U.S. airspace by U.S. aircraft," Anand said.

Since 2020, Families First Society has noticed an increase in referrals to their Family Violence Prevention Program (FVPP).

Many referrals into the FVPP involve participants looking for long-term housing, and not necessarily a women's shelter.

"70 to 80 per cent of those women that we serve do require that long-term housing, and that's what prevents them from leaving," said Jacqueline Dagneau, executive director of Families First Society. "They think 'well, I could go to a shelter, but that's typically a 21-day stay. What am I going to do after that?'."

Redwater RCMP arrested a man and laid a variety of charges on him, including owning a homemade gun.

Early in January, police noticed a vehicle driving at high speeds on a rural road and pulled it over. 

According to police, the driver, 36-year-old Kyle Moore of Bon Accord, was suspended from driving a vehicle and was not allowed to own guns. He also had a warrant out for his arrest after failing to appear in court.

The City of Fort Saskatchewan is contemplating closing a portion of River Road to vehicles.

If the plan goes through, River Road east of Turner Park campground would have vehicle access blocked. Pedestrians and cyclists could still access the road.

The idea of closing River Road came from the road being damaged by rain in 2017, which caused a part of the riverbank to slide away. In 2019, a water break was discovered on the road and part of the bank along the North Saskatchewan River began to slump.

After successfully spending most of the last two months clearing residential streets of snow, Fort Saskatchewan has released the number of vehicles that they had to tow. 

The number that is most surprising is the number of verbal warnings that Fort Saskatchewan Municipal Enforcement had to issue. 

In the timeframe between December 1 and February 1, there was a total of 332 verbal warnings issued to people who had vehicles blocking snow routes.