FortSask

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. 

The community has a rich history of true crime cases, largely due to the large gaol and RCMP presence that occupied the area for so long. 

Perhaps the most famous of those cases was that of Robert Raymond Cook, a mass murderer known for being the last man ever hanged in Alberta. 

Alex King, with the Fort Heritage Precinct, has been doing extensive research on the case. 

"He was hanged in 1960 for the murder of his father, although he is thought to have murdered his entire family," said King. 

Do you know how many people got caught with distracted driving tickets last year? 

After Alberta RCMP put out a release last week saying that a total of 5,231 drivers were caught distracted driving across the province, both Strathcona County and Fort Saskatchewan have released the local numbers. 

In Fort Saskatchewan, the number was surprisingly small. 

"Fort Saskatchewan RCMP issued a total of 87 tickets for distracted driving," said constable Suzanne Ahlstrom. "24 of those include warnings, 63 violation tickets were issued to drivers." 

The Fort Saskatchewan RCMP has given out more details on the arrest of April Oleksyn, who is now facing multiple arson charges. 

On Sunday (Feb. 5) police say they responded to reports of multiple dumpster fires being lit along 99 Avenue and 99 Street. 

Police say that they were able to identify Oleksyn as a suspect after watching through surveillance tape. 

Police have issued an update after a member of the Redwater RCMP was seriously injured during a call in Thorhild earlier this week. 

During the call, the officer was attacked with a knife and received serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Cindy Chelsberg, a 48-year-old resident of the home, has been taken into custody.

Chelsberg has been charged with:

A local donair store was broken into earlier this week.

On Tuesday (Feb. 7) morning, police responded to reports of a break-in at City Donair on 100 Avenue. 

Thieves had broken through the glass front door and stolen the cash register. No other damages were reported.

City Donair was back in business that same day, serving food as the door was being repaired.

More details to come...